TorGuard VPN Review

If you’re someone like me, paranoid, secretive, privacy-loving and a lover of free and liberal internet, this TorGuard VPN review has found you well.

I’m scribbling this TorGuard VPN review because I recently got my hands on it, and after my due diligence, I believe it would be a shame to not let you know of what it is or what’s being offered while so many other VPN reviews get published freely out there.

No, I’m not asking you to buy it right away, instead take this to be purely a TorGuard VPN review, a “transparency article” kind of thing, so you know what it’s capable (or not capable of) and then make your decision in case you feel you need a VPN.

Why I needed TorGuard VPN (And why you might need it too?)

Everyone has their own reasons of downloading or using a VPN, for me there were many, so here are the benefits that having a VPN gets me (and you in case you need it)

a. Change in IP Address:

The most basic change that a VPN makes for us in general is a change in our IP address. We get to choose from a number IP addresses of our choice, changing the IP address makes sure our internet activities can’t be linked back to us in our real-lives or physical location.

So in a nutshell, it increases privacy and anonymity. And that’s never a bad thing, is it?

b. Lets me Unblock Any Website

Netflix wasn’t originally available in my country, even when I borrowed the login credentials from a friend, and that’s when I first used a VPN to gain access to it.

In other words, using TorGuard VPN unblocks blocked websites and content on the web for me because it changes my IP address, which fakes my location on the internet and hence the websites are unblocked.

c. Prevents Hacking Attempts

First, it changes the IP address as has been mentioned already, which makes it impossible for someone to hack into mine or your systems using “IP address”, as it’s one of the most commonly used methods to hack into systems.

Secondly, the free WiFi hotspots at public locations and bus stops aren’t secure and are extremely easy to get into, any 5^th grader with 5minutes on Youtube can wreak havoc on your systems, that’s another aspect TorGuard protects us against. (It’s a general VPN benefit as the connections and traffic are encrypted).

Enough said, so an Anonymous VPN is important, that’s established. Let’s not lose perspective and get you what you came here for.

The above listed points are just “general VPN” benefits, if that’s all Torugard was offering, I wouldn’t have wasted my time with this TorGuard VPN review, some other “exclusive” or “rare” VPN benefits being offered are:

P2P and Torrent Support.
OpenConnect Protocol
Stealth VPN Proxy.

And those are the primary reasons why I believe it’s offering more than most other VPNs and deserves this TorGuard VPN review. Let’s take the features individually and get you a better insight.

1. User Interface

User-interface means how the tool feels when you use it, is it too confusing? Needs too many clicks to reach or use features, or is it more simply built?

In my experience with TorGuard, it’s extremely simple, presents all the important options and buttons right on the primary dashboard, and can be setup in seconds.

In fact, it didn’t even need a mandatory setup, post-installation, I was allowed to simply click on “connect” button to start using the VPN with its default values.

Here’s a glimpse of how it looks:

As is evident, the connect button is well-placed, all the other options such as server list and other settings can be accessed with single-clicks and are available on the same primary dashboard as well.

So there’s no hunting or fishing of options and that’s the reason I’d say it deserves a 5-star rating as far as user-interface goes.

2. Supported Devices and Platforms

The other question that pops up in my brain whenever I’m about to get a new software is if it’ll support my device.

As for TorGuard, I’m using it on my Windows 10, but they seem to support a plethora of other devices, which include:

Windows
Mac
iOS
Linux
Android
DD-WRT (router firmware).
& Tomato. (router firmware).

So support? They’ve got it covered.

3. Offers 57+ Countries and Boasts 3000+ Servers

Another reason why I think this TorGuard VPN review is well-deserved is because of their list of available countries and servers.

With over 3000 functional servers, it’s no doubt how serious and professional they are about customer options. Even when compared to other VPNs in the industry, I don’t see many VPNs having this many of these.

As for countries, they’re offering 57+ countries to choose from, and being honest the highest countries being offered with a VPN I’ve ever seen is 60, so I’d still settle for 57+ for now.

The countries include all the major (and minor) countries out there including USA, UK, Thailand, Germany, China, Japan and what not!

That’s not all, most of the countries offer more than one IPs to choose from, making sure of best speed and no server loads no matter how many people are connected to that country.

