Atlas VPN is a succesful VPN supplier which affords a good all-round service for a few of the lowest costs round.
There's help for the speedy WireGuard protocol, as an illustration. You get apps for Home windows, Mac, iOS and Android, a kill swap to guard you if the VPN drops, and the service permits limitless simultaneous connections.A SafeSwap function adjustments your IP handle usually whilst you're linked to the identical server, maximizing your anonymity.
Bonus options embrace advert and malware blocking, whereas knowledge breach monitoring alerts you if any of your private particulars are discovered on the darkish web.Atlas VPN's community is smaller than many, with 700 servers unfold throughout 27 international locations. It's going to be sufficient for a lot of customers, although, and P2P is supported in every single place.
The actually attention-grabbing news here got here in October 2021, when Nord Safety (the corporate behind NordVPN) introduced it had acquired Atlas VPN. That tells you, all by itself, that Atlas is not simply one other identikit VPN supplier: there's some substance here, one thing value shopping for. And though Atlas VPN will proceed as an impartial supplier, it's going to certainly profit in future from Nord Safety's assets and expertise.
Atlas VPN offers you apps for Home windows, Mac, iOS and Android (Picture credit score: Atlas VPN)
Atlas VPN pricing
Atlas VPN's free no-registration-required plan offers you a simple solution to check out the service, although with a few important limits: 400MB per day for knowledge, and three places solely (Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles).
That is not unhealthy, and outperforms the free competitors in some areas. Avira's Phantom VPN limits you to 500MB a month, as an illustration. Avast One's VPN has a beneficiant 5GB every week knowledge allowance, however does not help altering places. ProtonVPN's free providing nonetheless wins out for its limitless knowledge and 12 places.
Choosing a paid plan drops the information and placement limits. Costs begin at a mean $9.99 for monthly billing, and you'll pay by card, PayPal and Google Pay. Improve to an annual account and the value plummets to simply $2.49 a month, whereas the three-year plan is an incredible $1.39 a month (okay, just for the primary time period, and it is $3.99 on renewal, however that also appears to be like like a great deal to us).
Too good to be true? We'll verify that later, however in the event you enroll and are sad, you are protected by a 30-day money-back assure.
Beware, although: plans mechanically renew while you enroll, and there is not any solution to change this or cancel your account from the management panel. You should e mail help and ask for assist.
Atlas VPN underwent an impartial safety audit, however a really restricted one (Picture credit score: Atlas VPN)
Privateness
Atlas VPN has the privateness fundamentals lined with its WireGuard help, AES-256 encryption, kill swap and personal DNS system.
Uncommon extras like rotating IP addresses together with advert and tracker-blocking ought to convey further privateness safety.
Atlas VPN's personal insurance policies aren't as spectacular. Entry its web site for the primary time and its cookie disclaimer solely has an 'Settle for' choice, as an illustration. In case you give the corporate your e mail handle, you are opted in to obtain advertising emails until you particularly say in any other case. And the Blacklight Privacy Inspector discovered the positioning used Google Analytics, Fb and various different monitoring applied sciences.
(Do not take our or Blacklight's phrase for it – even Atlas VPN's anti-tracker expertise determined it was finest to dam three trackers by itself web site.)
Atlas VPN has been via what it calls an impartial safety audit, however that is nearly as restricted as we have seen.
The train solely lined the iOS app, as an illustration. It was a black field assessment, which suggests the auditors examined the performance of the app, however did not see the supply code. And though Atlas VPN quoted a few of the ends in a weblog submit, it hasn't revealed the complete report, so there is not any solution to decide it for ourselves.
Okay, that is higher than nothing, however solely simply, and it could't match the very best of the competitors. TunnelBear has annual audits of its apps, servers and backend infrastructure, as an illustration, and publishes the outcomes for everybody to see.
Logging
Atlas VPN claims to have a 'stable no-logs coverage', saying 'we don't acquire particulars on our customers' actions, DNS queries, or different knowledge that might be linked to our customers.'
