Like marketplace rival Total VPN, SaferWeb is owned by The Endurance International Group, Inc. which owns many popular US-based hosting services like Bluehost and HostGator. Consequently, it’s subject to the same troubling privacy policy and comprehensive log-keeping as its sister company.

Accordingly, it would be difficult to recommend this service to anyone who is serious about maintaining security, anonymity, and privacy.

Additionally, SaferWeb has a scanty server network. When compared to the larger, more successful competition, this smaller rival doesn’t measure up. This undoubtedly a small number of servers also contributes to frustratingly slow data transfer rates.

Another drawback to using this VPN is all of the miscellaneous charges. If you want any kind of service or protection, it costs extra. Users who want to connect more than one device at a time must pay an additional monthly fee.

If you want access to the company’s fastest servers, that will cost you an additional annual fee. Anyone who wants access to “Priority Support” will have to pay yet another annual fee.

Those wanting to know more about online safety and privacy can pay again for an eBook covering this subject. With so many comprehensive guides available for free.

Why would you do this?

You may be able to view American Netflix and the BBC iPlayer with this service, but those are about the only advantages.

Overview

Security and Encryption with SaferWeb

SaferWeb makes it possible for users to choose a VPN protocol. Among the options are OpenVPN, which is regarded as the protocol of choice.

OpenVPN is an open source software that’s constantly being improved upon and perfected by developers around the world. Because they are always looking for and repairing vulnerabilities, you can be certain that using OpenVPN is safe.

Other available protocols include L2TP/IPSec, which generally is considered second only to OpenVPN. Like other VPN services, SaferWeb also offers the PPTP protocol. An older protocol that typically is considered woefully insecure, it’s rarely advisable to use.

If you’re using protocols like OpenVPN and L2TP/IPSec, then you can rest assured that all of your web traffic is encoded using AES 256-bit encryption. That’s the same level of encryption that governments, law enforcement agencies, and militaries use around the world.

If these organizations can trust their top-secret intelligence to this encryption method, then you can rely on it too.

One of the main concerns with SaferWeb is that it’s not equipped with a kill switch. Many of the more sophisticated and highly rated VPN companies include a kill switch in their service. The kill switch is the mechanism that automatically ends a browsing session if the VPN becomes unavailable.

This means that you are not exposed by continuing to surf while your VPN no longer operates in the background. The lack of a kill switch is a deal breaker for many people. Even if this isn’t a major concern for you, there are other reasons to look elsewhere for a VPN.

SaferWeb VPN’s Server Network

When compared with the most highly rated and most frequently recommended VPN services, SaferWeb’s server network is painfully inadequate. Their servers are found in just 30 locations across the globe.

Many of these servers are in Europe in cities such as London, Amsterdam, Keflavik, Bucharest, Madrid, Paris, Frankfurt, Warsaw, Milan, Zurich, Stockholm, Moscow, Bruges, and Dublin. Their presence is similar in North America with servers being found in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, San Jose, and Toronto.

Other regions of the world are sparsely covered. There are servers in Singapore, Mumbai, Tokyo and Hong Kong, but those are the only Asian locations. Africa is represented only by Johannesburg, and the Middle East has only Tel Aviv. Australia has several servers, but they are all located in Sydney while South America has just one server in Buenos Aires.

All told, SaferWeb has approximately 70 servers.

The most highly rated VPNs in the industry may have multiple thousands of servers located in hundreds of locations around the world.

How does this affect performance?

The more comprehensive a VPN’s server network is, the better the chances are that you’ll find a server that’s close to your physical location. This translates to faster data transfer rates.

Moreover, when a company has lots of servers, it means that there’s plenty of bandwidth for everyone to share. With a tiny network like SaferWeb’s, you’re sharing bandwidth with an awful lot of people. That makes your data transfer rates sluggish.

Is SaferWeb VPN Compatible with BitTorrent or P2P?

One of the few positive things that SaferWeb has going for it is that it’s compatible with activities like BitTorrent and peer-to-peer file sharing. In fact, there are servers in Amsterdam that are dedicated solely to this purpose.

This means that SaferWeb is not going to crack down on you for torrenting while using their VPN. The bad news is that anything you try to download or share will take quite a bit of time.

Speed Test Results with SaferWeb VPN

While no one expects the same lightning-fast speeds while using a VPN that they get without one, the best VPNs for Canadians (in French: Meilleur VPN) won’t interfere too much with your download and upload rates.

SaferWeb is one of the worst when it comes to speed test results, and there is plenty of difference between them and the best VPNs. If speed is a vital metric for you, then it would be wise to look elsewhere.

One of these only gives you access to seven of their servers. The more deluxe option grants access to the entirety of SaferWeb’s underwhelming network. Accordingly, your experience with SaferWeb may vary depending upon which servers you have access to and your location in the world.

Benchmark testing for the computer used in the speed test yielded download rates of 98.71 Mbps and upload rates of 53.00 Mbps. Those totally respectable results changed drastically with SaferWeb activated.

As you can see, the results were frustrating at best. The download speeds recorded on various servers ranged from 4.14 Mbps to 7.05 Mbps. Upload speeds were predictably worse, ranging from 1.84 Mbps to 2 Mbps. These numbers are among the worst in all of the speed test results run by this website.

Does SaferWeb VPN Keep Logs?

If the dismal results in the speed test were not enough to deter you, then it is worthwhile for you to review the company’s privacy policy. Although one of the main purposes of a VPN is to protect your privacy, SaferWeb falls short.

Ideally, a VPN provider isn’t collecting a lot of your personal info, nor are they logging when you browse, where you browse and what you do.

With its headquarters in a Five Eyes nation, it should come as little surprise that SaferWeb is keeping such close tabs on its customers. Signing up for the service requires you to disclose all sorts of personal data, and the company also gathers information about you each time you contact customer support.

That’s not where the data collection ends. Just like your ISP, SaferWeb seems to want to know everything about what you do online. They keep records regarding when you log in, which websites you visit, what you do while you’re there, your social media activity and much more.

Isn’t the purpose of having a VPN to prevent others from knowing too much about your private business? It seems like SaferWeb has chosen to overlook that.

They may even decide to share some of your private information so that they can sell third-party products and services to you. From an online privacy standpoint, this policy is a nightmare.

How Much Does SaferWeb VPN Cost?

SaferWeb currently features two pricing schemes. The Premium Plan grants access to seven of the company’s servers and one connected device at a time. Upgrading to the Super Premium Plan means that customers get access to all of SaferWeb’s servers and can connect as many as three devices simultaneously.

The Premium service starts at $3.99 per month with the Super Premium service being $4.99 per month. Unfortunately, SaferWeb gets into some really fine print after this point, and all prices skyrocket to the standard rate.

That rate varies depending upon which service you choose and whether you opt for no contract, a one-year contract or a two-year contract. With prices ranging from $10 per month up to about $17 per month, it’s easy to see that you’re going to be paying a lot more for an undoubtedly inferior VPN.

(For the sake of comparison, NordVPN, one of the best VPNs today, has a deal for $2.99 a month. So $2.99 vs $10nish + something on the fine print—not so standard. How about comparing that to our list of the best free VPNs?

Is SaferWeb a Recommended VPN?

Based on its predatory pricing, egregious logging policy, and sluggish speed test results, SaferWeb is not recommended. More reliable VPNs can easily be found like Surfshark and the aforementioned NordVPN. Check this out if you want the list of our top picks for the best VPN services available to Canadians today.

Sources:

• https://www.techopedia.com/definition/30742/vpn-security
• https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-privacy-what-is-a-vpn.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_virtual_private_network_services