TorGuard VPN review

TorGuard is a US-based VPN that was founded in 2012 by VPNetworks LLC and registered in Florida. This makes it older than most VPNs on the market, minus a few tried and true services, including HideMyAss! (2005), PureVPN (2007), ExpressVPN (2009), Mullvad (2009), VyprVPN (2009), Private Internet Access (2010), CyberGhost (2011), and TunnelBear (2011).

It must be doing something right; its users are loyal, and the service has excellent ratings for most compatible operating systems. TorGuard has a decent network reach with no major coverage gaps, and the speeds are fast enough for to stream on multiple devices in 4K.

Unfortunately, TorGuard doesn’t perform regular updates, leading to a glitchy experience on some apps. Not all features are available cross-platform either, and the website is full of contradictory information.

The VPN has also faced at least two lawsuits. First, in 2021, TorGuard settled a lawsuit by multiple movie studios, alleging the VPN encouraged copyright infringement through wording on its website. As part of the settlement, TorGuard banned BitTorrent and P2P on all its US servers.

The second lawsuit involved the TorGuard CEO being tried for the illegal activities of a user (2022), but the CEO was ultimately acquitted in 2023.

TorGuard on paper

For a quick explanation of any VPN-related terminology, check out our VPN glossary.

TorGuard price

• Affordable plans with a 7-day money-back guarantee
• Plan types vary throughout TorGuard’s website
• No free trial despite advertising one

At over $5 per month for the cheapest of its plans, TorGuard is not the cheapest VPN on the market.

It has three primary commercial VPN plans, all of which hover around the $5-6 mark. The residential VPN includes Standard, Pro, and Ultimate tiers.

Plan lengths include 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, or 36-month cycles, all of which include a 7-day money-back guarantee.

Some areas on the website that display pricing and plans don’t mention the ultimate tier, instead showing the business VPN and email options.

It’s not the end of the world, but it could be mildly confusing to someone looking for the Ultimate plan. Price per plan also varies, but that’s not uncommon due to promotional pricing.

The standard plan is your basic VPN, including unlimited bandwidth and speeds, port forwarding, access to all server locations, and 8 simultaneous connections.

Pro gives you everything in the Standard plan, but increases simultaneous connections to 12 and includes streaming support and a dedicated IP.

Ultimate has all the features of the Pro plan, but with 16 simultaneous connections and a host of additional security features, including Kill Switch Pro, prioritized support, StealthVPN protocol, DPI firewall bypass, advanced leak protection, and split-tunneling.

TorGuard accepts all major credit and debit cards, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (via CoinPayments), and BTC and LTC (via BTCPay Node). Additionally, PayPal (via Paddle) and gift cards (via PaymentWall or PayGarden) are also accepted. First, the site will have to verify you’re human, though, which is a bit annoying – but it gets more frustrating.

Throughout the internet and on its website, TorGuard promotes a free 7-day trial of the full service – no credit card needed on signup. The problem is, there isn’t a free trial. That doesn’t stop the VPN from having a full page dedicated to the free trial on its website, or making checkout difficult if you use the jumplink on that page to try and subscribe.

I had to fill the form out several times as it requested that I ‘kindly check that you agree to Trial terms’, which I would have done if that checkbox existed – but it didn’t. Every time I received the message, the form would clear all the fields out except my email and password. You also have to enter your payment information if you want to continue checkout, which TorGuard specifies isn’t necessary on its site when you sign up for the free trial.

Rating: 6/10

TorGuard features

• Terrible ad and malware blocker
• StealthVPN works well
• The proprietary protocol OpenConnect is basic

OpenConnect is TorGuard’s open-source version of Cisco’s AnyConnect, which is meant to help you bypass VPN detection software.

Unfortunately, TorGuard didn’t make any real changes to the code and only made it available for Windows. This is made even more disappointing by the fact that we couldn’t get it to work on Windows.

On the upside, TorGuard does have plenty of other protocols to choose from, including OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, and IPSec.

