Windscribe VPN Review : Is Legit or Scam? 2024

Yes, Windscribe VPN is safe and legit. This review confirms why we said that Windscribe VPN is not a scam but a stable and reliable VPN Service.

If yes, you are in the right place!

What is Windscribe?

Windscribe is a set of tools that work together to block ad trackers and web beacons, restore access to blocked content and help you safeguard your privacy online. There are 2 components: desktop VPN application, and browser extension. You can use them on their own, but for much greater protection, you should use both. It’s silly not to since it doesn’t cost extra.

VPNs are becoming popular to give you online privacy and anonymity so that prying eyes cannot get access to your online activities. Windscribe is one of many VPN in the market. How does Windscribe fare among the crowd? This review aims to critically look at the Windscribe VPN to know what it has going for it and against it.

Is Windscribe VPN safe?

Windscribe VPN is safe to use. You have nothing to worry about when it comes to safety with Windscribe VPN. Your privacy and details are highly secured. Based on our experience and research, Windscribe VPN is a secure VPN network.

Is Windscribe legit or scam?

Windscribe, as of writing this Windscribe review, is not a scam but one of the top legit VPN services online. Here you will get the software installed as soon as you order for your subscription. Also if you are a light user, you can use Windscribe for free. You get up to 10GB of data per month, and you can use all of the tools we offer. If you need more data, for just $9/month you get unlimited usage. You probably spend 10x that on coffee alone!

Windscribe complaints and feedback:

• Alex says:

Windscribe continues to amaze me with the quality of their servers. The locations Windscribe over are always more than perfect, even when downloading items. I’ve never had any issue with any of their features and I’ve never had any ads pop up or trackers follow me around since I first signed up. Very happy and pleased I considered Windscribe. One of the best so far.

• Micheal says:

Windscribe is new to VPN business and continuously evolving. Speed is sometimes a little bit slow but good most of the times. If you are a Linux user, you can’t find better. Work very well for all the platform I have tested ( RedHat 7.4, Ubuntu 16.04, Kali Linux 2017.1, OsX 10.12.5 10.12.6, 10.13, Android app is still in beta phase). For security and privacy, it is the best (the desktop app has stealth VPN, firewall inbuilt: never leaks your original IP.

Browser extension has adblocker, cookies detection, rotate your user agent of the browser, cruise control: automatically connect different locations if the website is blocked in the country you are connected). And much more to come. You can observe it’s a revolution. And lifetime pro license is the best ( about 50 dollars). And it’s transparency is my favourites. If privacy and security is your major concern, then you can trust Windscribe.

• Tom says:

I jumped on the stark social deal; lifetime pro subscription for $50.00. I’ve been using Windscribe for some time now, and I have to say… It’s perfect for my requirements.

I’m constantly testing Windscribe, while using it. Checking my IP address (never my ISP’s), checking for DNS leaks (none), running Wireshark and checking to see if data is being encrypted (it certainly is).

I use Windscribe on all of my devices

• Ben says:

Features:

Ease of Use:

Windscribe is one VPN that can be defined as user friendly. I couldn’t help but notice that the pages explaining the features and functionalities of the Windscribe client were also laced with subtle metaphors that caused me to snicker every time. Windscribe’s humour gives a pleasant user experience and makes them stand out from the competition. Downloading and setting up the client is also very easy, and signing up requires just a username and password.

Supported Devices:

Windscribe supports a lot of platforms: Windows (7, 8, 10, XP and Vista), Mac (macOS 10.8 – 10.11+), Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS), iOS (iOS9+), Android (Android 4.2.2+ or newer), TV, and Routers (DD-WRT, Tomato). Windscribe also has browser extensions for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera.

With Windscribe you don’t need to do configuration settings to make the client work on a device; the client comes custom-made for each platform. They even offer preconfigured routers. This is something that will appeal to non- techie users.

Connections Simultaneous:

VPNs that allow multiple simultaneous connections are great value for money. If you have multiple mobile phones, iPad and a PC, you can use one license to protect them all and can even extend the VPN protection to friends and family without having to pay more.  The VPN industry average for simultaneous connection is 5; some of the top VPNs will like to hook you by offering you 6 or 7 simultaneous connections. How many multiple connections would you like your VPN to offer you? Windscribe gives you unlimited connections.

VPNs that offer free trials are known to allow multiple connections on their paid plans only, but with Windscribe you can connect unlimited devices with both the trial version and the paid version.

Special Features:

Windscribe has a feature which they call cruise control. It automatically connects you to the best server which is closest to you. This gives you optimal speeds for an exciting browsing experience.

Windscribe double-hop feature allows you to route your traffic through two different Windscribe servers, and this greatly enhances privacy and anonymity.

