speedtest comparison

[psykiller 0]

newbie question:
Is somewhere a test where I could see/test which VPN server out of many , should i pick?
To avoid trying multiple 1by1 on router setup...

Thanks
 

[dIecbasC 39]

Migrated from OpenVPN to test some Wireguard speeds this weekend.
pfSense 24.11, IPSec-MB enabled, Xeon-d 2100, CPU load ~40%. Limited by Frontier's fibre gigabit connection. 

Edited ... by dIecbasC
Router spec's

[pukiman 3]

7 hours ago, dIecbasC said:

Migrated from OpenVPN to test some Wireguard speeds this weekend.
pfSense 24.11, IPSec-MB enabled, Xeon-d 2100, CPU load ~40%. Limited by Frontier's fibre gigabit connection. 

How do you make your download speed visible at the top user speed on that section? I couldn't find and answer to that anywhere. Reaching speeds well above anyone there, but still not on that list for some reason.

[go558a83nk 383]

3 hours ago, pukiman said:

11 hours ago, dIecbasC said:

Migrated from OpenVPN to test some Wireguard speeds this weekend.
pfSense 24.11, IPSec-MB enabled, Xeon-d 2100, CPU load ~40%. Limited by Frontier's fibre gigabit connection. 

How do you make your download speed visible at the top user speed on that section? I couldn't find and answer to that anywhere. Reaching speeds well above anyone there, but still not on that list for some reason.

That's an average speed over several minutes.  So doing a speed test with ookla, for example, won't be reflected there.

[pukiman 3]

1 hour ago, go558a83nk said:

That's an average speed over several minutes.  So doing a speed test with ookla, for example, won't be reflected there.

Thanks. This works.

[blackbox0815 3]

It's time to say goodbye. AirVPN is no longer really usable for me. Most of the servers I'm interested in are constantly overloaded, the connections are slow and the latency is poor. That's why I've decided to stop using AirVPN, even though I still have well over 800 days left on my subscription. The way things have been for a while now, normal use is no longer possible. It's a real shame, as I have been a loyal AirVPN user for a long time.

[Staff 10522]

@blackbox0815

Hello!

We're sorry to hear that, but are you sure that the problem is not on your ISP side and/or due to the fact that you want to connect only to few specific servers? Please open a ticket to check, just in case, because the overall bandwidth per account has increased dramatically in the last 12 months - we added 220 Gbit/s full duplex in USA, Canada and Europe. The customer satisfaction and the general stats reflect the increased bandwidth availability so your message is somehow unexpected. However, please consider the trend in Western providers to enforce tougher, selective and AI driven traffic shaping, which necessarily affects the type of traffic that can not be inspected and identified uniquely (therefore VPN traffic too) during peak times: https://editorialge.com/emerging-trends-isp-network-architecture/

See also the specific thread (where we are merging these messages): https://airvpn.org/forums/topic/48234-speedtest-comparison/




 

[sudv 1]

I am also seeing abysmal speeds lately, especially for uploads. When Piautos and Menkent were added in the NL, I managed 700+Mbit for both upload and download (using wireguard). That is no longer the case.
The problem is asymmetrical, download is usually better than upload.
 
This is my speed without VPN.

      Server: KPN B.V. - Amstelveen (id: 61186)
         ISP: KPN
Idle Latency:     2.68 ms   (jitter: 0.20ms, low: 2.41ms, high: 2.95ms)
    Download:  4020.46 Mbps (data used: 4.5 GB)
                  9.62 ms   (jitter: 1.32ms, low: 2.64ms, high: 14.11ms)
      Upload:  3985.95 Mbps (data used: 3.8 GB)
                  2.46 ms   (jitter: 0.34ms, low: 2.02ms, high: 4.37ms)
 Packet Loss:     0.0%

Current Piautos speed:

