AtlasVPN review: a powerful service, but with its limits

Initially designed as a mobile VPN, AtlasVPN has extended its service to all platforms on the market. It relies on its simplicity and performance, but its lack of features and vagueness regarding its privacy policy do not work in its favor.

ATLASVPN FEATURES

WHO IS ATLASVPN?

AtlasVPN is a very young service launched in 2020 with an emphasis on mobile and above all the desire to get a good place in the free VPN segment. The brand is owned and operated by Peakstar Technologies Inc. based in Delaware, USA. We will also see later in this test why this is not necessarily a good location.

If Atlas VPN necessarily highlights the freeness of its service, same if limited to a maximum of 2 GB per month, its paid offer is affordable and above all allows unlimited connections from a single account. A perfect argument to be able to protect all your devices.

INTERFACE / GETTING STARTED

In addition to the absence of a world map on which you can select a server location, Atlas VPN has an interface quite similar to what a NordVPN offers for example. A good choice as the general presentation is uncluttered and non-intrusive. Once logged in, you find yourself directly in home with a list of countries and a connection button. We have also noted that Atlas VPN connects to its servers very quickly. The left side menu provides access to a support tab and options.

In the first, we have the right to an advertising tracker but also, even more interesting, to an in-house platform for detecting security breaches via email address. The latter obviously uses the most common databases to detect if your address has been leaked, but does not necessarily allow you to directly remedy it.

The options tab is more complete and gives access to a minimum of classic additional features such as the Kill Switch, autoconnect… and that’s it! The mobile version only adds split tunneling and is not necessarily more extensive. No dedicated IP mode, for example, although this option is available in many other VPNs.

There is still a list of servers in the “Privacy Pro” tab only accessible with a paid subscription. These are located at optimal locations to ensure top performance while randomly changing between different gateways. An additional guarantee to strengthen your online security and anonymity.

Minimum service therefore which can be justified on a free version, but which is necessarily a bit stingy compared to what the competition offers. Another downside, the AtlasVPN interface is entirely and only in English.

SERVERS AND PERFORMANCE

When it comes to server mining, AtlasVPN is clearly not the service with the most impressive numbers. It only has a little over 700 active servers around the world in 43 different countries. However, it covers a good part of the world territory and some cities have different localities. It is also very efficient. Here are the results of our tests carried out on the NPerf site on a 1 Gb/s fiber home connection:

Atlas VPN offers IKEv2 and Wireguard protocols. The latter is much more recommendable, because it is more recent and much better optimized for common uses. Remember to activate it in the options. In any case, regardless of the protocol used, we did not find any DNS leak problems.

For the streaming part, we saw no problem watching geoblocked content, AtlasVPN being quite comfortable bypassing the international geoblocking of Netflix for example, but it also does particularly well with other SVoD platforms. Note also that Atlas VPN has a specific list of servers (mainly US) optimized for this type of use.

PRIVACY POLICY

Atlas VPN’s headquarters are based in the USA, more precisely in Delaware, a choice no doubt motivated for tax reasons. On the other hand, the good faith displayed by the company concerning its policy of “non-retention” of its users’ data can legitimately be called into question. The United States being a prominent member of the 5 Eyes (now the 14 Eyes), the famous confederation of countries actively participating in widespread and mass surveillance of the web. One can therefore legitimately ask the question: does Atlas VPN actually store and share my connection information when I use it? And even though the United States does not have mandatory data retention laws, unfortunately we do not have any real guarantees or the answer to this question. The simple fact of asking it is already a problem.

If in the vast majority of cases, users have nothing to do with this aspect, it is nevertheless essential that a service which sells itself as a secure VPN is not forced to share the information of its users, even if it would be for security purposes.

The information likely to be disclosed ranges from sites visited, devices used and connection times. It is therefore impossible in the current state to verify all this since no mention of this point is made explicit in the dedicated page on the site.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Although Atlas VPN has made efforts to present its applications, we would have liked it to do the same for a better integration of its support. Whether on desktop or mobile platform, only a simple option referring to the help center is available. A little skimpy when you know that some VPNs include everything you need directly in the application, right up to online chat.

As for the help center itself, we end up with a simple FAQ answering basic questions about the operation of the VPN, all only available in English. As for the contact form, it is not accessible from the main page, but from the articles. It should be noted, however, that the responses from the support are quick, even if they are also written in the language of Shakespeare.

PRICES

AtlasVPN is part of the very closed circle of very inexpensive VPNs, especially if you opt for the most advantageous rates, often reserved for users wishing to make a long-term commitment. However, keep in mind that the latter is also sold as a free VPN.

It offers 3 offers ranging from one month to 3 years with very reasonable prices rarely exceeding 2 euros per month for 3 years of subscription.

Note that for this price, AtlasVPN does not offer additional services such as a password manager or anti-malware. It is 100% focused on its VPN business, which can impact people looking for a comprehensive security solution.