MEGA VPN is a VPN service offered by MEGA, a New Zealand-based cloud services company. Founded in 2013 by Kim Dotcom, it's now owned by Hong Kong-based holding company Cloud Tech Services Limited. It has servers in 14 countries, supports up to five devices simultaneously, and is offered as a standalone product or as part of a plan bundled with other cloud services.
Our Verdict
MEGA VPN is 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 or a software crash. It also lacks anonymity-preserving registration and payment options, requiring an email address and password to create an account.
-
Doesn't leak your IP address or DNS queries.
-
Proper TLS implementation doesn't leave you vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.
-
Kill switch leaks unencrypted traffic.
-
No registration or payment options that preserve anonymity.
MEGA VPN 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 and after a software crash. This is a concern if you need all your traffic to be encrypted after a system crash.
-
Doesn't leak your IP address or DNS queries.
-
Proper TLS implementation doesn't leave you vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.
-
Kill switch leaks unencrypted traffic.
MEGA VPN has good download and upload speeds that are suitable for regular internet use like video streaming and general browsing. However, it sometimes experiences latency spikes, potentially disrupting video calls or gameplay.
Changelog
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
MEGA VPN is available as a standalone service or bundled with one of MEGA's Pro plans.
Compared To Other VPNs
MEGA VPN delivers broadly comparable performance to most VPNs we've tested but has some significant shortcomings that make it compare less favorably. Firstly, it's pretty barebones—it lacks many commonplace features like obfuscation, which hides the fact that you're connecting with a VPN and is useful for getting around censorship and services that block VPNs. It also doesn't support OpenVPN, which can be a downside if the protocol's configurability is important to you.
Perhaps more worryingly, MEGA's terms of service and privacy policy both state that they retain your IP address, port information, and other unencrypted metadata about your account and devices. This is an issue if you're concerned about data collection, and other options like Mullvad or IVPN have a better reputation for their privacy policies and digital rights advocacy. Keep in mind, however, that it's impossible to verify privacy claims, no matter the VPN provider. Check out our article about VPN privacy for more details.
To see which services we recommend, check out our article on the best VPNs.
Test Results
This VPN only supports credit card payments.
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, this VPN doesn't implement BGP properly on all its servers.
MEGA VPN delivers consistent speeds suitable for normal browsing and relatively quick downloads.
This VPN has consistent upload speeds suitable for video calls and uploading files quickly.
This VPN has okay latency but sometimes experiences spikes that could be disruptive to video calls or online games.
While there aren't any Linux applications, you can manually configure a Wireguard connection.
Mobile apps are available on iOS and Android.
