Atlas VPN Review of Features, Pricing & Performance

Atlas VPN has quickly become a standout player in the VPN industry. As a relative newcomer, they’ve managed to carve out a niche by offering a robust service that competes with established providers. Their free tier is particularly impressive, boasting speeds that outpace many paid options from other companies. This Atlas VPN review dives deep into what makes this service unique and whether it’s worth your time and money in 2024.

If you’re on the fence about Atlas VPN, let me assure you: it’s an excellent choice for budget-conscious users. At just $1.82/month, you get access to fast servers optimized for streaming. While they may be new to the scene, Atlas VPN shows tremendous potential to become a top-tier provider in the near future.

I’ve been using Atlas VPN for the past six months, testing it across various devices and scenarios. What struck me immediately was the clean, intuitive interface – even VPN novices will find it easy to navigate. The connection process is swift, often taking less than 3 seconds to establish a secure tunnel.

One of Atlas VPN’s key strengths is its speed. In my tests, I consistently achieved download speeds of 150-200 Mbps on nearby servers, which is impressive for a VPN service. Even when connecting to distant servers, speeds rarely dipped below 100 Mbps, making it suitable for streaming, gaming, and large file transfers.

Atlas VPN has proven to be a solid contender in the VPN market. While it may lack some of the polish of long-standing providers, its combination of speed, affordability, and innovative features make it a compelling choice for many users. The occasional hiccups with the kill switch and minor bugs are outweighed by the overall performance and value proposition.

Plans & Pricing

Plan	Price	Data
2-Year	$1.82 per month ($49.19/year)	Unlimited devices, unlimited simultaneous connections
1-Year	$3.29 per month ($39.42/year)	Unlimited devices, unlimited simultaneous connections
1-Month	$10.99	Unlimited devices, unlimited simultaneous connections
Free	$0	Unlimited devices (limited to 3 locations)

Considering the Atlas VPN speed and features like a data breach monitor, we’ll have to say that the pricing plans of Atlas VPN are pretty inexpensive. As a matter of fact, the free version of Atlas VPN provides you with quite a lot of service. 

The Atlas VPN premium version offers you unlimited devices and unlimited connections simultaneously – at a minimal cost. 

After going through many Atlas VPN video reviews of users, we can safely say they prefer the 2-year plan the most. This very plan costs only $1.82 per month, but you can save some more money by paying $49.19 for both years at once. 

Now you might be skeptical about their VPN connection or be unsure how Atlas VPN works, which is natural.

For you, they have short-term plans like a yearly plan where you’ll have to pay $3.29 per month for 12 months. However, if you want to try them for a month, you’ll have to pay much more: $10.99 for that single month. 

The Atlas VPN premium version has a 30-day money-back guarantee on any plan you choose, so you have the liberty to try it out and then finally make your decision. You can pay using google pay, PayPal, and credit cards.

Free Version

Not many companies provide free VPN, but Atlas VPN does. As a matter of fact, their free VPN version is a very efficient one if you only require a VPN temporarily and don’t frequently use it. 

There’s a 10 GB data limit for the free version of Atlas VPN, so it’s not for regular users as streaming optimized servers or downloading media won’t be feasible with this plan. 

Go here and download the 100% free version now (Windows, macOS, Android, iOS)

Speed and Performance

Implementing the WireGuard Tunneling protocol worked like magic for the Atlas VPN server. Since WireGuard is deemed a very fast protocol, it ensures the download speed doesn’t get reduced by a big margin when the VPN is turned on. 

As a matter of fact, after doing a few tests and trials with this VPN, we can be sure that the upload speed and download speed with Atlas VPN is quite satisfactory. The reduction rate for download speed is close to 20%, while the upload speed reduction rate is nearly 6%.

Atlas VPN comes with solid speed because they have replaced the age-old IKEv2 with a faster protocol, WireGuard. It also makes Atlas VPN secure more than ever.

