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Features
On its website, OneVPN makes a big deal about offering malware protection, ad-blocking, and a NAT Firewall. However, as far as I can tell no ads were blocked while using the service. Other than that, the VPN has very few features:
- Servers in 59 countries
- Fast speeds for streaming
- 3 simultaneous connections
- Port selection
- 24/7 support (including live chat support and a ticket system)
OneVPN offers 2 US-based “Netflix servers,” but these were both blocked by Netflix in my tests. BBC iPlayer, however, was accessible using OneVPN’s UK servers.
Speed and Performance
Tests were performed on a 50 Mbs/3 Mbps UK fiber connection (using an AC1200 powerline adapter). OpenVPN tests were performed using UDP (faster but less reliable than TCP). My base tests produced results of around 52 Mbps. The UK server fared very well giving me an average speed of 45 Mbps. The US server performed just as impressively, reducing my speeds by just 5 to 10 Mbps (despite the extra distances involved). Upload speeds were also impressive and barely changed with and without the VPN connected.
The custom client does nothing to prevent DNS leaks or WebRTC leaks. However, I did follow the steps listed in the Knowledgebase article “How to avoid DNS leaks”. Disabling IPv6 does, of course, work, but I otherwise continued to see DNS leaks after modifying the OpenVPN configuration file used by the client as instructed. This pretty much rues the VPN out for privacy.
Price and Plans
OneVPN charges $7.95 per month, with reductions for longer-term plans. The price goes down to just $1 a month for a 4-year plan. An option that is almost suspiciously cheap. All of the subscription plans provide access to all the VPN features.
A 7-day money back guarantee is available, but it is worth checking the small print. In order to receive a refund, you must state a reason for the refund claim. Even worse, a refund is not available if you have used more than 3GB of data.
Consumers can pay for the VPN with all major credit cards, Bitcoin (via BitPay), PayPal, Paymentwall, AliPay and gift cards.
Privacy and Security
Being based in Hong Kong is good for privacy as it has no mandatory data retention laws. Though of course, there is always the concern that China is managing to perform some sort of covert surveillance there. According to its privacy policy OneVPN claims to keep zero logs, which is excellent. This means the VPN can be considered good for privacy.
OneVPN subscribers get the use of a number of protocols: OpenVPN, L2TP, and PPTP VPN protocols. OneVPN also supports the open source Cisco OpenConnect (CSTP) protocol. This is a SSL/TLS-based VPN protocol.
As is always the case we checked the implementation standards of OpenVPN: an AES-256 cipher with an RSA-2048 handshake and SHA 256 hash authentication. This is pretty good. However, I was unable to ascertain whether OneVPN also implements Perfect Forward Secrecy (ephemeral keys). This “detail” is important because if PFS is not used then the same key is used each time you connect to the VPN server. This makes the connection much easier to hack.
Sadly, I have no way to know whether OpenVPN is absolutely secure with OneVPN. Add this to the DNS leaks that were discovered in my tests, and it is close to impossible to recommend this VPN for privacy.
Final thoughts
As this OneVPN review shows, OneVPN is about as bare-bones as a VPN service gets. You get a simple VPN connection, and that’s it. It claims to offer important features such as DNS leak protection and a kill switch through its guides, but these simply don’t work.
In its current state, it is therefore hard to recommend OneVPN. That said, not all is bad. OneVPN is a Hong-based no logs provider, and its performance is excellent. This actually means that OneVPN has a strong base on which to build and improve its service in the future. It might, therefore, be worth keeping an eye on.