BolehVPN Review for Australian Users 2022 - Is It Worth Buying?

Last updated: January 12, 2023
William Sams
William Sams
BolehVPN can boast of having refused data-sharing requests from some of the most powerful intelligence organizations in the world. But in 2022, is a robust commitment to user privacy enough for customers to ignore a low server count and no support for popular VoDs?

BolehVPN Review for Australian Users 2022: Quick Summary

Jurisdiction Seychelles
Price AU$127.3/year(US$79.99/year) (On 1-Year Plan)
Servers 65+ Servers in 12 Countries
Logs Store Connection Logs
Encryption AES 256-Bit
Unblocks Netflix Yes
Torrenting Yes
Works in China No
Recommended  Yes
Website https://www.bolehvpn.net/
Compatibility Android, Apple, Desktop

BolehVPN was able to surpass a lot of my initial expectations. But to be honest, I didn’t have that high expectations to begin with.

In this BolehVPN review for Australian users, we’ll look at the primary factors such as security, pricing, streaming, trustworthiness, and more to help you reach a firm decision on whether you should purchase this VPN service or not in Australia.

First things first, BolehVPN’s location out of Seychelles immediately gives it a distinct advantage.

It is further helped by the fact that it maintains a regular warrant canary to be transparent about what information requests it receives to keep its Australian users informed.

Similarly, its support for torrents via split tunneling in Australia which is particularly impressive.

However, Australian users may not be impressed at all with such a meagerly low count of servers or that fail to unblock popular VoDs.

The logging policy of BolehVPN is not transparent, despite the fact that it has several decent security measures.

It’s easy to install on Windows and macOS platforms, but installing them on mobile devices is much more complex.

The VPN is also by no means a highly affordable VPN option as well. Considering all these limitations, Australian users might want to consider Surfshark, thanks to its 3200+ servers available at the most affordable rates on the market.

BolehVPN Review for Australian Users 2022: Pros and Cons

Pros
  1. Decent speed
  2. Obfuscation technology
  3. Supports torrenting
  4. Unblocks US Netflix and BBC iPlayer
  5. No logs policy

Cons
  1. Expensive pricing
  2. Kill switch not available
  3. Less features
  4. 3 simultaneous connections only

Rating Criteria

  1. Pricing: How Much Does BolehVPN Cost Exactly?
  2. Speed: How Fast are BolehVPN Servers?
  3. Security: Can BolehVPN Keep You Safe Online?
  4. Leaks: Does BolehVPN Leak Your IP/DNS/WebRTC?
  5. Servers: How Many Servers Does BolehVPN Have?
  6. Streaming: Does BolehVPN Unblock Netflix and Other VoDs?
  7. Compatibility: Can I Use BolehVPN On All My Devices?
  8. Trustworthiness: What Do Users Say About BolehVPN?

Pricing: How Much Does BolehVPN Cost Exactly in Australia?

I can’t say that the BolehVPN price is the most reasonable out there for the Australian users. There are only 5 options on offer, and the difference between them is just that of the subscription period.

  • 7 Days [AU$5.89/week(US$3.70 per week)]
  • 30 Days [AU$15.9/mo(US$9.99 per month)]
  • 60 Days [AU$27.04/2mo(US$16.99 per 2 months)]
  • 180 Days [AU$71.61/6mo(US$44.99 per 6 months)]
  • 365 Days [AU$127.31/year(US$79.99 per year)]

BolehVPN-pricing-Australia

Is there any Free trial / Refund policy?

BolehVPN has a 14-day free trial, and I found its refund policy to be…interesting, to say the least. Australian users get a 14-Day money-back guarantee.

However, this only applies to payments made via cash or PayPal. While the service does not entertain crypto-refund requests, in the rare instance that it does, it will deduct a 2% charge.

What are BolehVPN Payment Methods?

Australian users can pay via cash, PayPal, or all of the major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Monero. While there is a lack of payment options through credit and debit cards, it is to ensure that there is no transaction trail that could leave users’ identities exposed.

Though less convenient, I can say with certainty that this raises a user’s protection online by a significant margin.

Speed: How Fast are BolehVPN Servers?

It becomes clear fairly early on that BolehVPN’s biggest problem is its paltry sum of servers. However, I wanted to see whether BolehVPN could “deliver more with less.” in Australian region. Hence, using a 100MBps connection, I conducted a speed test and connected to servers in US, UK, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden.

