Several VPN providers make tall claims about offering privacy and security, moreover, they claim to unblock geo-restricted content. However, these claims often vary from reality.
We are reviewing Borderless VPN (BVPN) here, which a relatively new VPN service. Borderless AS, a Norway-based company provides this service. Why should this review matter to you?
Well, if you want to protect your privacy and security while browsing the Internet, then you need a “Virtual Private Network” (VPN). VPNs have become highly popular and they have a growing market. Given a large number of VPN providers competing in this market, you might find it hard to choose one. BVPN is one such player, and it promises privacy, security, freedom, and speed while browsing the Internet.
Should you use it? Does BVPN meet your requirements and differentiate itself sufficiently from the competition? Find that out in this review, and make an informed judgment about whether you should buy it or not.
Interface and Ease of Use
You would surely like a VPN that’s easy to use. BVPN offers a reasonably easy-to-use website, and you can easily access the key menu options like “Get started”, “Apps”, and “Help”. You can easily choose a pricing plan since BVPN prominently displays them, moreover, the company makes the buying process easy enough.
You can easily find the instructions to install and configure its clients/apps, however, BVPN doesn’t have a searchable knowledgebase on its website. It doesn’t provide an FAQ page, moreover, you need to ask its live chat support team for the free trial menu option. We would like BVPN to offer a more comprehensive website.
BVPN offers its custom clients/apps for Windows, Android, and iOS, and you will find them easy to install and use. For the Linux and Mac users, BVPN provides installation and configuration instructions for OpenVPN and Tunnelblick clients, respectively.
If you are a Linux or Mac user, you will need to follow these instructions to use BVPN. That’s not user-friendly enough, especially when you compare it with other market-leading VPN providers that offer custom clients/apps for all the key platforms. We would like BVPN to offer custom clients/apps for all the platforms they support.
In summary, BVPN is reasonably user-friendly for most users. If you want a highly user-friendly VPN, then you should explore other well-known VPN providers.
Pricing
BVPN offers 3 pricing plans with different billing frequencies and average monthly prices. These plans are as follows:
- Monthly plan: It costs $7.99 per month, and the billing frequency is monthly.
- 6-months plan: BVPN bills you $33 every 6 months, which works out to $5.50 per month.
- Yearly plan: You need to pay $44.4 once a year, and your average monthly cost is $3.70.
The prices don’t include VAT. If you are from Norway, then VAT will be added to the price. Irrespective of whichever plan you choose, BVPN comes out as an expensive VPN provider. Many VPN providers offer steep discounts in their multi-year plans, however, BVPN doesn’t have a multi-year plan.
When you compare BVPN with other popular VPN providers like Surfshark, you will find that BVPN is expensive given the features it offers. We will cover the features of BVPN shortly, which will help you to understand this.
Free Trial
BVPN offers a free trial for 1 day and you don’t need to provide your credit card or any other payment details to avail this. You can use all features of BVPN during this free trial period.
The company doesn’t show the free trial option on its website, and you need to ask its live chat customer support for this. It’s a short trial period when you compare it with many other VPN providers.
Payment Methods
BVPN accepts payment via all standard payment methods like card and PayPal. It accepts all popular credit cards like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, etc.
You can also avail BVPN services using cryptocurrencies. The company accepts Bitcoin, Litecoin, or other altcoins, and you need to use CoinPayments.net for this.
Payment Security
BVPN has a secure website and the company uses secure payment gateways to process your payment transactions. Your payment transactions are safe with BVPN.
Features
You will surely look for useful features while shopping for a VPN provider, therefore, let’s take a look at the features of BVPN.
Support for OpenVPN and other secure protocols: BVPN supports OpenVPN, which is well-known for being the most secure VPN protocol. There are no known vulnerabilities of OpenVPN. BVPN asks Mac users to use Tunnelblick, which connects their device to an OpenVPN server securely. The iOS app from BVPN uses the IKEv2 VPN protocol, which is very secure. Coupled with its AES-256 encryption with SHA-1 authentication and 4096-bit RSA keys, these secure protocols make BVPN quite secure.
