SkyVPN Review 2024: Before You Buy, Is It Worth It?

SkyVPN Manages to Maintain Fast Connection Speeds

I was pleasantly surprised to see that SkyVPN delivers fast connection speeds, even on long-distance servers. I tested a variety of locations, including those that are both incredibly far from and close to where I live. The speeds were great in each case and allowed for smooth browsing, as well as streaming in HD without buffering.

Speed Test Results

The connection I tested SkyVPN on has stable base speeds of 15Mbps on both download and upload. In almost every case, the speeds dropped around 20% after I connected to one of SkyVPN’s servers.

I tested servers across a variety of regions when checking SkyVPN’s speeds. I tested the US server that’s quite far from Pakistan, which is where I live. I also tested India, which is quite close. Plus, I tested France, UK, and some other countries’ servers as well. Every SkyVPN server I tested, including the ones specialized for streaming, maintained fast speeds.

The biggest drop I saw was around 37%, which is understandable considering it was on the US server that’s quite far from my location. The browsing experience remained smooth and free from slowdowns in this case as well, though.

Is SkyVPN Fast Enough for Gaming? No!

SkyVPN’s streaming-focused servers are definitely impressive, but I can’t say the same for its gaming servers. The SkyVPN website claims that this VPN is great for gaming, but, in my experience, it simply wasn’t. I tried playing PUBG mobile using its specialized PUBG server, but I experienced far too much packet loss to even play properly.

I also tried playing Call of Duty: Mobile with SkyVPN, but had a similar experience. I experienced too much packet loss that caused an annoying rubber banding effect, and the high ping made shots extremely difficult to hit. So, in spite of the website’s claims, SkyVPN isn’t a good choice for gamers.

Server Network — Somewhat Small but Still Reliable

SkyVPN’s server network is rather small. There are only 23 different locations to choose from, excluding the 5 specialized streaming and gaming servers it has to offer. This makes for a fairly small server network, but at least every server works.

One thing that’s odd about SkyVPN is that its website says it has 3,000+ servers. This doesn’t seem quite right considering there are only 28 available locations in the VPN’s apps. There aren’t any concrete details about this anywhere. It is possible that there are hundreds of servers in any given one of the locations listed above, but the lack of specific server details leaves me to doubt this.

The following table consists of the different SkyVPN locations you can connect to:

Connecting to SkyVPN’s servers is easy no matter what platform you’re using it on. Simply hit the connect button and you’ll be automatically connected to any well-performing server. Also, it’s just as easy to browse through the server menu and manually pick a server you want to connect to.

SkyVPN’s apps also come with a status bar next to each server that’ll show you how reliable your connection will be. One strange thing I’ve noticed, though, is that every single server always shows optimal status, no matter what time I check. This gives me some doubt regarding how accurate this indicator actually is.

If you’re seeking an unmatched variety of server choices tailored to your unique requirements, CyberGhost stands out as the premier option, featuring an impressive array of over 11,780+ servers, thoughtfully dispersed throughout 100+ nations. With CyberGhost, you’ll unlock a world of possibilities, ensuring seamless connectivity and peak performance.

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

Security — Too Vague to Be Trustworthy

SkyVPN claims to use industry-standard AES 256-bit encryption, but I still wouldn’t trust this VPN in terms of security. One key reason for this is the fact that it never mentions what protocols it uses to establish connections. I even contacted SkyVPN customer support to get further information, but they wouldn’t even respond to my question.

One thing that I can say for sure, though, is that SkyVPN doesn’t use the OpenVPN protocol. This is mentioned on a blog on its website. It says that it doesn’t use this because it’s a widely recognized protocol so it can easily be broken by hackers. This confused me, as OpenVPN is an air-tight standard used by many premium VPNs.

Other security features offered by SkyVPN include:

• Kill switch – SkyVPN also comes with a built-in kill switch and IP leak prevention. These features can be toggled on and off from within its apps, but I recommend keeping them on at all times to keep yourself secure. Please be aware that this functionality is limited to the Windows edition of the software.
• Split tunneling – split tunneling is a networking concept that allows you to direct some of your network traffic through a VPN connection while the rest of the traffic flows directly to the Internet. Similar to the kill switch, this feature is exclusively available on the Windows application.

