VPN Reviews

Vortex VPN Review – Fully Optimized For Mobile Devices

By Paul Liu
Monday, June 23rd, 2014

Vortex VPN is privacy product from a New Zealand based company. The service was launched quite recently and it is specially optimized for mobile devices. In this detailed Vortex VPN Review, we will check the features offered by the Vortex VPN service and decide if it is worth its subscription cost.

Server Locations and Site Access

As of this writing, Vortex VPN has VPN gateways in 5 different countries. The company has deployed its VPN servers in United States, Australia, Switzerland, Ireland and Singapore through which it offers privacy and security to customers. By connecting to the company’s servers, you would be able to unblock GEO-IP restricted content that is available only to those people who have an IP address from one of the above 5 countries. More specifically, you would be able to access sites like Netflix, Zattoo, FOX, Hulu, ABC iView, Wilmaa, USA Network, Amazon Prime, TVE, Eurosport, Canale 5, NHL, RTE Player, NBC, Xfinity, DMAX, CWTV, Mio TV, Vevo, 3SAT, CBS, Pandora, ORF 1, MLB, MTV, Vudu, TNT and ZDF regardless of your current geographical location. Not only that, the service also enables you to unlock popular sites such as Skype, Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, Viber and YouTube that are frequently blocked in schools, workplaces and countries like China, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Brazil. Vortex VPN does not restrict users from changing servers so you are free to connect to servers from all 5 countries and access local content from a specific country.

VPN Speed and Bandwidth

Vortex VPN offers high speeds and pay-as-you-go bandwidth plans to customers. When used from a mobile device, the service optimizes web content on the fly allowing you to load your pages twice as fast, reduce data consumption and save money on your data plans. Due to the high speeds available, the service is suited for activities such as streaming of movies and TV shows, downloading, VOIP and multiplayer online gaming.

Privacy Settings

Vortex VPN uses the highly secure OpenVPN protocol to deliver its service. The service encrypts data with 1024-bit SSL encryption and protects your unprotected Wi-Fi sessions (at malls, airports, coffee shops, public parks and libraries) from all kinds of hacking and security attacks. Additionally, the service provides safety from surveillance and snooping activities carried out by ISPs, search engines and organizations.

The company logs certain connection details (such as login time) but it also reserves the right to collect usage habits and IP address to optimize the service and ensure that it is working at all times. However, the company does not hand over customer data to third parties unless it is presented with a valid court order.

Supported Operating Systems

Vortex VPN is available for Windows, Linux, Android and iOS. The company provides an easy to use VPN client for Android but other systems require manual configuration. However, the service is not difficult to configure since the company has published detailed step-by-step setup instructions on its official portal.

Customer Support

Vortex VPN offers support only through support tickets. Although there is no way to get instant answers to connection or speed issues, the support staff makes it a point to respond to such queries on a priority basis.

Pricing Options

Vortex VPN offers 250 MB of free bandwidth to all new customers. Once you are happy with the speed and features on offer, you can purchase additional bandwidth for 1 GB for $1, 5 GB for $3.54, 15 GB for $6.84 and 50 GB for $15. As of now, the company accepts payments only through bitcoins which allows anonymous payments but severely restricts the payment options.

Final Verdict

Vortex VPN is a nifty little privacy service that does what it says. Although the company still does not have gateways in many major markets (UK and Canada), it delivers a fast and extremely secure VPN service. Customers looking for a no-nonsense VPN solution should test drive the service today. For more information, please visit: www.vortexvpn.com.