UltraVPN Review and Pricing Plans 2023

Cybersecurity services need to progress continually to keep up with evolving digital dangers, but progress looks different depending on the service. For example, the leading VPNs in the market are off to the races to create the next big thing in VPNs – whether that’s a new proprietary protocol or an innovative new feature.

Meanwhile, other VPNs are just trying to make their products better. They are, for instance, expanding their server networks or switching over to RAM-only servers, implementing faster configurations, or upgrading their apps to improve reliability.

One of the VPNs we’ve seen make tremendous leaps over the past few years is UltraVPN, a small-scale VPN with high-ceiling potential. With a strong set of core features, UltraVPN promises buffering-free and fast connections, uncrackable encryption, and unrestricted access to the open internet. But can it deliver on those promises?

We took UltraVPN for a quick spin, and this review details what we found out about this VPN.

UltraVPN 101: A Quick Overview

We’ll let you in on a little trade secret: Although most VPN brands appear independent, many of them are actually owned by the same companies. Take UltraVPN for example. It belongs to the Pango group of cybersecurity brands, of which the Hotspot Shield VPN we reviewed is also a member.

Never heard of Pango? Perhaps you’d be more familiar with Aura, the company that owns Pango. We have experience using Aura’s identity protection service, and from what we can tell, this is a company that takes cybersecurity and privacy seriously. Given that, we expect nothing less from UltraVPN.

On paper, UltraVPN offers a rock-solid VPN experience. It started out with just over 800 servers, but now, it has over 1,000 servers spread out evenly throughout Asia, Australia, North and South America, Europe, and Africa. The servers are located in over 100 cities, 25 of which are in the United States. And because UltraVPN is still evolving, we expect it to add more servers as time goes by.

It’s also notable that UltraVPN offers the same VPN protocol as its sister brand, Hotspot Shield: the Hydra Catapult protocol, better known as Hydra. This protocol promises blazing-fast speeds over a secure connection, and as we confirmed in our VPN speed tests, Hotspot Shield is indeed a speedy VPN. In fact, it ranked fifth overall and first in terms of download speed.

Getting Started: UltraVPN Subscriptions and Pricing

UltraVPN is a promising VPN indeed, but let’s see how it performs in the real world. To get started, we purchased an UltraVPN subscription.

UltraVPN’s pricing is simple: There’s only one plan, but you can choose to pay monthly, yearly, or two years at a time. A longer commitment means bigger savings, while a shorter one means more flexibility.

UltraVPN Plans and Pricing

UltraVPN accepts both credit card and PayPal payments.

Sadly, there are no free trials, but since UltraVPN offers a 30-day window in case you change your mind, we chose the monthly subscription. The $7.99 monthly price isn’t bad, considering that most VPNs charge more than $10 per month. That being said, if you’re looking for a VPN you can use over a longer period of time, it pays to get a one-year or two-year subscription. This way, you can lower the cost to $1.99 or $2.99 per month.

But how does UltraVPN’s pricing compare to other VPNs we’ve reviewed? NordVPN subscription plans cost $4.19 per month over the course of two years and $11.99 if you pay monthly, while with Surfshark’s pricing, the minimum price is $2.49 per month (if you commit for two years) and the maximum price is $12.95 if you choose to pay monthly.

UltraVPN is right in the middle, and we found that to be true compared to other VPNs as well. The price of the monthly subscription is quite affordable, but we’ve seen VPNs with lower long-term pricing than UltraVPN.

That being said, we should note that any UltraVPN subscription comes with free access to PassWatch, a password management tool, and Dark Web Scan, a tool that monitors the dark web for your personal information. These features add value to UltraVPN’s subscription, and they are essential if you want to keep your online data safe and secure.

UltraVPN Features At A Glance

What exactly does an UltraVPN subscription give you? We’ll talk about our experience with UltraVPNs features below, but first, here’s a summary of all its features.

• Servers: UltraVPN has over 1,000 servers in 120 cities and counting.
• Kill switch: The UltraVPN mobile and desktop apps offer a kill switch, which protects users from accidentally leaking their online traffic when the VPN disconnects unexpectedly.
• Split tunneling: UltraVPN lets users decide which traffic to route through the secure VPN tunnel and which traffic to let pass without encryption.
• VPN protocols: UltraVPN offers two types of protocols: the Hydra protocol, which is proprietary to Hotspot Shield, and IKEv2, which is an older but still useful VPN protocol.
• Encryption: UltraVPN uses bank-grade AES 256-bit encryption for online traffic and its VPN tunnels.

Now, let’s dive deeper and discuss how those features work on mobile and desktop.

The UltraVPN App on Mobile

With an UltraVPN account ready to use, we went ahead and downloaded UltraVPN’s apps on our devices, starting with an Android smartphone. We’re always on the move, so we wanted to see how agile the VPN is when we’re switching from one Wi-Fi connection to another. Here’s what the app looked like.

You see that hexagonal button right at the center? That’s the quick connect button. Pressing that will connect you to UltraVPN’s server in the location specified at the bottom part of the screen. You can change location by tapping the “Virtual Location” button and selecting one from the server menu. It’s that easy to use UltraVPN.

Of course, before connecting for the first time, there may be a few features you need to check first. To us, one of the most crucial is the kill switch, a backup measure that stops all internet access on your device if your VPN connection drops. That prevents you from inadvertently exposing your browsing activity.

UltraVPN’s kill switch isn’t built into the app; rather, it uses Android’s VPN settings. To activate, we first had to turn on “Always-on VPN” in the phone’s settings and then toggle on “Block connections without VPN.” Unfortunately, that meant not being able to connect to the web at all without UltraVPN.

