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

OkayFreedom Has Decent Speeds

OkayFreedom is fast but it isn’t one of the fastest VPNs I’ve tested — It is acceptable nonetheless. I ran a series of tests across multiple streaming platforms as I would without a VPN and the experience wasn’t all that bad. Switching between servers seemed to be an uphill task and I did get disconnected quite often. Furthermore, I discovered that servers that are distant from my location delivered a slower response time than closer locations. The downloading and uploading speed sits between average and slow if you are downloading large files or torrenting.

Speed Test Results

Interestingly, the performance of each country’s server I plugged into appeared to be somewhat similar but slow in comparison to my normal internet service provider speed. When I kickstarted my test, my base ISP speed ran at a download speed of 39.19 Mbps and an upload speed of 16.19. However, when I connected to the US server, the download speed went down by 67.2% which was way below my expectation. Nevertheless, the upload speed remained nearly similar, only with a 12% difference.

The US server was closest to my regular ISP. In contrast, when I tried connecting to the Australian server which happened to be the farthest from my location, the download speed went down to 3.87 Mbps which was a whopping 90% difference from my base speed. This exemplifies the fact that OkayFreedom mostly favors locations closest to the user.

Server Network — Available in 23 Countries

To be honest, OkayFreedom isn’t the most ideal option in terms of server availability. The business has multiple servers available in 23 countries, although the exact number is not specified.

The majority of its servers are in countries within Europe and the Americas like Great Britain, France, Australia, the US, Canada, Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and Brazil. When I connected to the US server, IPLocation reported my IP in Chicago which was good enough for me.

Impressively, the provider offers strong servers in Asian nations like Japan and India. However, unlike most top VPNs. OkayFreedom has no servers in Africa. On the other hand, one can comfortably use it within Africa to access nearly all the available servers. While carrying out my tests I discovered that the service’s strongest servers lie between Europe and North America.

Once you download the VPN software, your connection would be based on the closest and strongest server by default. From there, you can switch your server to any location of your choice without any limit. Although, I discovered that the connection time from one server to another differed obviously, taking me between 18 to 24 seconds. The table below indicates how long it took me to toggle between servers in multiple locations.

Compared to OkayFreedom VPN, CyberGhost has more to offer in terms of server choices. It has over 11,670 servers in 100 different locations. This means you can easily find a server that’s close to where you are.

Security — Average Encryption Level

Despite not being highly sophisticated, OkayFreedom VPN provides fundamental tools to safeguard your online presence. By utilizing OkayFreedom, you can trust that your sensitive data and online movements will not fall into the hands of hackers or cybercriminals. However, it’s important to acknowledge that although OkayFreedom provides some level of protection, there exist other VPNs that have more robust security features, which may offer a higher level of security.

The security feature offered by OkayFreedom VPN include:

• AES-256-GCM encryption — OkayFreedom flaunts one of the toughest encryption standards by using the reputable AES-256-GCM encryption. This technology is rated as one of the most efficient and safest security mechanisms. More precisely, the GCM algorithm secures data by leveraging separate authentication and CTR mechanisms. Invariably, the performance of GCM is much more effective in comparison to the CBC mechanism that only handles lower-grade systems. However, the platform doesn’t offer a deeper insight on RSA encryption, which is awkward and might suggest that their RSA encryption is frail or entirely unavailable.
• OpenVPN protocol — Unlike other VPN providers I’ve used for longer periods, OkayFreedom only offers a one-way protocol. While this might not be all that poor, there is a lot of room for improvement, especially when compared to other VPN providers. Primarily, OpenVPN efficiently handles the establishment of a secure “tunnel” between a VPN client and the VPN server. This explains why OkayFreedom uses 256-bit OpenSSL encryption. Of course, an OpenVPN protocol isn’t necessarily unsafe; however, OkayFreedom leverages Google’s OpenVPN. I wasn’t too comfortable with this offering as platforms like Google are notorious for spying on their users. Google’s PublicDNS could track user data and target them with ads. While testing this server, I was bugged with ads, however, I couldn’t tell if I was being targeted at that time.
• Kill switch — OkayFreedom possesses a kill switch feature in the form of the “always protected mode” which refrains a user from reconnecting to the internet after a failed connection. Owing to the regular break-in connection I experienced, I had to switch to this beautiful feature it offered to prevent leaking my real-time IP address.
• DNS leak protection — Contrary to my expectations, OkayFreedom offers automatic DNS leak protection for IPv4 and IPv6 browser defaults. Since the platform did not attest to its DNS protection, I had to carry out my test.

