Speedify is unusual in that it works very differently from other VPN services when it comes to the company’s free VPN plan.
Signing up will give you access to Speedify’s unique channel binding feature. If your device has multiple internet connections, it can combine and use them all at once to optimize performance and reliability.
Speedify also claims to automatically optimize your connection for Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Facebook Live, and all other major streaming apps and services.
While that sounds great for paid users, the free plan only gives you 2GB of data per month (plus 200MB per day on your mobile network). That won’t get you much streaming unless you cut the quality down, which defeats the purpose of optimizing your video in the first place.
Also, don’t think you can use Speedify to access US Netflix or other streaming platforms. The support site (opens in new tab) makes that clear by saying, “Speedify doesn’t unblock geo-restricted content.” By default, the apps even route Netflix outside of the VPN, so they appear to be coming from your actual location (although you can turn this off if you want).
All this makes Speedify’s free app look more like a simple demo for the paid version than a general VPN that you want to use for various purposes. But it does have some pluses.
For example, 2 GB of data per month is not much, but you do not need to create an account for that. In theory you could set up the service on your laptop, phone, tablet and whatever you want, and each device will get its own 2GB allowance.
Speedify also doesn’t limit you to one or two locations. Free users can choose from 34 countries, including places in North America, Europe, and many we haven’t seen with other free VPNs: India, Japan, South Korea, UAE, and more.
Privacy and logging
Speedify’s free plan doesn’t support the company’s kill switch, meaning your traffic could be exposed if the VPN connection drops. Hotspot Shield’s free product has the same issue, but otherwise it’s a major privacy issue that we don’t see with most other free VPNs.
There is another potential problem here. We noticed that the Windows app would not necessarily display a notification if the VPN fails. If you’re not looking at the Speedify app’s interface, you might think you’re protected, when in fact the VPN hasn’t been available for a while.
Speedify’s core engine does not use well-understood open source VPN protocols such as WireGuard or OpenVPN, opting instead to use its own custom technology. How does it match? We don’t know, because no one outside of Speedify has looked at the code and the company hasn’t verified the security by subjecting itself to an independent audit.
Still, when it comes to information security, the website offers some encouraging information. The service encrypts your data via, for example, AES, the same industrial algorithm used by other top services. The privacy policy (opens in new tab) says there is no logging and that: “Speedify DOES NOT track the websites you visit, the data you exchange, or anything else related to your DNS requests.” That works for us.
Windows and Mac apps
At first glance, Speedify’s Windows and Mac apps look a bit complicated. There’s a Connect button at the top, but no obvious default location or location list, and most of the time the app displays a bunch of status information that you almost certainly don’t need to know.
For example, there is your network interface. A statistics panel that shows you the traffic used and the fastest upload and download speeds per day, week or month. A ‘help’ link for a technical installation task and a ‘News & Events’ section that contains nothing at all about the service. These all have some value, but there’s no need for them to clutter the main app window, and they can easily be tucked away in another tab or panel.
A menu button takes you to a Settings window. This is also guaranteed to intimidate newcomers, at least initially, with tech options like Header Compression, Jumbo MTU, and ‘Request to Disable DoH’. That’s good news for experts, because no other provider comes close to delivering this level of technical customization, but it’s confusing for everyone else.
As we mentioned above, important settings are disabled. For example, the kill switch is a crucial tool that protects your traffic if the VPN drops, but it’s not available in the free app.
We did find a location list in the Settings section, but even that didn’t work as we expected. For example, when we tapped New York, we expected the app to set our default location for later use. But instead it immediately connected. We tapped it again, hoping to disconnect; nothing. Instead we had to close the location list, then the Settings window and finally click on Disconnect from the main screen.
If you just want a VPN that connects you to the closest location, you may not need to worry too much about this. Ignore the clutter on the app screen, tap Connect and Disconnect if necessary and you’re done.
But if usability is more of a priority and you don’t need Speedify’s network customizations and low-level settings, this isn’t the app or carrier for you.
Android and iOS apps
Speedify’s mobile apps share many of the same issues as their desktop cousins: a cluttered interface, overly technical language, and even simple tasks don’t always work as you’d expect.
There is one valuable improvement. While on Windows we had to frequently switch between the main and settings screens to change locations, the mobile apps can display both areas side by side in portrait mode. It’s a simple change, but offers several welcome benefits, such as the ability to connect and disconnect from any server without switching screens.
These are still not ideal apps for the novice user, but experts may think otherwise. Both the Android and iOS apps have unusual technical tweaks that you won’t see with most competitors, and if you need this kind of low-level control (or if you’re using Speedify’s channel binding technology), they may be worth a look. attempt.
Performance
Speed is important, even for a free VPN, so we were interested to see how Speedify fared in this regard.
We ran the app from a UK data center with a 1 Gbps connection, which gave the service plenty of room to show its full capabilities, but the results were relatively disappointing at an average of 93 Mbps. That beats Hide.me’s recent 25 Mbps, and it’s more than enough for browsing and most other tasks, but it’s also way behind the top competitors. Atlas VPN, PrivadoVPN, Proton VPN, and TunnelBear all reached 300Mbps and more in previous tests.
(Note that we didn’t test Speedify’s channel binding feature in this review as it would require much more than the 2GB limit of the free plan. If you think channel binding can help you, download the full trial and see how it performs.)
Speedify is very clear that it does not support unblocking streaming sites. We ran some tests anyway and while the service couldn’t give us access to US Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus or BBC iPlayer, it did work with UK Netflix, suggesting it could unblock other libraries as well.
final verdict
Speedify Free VPN’s disappointing speeds and lack of a kill switch make it hard to recommend, but the VPN’s smart networking technology and long list of 34 countries mean it could work for some.
