Windscribe VPN Review 2024: Features, Pricing & More

Windscribe VPN is a virtual private network that secures your identity and reduces tracking when you use the internet. It offers free and paid VPN services available as apps and browser extensions. Windscribe VPN features allow you to spoof your global positioning system, or GPS, to your chosen country so you can access the internet without monitoring or restriction.

Windscribe also blocks ads and explicit content and secures your device from malware and phishing websites. It also has specific features that enable optimal download and upload speeds while shielding you from attacks.

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1

NordVPN

Monthly Pricing (2 Year Plan)

$3.49 per month

# of Devices

6

Encryption

AES-256

1

NordVPN

Learn More

On NordVPN's Website

2

Surfshark

Monthly Pricing (2 Year Plan)

$2.29

# of Devices

Unlimited

Encryption

AES-256

2

Surfshark

Learn More

On Surfshark's Website

3

Private Internet Access

Monthly Pricing (2 Year Plan)

$2.03

# of Devices

Unlimited

Encryption

AES-256

3

Private Internet Access

Learn More

On Private Internet Access' Website

As with other VPN providers, Windscribe offers online privacy and security and grants users access to geo-restricted content. However, Windscribe VPN stands out for features, such as its static IP address and a dedicated kill switch, to control your online impressions and keep you secure while bypassing intense restrictions that other VPNs cannot.

Pros

Windscribe bypasses China’s Great Firewall and other restrictions in Turkey and Saudi Arabia, but ensure you download the VPN before you enter those countries. Windscribe’s free version allows unlimited simultaneous connections and maintains the same speed as the paid plans.

For an additional cost, you can use Windscribe’s static IP address, a feature available in 13 locations. You’ll get the same address on every connection, and since less than 10 users share the address, it reduces the risk of being blocked and security measures (including two-factor authorization and CAPTCHAs) you’d typically encounter when you share an IP address with multiple users.

Cons

Windscribe is a Canadian-based company subject to the terms of the Five Eyes, the Nine Eyes and the Fourteen Eyes alliances, international intelligence-sharing pacts. The company is, thus, required to turn over your data if prompted by the government. Also, for maintenance purposes, Windscribe logs a timestamp of your recent activity and the amount of data transferred within the past 30 days. Other VPNs don’t retain your data, so Windscribe should be able to guarantee such total privacy, too.

Windscribe does not offer live chat support. Users can submit questions to a chatbot that will attempt to answer queries, but if it can’t resolve an issue then users will have to wait for a response from the support team.

Windscribe offers the following features to protect you from third-party interference.

Anonymous Browsing

Windscribe protects your online activities and data from your network administrator and internet service provider (ISP). It also hides your personal information from hackers when using public Wi-Fi or unsecured internet connections. And you won’t need to give Windscribe your email or other private information when setting up the VPN. You can even pay with bitcoin for maximum anonymity.

DNS Protection Measures

Windscribe provides users with R.O.B.E.R.T., a customizable DNS-based tool to block malware, ads, trackers and other internet categories, including fake news and clickbait, crypto news and gambling and porn sites at their root. You can also customize lists of IP addresses and domains you want to block or allow.

Kill Switch

Windscribe has a dedicated kill switch feature, Firewall, which is stronger than the standard kill switch that can leak data packets within the time it detects a connection drop and activates. Windscribe’s Firewall blocks all connections outside of the VPN tunnel. You can activate it manually, keep it ON or set it to Automatic. However, it is not available on Android phones.

Split Tunneling

Windscribe’s split tunneling feature allows you to choose which applications, addresses or devices will connect to the VPN and which will connect directly to your ISP. You can connect to applications, such as banking apps, which may not work with VPNs while streaming your favorite shows—without disconnecting from the VPN.

Windscribe Free

Windscribe VPN offers the best free VPN. It is ad-free and offers unlimited connections and access to servers in 11 countries, including United States and Canada. Upon signing up, you’ll receive 2GB of bandwidth per month. If you sign up with your email address and Windscribe confirms it to be accurate, it bumps you up to 10GB per month. You can increase this bandwidth by participating in Windscribe VPN’s referral program.

Windscribe Pro

Windscribe Pro costs $9 per month, but you’ll save on a yearly subscription. You will pay $69 for an entire year, which is $5.75 per month. This tier provides complete access to Windscribe’s security and privacy features. You can pay with your debit or credit card (Visa and Mastercard), American Express, PayPal, Paymentwall and bitcoin. However, you will need to pay additional fees to access features, such as static IP address.

