BeetVPN Review 2022

BeetVPN Review (2022): Slow VPN that Logs Lots of Data

The VPN market is saturated with endless options. In addition to big-name competitors like NordVPN and ExpressVPN, there are many smaller players, such as the relatively obscure BeetVPN, whose unremarkableness is somewhat warranted.

BeetVPN consistently disappointed in our tests as it drastically dropped our connection speeds and logged user information despite claims of being a “no logs” VPN. Its small server network meant we couldn’t unblock international Netflix libraries, either.

On the plus side, BeetVPN is easy to use and supports peer-to-peer file sharing (though the speed decrease ultimately won’t make it a fun user experience). Customer support is reliable and fast, although there’s no “help” section for your troubleshooting needs.

User-friendliness is the only aspect where BeetVPN does well, and even then, there are other providers who do it better. If usability is what you’re looking for in a VPN, we recommend Surfshark or CyberGhost instead.

However, if you want to find out more about BeetVPN, then keep reading for our full BeetVPN review, where we discuss the provider’s speeds, server network, security features, privacy policy, and more.

BeetVPN Short Review

BeetVPN is a relatively unknown VPN that claims to be a “no logs” provider — but it ultimately fails at our speed and security tests.

BeetVPN’s services are located in the United States and the United Kingdom. These countries are part of the Five Eyes international surveillance alliances, which is a privacy risk as BeetVPN may someday be asked to surrender user data by either of these countries.

This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if BeetVPN didn’t keep a record of your sensitive information. Unfortunately, BeetVPN indeed logs a lot of user information and shares that information with third parties when required. This contradicts its claims to be a “no logs” VPN.

On the plus side, BeetVPN has apps for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Android TV, and Amazon Firestick. You can connect up to ten devices simultaneously, too. It also unblocks American Netflix, though we didn’t have much luck with other international versions of Netflix or other streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney Plus, or BBC iPlayer.

Moreover, BeetVPN drastically reduced streaming and download speeds, which detracted from the user experience. This may be because it has a rather small server network across just 32 countries.

You can try BeetVPN free for seven days, after which you’ll have to pay $3.59 a month for a six-month subscription. This is pricey, compared to better options like Surfshark or CyberGhost, which have more affordable long-term plans.

BeetVPN is fairly straightforward to use and has good customer support to help you out in case of any issues. There’s also a 14-day money-back guarantee so you can get a refund if you don’t like the service.

BeetVPN gets an overall score of just 2.7 out of 10 in our tests. Read our full BeetVPN review below for the details.

Specifications BeetVPN

Price

From $3.59 a month

Operating systems

• Windows
• ,
• Mac
• ,
• iOS
• ,
• Android

Simultaneous connections

• 10

Torrents

• Torrenting allowed

Protocols

• OpenVPN

Payment methods

• Other
• ,
• Credit card

Money-back guarantee

• Yes

Works with

• 

Visit BeetVPN

Speed – How Fast is BeetVPN?

VPNs typically lower the speed of your connection, but in the case of BeetVPN, this decrease was drastic. This is why it scores just 1 out of 10 in our evaluation. Here are our main observations:

• BeetVPN reduced speeds by over 80 percent regardless of the server we connected to.
• Speeds were much too slow to conduct routine activities like browsing the web or streaming videos.
• BeetVPN is not suitable for online gaming due to its high ping and slow speeds.

Speed test results BeetVPN

The following table shows our BeetVPN speed test results. Please note that speeds can vary according to various factors like time of day, your location, and more. These numbers should only serve to give you a general idea of what we experienced with BeetVPN.

As you can see, it did not matter which server we chose: the results were similar, and very bad. Our download and upload speeds always went down to nearly unworkable levels, while the ping massively increased.

Speed during daily use

Due to these major slowdowns, we faced lags and interruptions when browsing web pages and streaming videos. Often, web pages did not load at all, and videos got stuck on buffering for several minutes at a time. In short, using the internet with this VPN became nearly impossible.

Speed-wise, BeetVPN is not a reliable choice. For comparison’s sake, Surfshark reduced our connection by only 7% while CyberGhost gave us a 12% slowdown (both using the fastest servers relative to our location).

Safety – How Secure is BeetVPN?

The primary function of a VPN is to protect you online from trackers and other kinds of threats. Below is a summary of BeetVPN’s security and privacy features, which demonstrate why we rated it 3 out of 10 in safety.

