CyberGhost Review 2026: Fast Nearby, Thin on Extras

CyberGhost is one of the cheapest well-known VPNs. At just over $2 a month, it sells itself on simplicity, with servers labeled by task. For this CyberGhost review, I checked whether the low price costs it speed or streaming access, measuring its task-based servers against standard ones in October and trying 14 streaming services.

It turned out to be an easy VPN to recommend for speed on nearby servers and streaming: its speed dropped 13.3% on average, its 39 ms UK ping was the lowest we’ve recorded, and it unblocked 11 of the 14 services. The gaming servers, however, measured slower than a standard server in the same city, and there’s no obfuscation for censored networks.

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CyberGhost Review: Quick Look

Starting price	$2.19 per month, $56.94 for 26 months
Renewal	$56.94 a year, so $4.75 per month
Money-back guarantee	45 days, or 14 days on the monthly plan
Protocols	WireGuard, OpenVPN TCP and UDP, IKEv2
No-log policy	Yes, audited by Deloitte and backed by quarterly transparency reports
Countries	100, counted in the app
Download speed loss	13.3% averaged across our three server locations
Upload speed loss	8.4% averaged
Obfuscation	None
Streaming	11 of the 14 streaming services we tested
Port forwarding	No
Ad and tracker blocking	Block Content, 68% on d3ward’s test
Simultaneous connections	7
Supported devices	Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Fire TV, Android TV, routers, browsers
Customer support	24/7 live chat, email, help center

CyberGhost Speed Test Results

In our October tests, we measured on a 190.36 Mbps connection on Windows 11 from Europe, via Ethernet, using Speedtest. Each location was checked at three times of day across three days, on WireGuard.

Server	Download	Upload	Ping	Download loss
No VPN	190.36 Mbps	19.37 Mbps	10 ms	n/a
UK	178.95 Mbps	18.25 Mbps	39 ms	6.0%
US	166.23 Mbps	17.76 Mbps	139 ms	12.7%
Japan	149.74 Mbps	17.20 Mbps	288 ms	21.3%
Average	164.97 Mbps	17.74 Mbps	8.4% upload loss	13.3%

CyberGhost is at its best on nearby servers. The 39 ms British ping is the lowest figure we have recorded from any VPN, and a 6.0% download loss on that connection is barely visible in use. Distance costs it more than most. Japan at 21.3% is the steepest drop in this table, and the 288 ms ping rules out real-time gaming at that range. For streaming, 149.74 Mbps covers 4K.

NoSpy and Gaming Servers Measured

Two specialty categories deserve their own numbers, so we tested both against ordinary servers in the same cities.

Server	Download	Upload	Ping
NoSpy, Bucharest	183.00 Mbps	18.63 Mbps	30 ms
Standard, Frankfurt	185.73 Mbps	18.66 Mbps	30 ms
Gaming, Frankfurt	180.11 Mbps	18.28 Mbps	30 ms

The gaming server measured 5.62 Mbps less than the standard server in the same city, at the same ping. Under load, the difference was 4 ms on upload ping, 58 ms compared to 62 ms, which no player will feel.

The gaming label doesn’t lower ping, and choosing one costs a little download speed. NoSpy is the opposite. These servers are in a data center CyberGhost owns and staffs in Romania, so no third-party host has physical access to them. At 183 Mbps and 30 ms, the privacy upgrade costs 3.9% of the connection.

That makes it usable as a default instead of a setting reserved for sensitive work, and the figures back the claim in a way the gaming label doesn’t. Connection times were 4 seconds on WireGuard, 4 on IKEv2, and 6 on OpenVPN.

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CyberGhost Price and Plans

The 2-year plan with two extra months costs $2.19 per month, which is $56.94 for the full 26 months. It renews at $56.94 a year after that, or $4.75 a month, a gentler increase than most VPNs apply. The 6-month plan costs $6.99 a month and renews at $41.94 every six months. The monthly plan is $12.99.

