iTop VPN is best known as a free VPN provider, the best free VPN for PC, and it’s actually quite a generous service when compared to some of the competition. However, during this review, we’ll also take a close look at iTop’s subscription plans and the intriguing extra features it has hidden inside.
The free plan provides 700MB per day or 21GB per month-more than Hotspot Shield but less than ProtonVPN’s unlimited free plan.
Paying customers will have access to 1,800+ servers distributed over 100 locations, which is a reasonable number, with lots of specialised streaming and gaming servers and a small number of P2P sites.
Split tunnelling, its Security Reinforce capabilities (more on that later), and tools for preventing malware, advertisements, and trackers are all included as standard.
iTOP VPN PRICE: HOW MUCH DOES IT COST, AND IS THERE A FREE TRIAL?
A single month’s service with an iTop VPN will cost you $11.99. That’s extremely pricey, but it’s not the most costly we’ve seen.
More extended plans are always less expensive. If you sign up for a year, you’ll pay $4.17 each month. Again, while not outrageous for a mid-length subscription, it’s not exactly what we’d call a cheap VPN.
You may pay using PayPal, credit card, or bank transfer, and auto-renewal can be turned off at this point to prevent being billed again at the conclusion of your term. On lengthier plans (not as generous as the regular 30 days), you’ll get a 15-day money-back guarantee, or 7 days if you choose the monthly VPN plan. That reduces the monthly cost down to a fairly affordable $2.31, which is comparable to other cheaper alternatives available.
Is iTOP VPN secure and does it keep logs?
VPN protocols are at the heart of any VPN service, and they govern how your data is sent and encrypted to keep you safe. Most providers employ OpenVPN and WireGuard, both of which are reputable and open source. Among others, iTop appears to deviate from the standard.
Instead of employing a tried-and-true protocol, iTop appears to deliver your data to the VPN server via a proxy connection, encrypting it with its own unique protocol.
iTop claims to be a zero-logging VPN provider, and their privacy policy attempts to back this up.
It claims: ‘We do not track your behaviour while using the Services, including your browsing history, bandwidth use, or length of time connected to VPN servers.’ We do not save your initial IP address or the IP address of the server to which you connect.’
However, due to the free plan’s data restriction, this is not feasible – bandwidth and device ID logs would be required.
DOES iTOP VPN LOG DATA?
iTop does not provide any further information on what the protocol accomplishes or how it was built. Custom protocols aren’t always awful; ExpressVPN’s Light Way and Hotspot Shield’s Catapult Hydra are two well-known examples. Also, when we signed up for the program, iTop asked for our name, city, and ZIP code, which seemed superfluous given that we’d previously given them our email address.
Further down the page, we discover that the company does collect a number of different types of data. This could be to do with the apps and websites accessed by users, but it’s not entirely clear.
HOW SPEEDY IS iTOP VPN?
No one wants to deal with slow Internet speeds, and when it comes to choosing a VPN, exceptional performance is frequently at the top of most people’s shopping lists. We put iTop VPN through its paces on 1Gbps connections in the UK and the US to see what it could actually deliver.
In the UK, we saw average speeds of 180-190Mbps. In the US iTop perked up a bit, delivering speeds of 360-400Mbps. We even saw one test reach 900Mbps, but this wasn’t repeatable. Compared to other services using WireGuard or other next-gen protocols, iTop lags behind.
IS iTOP VPN GOOD FOR STREAMING AND TORRENTING?
Because having a streaming VPN is vital for many customers, we evaluate it extensively.
We were pleasantly delighted when we tried to access BBC iPlayer using iTop, and we were able to do so right away. We encountered the same experience with Disney+’s dedicated servers in New York and Los Angeles.
We couldn’t access Netflix, even when we used the dedicated servers, and Amazon Prime Video was also unavailable.
HOW EFFECTIVE ARE iTOP VPN’S DESKTOP APPS?
Good app design is crucial, and while iTop’s Windows VPN software isn’t bad and has some unique features, the fundamentals have been overlooked.
iTop offers dedicated servers for a lot of different activities. There are options for Netflix, Disney+, PUBG, WhatsApp, Facebook, and a huge amount more. The quick access pane also allows you to connect to a number of preset server selections. We would far prioritize a simple, effective and logical layout and feature set.
HOW EFFECTIVE ARE iTOP VPN’S MOBILE APPS?
On iOS, its app is about as simple as it gets: an on/off button, a drop-down for protocol selection, and a location list. There isn’t even a settings menu.
Android is similar, however, you receive split tunnelling and a list of servers in a different order than iOS and PC. It’s not a significant deal, but if you use it on many devices, it might get unpleasant.
WHAT ADDITIONAL FEATURES DOES iTOP VPN PROVIDE?
There’s a lot of material to go over for the desktop apps here.
To begin, you’ll be given a kill switch. This worked most of the time in our tests, however, it did fail when we intentionally crashed the programme. We also did not receive a warning that this had occurred, thus we may have been unknowingly exposed if it had occurred in real life.
DNS Protection can help to protect your DNS settings from outside modification. You’ll be able to choose from a number of public DNS providers like Google, Verizon, OpenDNS and more. Security Reinforce will scan your PC for non-optimal security settings in other apps. Browser Privacy can automatically clean up your browser.
FINAL VERDICT OF iTOP VPN
iTop is a pretty powerful VPN with tonnes of extra features that advanced users will appreciate, and its free option is worth considering. However, we cannot recommend the service to anyone seeking real online secrecy due to its untested and hidden protocols – and while the applications are strong, they lack the polish and entry-level usability we’ve come to expect from modern VPNs.
