CactusVPN Review 2025: Is It Legit? Is It a Scam?

CactusVPN Review 2025: Summary

CactusVPN is presented as a modest VPN service by the company that promotes itself as a means to circumvent censorship and protect your online privacy.

But doesn’t that describe all similar service providers?

So decided to go deeper and see what makes CactusVPN special. If you’re trying to figure out whether or not to subscribe to a VPN service, our CactusVPN review might assist.

With just nodes in 22 regions, CactusVPN is a no-logs VPN service.

Streaming and torrenting are possible, but your DNS could be exposed if the VPN is not set up correctly.

Compared to other VPNs, CactusVPN is solid, but services like NordVPN are superior.

CactusVPN claims compatibility with more than 340 streaming sites from more than ten countries; however, the service uses Smart DNS to access the material rather than a VPN.

CactusVPN’s Smart DNS has been tried and tested by the team, and they have had several issues connecting to any of the major streaming services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and others.

If you’re interested in learning more about this service, keep reading this CactusVPN review or download the app immediately.

CactusVPN Review 2025: In-depth

To provide an accurate CactusVPN review, we conducted comprehensive testing to determine the VPN service’s strengths and weaknesses.

Although CactusVPN’s speeds were consistently fast when connecting to servers nearby, this was not the case when connecting to servers further afield.

Even yet, all the tested servers offered speeds insufficient for HD streaming, rapid BitTorrenting, and smooth online gaming.

Speed Test Results

We started our testing with an initial connection speed of 23.58 Mbps. Testing revealed that connecting to CactusVPN’s servers resulted in a 48% decrease in our internet speed, to an average of 12.21Mbps.

We experienced a download speed of 21.16 Mbps from an American server, 18.04 Mbps from a British server, and 14.81 Mbps from a Canadian server.

Because of the limited size of the network, these results are very impressive.

When connecting to a server in Japan, the furthest from my location, my speed dropped to roughly 7 Mbps, or about a 70% decrease.

A major slowdown in performance is expected from a server located so far away, so this didn’t surprise me.

In our tests, the upload speeds consistently dropped. With a starting upload speed of 14 Mbps, we only managed an average of 1 Mbps.

While we generally have fast internet, it’s important to note that we had an extremely high ping on virtually every connection. It suggests that there will be a fair amount of lag.

How Secure Is CactusVPN?

Experts analyzed CactusVPN’s protocols, privacy and logging policies, and the information needed to register an account to determine its security.

Out of ten, CactusVPN gets a five for protection.

According to what people observe about them:

• CactusVPN provides different limited protocols, such as OpenVPN and IKEv2.
• Contrary to what is stated in terms of service, CactusVPN does indeed log quite a bit of user information.
• App killer, the VPN’s built-in kill switch, may be customized to your needs.
• Account creation requires a valid email account and a unique password. It is acceptable to use cryptocurrency as payment.

No Unblocking

CactusVPN’s website states that it can access hundreds of otherwise restricted websites and services. Among these, Netflix US is at the top of their list. With one minor caveat.

Connect to Netflix via each of their four domestic data centers in the United States. To no result, either.

After inquiring with support, It was informed that their VPN service does not circumvent geographical restrictions.

The only way to get it is to subscribe to a third-party service known as SmartDNS, which will cost you extra.

Many VPNs include these extras at no cost and without trying to upsell you on anything else.

The primary benefit of using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is that it allows you to alter your apparent location.

If you want to watch Netflix from another country, NordVPN is highly recommended as one of these alternatives to Netflix VPNs.

Ease Of Use

The CactusVPN desktop client is not very simple to obtain. The “Download Your Apps” options for CactusVPN are located right on the homepage, so all you have to do is scroll down a bit.

Once you do that, you will be redirected to a new website where you can click to obtain the device-specific installation files for several different operating systems.

From what It sb can see, CactusVPN works with mobile devices (Android and iOS) and desktop PCs (Windows and Mac OS X).

It also has access to the Android TV and Fire TV installer files. But also learned that CactusVPN supports add-ons for Chrome and Firefox.

Anonymity And Privacy Features

Many VPN services are hazy at best-regarding user privacy and data retention.

Sometimes they do this to try to use the gap in the law to do anything they want with your personal information.

Therefore, numerous providers have been documented to share user information with third parties. It’s a huge invasion of your privacy, and it could put your safety at risk.

However, the company claims that CactusVPN is not one of those VPNs. It is a dependable service because of its no-logging policy.

Its website contains extensive information about the company’s privacy practices.

The company clearly does not save or share users’ IP addresses, traffic data, or information about when they connected or how long they were online.

Therefore, it does detail a few scenarios in which it may be legally compelled to disclose your information.

In such cases, a subpoena or court order may require the production of the requested information. There seems to be some inconsistency here.

Since this service does not keep your logs, a lawsuit or court order would be meaningless.

This is because there will continue to be nothing to give away, even if it is present.

There is a lack of transparency concerning this provider’s privacy claims and their status as yet unaudited.

DNS Leaks

You might think of the Domain Name System as the internet’s version of a phone book.

