PandaVPN is a small VPN with a surprisingly extensive server network, covering some 80 countries. Operating from Seychelles since 2018, the VPN provider is an excellent pick for both freelancers and large corporations alike.
However, I noticed that it had servers in China and Russia — and this was a red flag for me. VPN servers in Russia and China can come under the scrutiny of government and authorities, meaning user data is never really private nor protected. Knowing that PandaVPN operates in these countries led me to question if this VPN is really safe to use.
I knew I had to dig a little deeper to find out more about this little-known VPN. So I went through its background, features, and policies to uncover precisely how it worked and how safe it really is.
Features
From downloading to surfing the web and keeping your hardware protected, Panda VPN covers all the bases. It’s got antivirus protection, thousands of virtual servers, kill switch, and supports up to 5 simultaneous connections. Let’s take a closer look at what this product has to offer:
Incredible online and device security suite
Probably the biggest benefit that comes along with Panda VPN is the massive set of security features bundled with the VPN. Since Panda is a security service first and VPN second, it stands to reason that the security features are going to be fantastic (and they are). Panda VPN comes with a free antivirus. This itself is worth the monthly fee, but the list goes on. You’ll get a cloud cleaner, scheduled scans, full system scans, file quarantines, incident reports, live file analysis, and process monitoring all for the same price. What’s more, Panda VPN comes with hardware protection, so your devices will stay solidly secure. In our opinion, this is possibly the most valuable feature of all. But it’s really a tie between device protection and the data recovery kit that also comes with the VPN. Data recovery is an invaluable asset if you are attacked or if your data gets erased for some reason.
No limits, easy on devices
Panda VPN comes with unlimited server switches and unlimited bandwidth. This means you won’t get throttled or have to deal with sluggish connections halfway through the month. Panda VPN is also lightweight, so you won’t even feel it while it’s running.
Servers
Panda VPN isn’t like most VPN services that have physical servers located around the world. Instead, Panda has virtual servers that are based in 18 different countries. Virtual servers offer the benefit of being more flexible and agile, so users will appreciate this technology over dedicated servers.
PandaVPN speed
Speed is a crucial factor to consider when shopping around for a VPN service. However, remember that using a VPN will affect your speeds because of encrypted connections. PandaVPN manages the impact to provide remarkable speeds.
While testing PandaVPN for this review, our initial speed was 69.45Mbps before connecting to the VPN. Then, upon connecting to a nearby server manually, the speed only dropped to 63.78 Mbps, which is impressive. Generally, a closer server produces better speeds than a distant one because of the span your traffic has to travel.
Alternatively, you can use the Smart Location feature to connect to the most optimal server automatically.
Is the speed enough for torrenting and gaming?
These two activities are data-intensive and require sufficient speeds to work. In theory, PandaVPN speed looks excellent but couldn’t handle the games we tested. In addition, it couldn’t load torrent files in a reasonable timeframe.
Privacy and Security
The Good: Panda VPN has a clear zero-logs policy, which means that is doesn’t track your online activity (browsing history) or store any personal identifiable information on you (originating IP address). It uses Hotspot Shield’s VPN protocol (Catapult Hydra), which is much quicker than the VPN protocol (OpenVPN) used by most other VPNs. Finally, Panda Dome VPN uses the top-of-the-line encryption standard AES-256.
The Bad: Panda VPN does not use its own DNS servers and does not feature a kill switch. Because its VPN protocol, Catapult Hydra, isn’t open source, we can’t be sure if it’s equally as secure as OpenVPN.