AzireVPN Review 2022 - Is It Worth Buying?

In this AzireVPN review, I will tell you all about the provider with the most important and primary factors considered for a VPN service, namely Jurisdiction, Cost, Speed, Security, Servers, Streaming Support, Torrenting Support, Compatibility, User-Interface, Trustworthiness, and Customer Support.

The Swedish-based provider, AzireVPN, has a mixed bag of reviews. On the one hand, users will undoubtedly be impressed with its impressively transparent and thorough no-logs policy, as well as the ability to unblock Netflix with relative ease.

However, it offers just 70 servers in just 14 countries. It is also important to note that all these countries are either members or spearheads of the notorious 5/9/14 Eyes Alliances.

The VPN only has a 7-day money-back guarantee which is not enough to test the service thoroughly. The service also lacks many features that top-tier services offer, such as a Dedicated Router app, Tor over VPN, or MultiHop.

Nonetheless, if you want a cheap VPN to carry out your everyday browsing activities or stream on Netflix, AzireVPN can be considered.

But there are other golden options to choose from if you want a premium service. One of the top names in the industry is ExpressVPN.

The VPN has a network of 3000 servers in 105 countries with TrustedServer Technology and support for all major streaming platforms like Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+, and more.

Also, while AzireVPN is based in Sweden, which is a part of the 14 Eyes Alliance Group, ExpressVPN is headquartered in the privacy-friendly British Virgin Islands, which has flexible data retention laws and the region is not a part of the 5, 9, or 14 Eyes.

AzireVPN Review 2022: Quick Summary

How to Install and Setup AzireVPN?

AzireVPN Review: Rating Criteria

1. Jurisdiction: Where is AzireVPN Based?
2. Pricing: How Much Does AzireVPN Cost?
3. Speed: How Fast is AzireVPN on Different Servers?
4. Security: Is It Safe to Use AzireVPN?
5. Leaks: Can AzireVPN be Traced?
6. Servers: How Many Servers Does AzireVPNHave?
7. Streaming: Does AzireVPN Work with all Streaming Options?
8. Torrenting: Easy and Fast, but Not Completely Safe.
9. Compatibility: Can I Use AzireVPN on All My Devices?
10. User-Interface & Setup: Is AzireVPN User-Friendly?
11. Trustworthiness: Trustpilot Ratings, Reddit & Customer Support.

AzireVPN Review: Jurisdiction: Where is AzireVPN Based?

The service operates out of Sweden, which is bound to follow the pro-privacy GDPR law, but its own national interpretation of the law leaves a lot of loopholes in terms of data protection.

This is further compounded by the fact that the country is a member of the notorious 14 Eyes Alliance which aggravates privacy-related issues for users online. Hence, the country does not appear to be an ideal location for a VPN to be operating out of.

AzireVPN Review: Pricing – How Much Does AzireVPN Cost?

For a service that offers such limited servers, I was taken aback by its payment plans. I expected the service to compensate for its lack of servers with a slightly budget-oriented plan but that is not the case. The AzireVPN pricing offers four plans:

• Monthly (€5 or $5.53 per month)
• Quarterly (€4 per month or $4.45 per month/€12 one-time or $13.28)
• Yearly (€3.75 per month or $4.15 per month/€45 one-time or $49.80)
• 2-Year (€3.25 per month or $3.60 per month/€78 one-time or $86.33)

Payment Methods

AzireVPN pricing supports the traditional VISA/Mastercard debit and credit cards as well as through PayPal. Additionally, the service also offers users the chance to pay via major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero, Doge, DASH, Steem, and EOS.

Refund Policy

AzireVPN has a visibly confining refund policy. It offers a 7-day money-back guarantee. Compared to some of the more prominent VPN names in the market, this period is extremely narrow and does not seem to be user-friendly.

AzireVPN Review: Speed – How Fast is AzireVPN on Different Servers?

AzireVPN is not fast, nor it’s too slow. Connecting to the same country server location will perform exceptionally. You wouldn’t even notice a drop in your internet speed.

However, if you connect to a faraway server from your actual location, the speed can be slow, especially if you already have a slow internet connection.

The ping time I recorded was impressive, which is good news for gamers.

All in all, AzireVPN is great for speed if you connect to a server from own country or a nearby region. Connecting to a faraway server is not that, it’s just not for hardcore activities, you can still perform your browsing operations and light streaming.