Stealth VPN is TorGuard's obfuscation feature, which disguises OpenVPN traffic as regular internet traffic using Stunnel or WStunnel, similar to the obfuscation seen in the most secure VPNs, like Proton VPN.

The VPN recommends using WStunnel for users in regions with stringent censorship (like China) or when connecting to restricted networks like public Wi-Fi or corporate networks. StealthVPN helps you bypass VPN blocks and avoid censorship more easily.

Split tunneling is only available for Android, and the VPN says it's been working on expanding the feature to other operating systems. Some existing users are frustrated because there’s no definitive deadline for when the company will add the feature, and it’s been almost 5 years.

MacOS and iOS have an auto-connect option that connects any time you connect to a network. You can also turn auto-connect off and choose for yourself. Windows and Android have auto-connect, but it’s more basic. You can only auto-connect on device boot for Android, but Windows allows you to connect when you launch the app and on device boot.

We tried TorGuard's ad-blocker on a combined 100 new phishing and malware sites, but it didn’t block one.

Unfortunately, the ad and malware blocker ‘Ad-block DNS’ actually leaves you more exposed. It isn’t turned on by default, and tracking it down in the app isn't easy either. You have to go into Settings, open Network, find the DNS panel, be tech savvy enough to be comfortable with refreshing your DNS cache while connected to ad-blocking, and then actually activate the feature.

Once we got AdBlock DNS activated, we checked the effectiveness using a standard AdBlock Tester. Without the feature enabled, our baseline was 39/100 ad blocking. Once we connected to the feature, it sat at 46/100; not much of an improvement. A free ad blocker we installed (uBlock Origin) did a far better job of blocking at a near-perfect 96/100.

We tried TorGuard's ad-blocker on a combined 100 new phishing and malware sites, but it didn’t block one. Since the VPN said its blocklists are updated daily, we tried 50 combined phishing and malware URLs that were at least 1 day old; it still didn’t block a single site. Worse yet, it left us more exposed by allowing us to access six more sites than our regular DNS did.

When compared to NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro, which blocked 82 percent of phishing sites and 44 percent of malware sites, TorGuard’s ad-blocker is abysmal. Even our free test blocker, uBlock Origin, blocked 90 percent of one-day-old malware sites and 16 out of 50 of the latest malware sites.

Rating: 5/10

TorGuard server network

• 3,000+ servers in 64 locations
• No torrenting on US servers
• Streaming IP available

TorGuard’s network consists of 3,000+ servers in 64 locations across 48 countries, which is a fairly average amount. The number of countries with servers varies throughout the website; one area says 50, another says 55.

We only counted 48, and this isn’t the first time we’ve noticed discrepancies between what the website says and what’s available. Remember the free trial? Misinformation seems to run rampant.

You can have up to 16 simultaneous connections per account, depending on which plan you choose. Again, some parts of the website list options as 8 (Standard), 12 (Pro), and 16 (Ultimate), while other parts list up to 30 simultaneous connections for Ultimate.

Aside from Brazil and Mexico actually being hosted in Miami, TorGuard’s servers are in the locations listed. The only other exceptions are the Moscow and India servers, which are hosted in Denmark and Singapore, likely for privacy reasons; this isn’t uncommon for areas that face heavy internet restrictions.

The service doesn’t have any notable coverage gaps, but the network reach is strongest in North America and Europe at 45/64 locations. It does have a respectable 13 locations in Asia, which plenty of VPNs overlook or only provide a sprinkling of servers for.

Torrenting is blocked on all US servers, and P2P is forbidden on its streaming IPs. All other servers allow both. Why do they block torrenting on US servers? According to TorGuard, it’s due to an ongoing ‘commitment to user privacy and service reliability’. In reality, it was the result of a lawsuit settlement with multiple movie studios in 2021. These 27 movie studios sued TorGuard for ‘encouraging copyright infringement’ via its VPN and website.