A DNS leak may occur if the VPN app malfunctions or if you connect to a network with incorrect settings, allowing DNS requests to escape the encrypted tunnel and return through the ISP’s servers, compromising your privacy. To prevent such breaches, perform tests immediately after implementing the VPN. In this assessment, I conducted IP and DNS leak tests on various SkyVPN servers.

The picture above shows no sign of a leak. I connected to a UK server using SkyVPN, and everything seems fine. However, I still needed to verify for WebRTC leaks. The examination indicates no possible leaks since the VPN provided the displayed IP address, indicating that everything is secure. No personal information is being exposed.

Overall, I think there are many better options than SkyVPN in terms of security. I would personally recommend you use ExpressVPN if security is a key factor for you. It offers unbreakable encryption and a whole suite of security features to keep you safe and secure online.

Privacy — Stores Too Much Data

SkyVPN simply does not seem reliable in terms of privacy. It claims to have a no-logs policy but stores way too much user data to be trustworthy in this regard. For what it’s worth, though, SkyVPN’s headquarters are based in Hong Kong, so it’s outside the 5, 9, and 14 Eyes Alliance’s jurisdiction.

I took a good look at SkyVPN’s privacy policy and analyzed the data it’s keeping. SkyVPN collects data like aggregate bandwidth usage, temporary usage data, real-time analysis of internet and data traffic, including originating IP and destination IP, cookies, tracking pixels, and related technologies for targeted ads, email address and contact details, information on support requests. Using it on mobile devices feels even riskier as it can collect device make and model, mobile web browser type and version, IP address, Mac address, operating system, location data, Mobile Country Code information, list of applications installed on your device, and “other technical data” from your device.

I simply can’t trust SkyVPN when it comes to privacy due to all the data it keeps. Most trustworthy high-end VPNs don’t store nearly as much identifying information. So, you should definitely avoid this one if privacy is an important factor.

If privacy is of utmost importance to you, ExpressVPN presents itself as an outstanding choice. It refrains from retaining data such as IP addresses, DNS requests, traffic destinations, metadata, locations, browsing histories, and other related details. Consequently, there is no possibility of associating you with an IP address or timestamp. This claim is validated by an independent audit.

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

Torrenting — Supported but Restricted in Some Regions

SkyVPN’s terms of use state that torrenting and P2P activities aren’t allowed on US, UK, CA, and FR servers. I did, however, use other servers to check if it’s a good VPN for torrenting. I was able to download torrents with ease and actually got decent download speeds.

I downloaded a movie available on the public domain to test how good SkyVPN is at torrenting. The speeds weren’t as fast as some other top-tier VPNs, but they were acceptable and showed that some of SkyVPNs servers fully support P2P. I wouldn’t recommend downloading torrents with SkyVPN, though, considering how much identifying information it keeps.

I want to highlight here that my team and I do not condone downloading copyrighted files. You should always check your country’s regulations on torrents before downloading them.

Does SkyVPN Work in China? Unlikely

While I can’t test SkyVPN in China to get a definitive answer myself, it’s unlikely that it can be used to bypass censorship. I contacted SkyVPN customer support to confirm this and they said that it can’t be used in China due to local policy. I also want to mention that it took a full 3 days for customer support to respond to this straightforward question.

Thankfully, there are better VPNs such as ExpressVPN that are tested and proven to work in China without issues. It is, however, illegal to use VPNs that aren’t approved by the Chinese government. There aren’t any cases of tourists being penalized for using VPNs during their stay, though, because authorities usually attempt to block them technologically instead.

SkyVPN’s customer support is one of its weakest aspects. One major issue I have with it is that it actually doesn’t offer live chat of any kind, even though it’s mentioned several times on the SkyVPN website that it does.

There’s also the fact that email support is rarely able to help. I reached out to them multiple times for help with several issues, and not once did I receive a truly helpful response. Also, they simply refused to answer my questions regarding the VPN’s protocols.

The answers I did receive from support were incredibly generic and barely of any help. Plus, it took around 24 hours at the very least for me to even get a response from SkyVPN support.

Finally, SkyVPN has FAQ and Help sections on its website, but these are also very generic. There isn’t any useful troubleshooting information in these sections, so you may just have to figure out the solutions to some issues on your own if you run into them.