CitizenVPN is a Danish company that was founded in 2010 and has been around for a long time. Nevertheless, one can speak of high quality. Citizen VPN offers three IP options UK, USA and Denmark. There is also a good choice of protocols, as you can choose between PPTP, SSL and Open VPN. For IPs, however, you can only choose shared static IPs.
Citizen VPN runs on operating systems such as Windows 7 and Vista. It also runs on OpenBSD and FreeBSD operating systems; Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X and Unix. The fact that you get a wide range of options seems very good, but that’s not all.
You will also get some nice options if you try some other tools with this VPN on the go. You can use devices like iPhones, iPods, iPads, Boxee, routers, DDWRT routers and androids. In fact, you can choose Citizen VPN for a variety of portable devices.
Citizen VPN offers you an affordable price of $11 per month. That may not be a buck, but it’s still not that bad, and it could be much, much worse. Whether you want a cheaper or more expensive VPN service out there, you probably won’t get the quality that Citizen VPN offers.
Speed and Performance
In terms of convenience and reliability, we can’t fault this app. Whether you’re accessing the service from your laptop or phone, you can expect a quick start – and the same goes for the VPN connection. You can connect and disconnect from a server in less than five seconds.
We also know some basic information, such as your new IP address, the location of the server and the time of your last VPN connection. In addition, the app connects to the last server location of your choice as soon as you open it, thanks to the Auto Connect feature.
| Durations/Methods | Price |
|---|---|
|
12 Months |
$99 |
|
6 Months |
$58 |
|
1 Month |
$11 |
|
Free Trial |
Yes |
|
Refund Period Days |
180 Days |
|
Payment Method |
PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, Discover |
User Experience
CitizenVPN takes a hands-on approach to how things work, but offers help in some cases. Windows users can download an installer that includes a key file, allowing for simplified configuration with the OpenVPN client. Beyond that, the functionality is considered basic, with a “menu” available from the minimised application and not much else.
Other platforms follow a similar pattern, and Tunnelblick can also be installed on Mac devices. mobile configurations run with OpenVPN – for Ubuntu users, unfortunately, only PPTP is possible.
As for customer support, CitizenVPN can be contacted by phone or email. A live chat would be nice, but this is not yet a reality.
Privacy and Encryption
To fully protect your online privacy, CitizenVPN relies on super-strong industry-standard AES-256 encryption and OpenVPN and PPTP connection protocols. It also employs additional protection in the form of NAT firewalls. All of these protections are strong enough to hide your identity during various online activities such as torrenting/P2P file sharing, which the provider fully supports.
CitizenVPN’s privacy policy describes its (in)logging practices, with VPN servers logging connection information to troubleshoot problems and optimise the service. It adds that “if logs typically contain the IP address or hardware address of a customer’s computer (sic), these logs are automatically and continuously (sic) ‘anonymised’ (the IP or hardware address is anonymised immediately).”
We were also told that “IP address logging only happens when an account is purchased, but this is only used to prove that the account was purchased by the person using your IP address (i.e. it could be more than one person in a household or business), not if or when you actually used it (we keep it to avoid fraud).”
These statements sound good to us, but it would be nice to have confirmation from an independent source.
Customer Support
The company offers customer support by phone, live chat and email. Phone support is only available during European business hours, so email is recommended for a quicker response to support requests. The company also publishes excellent troubleshooting information on its official portal, so you should be able to fix the most common VPN errors yourself.
Summary
CitizenVPN will appeal to those who want a high level of privacy and flexibility to use P2P applications without revealing their IP address. While they only offer a limited selection of sites, the coverage is enough to ensure you can mask your identity and unlock great content. These packages are more expensive than other options on the market, but if you don’t stream or download content often, you can save money by opting for a paid package.
