In this review we're going to look at the service provided by VPN provider LiquidVPN. We're going to look at its privacy protection features, region unblocking functionality, usability and the speed you can expect when browsing and downloading through the VPN.
About LiquidVPN
LiquidVPN has a network consisting of 10 locations around the world each having either 1 or 10 Gbps connections. The company is located in the United States and states it isn't aiming to provide the most locations but instead wants to focus on speed. LiquidVPN has been founded in 2013.
A monthly subscription for the basic plan is $7.00 month, when paying annually this is lowered to $57.00 year. The medium subscription costs $10 per month and when paid annually this will become $69. The most expensive plan costs $18 a month, or $106 annually.
With coupon code MYCE30 you'll get an instant 30% discount on the annual plans, which are then $39.90, $48.30 and $74.20 respectively.
Privacy
We base our privacy results on the sheet from ThatOnePrivacyGuy. While LiquidVPN is clear that it doesn't log your traffic and IP it does log the number of active sessions and bandwidth consumed. No activity you perform through the VPN is logged. More details can be found in the Terms of Service.
Because the company is in the United States, it obviously also falls under that country's jurisdiction. The company does accept Bitcoin for anonymous payments and has a warranty canary, which is a method by which the VPN provider aims to inform that it has not been served with a secret government subpoena.
The company also operates its own encrypted DNS servers to protect against man-in-the-middle attacks and DNS filtering.
Regular speed
First a screenshot of Ookla’s Speedtest.net (beta) result, using automatic server selection. The screenshot shows the ping, download and upload speed of the connection without using the VPN. The connection used in this test has a latency of 21ms and can is able to reach speeds of 102.23 Mbps for downloading and 11.52 Mbps when uploading.
The location from which the tests are performed is Windsor (Ontario) in Canada using the internet provider Spectrum.
VPN connection speed
The speed of the VPN is tested by doing speed tests on servers located in 3 different physical locations far away from each other. We provide a screenshot of the speed in Amsterdam (Netherlands), Singapore and Miami (United States). All performed using Ookla's Speedtest with automatic server selection.
The result first is from Amsterdam, we see less speed compared to the VPN-less connection. But when connecting to LiquidVPN's Amsterdam server a download of 31.56 Mbps and upload of 7.89Mbs is more than sufficient to perform any task. Also the latency of 121ms won't be a showstopper for anything.
Second is the test in Singapore. The Singapore server performance is good with a download of 23.62 Mbps, upload of 3.07 Mbps and latency of 287 ms.
The third location tested is in Miami, the United States. The download of 85.97Mbps is sufficient for pretty much anything you'd like to do with the VPN, the upload is close to the maximum upload of the VPN less connection.
Download Ubuntu Image
We test real world performance by testing the download of an Ubuntu image using uTorrent using a random VPN server of the provider. When downloading a speed of 8.8Mb/s (70.4Mbps) is achieved.
Usability
Besides performance of the VPN provider, also usability is important. LiquidVPN provides you with a client that we think looks great and is easy to use. The client software allows you to choose a server from a list, to see whether the server will be responsive, the ping is added to the list. It's possible to mark your favorite server for easy connecting to it.
Besides the client software, VPN providers usually also have an online administration area where you can review your subscription information and download client software. Just like the client software, the LiquidVPN online area is well designed and easy to use.
Region unblock
Besides anonymity, another important reason for users to resort to a VPN, is the possibility to circumvent geoblocks. This makes it possible to view content that's normally not available in your region. One service that uses geoblocks is Netflix and the video streaming service has recently become more strict in VPN usage. Netflix is blocking servers of major VPN providers and therefore this test.
For this test a VPN server located in the United States was used to connect to both Netflix and Hulu. As you can see below, the region block was bypassed by LiquidVPN's servers.
Conclusion
LiquidVPN has the disadvantage of being located in the United States. If you want to hide your identity for other websites or other non-government services then there is nothing that should hold you back from using LiquidVPN. The number of server locations is small compared to others we've tested, however our tests show that you'll get excellent download and upload speeds in return. Also Hulu and Netflix still work if you want to view US content from a different country.
Pros
- Excellent performance
- Geo unblocking (still) works
- Easy to use client software
- Own DNS servers for additional privacy
Cons
- Company is located in the United States thus falling under US jurisdiction
- Servers in only 10 regions
Instantly save 30% on an annual subscription with coupon code 'MYCE30'. Pay $3.33 per month on the annual plan ($39.90) instead of $4.75 a month ($57 annually).
Full disclosure about this review: To make our testing scalable, the speed tests are performed by the VPN provider, we perform random checks on the data to verify accuracy. In this case we tested the VPN speed in the Netherlands and Singapore and the Ubuntu download speed. We found no anomalies.
This review contains affiliate links, we are paid a commission when you decide to become a member of LiquidVPN. These have NO influence on the results and our conclusion. We exist for nearly 20 years and have NEVER taken any money to publish other results than our findings.
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