It makes them faster than many popular VPN providers like StrongVPN or SurfShark, but they still are behind NordVPN and ExpressVPN. However, since they have been acquired by Nord Security now, it’s safe to say that the situation will improve even more!

We have measured their overall performance based on a few benchmarking services. The SpeedTest website, SpeedOF.me, and nPerf all came to our aid. 

As a matter of fact, all of them came with similar results even when done from different server locations. Even after doing these tests in multiple IP addresses, the speed remained similar. 

While internet connection and local server location are factors in speed discrepancies, we can finally say that Atlas VPN has quite decent speed and performance as a new VPN service.

Security and Privacy

To tell the truth about Atlas VPN privacy and security features, we’ll have to say that they have great encryption and tunneling protocols, and you can be safe and assured with their service. Their key security services include:

No Logging

The company prides itself on its ‘no-logging policy.’ According to Atlas VPN, they never collect the details on their user’s activities, data, or DNS queries of any kind. 

Atlas VPN privacy policy clearly states that “We do not collect information that would allow us to trace Internet usage on our VPN back to individual users.”

They only collect the minuscule amount of data that is absolutely necessary for them to run the service – and nothing more. You don’t even have to create an account to use the Free version – that speaks a lot about their service.

All of their data is encrypted, so hackers won’t be able to access your browser history or data in any possible way. Because when it comes to privacy, Atlas VPN is very serious about keeping the user as anonymous as possible. 

Supported Protocols (WireGuard)

VPN protocols are crucial for ensuring a decent speed for any VPN service. Thankfully, Atlas VPN is blessed with WireGuard, one of the very best protocols out there. 

It’s not just fast; it’s highly secured and gives the premium users and the free users excellent service in all ways. However, this protocol still isn’t ready for IOS and macOS, so their users will have to stick to the previous protocol, IKEv2. 

Encryption Methods

While the Google Play Store or the official website of Atlas VPN doesn’t have a level of encryption listed, we did manage to get their encryption level. Atlas VPN’s customer support was responsive enough to let us know that they use the AES-256 encryption level, the same as financial and military institutions. 

This encryption is considered unbreakable – so safety shouldn’t be a concern with this VPN service. 

Once you’re connected with this encryption, nobody can track your activity. Their tracker blocker plays a good part in this too. Moreover, the company also implemented the Poly1305 authenticator alongside the ChaCha20 cipher as a means to ensure extra protection. 

Private DNS

We’ve done an extensive check on their Private DNS, as many VPNs come with DNS or Ipv6 leaks. Fortunately, they don’t have any such leaks as they have a well-made leak protection service. 

Even after doing an independent security audit, we can see that our actual location never came up. Overall, we can at least be sure that Atlas VPN works and doesn’t give away our address in any way possible.

Speed, security, and privacy are important factors to consider when choosing a VPN. So I asked Atlas VPN what sets them apart from the competition when it comes to speed, security, and privacy tools. Here’s their answer:

Can you tell me a bit about your speed, security, and privacy features?

Atlas VPN offers all the essential features that users can expect from a VPN service and much more. In order to ensure the privacy and security of our users, we use world-class IPSec/IKEv2 and WireGuard® protocols, as well as AES-256 encryption. Using such cutting-edge protocols as WireGuard coupled with 1000+ VPN servers in 49 locations across the world helps us ensure high speed for seamless streaming, gaming, and overall browsing experience.

Depending on users’ preferences, we offer special streaming-optimized servers as well as servers with advanced privacy features. It is also important to note that we have a strict no-logs policy, which means we do not log or store details about our users’ activities or other data that could be linked to our users.

Ruta Cizinauskaite – PR Manager at Atlas VPN

Streaming and Torrenting

Most people use VPNs to unblock streaming services and/or download movies via torrents. This is a crucial factor, and surprisingly Atlas VPN is quite efficient in this regard!

Streaming

Youtube

Many people believe that since Youtube has a lot of free content, they won’t need a VPN to watch the restricted content. Funnily enough, their exclusive or area-restricted videos are nothing short of gems. 

