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Betternet VPN Review 2023: Summary
Using Betternet’s free VPN service is risky and unreliable. It has a restrictive cap on data transfer rates, a poor approach to user privacy, and a shortage of standard security options.
There is no way to contact customer assistance, and the VPN won’t connect to several of the most popular video-sharing websites.
Betternet is not a reliable or secure VPN service, and you should avoid using it.
Since then, the corporation has changed its functionality and security to salvage its reputation.
We decided to try it, and here are our comprehensive Betternet VPN review results.
You can learn more about Betternet’s connection rates, server availability, data retention policies, and more by reading on.
Betternet VPN Review 2023: In-depth
What Is Betternet?
Betternet hasn’t been around as long as some well-known VPN services.
They started up in 2015, claiming to be a Canadian independent firm. Formerly known as AnchorFree, it is now a subsidiary of the Pango company.
Pango is no new to the VPN industry; they own numerous other services, including Hexatech VPN, Hotspot Shield, and TouchVPN.
Throughout its brief existence, both under the Canadian firm’s ownership and under the Pango group’s current owner, Betternet has been haunted by serious charges.
How Transparent Is Betternet?
Anyone considering using Betternet’s free or premium services should be aware that the company has been exposed for secretly including spyware and monitoring programs in their VPN software.
These alarming conclusions were revealed in a recent academic study, and things only worsened when malware was released via a compromise of the Betternet Chrome extension in 2017.
Still, Betternet hasn’t spoken anything about the debate in public. We are concerned that this lack of comments reflects poorly on the company’s commitment to transparency.
So it is always recommended to use a VPN service whose providers are transparent and legitimate. NordVPN is such a service that you can trust.
Speed And Performance
From our testing, we concluded that Betternet’s speeds are extremely unpredictable and that the standards are badly conceived.
However, VPN speed is difficult to evaluate because it varies greatly depending on location and the person’s internet connection.
We overcame this difficulty by comparing our speed tests from different locations to a baseline speed, thereby estimating the typical download speed of a VPN service.
We also measured ping as another metric. Internet telephony, real-time video streaming, and online gaming benefit from a low ping.
Pings in the 50-100ms range are considered normal, while those under 20ms are extremely low.
As the delay increases over 100 ms, its effects become unacceptable.
When there is a significant lag, it cannot be easy to talk to coworkers and friends on the phone, play online games, etc.
You get the picture; a ping that’s as low as possible is ideal.
Speed During Daily Use
Everything performed smoothly when we joined Betternet’s fast systems in the Netherlands, France, and Germany.
Without hiccups, we could not play games, download files, and stream videos and music.
While this was the case locally, things shifted while communicating with remote servers, especially those located in the United States.
Web pages took many seconds to load, if they loaded at all, and the speeds were extremely poor. Furthermore, games felt sluggish, and movies kept pausing unexpectedly.
Betternet is not a reliable VPN due to its many bugs. We advise going with a service like NordVPN if you want consistent speeds and performance.
Privacy And Security
Unfortunately, Betternet’s headquarters in Canada is a signatory to the Five Eyes intelligence sharing pact.
In other words, Betternet is not located in a country where user data is adequately protected.
Here is the Betternet privacy promise from its homepage:
Despite this assurance, Betternet’s privacy policy reveals that the service records user connections.
Betternet claims it will not gather any “identifiable personal details,” although it doesn’t define that term.
In no part of the privacy statement are IP addresses explicitly listed as personal information.
Users of both the paid and free versions of Betternet are susceptible to temporal correlation attacks.
The IP address and time of each connection are used in this attack. As it stands, this policy does not give adequate protection and is poorly drafted.
Further, Betternet says it will comply with legal requests for access to user connection data.
Many alternative VPNs out there don’t store connection logs, so this isn’t a fantastic solution for protecting your privacy.
Likewise, many VPNs do preserve connection logs, albeit unlike with IP addresses, these logs are often kept separately.
The term “aggregated” network logs describes this perfectly.
Betternet should reconsider its privacy practices and no longer log user IP addresses alongside connection timestamps.
Potentially A Security Threat
Though it has a large user base, Betternet’s security may not be as solid as it seems.
Multiple news organizations published the findings of a 2017 academic research on VPN apps and the possibility that they insert malware, adware, or do not provide the protection they promise.
We found Betternet to be one of the poorest ten.
Betternet is still available, unlike most other apps on that list. To our knowledge, Betternet does not inject malware or engage in any other malicious activity.
However, the fact that they were flagged as suspicious in a scholarly investigation raises serious red flags.
Betternet seems to have more downloads than any other free VPN app, giving it some legitimacy.
Though an AV-13 rating is acceptable, anything higher would be preferred.
Annoying Ad
Commercial interruptions in apps are universally disliked. An unavoidable evil when giving away a free good or service, they are nonetheless annoying.
The free edition of Betternet displays advertisements, whereas the paid version does not.
However, the VPN is profiting off of its clients’ use of its services. Well, that’s just terrible.
It may not be a dealbreaker for you, but it’s hard to justify including advertising in a free service when several low-cost VPNs don’t bother users.
Apps
The Betternet Windows client is about as straightforward as VPN software can get.
You’ll be linked up with the nearest server in just a few seconds after clicking the huge Connect button.
If you search for bells and whistles, you may find yourself disappointed.
For example, the location list consists of nothing more than a directory of place names without any additional features like ping times, a search bar, a Favorites section, or any other customization options.
The program does not notify you whenever the VPN connection is established or lost. To discover out, open the app’s window.
There are not many options for customization. You should generally use the default settings of “Reconnect Automatically” and “Prevent IP Leak.”
However, the app can be configured to reconnect automatically if a user connects to an unsecured or another networking device.
