Also, since governments have started surveillance on users and user search histories, it has become difficult to browse some content while ample intruders are lurking around stealing your data the first chance they get. Turns out VPN or Virtual Private Network is the answer. VPN helps get access to the content restricted or banned in your country as well as protect you from any kind of surveillance from any XYZ party. Turns out there are a tonne of VPNs available in the market and iTop VPN is among the newest players. Here’s an honest and unbiased review on iTop VPN that you should read before deciding to try it or not.
What is VPN?
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network which creates a protected network connection when the user is using public networks. It essentially disguises a user’s IP address (which is unique to each user) and encrypted internet traffic which makes tracking the user’s online activities difficult to steal or track. This prevents intruders from stealing user data as well.
How does VPN work?
VPN or Virtual Private Network disguises a user’s IP address by running through a specially configured remote server that the VPN host runs in some other part of the world. A user located in India can access a remote server in the U.S. and the IP address will reflect the latter when searched. When using VPN, no parties including ISP can keep track of the websites you visit and the traffic being as everything is encrypted. The only thing ISPs and other parties will be able to contemplate from the recovered data is “gibberish” which is useful.
iTop VPN Review
After extensively testing it out, here’s everything I found out about the iTop VPN.
Setup Process
Undoubtedly, setting up an iTop VPN is a piece of cake. You have to download the app/software on your device and once you have it, log in without any credentials for the free version. Tap on “All Servers” from the navigation pane on the left, select the server you want to connect to, and hit “Connect”. If you just want to use a VPN irrespective of any country, the homepage has a giant “Connect” button that connects you to the fastest server available. Hit the “Connect” button again to disconnect.
The UI
The user interface (UI) of the iTop VPN is pretty refined. I have tried a few VPNs and there’s no reason that you wouldn’t like the UI of this app to be honest. All the features and options are listed just a few clicks away so you don’t necessarily need an experience with other VPNs here. The auto mode selects the most stable server and location and the protocol needed. You can still change the server, server location, and the protocol from TCP to UHP to HTTPS and vice versa. The homepage gives you access to the smart selector and on the left side, you have a navigation panel should you need to view all servers or servers made especially for gaming, social networking, or streaming. The Quick Access tab gives you a tonne of features to tinker with including Secret Garden, Hide Location, Browse Securely & Privately. On the other hand, the Privacy Protection gives off a hoard of options from Kill Switch to Ads Block, Split Tunneling, Security Reinforce, and so on. All these options are simply a toggle away. No matter how new you are in the VPN sphere, you will find iTop VPN to be easy to set up and use. Check out the next sections of the review on speed, data and bandwidth, and other functionalities.
Speed
iTop VPN isn’t the brightest of the VPNs out there when it comes to speeds. Although it offers a 10x faster connection on the premium plan, I noticed a dip in the internet speeds when connecting to any VPN server from iTop VPN. Even the most stable VPN server as mentioned by iTop didn’t do much to change that. But again, this depends on the internet connection you have, the server location you choose, and the ping you are getting as any increase in ping can cause buffering in streaming content as well as games. Even if you connect to the fastest server as recommended by iTop, things don’t change much. The idea is to select a server that is not far from your location and has all the content you want since that is one of the reasons why you downloaded iTop in the first place.
Protocols and Encryption
iTop VPN secures data using three protocols i.e. TCP, UDP, and HTTPS. You can choose which protocol to choose or let the program choose automatically. Each protocol comes with its speeds and accessibility. Talking about encryption, the app uses Salsa20 (chacha20) 256-bit encryption which is pretty strong.
Privacy Protection
iTop VPN is strapped with a tonne of privacy features. This includes an Ads blocker that prevents ads, malware, and any malware from infecting your system. Another feature is the kill switch which works by killing off internet traffic if a VPN drops unexpectedly. This is a major privacy feature once the VPN drops, intruders can track your online activities. Moving on, there’s browser privacy with iTop VPN that clears all the browsing data that could be tied to you. A DNS protection feature prevents your DNS configuration from being altered. Another feature is the split tunneling which works on iTop VPN on a per-app basis making it difficult for anyone to track your internet traffic. Surprisingly, iTop VPN offers a lot on the table which makes it a lucrative choice. It has a section called “Quick Access” which gives you shortcuts to streaming, gaming, and social networking platforms launching it in just a click. One of the most crucial features of the iTop VPN is the no-logs policy. It doesn’t store any activities whatsoever. This means under no circumstances any data can be intercepted as there are no logs of activities whatsoever.
iTop VPN Server Network
iTop VPN Server Network is 1800+ servers strong. This means you have quite a lot of servers to connect to. This includes servers ranging from streaming, gaming, and social networks and the range from TCP to HTTPS and other protocols is available on iTop as well. There are over 100 server locations and some of the servers
Data and bandwidth
The free version of the program allows for a max of 700MB data usage per day. Apart from that, there’s limited bandwidth available with the free version. However, as soon as you subscribe to the premium plans (any), you get unlimited data and bandwidth. To highlight it, there’s no cap on the data you consume (both downloads and uploads) on the premium plan. Plus, there’s no cap on bandwidth as well which is essentially the number of bits that can pass through at any given time. You will see the same pattern across many other VPNs such as ExpressVPN.