Although the 5 server locations leave a lot to be desired, I wanted to be as objective as possible testing their speed. Hence, I conducted a speed test on a 100 Mbps connection connecting to servers in all 5 locations. Here are the results:

Test 1: US

Test 2: UK

Test 3: Canada

Test 4: Spain

Test 5: Sweden

AzireVPN Review: Security – Is It Safe to Use AzireVPN?

Yes, as far as a safe and secure VPN service goes, AzireVPN ticks all the necessary boxes. The service has one of the most unambiguous logging policies, has no viruses to be fearful of, and offers strong encryptions to truly protect all users.

However, the VPN lacks a kill switch tool that guards your traffic against exposing if your VPN crashes accidentally.

Nonetheless, AzireVPN uses the secure 256-bit AES mechanism with state-of-the-art protocols like OpenVPN and WireGuard to protect your online presence.

The AzireVPN WireGuard has the UDP variant, which is supported on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, and routers running OpenWRT. Custom client is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

And the OpenVPN protocol is available with both of its variants, UDP and TCP, which is supported on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, and router running DD-WRT or pfSense. Custom client is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. The ports available with OpenVPN are 443 and 1194.

Does AzireVPN have logging policy?

No, AzireVPN does not log and in fact makes an effort to be as transparent as possible about their logging policies, where it categorically declares all information the service stores on its users.

Similarly, they state what information they DON’T log. While this may not seem incredibly significant, it does eliminate any possible ambiguities about their logging practices.

This means that even if Swedish authorities (where the VPN is registered) requested user information, AzireVPN could not provide any since they don’t have it.

The AzireVPN team vigilantly monitors its servers 24/7 for uptime, general usage, and latencies. So you can trust the provider with your private information without any worries.

AzireVPN Encryption & Protocols Information

AzireVPN uses two primary tunneling protocols; OpenVPN and WireGuard.

The WireGuard protocol uses the ChaCha20 data channel cipher with Poly1305 for authentication and data integrity. The protocol supports the UDP variants and is compatible with Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, and routers running OpenWRT.

The OpenVPN protocol is further strengthened via an AES-256-GCM (OpenVPN 2.4) and AES-256-CBC (OpenVPN 2.3) with RSA with a 2096-bit key for authentication. It is compatible with Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, and routers running DD-WRT or pfSense. Both variants are available, UDP and TCP with ports 443 and 1194.

Users also get an added option to use SOCKS5 which makes the exchange of network packages easier between users and a client. As secure as it may seem, most other VPNs offer a wider variety of protocols as well as more information on the nature of encryption being used.

AzireVPN VirusTotal Test

I conducted a virus test to see if the installation file and service itself was free from any hidden viruses. Gladly, all of their apps passed the testing. Here is the result:

AzireVPN Review: Leaks – Can AzireVPN be Traced?

To see whether these servers are safe enough to use, I carried out a leak test. The purpose was to ascertain whether my IP, DNS, and WebRTC was being exposed or not. I connected to the United States servers, and this was the result:

As you can see from the screenshots, the service did not seem to leak my DNS. Similarly, my WebRTC was safe as well, proving that the service does not result in leaks of any kind.

AzireVPN Review: Servers – How Many Servers Does AzireVPN Have?

Currently, the service has 70 servers in 21 locations, operating out of 14 countries covering major regions like the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, and Canada. Although the server network of AzireVPN is very small, the provider is expanding from time to time and covering more regions.

The amazing thing about AzireVPN is that it doesn’t operate on rented servers. The provider brings its personal hardware to the desired location and installs it.

AzireVPN Review: Streaming – Does AzireVPN Work with all Streaming Options?

This is by far one of the best features of AzireVPN. Thanks to its US servers, it can easily unblock the US library of Netflix as well as other local content from Netflix through its additional servers.

Similarly, the service can also unblock content from other popular streaming sites like Prime Video, Hulu, Hotstar, BBC iPlayer, and Disney+ in HD quality and fast streaming speeds.

However, because of the VPNs small server network and limited IP addresses, it can face difficulties to unblock the above-mentioned streaming platforms.

AzireVPN Review: Torrenting – Easy and Fast, but Not Completely Safe

AzireVPN is a decent VPN for torrenting. However, it is not the best option.

The VPN even allows P2P traffic on all of its servers and is super private but the absence of a kill switch tool kills this VPN’s motive of being the best torrenting VPN.

A kill switch tool terminates your internet connection if your VPN connection is disconnected accidentally, which keeps your traffic from exposing your real IP address.

Anyways, while testing it with torrent clients like BitTorrent and qBittorrent, the VPN worked fine. However, I would suggest users to avoid using AzireVPN for torrenting as all the servers are located in countries that have strict laws with regard to piracy online, which is a risk for your data!

