Atlas VPN Review

The internet can be a scary place. There are cyber criminals, stalkers, and even government agencies that are looking for any chance they get to invade your privacy and steal your information. A reputable VPN service such as Atlas VPN helps to protect you against these dangers. In this article, we’ll give readers an overview of Atlas VPN as well as discuss the five reasons why we believe they offer the best bang for your buck of any provider we’ve had a chance to review. This in-depth Atlas VPN review contains the following sections:

1. What is a VPN
2. Reason #1 – Atlas VPN Offers Paid and Free Options
3. Reason #2 – Atlas VPN Protects You And Your Data
4. Reason #3 – Top Uses For Atlas VPN
5. Reason #4 – Atlas VPN’s Reliable Speed and Dependable Service
6. Reason #5 – Atlas’ User Experience And Customer Support

What is a VPN?

A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a tool that allows you to securely connect to another network over the internet. This process encrypts your data and hides your IP address, making it difficult for third parties to track your activity. For this reason, VPNs are commonly used to protect people’s online privacy and security. They are also used by businesses to allow employees to securely connect to the company network from unsafe locations such as coffee shops and airports that offer free public WiFi. When choosing a VPN provider, it’s important to consider your specific needs and find a provider that offers a good combination of security, speed, and price. Here are five reasons why we recommend Atlas VPN.  

Reason #1 – Atlas VPN Offers Paid and Free Options

When it comes to VPN services, there are two main camps: free and paid. Both have their pros and cons, but which one is right for you? With Atlas VPN, the free tier is there to give users a glimpse into what the full service has to offer. Users of the free plan are limited in terms of data usage, server choice, and the number of devices connected at once. Premium users, however, can choose from over 750 individual servers, have zero data caps, and no restrictions on the number of simultaneous connections.

Affordability

Atlas VPN is one of the most affordable VPNs on the market. By purchasing a three-year subscription, the price comes out to just $2.00 per month. Even the one-year plan – which is about $3.30 per month – offers substantial savings of over 60% compared to month-to-month. If you still rather go with the monthly pay-as-you-go plan, that’s not too expensive either at only $11.00 per month – a great value for your money, and a small price to pay to protect yourself online. Still on the fence? Well, Atlas VPN is one of the few providers to offer a money-back guarantee on their service. If you’re not satisfied within your first 30-days, you can get a full refund – click here to learn more.

Reason #2 – Atlas VPN Protects You And Your Data

The entire reason someone would use a VPN provider is to stay safe and secure when online. If the provider can’t guarantee robust, strong security, that completely defeats the purpose. Luckily, Atlas VPN is a very safe, very secure service. Here’s why. The company uses the most up-to-date, military-grade encryption standards, and allows users to choose between two different tunneling protocols depending on their particular use case. IKEv2, or Internet Key Exchange version 2, is a VPN protocol that has been around for a while and is supported by most providers, including Atlas. IKEv2 is considered to be one of the most secure protocols available and is known for its speed and reliability. Atlas VPN users can also go with Wireguard. This is a newer VPN protocol that promises to be simpler and more efficient than existing tunneling protocols. It’s not as widely supported as IKEv2, but it’s gaining popularity due to its powerful security and performance.

Kill Switch

Another security benefit of using Atlas VPN is the built-in kill switch. When activated, a VPN kill switch will prevent your device from sending or receiving any data outside of the encrypted VPN tunnel. This means if your connection drops for any reason, your internet traffic will not be exposed. Kill switches are a critical safety measure for anyone using a VPN, but not all providers offer this feature. If you’re seriously concerned about your privacy online, make sure to choose a VPN provider like Atlas that offers a kill switch. This way, you can rest assured that your data will always be protected, even if your VPN connection is lost.

Honest and Transparent Logging

Atlas VPN also has an honest and transparent policy regarding the logs it keeps. According to the website, Atlas doesn’t log sensitive information like your IP address and online activity, however, they do mention that other information such as your VPN settings and certain device stats are stored to improve the quality of service. Some may see this as a red flag, but in our opinion, their transparency regarding the data they collect is a demonstration of good intentions. Far too many VPN services advertise themselves as strictly “no-logs” but reading the fine print makes it clear that they, in fact, siphon off your information. We must also mention that Atlas VPN is based in the US, not Panama where its parent company Nord VPN is located. Being in the US means Atlas is subject to US laws and regulations which aren’t the most privacy friendly. However, since the company only collects non-identifiable information, any request for user data should turn out fruitless.

Reason #3 – Top Uses For Atlas VPN

If you’re looking for a VPN that will allow you to torrent, circumvent censorship, or access geo-blocked content on popular streaming platforms like Netflix, HBO, Disney+, and Hulu, then you’ll definitely want to check out Atlas VPN. With this service, you can easily connect to a server in a country of your choice and access the content you desire. Atlas even provides streaming-optimized servers that are specifically configured to eliminate common video streaming issues that often plague VPN users. During our testing, we wanted to see how many Netflix libraries we could access through Atlas’ network, and had no issues connecting from servers in Australia, France, Poland, or Spain. Strangely, we were not able to access Netflix when connected in the UK, Italy, or Japan. Keep in mind these are our isolated test results and not necessarily reflective of what every user will experience. Many Atlas VPN users report having no problem accessing the Netflix libraries of those countries we had issues with. Keep in mind that you must have Atlas’ premium VPN to access geo-blocked content, free VPN accounts will not work for this purpose.