In 2024, TorGuard released its own open-source BitTorrent client based on a similar open-source BitTorrent client, only applying a few basic tweaks to customize it to its service before releasing it. Again, open-source is meant for just that purpose and is completely legal, but the client is basic and has little value aside from building back some credibility as a Torrent-friendly VPN after the lawsuit.

TorGuard also supports port forwarding, but this is limited to ports above 2048 and is only available with OpenVPN, WireGuard, and OpenConnect connections. You also have to manually select a location, and you won’t find any helpful icons next to server locations.

Rating: 6/10

Is TorGuard good for streaming and unblocking?

• Streaming IPs included with Pro and Ultimate
• Unblocks Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+
• No streaming IPs included with Standard

You can unblock a fair amount of streaming services with TorGuard, especially if you choose a plan with streaming IPs.

Streaming IPs allow you to access Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, YouTube (US), and BBC iPlayer, without having to try multiple servers.

If you don’t have a plan with streaming IPs included, you will have to keep trying servers until you find one that works.

You can unblock a fair amount of streaming services with TorGuard, especially if you choose a plan with streaming IPs.

For testing purposes, we ordered a plan with two streaming IPs included, but there was no way to select the countries we needed the IPs in during signup. Instead, the site asked us to raise a support ticket to ask for IPs in the country where we needed them.

There was a plus side to the inconvenience: the support agent helped us pick the best locations in the US and UK, and they were assigned in less than 5 minutes. Our streaming IPs immediately appeared on our server location list, and we were able to add them as favorites so they show at the top of the list. Nice.

The streaming IPs were also tested via PixelScan, a website we use to see how other sites and services view your IP address. Regular TorGuard IPs gave away our VPN use, but the streaming IPs didn’t.

Further tests were performed on 15 different VPN detection sites. Regular TorGuard IPs unblocked 5/15 of the sites, while the streaming IP unblocked 11/15. Even Cloudflare couldn’t flag the streaming IPs.

Unfortunately, the streaming IPs only support OpenVPN TCP, which means performance may suffer, especially when it comes to speed. Using regular TorGuard locations, we reached speeds of up to 520Mbps.

Once connected to our streaming IPs, speeds dipped to a max of 245Mbps. To be fair, that’s fast enough to watch 10 streaming platforms simultaneously in 4K, but most users generally expect streaming IPs to be faster than standard locations.

Rating: 5/10

How fast is TorGuard?

When it comes to performance, TorGuard isn't the worst, but it isn't the best, either. The fastest speeds during testing were via WireGuard. The median was around 631Mbps, but the speeds weren’t as stable as OpenVPN during testing.

Our fastest test speeds were around 750Mbps, the lowest around 250Mbps, and others teetered between 250-350Mbps. With speeds like these, TorGuard definitely won't be achieving a spot on our list of the fastest VPNs any time soon, especialy when compared to the likes of ExpressVPN, Surfshark and Proton VPN, which all achieved peak speeds of over 1,400 Mbps in testing.

This level of fluctuation could affect performance, so it’s worth running a few in-depth speed tests if you need stable speeds via WireGuard.

It’s best to do the tests within the first 7 days, while the money-back guarantee still applies.

TorGuard definitely won't be achieving a spot on our list of the fastest VPNs any time soon.

TorGuard's median speeds for OpenVPN were stable but unimpressive at 271Mbps. We performed 20 consecutive Dublin-US tests, and the lowest speed was 115Mbps.

That’s still fast enough for even high-bandwidth activities, just not amazing.

Despite the fluctuations when using WireGuard, TorGuard’s 631 Mbps median speeds still surpassed major players in the VPN industry, including Private Internet Access (501 Mbps).

Though OpenVPN results for TorGuard were nothing spectacular at a median of 271Mbps, it was still faster than Proton VPN, which achieved speeds of 240 Mbps while using WireGuard in our latest round of testing.