Here are the results:

Server Download Upload Ping
US 32.35 Mbps 28.18 Mbps 189 ms
UK 31.95 Mbps 25.02 Mbps 112 ms
Canada 41.53 Mbps 36.85 Mbps 284 ms
Switzerland 29.28 Mbps 31.28 Mbps 320 ms
Sweden 47.15 Mbps 35.16 Mbps 292 ms
Average 36.44 Mbps 31.29 Mbps 239.4 ms

Test 1: US

BolehVPN US Speed

Test 2: UK

BolehVPN UK Speed

Test 3: Canada

BolehVPN Canada Speed

Test 4: Switzerland

BolehVPN Switzerland Speed

Test 5: Sweden

BolehVPN Sweden Speed

Security: Can BolehVPN Keep You Safe Online in Australia?

Despite some issues, overall, the service can be considered safe in Australia. Its operations out of Seychelles, coupled with a regular warrant canary and strong encryption, means that I am willing to overlook a somewhat murky logging policy.

To keep you safe, BolehVPN includes robust security features for the Australian users. The strongest encryption currently used is 256-bit military-grade AES with SHA-2. Your data is converted into a code by encryption, making it incredibly difficult for a third party to access it.

Perfect Forward Secrecy adds additional security (PFS). This implies that the VPN generates a new private key for each new session, preventing older data from being accessed in the event of a compromise.

Additionally, a 4096-bit key is used in public key infrastructure. Your data is secure because it uses two different cryptographic keys—a public key and a private key—to operate.

Furthermore, BolehVPN provides the OpenVPN protocol, which is regarded as the safest. If you’re not worried about security because L2TP is an old protocol, it also includes that feature.

The lack of IKEv2 for mobile, one of the quickest protocols available, is one of BolehVPN’s drawbacks.

You can enable the DNS leak prevention on the Windows, Linux, and Android apps from the settings menu to make sure your browsing history and IP are concealed. Unfortunately, this capability is not included in the macOS and iOS apps.

Upon testing BolehVPN on VirusTotal, I got the following result:

BolehVPN virustotal

As you can see, no security vendors have flagged the BolehVPN URL as malicious.

BolehVPN Logging Policy

According to BolehVPN’s logging policy, it doesn’t record user activity such as DNS requests, timestamps, bandwidth use, or original IP address.

However, if it observes suspicious activity or as a final resort for troubleshooting, it will gather logs. It declares that it will only collect logs from questionable servers and will withhold all other information.

Additionally, it collects your email address, the day and time of your transaction, your payment method, and any other information you enter while registering.

However, since VPNs require this information to set up your account, this is a common procedure.

Leaks: Does BolehVPN Leak Your IP/DNS/WebRTC?

Although BolehVPN has built-in DNS leak protection, it’s unfortunate that it isn’t turned on by default. The majority of reputable VPNs, including NordVPN and ExpressVPN, by default, provide DNS leak protection to the Australian Users.

IPv6 and WebRTC leak prevention is also missing from BolehVPN. Nevertheless, I performed testing for IPv6, DNS, and WebRTC leaks while using BolehVPN in Australia, and I experienced zero leaks, which is good.

Leak test BolehVPN Australia

To be safe, I still advise manually turning off IPv6 and WebRTC to our Australian readers.

On all of BolehVPN’s servers, The Onion Router (Tor) can be used to add an additional degree of security. Before using the Tor browser, simply connect to one of BolehVPN’s servers.

If Tor has an IP leak, only the VPN’s IP will be publicly disclosed. Australian users can use BolehVPN over Tor, according to BolehVPN’s website (connect to Tor first, then to a BolehVPN server).

I prefer ProtonVPN more since you can access Tor websites using the .onion domain in standard browsers like Chrome and Firefox without having to download, set up, and use the Tor browser.

However, BolehVPN’s Tor support is still excellent if you don’t mind using the Tor browser.

Servers: How Many Servers Does BolehVPN Have?

BolehVPN has 65+ servers in 12+ countries.

Although the BolehVPN website claims to have more than 35 servers, I manually counted the servers inside the app, indicating that the website needs to be updated.

The server network is still far smaller than that of the majority of VPNs – ExpressVPN has more than 3,000 servers spread over 90+ countries, NordVPN has more than 5,600 servers spread across 59 countries, and Surfshark has more than 3200 servers spread across 100 countries.

BolehVPN only has servers in Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia, so if you live somewhere else in the world, you might have trouble getting fast connections because there aren’t any local servers there.

However, even in Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia locating a local server are unlikely due to the tiny number of locations in general.

There is no way to tell which of BolehVPN’s servers will be the fastest without simply trying them all because the service doesn’t display the server load (the number of active users connected to a server) or ping (also known as latency; how long it takes data to travel between your device and the server).