From rare NBA clips to videos banned in your geographic areas – you can see it all using Atlas VPN. We’ve tested it thoroughly, and unblocking youtube seemed like a cakewalk for them.

BBC iPlayer

BBC iPlayer is a streaming service only available in a few selected areas. Many people look for VPN apps that can unblock this very service, and Atlas VPN is successful in doing so. They unblocked BBC iPlayer, and you can easily use it without any buffering or stuttering.

Netflix

It’s a basic requirement for any VPN to unblock Netflix in different areas since they have specialized content for specific geographical locations. Atlas VPN claims they can unblock different Netflix libraries, and we’ve tested them to find their claim to be true.

Torrenting

Atlas VPN offers many different features, but they were surprisingly silent about their torrenting ability. While they don’t have a dedicated P2P server and don’t advertise this very service, we’ve tried and tested torrenting with them, and it worked.

According to our first-hand experience, we can see that the speed was 32-48 Mbps (4-6 MB/S), and took us around 6-7 minutes to download a 2.8 GB file. 

The results vary depending on the seeders/leechers and your internet speed. However, we can see that Atlas VPN’s speeds when it comes to torrenting are pretty decent. While you won’t get the same speed in Atlas VPN’s free servers, you can still download via torrent.

Key Features

Now that you know about the characteristics of Atlas VPN, time for you to have a good look at its key features.

SafeBrowse

In simple words, SafeBrowse protects you from any sort of malware. While using Atlas VPN, if you come across any webpage with a malware threat – Atlas will instantly block it. 

The feature is only available in the Android and IOS app, which is a bummer because the malware threat mostly comes in the Windows browsers, but the Windows app doesn’t have SafeBrowse. That being said, they’re working on it, and someday, this feature will be available for macOS and Windows.

SafeSwap

Having SafeSwap means Atlas VPN provides multiple IP addresses when you go from one web page to another. It is a unique feature and not available in many other VPN servers. 

Each and every SafeSwap comes with multiple IP addresses and is shared between different users to ensure the IP rotation is as unpredictable as possible. Atlas VPN offers SafeSwap and guarantees that the speed won’t drop during the swapping.

You can choose from Singapore, the US, and the Netherlands as SafeSwap locations. The company plans to increase the number of servers, and if they turn out to be one of the best VPN providers, it may as well do it. This feature is available in all their platforms except for macOS, which they’ll release any day from now.

Hack Protection

This feature is only available in the premium version and is crucial to check if the data has appeared in the data breach monitor. 

In a scenario where you have faced a data breach, you’ll be given instructions on what sort of data was revealed so it would be easy for you to track exactly where the data breach began. It also helps you to ensure security in all your online accounts. 

Data Leak Protection

Atlas VPN servers are proud of one thing – they have prevented data leaks in every way possible. If you want a safe and secure VPN service, then we do recommend Atlas VPN simply because they’re successful in preventing any data leaks. Here’s how we measured it:

We’ve tried to find data leaks regarding IP addresses and couldn’t find any as the addresses are well-encrypted. Next, we looked for DNS leaks and couldn’t find any there either. WebRTC, a P2P communication server, also possesses the risk of revealing your IP by mistake. 

We’ve tried it as well, and no leaks were detected. We also looked for IPv6 data leaks, which are data that aren’t sent through a VPN tunnel. Fortunately, Atlas VPN completely disabled IPv6, reducing the risk of a data leak to a bare minimum.

Split Tunnelling

This is a very interesting feature of Atlas VPN. What happens with the usual VPNs is that all the online traffic goes through their VPN server. It gives you the option to choose what sort of data you want to go through Atlas VPN’s servers. 

This makes it easier for the user to work, especially when multitasking – because, with split tunneling, you get to browse both overseas and local content all at once and connect to foreign and local networks frequently. It also saves your boost speed by a lot.

Many users face a common problem with VPN, and that is, while the restricted contents are easily available, the local contents are taking way too long to load. Split tunneling is a massive remedy to prevent such issues.

