Urban VPN Review 2025

Finding a reliable VPN can be tricky, especially if you’re looking for one that’s free and can break through the strict geo-restrictions. Whether it’s streaming your favorite shows blocked in your region or accessing content from different corners of the world, the idea of paying for a premium VPN might not be everyone’s choice.

Enter Urban VPN, a service that promises a completely free solution with no bandwidth or location limits. Launched in 2018, Urban VPN quickly grabbed attention by offering a free way to bypass geo-restrictions. But is it really as secure and effective as it claims, or are there hidden pitfalls behind this seemingly perfect freebie?

In this in-depth review, we examine Urban VPN’s features, performance, and overall reliability to help you decide if it’s the solution to your geo-restriction problems or just another name on the list of free VPNs that don’t deliver.

Is Urban VPN Completely Free?

Urban VPN markets itself as a 100% free VPN solution, drawing attention from users looking to bypass geo-restrictions without spending a dime.

It provides access without a direct cost, and there is no mandatory registration process, allowing users to download and start using it right away.

Are there any hidden costs or paid subscriptions?

Despite its claim of being free, after careful analysis, we noticed Urban VPN has a hidden subscription. While the desktop and browser extension versions are entirely free, mobile versions offer in-app purchases for premium services, which overcome limitations like 100MB data per day, restricted servers, and being part of a P2P network.

Purchasing the premium plan, which costs around $2 per month yearly, adds substantial benefits over the free version. However, a few dollars more can get you a subscription to a prominent VPN like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, or Private Internet Access that actually offers privacy and security along with core and advanced features.

Urban VPN pricing doesn’t remain the same, and after your current subscription ends, you need to pay renewal costs, increasing the overall cost for no-added features or benefits. Also, the renewal costs vary by country, making it more expensive than prominent VPNs in some regions.

If you want to learn more about these limitations, know that we recently published a comparison of paid vs free VPNs.

The real “cost” comes in the form of data privacy. Urban VPN operates as a P2P service, meaning your traffic can be routed through other users’ devices and vice versa. This approach raises questions about user privacy and the security of personal information, which we will explore further in the following sections of the in-depth Urban VPN review.

Security Features: How Secure Is Urban VPN?

Urban VPN claims to provide essential security features that users expect from a free VPN service, but our analysis shows that it falls behind by not offering core security features like kill switches, split tunneling, and multiple VPN protocols that are standard in a VPN.

Basic Security Features

• AES-256 Encryption: Urban VPN secures your data using AES-256 encryption, known for being highly robust and widely adopted in the VPN industry. This standard ensures that user data remains encrypted and protected from unauthorized access.
• OpenVPN Protocol: The service uses the OpenVPN protocol, which is recognized for its balance of security and reasonable speed. This protocol is a reliable option for encrypting user traffic and maintaining secure connections.
• IP and DNS Leak Protection: Urban VPN provides basic IP and DNS leak protection, which helps prevent your real IP address and DNS queries from being exposed while connected. This ensures a certain level of privacy when browsing.

While these lay the basic foundation of security through encryption and leak protection, they aren’t enough to offer a secure online experience. If you ask us, Urban VPN fails miserably to meet the needs of a VPN, even for a user looking for basic security, defeating its purpose as a VPN.

Advanced Security Features

With its poor core security offerings, we didn’t expect Urban VPN to offer any advanced features.

To our surprise, it does offer an ad-blocker with ad-blocking and anti-mining functionalities. However, to use it, you need to install it separately, leaving the VPN every time you want to use or manage it.

Having a feature is better than nothing, but the ad blocker is slowly becoming a standard advanced security offering in most VPNs. For instance, NordVPN offers an advanced Ad Blocker through Threat Protection that can be enabled and customized from the app.

Does Urban VPN Keep Logs?

When it comes to any VPN service, one of the most critical factors users consider is how the provider handles logging practices. In our in-depth review and analysis of Urban VPN, we found some significant concerns regarding user privacy.

