CyberGhost VPN review 2026

CyberGhost VPN has been one of our top VPN picks for a while now, with good reason. The Romania-based product ranks high on my list due to its user-friendly interface, 45-day money-back guarantee, and efficient performance. However, there are also some drawbacks.

The Cybernews research team and I tested CyberGhost’s performance, streaming quality, speed, usability, and security. In this article, you’ll learn whether it’s one of the best VPNs out there, find the hands-on test results, and get a complete overview of CyberGhost.

⭐ Rating:	4.2 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
🥇 Overall rank:	#5 out of #41
📖 No logs policy:	Independently-audited
💵 Price:	From $1.75/month
🖥️ Servers:	9,800 in 100 countries
🍿 Streaming services:	Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Disney+
🔥 Coupons:	CyberGhost VPN coupon 87% OFF

Visit CyberGhost VPN

CyberGhost's pros and cons

In our testing, we’ve found areas in which CyberGhost VPN shines. These are especially related to its privacy and server diversity. However, it also has some weaknesses related to how it performs in real-life situations.

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Massive server network in 100+ countries with specialized options

CyberGhost VPN offers servers in over 100 countries, spanning various regions. This is a pretty big choice, although smaller than NordVPN’s 149 countries, it still unblocks most of the content you’ll be looking for. Below, you’ll see a breakdown of the regions supported by the provider:

Regions	Countries
Europe	45 countries
Asia Pacific and Oceania	25 countries
North America	4 countries
South America	14 countries
Africa and the Middle East	12 countries

Specialized servers

CyberGhost VPN also offers specialized servers for torrenting, streaming, and gaming. I find these servers very useful because they help users get the most out of their VPN usage by ensuring they connect to the right server at the right time:

• Downloading servers are optimized for torrenting with P2P clients like uTorrent, located in countries where torrenting isn't heavily penalized for faster download speeds. In my testing, CyberGhost's torrenting performance was average. VPNs like NordVPN often provide better speeds with dedicated P2P servers.

  

• Streaming servers are tailored to access platforms like Netflix and Hulu with optimized speed and stability. They aim to bypass geo-restrictions and provide stable, fast connections for high-quality streaming. During in-house tests, these servers reliably unlocked content without interruptions, offering a smooth streaming experience. For example, while streaming Netflix, CyberGhost maintained 86% of its initial speeds, which is decent, but NordVPN performed better, retaining 90% of its baseline speeds.

  

• Gaming servers are designed to minimize latency, which affects how quickly your internet responds. High latency can cause lag, disrupting your online gaming. I tested CyberGhost's gaming servers and found they increased our latency by 10ms compared to playing without a VPN, which is acceptable. The connection remained stable throughout our testing. CyberGhost stands out as one of the few VPNs with dedicated gaming servers.
• NoSpy servers are a great choice for the most security-conscious users. They’re based in CyberGhost’s headquarters in Romania, which isn’t part of any surveillance alliance like Five, Nine, or Fourteen Eyes.

Testing dedicated streaming, torrenting, and gaming servers

CyberGhost VPN video review

If you want to learn more about CyberGhost, you can also watch our video review where you’ll find more insights about the product.

Affordable long-term pricing with a 45-day money-back guarantee

CyberGhost offers three plan durations, with the shortest being the monthly plan priced at $12.99/month. A 6-month plan priced at $6.99/month and a 28-month plan starting from $2.03/month are also available. If you’re looking to test the service, CyberGhost offers a 24-hour free trial on Windows and macOS, 3-day free trial for Android, and 7-day trial for iOS, as well as money-back guarantees.

By purchasing the 6-month and 28-month plans, you also gain access to 1 year of 500GB pCloud cloud storage, PrivacyGuard, CyberGhost ID Guard, and special NoSpy servers. In the case of the 1-month plan, you only get the CyberGhost ID Guard. You can also pay an extra monthly fee to get a dedicated IP for your VPN.

Plan length	Price
Free trial	✅ Yes (24 hours to 7 days, depending on OS)
1-month	$12.99/month
6-month	$6.99/month
28-month	$1.75/month

CyberGhost VPN accepts payments with credit cards, PayPal, Google Pay, and Bitcoin. The 1-month plan offers a 14-day money-back guarantee, while the subscriptions of 6 months or longer offer a 45-day money-back guarantees, ensuring you can try the product risk-free.