Two add-ons appear at checkout. The Security Suite for Windows bundles antivirus and a security updater at $1 a month, and a dedicated IP address costs $2.50 a month. Both are discounted alongside the main plan. The pricing is at the bottom of the market, and our low-cost ranking covers the rest of that market. Current promotions appear on our CyberGhost coupons page.

Refunds and Free Trials

The 45-day money-back guarantee on the 2-year and 6-month plans is the longest in the category, where 30 days is the norm. The monthly plan allows 14 days. For this review, we requested a refund through live chat, paid by PayPal. The money was back in about 30 minutes. The agent asked for a reason from a dropdown and processed it without a retention pitch.

The free trials are unusually generous: 24 hours on Windows and macOS with no card required, 3 days on Android and 7 days on iOS. Most VPNs require payment details before a desktop trial, and CyberGhost doesn’t.

CyberGhost Security Review

On Windows 11, the security setup is solid at the basics and thin at the top end, and one absence shapes the whole product.

The Kill Switch Leaked on Restart

We tested the kill switch on Windows 11 in three ways, with a continuous ping running. No packets escaped when the Ethernet cable was pulled mid-session or when the app process was killed from Task Manager. A PC restart was different: traffic got out before the app reconnected, and CyberGhost offers no stricter kill switch mode to prevent it.

It works automatically on macOS and mobile, where there’s no toggle to forget. The kill switch guide explains what each version protects.

Block Content Scored 68%

Block Content filters domains used for ads, trackers, and malware at the DNS level. On d3ward’s blocklist test, it stopped 92 of 135 domains, or 68%. Here is that figure beside the other ad blockers we have measured on the same test:

Blocker	Domains blocked
PIA MACE	96%
Proton VPN NetShield	93%
Surfshark CleanWeb	79%
NordVPN next-gen antivirus	76%
CyberGhost Block Content	68%

Letting 43 domains through is enough to notice on an ad-heavy news site. The app shows no counter for what was stopped. Treat it as a light filter and keep a browser blocker installed.

No Obfuscation, and What That Rules Out

CyberGhost offers no obfuscation. There’s no stealth protocol, no Shadowsocks, no traffic disguising of any kind. On a network using deep packet inspection, plain WireGuard or OpenVPN is identifiable and blocked. That rules out China and makes Russia, Iran, and the UAE unreliable. CyberGhost says as much on its own site. For school and workplace filtering, where the blocking is simpler, plain WireGuard unblocked every site we tried.

Smart Rules and Split Tunneling

Smart Rules is the automation panel. It covers Wi-Fi Protection for open networks, App Rules that connect when a named application launches, and Exceptions for excluding domains from the tunnel. App Rules worked, connecting to a chosen server whenever the paired application opened.

One limitation: App-level split tunneling is available only on Android.

On Windows and macOS, Exceptions cover domains and IP addresses only. Keeping a single application outside the tunnel isn’t possible on the desktop. Privacy Guard comes with the Windows Security Suite. It disables Windows telemetry, background camera and microphone access, and typing data collection, with individual toggles under each category.

CyberGhost Review: IP and DNS Leak Test Results

For this review, we checked ipleak.net and browserleaks.com on the British, American, and Japanese servers. Windows 11, with the browser cache deleted between sessions. No IP address leaks, no DNS leaks, and no WebRTC exposure. Our home IP address appeared nowhere, including the IPv6 test.

CyberGhost operates its own DNS resolvers instead of passing queries to a third party. The NoSpy server in Bucharest produced identical results to the standard ones, so the owned data center introduces no behavior that could expose traffic.

CyberGhost Privacy Review: Romania and the Audit Record

CyberGhost operates from Romania, an EU member outside the 5, 9, and 14 Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangements, with no mandatory VPN logging. The country struck down its own data retention law as unconstitutional, which is a stronger position than most European jurisdictions offer. The privacy policy states that CyberGhost stores no browsing history, traffic destination or content, search history, connection logs, IP addresses or timestamps.

It keeps an email address, anonymized troubleshooting data, and aggregate service metrics. None of it links to an individual session. The company publishes transparency reports four times a year, listing legal requests received and the responses given. It started doing so long before the audits began. Deloitte has examined the operation three times: the no-log policy, then the server infrastructure, and most recently the token system behind dedicated IP addresses.