Rating: 6/10

Privacy and security

• Kill switch works well with WireGuard
• Offers strong SHA-S12 authentication
• No-logs policy is vague

The VPN has a kill switch available for Windows, iOS, and macOS. We tested the kill switch on Windows, and it worked well when used with WireGuard and OpenVPN connections. The kill switch forcibly closed both connections, but WireGuard gave notice that the VPN had disconnected and tried to reconnect; OpenVPN didn’t.

Not notifying the user when the VPN disconnects and failing to reconnect could mean they go without protection until they notice that the internet has stopped working.

If you’re using OpenVPN and have the kill switch activated, check to ensure the VPN is connected if your internet connection quits working before doing advanced troubleshooting.

TorGuard uses AES-128-GCM and AES-256-GCM and OpenVPN, and ChaCha20 on WireGuard. The app configured our OpenVPN connection to AES-256-GCM by default.

Unfortunately, instead of the SHA-S12 authentication promised on its website, TorGuard uses SHA-1 by default. SHA-1 isn’t obsolete, and it won’t compromise your connection; it’s just extremely outdated.

Still, it’s disappointing that TorGuard quotes the best encryption and authentication and then defaults to an outdated authentication method, leaving you to dig for and select SHA-S12 yourself.

That’s no big deal if you’re an expert, but VPN newbies generally want the app to provide the best security by default.

TorGuard’s privacy policy doesn’t provide specific information about its no-logs policy, simply stating it ‘doesn’t collect or log any data from its Virtual Private Network (VPN) or Proxy services’. Not exactly a detailed explanation of how the service uses data. For example, it maintains a connection count to ensure users don’t go over the allotted number of simultaneous connections.

How do they know how many connections are active? Do they record basic details like IP address and start time, or are they recording your device information or the server IP address connected to your VPN account? Is it deleted after a specific amount of time, or does the VPN retain the information until your account is inactive? A detailed no-logs policy would go a long way in building user trust.

Rating: 7/10

Apps and compatibility

• No regular updates performed on apps
• Split-tunnelling is only available on Android
• No support for smart TVs or gaming consoles

TorGuard has apps for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Linux (GUI); as well as support for routers and Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers.

Android is the only operating system that has the split-tunneling feature, but it’s missing critical features like a kill switch and the full auto-connect feature.

As a side note, when I tried to buy a plan via the TorGuard Android app, it wouldn’t let me advance past choosing my plan. It just stuck on the same page, no continue or checkout buttons, just plans I couldn’t order.

It would add the order to my cart and then just keep adding more. I had to select my plan via the website using a Windows device just to sign up (more on that mess later).

Smart TVs and gaming consoles aren’t supported, but a tech-savvy sort may be able to sideload the Android app to these devices; if, and this is a big if, they can get it to work.

A question via the community forum asking if an Apple TV app is in the works in October of 2023 didn’t even receive a response until January of 2024. The vague response simply noted ‘An App native for TV will be released; however, there is no fixed ETA’.

Don’t expect any major updates anytime soon. Updates to the apps come sporadically. TorGuard even released a beta version of its Premium Proxy V2Ray for Android, Windows, Linux, and macOS before updating its basic OS apps.

The beta version of the proxy was released in July of 2025, but updates to the existing apps haven’t been performed in at least a year: Windows, Linux, macOS, and Chrome (2024); Android, iOS, and Firefox (2023); and Edge (2021).

The lack of updates is unfortunate, considering the apps could use some help. For instance, you can resize the Settings window, but the contents don’t scale to fit. Instead, the contents pile on top of each other, creating an unreadable mess. T

orGuard’s desktop apps also regularly pop up a ‘you’re not connected’ reminder when you’re not using the VPN. This is odd because that doesn’t happen if you're using OpenVPN and the kill switch kicks in, and that’s the one time it would really be useful.

Rating: 6/10

Is TorGuard easy to use?

