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

Slower Speeds Across Servers

In testing many servers, I had to contend with inconsistent speeds that were average at best. Servers with the best speeds were located in England and in the United States.

Speed Test Results

To establish a baseline, I tested my home internet speeds without connecting to VPNCity and got a download speed of 73.51Mbps and an upload speed of 17.29Mbps. I then connected to a handful of VPNCity servers to test out its average speeds.

I found that the fastest server was located in London, England. With that server, I saw a 16.9% decrease in download speeds. Surprisingly, my upload speeds were faster. I saw an increase of 46.6%, which was impressive. Notably, this was the only time where my upload speeds increased. Despite some differences, UK servers for VPNCity can still be classified as high-speed servers, which is great news for those located in this region.

The next best servers were in the USA. Downloads were 57% slower, and uploads were 30% slower than my base speeds. But, even with this decrease, these speeds were adequate enough for my online activities.

Hong Kong servers were some of the slowest. Downloads dropped by 70% while uploads dropped by a whopping 86.5%. I did experience delay when it came to loading web pages when I was connected to a Hong Kong server.

Servers with the worst speeds were in Australia, which makes sense as it was the furthest from my true location. I was only clocking 2.70Mbps for downloads, which was 96.4% slower than my base speed. Uploads were poor too, with a 57% decrease. In addition to poor speeds for Australian servers, I had trouble connecting to them and had to try a couple of times before I was successful.

Server Network — Minimum Number of Countries

VPNCity doesn’t have a large server network. While there are 3000+ servers, it only spans 33 countries. The number of servers means that you won’t have to worry about overcrowding. But, due to a smaller list of countries to choose from, you’ll face limitations when streaming content or using other services on the web that aren’t available in each of these regions.

What I appreciated about VPNCity’s server network was how easy it was to use. I found it effortless to select and switch between servers. The network is neatly organized into different server locations, streaming options, and even includes a customizable favorites tab.

Security — Solid Levels of Protection

You can rest assured that your data is secure with VPNCity. It has AES-256-bit encryption, which is the best algorithm for data confidentiality. In addition to this, VPNCity also utilizes RSA-4096 Handshake Encryption, which begins masking your data before you even go online. This “handshake” technique determines whether or not it’s safe for your computer to connect to VPNCity by exchanging an encryption key. This establishes that both parties are safe.

I ran multiple DNS Leak tests to determine how well VPNCity masked my IP address, and each one proved successful.

Along with these features that automatically protect you once you’ve enabled the VPN, you can choose the protocol you use. You have the option of OpenVPN, which is proven to promote safe tunneling between two points on a network. Alternatively, you can use SoftEther, which implements a virtual network adapter program that promotes a flexible VPN connection.

The final feature I find important to mention is the kill switch. If your VPN connection drops unexpectedly, the kill switch will immediately cut your internet connection so your information and online activities aren’t exposed. However, what I’ve learned is this feature is only available for Windows users. If a feature like this is a big selling point for you and you don’t own a Windows computer, you’ll want to look into other VPNs where security features are available across all devices.

Privacy — No Logging Policy

VPNCity doesn’t log any of its users’ data when you are using the VPN. I always like to make sure I understand the privacy policy for a service like this, so I dug deeper into what this means.

VPNCity’s no-logging policy is available on its website, and I was pleasantly surprised by how clear and concise it was. None of the information regarding your use of the VPN, your IP address, your online activities, or data transfers is recorded anywhere. This ensures its users have full privacy when enabling this network.

The only information it keeps is your email address and payment information so you can purchase its products and so that the support team can assist you on the customer service side of things. It is not out of the ordinary for a VPN company to do this, and I feel secure in this process because VPNCity lets you request more information on the data it keeps, as well as requesting changes to or the outright deletion of this data.

Torrenting — Only Ideal for Certain Users

VPNCity supports secure torrenting. Because this service has unlimited P2P connections and OpenVPN as a protocol, you can transfer files quickly and safely. That said, I do have one qualm in regards to VPNCity and torrenting, and it surrounds the issue of the kill switch feature only being available for Windows users.

While VPNCity states that you won’t be exposed while torrenting because “your real IP address remains hidden and is replaced by an IP address of the VPNCity network,” you will be exposed if your VPN connection drops suddenly. Kill switches are an important asset for activities like this, and the fact that this is only available for Windows users is limiting.

If you don’t have a windows computer, a VPN like ExpressVPN that supports torrenting has a solid zero-logs policy, and a kill switch amongst other advanced security features might be a better option.

I think it’s vital to note that if you want to torrent any content, make sure you adhere to your local laws before engaging in P2P file-sharing. Research your area and confirm that the content you’re torrenting is in the public domain.

Does VPNCity Work in China? Only with Specific Proxies.

You can get VPNCity to work in China, but you will need to use a proxy called Shadowsocks to make this happen. While I don’t live in China, I have a colleague who does, and she explained to me how this works. Shadowsocks is a free, open-source proxy that is encrypted and is often used in China to work around Internet censorship. VPNCity also confirms this on its website.

You can create a Shadowsocks account through the VPNCity user portal as soon as you’ve purchased a subscription plan. This will enable you to access your home content while you travel to restricted regions like China.

Note that my team and I don’t condone any illegal behavior and a VPN does not give you the license to engage in illegal activities. Please exercise a basic level of caution when using a VPN in China.

VPNCity offers a 24/7 live chat option for customer support as well as an email you can contact them through at any time. They responded to me within half an hour of me using the chat — the live chat was closed because of the holiday season. I wasn’t surprised that there was a bit of a delay given the circumstances.

Once a representative got back to me, they were cordial and thorough in their responses. VPNCity’s website also has an FAQ archive on the blog. Through this, you can look up specific topics and contribute to the conversation if you have more inquiries or answers to another user’s question. As a resource, I found this FAQ page to be quite extensive. It had a wide variety of topics and posts that helped me troubleshoot common issues.