Anti-censorship

In addition to accessing geo-blocked streaming services, we’ve heard reports that Atlas VPN can circumvent the Great Firewall of China. While we’re unable to independently verify for ourselves, some users behind the Chinese firewall claim that they were able to access Youtube, Instagram, and other sites the country has blacklisted.

Torrenting

Atlas VPN is also good for downloading torrents. Since all of your internet traffic is encrypted and routed through a secure tunnel, your ISP cannot see what you’re doing online, making it impossible for them to throttle your connection or block torrent downloads. A major downside is the inability to do port forwarding, which can be an issue for some torrent software. We tested several of the top clients through Atlas VPN and were happy with the fast and reliable speeds we achieved.

Reason #4 – Atlas VPN’s Reliable Speed and Dependable Service

If you’re looking for a VPN service that offers blazing-fast speed and dependability, then you cannot go wrong here. Atlas VPN has both of those things in spades. In terms of speed, you’ll be able to browse the web, stream HD video, and download large files without any hiccups. Our tests show only a minor decrease in performance as compared to our baseline internet speed. We noticed that the further away the server, the bigger the impact it had on our overall speed. The same is typically true for most VPN services. For example, being located in the US and connecting to a server in New York, our VPN speed was nearly the same as our baseline, however, connecting to servers across the world in Dubai and Singapore we experienced slower performance with decreases of roughly 20% and 15%, respectively. Compared to other VPNs on the market, this isn’t bad at all. We’ve tested some services that claim to be fast but deliver less than 50% to 70% of our default internet speed. If your internet service provider offers good speed to begin with, the slightly slower performance you’ll get after connecting to Atlas VPS won’t impact your day-to-day online activity too much, even if you do tons of streaming and torrenting. One big potential pitfall for some users is the high ping rate, which makes online gaming difficult – if not outright impossible – due to laggy, stuttering gameplay. In terms of dependability, this VPN service has a 99.9% uptime, so you can always count on it to be there when needed most. According to one service tracker, Atlas has been up 100% of the time over the last month, which is a testament to its quality of service. While premium users have access to over 750 servers spread across the world, free users are limited to only a handful of servers. The servers available on the free plan aren’t as fast as the premium servers. According to Atlas, they don’t throttle free users, the slower speed is a result of congestion.

Reason#5 – Atlas’ User Experience And Customer Support

Atlas’ client app is available for all major operating systems including Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, Android, and more. One caveat though is each app has different features and functionality. During our test, we noticed that the Android app has options to enable split tunneling and the ad/tracker blocker. Meanwhile, testing the apps for Windows and iOS, we found there’s no split tunneling but there is a tracker blocker option in both apps. Interestingly, at the time of our review, the macOS app has neither functionality. Also, Atlas VPN doesn’t provide a native browser or router extension. In other words, the easiest way to connect is by downloading the official app. This is unlike other top-tier VPNs, many of which offer different ways to connect based on the user’s needs and experience. It’s worth noting that Atlas VPN was just founded in 2019 and started as a mobile-first VPN provider, so we expect to see more and better functionality roll out as the company continues to grow.

Ease of Use

One key benefit that all Atlas VPN client apps offer is simplicity. After downloading the software from the website or app store, users are greeted with a straightforward interface presenting a large button that they click to connect and start using the network. While this simplicity works extremely well for non-technical users, those who want to do things like configure their own proxy rules or custom DNS servers don’t have a path to do so in the app. This isn’t necessarily a negative, but something to note for technical users who like to fine-tune and customize the VPNs they use.

Customer Support

As is customary with online businesses now-a-day, Atlas VPN users can receive support via 24/7 live chat, email, and through the site’s resource center. In our experience, the most common way that the support team will reply to any request for assistance is through email, even if your request was started via live chat. For simple questions, you can expect an agent to have an answer within minutes, but for more in-depth inquiries, email responses are usually sent within 24 hours. However, some of our questions took a few days to answer which isn’t exactly fast, nevertheless the answers were helpful and didn’t require follow-up questions.

Conclusion

If you need a trustworthy, reliable, beginner-friendly VPN that protects your online privacy and empowers you to freely download torrents and bypass geo-blocked content, Atlas VPN might be an ideal solution for you – and that’s not just our opinion. Online reviews for Atlas VPN are overwhelmingly positive, with users praising the service for its many options, ease of use, and excellent security. For less than the price of one cup of coffee per month, Atlas VPN delivers fast, dependable security you can always count on. Click here to learn more about Atlas VPN and how it can protect you from criminals and snoopers.