Compared to our top providers, CyberGhost’s price is pretty attractive. It is cheaper than NordVPN and ExpressVPN, but slightly more expensive than Surfshark. The big downside for CyberGhost is that it doesn’t offer a 1-year plan, meaning you need to pay a lot initially to get an attractive monthly price. Its 6-month plan, on the other hand, is actually more expensive per month than NordVPN’s, ExpressVPN’s, and Surfshark’s 12-month plans.

Strong privacy protection with AES-256 encryption and an audited no-logs policy

CyberGhost VPN’s security is robust, with AES-256 encryption and an independently audited no-logs policy guaranteeing your browsing and data will be secure. Thanks to advanced security features like a kill switch, leak protection, and a malicious content blocker, it will protect your internet activity without a hiccup.

Encryption

CyberGhost VPN uses AES-256 encryption, which is widely considered to be the strongest encryption standard. This means that your internet activity will be turned into unreadable code to anyone monitoring your activity, like ISPs or government agencies.

This makes CyberGhost VPN a top-tier internet privacy tool. It ensures that your browsing activity is kept safe, whether you’re on your own network or private Wi-Fi. This is great for adding that extra layer of security to your browsing when traveling.

Privacy

CyberGhost VPN has a strict no-logs policy, which two independent audits from Deloitte have confirmed. With a very privacy-friendly policy, you don’t have to worry about your data getting into the wrong hands with CyberGhost VPN.

Data	Does CyberGhost VPN store it?
IP address	No
Customer’s email address	Yes
Customer’s encrypted password	Yes
Payment data	Yes (via third-party payment providers)
Browsing history	No
Session information	No
User bandwidth	No
Network traffic	No

CyberGhost leak tests

To see if CyberGhost’s security and privacy claims are legitimate, I performed a simple leak test to see whether my IP or DNS addresses would be leaked when using CyberGhost. The results show that CyberGhost is working as intended, securing my IP and my provider's DNS address from third parties.

Advanced security features

CyberGhost VPN also features some advanced features that will help secure and protect your data. I’ve listed them in the table below:

CyberGhost VPN feature	How it works
Kill switch	This feature turns your connection off if it spots your VPN has disconnected for any reason, thus avoiding leaking your information.
Dedicated IP	In order to avoid your VPN’s IP being flagged by various services due to other users’ activities, CyberGhost offers a dedicated IP assigned only to you.
Ad blocker	CyberGhost VPN’s ad blocker blocks DNS domains used for ads, trackers, and malware.
No-spy servers	No-spy servers are special servers located in CyberGhost’s headquarters in Romania, rather than third-party data centers, bringing excellent security.
Smart rules	Smart rules allow you to set up CyberGhost to trigger different connections based on the apps you’re using.

Dedicated IP

CyberGhost VPN allows you to get a dedicated IP for an extra fee starting at $2.50/month. A dedicated IP means that you’ll have more access to various websites, as VPN IPs with a lot of users are more likely to be flagged as VPNs and blocked from various services. A dedicated IP helps you get around that, as you’ll be the only one using your IP, making it less likely to trigger blocks.

Ad blocker

CyberGhost also has a built-in ad blocker to help you avoid annoying ad banners, pop-ups, trackers, and malware. The feature only works with the WireGuard protocol and can be enabled in the VPN’s settings.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work. In my tests, CyberGhost let through far more ads than NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro. This included banners, pop-ups, and even YouTube ads, which were particularly annoying. If you’re looking for a VPN with a built-in adblock, CyberGhost VPN wouldn’t be my top choice.

Smart rules

CyberGhost VPN allows you to set up smart rules, which are simple scripts that launch the VPN or certain apps under certain conditions. This can be very useful when traveling, for example, automatically activating a VPN connection when you connect to an external Wi-Fi network.

You can also auto-connect to a given server location whenever you start the computer or launch an application, like a private browser, when connecting to a VPN.