Windscribe is on par with other VPN is providing ad-blocking features to enhance the browsing experience. Windscribe ad blocking consists of three components: Ad blocking, tracker blocking, and social network blocking. This works to give you greater privacy and to make websites load faster.

Windflix:

Windscribe is one VPN that still supports Netflix, and this is a big plus because of the various programs that you can enjoy with Netflix. Windscribe have dedicated servers for accessing Netflix called Netflix. Connecting to Netflix locations unblocks Netflix and gives you full access to the expanded Netflix library. However, the Windflix feature is currently not available on iOS.

Speed And Performance

The speed performance of VPNs is obtained in two ways. The first is comparing the browsing speeds when using a VPN with the speeds when not using a VPN. Since VPN use generally slows browsing speed; the best speed performers will be VPNs that slows speed the least. The second test is comparing the speed performance of a VPN with that of competing VPNs. So the two questions that need answers here are: (i) By how much does Windscribe slow down browsing speed (ii) How does the speed of Windscribe compare to the speed of competing VPNs?

To the first; Windscribe slowed upload speed and download speed by about 5% and 35% respectively, and had a tolerable latency drop of over 200%. This performance is really top-notch; considering that many highly rated VPNs record speed drops of over 30% and 60% for uploads and downloads. In the peer-test, Windscribe proved to be as fast as the VPN industry speed leaders.

Security And Privacy

Internet Protocol

Windscribe offers the OpenVPN protocol (UDP and TCP) and the IKEv2/ IPsec VPN protocol. The very secure OpenVPN is the default protocol for the Android app; while the IKEv2 is the default protocol for Mac, Windows and iOS platforms. They also offer a stealth protocol (TCP protocol over the tunnel) which can be used when the other protocol fails to connect. This makes the stealth protocol invaluable in such places as China where the government has taken a hard stance with VPNs and is actively into blocking VPN protocols. Thus, Windscribe employs strong encryption that has almost zero chance of being broken; and your online privacy is guaranteed.

Windscribe does not support the PPTP and L2TP/ IPsec protocols. Most of the competing VPNs are offering these two protocols; while the PPTP is known to be insecure, the L2TP is relatively secure and has the added advantage of not needing a client to be set up on your device.

Sign Up:

Windscribe is one VPN that makes submitting an e-mail address optional when signing up. You don’t even need to use your real name. This greatly enhances your anonymity.

Jurisdiction:

Windscribe is headquartered in Canada. Though Canada does not have the strict data retention laws of the US, Canada is a member of the 5-eyes surveillance alliance that includes Australia, New Zealand, the U.K and the U.S. These nations have an agreement to work together to collect and share intelligence. Understandably, VPN users do not want their online activities to be collected and recorded, and so are turned off by the surveillance activities of the 5 eyes countries. To privacy-conscious VPN users, Windscribe’s Canada location stands as one of their main disadvantages.

Logging Policy:

One of the cheapest lies told by VPN providers is that they keep absolutely no logs. The lie usually comes out as a cheap one, because a simple look at their privacy policy does reveal them to keep certain logs.

It was somewhat pleasing to see that Windscribe did not follow the no-log deceptive path. Windscribe plainly states that they do not keep permanent logs. That would mean they keep certain logs for a certain period of time.

While VPN users always want to see or hear no-logs; they shouldn’t be in a rush to throw out Windscribe because the VPN does not scream no-logs. Rather, it is wise to look at the logs they keep and what effects the log keeping has on privacy.

Windscribe say they firmly believe that you should take your browsing history to your grave, and as a result, do not monitor or keep records of the sites you visit. They also say that they do not keep connection log and IP timestamps (connection and disconnection times).

However, for the time period that you’re connected to a Windscribe server, they collect and keep certain data such as the VPN server connected to, the time of connection, and the amount of data transferred during the session. However, the data is only temporarily held and is deleted within three minutes of your disconnection from the VPN. That’s fair enough.

I have always maintained that restriction is tantamount to log-keeping; and that any VPN that sets restriction must have a monitoring system in place. Windscribe’s have a data transfer restriction for their free plan, and there is no way of maintaining this without some form of log keeping. Windscribe is upfront about this also, they state that they “keep the total amount of bandwidth used in a 30 day period to enforce free tier limitations and prevent abuse”

Firewall:

Windscribe has unique firewall protection which blocks all connectivity outside of the VPN tunnel and ensure that there is no chance of any kind of leak (including DNS leaks, IPv6 leaks and WebRTC leaks). Windscribe does not have the kill switch feature, but they explain that their firewall protection adequately takes care of the kill switch functions. Since the firewall blocks all connectivity outside of the VPN tunnel; if the VPN losses connection, not a single data packet can leave the machine as the firewall will not allow it.