That token keeps an account unlinked from its IP address. CyberGhost belongs to Kape Technologies, which also owns ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access. Each brand commissions its own independent audits, and the Deloitte record has continued under that ownership. For a closer look at jurisdiction, our most secure VPN guide compares the approaches.

CyberGhost Review: Streaming and Torrenting

CyberGhost unblocked 11 of the 14 streaming services we tested. The streaming-labeled servers are the centerpiece of CyberGhost’s pitch, and they work more often than not. ITVX is the standout: CyberGhost unblocked it on its dedicated British server after ITVX blocked two rival apps. That’s the labeled-server system doing exactly what it promises. Netflix US and the British libraries were reliable.

Netflix US	Netflix Japan	BBC iPlayer	ITVX	JioHotstar	Disney+
Unblocked	Blocked	Unblocked	Unblocked	Blocked	Blocked

The three failures matter to different people. Netflix Japan stayed blocked even on CyberGhost’s own Japanese server, JioHotstar stayed blocked throughout, and Disney+ blocked the desktop app, as it does with most VPN apps.

For torrenting, dedicated P2P servers cover most countries, and downloads move at the speed the tunnel allows. Port forwarding is absent, so seeding ratios on private trackers suffer, and that audience is better served elsewhere.

CyberGhost Review: Server Network and Categories

The app lists 100 countries, and CyberGhost publishes a server count over 11,000, which no part of the app displays. Every server is RAM-only, so a reboot wipes it, and the servers use 10 Gbps connections. The categories are the organizing idea: streaming servers labeled by service, P2P servers, gaming servers, and the NoSpy group in Romania. Our figures show that the labels vary in value.

The streaming labels proved useful, and the gaming ones didn’t. Dedicated IP addresses cost $2.50 a month, in a list that includes Canada, Switzerland, Australia, France, the UK, the US, and Japan. Smart DNS covers devices without VPN app support, with servers for the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan. It changes the streaming location and encrypts nothing.

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CyberGhost App Review: Ease of Use

The desktop app looks good and grows denser the further in you go. The main screen is a connect button and a server list. The settings panel has grown with each release, and finding a specific category takes more clicking than it should. Connections took 4 seconds on WireGuard.

Leaving the protocol on Automatic occasionally selected OpenVPN, which stretched that to 6 seconds. Setting WireGuard by hand takes one trip into settings and avoids that. One point in the app’s favor: it connected every time across the test period, including with other VPN apps installed and idle in the background.

The mobile apps are cleaner and quicker to move through, and Android includes the app-level split tunneling the desktop lacks. The subscription covers 7 devices. That’s the lowest allowance among the major VPNs, and the clearest weakness here.

Compatibility

• Windows, macOS and Linux (command-line only)
• iOS and Android phones and tablets
• Fire TV, Android TV and Nvidia Shield
• Routers, including DD-WRT, Tomato and AsusWRT
• Game consoles through a router or Smart DNS
• Chrome and Firefox extensions

CyberGhost Support Review

For this review, live chat proved reachable from the main site around the clock, with no detour through the Help Center. Agents answered product questions accurately, including a protocol-specific one, with no escalation. Support covers English, German, French, and Romanian, which few VPNs match. The Help Center is well organized, with illustrated setup guides covering router configuration, Smart Rules, and streaming server troubleshooting.

CyberGhost Review: Conclusion

CyberGhost is a VPN for people who want the thing to be obvious. The categories make the server list readable, and the 45-day guarantee removes the risk from trying it. NoSpy is a genuine piece of privacy engineering that costs almost nothing in speed. The trade is a thin top end: no obfuscation, no port forwarding, no app-level split tunneling on the desktop, a kill switch that leaked on restart, only 7 devices, and an ad blocker that lets 43 domains through. The gaming servers are only a label.

For speed comparisons across the category, see our fastest VPN ranking, and the best VPN guide covers the full field. An ExpressVPN vs NordVPN comparison is the better starting point where obfuscation is required.

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