• BeetVPN uses the OpenVPN protocol with UDP, TCP, and Stealth connection options.
• This VPN uses industry-standard AES 256-bit data encryption to secure your data.
• Unfortunately, BeetVPN keeps a lot of logs on its users, making it a bad choice for the privacy-conscious user.
• BeetVPN’s Windows and Mac apps have an automatic kill switch to prevent IP leakage

Protocols

BeetVPN uses the secure OpenVPN protocol with options to choose between a UDP, TCP, or Stealth connection. UDP offers the best combination of speed and security but may not work on some networks. TCP works on almost any network but is often slower than UDP. Lastly, Stealth is meant to be used when you’re behind a heavy firewall.

Most VPNs usually offer a choice of protocols. For instance, Surfshark offers OpenVPN, IKEv2, and Wireguard protocols. This is because each VPN protocol serves a different purpose, and different users may need different protocols. As such, BeetVPN once again lags behind the competition since it only offers just the one protocol.

Your data is encrypted using AES-256 bit encryption. This is the industry standard and is used by all top VPN providers, so it’s to be expected that BeetVPN would use this, too.

Logging and privacy

BeetVPN claims to be a “no-logs” VPN. We had an in-depth look at its privacy policy to determine if this is true. Unfortunately, it’s not. BeetVPN doesn’t in fact practice what it claims and keeps extensive logs of user data. This includes:

• Usage data, such as information about when and how long you use the VPN; your browsing activity such as the pages and files you view; searches and other actions you take; and more
• Device data, such as your IP address; device and application identification numbers; location; browser type; operating system and system configuration; and other information about your computer, phone, tablet, or other devices you use to access the VPN
• Location data, such as information about your device’s location that can be either precise or imprecise. You can choose to opt out of this, but then the app might not function as expected.

Moreover, BeetVPN is located in the United States and the United Kingdom, both of which do not have privacy-friendly laws. As members of the 5, 9, and 14 Eyes alliance, these countries may share your information with other coalition countries.

The company also states that it shares your data with third parties when necessary for “legal or business purposes.” It also stores your data for “as long as necessary,” which is a vague timeframe and doesn’t actually inform users about how long their data is stored.

If you’re concerned about your data getting into the wrong hands, visit our list of true no logs VPN providers.

Kill switch

A VPN kill switch automatically disconnects you from the internet if your VPN connection drops. This is an essential security feature that prevents sensitive information like your IP address from “leaking” when your connection is not secure.

The kill switch is enabled by default in the BeetVPN Windows and Mac apps, which is a great feature to have.

What information does BeetVPN need?

To create a BeetVPN account, you need to provide the following information:

• Your name
• Email address
• Credit card information for payments

The site asks for your name during sign-up as part of the payment process. As of writing, there doesn’t seem to be a way to purchase a BeetVPN subscription anonymously.

To safeguard your privacy, it’s always good practice to use a new email address when you buy a VPN or pay using anonymous methods (like cryptocurrency). This is so the VPN account can’t be traced to your real email or your financial information. However, these preventive measures are canceled out when you’re asked to provide your real name anyway.

Usability – How User-Friendly is BeetVPN?

BeetVPN is pretty user-friendly on the surface but doesn’t provide detailed information about its features and options. That’s why we rate it 5 out of 10 in this aspect. Here are some overall takeaways:

• The website is well-designed but lacks detailed information.
• BeetVPN is quick and easy to install.
• The app has a simple user interface but can still be difficult to figure out for the first time.

BeetVPN website and installation process

BeetVPN has a fairly well-designed website, but it lacks detailed information about the service. For instance, there is no “about” page to learn more about the company, which raises red flags. The main call-to-action directs users to immediately start a free seven-day trial of the VPN.

At the top is a menu to other pages like “What is VPN,” “Servers,” and the app download pages. However, there is not much information about the VPN protocols, encryption, or other security and privacy features being offered.

It would be great to see a search option and more specific details about BeetVPN on its website.

To install BeetVPN, you need to first create an account by either signing up for a plan or starting a 7-day free trial. The process is explained step-by-step below.

1. On the BeetVPN pricing page, select a plan and click either “Sign Up” or “Try for Free.”
2. 
3. Enter your email address and payment information.
4. 
5. Once your account is created, you will be directed to download the BeetVPN app for your operating system.
6. 
7. Before you proceed to download the app, scroll down on the confirmation page to see your automatically generated username and password. Save this info because you’ll need it to use the BeetVPN app.
8. 
9. After downloading BeetVPN to your system, open the file and follow the on-screen instructions to install the VPN client on your system.

Appearance and ease of use

We tested BeetVPN on macOS and the main window consists of a “Switch On” button to start a VPN connection and a drop-down at the top left where you can select the server to connect to.

The server list is divided into three groups, namely “Recommended,” “All,” and “Recent.” BeetVPN does not automatically choose the best available server for you as some other VPNs do. You will always need to select a server to connect to.

Before you can start using the app, you will need to enter the username and password you received when you set up your account. For this, click on “Settings” at the bottom of the app’s home screen. Then enter your credentials and click “Update.”