The privateness coverage says Atlas VPN's apps acquire some machine knowledge, although. This contains: 'machine sort, mannequin, model title (e.g. Samsung, Apple), OS model, machine ID, language, time zone, coarse location (metropolis scale).'
It additionally mentions utilizing 'attribution analytics to trace set up supply and site visitors supply', and 'promoting IDs to measure efficiency of our campaigns.'
Put all of it collectively and there is nothing to point Atlas VPN logs any of your on-line actions. It does have sufficient knowledge to construct consumer profiles, although, together with particulars on consumer gadgets, after they join and the quantity of information they use. And as Atlas VPN hasn't had its no logging claims audited, there is not any impartial proof to inform us if it is residing as much as its guarantees.
Atlas VPN's Home windows app is fairly fundamental (Picture credit score: Atlas VPN)
Apps
The Home windows app is fundamental, and covers solely the VPN fundamentals: a location listing of cities, a Join/Disconnect button, and a handful of settings. (The latter consists of a 'Begin on launch' choice, an On/Off toggle for the kill swap, and a alternative of WireGuard or IKEv2 protocols.)
The developer hasn't paid a lot consideration to usability. The situation listing covers cities, as an illustration, however they don't seem to be grouped by nation or sorted in any order we might acknowledge. ('Germany, Serbia, USA - New Jersey, Hong Kong, Poland, Japan' is part of the sequence – are you able to see any sample?)
There isn't any Favorites system or Not too long ago Used listing, both, so altering location is all the time going to require some scrolling.
You possibly can run both WireGuard or IKEv2 protocols (Picture credit score: Atlas VPN)
Our connection makes an attempt failed typically with the free Atlas servers, maybe an indication that they are overloaded. However this wasn't a difficulty as soon as we upgraded, and connection occasions have been respectable at a mean 5-6 seconds.
Atlas claims its app has malware and advert blocking. There isn't any signal of this within the app itself, although, and it made no seen distinction to us. We noticed much better outcomes by putting in the free uBlock Origin.
The kill swap works, nevertheless it has some points nonetheless (Picture credit score: Atlas VPN)
Kill swap
Our kill swap exams started with us simulating a dropped VPN. The excellent news is the kill swap instantly blocked our web, guaranteeing we could not use the unprotected connection. The unhealthy news – effectively, the place to start?
The app did not elevate an alert when the VPN failed, as an illustration. It did not attempt to reconnect, both. In a real-world scenario you would possibly simply waste time checking networks, rebooting your machine, and even the router, earlier than you found out why your web was down.
Often we might restore regular operations by hitting the Join button. Typically this failed, although, with the app recommending we turned off the kill swap. What, it even blocked its personal web entry? Actually?
We reluctantly agreed to show the kill swap off, and the app then linked. However after we checked Settings, the kill swap was nonetheless marked as on – it hadn't been disabled, in any case.
Confused? Us too. Total, the kill swap protected us from dropped connections, and that is what issues most. However the app might do much more to maintain customers knowledgeable, and get the VPN up and working once more on the most doable pace.
Atlas VPN's Android app is definitely higher than the Home windows software program in some respects (Picture credit score: Atlas VPN)
Cellular apps
Desktop VPN apps usually beat their cellular VPN cousins for options, however not here. Atlas VPN's Android app outperforms its Home windows providing in a number of areas.
The situation listing works as anticipated, as an illustration, with international locations grouped by continent and sorted alphabetically.
There is a separate listing of Streaming Servers, apparently optimized to scale back buffering, one thing not included on the desktop construct.
Settings are primarily the identical as Home windows, together with a kill swap and help for WireGuard and IKEv2 protocols.
An Assistant web page hosts a tracker blocking function and the Knowledge Breach Monitor, more choices that we could not discover on Home windows. We ran a fast verify of those, and located they supplied some worth. Turning on tracker blocking protected us from some trackers, and getting into an e mail into the Knowledge Breach Monitor listed a few of the breaches the place our credentials have been uncovered.