When you type a domain name like privateproxyguide.com into your browser, the domain name system (DNS) translates that into the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the network hosting that webpage and establishes a connection between your device and the server.

There is a chance of hackers spying on the link between your system, DNS, and the webpage hosting server because of the great distance the information must travel.

They can learn a lot about you and your activity by utilizing unprotected DNS.

Therefore, preventing DNS leaks while using a VPN is crucial to maintaining online anonymity.

In this case, clients use DNSleaktest.com to perform the leak test across five distinct server locations.

Logging Policy

According to their policy, CactusVPN does not keep any personally identifiable information such as IP addresses, traffic logs, network connection timestamps, consumed bandwidth, or the number of sessions.

It means that average logs may be kept, but since no personal information is stored alongside them, users need not worry.

There would be no way for the service provider to tie the user’s identity to their connection history, even if it were required to do so by a government agency.

Encryption

As was previously said, CactusVPN places a premium on user privacy and security.

AES-256 encryption, SHA-256 authenticating, DHE-RSA key interchange with a 2048-bit key, and absolute forward transparency are all utilized.

OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec, IKEv2, SSTP, and PPTP are just a few flexible protocol options available to consumers.

Either OpenVPN or IKEv2 is fine, although IKEv2 is faster and more suitable for mobile use.

Because of security flaws, PPTP is no longer relevant; however, L2TP/IPSec and SSTP still have their applications.

Manually trying to set up CactusVPN with the SoftEther protocol is also possible, and the support team recommends doing so if you’ll be using it in China.

CactusVPN App Killer

In the situation that your VPN connection drops, the CactusVPN app killer can be set to terminate any program you specify.

Thus, even if your VPN connection drops, no one will be able to learn what you’re doing online or which apps you’re using.

CactusVPN Internet Kill Switch

The Internet Kill Switch functions similarly to the app killer, except if your VPN connection drops, it will instead disable your network connection entirely.

Therefore, the Internet Kill Switch can be used to prevent any digital data or privacy leaks from any of your services.

Shared Static IP Address

CactusVPN allows several customers to share a single, permanent IP address. In this approach, the service provider makes it more difficult for cyber snoops to monitor your digital footprint.

Only companies that are required to send emails and a trademark to protect may be affected by the use of shared IP addresses.

For non-commercial purposes, however, there should be no issues.

Apps

CactusVPN has applications and guides for Windows, OS X, Android, iOS, and more. We got our hands on a Windows build and thoroughly inspected it.

To a greater extent than is typical, the installer allowed us to direct the installation procedure.

This adds a layer of complexity with features like “AutoStart CactusVPN GUI” and “Install TAP-Win32 Virtual Ethernet Adapter,” but you can safely ignore them if you’d like.

When the Windows client loads, it displays the usual list of locations along with a Connect button.

Connecting is as simple as using any other VPN software you’ve used before. Another thing you’ll notice right away is the dearth of options for selecting a specific area.

You cannot see server load or ping durations, but the user can arrange the location shortlist by speed, for example.

There is no shortcut mechanism like Favorites or Recently Visited to quickly return to frequently used pages.

However, you can connect to a different server without logging out of the current one.

Can You Use CactusVPN For Gaming?

The company claims that if you’re looking for a great VPN that will provide a pleasant time while enjoying your favorite game online, CactusVPN is a safe choice.

Their VPN servers are located in several different countries, each of which has blazing-fast 1 Gbps connections.

It may be difficult to play some online games, though, because of the high ping on most servers across the network.

Because it can be installed on a router, CactusVPN may be utilized with a broad variety of game consoles and streaming devices, such as the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Smart TVs.

If you only care about streaming, then its Smart DNS feature may be useful.

Pricing

CactusVPN offers a variety of subscription levels to potential consumers, just like most similar VPN providers.

Prices for those programs vary solely with the length of your contract. Regardless of the length of your subscription, you will always have access to the same features.

Cactus VPN’s monthly subscriptions cost $9.99, which is competitive with other providers.

You can sign up for a plan that lasts for three months for $23.99. Again, this is about par for the course at a monthly cost of $7.99 (after the savings of 20%).

For an additional year, the price drops to just $4.58 each month (or $54.99 total). Plus, a new two-year plan reduces the monthly cost of the VPN to only $3.95.

Support

CactusVPN claims to provide round-the-clock chat support.

However, this is not the case, as the aforementioned live chat is only available on weekdays from 9:00 am to 18:00 CET.

If live chat isn’t your thing, the website also has a comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section.

You can submit a ticket and get an email response if you can’t find the answer there.

In Summary, the best VPNs in 2025 are;

Review Verdict

This CactusVPN review aims to help you get started with the software by explaining its core concepts and providing a step-by-step guide to its installation.

The CactusVPN Android app is without a kill switch, the server network is limited, and the service only intermittently works in areas with censorship.

As a better alternative VPN service, NordVPN comes highly recommended.

In terms of user satisfaction, NordVPN is arguably the most popular virtual private network (VPN) in the world.

It’s hard to ignore the numerous rave reviews that gush over the platform’s lightning-fast speeds, built-in security features, media streaming and downloading options, and user-friendly interface.