CyberGhost vs Betternet: Which wins?

The number of VPN services for you to choose from continues to grow at a rapid rate. There are now hundreds on the market, many of which claim to be the best. However, it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction, particularly because testing each VPN would be so time-consuming (and expensive!). Besides, you may find some aspects of VPNs (encryption, for example) to be too technical, particularly if you don’t have much computing experience.

To make things easier, we test two VPNs side-by-side to see what each has to offer; in this case, it’ll be CyberGhost vs Betternet. We’ll explore everything from their server speeds to the quality of their responses to email enquiries. This will give you a better idea of which VPN best fits your needs or whether you need to look elsewhere (we have plenty more VPN comparison posts to help!).

If you just want to find out the main benefits of each VPN and make a quick decision, we’ve provided a bulleted list below to save you some time. Note that CyberGhost wins comfortably overall.

Highlights

CyberGhost

• One of the fastest VPNs we’ve tested
• Huge server network (~11,000 servers in 100+ countries)
• Extra security features including auto wi-fi protection
• Live chat support (available 24/7)

Betternet

• Speeds are fast enough for streaming
• Allows torrenting on its servers
• Beginner-friendly desktop and mobile apps
• Servers in dozens of countries (over 70 in all)

CyberGhost vs Betternet pricing

While CyberGhost and Betternet both offer monthly and annual plans, CyberGhost provides a better deal for long-term subscriptions. You can pay as little as $2.19 USD a month when you choose the CyberGhost two-year (+ 2 months free) subscription. This works out at just $56.94 in all, which is a huge discount of 83 percent.

In contrast, Betternet’s best deal is its 12-month plan. This costs $95.88 in all ($7.99/month) which is a discount of 38 percent from the monthly price. This is comparable price-wise to CyberGhost’s six-month plan, which costs $6.99 a month.

Both providers charge $12.99 a month for rolling subscriptions. This is relatively expensive, but not extortionate.

Aside from the pricing differences, CyberGhost is the only one of the two VPNs that comes with a money-back guarantee. While most major VPNs offer 30 days, CyberGhost’s is a generous 45 days. This provides you with plenty of time to try it out without risking anything financially. Although Betternet doesn’t have such an option, there is a seven-day free trial of the premium plan.

You can also try Betternet’s completely free tier, though this only provides access to severs in five countries and doesn’t work with streaming platforms. CyberGhost has similarly restrictive free browser extensions that provide access to servers in four countries.

Best Deal for CyberGhost:Pay just $2.19 a month with the CyberGhost two-year plan, which represents a saving of 83 percent.

Best Deal for Betternet:Get 38 percent off with Betternet’s 12 month subscription plan. This works out at $7.99 monthly ($95.88 in all).

CyberGhost vs Betternet features

Like most VPNs, CyberGhost and Betternet are available on desktop (Windows and Mac) as well as mobile (Android and iOS). However, this is as far as it goes with Betternet. CyberGhost also has apps for Linux, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV. What’s more, it can be manually configured to work with compatible wireless routers.

If you have a lot of devices to secure, Betternet is a good choice. It allows you to connect up to ten devices at the same time, compared to the seven simultaneous connections allowed by CyberGhost. While the two VPNs offer split tunneling (the option to choose which traffic is routed via the VPN connection), it is only available on Android in the case of CyberGhost and Windows with Betternet.

Overall, Betternet is very light on features, although it does have a browser extension for Chrome. CyberGhost’s browser exteniosn is available for Chrome as well as Firefox. Remember that while a browser extension offers convenience, it only secures browser traffic and not apps.

Unlike Betternet, CyberGhost has an ad blocker and its own private Chromium-based browser built in.

Streaming and unblocking

When you travel abroad, you may find that you can no longer access some of your favorite websites and services from home. A VPN can help you get around geographic restrictions by spoofing your location. However, some VPNs are better than others at accessing geo-restricted content, particularly when it comes to big-name streaming services that have the toughest restrictions.

CyberGhost is particularly strong in this respect and worked with the vast majority of streaming services we tested it against. This includes multiple Netflix libraries such as Netflix US and UK, as well as the likes of Amazon Prime Video and BBC iPlayer.

While Betternet is also able to work with Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max, it struggled with others such as Prime Video. Both VPNs were unable to access DAZN due to its more extensive IP blocking.

China

Your VPN should work in almost any country you visit. One noticeable exception is China, a country notorious for its strict censorship restrictions. The Great Firewall of China blocks VPN traffic and even access to VPN websites. As such, the majority of VPNs don’t work in the country. Unfortunately, this includes CyberGhost and Betternet.

The best VPNs for China are able to stay one step ahead. These include the likes of NordVPN, Surfshark, and ExpressVPN. However, all of these VPNs have their websites blocked in China. In order to use one in the country, you’ll need to install the relevant app ahead of your visit.

Setup and interface

Even if it’s your first time using a VPN, you’re unlikely to have any issues downloading and installing CyberGhost or Betternet, both of which provide an automatic setup wizard for their desktop and mobile apps. As a result, you’ll be able to get everything ready-to-go within a matter of minutes.

CyberGhost’s desktop app manages to pack plenty of relevant information in without it feeling too cluttered. While there’s a quick-connect button to save you some time, you can also search for a server via a drop-down menu or search bar. There’s the option to favorite servers for faster future access. You can also see the distance a server is from your physical location, as well as its current user load (the lower, the better).

Like its desktop app, CyberGhost’s mobile app has a quick-connect button. The interface is very clean and easy to navigate. Again, there are multiple ways to search for servers. This includes a category of streaming-friendly servers which states which streaming service each server best works with.

