iTop VPN

We make purchases, communicate with friends, work and study remotely via the Internet. All this attracts the attention of intruders who hunt for any personal data: from accounts credentials and bank card details, to your friends list and workplace.

One of the affordable and effective ways to protect data is using VPN. This technology creates a special channel with additional encryption for your traffic. It also allows you to hide your real location and bypass regional content blocks. In this review, we will analyse and try to identify the advantages and disadvantages of one of these services - iTop VPN.

Interface

iTop VPN for Windows has a small unscalable window. As in other VPNs, there is a large Connect button in the center. Under the button we have quick access to the list of servers and available connection protocols.

To change the general settings of the program (auto-start, notification, interface language), you must click on the button with three stripes at the top and select Settings. Also in this menu you can check for updates, get access to the FAQ and other features.

Versions for Free and VIP users are identical, because all paid features (and servers) are labelled as “VIP”. If you click on any of them in the Free version, it will open a window with an offer to buy the full version.

The left side of the window is mostly occupied by shortcuts for servers. There are special categories (For Downloading, For Streaming, etc), but only in “All servers” we see a full list of available locations and servers.

Also, Smart Connection - a feature that automatically selects the nearest recommended server. And only this tab has built-in search for servers by name, which is very convenient, because they are not listed alphabetically. At the same time, in any category of the servers, indicators of communication quality and overall load are always visible.

Also, on the left side there is Privacy protection where you can fine-tune the program modules. They are all signed and visually separated according to the principle of tile design. Most of them have only one status switcher (on/off), but in others you can click Configure to open additional options.

Also keep an eye on the section called Quick Access. It has 17 quick launch shortcuts for the most popular options like Hide location or Watch Netflix, which will be useful for those who don't want to deal with available servers list, their load, locations, etc.

This VPN client has a small screen widget called iTop VPN Mini. It allows you to start a VPN connection in one click, without opening the main window. If VPN is enabled, it displays information about the speed of your Internet connection and, if necessary, it can be displayed on top of the other windows.

The client interface for mobile devices does not differ significantly from desktop clients. Yet it is adapted to small screens and tap controls, so the layout of the main sections is slightly different. There are also no some features that cannot be implemented on Android / iOS devices.

Servers and locations

iTop VPN has dedicated servers for streaming and social networks, which reduces the load on the main servers. Servers which are available for free use as a rule, are highly loaded (avg. 80% percent), which can affect the performance of your VPN connection.

There are 129 servers in the iTopVPN desktop client (v. 3.2), but due to special servers, the number of available servers may vary depending on the platform. In particular, 29 servers for mobile-based games are only available in Android and iOS clients, and respectively, servers for desktop games are unavailable on mobile devices.

In total, we found 146 servers in 31 countries in iTop VPN clients. iTop VPN has “special” servers for:

1. Desktop games: Call of Duty Warzone, Roblox, PUBG, Minecraft, CS:GO, New World, Elyon, Lost Ark, Second Life, World of Tanks.
2. Mobile games: Call of Duty Mobile, Free Fire, PUBG Lite, LOL: Wild Rift, PUBG Lite, Roblox, Hyper Front, Clash Mini, Minecraft, PUBG Mobile, PUBG New State, BGMI, Carrom Pool: Disc Game, Higgs Domino Island, Mobile Legends.
3. Social networks: WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, Skype, Snapchat, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, VK, Twitch.
4. Streaming services: Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Paramount+, etc.
5. IPv6 connections.
6. P2P connections (torrent-clients).

The vendor's website claims 1800+ servers in 100+ locations, which may be true depending on how the iTop VPN network was built. For example, one location (e.g. New York) can physically include several servers in one or more data centres in the city / country.

Connection protocols

For Internet connection any software, like iTop VPN included, adheres to rules defined by the protocols. These are special documents that contain technical information about how traffic is transmitted, encrypted, supervised, etc. iTop VPN has 4 protocols.

