PrivateVPN vs CyberGhost: Which wins?

There are countless Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) on the market, all of which have varying pros and cons. For example, one VPN might have a particularly large server network but fairly slow speeds. Others might have fast, unthrottled speeds but fewer server locations. Needless to say, finding the VPN that best fits your needs can be a challenge.

In this post, we’re going to explore each and every area of two popular, well-established VPNs: PrivateVPN and CyberGhost. You’ll find a full breakdown of everything from server locations to their relative speed and security. We’ll also explain how each feature can be of benefit to you. This should make your decision of PrivateVPN vs CyberGhost that little bit easier.

PrivateVPN vs CyberGhost highlights

Pricing and discounts

When it comes to the monthly plan of each VPN, PrivateVPN is priced at $9.90 while CyberGhost costs significantly more at $12.99. This makes PrivateVPN the more competitively priced of the two if you’re only looking to use a VPN in the short term. However, it’s worth knowing that both of these VPNs offer steep discounts to users who select one of the longer-term plans.

For instance, if you’re willing to commit to PrivateVPN’s 36-month plan, you can pay as little as $2 per month. CyberGhost’s best value plan is 24 months (with an additional two months free), which only costs a little more at the equivalent of $2.19 per month.

If you’d prefer to subscribe for less than a year, both providers have shorter term options. PrivateVPN lets you sign up for three months at $6 a month, while CyberGhost has a six-month plan that costs $6.99 a month.

Both PrivateVPN and CyberGhost come with money-back guarantees. This provides you with the chance to try them out risk-free. If you’re at all unsatisfied, you can simply request a full refund for your money back, no questions asked. The difference is that PrivateVPN’s money-back guarantee is 30 days, while CyberGhost’s guarantee is longer at 45 days.

Best Deal for PrivateVPN:Save 85% and pay just $2 with PrivateVPN’s 36-month plan.

Best Deal for CyberGhost:Get an 83% discount and two months free with a CyberGhost two-year plan.

VPN Features

PrivateVPN and CyberGhost both offer the following apps for desktop and mobile: Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. The two VPNs also offer a command-line interface (CLI) app for Linux. However, CyberGhost provides more options overall, making it possible to secure just about anything you own.

Aside from the aforementioned apps, CyberGhost also has apps for Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. Furthermore, browser extensions are available for Chrome and Firefox. In the case of browser extensions, it’s worth knowing that they only secure your browser traffic, as opposed to app traffic. However, they’re certainly very quick and easy to use.

Both PrivateVPN and CyberGhost can be manually configured to work with supported wireless routers. Each provider offers detailed setup instructions for all of the most common router firmware.

As well as offering multiple apps, PrivateVPN and CyberGhost allow multiple simultaneous connections. In the case of PrivateVPN, you can secure up to 10 devices at once. This is more generous than CyberGhost, which limits you to seven.

PrivateVPN is a little light on features. However, CyberGhost offers some nice extras including an ad-blocker and anti-malware feature. Unfortunately, split tunneling isn’t available on PrivateVPN but the good news is that it is included with CyberGhost. With split tunneling, you can specifically select which website’s traffic goes through the VPN and which bypasses it. This is useful if you’d like to use a VPN to watch Netflix while still being able to access local news sites, for example.

Streaming and unblocking

If you plan on using your VPN for streaming, you’ll be pleased to learn that PrivateVPN and CyberGhost are great for accessing geo-restricted content. Indeed, they work with a wide range of region-locked streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and BBC iPlayer. As such, you’ll still be able to access these home services as normal, even if you’re traveling abroad.

However, one area in which the two VPNs differ is when it comes to Netflix. Overall, PrivateVPN works with more Netflix versions than CyberGhost. Fortunately, both work with the most popular versions of Netflix such as Netflix US and Netflix UK. In the CyberGhost mobile app, you’ll be able to select servers that are optimized for streaming specific services. You can also find the same feature on the PrivateVPN desktop apps.

You can expect high-quality streaming with both of these options thanks to their fast servers. Additionally, these two VPNs offer unlimited bandwidth which means you should be able to watch in high definition without having to worry about issues such as lag or buffering. It’s also worth knowing that PrivateVPN and CyberGhost also allow torrenting.

Usage in China

Very few VPNs work in China due to the censorship efforts of the Chinese government. In order to be government-approved, a VPN must agree to the logging of user activity. Needless to say, no self-respecting, privacy-oriented VPN will agree to such a thing. As such, the vast majority of quality VPNs are blocked in China and simply won’t work there.

Our research found that the websites of PrivateVPN and CyberGhost are blocked in China. This is not surprising. The Great Firewall of China—China’s internet censorship system—blocks access to many different foreign websites, apps, and VPNs. There are even IP address blacklists which make using these VPNs in China challenging.

