Released to the public in March 2020, WeVPN is still a new kid on the VPN block, and there are clear signs of that in the service's specifications. The company offers "66+" locations, but only cites "100+ servers," for example, a small fraction of what you'll get with providers like NordVPN (5400+) or CyberGhost (7100+).
But don't judge WeVPN too soon – dig a little deeper and you'll find that the company has a lot more to offer than you think.
Features
WeVPN's network may be smaller than many competitors, but it's also more secure. The servers run in RAM (similar to ExpressVPN and NordVPN) to ensure they are fully reset every time the system boots, and the company uses LUKS encryption to protect its storage from attacks.
You can run WeVPN on almost any platform, with the help of its wide range of apps: Windows, Mac, Linux (in beta), Android, iOS, Chrome OS, Android TV, Amazon Fire Stick and more Again. There are Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browser extensions, and Smart DNS lets you set up unlock support on Apple TV, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and pretty much anything else that lets you set up custom DNS.
There's a solid set of core features: WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2 support; a kill switch to protect you in case the VPN goes down; private encrypted DNS; IPv6 and DNS leak protection; block ads, trackers, and malware; split tunneling (under Windows); P2P support on all servers; and the ability to manage up to 10 simultaneous connections.
WeVPN has some not-so-common and more technical extras, including SOCKS5 and HTTPS proxies, and port forwarding support.
And if all that doesn't work as it should, WeVPN has 24/7 support via live chat, ticket, and even Discord.
packages and prices
WeVPN starts at €9.95 per month (opens in a new tab), increases to €4.16 per month on the annual plan (opens in a new tab), or €2.59 for the first period of your two-year plan. years (opens in a new tab) tab). (The latter comes with three months free for the first time, meaning you pay €2.91 upon renewal.)
There are many ways to get your money back as WeVPN supports card payments, PayPal, Amazon Pay, and cryptocurrencies.
The WeVPN website has a link titled "Risk-Free VPN Trial," but that doesn't quite mean what we expected. There is no free trial period, no "give us your payment details now and we'll charge you in 7 days" - you need to sign up and hand over your money as normal.
WeVPN calls it "risk-free" because you get a 30-day money-back guarantee. That's good news, and we couldn't find any sneaky tricks in the fine print: If you're not satisfied, just ask and we'll give you your money back, subject to the usual disclaimers. (WeVPN won't refund you if you paid in an app store or using cryptocurrency, for example, but that's the same as everyone else.)
Privacy and registration
WeVPN claims to have a “zero logs policy”, but what does that really mean?
The company is off to a good start with its headquarters in the British Virgin Islands outside of the 14 Eyes group of countries and where there are no data retention laws.
A detailed privacy policy (opens in a new tab) lists everything the service doesn't log: connection time, session length, incoming and outgoing IP addresses, bandwidth used, and more.
The policy also lists a thing or two that WeVPN collects, but that's not surprising. The service requires your email address when you sign up, for example, and records the total bandwidth used by an account over the last 24 hours. As the policy says, "We may know that a customer has used WeVPN, but we never know HOW they used our service."
If you're concerned that companies are rushing to use WeVPN with court orders requiring logs, you might be interested in the VPN Transparency Report (opens in a new tab). As of this writing, WeVPN has not received any subpoenas, search warrants, or court orders since January 2020.
WeVPN says all the right things, then, but at the moment there's nothing to back them up. The company said it plans to have its systems independently audited by fall 2020, but that's been a long time in the VPN world and hasn't happened yet.
windows app
Getting started with WeVPN was easy, we signed up, paid the fee, installed and running the Windows app in just a few minutes.
The app looks very familiar. On opening, it defaults to your closest server, and you can connect with a single click. Alternatively, clicking the current location opens a list of locations where you can select a recently used server, search for specific countries or cities, or scroll down and click what you need.
It doesn't have all the features one would expect. There's no favorites system, for example (although the recent list makes up for that somewhat), and no latency or server load figures to help you choose.
However, there are some unusual touches elsewhere, like the ability to see your source IP and VPN addresses and copy them to the clipboard with one click.
It's a similar story with app settings. It's not the strongest product we've seen, but it more than covers the basics. You get: automatic connection on launch or when accessing an unsecured network; a kill switch to block unprotected internet access in the event of VPN failure; split tunneling to route selected application traffic out of the tunnel; a selection of OpenVPN, WireGuard and IKEv2 protocols; and an optional WeBlock system to block ads, trackers, and malware. It's an attractive feature set that dwarfs much of the competition.
The app connected quickly in the real world, usually within 4-5 seconds. Even though we switched to OpenVPN, it was up and running in an average of 7-8 seconds – many OpenVPN apps take two to three times as long.
Sometimes, just once in a while, it just didn't work that way. The app would display "connect", "disconnect" and "reconnect" messages until it finally established the connection. It usually only took an extra two or three seconds, but it still left us wondering what was going on.
immobilizer
We test a kill switch using various means to forcefully close the VPN tunnel, then monitor our connection and the app to see what happens.
Ideally, an app will detect the problem, block our Internet connection, display an alert to notify us of the problem, and get us back online as quickly as possible. WeVPN did not fully meet this standard.
When we close an OpenVPN connection by closing the OpenVPN.exe executable, for example, WeVPN has successfully blocked our Internet, thus preserving our privacy. But the app kept saying that we were online, so in the real world we would see that our internet was dead, but we don't know why. We had to hit the sign out button on the app to resume normal access.
Dropped IKEv2 connections behaved differently. The WeVPN kill switch did not work at all and our internet was not blocked. But, this time, the app noticed the problem and reconnected us in seconds, minimizing our exposure.
Trying to remove WireGuard connections is more difficult, but we did notice some weirder issues when we tried to do it. Sometimes the app would not disconnect and sometimes it would get stuck on "Reconnecting" so we had to manually close the app from Task Manager to regain control.
It is important to keep these results in perspective. Our tests are intentionally extreme, simulating situations you may never encounter in real life. Even then, the app scored in a few areas, including successfully blocking dropped OpenVPN connections.
However, the IKEv2 flaw is a concern, especially since we noted the same issue in our review in 2020. And overall, while WeVPN had a couple of hits, it was far worse than most of the major competitors.
mac application
WeVPN's Mac app looks and feels nearly identical to its Windows cousin, and that's fine by us. It looks good and the familiar interface ensures that it's very easy to use: accept the closest location or choose another from the list, and you'll be able to log in and out in a matter of seconds.
There are also many more settings and options than we usually see in Mac apps. You can choose the protocol (WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2); a circuit breaker; WeBlock advertising, malware tracker and blocker; in addition to the option to connect automatically when you start the application or connect to an unsafe or unreliable network.
The only significant difference we noticed is that the Mac app doesn't have split tunneling, but even that issue doesn't seem to last long – the company says this feature will be "coming soon".
android app
WeVPN mobile apps retain the same visual style as the desktop editions, ensuring that once you've tested the app on one platform, you're immediately ready to use it on another.
The Android app supports all the basic desktop features (kill switch, ad blocking, WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols, split tunneling) and adds some useful options you won't find on Windows or Mac.
A "Pause" feature disables the VPN, but automatically restores it 5, 30, or 60 minutes later. This can be useful if you need to turn off the VPN to complete a task, but don't want to risk forgetting to reconnect later.
A "GPS Spoofing" option changes your GPS location to match the current VPN server, making it harder for apps to determine where you really are.
Haptic feedback support vibrates your device when WeVPN connects, letting you know when you're protected without...