review Review

[qitorin 1]

Here are some thoughts about Airvpn how it compares to other privacy-centric vpns. What I find most valuable about this vpn-service is the fact of comprehensive selection of different features. On the good side -

- Airvpn has really featureful connection programs both on Android and on the desktop clients. After evaluating other supposed quality vpns (Protonvpn, IVPN, Mullvad) I have come to the conclusion that these other vpns do not offer similar degree of customization and combination of simplicity, automation and configurability. These other services do not seem to offer as good as a software suite for linux versus Airvpn. On top of that Android connection program by Airvpn is really good and provides for a great deal of features far and above basic Openvpn client. Furthermore the Airvpn suite provides for a really fast and light connection option packed with options.
- Other providers do not have similar degree of connection settings, resiliency and stats to select from. Port forwarding is really well implemented on top of device specific profiles and blocklists. And thankfully Airvpn saw fit to implement openvpn chacha20-poly1305 for a nice speedup for a more modest hardware and wireguard as an alternative protocol.
- Uptime is in my experience examplary and speeds are adequate most of the time.
- Airvpn is self contained if terms of forums and support and the ownership structure inspires confidence. They also seem to support other important projects in the field of privacy and security.
- Long contracts are really affordable if bought during discount period.
- Community seems to be rather helpful and forums are chock full of useful info.
- An ability to use different crypto currencies for payment.
- And once again - all the other features that are available across the board.


But there are some rather minor bad features in this service
- Possibly it would be beneficial to have an outside party to audit the service throughout and more transparency is always welcome.
- Unfortunately the server selection is rather small compared to some other vpns. This leads to more blocks and less geolocation possibilities.
- Maybe there could be more restrictive blocklists available as a custom option for those who do not mind some breakage.
- Desktop connection program is written with c# and is not native code, thankfully it is still fast and stable but possibly native program would be better. Unless it is considered to be more secure and maintainable as is.
- Current Openvpn3 suite for linux is no longer provided for plain old x86.
- Desktop client does not have dark theme or interface customization like the, admittedly, more important connection settings.
- Possibly it would be useful to have even more obfuscation such as obfs4 et al and/or port selection and testing for post-quantum crypto as well as openvpn-dco for speed.

Down the line and above all I would like Airvpn to get more coverage and users and subsequently more resources for overall operation be it software development or just server selection. Could this be possible through some guerrilla marketing or technical users proselytizing or some other means. But it is a shame such a wonderful service does not have more users to advance the service and all the causes it supports. But great big thank you to all involved for this wonderful service!

 

[Staff 9972]

Hello!

Thank you very much for your review.

Normally we do not comment reviews, but please allow us just a quick "interference" pertaining to the software development.
 

Quote

- Desktop connection program is written with c# and is not native code, thankfully it is still fast and stable but possibly native program would be better. Unless it is considered to be more secure and maintainable as is.

A lot has been done in the last years under this respect. Eddie Desktop edition backend is written in C++ (that's why you see it quite fast even in Linux or Mac), while AirVPN Suite for Linux and Hummingbird for Mac are natively built on their respective systems and written in C/C++. The OpenVPN3-AirVPN library never relied on C#, ça va sans dire,
Eddie Android app also got rid of C# since the early beginning and even the ancient 1.0 version was Mono-free.. The only C# leftover is the Eddie Desktop graphical interface at the moment, and even this last one might drop C# in the future.

Kind regards