Urban VPN, which markets itself as a free and anonymous service, claims to prioritize user security. However, upon a closer test of their privacy policy and user data practices, the experience shows that their logging policy is far from reassuring. Despite assertions of user anonymity, Urban VPN collects a variety of data that could compromise user privacy.

Key Points from Our Review:

• Data Collection: Urban VPN collects information such as your IP address, browser type, operating system, and even insights related to browsing activities. This is a significant drawback, as it goes against the fundamental principle of user anonymity in VPN services.
• Shared Data: Our analysis found that Urban VPN shares this data with its affiliated company, BiScience, which specializes in digital marketing and data extraction. This raises questions about the true security and privacy of the service.

• Transparency Issues: Urban VPN has not undergone any third-party audits to verify its no-logging claims, adding further skepticism to its stated policies. Without independent verification, trusting their privacy assurances becomes challenging.
• Part of FVEY: Urban VPN, founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York City, USA, operates under the jurisdiction of the United States, a member of the Five Eyes (FVEY) intelligence alliance. This affiliation can raise privacy concerns, as FVEY countries share intelligence, which may impact user data confidentiality.

In our review and test, it became clear that using Urban VPN might come at the cost of your data being shared or sold, especially considering their association with third parties. This compromises the core value of using a VPN, which is maintaining user privacy.

If you seek true anonymity, Urban VPN might not offer the security and peace of mind users expect from a reliable VPN provider. Instead, we suggest checking out real no-logs VPNs like NordVPN and ExpressVPN, as they are not part of the Five Eyes (FVEY) alliance and are completely transparent, supported by frequent independent audits that back their claims.

How Does Urban VPN Perform?

We are not against free VPNs. However, since Urban VPN clearly lacks core features and fails to maintain transparency, we wanted to give it a fair test and see how it performs in real-world scenarios.

This in-depth review will examine how Urban VPN fares in terms of speed, encryption, leak prevention, and overall usability.

Speed Tests: Performance Evaluation

Speed tests are crucial to assessing a free VPN’s capabilities and understanding the quality of service.

While Urban VPN lacks certain advanced features, we approached this analysis with an open mind to see if it could still deliver a smooth user experience. Here’s how it performed during our comprehensive speed test review.

For reference, here are our speeds before connecting to Urban VPN:

Regional Servers

Urban VPN’s performance on regional servers proved to be decent. Our speed test results showed that it can be used to browse the web and stream in FHD without significant interruptions. However, it is important to note that, while usable, the speed was nowhere comparable to VPNs like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Private Internet Access.

Long-Distance Servers

When connecting to servers that were geographically distant, Urban VPN’s performance experienced drastic speed drops. This was evident in high latency and significantly lower download and upload speeds.

Our review of the speed test result clearly indicates that Urban VPN struggles to offer consistent speeds even on regional servers. It’s a different story all along for the long-distance connections severely impacting user experience, preventing streaming, and restricting browsing.

To stream in high resolution and bypass geo-restrictions, NordVPN with dedicated streaming servers is your best pick. You can also check out ExpressVPN and PIA, as all their servers are streaming optimized.

Protocol Efficiency

Urban VPN only offers OpenVPN as its connection protocol. While OpenVPN is known for its reliability and security, it is not as efficient as newer protocols like WireGuard. With no other option, we had to use OpenVPN throughout the review, which was frustrating, especially when connected to distant servers.

Encryption and Leak Test

Urban VPN’s security claims need to be backed by practical test performance, so we conducted an in-depth review of its encryption and leak protection capabilities. While Urban VPN offers AES-256 encryption, considered the industry standard for safeguarding data, other security aspects require a thorough analysis and testing to ensure comprehensive protection.

Here’s how it fared in our encryption and leak test analysis.