Atlas VPN's iOS app additionally improves on the Home windows consumer with its sensibly sorted location listing, tracker blocking and Knowledge Breach Monitor choices. It is a bit quick on options, although, with no WireGuard help or kill swap.
Atlas VPN is not nice for buyer help, notably with itsonline content material which could be very restricted in scope (Picture credit score: Atlas VPN)
Help
Atlas VPN's help web site is a bit restricted, and that is placing it politely. There are only a few articles, most do not cowl the subjects you want, and plenty of of what is left solely have a number of strains of content material.
The Troubleshooting part is a superb instance. We hoped to see some sound normal recommendation on set up issues, points with app options or obtain speeds. As an alternative, we discovered solely 4 articles on very particular points, corresponding to 'Easy methods to repair error 13801 on Home windows?' and 'What if my PC doesn't help Atlas VPN 64-bit?'
(And in the event you're anticipating any depth with the assistance offered, put together for disappointment. That is your entire and unedited reply to that final query: 'No want to fret in case your Home windows machine doesn't help Atlas VPN 64-bit: you'll be able to obtain the 32-bit model here.')
Atlas VPN has no dwell chat help, however you'll be able to contact the corporate by way of e mail. We despatched a message with a few easy product questions. Does the Home windows app have tracker blocking? And which, if any of the apps block malicious web sites or adverts, as none of them point out it wherever?
A reply arrived simply over two hours later, not unhealthy for a response time.
The message learn: 'The talked about options are at the moment being examined, subsequently they aren't out there on all platforms. They need to be rolled out to different OS'es quickly, nevertheless, we're unable to offer an actual ETA as it might be deceptive.'
As Atlas VPN could not inform us which apps help malicious web site or advert blocking, we'll assume the function is not out there but. That may have modified by the point you learn this, but when it is a precedence for you, ask the corporate earlier than you enroll.
Atlas VPN hadn't all the time impressed us thus far, nevertheless it received off to an ideal unblocking begin by getting us into BBC iPlayer.
Accessing US Amazon was tougher than ordinary, because it {asked} us to finish a CAPTCHA first. IP fame service IPQualityScore revealed that our Atlas server IP handle had a fraud ranking of 100, with current abuse reported. That is not something on to do with Atlas VPN, nevertheless it suggests the free plan and low costs would possibly make the corporate particularly interesting to hackers. That makes for more blacklisted IPs, and will imply more CAPTCHAS and different safety hassles for you.
As soon as we would accessed US Amazon Prime, although, Atlas allowed us to stream content material straight away. We moved on to Disney Plus and have been capable of entry that website, too.
US Netflix is the jewel within the unblocking crown, although, and it was out of Atlas VPN's attain. We weren't capable of view content material from any of Atlas VPN's US servers.
Atlas VPN did fairly effectively in our pace testing (Picture credit score: Speedtest.internet)
Efficiency
We measure VPN efficiency by working a number of benchmarking companies – SpeedTest's web site and command line app, SpeedOf.me, nPerf – from each a UK knowledge middle and a US residential location. We run every benchmark 5 occasions utilizing WireGuard and OpenVPN (the place out there), run them a second time a number of hours later (that is a minimal of 120 exams), then analyze the information to see what is going on on.
Atlas VPN does not help OpenVPN, however its IKEv2 speeds have been affordable at a mid-range 260-320Mpps within the US, 170-210Mbps within the UK.
Switching to WireGuard made a giant distinction, although, with speeds leaping to 590-600Mbps within the UK, and 650-800Mbps within the US. That is not fairly a efficiency chief – NordVPN peaked at 880Mbps, IPVanish at 900Mbps – nevertheless it beat names like Windscribe (430-480Mbps), StrongVPN (450Mbps) and Surfshark (450-475Mbps).
Atlas VPN assessment: Ultimate verdict
Atlas VPN could not have the very best community, or apps, or help website – for these, you'd must go for a more established provider like ExpressVPN. However now it is owned by Nord Safety, we would count on to see some enhancements. And even proper now, Atlas VPN's speeds are good, it unblocks more websites than many, and the three-year plan is as low cost as you may see wherever.
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