Does BolehVPN Support Torrents in Australia?

Yes, BolehVPN’s servers support torrenting flawlessly in Australia.

BolehVPN can impressively mask your IP address and make your P2P sharing appear anonymous in Australia. When I say this is impressive, it is because some of the other well-renowned VPNs in the industry with thousands of server locations fail to offer the same feature.

However, the VPN doesn’t allow torrenting on its “vStream” and “vSurf” servers.

In order to connect to more peers and speed up your downloads, you can also use port forwarding. It’s only available on its Luxembourg and Swiss servers, so there may be congestion. And if you’re outside of Europe, you’ll undoubtedly experience slower speeds.

I used BitTorrent to download a movie from the public domain by connecting to BolehVPN’s UDP server in New York. I had reasonable download speeds, so it just took 6 minutes or so to download an 800MB file in Australia.

Does BolehVPN Work in China?

The cloak servers of BolehVPN obscure your traffic. Therefore, they ought to function in China. To corroborate this, I contacted customer care, but they didn’t get back to me.

Small VPNs, like BolehVPN, typically don’t work, and very few VPNs can get beyond the Great Firewall.

Only VPNs that have been authorized by the government are permitted in China, but no visitors have ever faced penalties for doing so. Before using a VPN in China, you should educate yourself on the regulations in place.

Moreover, I would recommend that you opt for one of the best VPNs for China to easily get a Chinese IP address in Australia and watch Netflix in China.

You can also easily access WhatsApp in China or other social media apps such as Facebook, Viber, and Snapchat.

Streaming: Does BolehVPN Unblock Netflix and Other VoDs in Australia?

In my testing, BolehVPN’s “vStream” streaming-optimized servers for US Netflix and BBC iPlayer worked flawlessly in Australia.

Netflix ban VPNs frequently as it has a strong algorithm that identifies and eliminates VPN-generated IP addresses. However, BolehVPN managed to escape its algorithm to give me access to US Netflix content in the Australian region.

Previously, it had “BolehFlix” servers; however, these are no longer present, having been replaced with vStream servers. The UDP servers did a good job of unblocking other platforms as well.

BolehVPN’s streaming speeds were generally suitable. Although I noticed a little buffering, you might not be able to view in HD if your base speed is lower, given the speed reductions I encountered.

The UDP server speeds were satisfactory. The TCP versions, on the other hand, were excessively slow and unsuitable for high-quality streaming.

Additionally, BolehVPN unblocked the Netflix libraries for Germany, France, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, and Switzerland in Australia. Unfortunately, it was a little slower on long-distance servers, which made the streaming quality less than ideal.

Disney+ also worked nicely with BolehVPN in Australia. I established a connection with its UDP New York server and continuously streamed Avengers: Endgame. The movie took around twelve seconds to load, but once it did, there was no buffering.

Blocked By: Netflix Canada, Amazon Prime Video, ESPN+, and Hulu

Using the Canadian servers of BolehVPN in Australia, I was unable to access Canadian Netflix because the connection was never established.

Additionally, Hulu, ESPN, and Amazon Prime Video all blocked the VPN. My advice would be to pick the best VPN for streaming to unblock these platforms with ease.

For Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, BolehVPN does not provide streaming-friendly servers. Sadly, neither of its US servers in Seattle or New York worked when I tried to access these platforms in the Australian region.

Additionally, I was unable to access ESPN+ when I attempted to stream Family Law using the New York server of BolehVPN.

Compatibility: Can I Use BolehVPN On All My Devices in Australia?

BolehVPN supports Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS platforms in Australia. However, neither iOS nor Android has native apps.  The VPN is also compatible with Sabai Technologies, ASUS, and DD-WRT routers.

Although I thought the app layout was a little disorganized, the interfaces of its macOS and Windows apps are precisely the same.

It is quite outdated and may benefit from being simplified. There are too many buttons there that could be swapped out for more straightforward menu bars.

macOS

BolehVPN works with macOS.

BolehVPN on Mac

Tunnelblick is an open-source OpenVPN client for OS X and macOS. To set up Tunnelblick to connect to the servers, download the most recent version from this page and then follow this guide.

Android

BolehVPN is compatible with Android.

The BolehVPN download file for Android is available here. However, please remove any existing OpenVPN clients from your phone before installing this apk to prevent problems.

When using the BolehVPN app, you can receive a notification informing you that the installation is banned because it came from unknown sources. Make sure Unknown Sources is enabled under Settings > Security (allow installation of non-official apps).

BolehVPN on Android

iOS

BolehVPN can work on iOS devices, but you’ll need to download OpenVPN Connect. This app was created and is officially maintained by OpenVPN Technologies, Inc. You can download it from the Google Store.

