VirtualShield
VirtualShield Review
VirtualShield is still a small and very new VPN provider, so you have to accept that some things they are just not able to do. Among these things is having a lot of servers in many countries, 24/7 customer support service, advanced encryption methods, and more. None of this is surprising for a small company, but what is surprising is the price they have. It’s not as low as it should be, but it’s not too high either. It’s decent VPN, but it could do with some improvements in technology, structure and pricing.
VirtualShield Pros & Cons
- Servers in 27 countries – The number of locations is definitely not small, but it’s much lower than the numbers of other VPNs. Furthermore, the number of servers is also very low. All of this is quite normal for now, as VirtualShield is still a small VPN provider with a small number of users.
- Torrenting not allowed, but Netflix works fine – It seems that VirtualShield has done a good job when it comes to changing your geo-location. However, they do not allow torrenting, which is neither bad nor surprising, as this VPN is located in the US, where torrenting of copyrighted material is completely illegal.
- Available on all major platforms – Just like many other VPNs, VirtualShield is also available on all major platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, etc. It even offers extensions for browsers, including one for Opera.
- Too pricey for what they offer – They have plenty of plans and we will talk about them in more detail later in the article, but in short, they are too expensive for what they offer, especially when combined with all the additional features that they offer.
- No advanced encryption – VirtualShield, unfortunately, doesn’t offer anything special when it comes to encryption as they don’t use any advanced methods (AES-256 for example) like many other VPNs.
- DNS leaks do occur – During our tests, we noticed that DNS leaks do occur when using VirtualShield, which certainly isn’t the best thing for your privacy and security online.
Description
VirtualShield Review & Rating
VirtualShield is a small and relatively unknown VPN provider with a base in Delaware, USA. Besides this, they are also a fairly new company, being founded in May 2017. However, just because a VPN is small and new, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are bad. Which is why we are making this review that will go deep into everything about VirtualShield and give you all the details so you can see for yourself how good this VPN really is.
- VirtualShield keeps no logs, as far as we know – They claim that they keep no user logs, but unfortunately, we haven’t been able to find any proof of this, so you’ll have to take them at their word for now.
- Decent customer support – For a VPN of this size, the customer support VirtualShield offers is decent. You won’t get responses quickly, but it certainly won’t take them too long to respond either.
VPN Security & Privacy
On the VirtualShield website, it’s clearly visible from the first few paragraphs that they take privacy and security of people very seriously. But how do they do this?
They have their own special feature when it comes to security and privacy, called IdentiSafe. This feature is a sort of anti-spy application and its main purpose is to secure your microphone and webcam from unwanted spying. It also prevents tracking, and much more. It all sounds great but unfortunately, it’s nothing special. All other major VPNs have the same thing basically, often much more. VirtualShield has just decided to pack it an interestingly named feature in order to make it special. Of course, this doesn’t negate the fact that it’s a good feature nonetheless.
It seems that VirtualShield doesn’t offer any type of advanced encryption, so the safety and privacy this VPN provides is not really certain as it is with other major VPNs.
Fortunately, VirtualShield does encrypt your WiFi, which is certainly a plus for them. With this important feature, you will be able to protect your browsing from strangers and potential hackers.
One of the problems that VirtualShield has is also the fact that DNS leaks occur when using this VPN. For those of you who don’t know, DNS leaks are basically evidence of faults in the security features a VPN has to offer. They are not major problems, and they do occur with several VPN providers, but they are definitely something that should be avoided. A DNS leak basically means that the VPN doesn’t properly block DNS requests from being revealed to your ISP. In essence, this means that the VPN is not doing something that it should be doing, and that’s blocking your ISP from being able to see what you’re doing. This doesn’t mean that your ISP will see what you are doing online, but it does mean that they can see if they really try.
Features & Add-Ons
VirtualShield offers clients for all major platforms, including Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android The good thing about these clients is that they have a good design and are very easy to use. This is certainly the case with many VPN services, but not always, so it’s still a plus for VirtualShield.
Besides the clients, VirtualShield also offers extensions for all major browsers, including Opera, which is not a browser that usually gets extensions from VPN providers.
Unlike most VPNs, VirtualShield doesn’t offer a killswitch, even though this feature is very important for user privacy. If you are not already familiar, a killswitch is a feature that will shut down your internet connection if the connection to your VPN server suddenly drops for whatever reason. So basically, if it happens that you unknowingly lose connection to the VPN server, you won’t continue to use the Internet and become vulnerable while you do it.
When it comes to streaming, you’ll be able to stream just about anything, as you would with many other VPNs. However, you’ll also be able to use US Netflix, which is not something that you would be able to do with all other VPNs. If you don’t already know, Netflix is trying to stop VPNs when it comes to their service, and they are doing this with a lot of success, unfortunately. Thankfully, there are many VPNs that are still able to provide you with access to US Netflix, and VirtualShield is in this group for now.
Unlike streaming, you won’t be able to use torrents while using VirtualShield as torrenting is not allowed by this VPN provider.
VPN Plans, Free Trials, and Money Back Guarantees
If you decide you want to buy this service, you should know that they offer several plans from which you can choose. Naturally, they offer a 1-month plan, 12 months plan, 24 months plan, and a 36 months plan. Each is cheaper than the one before it. However, the big difference from other VPNs is that VirtualShield offers a plan for only one person, where you can protect up to 3 devices at the same time, and a plan for “a family” which is designed with a whole household in mind, and with this plan you can protect a grand total of 15 devices at the same time. This is an interesting way of creating plans, but ultimately it is a bit pricey for what it’s offered.
Furthermore, they offer several advanced features which are not required in order to use VirtualShield’s service, but they do cost a lot if you decide to get all of them.
The good thing is that they offer a free trial on all of their plans that lasts for 30 days. With such a generous free trial, you will be able to test out the entirety of this VPN provider for yourself, and ultimately decide how good it is and whether or not it’s useful for your needs.
VirtualShield offers no money back guarantees, which is certainly understandable as they do offer a long-lasting free trial.
Customer Support
The customer support section of VirtualShield is fairly decent, as they offer help via support tickets and live chat. The people working in customer support are unfortunately not available all the time, even on the live chat, but this is basically a normality for most smaller VPN providers as they simply do not have enough people working for them. This is why we still want to say that their customer support service is sufficiently good for a VPN of their size.
Furthermore, if you want to find help on your own, VirtualShield does offer a comprehensive knowledgebase on their website, which you can visit at any time.