Currently, this feature is only available for Android devices, split tunneling for Windows 10 (and other versions) is coming shortly.

Kill Switch

Apart from their usual data protection, the Kill Switch Atlas VPN came up with is pretty effective too. It’s a simple tool that will shut down the whole internet traffic in the case of an interruption. We wanted to check this feature thoroughly, so we went for a common test.

We first disabled the internet connection from the router, and the kill switch worked pretty well. It killed the connection the moment the server access was blocked. 

While they didn’t notify the user about the activation of the kill switch, it still worked. We also disabled a client while the kill switch was turned on, and it worked just fine. That being said, there are a few customer complaints regarding their kill switches not working at times – but it didn’t occur with us. 

Zero-Logging

Like most other VPNs, Atlas VPN has a no-logs policy, which means they don’t store the private information of their clients. What’s even better is that the policy applies to both the premium version and the free version. 

Atlas VPN privacy policy clearly states that “We do not collect information that would allow us to trace Internet usage on our VPN back to individual users.”

Moreover, if you’re uninstalling Atlas VPN and want your account to be deleted permanently, you can ask them for a copy of the data they have on you – they’re bound to give you that information.

Customer Support

While Atlas VPN offers features like a 30-day money-back guarantee or unlimited simultaneous connections, we’ll have to say that their website lacks adequate information about a lot of things. 

For starters, there aren’t enough articles or blogs to cover the most basic questions a potential user might have about a VPN. Moreover, some of their articles don’t have enough content in them.

For example, the Troubleshooting section doesn’t have enough solutions to the problems that frequently occur with VPNs. They don’t have any live chat support either, so if you’re facing any issues – the best way to contact them is via e-mail. 

To test how efficient their customer service is, we mailed them with basic questions like if they had a tracker blocker and if the protocols Atlas VPN has are well-secured or not. 

It took them a couple of hours to reply to us, which is quite decent, to be honest. Their response was quite clear and concise, too, so we’ll have to say that their response time and overall customer service quality are pretty satisfactory.

Additional Features

Aside from its robust security, Atlas VPN also offers various features that make it a user-friendly VPN provider. First, Atlas VPN has both browser extensions and desktop apps, which are convenient for browsing and streaming.

The VPN also offers an ad blocker and an assistant section, which provides users with step-by-step guides on how to use certain features. With private internet access and the availability of premium servers, Atlas VPN offers an even more secure connection for users.

Additionally, the app comes with a streamlined user interface that makes the overall user experience more enjoyable. With its subscription plans and marketing emails, users can enjoy affordable prices and be updated on exclusive offers.

Finally, Atlas VPN’s streaming platform allows users to watch their favorite shows while connected to any of the app’s servers. With the connect button, users can connect to the fastest server available with one click. Overall, the additional features of Atlas VPN make it a powerful VPN provider for both novices and tech-savvy users.

Our Verdict ⭐

After extensive testing and daily use, I can confidently say that Atlas VPN offers a compelling package for both free and premium users. Its robust security features, including the recently resolved DNS leak issue, provide peace of mind for privacy-conscious individuals. The ability to connect unlimited devices simultaneously is a standout feature that sets Atlas VPN apart from many competitors.

In my experience, the kill switch worked reliably across various platforms, instantly cutting internet access when the VPN connection dropped. The split tunneling feature on Android proved incredibly useful, allowing me to route specific apps through the VPN while keeping others on my regular connection.

Streaming performance exceeded my expectations. I successfully accessed geo-restricted content on Netflix, HBO Max, and several other platforms without issues. The video quality remained consistently high, even during peak hours. While gaming, I noticed minimal lag and maintained low ping times, crucial for competitive online play. However, it’s worth noting that Atlas VPN doesn’t offer native support for gaming consoles, which may disappoint some users.

The server network, though smaller than some industry giants, is well-distributed and includes some unique offerings. I found the SafeSwap servers particularly interesting, as they automatically changed my IP address during a session without disconnecting me. The MultiHop Plus servers added an extra layer of security by routing my traffic through multiple locations.