Windscribe VPN Price

Packages:

Windscribe divides their service offering into two – the free version and the Pro version. There are currently three plans in the pro version – a monthly plan, an annual plan and a biannual plan. The monthly plan is $9.00, the annual plan is $49.00 ($4.08 per month), while the two years plan is $89.00 ($3.70 per month).

Just like with every other VPN, the monthly subscription is the highest, and the more commitment you make with longer subscriptions, the better your cost savings. Comparing the prices of Windscribe to competing VPNs show that Windscribe is inexpensive.

Windscribe VPN Payment Methods:

Windscribe supports different payment options including the regular payment options (credit cards and PayPal) and anonymous payment options (bitcoin). The anonymous payments ensure anonymity because they entail the submission of non-identifying information, while the regular payment methods entail submitting personally identifying information. By allowing anonymous payments, Windscribe does offer anonymity which makes them very enticing to privacy-conscious VPN users.

Windscribe VPN Free Trial:

Most of the tops VPNs do not offer free trials, and they have rightfully received some flogging for that. Those that give free trials allow the trial sessions to last for 3 days or 7 days, and users have also complained that the free trial sessions are too short to get a good feel of the service. How long should a trial session be?

Windscribe says as long as you like. You read that right. Windscribe offer free trials, and it’s not 7 days, or 30 days, or 100 days. It’s as long as you like. You can also connect as unlimited devices using the free plan. Some have called this generous; I think generous does not even scratch it.

However, the ‘forever’ free trial is limited to 11 servers and also has a 30 GB per month bandwidth cap. This means you will frequently find the servers to be crowded, and your connection will be slow. Also, the free trial does not use the OpenVPN protocol which is the most secure VPN protocol. It, therefore, means that your online privacy is not air-tight with the free version.

For paid subscribers who are not satisfied with the VPN service, Windscribe also allows doing refunds. You can request a refund of your payment, but the request must be submitted not more than three days from the time of purchase, and you will get back your money within 30 days.

VPN Network

Location Availability:

Windscribe boast of over 100 servers in 52 countries across the globe. They do not make use of virtual servers to boost their server count; they have the physical hardware in the locations that the servers are advertised to be in. Their servers are well distributed covering all continents of the world. There are servers in countries with repressive governments that are clamping down on VPNs (such as Turkey and Russia, but not in China). They do not neglect Africa as some VPNs do; they have servers in Libya and South Africa.

Though many VPNs have far larger server network, Windscribe 100 servers in 52 countries will serve your locations needs, give you anonymity and help you access geo-restricted contents.

Customer Service

Windscribe provides the regular self-help support options: guides, FAQs and a knowledge base. These resources carry lots of articles to provide assistance with a range of issues. They have e-mail support service and you can also submit a ticket. They say responses can take 48 hours to come, but we received very helpful response in less than 5 hours. This also scores points for Windscribe; because the timeliness of responses is increasingly becoming a major factor in rating a VPN service.

Live chat support is a support feature which VPNs are increasingly launching to meet users demand for real-time/ instantaneous assistance. Unfortunately, Windscribe does not have live chat support; and neither do they have a phone call support service. So if you would want instant help from your VPN provider when you run into problems, Windscribe is not for you.

Summary

Windscribe supports a lot of platforms and the client comes custom-made for each platform. Windscribe have over 100 server locations in 52 countries across the globe. Windscribe is an enticing VPN. They offer unlimited bandwidth, unlimited number of simultaneous connections, and speeds that are on par with the fastest VPNs. Windscribe’s cruise control automatically connects you to the best server closest to you to give you optimal speeds for an exciting browsing experience; their Windflix unblocks Netflix and gives access to all Netflix programs. To enhance the browsing experience, they also have ad-blocking tools that also does tracker blocking and social media blocking.

On the privacy front; Windscribe offers OpenVPN with high-level encryption and a top-notch stealth protocol. They have firewall protection that blocks all connectivity outside of the VPN. This not only prevents leaks (such as DNS leaks, IPv6 leaks and WebRTC leaks) but also expertly functions as a kill switch as not a single data packet will leave the machine if the VPN connection drop. Their double-hop feature greatly enhances privacy and anonymity by allows you to route your traffic through two different Windscribe servers.

Also, Windscribe does not want to know who you are; they do not keep permanent logs, they don’t require an e-mail for sign-up, and they allow anonymous payments. On the financial front; Windscribe gives inexpensive monthly and annual plans, as well as a free version.

Cons:

Windscribe is located in Canada which is a member of the 5-eyes surveillance alliance that work together to collect and share intelligence. They have no live support feature, and you cannot get instant assistance. The 30GB bandwidth cap of the free trial does not support heavy usage.

Do you have experience with Windscribe? Good or bad, kindly use the comment section below to give us your brief Windscribe review.