      Server: KPN B.V. - Amstelveen (id: 61186)
         ISP: Global Layer
Idle Latency:    93.62 ms   (jitter: 25.74ms, low: 46.59ms, high: 123.24ms)
    Download:   201.08 Mbps (data used: 273.3 MB)
                303.30 ms   (jitter: 75.66ms, low: 63.88ms, high: 1724.69ms)
      Upload:    58.77 Mbps (data used: 39.9 MB)
                204.68 ms   (jitter: 62.89ms, low: 17.55ms, high: 485.37ms)
 Packet Loss:    13.6%

Current Menkent speed:

      Server: KPN B.V. - Amstelveen (id: 61186)
         ISP: Global Layer
Idle Latency:     6.50 ms   (jitter: 0.51ms, low: 6.33ms, high: 7.15ms)
    Download:   429.34 Mbps (data used: 711.4 MB)
                 24.06 ms   (jitter: 34.19ms, low: 3.96ms, high: 530.66ms)
      Upload:   126.23 Mbps (data used: 226.9 MB)
                  6.82 ms   (jitter: 20.03ms, low: 3.90ms, high: 232.50ms)
 Packet Loss:     3.0%

Current Piscium speed:

      Server: KPN B.V. - Amstelveen (id: 61186)
         ISP: Global Layer
Idle Latency:     5.48 ms   (jitter: 0.61ms, low: 4.95ms, high: 6.93ms)
    Download:   250.51 Mbps (data used: 336.7 MB)
                 14.97 ms   (jitter: 12.23ms, low: 5.25ms, high: 271.58ms)
      Upload:   229.04 Mbps (data used: 283.8 MB)
                 10.35 ms   (jitter: 9.64ms, low: 4.89ms, high: 259.28ms)
 Packet Loss:     1.0%

I don't know what is going on lately. I have tried different MTU's and ports but nothing I can do seems to help.



 

[ZarkBit 2]

AirVPN recently had a season sale, and now the Halloween sale, probably because of that? Influx of new users?

Speeds on my end were never great (got fiber @ 1gbps symetric), but seems like they got worse recently.

 

Edited ... by ZarkBit
Add more info.

[sudv 1]

The last few day it has improved again.
Piautos:

   Speedtest by Ookla

      Server: KPN B.V. - Amstelveen (id: 61186)
         ISP: Global Layer
Idle Latency:     5.36 ms   (jitter: 0.38ms, low: 5.08ms, high: 5.88ms)
    Download:   729.15 Mbps (data used: 1.2 GB)
                 20.22 ms   (jitter: 13.58ms, low: 5.49ms, high: 274.46ms)
      Upload:   392.85 Mbps (data used: 683.8 MB)
                  7.50 ms   (jitter: 12.73ms, low: 4.65ms, high: 448.08ms)
 Packet Loss:     1.0%

 

[Esurient 1]

So I've been trying to chase the higher speeds again, can someone confirm if using MTU 1380 rather than custom and disabling "AirVPN anti-geolocation system" in the DNS settings for the device, seems to improve download and upload speeds for them?

I've tested in WireGuard, with the setting on, got around 180Mbps, and 50Mbps down, disabled the setting and achieved 300Mbps down, 78Mbps up (I was uploading in the background and this saw an uplift from 1.5Mb/s on the file to 2.5Mb/s instantly when the change pushed through).

Not the speeds I had, and maybe like 15% of my capacity but still an improvement to the same server, same test destination, minutes apart.

[Staff 10522]

On 11/12/2025 at 11:55 PM, Esurient said:

if using MTU 1380 rather than custom and disabling "AirVPN anti-geolocation system" in the DNS settings for the device, seems to improve download and upload speeds for them?

Hello!

Try to increase MTU even further, up to 1420 bytes (you can also try 1440 bytes if you never use IPv6). The reason to lower MTU is that the frame on some network is not big enough to contain 1420 bytes of WireGuard, but if you can enlarge (your network supports larger WireGuard MTU) then do it, because performance will improve. https://lists.zx2c4.com/pipermail/wireguard/2017-December/002201.html

Disabling the setting you mention about geo-routing on AirVPN DNS through your account panel can improve performance should the test you perform pass through a "geo-server", which would cause a bottleneck. These geo-servers are meant essentially to bypass geo-location based blocks and they are not suitable to perform massive speed tests. If the destination node which is instrumental for your tests is routed through one of these micro-servers you will get a remarkable bias. By disabling the feature you cancel any forced "geo" or "micro" routing.