• Setup is a breeze once you have credentials
• Customizable settings
• Many settings are only applicable to advanced users

Once you have your credentials, downloading and setting up the app is a breeze on all platforms. A majority of users can simply log in, select a location, and hit the large Connect button to activate the VPN. To switch servers, just choose another location from the server list. Basic operation is extremely easy.

The overall interface is easy to navigate, but it has a few glitches. On the mobile apps, it may be hard to subscribe via the TorGuard app itself. If you already have a subscription, you may see a prompt asking you to sign up for an account, even if you’re currently logged in and using the VPN. A bit annoying since ordering via the link in the mobile app is an exercise in futility.

Another missing feature that would add to usability is a ‘fastest server’ option. Currently, the apps don’t have one, so you need to find the fastest option manually. This can take a while because the location list doesn’t even include ping times or a search box; you need to manually scroll the list.

On the upside, you can sort the list by location in a specific continent, server type, favorites, proximity, and alphabetical order. This level of customization isn’t offered by many VPNs and can make the search a fair bit easier. Plus, you can save the servers you find to your favorites list for fast access later.

The Windows app is highly configurable and can run custom scripts before connecting and after disconnecting. For example, launch Netflix and P2P apps immediately when the VPN is enabled and close them on disconnect.

Once you get into the advanced settings and customization options, you may need a bit of advanced technical knowledge. Worse yet, TorGuard does little to explain its advanced features. Standard users may not know what ‘Block outside DNS’ even does. The kill switch is a bit confusing too, it has a checkbox which is off by default, but also includes an option to ‘Arm kill switch after first connect’. If you check it is the kill switch enabled, or do you need to check both boxes?

Additionally, when we connected to a dedicated IP, our protocol automatically switched from WireGuard to OpenVPN. Okay, dedicated IPs only support OpenVPN, so that makes sense. The issue is that it didn’t change back to WireGuard when we connected to a standard server again. Not only is the change virtually invisible to anyone not paying attention, but you have to notice it and manually change back to WireGuard.

TorGuard’s Windows app allows you to close specific apps when you disconnect the VPN, which could be useful if you want to avoid P2P apps from leaking information over your ISP connection. Simply add the app name to the list, and it will be shut down if it remains open when the VPN disconnects.

A point of constant annoyance during testing is Cloudflare’s aggressive protection of TorGuard's website. Any time I tried to access the website, I received the Cloudflare ‘Just a moment… Verifying you are human… torguard.net needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding’ message.

Other testers received the same message several times; one was unable to access multiple support articles until they connected to the VPN. What happens if your question is about the app not working or being unable to use the VPN? You might be out of luck.

Rating: 8/10

Why is TorGuard based in the USA?

TorGuard is registered by VPNetworks LLC in Florida, making it a part of the Five Eyes Alliance.

Still, unlike Private Internet Access, which has a detailed no-logs policy, publishes regular transparency reports, and performs independent audits, TorGuard isn’t transparent about privacy and data collection and lacks a clear no-logs policy.

Most trustworthy US-based VPNs have detailed privacy and no-logs policies to assure users the VPN isn’t mishandling or collecting sensitive data.

Customer support

• Has a useful System Status page
• Chat option doesn’t work
• Knowledgebase isn’t very helpful

TorGuard customer support is available via chat, email, and ticketing. The chat bubble is available on the Android and iOS apps, but it couldn’t be found anywhere on the website or other apps, and it’s far from 24/7 live assistance. Chat via the Android app worked fine.

After attempting to use the Submit Ticket link at the bottom of the homepage to open a support ticket to ask how to activate a feature, I was met with a picture of a cat instead of a ticket form. A broken link to ticket support did little to ease the frustration, even if the cat was cute.

Once we clicked the Contact Us button under the error message, it was easy to find ticket support. We submitted a test ticket inquiring which locations supported torrents. The answer was helpful (all except the US servers), and the response arrived in 16 minutes. Despite the initial aggravation of the broken link on its website, TorGuard’s ticket system was fast and efficient.