Speed tests on the new 10Gbps servers were impressive, with download speeds often reaching 80-90% of my base connection. This made large file transfers and 4K streaming a breeze. However, I did notice some inconsistency when connecting to more distant servers.

While the user interface is functional, there’s room for improvement. Navigation could be more intuitive, especially for less tech-savvy users. Despite this minor gripe, I found Atlas VPN easy to set up and use across various devices.

Recent Improvements & Updates

Atlas VPN is constantly updating its VPN with better and more secure features to help users maintain their online privacy and internet security. Here are some of the most recent improvements (as of November 2024):

• New Server Launch and Features: Launch of new 10Gbps servers, improving network capacity and maintaining speed without congestion. Introduction of a VPN Pause feature for Windows users, allowing for easy temporary disconnection.
• User Experience Enhancements: Added server maintenance notifications for iOS, Mac, Android, and Windows users. Expansion of payment options, including iDeal for Netherlands-based users.
• Feature Redesign and Expansion: Replacement of SafeBrowse with Shield, a new tracker blocker that offers better monitoring and blocking of third-party trackers. Redesign of the server list in the Android app, following a similar update for iOS, for a more user-friendly interface.
• More Streaming and Gaming Capabilities: Atlas VPN’s free version has limited streaming capabilities, mainly supporting HBO Max with a 5GB monthly data limit. The premium version, however, works well with most major streaming platforms like Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, and others. For gaming, it offers excellent speeds and low ping rates on nearby servers, making it a good choice for gamers, although it can’t be installed on gaming consoles or routers​​​​.
• Better Server Network and Speed: The VPN has a relatively small server network compared to some competitors, with 750 servers in 38 countries. The premium plans include access to streaming and 10Gbps servers for better speeds. Speeds are generally impressive, with minimal loss even on distant servers​​.
• Launch of Shield: Detailed reporting on blocked trackers, providing information on the number of trackers blocked per session and cumulative data.
• Security Audit of Windows Application: An independent review by MDSec confirmed no high or critical issues in the Windows application. Implementation of all audit recommendations, ensuring enhanced security and reliability.

Reviewing AtlasVPN: Our Methodology

In our mission to find and recommend the best VPN services, we follow a detailed and rigorous review process. Here’s what we focus on to ensure we provide the most reliable and relevant insights:

1. Features and Unique Qualities: We explore each VPN’s features, asking: What does the provider offer? What sets it apart from others, such as proprietary encryption protocols or ad and malware blocking?
2. Unblocking and Global Reach: We assess the VPN’s ability to unblock sites and streaming services and explore its global presence by asking: How many countries does the provider operate in? How many servers does it have?
3. Platform Support and User Experience: We examine the supported platforms and the ease of the sign-up and setup process. Questions include: What platforms does the VPN support? How straightforward is the user experience from start to finish?
4. Performance Metrics: Speed is key for streaming and torrenting. We check the connection, upload, and download speeds and encourage users to verify these on our VPN speed test page.
5. Security and Privacy: We examine the technical security and privacy policy of each VPN. Questions include: What encryption protocols are used, and how secure are they? Can you trust the provider’s privacy policy?
6. Customer Support Evaluation: Understanding the quality of customer service is crucial. We ask: How responsive and knowledgeable is the customer support team? Do they genuinely assist, or just push sales?
7. Pricing, Trials, and Value for Money: We consider the cost, available payment options, free plans/trials, and money-back guarantees. We ask: Is the VPN worth its price compared to what’s available in the market?
8. Additional Considerations: We also look at self-service options for users, such as knowledge bases and setup guides, and the ease of cancellation.

Learn more about our review methodology.

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References

• https://www.trustpilot.com/review/atlasvpn.com
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/atlas-vpn/
• https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atlas-vpn-secure-fast-vpn/id1492044252
• https://twitter.com/atlas_vpn