That seems to be the theme of the app’s design. The interface itself is simple and well-designed, but the app is missing some key features. For example, the app didn’t let us customize our VPN connection settings. Usually with VPNs, you’ll find several protocol options, such as OpenVPN, WireGuard, and IKEv2. Not with UltraVPN. It’s either Hydra or IKEv2, and the app chooses the best protocol automatically.

On the bright side, the Android app does offer split tunneling, a feature that lets certain apps and websites of your choosing bypass your VPN connection. This is useful if you’re using services that don’t play along well with VPNs, such as mobile banking apps.

We pushed ahead and turned on the makeshift kill switch, but if you prefer a kill switch that turns off your internet access only when the VPN connection drops, check out our Private Internet Access review.

Other positive feedback we have on UltraVPN’s Android app is its flexibility. We change Wi-Fi networks several times a day. Sometimes we even switch back and forth from Wi-Fi to cellular data. We noticed that when we change networks while connected to UltraVPN, it reestablishes its secure tunnel automatically. This meant our device stayed private and protected no matter where we roamed.

All in all, the UltraVPN mobile experience feels streamlined. It doesn’t stand out in terms of features, and it even lacks customizations that we normally see in other VPNs, but the app experience is as good as it gets. It’s a frills-free app with simple controls, making it great for VPN novices and daily users.

The UltraVPN App on Desktop

The desktop experience with UltraVPN isn’t that much different from the mobile experience. In fact, the desktop app looks identical to the mobile app, but there are a couple of notable changes.

First is the kill switch. It has a real kill switch, unlike the mobile app, which relies on the phone’s built-in settings. With this, UltraVPN halts internet traffic when the VPN connection drops, but not when you launch your PC without turning on the VPN.

The Windows app also lets users pick a VPN protocol from two options: Hydra and IKEv2. The former, as we explained briefly above, is a proprietary protocol made by Hotspot Shield. It’s fast and secure, and it’s actually based on OpenVPN, one of the more popular open-source VPN protocols. IKEv2, on the other hand, is a speedy protocol that offers less security. It’s also starting to become obsolete, although it’s still a good option for activities that don’t require that much privacy, such as streaming and online gaming.

Those are great additions to UltraVPN’s feature set, but unfortunately, some features are still missing. For example, most VPNs have an option that turns on the VPN automatically as soon as your PC boots up. That’s not available from UltraVPN.

Overall, though, if you like the simplicity of UltraVPN’s mobile apps, then you’ll like the desktop apps as well. It’s simple, functional, and has zero learning curve — a great VPN for first-timers.

UltraVPN Performance

There’s one more thing we wanted to test: UltraVPN’s performance. It promises a buffering-free experience, but let’s see how it actually does in real-world speed tests.

First, we tested our network speed when not connected to UltraVPN to set a benchmark. Our download speed clocked in at 439 Mbps, and our upload speed was 231 Mbps.

Next, we connected to the closest UltraVPN server and let the app choose the optimal VPN protocol. This way, we could measure UltraVPN’s top speed. Here’s the result.

• Download speed: 142 Mbps
• Upload speed: 96 Mbps

As you can see, both our download and upload speed dropped by around 60 percent. The “Wednesday” series we’re binge watching won’t necessarily buffer with those speeds, but still, it’s a significant speed loss that we’d feel if we were uploading our YouTube reviews or downloading large files.

What Sets UltraVPN Apart?

After reading all the information we just threw your way, you’re probably wondering if there’s really anything that sets UltraVPN apart from just any regular VPN. That’s a fair question, and here’s our answer.

If you put UltraVPN next to big names like NordVPN or Surfshark, it won’t take you long to realize that it’s a small fish. It doesn’t offer as many features as those competitors, its server network isn’t as large as theirs, and its speed isn’t going to outpace their speed.

UltraVPN is a small-scale VPN, but that’s also its unique advantage. From a cost-value perspective, UltraVPN is a practical option for day-to-day use. You can get it for as low as $1.99 per month, much more affordable than NordVPN’s $3.49 or Surfshark’s $2.49 starting monthly rates. Yes, you’ll receive fewer features, but if all you need is a reliable VPN to connect your devices to a secure network for normal browsing, there are only a few options as affordable as UltraVPN.

The Verdict Is In: Did UltraVPN Deliver What It Promises?

After testing UltraVPN for over 100 hours and exploring every feature it has to offer, we’ve finally come to the conclusion that UltraVPN is a good day-to-day VPN that, for the most part, delivers what it promises. Specifically, UltraVPN delivers in terms of reliability, security, server availability, and affordability – some of the key decision-making factors when choosing a VPN.

We tested it for leaks, and it passed our tests with flying colors, which shows that its encryption is formidable. It might not be completely uncrackable, but it’s more than sufficient for normal, day-to-day use.

UltraVPN also offers unrestricted internet access thanks to its wide-reaching server network. It has servers in 85 countries and in over 100 cities around the world. Although it doesn’t have as many servers as our top VPNs, its server menu is enough to give you unrestricted access to online content.

And lastly, while UltraVPN didn’t prove to be lighting fast, it wasn’t abysmally slow either. Of course, if you want speed-focused VPNs for streaming or gaming, there are other options available. (Check out the best VPNs for Netflix and the best VPNs for gaming, for example.) But for daily use and normal browsing, UltraVPN didn’t disappoint.

All things considered, there are a few key areas that need improvement. We would have loved to see more VPN protocol options, for example. Hydra was great, but it didn’t deliver as much speed as we experienced with Hotspot Shield, another VPN that uses Hydra. And as we mentioned several times in this review, we would have loved to see more options for customization. If UltraVPN can deliver those, that would take this promising VPN to the next level.