AirVPN is a VPN service established in Italy in 2010. The company doesn't publicly publish its ownership, but it claims to be "operated exclusively by activists, privacy, data protection and security issues aware persons, and law experts." It has servers in over 20 countries, support for a range of different platforms, and support for Wireguard and OpenVPN with obfuscation features.
Our Verdict
AirVPN is very good for torrenting. It allows you to download P2P files and doesn't have a data limit. Its security is acceptable, as it keeps your IP address and DNS queries within its tunnel while you use it. However, its kill switch doesn't work properly, as it allows some unencrypted traffic to leak past the VPN in the event of a system reboot. It also lacks anonymity-preserving registration options, as it requires an email address and password to create an account. That said, you can pay with a variety of cryptocurrencies.
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Doesn't leak your IP address or DNS queries.
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Proper TLS implementation doesn't leave you vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.
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Kill switch leaks unencrypted traffic.
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No registration options that preserve anonymity.
AirVPN has acceptable security. It doesn't leak your IP address or DNS queries while you're connected to it, and it has proper TLS implementation, protecting you from man-in-the-middle attacks. Unfortunately, its kill switch doesn't work as intended, as it leaks some unencrypted traffic upon rebooting your system. This is a concern if you need all your traffic to be encrypted after a system crash.
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Doesn't leak your IP address or DNS queries.
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Proper TLS implementation doesn't leave you vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.
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Kill switch leaks unencrypted traffic.
AirVPN has fast download and upload speeds, so you can download files quickly with enough bandwidth for watching 4k video.
Changelog
Compared To Other VPNs
AirVPN is comparable to other VPNs we've tested in terms of security and functionality, but like most, it fails the kill switch test. That could be an issue if you're concerned with keeping your traffic protected at all times, like after restarting your system. If you're interested in a VPN with a functional kill switch, check out Perfect Privacy.
It has a generally favorable reputation in the community for its transparency, open-source software, and privacy practices. That said, it has a fairly old-school user experience, and users online occasionally have issues with its customer service. It also doesn't have the most server locations to choose from, and you can only have five devices connected simultaneously.
To see which services we recommend, check out our article on the best VPNs.
Test Results
You can pay with PayPal, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Monero, Doge, most major credit cards, Amazon Pay, and more via Stripe, the payment processing service.
The kill switch doesn't work as intended, as network traffic leaks outside the VPN tunnel after a reboot. This can be problematic if you're concerned with keeping your traffic encrypted at all times, like if your system freezes and you have to restart it.
Like most VPN services, AirVPN doesn't implement BGP properly.
This VPN delivers mostly consistent download speed that are fast enough for normal internet use and quick downloads.
Since AirVPN doesn't have servers in Australia, we connected to their New Zealand servers instead.
This VPN has consistent upload speeds suitable for video calls and uploading files fairly quickly.
We've identified an issue where the reference performance degrades over time. We're actively trying to resolve this with our residential IP server provider and will update this review when we do.
This VPN has x86 (64-bit) clients for Fedora, OpenSUSE, Debian, Ubuntu, and ArchLinux, with Arm support for all except ArchLinux. You can also manually configure Wireguard and OpenVPN.
It has apps for iOS, Android, Android TV, Fire OS, and Chrome OS. You can also install it on your router so all your network traffic goes through the VPN.