Kind regards
 

[Esurient 1]

My over the top setup (servers with lowest divergence compared to baseline speedtest)
 

Edit: 22/12/2025

Baseline: ↓ 876.5 Mbps | ↑ 781.8 Mbps | 14ms ping

[Hypertext1071 11]

@Esurient, what software is that? Looks cool!

[Esurient 1]

On 12/23/2025 at 8:09 PM, Hypertext1071 said:

@Esurient, what software is that? Looks cool!

AirBL, docker container for VPN DroneBL checking and VPN testing (optionally), built it myself, been using it for about a month now.

Uses generated WireGuard profiles to periodically speedtest the servers (timer based) with active filtering and banning of under-performing servers, helping you choose the best servers for you with a built in wait timer between tests so that it does not max out your connections.

Filtering for conf files, countries, regions, cities, specific servers, etc. Auto-blocks speedtest servers that fail to connect, chooses nearest server, makes this persistent for that country for all tests and future tests until it cannot be connected to.

[mollomm1 0]

On 1/5/2026 at 10:45 PM, Esurient said:

AirBL, docker container for VPN DroneBL checking and VPN testing (optionally), built it myself, been using it for about a month now.

Uses generated WireGuard profiles to periodically speedtest the servers (timer based) with active filtering and banning of under-performing servers, helping you choose the best servers for you with a built in wait timer between tests so that it does not max out your connections.

Filtering for conf files, countries, regions, cities, specific servers, etc. Auto-blocks speedtest servers that fail to connect, chooses nearest server, makes this persistent for that country for all tests and future tests until it cannot be connected to.

Are you still working on this?
Or do you plan to make it open source?

[moving shadow 2]

Hello all!  Just asked for a trial account with the sole intention of trying the Canadian servers.  I have 3gbps fiber internet here in Ontario (but I am limited by 2.5gbE ports on my motherboard anyways, and there is overhead at such high speeds)



I got excellent results on Castula, better than my previous Big Brand VPN which is set to expire soon


Just gonna try a couple more servers but looks great so far.  Not that I ever need speeds even remotely close to this, but it's cool to see it IS there

Edited ... by r0lex

[Esurient 1]

On 2/2/2026 at 2:03 PM, mollomm1 said:

Are you still working on this?
Or do you plan to make it open source?

Still working on it, probably release it when it's good enough

[Ymir39 0]

Well i think that's a new Download speed record if i'm not mistaken using Toliman in Switzerland via gluetun used for qbt only although i'm curious why upload is drasticly lower i've symetrical 8gbps fiber line so that's not it and when i run that on my host network i get 7gbps down 5/6gbps up using wireguard config on port 1637 mtu of host is at 1500 mtu of wireguard tunnel is 1320 will keep trying by increasing that to 1420 which is the theoritical best value 

edit 1 : 

new record with mtu 1420 seems to be the highest i can get to avoid fragmentation

Edited ... by Ymir39

[bijour 0]

On 12/20/2025 at 3:44 AM, Esurient said:

My over the top setup (servers with lowest divergence compared to baseline speedtest)
 
 

 

Esurient, i'm curious what is the baseline server you're using for the baseline test ? 
What is the max speed you normally reach with your line ?
Cause to me with a baseline 350MB up and down and you got more speed, you've an issue with your baseline test being capped.

So far i'm able to get 1,1GB on a VPN speedtest on a 2.5GB line and i have them without VPN.
Not that it is an issue, most of the time there is no no possibility to reach that speed in my use anyway.
But i wonder why.

Edit : FYI, updating the MTU from 1320 to 1400 in Eddie has me going up from 1,1GB to 1,4GB in the same conditions. Imo watch out the speedtest limitations, it may very well depends on what server you're using for the test.

  Edited ... by bijour