You can also scroll down to control other general settings, such as the kill switch, startup options, and more. Additionally, you can go to the “Advanced” settings tab to choose the protocol options.

When you click the “Switch on” button, the app takes a few moments to establish a secure connection. It displays the data uploaded and downloaded, as well as the duration of the connection. To disconnect, simply click the button again.

On the whole, BeetVPN is pretty straightforward to use, if initially confusing. It wasn’t clear that we needed to enter the username and password before being able to connect. This led to us wasting time as we tried to get the app to work without knowing what was missing.

Pricing and payment methods

BeetVPN is affordable, but there are better, cheaper VPNs. Moreover, there is no long-term subscription plan, as the max subscription is only for six months at a time. Here are BeetVPN’s prices:

• $3.59 per month for 6 months, billed at $21.54
• $3.99 per month for 3 months, billed at $11.97
• $6.99 per month for a monthly subscription

You can connect up to ten devices at a time, and there’s a 7-day free trial, plus a 14-day money-back guarantee, which lets you try out the app before committing to it.

The only way to pay is by using a credit card or Google Pay (in some countries), unlike other VPNs like CyberGhost and Surfshark that also let you pay with cryptocurrencies.

Customer service

We had some trouble using the BeetVPN app because we didn’t know what username and password to enter into the app. We contacted BeetVPN via email and “live chat” and got a response in less than an hour.

The customer support agent was helpful and friendly. Our issue was resolved pretty quickly, so we were satisfied with the experience. However, a point worth noting is that the “live chat” on the BeetVPN website is not really a chat but a contact form that you fill up and submit.

Moreover, there is no “help” section on the BeetVPN website, which makes it difficult to troubleshoot any issues on your own. You’ll always need to contact customer support if you need help with something.

We think it would be handy if BeetVPN added at least an FAQ section on its website to help sort out most of the common issues that users might face when using the service.

Server Network BeetVPN

BeetVPN has servers in 32 countries with mostly just a single location in each. This is extremely limited when compared to most VPN providers that offer thousands of servers across the world. So, we’ve rated it 2 out of 10 in this aspect. Such a limited server network might be the reason for the slow speeds due to excessive network congestion.

• BeetVPN has servers in just 32 countries.
• It’s not explicit about the exact number of servers available.
• There are no extra features like dedicated IP or port-forwarding.

Number of servers and locations

BeetVPN is not explicit about its total number of servers, but it is currently spread across 32 countries as listed below.

• Africa: South Africa
• Asia: Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Turkey
• Europe: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom
• The Americas: Brazil, Canada, and the United States
• Oceania: Australia and New Zealand

Dedicated IP address

BeetVPN does not offer any dedicated IP addresses, nor does it have any extra other features, like port-forwarding. If you’re looking for a good, trustworthy VPN with options to get a dedicated IP address, we recommend NordVPN.

BeetVPN’s Options

BeetVPN is not very feature-rich and doesn’t offer much for the price tag it demands. Although it allows P2P file sharing, the speeds are not good enough for this to be effective. Moreover, it claims to help you access any restricted content but doesn’t live up to this promise.

Here are our main observations:

• BeetVPN unblocks American Netflix but is too slow for streaming.
• It does not work with other regional versions of Netflix or other streaming services such as DisneyPlus, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video.
• BeetVPN supports P2P but the slow speeds are a barrier.

BeetVPN and Netflix

We could unblock American Netflix with BeetVPN, but the slow speeds impacted the streaming experience. Videos took a long time to load and frequently stopped playing. Moreover, the service does not work to unblock Netflix in other regions. We also didn’t have much luck accessing other services like BBC iPlayer, Hulu, or DisneyPlus.

BeetVPN and torrents

BeetVPN allows torrenting, but it is much too slow for the purpose. Moreover, you should be wary of it since it’s based in the United States and the United Kingdom. Your file-sharing activities may be logged and shared with authorities.

Instead, if torrenting is a priority for you, you can opt for some of the best VPNs for torrenting instead, as these are proven to be effective and safe.

Conclusion – Our Experience with BeetVPN

BeetVPN is rather disappointing because it has extremely slow speeds, a small server network, and a lack of features. Moreover, it does not care about user privacy and can share your information with third parties when needed.

The website lacks comprehensive information about the service, and its privacy policy contradicts its claims of keeping no logs.

On the whole, it has a long way to go to compete with other VPNs in several aspects, whether it’s speed, security, privacy, or server network. It offers good customer support, but that’s not much use when the service itself does not deliver what it promises.

You can try it free for seven days, but we would advise against this due to the lack of privacy. Instead, you will be much better off going for a trustworthy VPN like Surfshark that’s both more affordable and more reliable.