BolehVPN on iOS

Follow this BolehVPN guide for iOS to completely install the VPN on your device.

Trustworthiness: What Do Users Say About BolehVPN in Australia?

Despite my somewhat mixed experience with BolehVPN, I wanted to see how to do the rest of the users’ experience stacked up compared to mine. Hence, I headed over to Trustpilot to see how the service was perceived. Here’s what I found out:

BolehVPN Trustpilot Review

BolehVPN’s Trustpilot page is a picture of lousiness

For starters, the page is still unclaimed by the official service. This counts as a severe blunder on the part of the service, considering how rating platforms like this are a great way of proving the service’s merits.

Trustpilot BolehVPN

In any case, I wouldn’t rely at all on the page in its current form. There is not one single solitary rating given. My advice to BolehVPN would be to promptly claim this page and do some proper reaching out to their customers.

BolehVPN Customer Support for Australian Users

The BolehVPN support page offers a number of useful installation guides, a forum, and a help desk section with announcements and support materials.

The BolehVPN assistance bot prompts you to leave a message, and the support staff replies by email. There is no phone number, no easily accessible email address, and no live chat feature.

They walk you through the challenging setup process for all devices in a clear, easy-to-read format with screenshots. However, I found that certain tutorials are outdated.

Overall, BolehVPN’s customer assistance is mediocre. There is no live chat or contact center, there aren’t many support guides, and the support staff doesn’t always respond to emails. However, there are a few useful setup manuals.

BolehVPN Alternatives

While there are a lot of positives, there are some visible drawbacks of using BolehVPN in Australia as well. While it was quite capable of unblocking US Netflix and giving users access to torrenting servers, the service isn’t great overall in the Australian region.

Similarly, it has failed to add any significant numbers to its overall server count. And to round it all off, there are the issues of problems with its claims of being cross-compatible on Android and its somewhat dodgy logging policy.

I encourage users to instead opt for the other best VPN services that are reliable for all operations. These are some of the best VPN choices that Australian users prefer:

ExpressVPN boasts a network of 3000 servers in 105 countries, giving you access to major streaming sites such as Netflix, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and more in Australia.

Similarly, NordVPN is based in the privacy-friendly Panama, where there are very flexible data retention laws, and the service offers a massive network of 6000 servers in 61 countries from which you can easily unblock Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and more in Australia.

At last, Surfshark is the budget-friendly service you can go for instead of BolehVPN. The VPN offers a network of 3200 servers in 100 countries, with streaming-optimized servers for Netflix, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, and more in the Australian region.

Do I Recommend BolehVPN?

Finishing this BolehVPN review for Australian users, after testing the service in all the major categories mentioned above, I would recommend BolehVPN only if you use a VPN casually for browsing in the Australian region.

BolehVPN isn’t the best VPN I’ve tested, but it’s not the worst, either. Despite its poor and erratic speeds, it was successful in unblocking numerous streaming websites in Australia.

Another issue is that it has a small number of servers. Additionally, I had trouble connecting to various servers, including those in Luxembourg, Sweden, Hong Kong, and Canada.

Yes, it has good security features. Its logging policy, though, is hazy.

Another incredibly disappointing aspect of it was customer support. Being unable to receive clarification on my inquiries greatly irritated me.

FAQs: BolehVPN Review 2022

Is BolehVPN safe for Australian Users?

Yes. BolehVPN is safe to use in Australia. It uses the AES 256-bit encryption, OpenVPN protocol, offers DNS leak protection, and, most importantly, the VPN cleared the VirusTotal test for its URL.

Is BolehVPN legal?

Yes. BolehVPN, or any VPN, in fact, is legal to use in the US. However, if you are in a country like China, Russia, Belarus, or UAE, you may not be able to use a VPN as these countries have heavy restrictions on VPN provider websites. As a rule of thumb, check the privacy laws for a country first before using a VPN.

Will BolehVPN slow my speeds down in Australia?

Yes. BolehVPN will slow down your speed. And this is the case for all VPNs. A VPN routes your traffic through a VPN server to encrypt, and then it reaches the destination page. This process adds an additional layer, which can cause speed loss.

I recommend you choose the fastest VPN service so you don’t have to face a high-speed loss percentage while connected to a VPN server in Australia.

Is BolehVPN easy to use?

No. BolehVPN is not easy to use. It only has dedicated apps for Windows and macOS, and even they’re not intuitive. The apps are hard to navigate and there are lots of buttons and options that confuse the end user.

 

 

 

 

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