In this SaferWeb review, we show you if SaferWeb VPN legit, safe, real or if it is scam and fake. SaferWeb VPN complaints and feedback of it users are also reviewed. Do you want the best and unbiased SaferWeb reviews? If yes, you have come to the right place.
What is SaferWeb?
Even if I didn’t know what VPN stands for, I still will know that Safer Web VPN is a service that will make the web safe for me. Their name leaves no doubt. But do they have a product that also leaves no doubt?
What we’ve come to expect of a VPN service are: to give secured connections by encrypting traffic and shielding it from prying eyes; to give anonymity by masking a user’s real location and replacing it with virtual locations all over the world; to unblock geo restricted websites and channels and give users access to tons of choice media contents. Does the safer web VPN give that? Well, they say they can.
They say they’ll give you an extra layer of security against Internet hackers. They say they’ll hide your IP and keep your online activity anonymous and private. They say they’ll unblock and give you access to all your favourite shows.
This review will provide information that will help you determine if this relatively new VPN service can really give all that they say they give.
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Note: Since you have nothing to loss, it will be a very good idea to register from this post so we can be able to assist you by getting in touch with them if you have any problem in the future. We have the power to force them into rectifying their faults. However, we cannot do anything if you try to trick the system. Just make sure you comply with their rules and regulations to make it easier for us.
Is SaferWeb safe and legit?
SaferWeb is safe and legit to use. There have never been complain of SaferWeb being unsafe. We will keep you updated as soon as we found something bad about SaferWeb. So, for now, you are free to use itsvpn service.
SaferWeb VPN complaints and feedback:
No SaferWeb VPN complaint and feedback was found as of writing this review.
Packages And Pricing
Service Plans
The Safer Web VPN service has two service plans – the Premium plan and the Super Premium plan. Both plans features unrestricted data transfer, unrestricted bandwidth, and access to all protocols. However, they differ in: the number of simultaneous connections allowed, and the number of server locations a user can access.
With the Super Premium plan, you are allowed to connect up to three devices simultaneously, and also allowed to access all 30+ locations in their server network; but with the Premium plan, you are not allowed to connect multiple devices simultaneously, and you are also limited to only 7 locations in their server network.
Pricing
The Premium plan gets as low as $3.99 per month; while the Super Premium plan gets as low as $4.99 per month.
If price is one of your main concern; there are some top quality services which are cheaper. The best deal of Safer Web VPN’s full feature plan (Super Premium plan) is almost double the best deal of some services which comes as low as $2.50. The Premium plan looks cheap at $3.99, but getting only 7 server locations doesn’t seem to be good value for money.
SaferWeb VPN Payment Methods
The Safer Web VPN service allows users to make payment with credit/ debit cards (master card, Visa card, American Express and more). You can also make your payment using PayPal. The service has also responded to calls to allow anonymous payment, and now they accept Bitcoin payments.
This means that no matter you billing preference, you will find that the Safer Web service is ideal. If you want the convenience that comes with the regular payment methods, Safer Web supports a host of them. Also, if you do not like that the regular methods require you to submit personal information (which may include credit card details, name, and address) as part of the billing process, you can still pay anonymously with the Safer Web VPN service.
Another thing of note is that the Safer Web service, like many others, will automatically renew your subscription when it expires and debit your account with the corresponding fee. The only way to stop such auto renewals is to mail their customer support with a request to that effect.
Refund Policy
VPN services offer money back guarantees to convey to customers that they (the service) value customer satisfaction. The money back guarantee allows customers who are not satisfied with the service to request a full refund of their payment.
Safer Web VPN give a guarantee of 30 days. This means that the refund request must be made not later than 30 days from the day of payment.
Services that refund paymemt fall into two broad classes: (i) services that will not consider refund request made after the time allowed by their guarantee (ii) services who at at discretion will grant request made after the time allowed by their guarantee.
Where does Safer Web fall? They say: “Our money back guarantee entitles you to a full refund within 30 days of purchase. After this period refunds are issued on a pro-rata basis“. Note that the refund is not “at our discretion”, but “on a pro-data basis”. This suggests that one would definitely get a refund; but not a full refund, rather a partial refund corresponding to the amount of time still remaining on the subscription.
