Urban VPN is a product of Urban Cyber Security and is based in the US.
It is a free peer-to-peer VPN having servers in 84 locations. It doesn’t have a premium version so you can use all of these servers in its free version.
Its server speed is just about average, but the good thing is, you can access US Netflix with these servers.
Its privacy policy is a bit shady. They do keep logs actually and your web browsing history. So, this puts it in the red zone.
Privacy and logging
If you’re concerned about the idea of your VPN traffic passing through other devices, then you would not be alone – so are we. Urban VPN says it uses OpenVPN, and we confirmed that on the desktop, but its website has no detail on the mobile apps or how they protect your data.
The website does provide a lot of information in other relevant areas, though. In particular, the privacy policy(opens in new tab) has a lengthy list of all the data Urban VPN collects: device IDs, IP addresses, search engine results, web pages visited, ‘clicked stream data’ and more.
Urban VPN says this only applies to the free edition, but the small print is a little vague. For example, it describes one paid feature as ‘No user data to be collected except the information needed to provide the Services’ functionality.’ We’d like to know exactly what information that is, but the company isn’t saying.
Speed – How Fast is Urban VPN?
Speed is a very important factor for any VPN. When VPNs first came on the market, people were mainly interested in a VPN’s capability in establishing a secure and anonymous connection. Nowadays, a streaming speed that is good enough to watch Netflix, for example, is equally important. That’s exactly why we extensively speed test all the VPNs we review. Below we present the speed test results of Urban VPN, with some explanations. After that, we will discuss the speed of Urban VPN during daily use.
Speed without Urban VPN
Speed with a local server
Anti–ISP throttling
This VPN vendor promises to help enforce network neutrality through data encryption. Urban VPN keeps your ISP (internet service provider) from monitoring your online activity.
Without knowing the sites you visit and the services you use, it can’t throttle your bandwidth as it sees fit. If your ISP typically slows down your internet when torrenting (for example), turning Urban VPN on may stabilize your connection.
But what if your ISP throttles VPN traffic? This service offers no protection.
Urban VPN doesn’t support obfuscation, a means of masking VPN traffic to avoid getting spotted. If your ISP can detect your VPN traffic, it may mess with your speed to discourage your VPN usage.
Compatibility
It’s a program that works on multiple operating systems. Urban VPN is compatible with Windows, macOS, iOS (including iPad and iPhone), and Android devices.
The following OSes are compatible with this VPN:
- A computer running Windows 7, 8, or 10
- Minimum requirement: macOS 10.13
- Any version of iOS 12.0 or later
- Requires iOS 12.1 or later on an iPad.
