Price
While CyberGhost remains one of the most affordable VPN providers, we’re not big fans of its pricing structure. The provider has tweaked its subscription options over the years and now offers three plans in the UK when subscribing via the web. The one-month subscription plan is still available, costing £10.89 per month, but it’s far more expensive than the longer-term options.
In the UK, you’ve got a few choices. A six-month plan costs £37.14, which works out to roughly £6.19 per month. A two-year plan, which includes an additional two months for free, costs £49.92 upfront, which breaks down to around £1.92 per month.
While the two-year plan offers excellent value for long-term use, the high cost of the one-month plan and the lack of flexibility with a mid-range plan is a little frustrating. VPN speeds and reliability can change over time, and committing to a lengthy subscription might not suit everyone. If you subscribe through the mobile or Mac app, you’ll only get the option of a monthly plan, which costs £8.99 on iOS and Android – cheaper than the web’s one-month option, but still pricier than the multi-month plans.
The good thing is that CyberGhost offers a 45-day money-back guarantee on both its six-month and two-year plans, giving you plenty of time to decide if it’s the right fit. There’s also a free seven-day trial available through the app, so you can test it out before committing to anything long-term. If you subscribe to the one-month plan, you only get a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Although CyberGhost is fairly affordable, other providers offer better value, bundling extra security features at no extra cost. For example, NordVPN and Surfshark include antivirus protection and a password manager as part of their standard subscriptions. While CyberGhost does offer a security suite – featuring Intego antivirus software, a privacy guard to block ad tracking on Windows and a software updater to keep your apps current, it’ll cost you £1 per month if you have the two-year plan, and you won’t be able to get it on Mac, iOS or Android.
CyberGhost got rid of its paid-for password manager in late 2022, so you won’t get that perk anymore either. However, you can still opt to purchase a dedicated IP address with your VPN plan. If you subscribe to the two-year plan, it’ll cost an additional £2.25 per month, or £3.50 per month if you choose the six-month plan. A dedicated IP address acts like a reserved parking spot – it’s exclusively yours, which means it’s less likely to be flagged as suspicious by the websites you visit.
Luckily, with the exception of the dedicated IP address, the security suite really isn’t all that worth it. Intego is owned by CyberGhost’s parent company, Kape, a developer with a reputation for creating cheap adware and tacky browser toolbars. Better and free alternatives to the security suite can be easily found elsewhere.
Privacy and features
CyberGhost has all the basic security features you’d expect from a decent VPN, but very little else. It uses AES-256 encryption – the same level of protection trusted by banks and the military – so we knew our data was staying private. It also supports multiple protocols, including WireGuard and OpenVPN, with WireGuard as the default. It’s fast and efficient, and if we hadn’t needed to test the speed of its other protocols, we wouldn’t have any reason to switch protocols.
The automatic kill switch is always on and does its job quietly in the background. If the VPN connection drops, it cuts off your internet traffic instantly so nothing leaks. Split tunnelling is another handy feature, letting you pick which apps or websites bypass the VPN. This is great for banking or accessing local services while still protecting everything else. That said, split tunnelling (or exceptions on PC) is only available on Android or Windows, which feels like a bit of a letdown for Mac and iOS users.
In fact, a lot of it is a letdown for Mac and iOS users. While you still get access to streaming-focused servers, which are labelled by platform (such as optimised for BBC iPlayer and ITV), Windows users get more specialised options, such as gaming-specific servers and peer-to-peer (P2P) specific servers. It’s also easier to locate CyberGhost’s NoSpy servers on Windows than it is on other devices.
Based in Romania and fully owned by CyberGhost, its no-spy servers eliminate third-party involvement and offer faster speeds. If you want to access them on a Mac or mobile device, you’ll need to search for Romania in the server list, then click the arrow to expand and select the NoSpy servers from there. It’s all a bit clunky.
Its streaming-optimised servers are a highlight, and the NoSpy servers are a nice touch for privacy-conscious users, but outside of that, it’s very much a straightforward VPN. Features like ad-blocking and malware protection, which it offers through DNS filtering, are helpful but not as robust as dedicated cybersecurity tools, and if you’re after advanced features like multi-hop, Onion over VPN, or other more premium extras, you won’t find them here. That said, it’s a decent choice for Windows users and anyone looking for a no-nonsense VPN for streaming while abroad.
Logging
When you browse the internet without a VPN, your ISP tracks everything you do – for example, what sites you visit, how long you spend on them, and even the type of device you’re using. A VPN hides this activity from your ISP, but it doesn’t make it disappear entirely. Instead, your VPN provider is the one that can see your online activity, which is why having a no-logs policy is important.