4. 7 Connection Protocols for Encrypted and Secure Connections

This is probably one of the strongest suits for the VPN I’d like to mention in this TorGuard VPN review.

It has really done itself over by offering not just the most number of connection protocols, but also some of the most rare, most effective and secure ones.

The offered protocols are:

OpenVPN
OpenConnect
L2TP/IPSec
IKEv2
SSTP
Stunnel
PPTP

a. OpenVPN

This is by far the most secure of all the connection protocols offered. Primarily for its superpower of being able to disguise itself on other ports, for e.g. it can be mounted on port 443 and be passed off as normal SSL traffic.

It uses OpenSSL encryption library and SSL v3 to encrypt its connections which makes it the most secure and trust-worthy connection protocols of all.

Also, it can be tweaked to use the extremely secure AES encryption instead of the default Bowlfish encryption which increases its security even more.

And to top it all, it’s completely open-source and can be inspected by anyone on the globe to verify its authenticity.

b. OpenConnect

This is something that’s almost exclusive to this VPN and hence needs to be mentioned in this TorGuard VPN review.

Openconnect is arguably the fastest protocol in existence. Also, it passes through a second SSH tunnel which makes it undetectable by ISPs and hence you won’t be experiencing any ISP-induced bandwidth throttling on your connection.

Also, it performs extensively well when compared to other VPNs regarding “speed” and is known to max out bandwidth and increase speed as well!

As far as security is concerned, apart from the TLS and DTLS encryption protocols, it also boasts a server-side kill-switch which ensures that the client won’t let any traffic leak unless you’ve a secure VPN connection.

Although it would be the golden-nugget for those who switch a lot of WiFi hotspots or hop between different networks as it’s custom-tailored for that very scenario.

It’s worth mentioning that, it’s one of the most rare connection protocols and less than 5% VPNs in the industry offer it.

c. L2TP/IPSec

My third priority or choice as a connection protocol after OpenVPN and OpenConnect is without doubt L2TP/IPsec.

L2TP basically is “Layer 2 Tunnelling Protocol” but it doesn’t have any encryption of its own. It relies on IPSec for the encryption part of its service which is capable of using 3DES and AES, both renowned for their extreme security.

In addition, it’s extremely secure and encapsulates the data not just once, but twice!

There are two minor-drawbacks which I’d like to mention, first it’s always moved through port 500, so it can’t be disguised as OpenVPN, and can be blocked easily.

Secondly, due to its double data encapsulation, it requires slightly more CPU than OpenVPN although for most of us in 2017 that shouldn’t be a problem.

d. IKEv2

The fourth protocol up for discussion on this TorGuard VPN review is IKEv2. This also is an IPSec-based protocol, and doesn’t have any commendable encryption of its own.

It’s offered from Microsoft and Cisco, so obviously it’s not open-source which is a clear downer, but it offers nearly the same level of encryption and security that L2TP does.

Although, one of its unique superpowers are its ability to jump between connections, similar to Openconnect, it too can directly jump from one WiFi to another or to another network altogether without dropping.

So in other words, it won’t drop the connection even when the WiFi connectivity is lost, which greatly reduces data leaks or malware vulnerabilities inside of your device.

Bottomline, it’s faster than quite a few protocols and is secure.

e. SSTP

It stands for Secure Socket Tunnelling Protocol, and was originally created by Microsoft.

As for encryption, they use the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), so without doubt it’s secure, what actually happens in the background is that a “symmetric key” is created between our devices and the internet/website before any data is even shared.

And only after the tunnel has been secured, is the data allowed to pass through. So as for this TorGuard VPN review, the VPN is being more than generous with its connection protocols isn’t that so?

Although the old curse of the protocol not being “open-source” still haunts it, and might make you slightly sceptical towards it.

f. PPTP

It was released by Microsoft in the 90s! (Wait, what?) Yeah, it’s best friends with your grandpa!

The only time I’d use PPTP is when my hardware is really outdated, or there’s someone pointing a gun to my head.

Why?

Well it has been known to have multiple security vulnerabilities, simple attacks such as Brute-force can break it in hours!

So bottom line, it’s being listed in this TorGuard VPN review only because it “exists” and not because it’s recommended for anything more than simply “Changing your IP address”.

g. Stunnel

Stunnel is another protocol that makes use of the OpenSSL library when it comes to encryption, and this somewhat makes it comparable to OpenVPN.