However, the good news is that PrivateVPN is one of the very few VPNs that continue to work in China. Its Stealth VPN feature allows you to bypass VPN blocks in restrictive countries such as Russia, Iran, and China. It does this by disguising VPN traffic as regular web traffic – even when subjected to deep packet inspection.

CyberGhost acknowledges that it doesn’t work in China. However, it does provide configuration guides as well as workarounds if you’d like to try connecting manually.

Setup and interface

If this is your first time using a VPN, you’ll find PrivateVPN and CyberGhost to be very easy to use thanks to their beginner-friendly apps.

Overall, the PrivateVPN desktop app is a little easier to navigate due to its more streamlined dashboard. It could be said that the CyberGhost desktop app is a little cluttered with its various optional settings (although you can easily toggle these on and off). Some users may also find CyberGhost’s “Simulated Country” and “Simulated Location” tabs a little confusing.

However, when it comes to mobile apps, both are equally easy to use and navigate. One thing in CyberGhost’s favor is that you can automatically connect to the best available server (typically the server nearest your physical location for the fastest possible speeds). Needless to say, this makes connecting to a server even easier.

Both VPNs allow you to browse servers via a drop-down list that is sorted by country and further subdivided into cities. With PrivateVPN, there’s also a separate tab for Dedicated IP servers (although these are shared with other users, making them more akin to static IP servers).

CyberGhost and PrivateVPN both have options for connecting to servers that access specific streaming services. This takes the guesswork out of finding working servers. You’ll also be able to use either VPN to favorite specific servers for faster access in the future.

In terms of the settings, you’ll find more configuration options on the desktop apps of these VPNs. However, a number of security settings are still available on mobile. In both cases, you can change the protocol. With the CyberGhost mobile apps, there’s the option to automatically connect when connecting to public wi-fi networks. On the PrivateVPN mobile apps, you’ll find the Stealth VPN setting for bypassing country blocks.

Servers and performance

Server network size is an area in which CyberGhost stands out. CyberGhost is one of the biggest VPNs on the market with over 11,500 servers in 100+ countries worldwide. This is in stark contrast to PrivateVPN which only offers around 200 servers in total. However, PrivateVPN’s network does cover 63 countries which is about average for a quality paid VPN service.

The good news is that you’ll be able to use PrivateVPN and CyberGhost for most of your unblocking needs since they both offer servers in popular locations including the US, UK, and Australia.

However, if you’re looking for a server in a less popular location, be it Armenia or Sri Lanka, CyberGhost is your best bet. Whichever VPN you use, you’ll have the option to connect to servers in specific cities which is ideal for accessing local and regional content.

If you choose CyberGhost, having access to so many servers (and IP addresses) comes with a number of advantages. In particular, you’ll be able to access region-locked content in more locations. It may also mean reduced server load because users are more likely to be spread out across servers. As a result, you’re less likely to experience slow speeds and performance issues.

CyberGhost is one of the fastest VPNs we’ve tested. This makes it ideal not only for browsing, but streaming and torrenting. In the case of streaming, the fast connections and unlimited bandwidth mean you won’t often have to contend with lag or buffering. That’s not to say PrivateVPN is slow. It achieved an of average of 71 Mbps when tested, which is fast enough for streaming and torrenting without interruption.

Below, you’ll find a list of every country in which these VPNs have servers:

Security

In terms of security, PrivateVPN supports a variety of protocols, providing numerous ways for your device to connect to a VPN server. These include WireGuard, OpenVPN, L2TP, IPsec, PP2P, and IKEv2 connections.

CyberGhost also allows WireGuard, OpenVPN and L2TP protocols as well as IKEv2. Both of these VPN services use 256-bit AES encryption to keep your internet traffic secure. This makes it practically impossible for your data to be accessed and read by hackers or snoopers.

Another similarity between PrivateVPN and CyberGhost is that they both offer protection from DNS, IPv6 leaks, and WebRTC leaks. One big difference is that CyberGhost offers a kill switch on all desktop and mobile platforms. However, PrivateVPN’s kill switch is only available on its desktop apps. As such, if you’re using PrivateVPN on mobile, you may be vulnerable to data leaks should the VPN connection drop unexpectedly.

PrivateVPN has its own cloaking technology via its Stealth VPN feature. This allows you to bypass VPN blocking in countries such as China. While CyberGhost doesn’t offer this, it does have automatic wi-fi protection so that the VPN automatically switches on when you connect to a wireless network—a feature that PrivateVPN doesn’t possess.

Privacy

PrivateVPN is headquartered in Sweden, which is a member of the 14 Eyes intelligence alliance. Members of the alliance share data with one another and spy on each other’s citizens, bypassing national privacy laws. While this is worrying, it’s important to emphasize that PrivateVPN has a strict no-logs policy, meaning it won’t keep user activity logs that could be shared with the government.