Web filtering: BVPN has a web filtering feature, which blocks malware, ads, and trackers.
Private DNS and leak protection: BVPN has private DNS on each of its servers, and the company prevents all DNS, IP, and WebRTC leaks.
Perfect Forward Secrecy: BVPN offers “Perfect Forward Secrecy” (PFS), which regularly changes the encryption keys. Even if a cyber-attacker gets hold of your session encryption keys, you won’t lose much data since the PFS feature will soon change the encryption key.
These security mechanisms make BVPN a secure VPN provider, however, it doesn’t offer more advanced security features like other market-leading VPNs. E.g., BVPN doesn’t have a “kill switch”, which blocks the Internet connection if the VPN connection suddenly drops. BVPN also doesn’t offer a “split tunnelling” feature, however, advanced users can customize the OpenVPN configuration to implement it. If you are looking for top-of-the-line security features, then you should consider using other prominent VPNs.
Multiple devices: You can install BVPN on all of your devices, however, the company allows 5 simultaneous connections. This is on par with market standards.
Bypassing censorship: Countries like China impose censorship, moreover, they are often able to identify and block VPNs. BVPN bypasses such censorship in China and Turkey, which puts it in the same bracket as other leading VPN providers.
Allowing P2P/torrenting: BVPN allows P2P/torrenting on all of its servers. It also has dedicated servers for P2P, which have the “port forwarding” feature.
BVPN doesn’t make any emphatic claim on its website about unblocking geo-restricted streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, BBS iPlayer, etc. Its customer support representative acknowledged that Netflix blocks many VPN providers including BVPN. The company doesn’t commit that it will unblock Netflix consistently, moreover, it faces similar challenges with BBC iPlayer. BVPN can unblock YouTube US content. If you are looking around for a VPN provider that consistently unblocks Netflix and similar geo-restricted streaming services, then you should explore other prominent VPN providers.
Server Locations
BVPN has 16 servers across 15 countries at the time of this review. The company claims to have private DNS on each of its servers, moreover, it also claims to follow a “no-logs” policy for all its VPN servers.
BVPN states on its website that all its servers are P2P-friendly. The number of servers is quite less compared to leading VPN providers, and this reduces the options for BVPN users.
Africa: Egypt
Asia: Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Thailand
Europe: Norway, France, Netherlands, UK, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Poland
North America: USA
Privacy
Privacy is likely the main key to consider when you shop around for a VPN, therefore, we have taken a close look at the privacy credentials of BVPN. The company claims on its website that it has a “no-logs” policy. BVPN doesn’t store logs of its customers’ online activities, bandwidth usage, IP addresses, and DNS requests, moreover, it accepts anonymous payment using cryptocurrencies.
On their “Terms and Conditions” page on its website, BVPN states which information it logs. The information it retains are as follows:
• A valid email address of the customer
• The country of residence, if the user provides this information during buying BVPN services.
BVPN states that it may turn on logging in certain scenarios. These scenarios are the following:
• If troubleshooting requires logging;
• Cyber-attacks including end-user attacks;
• Development or upgrade of services.
The company states that if it turns on logging due to the above reasons, then it will turn it off as soon as it sees no more requirements for logging.
The jurisdiction of BVPN is Norway, and it’s one of the “14 Eyes” countries that conduct mass surveillance. This is not ideal for a VPN provider. BVPN is subject to EU data retention directives since they are part of Norwegian laws.
BVPN states on its T&C page that it will provide customer information to Norwegian government authorities if required by law. It also states that it will pass on customer information to a 3rd party only if directed by a Norwegian court.
This could be fine with most users since they would be on the right side of the law. For those users insisting on a strict “no logs” policy should explore other market-leading VPN providers.
