A VPN's most basic function is to protect your data and privacy by routing your web traffic through an encrypted connection to a distant server. TorGuard VPN, however, has never been just a basic VPN service. Rather, it provides a robust network of servers, numerous advanced network options, and a bewildering variety of account options that let you tailor your experience just so. However, TorGuard lacks the additional privacy features offered by competitors, while its flexibility sometimes comes at the price of clarity and transparency.
How Much Does TorGuard Cost?
Despite its name, TorGuard is not related to the Tor Project, the digital labyrinth of proxies designed to help people stay anonymous online. If you are looking for that Tor, you should be using the Tor Browser. TorGuard styles itself as a one-stop privacy shop offering an anonymous proxy (included with the VPN, naturally), PrivateMail secure email, and routers preconfigured to work with TorGuard VPN. We focus on the VPN offerings for this review, but even there it gets complicated.
TorGuard is unusual among VPN companies in that it embraces a flexible but highly arcane pricing model. There are three packages, with different plans in each: Anonymous VPN, Anonymous VPN+Streaming Bundle, VPN+Private Mail Bundles, and Secure Business VPN. The Anonymous VPN Package has three plans: Anonymous VPN, Anonymous VPN Pro, and a new option called Anonymous VPN Premium. All three grant access to all of TorGuard's servers and place no restrictions on speed or bandwidth. Other features like apps, browser extensions, VPN protocols, and access to the Shadowsocks proxy, are also available across all three.
If this sounds overwhelming, that's because it is—and the design of TorGuard VPN's website doesn't help. No consumer security app should be this difficult to sign up for.
Similar Products
Proton VPN
IVPN
Mullvad VPN
NordVPN
Surfshark VPN
TunnelBear VPN
CyberGhost VPN
ExpressVPN
Private Internet Access VPN
Mozilla VPN
TorGuard's Anonymous VPN plan costs $9.99 per month, $19.99 per quarter, $29.99 every six months, $59.99 annually, $99.99 every two years, or $139 every three years. It provides eight simultaneous connections, which is more than the typical five simultaneous connections offered by other companies. TorGuard's base tier will likely meet most household's needs, but Avira Phantom VPN, IPVanish VPN, Surfshark VPN, and Windscribe VPN place no restrictions on the number of simultaneous connections.
(Editors' Note: IPVanish is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company.)
This tier's price is comparable to that of competitors, which charge an average of $9.90 per month among the VPNs we've reviewed. The average annual subscription costs $68.26, making TorGuard a compelling value proposition at either length. That said, we strongly recommend using either a free subscription or taking out a short-term subscription at first to test the service and ensure it works with all the sites and services you need.
The Anonymous VPN Pro plan raises the number of simultaneous connections to 12, plus throws in a dedicated IP address, access to a high-speed 10GB network, and additional ports for port forwarding. It starts at $12.99 per month and goes up to $119.00 per year. The newest tier, Anonymous VPN Premium, has all the same features and starts at $14.99 per month and tops out at $249.99 every three years. The Premium plan raises the simultaneous connection cap to a staggering 30 and allows subscribers to switch to a different dedicated IP address twice a month for free. Normally, an IP switch would cost $5.
Dedicated IP Addresses and Streaming Options
Dedicated IP addresses are desirable anytime you want all your traffic to have a consistent IP address while you're using a VPN. TorGuard says that its dedicated IP addresses are optimized for streaming, the idea being that streaming services would be less likely to block dedicated IPs because they're not widely associated with VPN traffic. We haven't tested dedicated IPs for their streaming efficacy.
Alternatively, you can choose the Streaming Bundle, which says it includes two so-called "residential" IP addresses. These are IP addresses that (hopefully) aren't associated with a VPN and, in theory, will not be blocked by streaming services and other sites. Netflix has, however, started to target this class of IP addresses. We did not test this bundle and are skeptical that any company could guarantee access to video streaming over VPN, let alone its claim of "no buffering." Pricing on the Streaming Bundle starts at $21.98 per month, a significant increase over the other TorGuard VPN plans. The inclusion of two IP addresses, however, does bring it in line with the competition.
