Virtual Private Networks (VPN’s) have become popular in recent years with many individuals and businesses. These networks offer an alternative to the traditional way of connecting to the internet. VPN’s channel your internet connection through an encrypted tunnel, optimizing your privacy and security when browsing. Yet, not all VPN’s are created equally Check out this strongvpn review below.
In this article, we discuss the company StrongVPN. After giving a brief overview of StrongVPN, we discuss the benefits and drawbacks of their services. Then, we compare their services to those offered by several competitors, noting our final thoughts on whether StrongVPN is worthy of purchase.
A Brief Review of StrongVPN
StrongVPN offers users access to a VPN composed of over 650 servers in 46 cities. This translates to 26 different countries on 5 different continents. Africa and Antarctica are the only two continents where StrongVPN does not have server representation.
Customers have two options when purchasing access to these servers. They can either pay $10 per month or $69.99 for an entire year. The latter option translates to about $5.83 a month.
Both of these plans offer a 30-day money back guarantee.
The VPN that StrongVPN offers does not have any speed limits or data caps. Additionally, StrongVPN has designed applications for just about every operating system, including Android, macOS, and Windows.
When using the StrongVPN application, there is a ‘Best Available Location’ option that allows user to select the optimal server.
StrongVPN does not log your browsing activity. Also, StrongVPN allows for up to 5 simultaneous connections on its network.
The Benefits of StrongVPN
In this section of the StrongVPN review, we discuss the many benefits of StrongVPN’s services.
First, StrongVPN’s servers are dispersed across the planet, though they have a particular concentration of servers in North America and Europe.
Many users from either of these regions would benefit from connecting to StrongVPN’s network because of how secure and protected it is.
StrongVPN has almost 60,000 shared and dedicated IP addresses, allowing users to remain totally anonymous when browsing the internet. This is especially crucial if you are browsing the internet away from your home network, like at a coffee shop or Library. In these settings, your files and information are vulnerable to being taken by hackers, which could wreak havoc on your life.
With StrongVPN, you don’t have to worry about these kinds of consequences. By connecting to StrongVPN’s servers, you have a more direct connection to the internet that bypasses the standard internet provider of whatever public network you’re on.
This service would be especially beneficial for someone that thrives when working in public settings but deals with sensitive information like financial documents. These kinds of users want to ensure that malevolent hackers nearby don’t steal their information. StrongVPN’s software will give these users peace of mind, allowing them to be productive and creative with their work.
Furthermore, StrongVPN’s application is extremely easy to use. Many customers comment that the interface is very intuitive and avoids some of the headaches of inferior VPN’s. Some VPN’s offer poorly designed mobile applications that end up discouraging users from using their phones or tablets in public. This ends up being counterintuitive, as these are the ideal locations to use such devices.
StrongVPN’s mobile application is seamless to use and requires a simple log in and selection of a server.
The Benefits of the Location Feature
What’s great about StrongVPN is that they allow users to select servers based on the best location available. This makes choosing a server much simpler. Many inferior VPN’s offer tons of servers but no way of filtering these servers. Users thus spend hours scrolling through all the options, trying to find the perfect one. This tedious process can be avoided using StrongVPN’s location feature.
This feature would also be ideal for users that are streaming content or playing games, as connecting to a slower server in these instances is highly dissatisfying. When you’re streaming content or playing a game, you want the fastest, smoothest experience possible.
Many gamers enjoy playing games in public settings that offer comfortable seating or the opportunity for an audience to observe their play. E-sports is a flourishing industry that relies on fast connection speeds and reliable networks, especially when gamers are playing in public. In these public settings, gamers are more vulnerable not only due to their internet connection but because they are so occupied by their game. This makes them the perfect target for a hacker.
Gamers who use StrongVPN don’t have to worry about hackers, or anyone viewing their information for that matter.
Furthermore, some gamers play games that are geographically restricted. Many games that are accessed online have these kinds of restrictions. Yet, if gamers go to a certain country, they might not be able to access their game. Or, sometimes past gameplay information will be lost when playing on a new server.
This can be devastating to someone who loves playing games. Imagine going on vacation in another country, for example, and not being able to play your favorite game at night. This could easily ruin your experience.
With StrongVPN, these gamers simply have to connect to a server in a country where the game can be played. This allows them to bypass any geographical restrictions. This bypassing works for most geographically restricted applications, not just games. Many users purchase StrongVPN solely in order to stream a television show that usually isn’t available in their country.
The Drawbacks of StrongVPN
Even though StrongVPN offers many features, they are far from a perfect company. In this section of our StrongVPN review, we discuss some of the company’s drawbacks in depth.
In particular, StrongVPN doesn’t have any servers in Africa and has limited servers in Asia, South America and Australia. This represents a major limitation, as many users like to stream content from these regions by connecting to their servers.
Furthermore, many users claim that while StrongVPN offers a safe, reliable connection, their service doesn’t have enough features to warrant its price. In particular, some customers have lamented the lack of customization that is available within the StrongVPN application.
