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GooseVPN Review

GooseVPN has not been around that many years, so it is still a newcomer. This virtual private network came about in 2014, and the company bases itself in the Netherlands.

It does offer some decent speeds for an affordable price. However, it mainly goes undetected on many VPN rankings lists.

In this review of GooseVPN, we found a lack of features and some dubious concerns over security and their logging policy.

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This GooseVPN review will take a look at what is Goose VPN? Is GooseVPN good? And is it a worthy contender to move up the rankings, or should it remain where it is positioned?


Recommended For:

  • Large families because of unlimited connections
  • Users who are into streaming
  • Users around Europe

Pros

  • Good Speeds
  • Kill Switch on the desktop apps
  • Easy to use apps
  • Unblocks Netflix
  • The first month free

Cons

  • Small server network,
  • Lacks features
  • Based inside 9-eyes jurisdiction country

Plans and Pricing

Goose VPN offers one plan now, and they used to have another that came with a 50 GB per month cap. However, there appears to be no mention of that anywhere on the sales page.

When comparing prices, it takes a long lock-in period to gain the best benefits.

Payment options include PayPal, credit cards. These can be used for the monthly plan and the annual. The other payment options can’t be used on the monthly plan.

Goose VPN offers the first month free, yet this does require users to sign up first, and then there is a no-quibble 30-day money-back guarantee. This may appear all well and suitable, yet there are restrictions in place.

Unless there is a reason where the Goose staff cannot resolve an issue, then any account that has exceeded 100MB of data is not entitled to a refund.

One thing to note is that they don’t say if the data you use in the 30 days free goes against your allocation for a refund?

Live chat with customer support is available for users who have issues with their accounts.


Key Features

Privacy

GooseVPN uses the same 256-bit AES encryption as other VPN providers, which is as good as many industry-leading companies. For authentication, it employs 2,048 RSA keys and perfect forward secrecy. (Want more privacy? Check out our Ultimate Online Privacy Guide)

Protocol support includes OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPSec, and PPTP. One thing to note is the Windows 10 app defaults to IKEv2. This can leave users exposed compared to using OpenVPN.

Add to this; it took manual switching from IKEv2 to OpenVPN before the company DNS servers came into use and were detected. Luckily, we saw the IP addresses were still encrypted and hidden.

One thing we found in this Goose VPN review was the lack of IPv6 and DNS leak protection. This can pose a risk, and if this company plans to contend with the big boys, they do need to up their security plans.

While testing for this Goose VPN review, it was a surprise there were no DNS leaks when connecting to various server locations.

Logging

Even though the company bases itself in the middle of the 9-eyes jurisdiction, they claim to hold zero logs, yet so do many other VPN providers.

GooseVPN goes as far as saying they maintain a strict no-logs policy, and they don’t track user activity at all.

There are though some connection logs such as date stamps, operating system used, etc. IP addresses are not recorded, and any connection logs they have will be deleted after 30-days.

Ease Of Use

Supported Devices

Unlike many other VPN services, it was a surprise in this Goose VPN review to find they offer unlimited connections for each account. If users are part of a large family that uses many devices, this can make a difference where everyone can share the link.

Apps

When you look at the app quota of this VPN, it covers the basics, but it is far from some of the larger VPN companies out there. There is app support for macOS, Windows, Android TV, Routers iOS, and Linux.

Previously there was a lack of a Kill Switch, however the app for Windows, iOS, and macOS. In this Goose VPN review, we found it needs enabling in the Windows app.

Sign-Up

When you come to sign up for the service, things are laid out clear and concisely.

All you do is pick your plan. It is advisable to miss the monthly plan, as this is too expensive at $12.99.

Next, you pick your payment option. The terms of service box are already ticked, and then you click start membership.

Once you do this, you enter your email address and then your password. You will get a confirmation mail, so confirm your email address, and you are good to download your apps.

The whole process is fast, and the company says users can join in three minutes. (Find the Best VPN France)

Setup

When you first run the desktop app, you are presented with several tips. These show you how to switch servers and turn on the kill switch.

Although these can be handy, anyone using a VPN will have a rough idea of what they are doing for navigation. The app appears dated once you get past these, even if this review is looking at a newish company.

Any VPN review is used to clean interfaces, as are the VPN users. You can close the main window and access it from the system tray. In the center of the screen, you have the server network choices. Here, you can see videos or P2P symbols. These are the company servers that are optimized for either torrenting or streaming.

Surprisingly, they do this with servers in so few countries. However, users can make their favorite servers by clicking on the star to the left.

This again is dated in comparison as many clients allow users to make a favorites list. Here you can only choose one at once to save.

The settings button takes you to a separate screen where there are tabbed options. The General tab contains a few options. This is where you can change the behavior of the app.

However, this is limited and includes minimizing the system tray, giving a reminder when not connected, and launching at the start. You can also select a language if you are in different countries.

One thing we didn’t like in this review is there are ads located at the bottom.

The connection tab allows the VPN to connect automatically (disabled by default). A smart server list shows you the best servers in different countries. If you disable this, it reverts to showing all countries.

The last option is to enable the kill switch.

In the protocol tab, there are quick explanations for each. It was a nice touch in the review to see this, yet they are not the only ones who do it. You have automatic and then other before OpenVPN is the last option.