Encryption Test

Urban VPN uses AES-256 encryption and OpenVPN (TCP and UDP), a strong baseline for data safety. We performed the review by using Wireshark, a network analyzer tool, to capture packets. After a thorough analysis, we found that the data passing through the VPN was protected, which confirmed that encryption remained consistent throughout use.

IP Leak Test

During our testing with ipleak.com, Urban VPN showed mixed results. In several instances, our real IP address remained hidden, which is essential for maintaining anonymity. However, occasional tests revealed moments where connection drops led to potential IP exposure, due to the absence of a kill switch.

DNS Leak Test

The DNS leak tests performed using browserleaktest.com showed that Urban VPN was better.

Our analysis indicated that DNS requests were typically routed through their servers, preventing data leaks. However, with multiple inconsistencies, as a safe approach, we recommend performing a DNS leak test after connecting to a server if you’re using Urban VPN.

WebRTC Leak Test

WebRTC, often a vulnerable point for VPNs, showed both successes and failures in Urban VPN’s test results. While some tests indicated a secure connection that blocked WebRTC leaks, others suggested possible exposure under specific conditions.

This isn’t the scenario with most VPNs we reviewed. If you want to stay secure and private online and don’t want to take chances, it’s better to go with NordVPN or ExpressVPN.

Can Urban VPN Keep Up with Everyday Use?

When it comes to daily usage, a VPN needs to perform consistently across various activities, including streaming, torrenting, and gaming.

In this part of our analysis and review, we tested Urban VPN’s practical capabilities to see if it can handle everyday demands without significant setbacks. Our experience provided mixed results that users should be aware of.

Access Various Streaming Platforms

Urban VPN promotes its ability to unblock streaming services, a primary use for many VPN seekers. During our in-depth review, it struggled to consistently bypass geo-restrictions on popular platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Paramount Plus.

For instance, when we connected to Japan, surprisingly, it unblocked the Australian Netflix library.

To avoid such inconsistencies, we recommend using NordVPN, ExpressVPN, or even Proton VPN, as they are proven VPNs for unblocking Netflix libraries and more.

While it could access certain regional channels with minimal issues, the reliability for mainstream services was inconsistent at best, making it less reliable for serious streaming enthusiasts.

Are the Servers Torrenting Capable?

In our test of torrenting capabilities, Urban VPN fell short of expectations.

First, it doesn’t support P2P, and as expected, we experienced slow download speeds and sometimes no progress. In such a scenario, disconnecting from Urban VPN and downloading torrent was the only option.

The absence of critical features like port forwarding and a kill switch further compromises its use for safe and efficient torrenting. Users looking for a VPN to enhance their P2P experience might find Urban VPN severely lacking.

We recommend NordVPN for torrenting. It has dedicated P2P servers and a Double VPN that promises excellent speeds and added security while torrenting.

What About Gaming?

Performance is key in gaming. Our speed test results revealed high latency and inconsistent ping rates, especially when connected to long-distance servers. This makes Urban VPN less suitable for fast-paced, real-time gaming experiences.

While it might suffice for slower, less demanding games, players seeking low latency and uninterrupted gameplay would be better served by alternatives to Urban VPN, such as NordVPN and ExpressVPN, which prioritize speed and stability.

The Dark Truth Behind Urban VPN’s Free VPN

With most free VPNs typically imposing restrictions, Urban VPN’s claim of being 100% free without limits on servers or simultaneous device connections should raise some eyebrows and spark suspicion. Here is the answer to how it is completely free:

Instead of relying on a traditional server network, Urban VPN functions as a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) network. In this setup, users share their IP addresses and bandwidth with others across the network.

Essentially, when you connect to a server in another country, you route your traffic through another Urban VPN user in that region and vice versa. This P2P model allows Urban VPN to avoid typical infrastructure costs associated with dedicated servers.

While this approach keeps the VPN free, it also introduces serious privacy and security risks. Since your IP address could be used by someone else in another location, there’s a potential for misuse and it could appear as if it originated from your IP.

