Disclaimer: The below review is my opinion, which I will try to provide as many examples for and as much evidence as possible to support. Readers can learn more about how I conduct my reviews, my methodology, etc – here. More information on review badges here.

This review’s roll was #113 (currently SunVPN).

Written Jun 28, 2016

Signing up for the service: The first thing I noticed about SunVPN’s order page was that PC/Mobile use was divided into two plans. I hate it when I see companies do this with OpenVPN connections. If they’re doing it right – IT SHOULDN’T MATTER whether it’s being connected to with a PC or Mobile device as manual configurations on each should be fairly interchangeable.



Checkout required not only a name, but an address, even for Paypal (which Paypal typically provides based on that account). This is obviously a poor setup and not respectful of privacy minded consumers. After signing up, you are also required to confirm your email address. It seems that SunVPN doesn’t want to leave anything to chance and wants every opportunity to verify the user’s identity.

Also, what is it with some of these companies having to send me five separate emails confirming my new service? Again, this is a minor point, but it annoys me every time, maybe more than it should.

Configuring the service: SunVPN did not appear to have any official manual OpenVPN configurations for Linux or Android on the downloads section of their site. I sent a support ticket, see below for more details on the experience. As you will read below, SunVPN replied that they do not have any manual configuration support and that OpenVPN was only available through a proprietary Windows application. As this is not what I recommend for a VPN for privacy purposes, no speed and stability tests were performed.

Speed & Stability tests: As above, no speed tests were performed.



Getting support: As SunVPN did not have any official ovpn files for Linux or Android (or any other platform, just installers for proprietary clients), I emailed support to see if they could send me a zip with ovpn files and certs for me to manually install from. SunVPN responded saying they do not have OpenVPN support for anything but Windows (GUI Installer, not manual config). Unfortunately, this means I wasn’t able to connect using the method described in my test setup, so no speed tests were able to be performed.

Getting a refund: As the SunVPN service did not provide a manual configuration option, I requested a refund which was granted without hassle.

Concerns in Terms & Conditions / Privacy Policy:



There were quite a few policies that I’d be wary of…

SunVPN accounts are inividual [sic]. You can not be connected to 2 ore more servers in the same time with one SunVPN account. Breaking this policy will result in a suspension of your account. No refunds will be given in this case.

It’s fairly normal for a company to not allow sharing, however, even accidentally breaking this policy (which is possible to do if you have multiple devices configured to use the VPN tunnel at different times. I don’t know how closely they enforce this, but they’re threatening suspension with no refunds, so I think it’s worth pointing out.

SunVPN prohibits the use of: Abusive Language

Take your policy and pound sand SunVPN- ACCOUNT TERMINATED

We collect:

your full name

your email address

your billing adress

your telephone number

your IP adress

your card issueing bank name

That’s a lot of garbage. Privacy minded consumers, run the other direction and don’t look back.

We will never share this information with any third parties, unless:

you are in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998

you have indulged in criminal activities including but not limited to terrorism, child pornography, carding, Ponzi/get rich fast schemes

you have used our service for hacking into other computer networks/systems

you have tried to gain unauthorized access to the SunVPN network infrastructure

you have commited other criminal activity under US/international laws

I love when they use the word “never” and then follow it up with 5 bullet points of exceptions.

We log on our servers:

your login date

your logout date

your username

your IP address

time connected

inbound/outbound traffic per session

errors/warnings

Have I already told privacy minded consumers to steer clear. Seriously. This might just be the worst service from a privacy standpoint that I’ve tested to date.

We never share this information with any third party unless a criminal offence has been brought to our attention.

If we have reasonable grounds to suspect that an end user is involved in online criminal activities, we reserve the right to notify law enforcement agencies.

So, they actively alert LE agencies of your activity based on some unpublished criteria. I don’t usually get mean in my reviews, but suck rope, SunVPN. This is absurd.

Final thoughts: I’ve seen some pretty incompetent setups in the VPN industry, but this might just be one of the silliest services I’ve seen. Everything about SunVPN screams anti-privacy, from no manual OpenVPN setup, to the egregious logging and personal info policies. The asking price for a month of service is a joke considering what you’re given, and I’m not sure if there’s really anyone I’d recommend this service to. SunVPN does accomplish one thing – disproving the myth that you get what you pay for.

FROM THE VPN COMPARISON CHART CATEGORY VPN SERVICE SunVPN JURISDICTION Based In (Country) USA Fourteen Eyes? Five Freedom Status Free LOGGING Logs Traffic Yes Logs DNS Requests Logs Timestamps Yes Logs Bandwidth Logs IP Address Yes ACTIVISM Anonymous Payment Method No Accepts Bitcoin No PGP Key Available No Meets PrivacyTools IO Criteria No LEAK PROTECTION 1st Party DNS Servers No IPv6 Supported / Blocked No Offers OpenVPN Yes OBFUSCATION Supports Multihop Supports TCP Port 443 Supports Obfsproxy Supports SOCKS Supports SSL Tunnel Yes Supports SSH Tunnel Other Proprietary Protocols Yes PORT BLOCKING Auth SMTP P2P Yes SPEEDS US Server Average % Int’l Server Average % SERVERS Dedicated or Virtual SECURITY Default Data Encryption Strongest Data Encryption AES-256 Weakest Handshake Encryption Strongest Handshake Encryption AVAILABILITY # of Connections 2 # of Countries 10 # of Servers 12 Linux Support (Manual) No WEBSITE # of Persistent Cookies 3 # of External Trackers 1 # of Proprietary APIs 8 Server SSL Rating F SSL Cert issued to No SSL Cert PRICING $ / Month (Annual Pricing) 8.33 $ / Connection / Month 4.17 Free Trial No Refund Period (Days) 30 ETHICS Contradictory Logging Policies Falsely Claims 100% Effective Incentivizes Social Media Spam POLICIES Forbids Spam No Requires Ethical Copy No Requires Full Disclosure No AFFILIATES Practice Ethical Copy Give Full Disclosure

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