How a VPN Works
Businesses may want to look at the Business VPN plans, which start at $32.99 per month for five users and top out at $110 per month for 15 users. Depending on the plan, these include VPN access, dedicated IP addresses, and email accounts, as well as other goodies. A slider on some Business plans lets you add up to 500 additional users, leaning heavily on customization.
Comparison Pricing and Ways to Pay
While TorGuard charges a below-average price, some competitors go even lower. A limited ProtonVPN account starts at $5 per month, and Mullvad only charges a flat fee of 5Euro per month ($5.64 at the time of this writing). A few VPN companies offer free subscription tiers. You can use Hotspot Shield or TunnelBear for free—if you stay under 500MB per day and per month, respectively. ProtonVPN has the best free tier we've yet seen, as it places no bandwidth restrictions on users.
You should have no trouble finding a way to pay for your subscription to TorGuard, as the website boasts numerous payment options. These include the expected major credit cards, Amazon Pay, and PayPal. You can also use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Paymentwall, and prepaid gift cards for various well-known brands. Using cryptocurrency or a gift card for which you paid cash has the advantages of being totally anonymous, as if you had made a cash transaction. Mullvad and IVPN both go further by not requiring any personal information and accepting cash sent to their respective HQs.
What Do You Get for Your Money?
While TorGuard does provide basic VPN protection, it doesn't offer many additional privacy tools. Other VPNs include multi-hop VPN connections that route your traffic through more than one VPN server, making it harder to track and intercept. TorGuard does not.
Split tunneling lets you decide which apps and websites have to send traffic through the VPN connection and which should travel in the clear. It's less about privacy and more about optimization, letting high-bandwidth but low-security apps such as video games have room to breathe. TorGuard VPN does not include this feature, either.
While TorGuard doesn't have anything to do with the Tor network, other VPNs let you route all your traffic through Tor via the VPN. Again, TorGuard VPN does not include Tor access built-in. ProtonVPN and NordVPN are notable for being among the few services that offer Tor access, split tunneling, and multi-hop connections.
In addition to its apps, TorGuard also features routers preconfigured to use TorGuard VPN. This effectively spreads VPN protection to every device on your network, including ones that can't run VPNs on their own, but this may bring its own headaches.
While VPNs are enormously useful tools, they do not protect against every ill. We recommend protecting your devices with antivirus software, using a password manager to create unique and complex passwords for each site and service you use, and enabling multi-factor authentication wherever it is available.
A recent legal settlement with TorGuard resulted in a change in how the VPN handles BitTorrent traffic. According to a statement from the company, TorGuard will now block all BitTorrent traffic on US servers. However, BitTorrent traffic is still allowed on non-US servers. Unfortunately, BitTorrent traffic will not be rerouted to an acceptable server—a feature we've seen in other VPNs.
What Add-Ons Does TorGuard Offer?
In addition to its core product, TorGuard offers numerous add-ons. This is unusual, as most VPNs opt for a one-size-fits-all approach. The upside is that you can tailor your account to better meet your needs, although it may not always be clear what your subscription includes.
Add-ons include IP addresses in specific countries throughout the world and residential IP addresses in the US, both of which are intended for streaming video. These cost $7.99 per month and $14.99 per month, respectively. Some of these are included free with different pricing tiers, so be sure to read the list of included features carefully.
Also available is a dedicated VPN instance. For $14.99 per month, TorGuard provides a dedicated physical server or encrypted virtual machine for VPN use. That means no one else is on the server. Its resources are for your use alone. The company tells us that while customers will not have direct access to the dedicated servers, TorGuard VPN can make customizations on the customer's behalf. Very few other companies offer a dedicated deployment option.
VPN Protocols
There's more than one way to create an encrypted tunnel via VPN. Our preferred method uses the OpenVPN protocol, which is open source, so you can rest assured that its code has been picked over for vulnerabilities. WireGuard is the open-source heir apparent to the VPN throne but has yet to see full-scale adoption across the industry.
TorGuard supports numerous VPN protocols including OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, L2TP, and IPSec. IKEv2 is another modern and reliable option, although we recommend against using L2TP if you can avoid it. It wasn't clear how to engage all these protocol options from within the app, however.