Encryption
BVPN uses AES-256 encryption with SHA-1 authentication, which is military-grade encryption. It also uses 4096-bit RSA keys, which is highly secure. We found that as far as encryption is concerned, BVPN is as good as other leading VPN providers in the market.
Customer Support
Customer support is likely high on your priority, and that’s especially true if you are a new VPN user. BVPN offers robust customer support, however, the company doesn’t have a searchable knowledge base on its website at the time of this review.
BVPN has detailed installation and configuration guides for its clients/apps. These guides, along with its responsive, prompt, and knowledgeable customer support compensate for the lack of FAQ and knowledge base.
Setup Guides
BVPN has step-by-step guides for installing and configuring its clients/apps. Its website displays them prominently.
Contact Support
BVPN offers support via live chat, moreover, it provides email support via its ticketing system. You can also contact its support team on Facebook. The live chat support is manned by its team in Norway, and this team can communicate in English and Norwegian.
BVPN provides live chat support on all days of the week between 7 AM to 10 PM Norway hours. It has a support team based in Vietnam for ticket support, and this team provides support outside the above-mentioned time window.
Troubleshooting
The live chat support team of BVPN states that there could be some delays in responding to queries, however, we received responses within a few minutes. We noticed that the live chat support representatives are knowledgeable, prompt, and responsive.
FAQ
BVPN doesn’t have a FAQ or a searchable knowledge-base on its website at the time of this review. This is a disadvantage when compared with other leading VPN providers.
Speed And Performance
BVPN offers reasonable speed for connection, upload, and download, however, its speed is not the best in the market. It consistently offers a stable VPN connection. The company doesn’t impose any bandwidth restrictions. If you prioritize excellent speed, then you should explore other market-leading VPNs.
Compatibility
When you buy a VPN, you would want it to support all your devices, and BVPN does it. It supports Windows desktop, which includes both 64-bit and 32-bit. BVPN supports Mac and Linux, moreover, it supports both Android and iOS.
At the time of this review, BVPN offers its custom clients for Windows, Android, and iOS. Its website has detailed installation and configuration guides for its clients. The company points the Mac users to Tunnelblick, and it provides instructions for installing and configuring it. BVPN asks the Linux users to use OpenVPN, and it provides installation and configuration instructions.
You can use the OpenVPN app with BVPN configuration files, and the BVPN website has the necessary guides for this. If you want your VPN provider to offer custom clients for all the platforms it supports, then BVPN isn’t there yet and you should explore other VPN providers.
We would like to see BVPN come up with custom clients/apps for all platforms it supports since that helps users. Our chat with the customer support team of BVPN indicated that the company is working on its Mac client and it expects to release it soon. The customer support representative also indicated that BVPN will release a new version of its Windows client soon.
You can configure your router as a VPN client and use BVPN to connect all your devices including smart TVs. BVPN supports Vilfo and DD-WRT routers, and the company offers installation and configuration guides.
Conclusion
Borderless VPN is a relatively new VPN, and the company is still developing its offerings. Its privacy credentials will satisfy most users, however, its jurisdiction in Norway isn’t suitable for an absolute implementation of a “no-logs” policy. BVPN has strong security features, which should work for most users. However, it doesn’t offer some of the advanced security features.
BVPN offers reasonable speed, however, it’s not the best in the market. It allows P2P/torrenting. This VPN can’t consistently unblock geo-restricted streaming services like Netflix, BBC iPlayer, etc. Its custom clients/apps are easy to install and use, though BVPN doesn’t offer custom clients for Mac and Linux.
While BorderlessVPN offers robust customer support, we would like the company to provide a knowledge base and FAQ pages on its website. BVPN is expensive, especially when you compare it with market-leading VPNs. We think that BVPN doesn’t offer the best price and features yet, however, we recommend that you use its 1-day free trial period to see if this VPN meets your requirements.