ScribeForce

To enjoy centralized billing and easier team management, upgrade to Windscribe’s “Teams” plan, which costs $3 per seat per month. You can merge billing and manage multiple accounts from a single control panel, and if one user on the team purchases a static IP address add-on, all users can access it.

Build A Plan

Windscribe also allows you to customize a plan to suit your business activities and budget. For $1 per location for each month, choose only the locations you need.

Windscribe VPN Refund Policy

Windscribe’s refund policy is restrictive compared to other VPNs. You have only three days to request a refund, and you won’t get one if you’ve used beyond 10GB of data. Also, the refund process may take up to 30 days.

Installing Windscribe is straightforward and quick. It took less than two minutes to install Windscribe on an iPhone and a Mac. All you need to do is go to the Windscribe website. Create an account with or without your email address, but using your email address will give you more data bandwidth if you’re choosing Windscribe’s free version.

After choosing a tier, download your device app and browser extension by clicking the “Get Started” button. Double-click the download file for installation; the VPN is available for connection.

Windscribe VPN is easy to use, especially since it allows customization. You can pin Windscribe to your system tray and set it to launch each time you turn on your device, giving you quick access to safe browsing and streaming. A server list shows all countries and server locations, and you can connect to the “Best Location” with one click.

Access server locations easily using the search bar or Windscribe’s “favorite” feature, which allows you to bookmark specific server locations. You can customize the server list according to geography, latency or alphabet. Windscribe VPN’s expanded server list will show you the latency rate in milliseconds or bars. We would have loved to see a load percentage here, though.

Unlike other VPNs, such as Proton, which requires you to log in to its website, you can access support via your Windscribe app.

Windscribe offers servers in more than 69 countries and 112 cities. Windscribe’s free plan users will access 11 servers from the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and others. However, Windscribe doesn’t disclose exactly how many servers it has, since the number is constantly fluctuating. However, some countries have more server locations based on their population and the demand for VPNs. For example, the U.S. has more than 35 server locations, Canada has nine and the United Kingdom has six.

Windscribe VPN uses two major protocols, OpenVPN and the latest WireGuard, which is typically faster than both OpenVPN and IKEv2. Windscribe VPN also blocks out ads and trackers that usually slow down internet speed, so you’ll get good speed using it. We tested Windscribe speed when connected to a Mac and achieved different speed levels using various protocols and connecting to different servers. We got as low as 2.19 Mbps and as high as 206.94 Mbps download speeds. The upload speeds were between 2.22 Mbps and 17.98 Mbps.

To attain the best speed possible with Windscribe VPN, choose locations closer to you since farther connections will typically slow down the internet speed. Connecting to closer locations and using Windscribe’s “Best Location” server offered better speed. You can also set Windscribe VPN’s Auto Pilot to pick the best location for speed maximization.

While testing Windscribe, it was easy to see how secure the VPN is. Windscribe VPN has an advanced kill switch feature for shielding your online activity. It also passed the DNS leak test we ran on it. Windscribe uses industry-standard encryption protocols and adds extra security features, including Firewall and the perfect forward secrecy to protect you from prying eyes.

Strong Encryption Protocols

Windscribe VPN uses the strongest encryption protocols to give you complete internet privacy. From using AES-256 encryption with SHA512 authentication and 4096-bit RSA key to allowing you to generate configuration files for OpenVPN, IKEv2 and WireGuard on a Pro account, your privacy is secured.

No-Logs Policy

Windscribe VPN has a no-logs policy that prevents the company from storing your connection logs, browsing history and IP timestamps so your activities remain untraceable. However, Windscribe VPN monitors your most recent connection and monthly data consumption to identify inactive accounts and uphold free tier limitations. While Windscribe doesn’t have your personal information to share, its membership in the 14 Eyes alliance creates some concern. Plus, there has not been any third-party audit or verification of Windscribe’s privacy policy.

Multifactor Authentication

Hackers constantly interfere with your account. Thankfully, Windscribe’s multifactor authentication adds more security to your online activities. Each time you connect to the VPN, you will need to enter a newly generated code received through your app or SMS for verification. For this feature, download an authenticator app (Authy or Google Authenticator) on your device and enable 2FA on your account.

Our primary concern with Windscribe VPN’s privacy is that Ukrainian officers seized its servers in June 2021. Even worse, the servers were unencrypted, so the government found a key to create fake Windscribe servers. Windscribe promises that it won’t happen again, especially with the recent improvements on its encryption settings.

Also, the Ukrainian officials did not find any identifiable information belonging to Windscribe VPN users. However, this occurrence might be an issue for some users.