Servers and Server Locations
The more server locations a VPN provides, the more likely you are to find one nearby. It also means you'll have more options for spoofing your location. TorGuard currently offers VPN servers in approximately 46 countries. We appreciate that the company's online server list makes clear which are virtual (more on this below) and where certain protocols are supported.
The diversity of options provided by TorGuard is refreshing. It provides servers in South America and Africa—two regions often completely ignored by VPN companies. Still, it could stand to expand in all those regions. Notably, TorGuard does have servers in countries that are known for their repressive internet policies such as China (Hong Kong), Russia, and Turkey.
TorGuard's server distribution is slightly better than the average VPN, but it’s far from the best. ExpressVPN has an excellent distribution of servers across 94 countries, including many regions underserved by VPNs, and it does so with only minimal reliance on virtual servers.
What are virtual servers? These are software-defined servers, meaning that a single hardware server can run several virtual servers on it. There are also virtual locations, which are servers configured to appear somewhere other than where they are physically located. Neither is inherently problematic. A company can use them to serve dangerous regions by having the physical machine in a more secure location.
A company representative tells us that 90% of TorGuard's servers are where they appear to be. One of TorGuard's Brazilian servers along with its servers in Greece (real location is Bulgaria), Mexico (the real location is Dallas, TX), and Taiwan are virtual. The Taiwan servers are switching to onsite within Taiwan soon. This looks acceptable to us, although we'd like to see TorGuard make this information clear in the app or on its website.
Having more servers doesn't necessarily equate to offering better service, but it's a testament to TorGuard's popularity that it has one of the larger collections available. It's among the few to offer more than 3,000 servers. CyberGhost now leads the pack with over 7,300 servers.
Several VPNs have made efforts to secure their infrastructure against remote attacks as well as search and seizure. ExpressVPN has already made the move to diskless or RAM-only servers, and other companies such as NordVPN have done the same. TorGuard VPN says that some of its servers are diskless, but others are not. The company said that TorGuard's own server security incident, in which no data was leaked, illustrated the company's success protecting users. Still, TorGuard should make more of its security precautions clear on its site.
Your Privacy With TorGuard
You need to trust the VPN you use because the company behind it could end up with enormous insight into your online activities. That's why we speak with the vendors and read the entire privacy policy when we review VPNs.
Reassuringly, TorGuard VPN's privacy policy states, "TorGuard does not collect or log any data from its Virtual Private Network (VPN) or Proxy services." A company representative told us that TorGuard does "not collect or log any connection related information." Better still, TorGuard says that it only earns revenue from subscription sales, rather than selling data.
The company behind TorGuard is VPNetworks LLC, under the Data Protection Services LLC holding company, which is headquartered in the US and operates under US legal jurisdiction. Unlike many VPNs, TorGuard lists a contact address.
Some VPN companies have begun publishing comprehensive audits to assure customers that the company is operating in good faith and securing their data. TorGuard VPN does not release audit results. Furthermore, TorGuard does not provide a transparency report, nor does it have a warrant canary. Public audits and transparency reports are imperfect, but we feel that both are valuable as assurances of a company's commitment to its customers.
The trouble with TorGuard VPN is that it doesn't do much to explain to customers how the company protects their privacy. Given the sensitive information VPNs handle, companies must do more than simply say what they don't do; VPN companies should include assurances of what the company will do to protect customers. TunnelBear VPN and Mullvad VPN have done an excellent job making their commitments clear and being transparent about their operation.
Hands On With TorGuard for Windows
TorGuard offers apps for Android, iPhone, Linux, macOS, and Windows. In our testing, we installed TorGuard's software on an Intel NUC Kit NUC8i7BEH (Bean Canyon) desktop running the latest version of Windows 10. We briefly had an issue where TorGuard required a missing driver, but the app was able to fix the issue.
One of our biggest complaints with TorGuard has been its lackluster interface. Some readers may scoff at this complaint about window dressing. Consider, this, however: People will not want to use a product that isn't easy to understand or engaging. In that respect, TorGuard has greatly improved. The new interface is a snazzy midnight blue with a burst of color in the center. This guides your eye to the massive Connect button. We like the simplicity of this design. If you have masochistic UI tendencies, you can switch the theme to Classic and relive the past. TorGuard still doesn't have the friendliness of TunnelBear, but its improved interface is no longer actively off-putting.
