Star VPN

Star VPN (not to be confused with StarVPN) is a small VPN service for the four major operating systems: Windows, Android, iOS and macOS.

While not exactly the same, it seems to be operated by the same people as StarVPN. Our email queries were responded to by an individual with the same name. 

Price

This provider’s basic service is supposedly available for free. However, we couldn’t get it to work (which seems to be a common complaint among free users) unless we upgraded to Premium.

There are only two pricing options available: monthly and yearly. The monthly option is billed $9.99/month, while the yearly package costs just $2.99/month ($35.99 billed annually).

Accepted payment methods only include PayPal and credit/debit cards. And with one account, you can secure up to 6 devices at the same time.

The vendor states that it has a 30-day money-back guarantee, in case things don’t work out. Our refund was issued within one day.

(Image credit: Future)

Alternatives

While Star VPN certainly has its positive sides, it comes nowhere near the major VPN providers like ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, or CyberGhost, mostly due to the lack of information on the website, live chat, extra features and configuration options for devices like routers.

Streaming

This vendor states it can unblock the likes of BBC iPlayer and Netflix, whose specific localized libraries are often unavailable internationally. Our tests confirmed these claims.

About the company

Star VPN is a product of Senight LLC, a company registered in Georgia, Europe. It provides users with access to over 800 servers with around 800-1,000 IPs in more than 50 countries.

Privacy and encryption

Star VPN protects your privacy using 256-bit AES encryption and the OpenVPN transfer protocol. Its apps don’t have many options except choosing between UDP and TCP (or automatic) protocol, as well as enabling/disabling the kill switch. 

A kill switch blocks your internet access if it detects an interruption in the VPN connection, thus protecting your private information from leaking. Do note that Star VPN’s kill switch is off by default, so you’ll have to turn it on yourself if you want to enjoy the complete protection.

This VPN also allows you to share large files via P2P and torrenting clients.

Star VPN’s Privacy Policy states that its creator, Senight LLC, “guarantees a strict no-logs policy for Star VPN Services, meaning that your internet activity while using Star VPN Services is not monitored, recorded, logged, stored or passed to any third party.” It lists all the details that aren’t collected, including connection time stamps, used bandwidth, traffic logs, IP addresses or browsing data.

However, later on, it details that some information is collected, such as the device model, operating system version “and similar non-identifying information”, as well as your mobile device’s identifier, for marketing and analytics.

A report from an external auditor would help put at ease any user suspicions about what information may or may not be collected.

(Image credit: Future)

Support

Star VPN has simple apps for Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS. At the time of writing, the Android app has a rating of 4.1 stars (out of 5) and was updated 4 months ago.

The iOS app has an even better score - 4.8 stars - and its version history shows it is updated regularly. The Mac app is similarly well-reviewed and serviced.

If you need help with anything, it’s highly doubtful you’ll find what you need on the website. Even though there’s a Help Desk with FAQ and Announcements sections, these are completely empty. Some information is available scattered across the website, as on the page called “Why Star VPN”.

There’s no live chat. Instead, you can try sending an email message directly or via a contact form on the website. The provider also has profiles on Twitter and Facebook, but they don’t seem very active (last posts are from over a year before this review was written).

We tested the email route asking for a refund and the first email was responded to within one hour. The actual refund confirmation came a day later. 

Speed and experience

Star VPN’s apps are super-basic, but this also means they are very simple to use. Our testing process went smoothly, as the app connects in just a few seconds, giving us a visible green notification when connection is achieved.

We tested its download speeds on a 28.13Mbps connection and from a location in Southeast Europe. The results for a server in Italy were amazing, recording hardly any speed losses at 23.52Mbps. A server in the United Kingdom didn’t do as well but still delivered a very fast 14.58Mbps. 

We then tested a more far-flung location, the United States. The speeds dropped to only 4.95Mbps, but this is still among the acceptable speed losses compared to the original connection. Finally, we decided to give India a go and were pleasantly surprised, especially since the speeds beat the U.S. - 8.66Mbps.

Do note that, in order to test the server in India, we had to open our browser in incognito mode, as the regular mode persistently recognized our real physical location.

Verdict

Star VPN is a long way from competing with industry giants. Its apps are overly simple, there isn’t much information available, there’s no live chat customer support, and it can’t be installed on alternative operating systems.

However, it provides some very nice speeds, unblocks whatever streaming content you need and allows torrenting. And all this at low yearly prices and with a 30-day money-back guarantee.