In contrast, CyberGhost is headquartered in Romania, which is not part of the 14 Eyes intelligence alliance. This means that it isn’t obliged to comply with data requests from foreign governments. Regardless, CyberGhost has a strict no-logs policy that has been verified by third-party audits. Some connection anonymous logs are kept for reasons related to statistics and diagnostics. However, these are deleted at the end of each month.

Neither of the two VPNs keeps identifying logs such as your IP address or browsing history. When you come to sign up for these VPNs, you don’t need to provide much personal information. In each case, you only need to provide an email address. Furthermore, if you use a throwaway email address and choose to pay in Bitcoin, you can essentially sign up for these VPNs anonymously.

Configuration

You can expect shared address allocation with PrivateVPN and CyberGhost. This means that users who connect to a specific server at the same time are all provided the same, shared IP address. This is advantageous for privacy reasons because all of your online activities essentially become mixed up with those of the other users. Even if connection logs exist, it then becomes almost impossible to tell the activity of users apart.

Both PrivateVPN and CyberGhost allow you to get a dedicated/static IP address. These are IP addresses that don’t change if you disconnect and reconnect.

A dedicated IP address is used by you and not shared with anyone else. CyberGhost offers this option for an extra $5 (GBP £3.63) a month on top of a regular subscription. If you don’t mind sharing, you can use one of PrivateVPN’s static IP servers.

One advantage of having a dedicated IP address is that only you are responsible for it. This means you don’t have to worry about someone else using the IP address and getting it blacklisted.

While anti-DDoS servers aren’t available on either VPN, by using these services you can hide your actual IP address. As long as those bad actors don’t know your original IP address, you’re protected because the VPN’s network would be the target instead. CyberGhost also blocks unsolicited incoming traffic with a built-in NAT firewall.

Customer Service

While both PrivateVPN and CyberGhost provide live chat and email support, PrivateVPN’s live chat isn’t quite available 24/7 (only up to 22 hours per day). In each case, you’ll receive very fast and helpful replies to your questions and queries. However, in our tests, PrivateVPN’s email support response time was much faster, with an average response time of 14 minutes. In contrast, CyberGhost took roughly six hours (on average) to get back to our emailed questions.

Aside from being able to contact customer support, you also have the option of using setup guides. PrivateVPN and CyberGhost provide detailed instructions on how to set up with various platforms. FAQ sections are also available if you have a specific question.

When it comes to video guides, CyberGhost is the better option. Its YouTube channel offers over 130 videos, some of which have been uploaded in the last few months. In contrast, PrivateVPN’s channel is somewhat antiquated (the last video was uploaded a year ago) and only includes 10 videos in total.

We emailed three questions of varying difficulty to PrivateVPN and CyberGhost to test their response times and the quality of their answers.

The Winner

CyberGhost

What’s clear is that PrivateVPN and CyberGhost are two excellent, high-quality VPN services. In reality, you can’t really go wrong with either. However, for most people, CyberGhost is a slightly better option.

The sheer size of CyberGhost’s network is arguably its biggest advantage. Indeed, it offers access to over 11,500 servers compared to PrivateVPN’s 200+ servers. That’s not to say PrivateVPN isn’t good at accessing content; if you’ll recall, it actually performed better than CyberGhost at accessing streaming services. However, as CyberGhost covers 100 countries as opposed to 63, it has the potential to work with a far greater number of different content libraries. It’s also much faster.

Beginners will find PrivateVPN and CyberGhost to be equally easy to use, although CyberGhost is available on more platforms. Overall, CyberGhost’s customer support is marginally better with its 24/7 live chat support. It also has a more extensive video guide collection.

When it comes to security, both VPNs will keep you safe online and allow you to browse anonymously. Of course, there’s 256-bit AES encryption to keep data secure. However, CyberGhost does keep some connection logs, while PrivateVPN states that it doesn’t keep any. On the other hand, CyberGhost is headquartered in Romania, while PrivateVPN is in Sweden which is a member of the 14 Eyes intelligence alliance.

In summary, CyberGhost offers more bang for your buck. If you’d like to try it out, it comes with a generous 45-day money-back guarantee.

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Methodology: How we compare VPNs

We ran a series of tests to determine the outcome of PrivateVPN vs CyberGhost. Here are some of the things we looked at:

• Servers – We check that both VPNs offer a wide range of worldwide servers capable of accessing content and providing a reliable connection
• Speed – Speed tests are conducted to determine which VPN is the fastest and can best handle activities like streaming, gaming, and file sharing
• Safety – Some of the safety and privacy features we look for include; 256-bit encryption, a network kill switch, and a no-logs policy
• Usability – We test how easy the apps are to use, even for beginners. We also test each VPN across a number of devices
• Value – Subscription costs, discounts, and simultaneous device connections are just some of the aspects that determine whether or not a VPN is good value

For more information on our assessment criteria, read more about the Comparitech VPN testing methodology.

PrivateVPN vs CyberGhost: FAQs