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

Slow and Inconsistent Speed

VPN Gate speeds were poor and inconsistent across all servers tested. Most of the servers provided by volunteers are in Japan or South Korea, which explains the poor performance and connection delays.

It is important to note that VPNs do not have speed – it is about how much the VPN slows down your baseline connection. When you connect to the internet through a VPN server, your data will have to travel a longer distance to reach its destination. Encryption is another factor that slows down the connection.

Speed Test Results

I have tested several VPNs, and this one has some of the slowest speeds. Using volunteers’ relay servers, the provider’s speed isn’t just dependent on server load or distance, but also on the bandwidth of the volunteer. I experienced an average speed drop of 85% when using the VPN.

I utilized the Speedtest.net platform to establish a reference point for the download speed of my test internet connection. I documented a foundational speed of 220.57 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 82.06 Mbps for uploads.

I then connected to a US server, which delivered some of the slowest results with a speed drop of over 98%. While the Thailand and Korea servers performed better, their performance was below the recommended standards, with speed drops of 90% and 93%, respectively.

The decrease in connection speed is significant, and if my internet connection speeds were lower to begin with, it might have rendered the service unusable. You may experience different performance depending on your ISP’s speed, so test your connection.

Server Network — Surprisingly Decent Server List

The VPN Gate infrastructure encompasses over 7,000 public VPN servers spread across prime regions around the world. Because VPN Gate relies on volunteers, the servers are not consistently available because they disappear and go offline when server owners shut down their computers.

Asia has the most servers with countries like Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, Viet Nam, Thailand, and Indonesia. Additionally, it has servers in crucial locations, such as the United States, the UK, Australia, and Russia. An appealing feature of VPN Gate is that its website provides a real-time list of available servers and the VPN protocols each server supports. The windows app also lets you see server load and speed to pick the best server for each location.

Despite VPN Gate’s extensive server network, it suffers from the same issues as most public relay server VPNs. Formerly available locations can suddenly become unavailable due to volunteers coming and going as they please. It’s better to try a reliable VPN like Cyberghost which has more extensive coverage with servers located all over the globe.

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

Security — Basic Security Features

This provider offers an excellent level of encryption for a free product. VPN Gate relies on SoftEther at its core, an extremely secure solution with up to 256-bit AES encryption, RSA 4096-bit key encryption, and SHA-1 hashing.

The protocol supported by VPN Gate’s servers varies from server to server since they are all autonomously operated by volunteers. SSL-VPN (SoftEther VPN), OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, and Microsoft SSTP protocols are supported, but PPTP is not supported. Although some people consider PPTP to be weak, many prefer it because it offers faster streaming, so the absence of PPTP may pose a problem for some.

VPN Gate is missing just about every other feature one might expect from a VPN. It lacks a kill switch, nor does it offer port forwarding for torrents. It also doesn’t mention whether it offers IPv6, DNS, or WebRTC leak protection. Although I ran 10+ tests and did not detect any leaks, you should go ahead to disable WebRTC and IPv6 and use secure third-party DNS servers to stay safe.

Thus, VPN Gate is a convenient way to quickly secure a device you are using in public. You may find it quite useful if you travel a lot and need to ensure that your files have at least some form of encryption.

Privacy — Untrustworthy and Potentially Dangerous

VPN Gate is not the best choice if you are seeking a high level of privacy. It lacks a no-logs policy that prohibits server owners from tracking your IP address, website visits, and downloads. VPN Gate leaves the decision of whether to keep logs up to the owner of the server, which is a big privacy flaw. Server owners can examine your traffic to determine the sites you visit and the files you download.

Likewise, volunteers are free to determine how long they want to keep the information, and you can view the logging policies in each server’s statistics. There is no way to tell who runs the servers, which leaves the network vulnerable to government intrusion.

Also, the service’s Anti-Abuse Policy states explicitly that connection logs from every VPN Gate server are stored to prevent abuse of their system. Information in these connection logs include the IP address and hostname of the destination VPN server, the raw IP address and hostname of the source VPN client computer, the VPN Client software – name, version, and ID (if provided), and any debug information about certain communication errors. The company stated that it will hand over these logs to the appropriate authorities if criminal activity is detected.

VPN Gate’s headquarters are in Japan, which isn’t a member of the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliance, a group of countries that share surveillance data with each other. Server owners, however, can be located anywhere in the world, including within the 5/9/14 eye Alliance countries. VPN Gate says it will provide data to the authorities if they ask for it (and so will its server owners).

The best VPNs have strict no-logs policies — ExpressVPN has had its no-logs policies independently audited and verified multiple times.

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.

Torrenting — Very Slow and Not Secure Enough for Torrenting

Although VPN Gate supports torrenting, server owners have the option to allow P2P traffic on their server or not. Unfortunately, a majority of server owners block P2P traffic. I put over 15 servers to the test and I still couldn’t torrent.

Due to the lack of a no-logs policy, VPN Gate can log your IP address and the server owners can monitor your online traffic, putting your privacy at risk. Also, the product lacks a kill switch, so you are at risk of data leaks and loss without even realizing it.

There are better torrenting VPNs on the market. For instance, ExpressVPN supports P2P traffic on all servers, provides very fast download speeds, works with top torrenting apps, and includes essential features for protecting your privacy.

Does VPN Gate Work in China? Maybe!

Although I’ve read reports that VPN Gate is used in China, none of them seem to be true as there is no obfuscation technology in place. According to the report, you can use SSL-VPN, L2TP/IPsec, OpenVPN, and Microsoft SSTP VPN protocols as well as SSL/TLS encryption to conceal your traffic as normal HTTPS traffic.

Even if you manage to make it past China’s Great Firewall, or other censorship blocks in other countries, VPN Gate lacks adequate security features to guarantee your privacy. There’s also the invasive logging policy, which means that all of your online activity will be monitored and stored, so it’s no better than not even using a VPN.

VPN Gate is not a commercial service, so it’s not surprising that they don’t have contact options like live chat and tickets. However, useful information is available both on the VPN Gate website and in discussion forums where users share their insights on the VPN and the technology it supports.

Several FAQs are available but some answers are very unclear, while others are missing important information. My favorite thing about VPN Gate’s tutorials is that they are easy to follow and include screenshots as well. VPN Gate’s forum is not very helpful as it’s primarily made up of users asking questions that are answered by other users but not by VPN Gate staff or server owners. There were several questions I asked that never received a response, and not all posts and replies were in English.