The last tab cover customer-related things. Rather than being detailed, this customer tab only links to the FAQ and sends a support ticket.

The mobile app is more modern, and any customer would be happy with this, yet not everyone uses these apps on their phones. When users log in, there are a few messages that explain the app. This screen shows if you are connected along with your new VPN IP address.

In the settings, you can toggle to keep the VPN on, the protocol to use, or to use the recommended server. This review saw the iOS application, yet the Android app is the same.


Advanced Features

Any customer who signs up for this service may be disappointed because of a severe lack of advanced features. It would take less than a month for any customer to find themselves lacking some features at this time.

Browser Extensions

The VPN service only has a browser extension for Chrome. This fell in some user reviews, but some VPN connection providers have no extensions.

Performance

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Speed Test

Goose is a small company when you compare it. It only has around 100 VPN servers, and the majority of these are based in Europe.

With a smattering across the USA and Canada and a couple in the Asian region, it will not be the fastest network around.

What was surprising was that even if the network was on the small side, it still managed to deliver fast speeds for the most part.

This wasn’t to say there were no speed issues, and we did see connections drop of speeds slow at certain times while conducting speed tests.

The VPN service performed well around the home country and Europe, but the further you went, the slower it became apart from the USA. Asia was dismal because there is hardly any support.

The main issue with Goose is the inconsistency of their speeds. Even when servers in remote regions were performing poorly, this could change, outperforming local server connections.

There is no option to change between TCP and UDP protocols in the client, but with the speeds they were delivering, it is a guess they use UDP to improve their performance.

Perhaps they need to take a leaf out of the major players and add this in a new version before it’s too late.

Does Goose VPN Work in China?

This is one question that users asked, and any user who wants this could find themselves out of luck. Even a quick live chat will leave users finding the service blocked.

Add to this; the company is also having issues with the UAE and Egypt. This is where they are focusing their efforts as they have more calls for use there.

Customer Service

For a small VPN company, this is one area where they excel. Goose delivers on its customer service with 24/7/365 live chat. This did deliver some mixed results, yet it is better than many other VPNs ‘ offers.

The help staff could answer some questions, yet when these were too technical, they struggled. This was evident in asking questions regarding streaming.

Although it may take longer, you are better using the contact form. This sends the message via email to in-house staff rather than someone who is outsourced.

This delivered a better result, which wasn’t too long we had to wait for. Six hours is better than the following day some VPN providers take to deliver a reply.

Even then, they may not answer the question, and it was nice to see that Goose didn’t fall into this.

Add to this, and Goose has a lively community on social media, with Facebook and Twitter being the most active.

On the site, there are plenty of links on their support/FAQ page. From account, general info, payment, privacy, routers, service, usage, and technology for the FAQ, and then below this, you have the Support section where you can leave a message.

You can find a status page on the website which shows up-time. This, though, isn’t servers and only includes the website and different areas of their support.

It may be some self-marketing, but if it is true, Goose has had a decent amount of uptime at 100% in the last couple of weeks.

Netflix

Netflix is taking an even stronger stance on VPN users. In testing, we clicked on the USA streaming server and were instantly connected without issue. To be sure this wasn’t a one-off, we did the same and gained access.

The other US-based servers were tested, and it is easy to see why Goose has its dedicated streaming server. The regular server threw up a proxy error, and there was no access.

To test further, the same was done for UK Netflix, and this was accessed in the same manner using the UK streaming servers.

Users who wish to unblock Netflix will be happy, yet they are out of luck if they want to access Amazon Prime outside of the UK.

Overall, this was good to see as only a few VPNs can still unblock USA Netflix. However, this can change from month to month, so even if Goose can do it now, it doesn’t mean they can do it in one year, or users may sign up for the next two years.

Torrenting

After streaming, torrenting is the number one pastime where users want to keep their privacy. It is good to see that GooseVPN supports torrenting yet on selected servers as in the streaming.

It highlights these with a P2P icon at the side of the server. This is easy to see, and at the side, you can see the server load.

With a decent amount of security and no leaks from what we found. This is a torrent-friendly VPN.

Unless the servers are nearby, a torrent should not be expecting blazing fast speeds for their file downloads.

As with these file downloads, we would expect the same kind of protection when using Kodi, but server alternatives and connection speed for this may have to be figured out by a user if the P2P server or the streaming server don’t deliver a good score on speeds.


Wrap Up

In this VPN, Goose has a simple package that delivers on all fronts of the basics. A subscription gives user’s unlimited simultaneous connections, which is excellent, yet if all these are in use, it is hard to say how this much traffic can affect a home’s internet bandwidth.

Goose is a standard VPN that is very easy to install, and with the free trial, it may be enough to swing new subscribers in their direction. The discount for extended signup can be tempting, yet there is more to a VPN than affordability.

With a poor interface greeting you when you log in, it may be worth taking the time to read the rating in other areas before committing.

With features missing, such as a killswitch and such a small server network. There are better options for users who want a wealth of features and privacy.

A good deal still needs to deliver in certain areas. There is a lot of competition with VPNs, and it is going to become stronger over the next few years.


Bottom Line

A decent VPN for anyone wanting casual streaming with a handful of security thrown in without going into finer details. (Get GooseVPN and SAVE 77% here)

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Streamr Go

StreamrGo is always about privacy, specifically protecting your privacy online by increasing security and better standard privacy practices.