12VPN Review 2024: Before You Buy, Is It Worth It?

12VPN Is Fast With Nearby Servers

Generally, 12VPN provided me with speeds that varied depending on the distance from my location. With servers close to my location, the speed remained consistently fast. However, connecting to distant servers resulted in a significant drop in speed.

Speed Test Results

I was impressed with the fast speeds I got with 12VPN servers close to me. Prior to connecting with 12VPN servers, I conducted a speed test on my internet connection to set up a reference point. My download rate was measured at 46 Mbps, upload at 6.54 Mbps, and ping latency of only 47 ms.

Surprisingly, when I connected to 12VPN’s servers in the US, I got an impressive download speed of 43Mbps — a mere 6.5% drop in speed. Similarly, the UK server gave me a speed of around 40Mbps. However, servers farther from my location saw a significant drop in speed. For instance, the server in Tokyo, Japan, had a download speed of 6.55Mbps — an 85% drop in speed.

Moreso, my upload speed and latency also experienced significant drops with 12VPN. For instance, I had a base upload speed of 6.54Mbps at 47ms ping. Unfortunately, my upload speed decreased to an average of 1.5Mbps, with a ping increase of 268ms. In comparison, ExpressVPN provides consistently fast connections and low pings.

Server Network — 90+ Server Locations Available

12VPN boasts of having over 90 servers spread across more than 40 countries. Although the client only allows access to 47 servers, you can expand your options by including 5 additional ones from a reserved list comprising up to 45 servers. What sets this VPN provider apart is its comprehensive coverage in hard-to-reach locations such as China, Hungary, Russia, Turkey, and Hong Kong – areas that are often underserved by other competitors in the market.

Although the servers provided by this service are distributed worldwide, there seems to be inadequate representation in regions such as South America, Africa, and the Middle East. As a result, if you reside in any of these areas, your internet speed may suffer due to a lack of nearby servers.

12VPX is limited in terms of torrenting capabilities as it only allows P2P traffic on one server located in Stockholm, Sweden. Conversely, leading VPN providers like CyberGhost offer a wider selection of servers and provide superior support for torrenting by allowing P2P traffic across all their available servers.

It seems that 12VPN doesn’t own all its servers. When I reached out to support to find out if the VPN owns the servers, I was informed that they won’t provide that information as it is confidential. This kind of response is common with VPNs with smaller servers and those who make use of third-party servers. Using VPNs that don’t own the servers comes with some risks. This includes the possibility of the servers being confiscated by governments which could expose your data. Moreover, some data centers may install trackers on the servers that could log and leak users’ data.

Security — Multiple Security Options

12VPN offers an extensive range of security options that work exceptionally well. With its ability to change your IP address, there is no possibility for someone to track your online activities, ensuring complete confidentiality and zero chances of any personal information being leaked.

The following security features are available:

• Military-grade security – to ensure maximum security for data encryption, 12VPN employs the highly secure military-grade AES 256-bit encryption method across all its protocols except for the WEB protocol which uses AES-128-bit encryption. This ensures that your data and communications are kept away from the prying eyes of hackers or government surveillance.
• Multi-protocols – there are different protocols to choose from depending on the operating system you’re using. These include well-known options such as OpenWEB, Shadowsocks, WireGuard, V2RayA, OpenVPN, SSTP, and IPSec alongside lesser-known choices like VLess, XTLS, and gRPC.
• Kill switch – the kill switch feature immediately terminates a device’s internet connection in the event of a VPN connection failure or disruption, thereby preventing unencrypted traffic from being transmitted outside of the VPN tunnel. It’s important to note that 12VPN’s kill switch only supports the OpenVPN protocol and is turned off by default.
• SmartDNS service – this technology allows you to access geo-restricted sites or services without the use of a tunneling application. On the other hand, it does not offer the same level of security as a VPN and it will keep your IP address on file until your subscription ends.
• NAT firewall – a NAT firewall hides the IP addresses of any of your devices on a private network. This way, the IP address of each device is protected online.

I was pleased to discover that 12VPN successfully kept my IP address hidden during my tests. There were no DNS, webRTC, and IP leaks when connected to its servers.

Privacy — Unclear Privacy Policy

12VPN in its privacy policy claims not to log or share users’ information and that the service is designed to operate with minimal information. However, the VPN fails to specify what kind of information it refrains from collecting. According to the VPN, users can opt to share logs within the app for troubleshooting purposes. However, upon reviewing the settings tab in the app, I discovered that this feature was pre-selected by default. Also, it is worth noting that this option entails gathering IP addresses.

Note that 12VPN will log your current IP address once you activate the SmartDNS service. It will stay in the 12VPN database until you either activate a different VPN connection with a different IP address or cancel your subscription.

Anuson Limited, based in Hong Kong, registered the 12VPN trademark in 2009. At the moment, Anuson Limited’s sole responsibility for 12VPN is to process payments. Wanwire B.F, the company that now owns the VPN, has its headquarters in the Netherlands, putting it within the jurisdiction of the 9 Eyes countries. This alliance requires VPN service providers to provide the government with data. In addition, 12VPN has never been subjected to any independent audits. Therefore, there is no way to confirm that its no-logs policy is true.

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Torrenting — Support P2P File Sharing

While 12VPN didn’t support torrenting in the past, it has now added a torrenting server in Sweden. Although this is a step forward, it is crucial to note that the high demand can cause delays in downloading from a single torrenting server. Additionally, 12VPN reserves the right to terminate your account without reimbursement if they discover any copyrighted files being downloaded using their service.

Moreover, this provider retains certain logs and operates within a country associated with the Nine Eyes Alliance. For this reason, if you need a VPN service that allows P2P or legal file-sharing, you should look elsewhere.

My favorite VPN, whenever I need to download a public domain file, is Cyberghost. You can use CyberGhost to download torrents safely. It has specialized servers for P2P and provides fast speeds on any connection. That said, keep in mind that my team does not support illegal file sharing. While torrenting isn’t illegal in many countries, make sure to check the laws in your country before using a VPN for P2P.

Editors' Note: CyberGhost VPN and this site are in the same ownership group.

Does 12VPN Work in China? Yes!

I was pleased to find out that 12VPN works in China. Since I don’t reside in China, I was unable to personally test the service there, but I did receive confirmation from 12VPN’s support that it does. The representative claims that the company’s website offers an updated server list with a list of servers that are currently operational in China. As an added bonus, you can find an alternate URL that makes access and download much simpler if you’re already within China.

12VPN makes use of technologies optimized for bypassing the great firewall of China. When traveling to China, you can use the service with Wireguard, OpenVPN, OpenConnect, Shadowscale, and SoftEther. Note that using a non-government-approved VPN is illegal in China. However, there have been no cases of tourists being penalized by the Chinese government. The common practice is that China is fighting VPNs by technologically blocking them, not chasing after people who use them.

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Technical assistance is available through 12VPN’s live chat and email. In my test, I was unable to initiate a live chat because the appropriate button was nowhere to be found. 12VPN claims that the support bubble is only visible after logging in and that some ad blockers prevent users from seeing it altogether. Even after I signed in and turned off my ad blocker, I still had no luck. When I emailed 12VPN’s support team, however, I received a response in a very impressively short amount of time.

That said, I was impressed to find detailed step-by-step guides for the installation of its apps. The VPN also has FAQ pages that answer basic questions about the service. However, the content on the FAQ is pretty thin and doesn’t address some questions adequately.

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