For example, the ability to choose the best server available could be a frustrating tool that makes your selection process more difficult. This is because what server is best is highly contingent upon many factors, including the user’s intentions when using the server.
It’s not totally clear what StrongVPN’s algorithm for determining the best server available is based on. Regardless, the service could benefit from allowing users to customize this feature based on the user’s own criteria for a best server.
For example, imagine a user that consistently uses a VPN to stream a television show from the United Kingdom. Perhaps this user notices differences in stream quality over time and seeks to maximize their viewing experience. This would lead them to selecting the server that would foster the highest resolution picture as well as the most stable connection.
Alternatively, perhaps a user wants to stream a geographically restricted music concert and only cares about the sound quality. In this case, the picture quality might not be the most important criteria for the best server. Instead, perhaps this user simply wants a server that will provide the quickest access to the concert or subtitles that can be read.
In either of these scenarios, users would benefit from being able to personalize how their VPN selects a server, specifically making its selection a function of how they plan on using the internet. StrongVPN does not allow this level of customization, which might result in a sub-par internet experience for some users trying to access international content.
How does StrongVPN Compare to Similar Products?
Perhaps StrongVPN’s biggest rival is ExpressVPN.
ExpressVPN also offers customers access to a global network of servers. Like StrongVPN, they offer multiple plans with identical features, the only difference being the price.
ExpressVPN offers a monthly plan that costs $12.95 a month. Additionally, they offer a 6-month plan that costs $59.95 as well as a year-long plan that costs $99.95. All of these plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee.
Overall, ExpressVPN offers users access to more servers across more countries when compared to StrongVPN. ExpressVPN operates over 2000 servers in 94 countries while StrongVPN offers 650 servers in 26 countries.
Additionally, ExpressVPN has servers in locations where StrongVPN doesn’t, like all over South America and in certain spots in Asia and Africa. This translates to a more versatile service that will appeal to more users.
Furthermore, ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands. This is a place without data retention laws, meaning that ExpressVPN faces no pressure to log your activity. Thus, ExpressVPN has significant measures to protect the privacy of their users. While StrongVPN guarantees that they also do not log your activity, it’s hard to beat a company that is headquartered in the British Virgin Islands. That’s about as lax as it gets.
Lastly, ExpressVPN offers 24/7 customer service, which makes their service ideal for small businesses. Many startup companies decide to use a VPN for security reasons, but have difficulty getting their network up and running. Being able to access an expert instantly is an attractive feature that makes ExpressVPN more suited for enterprise purposes than StrongVPN.
ExpressVPN is also more ideal for small businesses than StrongVPN because it has more servers. This make the service versatile if the business expands in the future, as a greater number of servers increases the likelihood that users can connect to a fast, appropriate server.
Some servers support businesses initially but soon become compromised as the business grows and adds more users. With more servers to choose from, ExpressVPN minimizes these kinds of compromises when businesses expand.
In this sense, NordVPN might offer the best VPN for businesses. With access to over 4800 servers worldwide, NordVPN offers one of the fastest, most secure VPN’s on the market.
What’s also great about NordVPN is that they offer a 3-year plan that translates to $2.75 a month. In this sense, NordVPN is also one of the most affordable VPN’s on the market.
Our Final Thoughts on this StrongVPN Review
At the end of the day, we think StrongVPN offers many attractive features that will appeal to someone looking for a trustworthy VPN to join.
We think selecting a VPN can be a difficult decision for several reasons.
First, there are many services to choose from, each with slightly different prices and features. This can be overwhelming if you are new to the VPN market.
We hope this review of StrongVPN has been helpful in that regard. Any of the VPN’s we discussed would be ideal, though we think ExpressVPN and NordVPN would be better for small businesses. Additionally, we think NordVPN would be best for users wanting to maximize how many servers they have access to.
One tip for choosing a VPN is to first determine how you plan to use the VPN. Some users forget to do this and end up selecting a VPN that does not offer server representation in a desired country.
Additionally, we think choosing a VPN can be difficult because the industry represents somewhat of a catch-22. What we mean by this is that success in the industry isn’t necessarily a good thing for businesses or users. If a VPN becomes very popular due to more servers and a safer connection, then these servers might get overloaded with traffic. This could slow down connection speeds or even make the network vulnerable to security compromises. This paradoxically leads to decreased popularity and less money to support their existing servers.
In this sense, the industry tends to be self-limiting, preventing any one company from gaining too much power. As a customer, it might be strategic for you to choose a VPN that satisfies your basic requirements for servers, speed, and security but isn’t that well-known. While this entails some risk, it also entails a huge upside if the VPN’s servers don’t experience much traffic over the years.
We think VPN’s will continue to rise in popularity in the future as privacy concerns become more important than ever. Eventually, we think VPN’s will be unnecessary, as hackers, viruses and other dangers of the internet will be defeated once and for all.