This may sound novel, but other providers offer it in other ways. For example, NordVPN’s split tunneling solution includes the auto-connect feature, while auto-launch is also a common VPN feature. However, smart rules are a very practical way to set up VPN automation.

Fast WireGuard speeds on par with competitors

My tests show that CyberGhost is a relatively fast VPN provider with speedy servers in various locations. To check performance, I tested CyberGhost across 5 locations using the WireGuard protocol via Speedtest by Ookla. The baseline speeds were 930Mbps download, 600Mbps upload, and 1ms ping.

Server location	Speed retention	Download speed	Upload speed	Ping
Local	84%	780.42Mbps	555.07Mbps	17ms
London, UK	90%	840.10Mbps	477.44Mbps	51ms
New York, US	83%	770.46Mbps	770.46Mbps	125ms
Sydney, Australia	60%	554.14Mbps	60.24Mbps	326ms
Tokyo, Japan	34%	319.42Mbps	28.99Mbps	283ms

To give you a broader perspective, I decided to compare each of our top 3 providers’ best protocols against CyberGhost VPN’s WireGuard speed averages via Ookla as well. The baseline speed for this test was 940 Mbps for download and upload:

	Speed retention	Download speed	Upload speed	Ping
NordVPN	80%	756.3Mbps	755Mbps	114.2ms
Surfshark	81%	763.8Mbps	194.3Mbps	111.1ms
ExpressVPN	61%	570.9Mbps	394.1Mbps	108.3ms
CyberGhost	78%	734.4Mbps	508.8Mbps	112.4ms

Speed averages across 7 major countries show that CyberGhost has decent performance metrics, with its upload speed being the second-best. If you’re looking for the fastest VPN, go for NordVPN or Surfshark, as they have the best speeds and retention rates overall. ExpressVPN shows the worst speeds, but the best ping rate, which reflects great real-time responsiveness, perfect for online gaming.

Helpful customer support with 24/7 live chat, but no phone option

CyberGhost VPN offers a wide selection of support options, crucially including a 24/7 live chat, which ensures you’ll get help anytime something goes wrong with the product. You can also request support via email and help yourself by using a collection of guides and FAQ.

24/7 live chat	✅ Yes
Email	✅ Yes
Phone line	❌ No
Guides or articles	✅ Yes
FAQ	✅ Yes

I also tested how long it takes to contact CyberGhost’s customer support team. When contacting them, I was informed that the team is experiencing a high load of requests at the moment, and it may take a little longer to be connected to an agent. I was eventually able to speak to an agent after about 10 minutes and received a thorough response to my question. I find that to be a decent result, all things considered. The agent answered my question in detail, showing a good understanding of the topic.

Alternatives to CyberGhost VPN

CyberGhost VPN has a lot of strengths, but it isn’t the right fit for everyone. You may consider these alternatives to CyberGhost for a few reasons. For example, CyberGhost has trouble connecting to popular streaming services like Disney+ and struggles with BBC iPlayer on some servers. It also doesn’t offer custom DNS support and might not be the best choice for Linux users.

Instead, I suggest NordVPN, Surfshark, and ExpressVPN. NordVPN is great if you’re looking for custom DNS support – you can check out our more detailed NordVPN vs CyberGhost comparison. At the same time, Surfshark has a very functional Linux app and a lower price for a 2-year plan. Finally, all three, including ExpressVPN, offer excellent streaming servers that should work with any service of choice.

Final verdict: best for cheaper long-term use and specialized servers, less ideal for power users

CyberGhost is a great VPN with affordable pricing and decent performance. I liked its specialized servers for streaming, torrenting, and gaming, which can be helpful if you use a VPN for specific activities. Moreover, it has NoSpy servers, a kill switch, and smart rules to protect your privacy and keep your internet connection secure.

At the same time, its streaming unblocking isn’t very reliable. In my tests, Disney+ only worked on one server, while BBC iPlayer was slow. It also lacks some features, like custom DNS and a GUI on Linux. Finally, my tests showed that CyberGhost was slower than NordVPN and Surfshark. If those drawbacks are important for you, I’d recommend looking at the alternatives to CyberGhost VPN.

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