Expert's Rating
Pros
- Very well priced
- Works with U.S. and UK Netflix
Cons
- Not a lot of extra features
- Speeds could be better
Our Verdict
VPNCity is a new VPN that’s off to a good start. It offers a good country count with a solid number of servers. The speeds are fine, and the privacy policy says all the right things. It also works with U.S. and UK Netflix, which makes it a good choice for overseas travelers or those who use Netflix on open Wi-Fi networks.
Best Prices Today: VPNCity
It’s not unusual for a VPN service to initially start out with a basic feature set. The company shoots for solid speeds, a good country count, and a growing number of servers, adding extra features and services over time.
VPNCity is one such service that fits this profile. Think Huge Ltd.—a technology company that specializes in online services for foreign exchange markets—began VPNCity around a year ago with enough of the basics to appeal to most users: It offers Netflix compatibility, a no-logs policy, and enough bandwidth and DDos protection for gamers.
Note: This review is part of our best VPNs roundup. Go there for details about competing products and how we tested them.
Security, software, servers, and speed
VPNCity uses the OpenVPN protocol, with data encryption handled by AES-256-CBC, data authentication is SHA512, and the handshake is over TLSv1.2.
VPNCity is officially based in Hong Kong, as is Think Huge. At least that’s where the company’s offices are located. As usual the team works remotely in countries around the world. The founder and director of Think Huge is Nick McDonald who is based in Australia.
If you want to watch U.S. Netflix from overseas or when you’re hooked up to open Wi-Fi, VPNCity can help you do that. It will also work with other streaming services that aren’t actively trying to stymie VPN users such as Disney Plus.
VPNCity allows up to 12 simultaneous connections, which is very good considering most services set the limit at 10.
When you launch the service’s macOS app you get a single pane interface that parallels the mobile app. It has a simple connect button taking up a good chunk of the window, and a location button below that.
There’s also a mobile-style tab bar at the bottom for switching between the home screen, the full location list, a favorites screen, and settings. When you’re connected to a VPN server the app turns green, and a timer shows how long you’ve been connected. In addition to the app, a VPNCity icon in the status menu area hosts options to disconnect, choose a different location, or quit the app.
In our time with VPNCity the Mac app was serviceable, but there was one weird glitch. Whenever we used the search bar to find a country location, the app immediately went blank, and the list wouldn’t return unless we rebooted. We asked the company about this, and a representative said this was a bug unique to macOS Catalina, which has since been fixed.
VPNCity covers 33 country locations listed alphabetically, and it has more than 3,000 servers, which is a generous number to cover those 33 countries.
The service’s privacy policy promises it won’t keep any logs, including connection time stamps, session information, bandwidth usage, traffic logs, and IP addresses. VPNCity says it does keep some minimal information, however, such as server load information.
In our tests, VPNCity maintained about 27 percent of the base speed using five different global locations. That’s an acceptable result but nothing to get excited about. Speeds were good enough in the U.S., UK, and Germany for most uses, including gaming and video streaming.
Pricing
One year of VPNCity costs $48, or you can get two years for $71.76. Those are both excellent prices and a fair value proposition, especially with Netflix support thrown in. In addition to the two yearly packages, there’s a six-month package for $35.94—definitely not worth it since you can get two years for about double the price. Then there’s the usual month-to-month subscription at $10.
VPNCity acccepts credit cards, PayPal, AliPay, and cryptocurrencies via Coingate. To sign up for VPNCity you need to supply an email address.
Conclusion
VPNCity is off to a nice start. It has acceptable speeds for most uses, it already works with Netflix out of the box, and there’s a good country and server count. On top of that, the privacy policy makes the right promises, and the price is very good. Anyone looking for a well-priced option should give VPNCity a look.
Editor’s Note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article.