CyberGhost has a zero-logs policy and is based in Romania, a country with no mandatory data retention laws. It publishes transparency reports every three months, detailing (among other things) the failed attempts by law enforcement agencies to compel the VPN to hand over user data.
On top of that, in 2022 and 2024, the company underwent independent audits conducted by Deloitte. These audits verified that CyberGhost adhered to its no-logs policy and doesn’t store identifiable user data. Romania is also not a member of the as-sinister-as-it-sounds 14 Eye Alliance, the international mass surveillance agreement between intelligence agencies around the world. VPNs based in countries outside of the jurisdiction of these intelligence agencies are prized by privacy advocates.
Performance and speed
CyberGhost is a fast VPN, but before we go into detail about speed performance let’s take a look at how its server list is broken down – it’s one of the coolest and most convenient features of the VPN (if you’re a Windows user, that is).
You can categorise servers by the country they’re located in as usual, but the sidebar menu has options to list servers based on how suited they are to certain tasks. You can view a subset of low-latency servers ideal for gaming, VPN servers built for fast torrenting speeds or no-spy servers. All devices get access to CyberGhost’s servers optimised for streaming entertainment, not just Windows.
CyberGhost’s servers are tagged with the specific streaming platforms they work best with, making it easy to find one suited for Prime Video, Netflix, Now TV, Crunchyroll or even Hulu. There’s a server for just about every major streaming service worldwide.
CyberGhost is generally very fast, with only a slight impact on download and upload speeds and reliable connections across most of its available locations. When connected to a VPN server inside the UK, speeds dropped by between five and 10 per cent throughout the day. That’s not enough to be noticeable when streaming or browsing.
When connected to servers on the other side of the Atlantic, in the United States, there was a more noticeable drop in speeds during testing – around 15 per cent – but again there was consistently enough bandwidth to torrent and stream high-quality video.
Android and iOS apps
CyberGhost’s mobile apps are easy to use, but they’re pretty barebones in terms of features. The app has a clean interface that’s not overwhelming, with a big “on” button front and centre, and the server list is one tap away. You can filter servers by country or see which ones are optimised for specific streaming platforms. That part works great, but there’s no sign of the P2P or gaming-specific servers on mobile – that’s a Windows-exclusive feature.
Split tunnelling is only available on Android, which is a shame if you’re on iOS. It’s a really handy feature for letting certain apps bypass the VPN, especially on mobile, where you might want some traffic going through your local IP while streaming or downloading through the VPN. There’s also no sign of the security suite (such as antivirus or privacy guard), which is locked to Windows, so mobile users miss out on that too.
That said, the apps do exactly what they’re supposed to for streaming or basic browsing. If you’re not after anything too fancy, they’re simple, reliable, and get the job done. Just don’t expect all the bells and whistles you might find on the desktop version.
CyberGhost for streaming
Streaming is where CyberGhost shines. If you’re heading abroad and want to catch up on your favourite shows or the football back home, a VPN can help make it happen. While using a VPN to stream geo-restricted content on platforms like Netflix or BBC iPlayer isn’t illegal, it does break their terms of service, so there’s always a small risk they could cut off your access – just something to keep in mind.
CyberGhost makes picking the right server for your streaming service pretty straightforward. It has servers specifically labelled for platforms, including BBC iPlayer, Now TV, ITV, Channel 4, Netflix and more, so you don’t have to guess which one to use. During our tests, it unblocked everything we threw at it, giving us smooth streams, whether we were watching Love Island on ITVX or The Traitors on BBC iPlayer.
If you’ve struggled with other VPNs not working with streaming platforms, CyberGhost’s optimised servers are very handy. They’re fast, reliable, and clearly labelled, so we could easily find the right one for whatever we wanted to watch.
Support
CyberGhost’s support leaves quite a bit of room for improvement. While it offers 24/7 live chat through its website, which is handy, it’s not as quick as some of its competitors. When we got in touch, it took longer to connect to an agent than with other VPNs – around two minutes instead of the near-instant response we’re used to with ExpressVPN or NordVPN.
Once connected, the experience wasn’t great. The agent we spoke to confidently told us that the security suite was free with Windows, but it’s actually a paid extra – even on Windows. While the agents are polite and try their best, this misinformation didn’t inspire much confidence in the support team’s knowledge.
If you’d rather not wait for live chat, CyberGhost does have a detailed knowledge base with plenty of guides and FAQs, which can help with most basic issues. There’s also the option to email the support team, though response times are slower. You also have no access to the live chat function from within the app.