1. TCP - slow, but always checks data delivery status. Special units to transfer data over the network are packets. The protocol also checks the availability of a remote host (VPN server) before starting data transfer.
2. UDP - faster, but with a number of disadvantages. In particular, there is no data encryption and no check for the availability of a remote host, which can lead to the loss of sent data. We don’t recommend using it with critical data. At the same time, it’s good with large amounts of data like streaming or downloading.
3. HTTPS - slower than the previous two protocols, but it has improved encryption and connection stability. We recommend using it when you work with sensitive information and sites (Internet banking, payment pages, services which require your ID).
4. Auto - the program automatically determines the most suitable protocol. The ideal solution for casual use.

Features

There are 9 features available in i Top VPN that allow you to improve the protection of your privacy, but only 4 of them are functional in the free version:

1. IPv6 - has 2 modes (on/off). If activated, VPN will connect to servers via IPv6 protocol if it’s available.
2. IP Checker - online check on the vendor’s website under which IP you are currently browsing the network. Useful for quick checks like “Is my IP visible to others or not”.

1. Kill Switch - blocks traffic if VPN connection was unexpectedly interrupted to prevent your true location being revealed. For the same purpose, it is used when you change VPN servers. We recommend keeping this feature enabled.
2. DNS Protection - protects against spoofing your DNS (convert literal site addresses into IP addresses) provider settings. iTop VPN has presets for 5 well-known DNS providers and supports custom DNS settings.

VIP features and servers are available to those who have purchased a subscription. At the same time, functionality of the features varies from a simple on/off button to settings that may affect the operating system.

1. Security Reinforce - check system settings that affect web surfing security. Partially available in the free version, but only for simple analysis and without automatic problems solver.

1. Browser Privacy - delete temporary files, browsing history and cookies from your web browsers. After scanning, it provides a report where you can select files which you want to delete. It’s also possible to configure auto-delete. The scanner and manual cleaning can be used in the free version too.

1. IP Configure - change IP when reconnecting to the server. It has three modes: Best server IP (fastest IP), Dynamic IP (change after reconnecting) and Static IP (without changing IP).

This is a small, but very useful feature, because many services use IP in client identification algorithms. In addition, this feature confirms that iTop VPN may have several servers within the same location.

1. Ad Block - blocks unwanted ads at the traffic level. Unlike many similar services, it allows you to create your own blacklist filters.
2. Split Tunnelling - not all VPNs come with this feature today. In normal mode, VPN software (including iTop VPN) takes control of all incoming and outgoing traffic from your device. With split tunnelling, you can enable VPN only for certain applications (for example, browsers), keeping other traffic in the usual way.

Performance testing

We performed several tests to see if iTop VPN is really as good as the vendor describes it to be. We tested the ping to the servers, upload/download speed and their security. To do this, we used public tools, links to which we will provide at the end of this section, so you can check for yourself too.

Test 1. Latency / Speed

Latency is the time for a server to respond to a request that comes from your PC. Not quite identical, but the better known name for this is ping (which is a measure of latency). The higher your ping, the longer the response.

In web services, this will lead to response delays, and in online games, it makes you out of sync with other players. Also, the ping value depends on the distance from you to the physical location of the server. The farther you are from it, the higher the base ping value will be.

1. Latency. Average: 140, Lowest: 52, Highest: 307.
2. Average download speed: 73 Mbps.
3. Average upload speed: 63 Mbps.

To get the average values, we performed 5 measurements for 10 servers.

Test 2. Safety

We tested 3 of the most common options for exposing your privacy inside a VPN connection:

1. DNS leak - VPN doesn't hide your DNS requests
2. IP leak - VPN doesn’t hide (whole or partially) your real IP
3. Geo leak - VPN skips location requests by websites

We selected 10 random servers from the list, checked them for possible leaks and got the following results:

1. DNS leak tests - safe, iTop VPN uses Google DNS for all requests
2. IP leak tests - in some cases, the service returned IPs different from the selected location, but this does not reveal our real IP
3. Geo leak - no incidents.