The server selector has also been redesigned. Just click the location bar at the bottom of the screen and your view switches to a colorful list of locations. You can sort the list of servers in several ways, including by proximity and "usage." You can't view stats, such as load or latency, for these server locations, nor can you select specific servers.
There are other places the app could be improved, too. For example, opening the side panel and revealing the connection stats is finicky, sometimes taking several seconds to respond or closing on its own before we could read the contents. The cluster of settings menus is identical in layout to the previous versions, but recolored. It's still hard to read and sometimes harder to understand.
Another unlikable quirk: When you start up TorGuard for the first time, you're greeted not with a login screen but the full, unadulterated app. It's only when you click the Connect button that TorGuard prompts you to log in. This strikes us as confusing, and we're not fans. TorGuard, however, has had this issue for years.
TorGuard offers a feature called App Kill. It's like Kill Switch features found in other VPN apps but instead of switching off network activity if the VPN is disconnected, TorGuard quits the apps you add to the App Kill list. We don't like this since there's a risk that unsaved work could be lost.
A rarely seen feature TorGuard does include is Scripts. This lets you run scripts either just before or after connecting or disconnecting. We didn't test this feature but are confident it's a dealmaker for someone. The app also includes proxy settings, DNS options, and your choice of VPN protocol.
If a VPN leaks your IP address or your DNS requests, it's not doing a very good job of protecting you. In our testing, we found that TorGuard successfully hid our IP address and ISP from the outside world. Using the aptly named DNS Leak Test tool, we confirmed that TorGuard also does not leak DNS information. We only tested for DNS leaks on one server. Other TorGuard VPN servers may not be correctly configured.
Netflix actively works to block VPNs and that's true for TorGuard VPN. When we connected our device to a nearby VPN server based in New York, we were only able to access a smaller portion of Netflix's content. We did not have access to one of TorGuard's residential IP addresses, which are supposed to be better for streaming, so customers may have better luck with one of those. Of course, your ability to access Netflix (or any other video streaming service) might change at a moment's notice, which is true even for VPNs that worked with Netflix in our testing.
Hands on With TorGuard for macOS
We installed the macOS VPN app for TorGuard on a MacBook Air (2020) running Big Sur 11.2. The app is on the vendor’s website. When installing the app on the MacBook when the app made the unusual request to control the computer via the Accessibility settings. After granting permission, we clicked the large orange connection button in the center of the app window. That’s when we were instructed to log in.
After login was complete, the app attempted to connect to a VPN server using a WireGuard connection, but that failed several times. We had a similar issue on Windows, but were able to repair it from within the app. We were not successful in this case. Instead, we navigated to the Connections menu in the top left corner of the window and changed the connection type to OpenVPN. After clicking the center Connection button again, we logged in and connected to a server in Toronto, Canada. You can choose from individual servers in certain cities and countries on the server list.
The TorGuard app comes with a firewall, which we disabled before connecting because the firewall on our network connection was conflicting with the app’s protection and causing the VPN app to show an error.
The app is dark blue with bright green and orange accents. You can change the look of the app by choosing a different theme (either Classic or the default Modern) from the Settings menu in the top right corner of the app. The Modern layout for the TorGuard app for MacOS looks very similar to the iPhone app. The Classic layout looks like an old Windows application from the early ’00s, with grey boxes and a blocky font.
Other features include App Kill, which terminates specified applications when the VPN disconnects, a Kill Switch, and the ability to use dedicated IP addresses. You can also execute specific scripts before and after connections, and every time you disconnect from the VPN.
A VPN must be able to hide your IP address and DNS information while you are browsing, otherwise, it’s not doing its job. We performed an extended DNS leak test by visiting DNSLeakTest.com while connected to a server in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This server did not leak the real IP address or DNS requests.
While we were still connected to the server in Brazil, we loaded up a few YouTube videos and they all played instantly, without any lag or interruptions.
