Turbo VPN Review: A Popular But Opaque VPN Provider
Our Verdict
Turbo VPN has a user base of over 100 million people. It has received over 4 million reviews on the Google Play Store alone.
Turbo VPN is a popular choice, with a generous ad-supported free plan and a fairly priced upgrade path. Is popularity, however, a good indicator of quality? Forbes Advisor investigates in this Turbo VPN review.
Contents
- Turbo VPN At a Glance
- A No-Logs VPN Service?
- Fine Print
- How Turbo VPN Stacks Up
- Compare Turbo VPN With Nord VPN
- Is Turbo VPN for You or Your Business?
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Turbo VPN At a Glance
Turbo VPN offers both a free and a premium service, both of which are geared on getting you connected quickly and without a lot of extraneous information. It’s a conventional VPN service with a paid subscription that allows for five simultaneous connections and a generous free plan.
Although the free service is the main attraction, Turbo VPN’s monthly subscription isn’t prohibitively pricey. After the seven-day free trial, here’s what you’ll have to pay:
- One month: $11.99
- One year: $59.99
Turbo VPN uses AES-128 encryption to encrypt your connection and disguise your IP address for free users; premium users are protected by AES-256 encryption, according to the company. For connections, it uses the OpenVPN protocol, which is widely used in the VPN market and highly regarded as a secure protocol.
Unlimited Free Plan
With an unlimited free subscription, Turbo VPN distinguishes out in the dense VPN industry. Despite the fact that the app encourages users to join up for a seven-day free trial (and eventually a subscription), you can use it for free with no speed or bandwidth restrictions.
Ads that appear frequently while you’re using the app which fund the free plan. Although free users do not have access to the entire server list, Turbo VPN nevertheless offers locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, and India.
A Lot of Servers (But Not a Lot of Locations)
Turbo VPN’s paid plan includes access to over 21,000 servers, but they aren’t evenly distributed. Turbo VPN offers 21 locations across its free and paid plans at the time of writing. Other Turbo VPN reviews mention anywhere between 26 and over 50 locations, thus the precise number may fluctuate.
The number of countries has shrunk much more. Only 11 countries are listed: the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Singapore, India, Russia, Japan, Argentina, and Mexico.
A No-Logs VPN Service?
Turbo VPN promises to have a rigorous no-logs policy on its App Store page. Most VPN services participate in some amount of data collecting, even if that data can’t identify you, so the concept of a “strict no-logs policy” is a bit hazy. Turbo VPN, on the other hand, expands the term even further.
On Turbo VPN’s website, the privacy policy begins with what the service does not gather. Your IP address, connection timestamps, and browsing history are all included. Turbo VPN then discusses what data it does gather, which contradicts the previous statement.
Turbo VPN gathers anonymous information such as “the success of VPN connections, the VPN location you connected to, your nationality, and your internet service provider.” So, while Turbo VPN does not record your IP address, it does record where you came from, where you’re going, and who is enabling that connection.
Although the privacy policy states that “you cannot be identified from this abstracted data,” many other VPN services do not collect this information, at least publicly.
The lack of privacy is exacerbated by the free plan. Turbo VPN does not use your data to target advertisements, but it does enable third-party advertising partners to “set and use their own cookies, pixel tags, and similar technologies,” as well as “collect or have access to data about you.”
We’re not implying malice, but keep in mind that Turbo VPN provides an infinite free service. There are some exceptions to this that go against the purpose of a VPN, and those drawbacks aren’t really addressed by a “strict no-logs policy.”
Fine Print
Turbo VPN discloses very little information about itself, except from its privacy policy and marketing bullet points.
Innovative Connecting Pte. Ltd., its parent firm, is situated in Singapore and administers a number of other free VPN and proxy apps. It, too, only shares a little amount of data.
Lack of transparency does not engender trust. And when it comes to picking a VPN provider, trust is crucial.
Turbo VPN’s name is identical to that of another VPN owned by a Cyprus-based company called Airsharp Ltd, further complicating issues. The popular VPN apps are managed by a Singaporean firm, not a Cyprian firm.
How Turbo VPN Stacks Up
Turbo VPN isn’t bad in a lot of ways, but when you compare it to some of the best VPNs on the market, you can see where it falls short. It costs about $60 per year and $12 per month, which is reasonable to NordVPN and TunnelBear. However, it does not necessarily provide the same features for the same price.
NordVPN comes out as the most powerful service. It comes with an additional simultaneous connection and a dedicated IP address as an add-on. NordVPN also has a lot of social proof on its side. It has a Trustpilot website with 5,560 ratings and a 4.2 out of 5 star rating, whereas Turbo VPN does not. (TurboVPN, situated in Cyprus, does.)
TunnelBear has a limited server network and no dedicated IP option. TunnelBear and Turbo VPN both have a free plan, which gives them an advantage. TunnelBear’s free plan, on the other hand, has a bandwidth cap, whilst Turbo VPN’s free plan is supported by in-app advertisements.
On an annual basis, you’ll pay the same fee for all three services (and across most of the VPN market, for that matter). When the costs are equal, it’s evident that a service like NordVPN gives you more bang for your buck than Turbo VPN.
In addition, NordVPN is probably the most generous comparison to Turbo VPN. Private Internet Access is less expensive and has a more extensive server network. CyberGhost is also less expensive and offers more simultaneous connections. In short, Turbo VPN charges the same as or more than the competition without demonstrating that the cost is justified.
See more: Download Turbo VPN for Windows
Is Turbo VPN for You or Your Business?
The finest VPNs on the market are adaptable, with features for distant employees, small enterprises, and regular internet users. Turbo VPN is intended for personal usage, as seen by its marketing.
The lack of a dedicated IP option is the deal breaker. Businesses require a dedicated IP address to interface with distant workers and configure cloud-based programs, even as a security measure. Turbo VPN lacks this feature, making it only appropriate for personal use, such as unblocking content from foreign countries.