Betternet’s desktop and mobile apps are very similar. There’s minimal information presented at first glance with a large quick-connect button taking up much of the view. However, you can get to the full server list in a single click, while the settings page is easy to navigate thanks to the various toggle buttons such as the kill switch feature.

Servers and performance

When it comes to network size and server speed, CyberGhost not only beats Betternet but indeed most VPNs on the market. It has in excess of 11,000 servers in all. What’s more, these servers are located across over 100 countries. Having access to so many servers means that not only can you access a wider range of geo-restricted content, there’s more likely to be a fast, low load server in your preferred location.

In contrast to CyberGhost, Betternet offers 1,000+ servers. This is fairly small compared to the majority of top-tier providers. Nevertheless, it provides access to a respectable 70+ countries. It even offers servers in some locations that CyberGhost doesn’t (such as Azerbaijan, Nepal, and Uruguay).

CyberGhost is significantly faster than Betternet. We carry out speed tests on each VPN we review and CyberGhost is consistently one of the fastest VPNs we’ve come across. It averaged 296 Mbps whereas Betternet averaged 52 Mbps. However, Betternet’s speeds are still more than fast enough for most bandwidth-intensive activities such as streaming, particularly because there’s unlimited bandwidth (as with CyberGhost).

Here’s a list of countries in which CyberGhost and Betternet have servers:

Security

CyberGhost offers a little more flexibility than Betternet when it comes to the VPN protocols you can use. That’s because it offers the options of WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2. Each offers its own pros and cons, but WireGuard is increasingly popular thanks to its faster speeds. Betternet only offers Catapult Hydra, which is its own proprietary protocol. This is shared with the likes of Hotspot Shield and offers obfuscation to disguise VPN traffic and bypass blocks.

Connecting to a CyberGhost or Betternet server ensures your internet traffic is secured with 256-bit AES encryption. However, one difference is that CyberGhost’s RSA keys are longer, which makes them more difficult to crack. Both VPNs offer a kill switch so that if your VPN connection drops, your internet traffic is cut to prevent leaks. However, it’s CyberGhost that offers the most security features. Indeed, you’ll also find an ad blocker and automatic wi-fi protection in its apps.

Privacy

If you place particular importance on your online privacy, you’ll probably want to avoid Betternet. That’s because it does keep some logs such as the duration of session and amount of bandwidth consumed. There are also some logs including websites visited (although these aren’t tied to specific users). However, it doesn’t keep any identifying logs.

CyberGhost operates a strict no-logs policy and is headquartered in Romania. Betternet operates out of the US which is a member of the Five Eyes (and 14 Eyes) intelligence alliance. Your data could therefore be shared with other countries were it to be obtained (although it’s unlikely the average user will be on the radar).

Signing up for a CyberGhost or Betternet account only requires an email address. You can always use a burner account for added anonymity. However, there’s no anonymous payment option available with Betternet. CyberGhost accepts payment in Bitcoin which, if used in conjunction with a mixer/tumbler service, can be spent anonymously.

Configuration

Most VPNs use shared address allocation. CyberGhost and Betternet are no exception. Everyone on the same server is assigned the same IP address so that all online activity is essentially mixed together. This makes it almost impossible to know which user did what. Regardless, both VPNs encrypt your traffic and neither VPN keeps identifying logs, so this shouldn’t be an issue anyway.

Betternet is somewhat limited on features and there’s no option to obtain a dedicated or static IP address. CyberGhost does let you get a dedicated IP address for an extra $2.50 a month. Available locations include the US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Japan. Dedicated IPs offer a number of advantages including less frequent CAPTCHAs and reduced risk of IP blacklisting.

Customer Service

In terms of customer support, only CyberGhost offers live chat 24 hours a day. This is generally the quickest way for you to get an answer to your questions. However, both VPNs have email support.

To test the response time and compare it with that of other VPN providers, we sent CyberGhost and Betternet three emails each. Betternet was marginally faster with an average email response time of one hour and 40 minutes. CyberGhost took two hours and 15 minutes on average.

You may prefer to search for a solution yourself, in which case, CyberGhost has an extensive knowledge base. This includes setup guides, troubleshooting topics, and FAQs. There’s also a YouTube channel with video setup guides if you prefer. Betternet also has a help section on its website, but this is relatively sparse and, unlike CyberGhost, there are no video tutorials available. Overall, CyberGhost provides better support even if Betternet is slightly faster to respond to email enquiries.

Here are the questions we sent out to CyberGhost and Betternet, complete with response times for each:

The Winner

CyberGhost

While Betternet does have some advantages compared to some VPNs, it falls short in most areas compared to CyberGhost. For example, while it has servers in more than 70 countries, CyberGhost’s network covers over 100 countries. Further, Betternet only has 1,000+ servers compared with CyberGhost’s 11,000+.

Based on the above findings, CyberGhost is the clear winner. It was ten times as fast as Betternet in our most recent speed tests. This makes it far more suitable for HD and 4K streaming. CyberGhost is much better at accessing geo-restricted streaming content and comes with more security features. These include automatic wi-fi protection and an ad blocker. Unlike Betternet, CyberGhost is a no-logs provider and, should you need it, 24/7 live chat support is available.

Despite the above, CyberGhost is significantly cheaper than Betternet when you opt for an annual or multi-year subscription. Last but not least, CyberGhost comes with a 45-day money-back guarantee. Most major VPNs offer up to 30 days, while Betternet only has a 7-day free trial of its Premium tier.