Using IPLeak.net, I confirmed that my IP address was concealed by the VPN. The tests were executed on the US, Great Britain, Italy, and Finland servers and the pseudonymous feature every VPN user cherishes was still intact.

However, while this feature is a welcome development, it is worth of note that OkayFreedom does not provide split tunneling features. Essentially, its security features rank as average. Even worse, the free and paid plans of the VPN provider do not block ads which might leave a user vulnerable to third-party analytical tracking. One way to determine if this is the case with OkayFreedom is if you are getting ads that appear in response to your recent product searches; when I tried, the ads didn’t seem to be things I was interested in, but one can’t be too sure.

Privacy — No Logs Policy

Your data isn’t stored when you use OkayFreedom VPN. The VPN provider is owned by the German Company Steganos, a renowned software development firm. In Particular, Steganos does not demand any of your details to use the platform except when paying for the premium plan, which of course is collected by a third-party financial gateway known as Cleverbridge. The platform is also strict about its no-logs policy and has attested that it does not keep tabs on user data as seen below.

However, this attestation can only be taken with a pinch of salt as OkayFreedom has not yet invited independent auditors to verify this claim; especially because Germany is one of the countries under the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliance. If you’re wondering what the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliance means, it represents a coalition of countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and the United States amongst others that obtain and share data from the online activities of their residents.

Logging user data involves keeping track of IP addresses, timestamps, and devices. The major defect in user data logging that I noticed was that the platform stored my URLs, processes, and addresses in a log file on my device. This implies that although the platform might not keep tabs on your activities, the available data on your device can be utilized by anyone that has access to your device. Only a few VPN providers like ExpressVPN have been able to verify its claims of not logging user data.

Torrenting — Yes, On Its Premium Plan

With OkayFreedom, I was able to torrent using BitTorrent clients like uTorrent and Vuze. The platform offers an unlimited data package if you subscribe to its premium plan. If you enjoy peer-to-peer file sharing, you might be able to make do with this VPN provider. However, you might not be able to share or receive P2P files while using the free plan or when connected to servers in Switzerland and Japan.

On the flip side, OkayFreedom has strictly declared in its terms and conditions that it does not support copyright infringement on third-party content. This explicitly forbids users from using the VPN to access third-party content illegally. My team and I don’t condone torrenting with OkayFreedom VPN or using any other VPN provider to illegally access third-party content.

Does OkayFreedom VPN Work in China? No!

The chances of OkayFreedom operating in China are too slim to be feasible. As I could not travel to this location during the period of my test, I had to reach out to customer service and quiz them on this feature. The reply I received indicates that it isn’t likely that this platform would work in China. Although I did suspect that this service won’t be obtainable in China, the possibility of it working in other regulated regions is uncertain as well.

China counteracts VPNs through technological means of obstruction rather than by going after individual users. They leverage advanced technology to sever unauthorized internet connections. The most strategic method to ascertain the possibility of OkayFreedom accessing internet service is to download the VPN before traveling. However, it would be wise to assume that there is no provision for OkayFreedom to function in China, therefore ExpressVPN would serve as a better alternative. However, note that the utilization of a VPN does not confer impunity for unlawful activities. Therefore, it is advisable to exercise prudence when employing a VPN in China.

Editor's Note: Transparency is one of our core values at WizCase, so you should know we are in the same ownership group as ExpressVPN. However, this does not affect our review process, as we adhere to a strict testing methodology.

Customer support on OkayFreedom is only limited to email support and ticket submissions on their website. This unconventional structure isn’t so encouraging as you cannot access support on any other official social media handle or by a 24/7 chat.

When I attempted to contact them via email, I received a response within a day, which was even quicker than expected, taking less than 12 hours. The ticket response was equally prompt when I sought information about their pricing. In addition, anyone can navigate through the platform’s FAQ section to get answers to less intense inquiries.