The knowledge base on TorGuard’s website does a good job of explaining the VPN's advanced features, but a poor job of detailing how to activate or use them. For instance, a quick search of ‘arm killswitches’ and ‘block outside DNS’ via the knowledge base didn’t return a single article.

Switching up the search term to ‘arm killswitch’ only returned one article. An article that isn’t useful if you want to know how to activate the feature on the VPN app. Instead, it detailed ‘how to arm an application-specific kill switch’ via Windows firewall. The point is, you may have to try a few different search terms before getting a hit, and even then, it may not be what you’re looking for.

The community forum only has 9 active posts. That’s to say, there are 9 that have had replies in 2025, most of which are on posts at least a year old. Most of the threads are complaining about TorGuard’s lack of activity, and there’s been no attempt by support staff to respond.

The community forum has a subforum dedicated to OpenConnect. The subforum isn’t remarkable, only two posts, both from the same person, asking when OpenConnect will be available on Android. TorGuard support has yet to reply to either post, and both are over 5 years old.

TorGuard also has a useful System Status page where you can check for network outage reports. At one point during the review, the page informed us of a major outage for TorGuard's Los Angeles streaming servers.

Rating: 7/10

Can you trust TorGuard?

• Doesn’t perform independent audits
• Positive customer reviews
• Lawsuit over encouraging copyright infringement in 2021

TorGuard’s privacy and data collection policies are vague; despite claims that it’s a no-logs VPN. It doesn’t help that the company hasn’t undergone an independent audit. Performing an audit could go a long way toward building trust with potential users and mitigating the lack of transparency in its privacy policy.

Regardless of this, the VPN has a good reputation among users. Most of TorGuard’s apps score above 4.0, even amidst a lack of updates and persistent glitches. Aside from the theft of an inactive digital certificate in 2017, the company hasn’t had any breaches.

The company did settle a lawsuit in 2022, alleging that the company promoted copyright infringement via torrenting on the website and its desktop and mobile apps. The settlement with the 27 movie studios included banning BitTorrent and blocking torrenting on all US servers.

Rating: 5/10

TorGuard review: final verdict

Subscribe if:

✅ You’re into advanced customization

✅ You want a VPN for streaming

✅ Speed matters more than app functionality

Don't subscribe if:

❌ You want regularly updated apps free of glitches

❌ You live in the US and want to use BitTorrent

❌ Transparency about data collection practices matters to you

Alternatives to TorGuard

TorGuard FAQ

How to cancel TorGuard

Log in to your TorGuard account and click ‘Services’ in the top menu, then select ‘My Services’. Find the Subscription you want to cancel, then click ‘Manage’ and select ‘Request Cancellation’. Learn more about cancelling TorGuard here.

Does TorGuard work in China?

TorGuard works in China and is featured on our list of the best China VPNs. Its ability to work in China is one of the few reasons to consider downloading it.

Who owns TorGuard?

VPNetworks LLC, a US-based company headquartered in Florida, owns TorGuard.

How we test VPNs

We have a full explainer on how we test VPNs, but, in short, it goes something like this.

Firstly, we test the sign-up process. How easy is it to pay, and what options are there? From there, we install the VPN on a number of devices, make notes on the simplicity of the process, and whether there are any extra steps that introduce complexity.

Then comes the fun part. We use all the features, running tests to detect any problems like DNS leaks or faulty kill switches. We'll dive into the code if it's available, and see if there are any anomalies we think you might be interested in reading about.

We test the speed – 120 individual tests, daytime and evening – and connect to various servers to get a good idea of how robust the server network is, and what speeds you can expect to get in normal usage.

Streaming comes next. We test a wide range of global and regional streaming services to see how well each VPN can unblock content.

Customer support is also very important. So, if we have any queries along the way, we'll follow the avenues provided to see how well-prepared the support team is. This includes live chat, email, and ticketed systems.

Once we've done all of this, we'll have a good feel for the apps and will have found out if there are any usability quirks, or unique features that we really like.