Support
What would you do if you run into a problem whilst connecting to an iTop VPN? Turns out there’s no live chat support on iTop VPN at the time of writing this. But you can reach out to them via a support request online form and the VPN provider promises faster resolution as it has a dedicated technical team 24/7 ready to fix any issue whatsoever. Even with that, you still have to wait for 24-48 hours to get a response on the ticket raised. They have a Facebook page as well where you can reach out to get help. Other than that, iTop VPN’s press and feedback email addresses are available as well so the technical team is just an email away. Of course, if your priority is live chat, you would miss it on the iTop VPN.
Free Vs Paid subscription
There is quite a difference between the free and the premium (VIP) version of iTop VPN. The free version gives you 16 servers, a single virtual location, and 700 MB a day of data usage and that’s all. I tried the iTop VPN app on my Android smartphone only to find out it has a lot of ads on the free version. In fact, every time you wish to tap on an option or function, there’s an ad and it is annoying. The Windows client of the VPN albeit being free isn’t that messy with the ads as there are very few. You do get reminders on upgrading to a paid subscription and apart from that, I didn’t notice any ads at the time of testing the software. When it comes to the paid subscription, you unlock unlimited data and bandwidth as well as get your hands on 1800+ servers worldwide. Some of the servers are specifically made for gaming, streaming, or social networking which gives you a targeted response unlike a server made for all applications. With the paid plan, you unlock a plethora of features mentioned in the “Privacy Protection” section. The paid plan is something I would go with given the fact that it is exceptionally cheaper than many of its competitors.
Availability
iTop VPN is available across different operating systems including Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. This includes state-of-the-art VPN service on macOS with Catalina, Monterey, Big Sur & others; iOS for iPad and iPhones; Windows for Windows 7 to 11; and finally, Android OS across different generations. This means iTop VPN is available for billions of smartphones and computers across the globe.
Pricing
When it comes to the pricing, you have an option to use the free version and three premium plans. To be honest, it is the most cost-effective plan. Here are four plans to subscribe to.
Free:
The free version gives you 16 servers and a cap of 700MB of data usage per day. As it goes without saying, the plan is free and stripped away of any premium features and you get basic speeds on the VPN.
Monthly:
With the monthly plan, you are billed at $11.99/mo which is $143.88 if you keep on subscribing every month for a year. With this plan, you get all the premium features including 1800 servers located worldwide, 10x faster connection, no cap on data usage and bandwidth, blocks malware, ads, and trackers as well as offers split tunneling connection, streaming, social VPI, and gaming services. Finally, there’s extra browser privacy that you get with these plans.
Bi-yearly:
This is a plan where you pay just $6.99/mo for a 6-months subscription which takes the total to $41.99 for 6 months. Just like the monthly plan, you get all the premium chops including 1800+ services, ads and malware blockers, 10x faster connection, and so on.
Yearly:
This is an annual plan billed at $55.44 thanks to an ongoing additional one year of subscription-free on top of a one-year plan you can purchase. This brings down the cost to just $2.31/mo which is just $27.72/year. This plan brings all the features similar to the monthly and bi-yearly plan. Moreover, iTop VPN provides a 100 percent money-back guarantee in 15 days from the date of subscription without any questions asked.
Alternatives
Just like any other app or software you search for in any given category, iTop VPN has competitors too, and thus, you can use any one of them as alternatives. iTop VPN is among the newest entrant being rolled out in 2016 while many VPNs have established their hold in the market for a decade or so. Talking about alternatives, SurfShark, ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, and NordVPN are among the best alternatives to choose from. In terms of servers and locations, NordVPN has 5100+ servers, ExpressVPN has 3,000+ servers in 94 countries, CyberGhost has 6,000+ services in 88 countries, and SurfShark has 3,000+ servers across 65 countries. Note that these numbers may change depending upon when you are reading this review. Other VPNs include IPVanish, ProtonVPN, Private Internet Access, and so on.
Final Verdict – iTop VPN Review