But it’s still not even remotely as stable as OpenVPN so let’s just keep it at that. Although it’s still better than PPTP so there’s that.

Anyway this TorGuard VPN review shouldn’t become a full guide on connection protocols, so the crux of it all is that TorGuard offers an extensive list of VPN protocols and hence more than enough options for us to choose from.

It is an extra encryption layer, which helps us bypass even the strongest encryptions and firewalls when the VPN isn’t able to connect to a network normally.

The primary purpose of enabling Stunnel is to help mask your traffic as normal internet traffic, in which case the use of a VPN isn’t detected.

h. ShadowSocks

Just like Stunnel, ShadowSocks is an extra anonymity-layer, which masks your traffic so that it can’t be identified as VPN-traffic.

TorGuard provides for in-built Shadowsocks proxies which can be enabled from Settings of the VPN. Just like choosing countries normally, users can specify the countries with Shdowsocks as well.

5. Minimal Speed Loss

Another key aspect with VPNs is that they seem to reduce internet speeds. That’s true for most, but not with VPNs armed with OpenConnect as is the case with TorGuard.

Let me show you my 100% practical download speeds with and without the VPN!

As you can see, it’s nearly 1.2mbps without the VPN, while with it, its reduced only slightly to 800kbps with the VPN so I would say I’m personally not very worried about the speed and am more or less satisfied with it.

6. No Logs Kept

Probably, The most important aspect of this TorGuard VPN review (or any VPN review in general) is its logs policy.

Any VPN which keeps logs, isn’t anonymous at all and can breach your privacy and anonymity if they decide to use that data or cooperate with govt. agencies.

TorGuard, on the other hand has directly stated that it doesn’t keep any logs whatsoever, so there’s nothing to share so in my personal experience that alone is a good enough reason for me to give it a try.

7. P2P and Torrent Support

As mentioned in the earlier sections of this TorGuard VPN review, P2P and Torrent support are some of the exclusive features that the VPN comes bundled up with.

P2P file sharing allows fast and encrypted file sharing with others, while its Torrent support allows you to download torrent files with its specially optimized servers for the task.

In my opinion, the servers perform well enough and deliver what they promise.

8. Unlimited Features

TorGuard really seems to be extremely liberal with its features, so some of the features which are offered without any and all restrictions are:

Bandwidth: Their site says I can use as much bandwidth on the VPN as I want, without having to worry about running out of it. So I actually tested it out, and have already exhausted nearly 34 GB of data, and so far there isn’t the slightest deterioration in its services.
Speed: The speed isn’t supposed to be reduced or throttled ever, and as I just said in this TorGuard VPN review, I’ve already used a lot of bandwidth and the speed still remains the same.
Server-switching: This I’m confident of, they let me change my IP address as many times as I need, there are absolutely no restrictions on it.

9. Socks 5 + SSL Proxy Offered with VPN Plans

Not every VPN offers Socks 5 along with a SSL proxy with its VPN, and generally requires us to purchase it separately. Well TorGuard VPN doesn’t!

They basically are suitable for any and all type of connections and protocols and are highly suitable for “torrenting”. Especially because Socks 5 proxies support UDP resulting in much faster download speeds.

10. Free 10MB Encrypted E-mail

TorGuard really is starting to seem like a complete anonymity solution to me, so another feature that’s being added to this TorGuard VPN review is its 10mb free encrypted E-mail that it provides us with.

The E-mails are more secure, better encrypted, and are provided at @email.tg and it’s probably the only VPN in the industry offering this!

11. Stealth Mode

The last few features have been exclusive to TorGuard, so here’s another one. It offers “stealth proxy”, basically a second layer of protection, which encapsulates the already secure VPN connection through another encryption layer.

This helps it bypass nearly all and any kind of firewalls or blocks, and at the same time provides it “stealth” making it nearly impossible for it to be blocked, or even detected!

The VPN also allows users to connect to the Stealth OpenVPN using Port 4443. In order to use it, a user only has to set the Tunnel type to OpenVPN, and then choose 4443 (SHA256)|Stealth for the “Port/Auth” setting.

12. Advanced Kill-Switch (App Kill)

Every VPN offers a Kill-switch, but as is seen repeatedly throughout this TorGuard VPN review that it always seems to deliver “extra”, and the same is the case with its Kill-switch as well.