Hands on With TorGuard for Android
We installed TorGuard's Android VPN app on a Samsung A71 5G running Android 11. We clicked the large orange connection button in the center of the app window. We were automatically connected to a server in Atlanta, Georgia. You can tap the list of servers at the bottom of the home screen and choose from a list of cities, and occasionally, a list of servers within those cities. After connecting the app’s colors changed from a dark blue background with orange accents to a dark blue background with green accents, much like the iOS and MacOS versions.
The TorGuard app for Android only allows you to establish two different VPN connection types: OpenVPN, and WireGuard, unlike the version for iOS which also includes IPSec and IKEv2. The app’s features include always-on VPN, the ability to pause the VPN while connected to a mobile network, reconnect to the VPN on network change, IPv6 leak protection, and support for dedicated IP addresses, Static DNS, and proxy connections. The app does not have a kill switch or split tunneling.
We performed an extended DNS leak test by visiting DNSLeakTest.com while connected to a server in Viña del Mar, Chile. This server did not leak the real IP address. It’s important to check any new VPN connection for leaks so you can be sure your browsing stays private.
We connected to a server in Budapest, Hungary for the next part of the test. We navigated to Twitch.tv and watched a few streams. Each stream loaded and played successfully without any stuttering or lag.
Hands on With TorGuard for iPhone
We installed TorGuard iOS VPN app on an iPhone Xs running iOS 14.7. After granting permission for the app to establish VPN connections on the phone, we clicked the large orange connection button in the center of the app window. We were automatically connected to a server in Sydney, Australia. You can tap the list of servers at the bottom of the home screen and choose the individual server you want. Upon connection, the app’s colors changed from a dark blue background with orange accents to a dark blue background with green accents. The app looks slick and modern.
The TorGuard app allows you to establish different VPN connection types: IPSec, IKEv2, OpenVPN, and WireGuard. Other features include ad blocking at the DNS level, an internet Kill Switch, and support for dedicated IP addresses.
If a VPN can’t hide your information while you’re using it, the service isn’t worth the subscription fee. We performed an extended DNS leak test by visiting DNSLeakTest.com while connected to the server in Sydney, Australia. This server did not leak our real IP address or DNS information.
We connected to a server in Belgium for the next part of the test. We loaded up a few YouTube videos while connected to the Brussels-based server and they all played without lag or any interruptions.
Speed and Performance
Using a VPN is always going to have a negative impact on your internet speeds. To get a sense of how much, we run a series of tests using the Ookla speed test tool with the VPN on and off and find a percent change between the two. Read our feature on how we test VPNs for more of the gritty details.
(Editors' Note: Ookla is owned by PCMag's publisher, Ziff Davis.)
In our testing, TorGuard performed well in the upload and download tests. It decreased download speed test results by only 19.3%, one of the best results we've seen thus far. It reduced upload speed test results by 40.4%, which is still under the median result for this category. It performed worse in the latency category, where it increased latency results by 57.3%.
You can see how TorGuard VPN compares to the other VPN services we've tested in the chart below. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, we have overhauled our testing procedures and will update these results with more products throughout the year.
We caution readers against putting too much stock in speed test results. Your experience will surely be different from ours. Instead, we prefer to focus on price, value, and privacy when choosing a VPN.
(Tor)Guard Your Privacy
TorGuard VPN has a lot to offer. It has a good allotment of servers around the globe and offers the newest VPN technology in its apps. Unlike many other VPN companies, TorGuard VPN is remarkably flexible with its pricing and has the largest collection of subscription add-ons that we've yet seen. Even its apps offer more controls and customizations than most competitors, which tinkerers and DIYers will surely appreciate. Its efforts toward usability are improving, too, as demonstrated by its redesigned app.
Where TorGuard VPN lags is execution. Its flexible subscription plans are hard to understand and its web store is difficult to use. Its highly customizable app has finally received a much-needed update, but still has some rough edges. Its theoretically no-nonsense approach to privacy is actually vague and not backed by public audits or transparency reports.
TorGuard VPN is too powerful and flexible a VPN to dismiss, but there are more robust, transparent, and user-friendly products at comparable prices. We recommend all our Editors' Choice winners but especially ProtonVPN and Mullvad VPN, both of which have more privacy features for less than TorGuard VPN.
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