Free Trial
The Safer Web VPN service gives users the opportunity to test the service free of charge. This will allow users to explore all the features of the service so that they will fully understand what they want to subscribe to. However, the Safer Web VPN allows only 24 hours for the free trial. Many users will feel that the trial period is too short; and they may have a point because there are services that allow up to 7 days of free trial.
That said, if a concern of yours is to have a number of days to experience the full features of a service without being charged for it, you have to look beyond the Safer Web VPN service.
FEATURES
Ease of Use
To get started, you had to download the SaferWeb app from the downloads page. Then open your download files to get the downloaded file SaferWeb.exe, open the file to begin the install wizard. Installation happens almost by itself. When over, you are prompted to login with your email address and password, and off you go.
The app literally allows you get racing with VPN protection with a single click. In the Easy Mode designed for new users, all you need do is click the big red “Protect Now” button on the interface; and the app will quickly connect you to the nearest server also giving you the most secure protection. This last bit about the most secure protection is achieved by the app’s “automatic location selection algorithm”. This means that instead of having a default protocol for all connections irrespective of your syatem, the app chooses the best protocol for you based on your system. Switching servers is so easy; you simply scroll through the server list and click on one to connect to.
Super charged Servers
One of the distinctive features of Safer Web VPN is their “Super charged location” add-on. By purchasing this add-on, you will have access to exclusive servers which gives lightening fast connections. For those that purchase the add-on, the super charged servers are denoted in the server listings by having a little lightning bolt icon on them. If you are a heavy downloader, you might want to consider the Safer Web VPN service, especially with this super charged location add-on.
Supported Devices
The Safer Web VPN service supports a range of operating systems and platforms. You can use the service on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. They also supports many other major operating systems such as, including Xbox, Playstation, Amazon fire, Apple TV and BlackBerry.
Simultaneous Connection
As stated earlier, the service does not allow multiple simultaneous connections on the Premium plan, and allow only three simultaneous connections on the Super Premium plan. Either offer fall short of the industry average for simultaneous connections which is five. A lot of services allow users to connect up to five devices at the same time, while some few ones even allow unlimited simultaneous connections.
That said; for a multiple device user (up to three device), Safer Web will be an ideal service for securing all the devices without having to pay extra on another license. But if you have more than three devices that might be used at the same time, then you’ll have to look beyond Safer Web.
Streaming
On their landing page, the service says that one of the reasons you should choose them is that; with them, you can effectively beat geo restrictions and unblock a lot of website and channels, and watch your favorite TV Shows.
Watching geo specific content is one of the reasons people subscribe to VPN services. You may travel away from home, but want to watch TV shows in your homeland; or you could simply want to watch shows not made available to your region. In either case, the VPN will place you in the region where the shows you want to watch are available.
Many streaming services do not like that VPN services are helping users beat their geo restrictions, and they respond by blocking VPNs. One foremost VPN blocker is Netflix. These days, very few VPN services still give access to Netflix; and access to Netflix is used to gauge a VPN’s streaming capability.
Safer Web VPN unblocks Netflix as well as other streaming giants like Hulu and BBC iPlayer. If you want a VPN to stream and watch favourite shows from around the world, you really should look at Safer Web VPN.
Torrents
Many persons subscribe to VPN services to download torrents safely and anonymously. Torrenting is an effective way to move files in the internet, but the activity can easily pitch one against copyright owners and their representatives. VPN services give a protective cover to connect to peers and share files.
Safer Web VPN supports torrenting. Their server list shows that they have certain servers optimized for P2P activity. However, these P2P servers are only in the Netherlands. That said, if you need a VPN mainly for torrenting, the Safer Web VPN service may not be the ideal service. This is because, though they support torrenting, they have very few P2P servers, and these servers will most likely be loaded at all times.