The kill-switch alike other kill-switches terminates the internet connection if the VPN connection is lost, but along with that it also lets us choose particular apps (such as games or browsers or anything else) which we can set to be terminated automatically on loss of VPN connection.

13. Connect 8 Devices at the Same Time

I personally have 4 devices which are constantly in use, now it’s not logical to purchase 4 different VPN plans for all the devices and that’s again where TorGuard wins me over.

It lets me connect to as many as 8 devices with the same plan, simultaneously. It’s not only simpler (less user accounts to manage) but also cheaper!

14. DNS Leak Protection

Not exclusive, but it needs to be mentioned here in this TorGuard VPN review because TorGuard too offers complete DNS leak and IPv6 Leaks.

Making sure, only the requests passing through the VPN and with complete encryption go through eliminating any chances of any DNS leaking through the encryption.

Pricing Plans

And finally, I’ll wrap this TorGuard VPN review up by sharing how much it costs to get one of these Fort-Knox like VPNs for yourselves.

Tor Guard review

There are 4 plans:

$9.99/month- Monthly Plan.
$19.99 for 3 months.
$29.99 for 6 months.
$59.99 for 1 year!

Payment Methods

How you purchase a VPN defines how anonymous you will be. Regardless of a VPN’s No Logs Policy, if the company doesn’t know who you are that’s even better isn’t it?

Well Tor Guard accepts payments via the normal methods such as:

PayPal
Visa
Mastercards
American Express
PayGarden
Payment Wall.
And Cryptowall.

Cryptowall is a payment process which can be used to make anonymous payments using Cryptocurrencies.

Another anonymity-boosting factor with TorGuard is its back-end compartmentalization.

It maintains two separate environments for its VPNs/proxies and financial data such as billing details.

In other words, the VPN/proxies do not know which user is linked to a certain billing account.

So, even when paying with fiat modes, only the fact that you’ve made a payment can be deduced.

Which account is yours, the IP addresses, internet activity and everything else remain detached. (And no logs are kept anyway.)

Refunds

TorGuard offers a 7-day refund policy.

Payments are 100% refunded if requested within this 7-day time-frame.

It probably is one of the very few companies which also refund Bitcoin payments.

While BTC-refunds aren’t guaranteed, they’re possible and accepted.

It mostly depends on Bitcoin’s current price.

What’s impressive is, while most companies are looking for ways to skip refunds altogether, TorGuard isn’t.

In case a certain payment type can’t be refunded, it offers “credits” in return of the money.

*Special Offer: Get 50% off Dedicated IP’s for Streaming services using promo code: 1984

Considering how it’s offering some of the most exclusive and rare protocols and features, I’d say it’s pretty pocket-friendly and logical, infact I’d have happily paid couple bucks more if the plans demanded it because other VPNs too are priced around the same range, but with lesser features.

Is TorGuard Related to the “Tor Browser”?

Tor is blindly-trusted on the planet, hence you need to understand that “TorGuard” and the actual “Tor browser” aren’t related to one another in anyway.

The teams, company, policies and the general functionality of the two applications are completely different.

Tor Guard is a separate, independent VPN service. The “Tor” in TorGuard stands for “Torrents” and the Tor network in general. It basically hints towards the anonymity and privacy features.

Addons

TorGuard offers a number of addons which can be purchased to extend the VPN’s functionality.

For starters, it offers Dedicated IPs in case you need them. The IPs are custom-tailored to suit different needs, for e.g. streaming, residential etc. They generally cost around USD $7.99/month however charges may differ.

The dedicated IPs can also be changed in case you’re saturated them or used them to their prime. A switching-fee of $4.00 is applicable.

The VPN also offers a “10bit Premium Network”. It too is priced at USD $7.99 and should (not always) increase a user’s connection speeds. Or you can also purchase DDoS protection, again priced at USD $7.99/month.

Final Verdict:

In my personal opinion, it’s one of the most innovative, feature-rich and “exclusive” (in terms of features) VPN. At the same time, it’s not burning a hole in my pockets and is priced at the same range (or even lower) as other VPNs in the industry.

So I personally am satisfied with its service, but in order to get a verdict of your own, do check it out for yourselves.

Anyway do let me know your verdict on this TorGuard VPN review and its features!