Server Network
Only eleven countries are represented in Betternet’s server network. The worst thing isn’t even that, though.
On the free plan, you can connect exclusively to servers in the United States.
Users interested in the information available to US users can tolerate the limited server network alternatives.
It, however, is just theoretical. Even within the United States, the service’s speeds and usage caps will leave you wanting.
Those who don’t pay for Betternet’s premium service won’t be able to access the other countries in the service’s network.
An equivalent premium VPN service, such as NordVPN, costs roughly $7.99 per month; thus, the premium service is priced similarly.
Bypassing Capabilities
The Betternet service is yet unavailable in China. It is because the Great Firewall of China is beyond the capabilities of Betternet’s servers.
It is due to Betternet’s uninspiring strategy for the VPN market as a whole.
The best VPNs for China have obfuscated servers and other characteristics that allow them to bypass Chinese restrictions.
It’s no wonder that the Chinese challenger is superior to Betternet, given it lacks the features of the former, and even the former’s most fundamental ones are incorrectly implemented.
A VPN’s inability to access websites in China should not be used as a deciding factor in whether or not to subscribe.
Many VPNs cannot penetrate China’s Great Firewall.
Betternet may seem like a good deal at first, but compared to the other VPNs like NordVPN, that could also bypass China’s censorship for the same monthly price, it’s clear that this provider is inefficient.
Compatibility
Betternet works with Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, among others.
Chrome and Firefox provide add-ons that can further increase your browser’s security and make it harder for hackers to access your data.
One of the biggest issues with Betternet is that it isn’t functional with Smart TVs and routers.
The free trial version of Betternet can be installed on an unlimited number of devices. However, with a paid membership, you can run it on up to five devices simultaneously.
Torrenting
Tests show that using Betternet VPN while downloading torrents is safe. The rates are about 3Mb/s, which is acceptable.
However, it’s worth noting that the torrenting speed is much slower than with other VPNs.
In the time it took to write this Betternet VPN review, the service’s connection speed consistently hovered around 2 Mbps.
However, it appears that all Betternet VPN servers support torrenting. , Betternet, for providing such a useful feature in your VPN service.
We ran a speed test without P2P traffic to ensure a level playing field. We observed a shift in this area. As a result, the 3Mb/s download speed has increased to the current 11Mb/s.
We can infer that Betternet VPN slows down torrent traffic based on the gap between download speeds containing and without P2P activity size.
While Betternet VPN allows torrenting, it is far from the ideal option for P2P data transfer.
Pricing
Pricing at €12.99 a month, Betternet is not the cheapest option in the market. While critics may point out that it costs money, a free trial is available for seven days.
Betternet’s current price structures are detailed below:
- No cost for the first week
- One-Year Plan (€7.99)
- 1 month (€12.99)
Betternet is expensive for what it delivers and has limited servers and features. The free version does have certain restrictions.
Payment Method And Refund Policy
Betternet only takes payments through the Google Play Store, the iTunes Store, or major credit cards.
Infuriatingly, neither PayPal nor Bitcoin is accepted. To that end, We hope the suppliers will eventually accept cryptocurrency payments.
A 45-day money-back guarantee covers Betternet’s “Premium” subscriptions.
Since their products aren’t sold directly through their website but through third-party marketplaces like the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store, and so on, their refund policy can be difficult to understand.
The requirement that you can’t include more than 50 MB of data per day is one that I find particularly amusing.
Yes, the trial period requires 50 MB of data. Certainly, Betternet’s return policy is neither clear nor comforting.
Customer Service
To get in touch with Betternet’s support team, you can do so in one of two ways.
Betternet provides round-the-clock email support and its online ticket submission form for user requests.
Both free and paid users have access to the request ticket service but only paid customers have access to the 24/7 email support team.
One of the major difficulties with the Betternet VPN is that it does not provide real-time customer service.
You will be dissatisfied if you expect an immediate answer from the 24/7 email assistance because responses often take at least an hour.
So in critical situations, you are forced to wait for them to respond or devise an alternative solution on your own.
In Summary, the best VPNs in 2023 are;
| Rating | VPN Service | Get Offer |
|---|---|---|
| #1 Top Rated#1 | NordVPN - #1 VPN in the industry | FREE Trial |
| #2 Top Rated#2 | Surfshark - top budget VPN | Start Now |
| #3 Top Rated#3 | Atlas VPN - best free VPN | Start Now |
Review Verdict
This Betternet VPN review is a comprehensive summary of the service covering its key features and how to set it up.
We do not recommend using Betternet’s free VPN service. Download rates are limited, privacy is not protected, and no fundamental security measures are in place.
There is no way to contact customer assistance, and the VPN won’t connect to several of the most popular video-sharing websites.
Betternet is not a reliable or secure VPN service, and you should avoid using it.
We recommend NordVPN as a means of resolving this issue. Thanks to its massive user base’s overwhelming approval, NordVPN has become the undisputed leader in the VPN industry.
You can’t go anywhere without hearing customers gush about the platform, applauding its quick transfers, data security, online streaming, solutions to torrent sites, and user-friendly web surfing tools.
Betternet VPN Review 2023: Is It Legit? Is It a Scam? - EarthWeb
We decided to try it, and here are our comprehensive Betternet VPN review results.
Price: €12.99
Price Currency: Euro
Operating System: Windows, Mac, Android & iOS
Application Category: VPN
2
Pros
- There is no requirement for user registration.
- Easy to use
- Reasonable prices
Cons
- Security features such as a VPN kill switch are absent.
- Single VPN server location only (US)
- Unpredictable speeds
- Inconsistent quality when streaming
- Prior malware issues; DNS and WebRTC leaks
- Inadequate or nonexistent customer service for nonpaying users
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Written by Trevor Cooke
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