Turbo VPN Review

Below is a summary of the data that Turbo VPN logs:

Turbo VPN logs enough data to identify you. Although Turbo claims that it doesn’t store VPN connection timestamps, it must log some if it knows when a connection is successful.

The date of your connection combined with your VPN server location and ISP, would allow a third-party to isolate your individual connection.

We’d like to see Turbo VPN significantly reduce the amount of data it logs, preferably to nothing at all. For instance, PIA VPN logs no user data whatsoever and still maintains an excellent service.

Troubling Ties to China

Turbo VPN is developed by a firm called Innovative Connecting. It has released a number of other basic, free VPNs, including VPN Proxy Master, Snap Master VPN, Solo VPN Pro, and VPN Proxy Master Lite.

It’s incorporated at 38 Beach Road #29-11 South Beach Tower, Singapore. Singapore is a nation of intrusive surveillance, government snooping, and has links with the Five Eyes — a US-led intelligence sharing network.

Additionally, our independent research shows Turbo VPN’s strong links with Mainland China.

The director of Innovative Connecting is a Chinese national and entrepreneur by the name of Danian Chen, who was once described by Forbes as “one of the most influential young leaders in China”. Danian Chen is listed only in corporate filings and has no public association with the company.

The fact that Turbo VPN is owned by a Chinese national, and the service’s privacy policy states it will hand over your personal information to legal authorities ‘if ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction’ is highly problematic.

To calculate Turbo VPN’s speed rating, we tested the speed of the connection between our location and Turbo VPN servers around the world.

Here’s a table showing Turbo VPN’s speed test results, in full:

Throughout the testing process, Turbo VPN repeatedly throttled our connection speeds. While connected to Turbo VPN’s Germany server, our speeds reduced by 92%.

This is an unacceptable result and only fast enough for general web browsing.

Turbo VPN claims to not put any caps on bandwidth or data usage, but it does operate a ‘fair usage’ policy.

Based on our experience with the service, running a few speed tests seems to surpass what it considers to be fair. Expect frequent and server throttling when using Turbo VPN.

Here’s a list of the popular streaming services Turbo VPN unblocks:

As shown above, Turbo VPN is unable to unblock most geo-restricted streaming services. We found that the VPN either lacked the required server location or was immediately detected as a VPN service by the streaming platform.

Unblocks Max on Windows & Android

You can use Turbo VPN to stream Max from outside the US, but only on its Windows and Android app. This is due to the absence of a US server location on Turbo VPN’s macOS and iOS apps.

While we could unblock Max consistently on Windows, its quality was always grainy. The Android app took several attempts to work and its video quality was equally poor.

Here’s an overview of how Turbo VPN performed in our torrenting tests:

Torrenting Attribute	Result
Average Download Bitrate	0.0MiB/s
No. of P2P Servers	Not Disclosed
Logging Policy	No Identifying Data
Kill Switch	Paid Version Only
Port Forwarding	No

Previously, Turbo VPN blocked P2P traffic on its servers and its privacy policy warned that your account could be suspended if you torrented to often.

In our latest tests, we were able to successfully torrent on Turbo’s US server and any reference to account suspension has been removed from the privacy policy.

However, we contacted the Turbo VPN support team and they confirmed that both torrenting and P2P connections are still banned on the VPN’s servers.

Even if Turbo VPN did work with torrenting, we would still not advise to use it. Its intrusive logging policy means all of your downloads could be linked back to you and the absence of a kill switch could leave your real IP address visible.

Instead of installing Turbo VPN, we suggest you install one of our recommended free VPNs for torrenting. All of our shortlisted VPNs allow you to torrent across their server network and use a functional kill switch.

Turbo VPN makes it quite clear that the app won’t work in China. It claims this is for ‘policy’ reasons.

Even if it were willing to let you use the VPN in China, it lacks the technologies to effectively beat the Great Firewall.

You may have some luck using Turbo VPN in other censored countries with less effective internet blocks. We don’t recommend doing so, though. You shouldn’t put yourself at risk by using this bad VPN in countries which frown upon VPN usage.

You can see the full list of connection protocols, encryption ciphers, and advanced features Turbo VPN offers in the table below:

Leaks DNS Requests & Contains Malware

As part of our investigation into free VPNs we detected unsafe functions, DNS leaks, and malware within Turbo VPN’s apps.

With your DNS requests visible, anyone monitoring your connection would be able to see the websites and services you access.

Moreover, the presence of malware is unacceptable and can severely affect the performance of your device and provide third-parties access to your personal files.

We’d need Turbo VPN to release new apps audited by multiple independent Cybersecurity firms before we could even suggest installing them.

Unusual Protocol Selection

Turbo VPN lists multiple protocols within its apps, although they vary depending on what device you’re using.

There are some protocols we’ve never heard of like Trojan and others that are rarely offered by other VPNs like V2ray and ISSR.

OpenVPN, an open-source and trusted protocol, is available across all platforms but the ability to choose a protocol is paywalled. As such, you may be assigned one of the less secure protocols without ever knowing.

We’d like Turbo VPN to address this by making OpenVPN the default for its apps and permitting protocol customization on its free version.

No Kill Switch On Free Tier

Turbo VPN doesn’t have a kill switch on its free plan, leaving your real IP exposed in the event of a sudden VPN disconnection.

A kill switch is essential for maintaining your anonymity and we expect every VPN to provide one as the bare minimum. Its absence from Turbo VPN’s apps indicates a total lack of regard for your online privacy.

Technical Features We’d Like to See

Turbo VPN lacks standard VPN features as well as more advanced features like multi-hop or an ad blocker. We’ve listed the most important features that we’d like to see Turbo VPN add in the box below:

You can reach Turbo VPN’s customer support in the following ways:

Turbo VPN has recently performed a complete overhaul of its customer support. Where it was once almost non-existent, it’s now actually on a level equal to some of the most popular VPNs.

The biggest contributor to this is its 24/7 live chat. This is accessed from a chat window on the support page. It first runs your query by a chatbot that attempts to find an answer from its minimal FAQs section. However, if you don’t get what you need there you can be instantly forwarded to a live support agent.

The agent responded extremely quickly, and was actually helpful in addressing the issue we had, too.

Email support has been improved, too. You now fill out a simple online form and will be emailed a response in the coming hours.