Windscribe provides helpful resources, such as setup guides, FAQ answers and a searchable knowledge base. Also, there are Discord and subreddit communities for discussing with other users. Windscribe’s support ticket worked well, even as a free user. The few times we submitted tickets, they told us to expect a longer response, yet it took between three and seven hours to receive responses. The answers were helpful, so its team is sure to be knowledgeable and supportive.

However, Windscribe VPN’s automated chatbot, Garry, is not so useful, with its outdated responses and understanding of only English. Plus, it hardly interpreted questions correctly and kept referring to Windscribe’s knowledge base. While you’ll likely find answers to your questions via Windscribe VPN’s support methods, having a live chat would save you a lot of time. So, we’d like to see Windscribe add a live chat functionality for subscribers.

Windscribe VPN works on iPhones, Android devices, Windows mobile, tablets, TVs (Amazon Fire TV, NVIDIA SHIELD, Kodi), routers and network-attached storage (NAS). You can get the Windscribe VPN app for your Windows, macOS and Linux devices and install Chrome, Firefox, or Opera browser extensions. The VPN also enables simultaneous connections to unlimited devices on all available plans.

Many streaming services work on Windscribe VPN, but not all. For instance, we couldn’t access Netflix U.S. on Windscribe Free. However, we unblocked Netflix libraries from Canada, U.K. and Germany. Also, we accessed Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Disney+, Hulu and BBC iPlayer. We were impressed with such unblocking even when using Windscribe Free.

When testing Windscribe VPN’s streaming capabilities on a laptop and iPhone, the videos took a little longer to load, but the streaming quality never dropped below HD. Also, we enjoyed buffer-free streaming. A trick to get more streaming done was starting a streaming app only after connecting to the VPN or restarting it whenever switching between servers.

Windscribe VPN vs. PIA VPN

Private Internet Access VPN is a better option for individuals or small businesses that want the dedicated IP feature or 24/7 support. It also has over 35,000 servers, whereas Windscribe has less than 1,000. However, Windscribe VPN stands out for allowing unlimited simultaneous connections. It also offers a free version, and monthly access to its paid version is $9, cheaper than PIA VPN’s $11.95. PIA’s yearly rate is cheaper, though.

Windscribe VPN vs. Bitdefender

Windscribe and Bitdefender offer free versions to their users. However, Bitdefender’s basic plan is cheaper and offers a better money-back guarantee to premium subscribers. While you’ll get only three days to test Windscribe’s premium offerings, Bitdefender gives you 30 days to decide if it is a good fit, refunding your subscription fee if you don’t like it. Bitdefender also offers more servers and is available 24/7 to answer your inquiries, unlike Windscribe.

However, Windscribe VPN allows you to connect to all your devices simultaneously, even on its free version.

Windscribe VPN vs. CyberGhost

While Windscribe and CyberGhost offer discounted rates for yearly subscriptions, CyberGhost VPN is cheaper. It also provides a 14-day money-back guarantee for monthly subscribers and 45 days for annual subscribers, whereas Windscribe offers only three days. However, Windscribe offers a free version to its users. Also, it allows unlimited simultaneous connections, whereas CyberGhost allows seven.

CyberGhost also offers more servers than Windscribe—over 10 times more, and it provides 24/7 support, which Windscribe lacks. It also offers its users a dedicated IP add-on. Windscribe allows Pro users to pay an additional fee for a static IP address.

Windscribe VPN has features that make it suitable for most users. For example, its generous free plan makes it a good choice for individuals and businesses on a budget.

Windscribe VPN for Personal Use

Windscribe offers standard and advanced security features to protect your identity and privacy and allow you to access your favorite content, even when it is restricted within your location. However, if you need a large network of servers and live customer support or you’re weary of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, perhaps because you deal with highly sensitive data, you might want to look elsewhere.

Windscribe VPN for Business Use

Windscribe’s advanced online security abilities, alongside its ScribeForce option and Static IP address add-on, make it fit for businesses and remote workers. For example, static IPs offer small businesses and remote workers more reliability when using specific applications, such as teleconferencing or voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) programs.

Windscribe is a decent choice for individuals and businesses, with its robust free version and consistent unblocking abilities even in restrictive countries. However, there are concerns with its privacy and customer support—under the Five Eyes alliance and the Ukraine seizure, lack of 24/7 support and an unreliable chatbot.

Windscribe keeps working to ensure optimum privacy and access to geo-restricted content, without sacrificing speed and quality, even on its 100% free version. So, with a few tweaks, it can be the best VPN on the market. But right now, it needs to be better.