AzireVPN Review: Compatibility – Can I Use AzireVPN on All My Devices?

As of right now, the service offers dedicated support for Windows, Mac, Android, Linux, and iOS. It also supports most routers such as Asuswrt-Merlin, OpenWrt, DD-WRT, and pfSense with relatively straightforward installation process.

Unfortunately, AzireVPN does not offer browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, or Opera browser.

Does AzireVPN Work in China?

Unfortunately, AzireVPN does not work in China. Primarily due to its low count of servers, the service is unable to properly unblock the Great Firewall and content inside China. Not to mention, the service does not utilize “obfuscation”.

Similarly, expats cannot rely on this service to unblock local geo-restricted Chinese content either, as AzireVPN does not offer local Chinese servers to unblock content outside the country.

AzireVPN Review: User Interface & Setup – Is AzireVPN User-Friendly?

AzireVPN is extremely easy to set up. Here’s how you can do it:

AzireVPN has one of the simplest desktop clients with protocol and region to select. The client is available for Windows and Mac with both OpenVPN and WireGuard setups. The Linux version is, however, complicated, using a combination of the command and WireGuard official app.

AzireVPN’s Android version is the most advanced using the WireGuard protocol by default and split tunneling available, which means you can choose which apps on your device can bypass the VPN connection.

For iOS, AzireVPN can be used with the OpenVPN or WireGuard app, as there is no official app of AzireVPN available for iPhone.

AzireVPN Review: Trustworthiness – Trustpilot Ratings, Reddit, & Customer Support

AzireVPN Trustpilot Review

The service enjoys a 4.0 rating on Trustpilot; however, there are only 12 reviews from which 84% have rated AzireVPN either “Excellent” or “Great,” and 8% have rated the VPN “Poor” or “Bad”.

AzireVPN Reddit Review

One user shared their personal experience of actually seeing the hardware Azire uses. The impression does seem to match the claims they make on their website. Despite the impressiveness of their hardware, a lack of servers continues to cast a shadow on the rest of their services.

Users living out of Europe and the US will be particularly turned off by the visible paucity of servers closer to their proximity. The lesser the servers, the more it contributes to high user load and speed issues.

However, Redditors were also quick to note the fact that while there are other VPN providers matching Azire’s features, none of them offer quite the same level of transparency.

Customer Support

Despite the service being better than I had originally anticipated in terms of features, its customer support left me disappointed. To start off, there is no 24/7 dedicated live chat option. This means that if a user has any query that they want to ask, they cannot expect a prompt response.

The only available resources available to cater to users are guides, FAQs, and an email address (support@azirevpn.com) from which you can ask your queries to the support team between 8:00 am and 9:00 pm UTC.

While the website has all the essential resources, they’re all marked under rather confusing banners. Azire needs to simply enhance its website’s outlook to make the overall customer experience better online. That being said, the blog and support section are updated regularly.

AzireVPN Alternatives

Azire has a lot of features that will satisfy the needs of most users. However, there is a clear deficiency in certain aspects as well, primarily in terms of servers. While the service does promise to improve its overall number of server locations in the future, it may not be good enough for a lot of users’ immediate needs.

Similarly, its inability to provide proper support for torrents as well as visible dips in connection speeds could be a deal-breaker for a lot of users.

In such a case, ExpressVPN would be a wise option. Not only does it offer 3000 servers in 105 countries, it has all the necessary features and a 24/7 live chat option to help you with your problems.

Do I Recommend AzireVPN?

No, I do not recommend AzireVPN. This does not mean the service is bad, just that it has a lot of areas to improve on before being considered a reliable option for all your VPN-related needs.

Not to mention, there are other VPNs that can more than match them on those fronts, i.e., no logs policy, support for streaming, and cross-compatibility for platforms.

It would be well-advised for those looking to sign up with AzireVPN to opt for alternatives like ExpressVPN, Surfshark, or CyberGhost instead that offer much more features, blazing-fast speeds, strong security, and massive server networks.

AzireVPN Review: FAQs

Can I use AzireVPN for free?

No, there is no free version or free trial offered by AzireVPN. However, you can take advantage of the 7-day money-back guarantee to use the VPN risk-free.

Is it possible to unblock Netflix with AzireVPN?

Yes, most servers of AzireVPN can unblock Netflix with no issues.

Will AzireVPN reduce my speed?

AzireVPN will slow down your speed to some extent as any other VPN would because your traffic has to go through a remote server first. However, if you connect to a server near your physical location, then AzireVPN offers decent speed to carry out all your activities.