SERVER LOCATION
Safer Web VPN operates 70+ servers in 30 cities in 24 countries around the world. The server network covers top American and European cities that users typically like connecting to. It also include countries in South America (Argentina Costa Rica), Oceania (Australia), Asia (Hong Kong, Japan, India, and Singapore), Africa (South Africa), and the Middle East (Isreal). This maks it a truly global network as it covers every region of the world. Interestingly, the service also operate servers in countries with restrictive regimes such as Russia.
Comparatively, the server count of Safer Web VPN does not come close to the hundreds and thousands of servers operated by some players in the VPN industry. Also, the number of countries covered is low; many services operate in upward of 30 countries, while a few top players cover over 50 countries. However, the Safer Web VPN network has a shining spot, and that is in geographical distribution. As shown, the network has a fine spread and touches every region of the world. With a network that distributed, you are assured that anywhere in the world you may be, there will be a nearby server to connect to for optimal performance. It also enhances anonymity because it affords you the opportunity to place your virtual location around the globe, and not just in the Americas or Europe.
SECURITY AND PRIVACY FEATURES
VPN Protocols and Encryption
The Safer Web VPN service supports the popular VPN protocols – PPTP, OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec and IKEv2 protocols.
The OpenVPN protocol is always the recommended protocol for establishing connections. It is open source which mean that it has been tested for vulnerabilities, but none has been found to date. It is therefore very secure. It is also highly configurable, and fast. The IKEv2 is a very new protocol, but also considered as secure. The L2TP/ IPSec is considered as the secure alternative to the OpenVPN. Of all the protocols supported, the PPTP is the only one considered to be very vulnerable and insecure. However, it offers unique advantage of speed, and not needing a client for setup.
In terms of encryption, the secure protocols use the industry standard AES 256 bit encryption, while the PPTP use MPPE 128 encryption. The 256 bit encryption is the highest encryption level of the day. It is frequently called military-grade and bank-grade because these security focused organization use it to secure their data. It is virtually uncrackable (it will literally take super computers millions of years to combine the codes to break it). With this level of encryption, the security of your data with Safer Web VPN is not in doubt.
Kill Switch
Nomatter how good a VPN service is, it can only protect effectively when it is up and running. During unfortunate downtimes (that is, the few seconds between the service abruptly disconnecting and reconnecting), anyone monitoring can capture your activity and real location. The kill switch is the feature that prevents this.
The Safer Web VPN service comes with a kill switch to protect you from having your traffic and real location suddenly exposed when the service looses connection. The kill switch saves the day by cutting off internet connection, and ensuring that you do not transmit any data online until the VPN reconnects.
Security Leaks Protection
One popular security leak is DNS leaks; it happens when the DNS queries leak out of the VPN tunnel and are handled by the default connection. This exposes the user’s online activity and real location. The latest version of the Safer Web VPN include DNS leak prevention capability. You can be assured that with Safer Web, you will not have your DNS mistakenly leaked, and have your activity exposed.
Another important security leak is WebRTC leaks. WebRTC is an application used by most modern browsers to provide real time communications to users, but a security flaw within it allows the true IP address of a user to be read even when using VPN or proxy. This ultimately identifies a user’s real location. The Safer Web app itself does not plug this security leak. However, they advice that you can prevent the leaks by installing browser add-on for Chrome, Firefox and Opera, or using Tor as well as the Safer Web service. They explicitly state that if you are concerned about privacy and security, then you should really do one of the above to plug the WebRTC leaks. They end by promising that they will investigate all avenues to try and fix the problem via the safer web application.
Logging Policy
On the landing page of their website, Safer Web VPN says: “We believe in your right to privacy, so we don’t keep logs of your browsing history“.
This statement does not even try to class the service as a No-log service. This is because browsing history is a tiny part of what constitute users’ data that can be monitored and stored.
I went through the privacy policy and terms of the service to know what information is collected and how it is handled.
The service say a that they collect as little information as possible to ensure that you are as secure as possible. What is the “little information” collected?
They record your email address, username and password; and this information is necessary for creating an account and identifying individual accounts. They record communication thread when you use their support channels; and this is necessary to attend to your queries. As part of the billibg process, the collect contact information and payment information.
