GoTrusted VPN Review 2024: Before You Buy, Is It Worth It?

GoTrusted VPN is Fast but Not on Every Server

GoTrusted speeds were fast on some servers but not consistent on others. Some servers close to my location were fast enough for streaming and torrenting, but that wasn’t the case with every nearby server. Additionally, connecting to servers in regions far from my home location resulted in even more significant drops in speed.

Speed Test Results

GoTrusted VPN provided me with an average download speed of 8Mbps on the servers that I tested. With a base internet speed of 26Mbps, this accounts for a 70% drop in download speed — which is quite significant. However, not all servers are slow or produce such low speeds. For instance, the server in the US city of Seattle gave me a speed of 15.21Mbps — which is fast enough for HD streaming. Also, the server in Frankfurt, Germany, gave me a speed of 14Mbps. That said, I was disappointed with the speeds I got with the servers in London and Toronto.

The upload speeds weren’t better. On average, I got upload speeds of 0.75Mbps on a 6Mbps connection. This makes GoTrusted VPN uploads speeds unsuitable for activities like gaming that require at least 1Mbps upload speed and latency less than 150ms.

For fast speeds that are consistent on all servers, I wouldn’t recommend GoTrusted VPN. Instead, consider trying other VPNs that provide blazing-fast speeds. For instance, whenever I use ExpressVPN I never get a speed drop of more than 25% even when connected to a distant server.

Server Network — Offers a Handful of Server Locations

GoTrusted VPN has a small network of servers in a handful of countries. The VPN offers 28 server locations in 19 countries across the world.  When you want to connect, you can see that it has servers in the US, UK, Canada, Hong Kong, South Africa, India, Japan, Germany, and France.

To connect to a particular server in, say, Singapore, you have to navigate to ‘Menu’ and then to ‘Settings’ before connecting from the list of servers there. The US has the highest number of server locations in the list with 8 servers, followed by the UK with 2 servers. Other countries have just 1 server each. There’s also an ‘auto’ server location for the US that connects you randomly to the fastest available server in the US.

Connecting to a GoTrusted server takes about 30 seconds on average. If the connection fails on the first attempt, the app tries to connect through Compatibility Mode, adding another 10 seconds. I was also surprised that I had to disconnect from a server to select and connect to another server. The combination of the moderate connection speed and the need to disconnect manually made my server testing a lot slower than usual. Although, when I was done testing all the servers, I noticed that they were stable and reliable.

Security — Provides Military-Grade Security

GoTrusted VPN offers standard security protocols and encryption to keep you protected online. GoTrusted VPN uses SSL encryption, which is quite reassuring. Its networks allow you to connect your PCs and Macs through a combination of AES 256-bit cipher with OpenVPN SSL and its own patented SURE SSL. On iPhones, iPads, and Android phones and tablets, you connect through older protocols like PPTP and L2TP/IPSec. However, these non-SSL protocols are easier to block in countries with strong internet censorship.

In addition to the strong encryption, your data is protected from DNS, WebRTC, and IPv6 leaks. I tested a wide range of servers from the available server network, and there were no leaks at all. GoTrusted VPN also uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) to further protect your information from prying eyes. TLS is designed as a cryptographic protocol that ensures the privacy and data integrity of your communication. That said, a kill switch and an auto-reconnect feature would have been nice to have to protect you if your main internet connection is interrupted. Other modern VPNs also have split-tunneling, ad and tracker blockers, and malware protection — all additional features that bolster user security.

Privacy — Not Ideal for Privacy

I wouldn’t recommend GoTrusted VPN for the privacy-minded VPN user. This VPN collects personal info about its users. Although it claims to notify its users when this data is used, it still collects information like names, email addresses, and payment details. It also “gather[s] data on connection information, including the timing and size of all packets.”

Moreover, it is situated in the US, where the government has a poor reputation for privacy. Based in Stuart, Florida, GoTrusted VPN’s headquarters is a part of the 5-Eyes alliance, which means the government can impose privacy clauses, gag orders, and data retention laws that can open up your data for surveillance.

GoTrusted’s vague privacy policy, location within the US, and the absence of any independent audits make it a poor choice for privacy. I recommend you try another VPN that offers better privacy options. For instance, you can try ExpressVPN that provides a rock-solid no-logs policy and has several independent audits to back it up.

Torrenting —  P2P is Supported

GoTrusted supports P2P traffic and torrenting on its servers. However, despite promising no data caps, the speeds weren’t fast enough for me during my tests. It took almost an hour to download a public domain torrent file less than 700MB.

Regardless of the torrenting speed, I wouldn’t recommend GoTrusted VPN for torrenting because it logs data, which defeats the purpose of anonymity. That said, no matter the VPN you use, note that downloading copyrighted files is illegal in many countries. And my team and I don’t support breaking the laws of any country.

Does GoTrusted VPN Work in China? Probably!

GoTrusted VPN could likely work in China. Since I don’t live in China, I couldn’t personally test the VPN there. I had to reach out to support to find out if it would work in countries with high censorship like China.

After contacting support, I was informed that GoTrusted VPN will work there. However, since it isn’t a government-approved VPN, it may struggle with hardware made in China. Note that non-government-approved VPNs are illegal in China, but there have been no cases of tourists being penalized by the Chinese government. The common practice is that China is fighting VPNs by technologically blocking them instead of chasing after the people who use them.

I was disappointed with GoTrusted VPN’s customer support service due to the non-functional support channels. This VPN lists support channels where you can get help through a US phone number, email, and live chat. While writing this review, I couldn’t get a reply to some of my questions via live chat or email even after 4 days. I also called phone support, but no agent was available to pick my call.

For a service that is over 16 years old, I expected to see an expansive knowledge base that would answer my questions or help with technical issues. But I was also disappointed on that front. There was no FAQ page or troubleshooting guides to follow. Although the provider has been on Twitter since 2014, its online presence seems non-existent. In contrast, whenever I need to have my questions answered, top-rated VPNs like Cyberghost provide live chat support and helpful agents.