Full table of test results:

Test 3. Server Comparison

iTop VPN has many different types of servers, so we also decided to check if they have differences in speed and ping. To do this, we chose servers located in New York and repeated the previous tests for them.

And here are the results of measuring our Internet connection to the same test server, but without using a VPN:

1. Average ping: 95 ms
2. Average download speed: 151 Mbps
3. Average upload speed: 122 Mbps

Thus, the delays introduced into Ping when using iTop VPN are quite insignificant (at least in the case of New York servers). At the same time, only half of the maximum possible speed is available during VPN.

In general, iTop VPN adheres to the basic rules of server security and your privacy within its VPN channels will be protected against the most common threats. During tests, direct and specialised location requests from third-party services always returned a fake location. Also, iTop VPN didn’t disclose the DNS provider used, all tests showed the Google DNS server instead of our default DNS provider.

During the tests, the servers worked stably, we didn’t detect any breaks and significant drops in speed. In general, we can say that iTop VPN servers provide a minimum speed of 60 Mbps.

Yet it should be noted that the indicators may differ depending on the workload of servers and your physical distance to them. For example, some of our measurements showed a speed of about 100 Mbps, while the ping values grew exponentially depending on the location.

Services used for tests:

1. https://www.dnsleaktest.com/ - DNS leak test
2. https://browserleaks.com/ - IP and Geo leaks tests
3. https://whatismyipaddress.com/blacklist-check - IP Blacklist test
4. https://www.speedtest.net/ - Latency and speed tests

Pricing

iTop VPN has a free plan available without registration and card details number. After installing the client on the device, you will be able to use a VPN connection with a 700 MB/day limit. Also, in it there are only 16 servers in 10 locations (Germany, UK, USA, Japan, Australia). The list of available features is also limited.

iTop VPN is available in 4 paid tiers, which differ in subscription period - from 6 months to 3 years. Like many other VPNs, there is a discount based on the subscription term, so the best deal is a 3-year subscription for $59.99.

If you aren’t sure about such a long subscription, it is better to take a 1-year subscription for $47.99, which is also more profitable than a 6-month subscription for $42.99.

All subscriptions are named VIP and allow users to use all iTop VPN features: unlimited traffic, access to all servers (including special ones), split tunnelling, built-in adblock, static IP and other. It is also worth noting that one account can be used without any restrictions on 5 devices.

You can pay for your purchase using PayPal, credit card or bank transfer. At the same time, please note that on the payment page, the renew option is automatically enabled. If you don't want it, you must disable this.

Also, as an additional option, you can choose the Extended Download Service for $7.99/year. This service allows you to re-download your software within a year if it has been lost for some reason.

The vendor provides a 30-day money back guarantee for subscribers. This doesn’t include those who purchased a subscription through the Apple App Store, because they handle independent decisions about refunds.

A partial refund is also available if you decide to stop using your subscription before it ends. For those who cannot use iTop VPN for technical reasons (vendors’ fault) which haven’t been fixed within 30 days, a temporal pause in debiting of funds is available.

Conclusion

We have tested the iTop VPN and its security. Our tests didn’t show possible leaks, although there were some problems associated with determining the IP. To work with sensitive data you can use the ability to select the connection protocol. For those who use VPN for a specific purpose (online game, P2P download, etc.), iTop VPN has specially optimized dedicated servers.

We got approximately the same performance of servers within one location. At the same time, the physical distance from the server had a great influence on the results, which was expressed in increased ping. The average speed during all tests was about 60 Mbps - maybe not the fastest, but one of the most stable.

It is also worth mentioning that this program contains a number of additional features - split tunneling, security check-up, automatic deletion of web traces, IP selection (dynamic or static), kill-switch, ad block.