While all this may not be “little information”, it did not really raise any concern because many other services collect similar information.
However, Safer went on with collecting more information. They state: “We do however, note the IP of your device and monitor the amount of traffic you put through the SaferWeb servers, this is to ensure no misuse of the SaferWeb network and to keep costs as low as possible for our customers“. Keeping session logs is something frowned upon by most users; but logging IP addresses would definitely be a deal breaker. The whole essence of using a VPN is to be anonymous. How anonymous are you when you IP address is stored in some servers somewhere?
The service tried to save face by saying that they do not monitor your internet searches, or visited websites.
Jurisdiction
The Safer Web VPN service is located in Israel. That does not sound like goodnews because the Middle East has come to be identified with internet censorship and government control. Israel also appear to be an official member of the Eyes Alliance. There is record of intelligence sharing and close cooperation between agencies of Israel and foremost members of the Five-Eyes alliance. Also, Israel have been called an “observer” of the survillance alliance.
However, the online privacy protection under Israeli law is one of the strongest there is. For example, the country’s Privacy Protection Law requires that a person must consent before his/ her information derived from online activity is stored and/ or used.
If you are concerned that local laws may force a VPN service to keep users data which may compromise your privacy; then you would like Safer Web VPN because they are not subject to such anti-privacy laws.
Speed
Speed is an important consideration when choosing a VPN service. Especially when the service is needed for streaming and downloading torrents, a user would want speed that is not too far from that of the default connection. Granted, using a VPN slows than connection speed because of all the rerouting and encryption, but a fast VPN will not reduce speed by too much.
My method of measuring speed is really simple. I connect the VPN, take speed readings (upload and download) from different locations, and average them; then I compare the result with the readings (upload and download) collected when the VPN is disconnected.
On the average, Safer Web reduced download speed by 43%, and reduced upload speed by 22%. The upload performance is very impressive, because very few services can beat that. On the whole, Safer Web speed performance is very good. Comparatively, some services reduce speed by as much as 50% are still considered fast. Thus, it is safe to say that Safer Web VPN is a fast VPN.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
The support center of the Safer Web VPN service leads you to: Set up guides, knowledge base, and a ticket support service.
As the name suggests, the set up guides are detailed instructions for manually setting up the VPN on the supported devices. These tutorials are complete with screenshots to help you visualize each step in the process. This makes them very easy. The knowledge base holds FAQS and other articles to help with all things safer web. It covers general issues and more particular ones such as account & billing issues, and troubleshooting.
The ticket service allows you to send a mail to Safer Web and be directly contacted by one of their representatives. They say that they endeavour to reply all mails “within a few hours”. That is very true. The response time for all inquiries sent was under two hours. This makes their suppot team a good one, because there are services that can keep you waiting for up to 48 hours. Safer Web VPN also has a live chat feature which can be used to get fast responses to inquiries. Submissions to the live chat was answered within minutes. What impressed me most was that the live chat is active twenty four hours a day, and seven days a week. When testing the live chat service, I fired in a question at 23:39 on a Friday night. Truthfully, I wasn’t expecting anyone at the office; I thought they’ll all be home dosing off to welcome the weekend. I was shocked when I got a response at 23:41. Most services with live chat feature operate it only during working hours; but Safer Web VPN ensures that you get the assistance you need round the clock.
SUMMARY
Safer Web VPN is a simple VPN service that, though is new in the market, has a couple of good things going for it.
- They give security by offering secure protocols with strong encryption.
- Have a kill switch to protect against connection drops
- They have good speed.
- They are excellent for streaming; they unblock a host of geo blocked website and channels including Netflix.
- They have a responsive 24/ 7 support service
But what truly sets them apart is that they have “super charged server location” add-on that gives lightening fast connections.
However, there were some things that seriously went against the Safer Web VPN service. The most profound is a privacy concern stemming from the fact that the service log IP addresses and bandwidth usage. Others are:
- Their server network covers only a few countries
- They have very few P2P servers (in one country); and as a result, the servers are always loaded
- Their free trial period is short (24 hours)
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