Additionally, Urban VPN’s privacy policy indicates it collects significant user data, including browsing activities, and may share it with third-party partners, including advertisers. This setup makes Urban VPN far from a safe choice if you’re serious about online privacy, as user data could be exploited for profit.

Our opinion? If you really want to find a free VPN, go for Proton VPN. While it has many limitations, it will not endanger your safety and privacy online.

Ease of Use & Compatibility

Urban VPN’s interface is simple to use: select a server, click the connect button, and disconnect by clicking the same button. The app itself is minimalistic, essentially just a window with basic functionality.

The settings are nearly redundant. They feature QR codes for downloading the VPN on other platforms and a basic auto-startup option that could have been integrated into the home screen for easier access.

During our testing of Urban VPN, switching servers sometimes caused the application to crash, detracting from the user experience. Such instability is particularly problematic for users who frequently switch servers and require a reliable service.

Urban VPN App Interface

On mobile, Urban VPN offers a slightly more refined app experience. It includes added features such as a history and favorites section, auto-connect options, and a search bar for finding servers more efficiently.

The dedicated location screen improves navigation. The home screen, however, lacks standout elements, it does show stats like ping, speed, and IP details. These features are fairly common across most VPNs and do not elevate the app experience significantly.

That being said, it is still far from the best VPN apps for iPhone or the top VPNs available on Android.

Device Compatibility

Urban VPN supports a wide range of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and popular web browsers like Chrome and Firefox.

It also extends compatibility to routers, ensuring flexibility for users who want broader network coverage. While device support is extensive, users may find the experience varies in ease of use across different platforms.

Unlimited Simultaneous Device Connections

Urban VPN allows unlimited simultaneous device connections, providing flexibility for households or teams needing to secure multiple devices under one account. It gets a point here as it sets it apart from many free VPN providers that usually restrict simultaneous connections to one device.

Setting Up Urban VPN on Routers

Urban VPN is technically capable of connecting to OpenVPN-supported routers. However, despite having a knowledge base, the provided guides are largely unhelpful and do not include instructions for connecting to routers. This lack of practical resources impacts users of all levels who need reliable configuration guidance.

Customer Support

In our in-depth review and analysis of Urban VPN’s customer support experience, it became evident that the service severely lacking in this area.

Unlike premium VPN services that offer 24/7 live chat and responsive email support, Urban VPN falls short with no direct support options available, requiring users to fill out a form instead.

Users searching for assistance are usually directed to a basic FAQ section, which is limited and doesn’t provide detailed troubleshooting or comprehensive guides. During our test, we found that FAQs and knowledge bases lack useful content, leaving users with minimal to no resources to resolve potential issues.

When we last reviewed NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and PIA, we never had an issue with customer support. Their live chat was responsive, and all our issues were resolved instantly and followed up if we needed additional support.

Final Verdict: Not Recommended, Even for Casual Users

Urban VPN’s promise of a free, unrestricted VPN is enticing, but it falls short in critical areas. While it offers unlimited bandwidth and simultaneous device connections, its significant drawbacks outweigh these benefits.

Its decentralized P2P network raises privacy concerns by potentially exposing your IP address to misuse. Despite providing AES-256 encryption and the OpenVPN protocol, it struggles to maintain security due to the lack of essential features. Additionally, as we observed during our review, Urban VPN delivers inconsistent results in speed tests, bypassing geo-restrictions, and unlocking streaming libraries.

Compounding these issues are Urban VPN’s data logging practices, third-party data sharing, and lack of independent audits, all of which further undermine trust. With minimal customer support and frequent app crashes, Urban VPN fails to meet basic standards of security and reliability.

While Urban VPN might suffice for casual, non-critical use, it falls short for anyone prioritizing privacy and reliable performance. For true security, consistent speed, and dependable service, invest in trusted providers like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, or Private Internet Access, which consistently deliver on what matters.