Astrill VPN review

Updated 21 September 2026 · Based on vendor documentation and protocol specifications · Read our methodology

Quick verdict

Astrill VPN carries two proprietary protocols of its own alongside the standard pair — more obfuscation-oriented options than any other provider reviewed here. OpenWeb dates from 2009 and is TCP-based; StealthVPN is described as inspired by OpenVPN. Neither has a public specification, so neither can be independently assessed.

Documented facts

Protocols

4 (incl. OpenWeb, StealthVPN)

Obfuscation options

Two

Router support

StealthVPN, OpenVPN

Simultaneous devices

5

Trial

7-day free trial

iOS obfuscation

OpenWeb only

$5.00/month

Get Astrill VPN Deal7-day free trial · 5 devices

Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. See our affiliate disclosure. Pricing as published on VPN Sherlock; confirm current terms at checkout.

Protocol support

Astrill's protocol list is the most unusual of the five reviewed here. Two of its four protocols are proprietary and aimed at networks that identify and drop VPN traffic rather than merely blocking ports. That is a deliberate specialisation, and it comes with a matching limitation: no outside party can verify how well either works.

Because OpenWeb is TCP-based it is subject to the TCP-over-TCP behaviour described in OpenVPN TCP vs UDP: on a lossy link the tunnel's retransmissions and the application's can compound, and throughput suffers. That is the expected cost of a transport designed to survive hostile networks. The absence of IKEv2 means there is no dedicated mobility protocol, so a phone moving between Wi-Fi and cellular will rely on WireGuard's roaming behaviour instead.

Documented features

• Two obfuscation-oriented protocols, which is the main technical reason to consider this provider over the others reviewed here.
• Router support for StealthVPN and OpenVPN, so obfuscation can be applied at the network level — see router setup.
• StealthVPN is not listed for iOS, so iPhone users needing obfuscation are limited to OpenWeb.
• No IKEv2 is listed, so there is no dedicated protocol for phones that change network frequently.

Platform coverage

Encryption and authentication

Cipher choice follows from protocol choice rather than being a separate setting you tune. On WireGuard the suite is fixed — ChaCha20-Poly1305 for the data channel, Curve25519 for key agreement, BLAKE2s for hashing — and there is no negotiation, which removes a whole class of downgrade risk. On OpenVPN and IKEv2 the data channel is normally an AEAD construction such as AES-GCM, agreed during the handshake. Both AES-256-GCM and ChaCha20-Poly1305 are unbroken; ChaCha20 tends to be quicker on processors without AES hardware acceleration, which covers a lot of older phones.

What matters more than the cipher name is forward secrecy: each session should use ephemeral keys that are discarded afterwards, so that compromising a server's long-term key later would not decrypt traffic recorded earlier. All three mainstream protocols provide this when correctly configured. Treat "military-grade encryption" as marketing language — AES-256 is a public NIST standard anyone can use. The detail is in VPN encryption.

Leak protection and kill switch: what to check

Vendor documentation across this sector tends to describe DNS leak protection and a kill switch in general terms, without stating behaviour per operating system or during the moments when leaks actually happen. Rather than restate marketing copy, here is what is worth verifying yourself on this provider, in the order the failures usually occur.

1. DNS. Connect, then confirm every resolver shown in a leak test belongs to the VPN rather than your ISP.
2. IPv6. Check that either no IPv6 address appears or the one shown belongs to the VPN. An IPv4-only tunnel can let IPv6 traffic escape.
3. WebRTC. Test in each browser separately. No VPN client can fully close this, because the exposure happens inside the browser.
4. Kill switch under crash. End the client process from the task manager rather than disconnecting cleanly; traffic should stop immediately.
5. Kill switch on network change. Switch Wi-Fi to cellular, or disable and re-enable the adapter.
6. Reconnect and server change. Watch for a gap in protection while the tunnel is rebuilt — this is where most real leaks appear.

The full procedure, including what to record, is in how to test a VPN. We publish our own results for no provider, because we have not run a controlled testing programme — so these are checks for you to run, not findings for you to take on trust.

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

• Two proprietary transports aimed at restrictive networks — more than any other provider reviewed here.
• Router support for an obfuscated protocol, which is uncommon.
• A long track record of offering obfuscation specifically.
• Per-platform protocol availability is published clearly, which several competitors do not do.

Limitations

• Both proprietary protocols lack public specifications, so their resistance to detection cannot be independently assessed.
• StealthVPN is unavailable on iOS.
• No IKEv2, so no dedicated mobility protocol.
• OpenWeb's TCP basis means throughput can suffer on lossy links.
• The lowest simultaneous-device allowance of the five providers reviewed here.

Why there is no screenshot evidence here

We did not capture a review pass for Astrill VPN, so everything on this page is provider-documented rather than observed. Where other reviews on this site cite what a screenshot showed, treat the absence of that here as a gap in our evidence, not as a finding about Astrill.

What we could not verify

Who it suits

• Users who regularly meet networks that identify and block standard protocols.
• People who want obfuscation applied at router level for a whole network.
• Technical users comfortable choosing between four transports.

Less suitable if: you need a dedicated mobility protocol such as IKEv2, obfuscation on an iPhone beyond OpenWeb, or a high simultaneous-device count.

Pricing and plans

Commercial terms exactly as published on VPN Sherlock. We do not refresh these from vendor sources; confirm current pricing at checkout.

$5.00/month

5 devices7-day free trial

Get Astrill VPN DealRead our full review

Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. See our affiliate disclosure. Pricing shown as published on VPN Sherlock; confirm current terms at checkout.

How it compares

The table below carries the commercial terms exactly as published on VPN Sherlock. There are no speed or score columns, because we have not run the tests that would justify them.

Commercial terms as published on VPN Sherlock, September 2026.

Swipe or use arrow keys to see the full table

#	VPN	Best for	Key features	Protocols	Devices	Price	Learn more
1		Best overall	Six published protocols — the widest range among the five compared here	6 (incl. Shadow, ZoogTLS)	Unlimited	$2.49/month	Get dealRead review
2	Proton VPN	Clearest obfuscation	The only provider here that publishes how its obfuscation protocol is built	3 (incl. Stealth)	10	$4.99/month	Get dealRead review
3	PureVPN	Most devices covered	Native Apple TV and Fire Stick apps, which removes the usual reason to configure a router	3 (WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2)	10	$3.24/month	Get dealRead review
4		Most obfuscation options	Two proprietary transports, one of them available at router level. No IKEv2	4 (incl. OpenWeb, StealthVPN)	5	$5.00/month	Get dealRead review
5	Windscribe	Most flexible	Manual config generation for all three protocols, plus a free tier you can evaluate first	3 (OpenVPN, IKEv2, WireGuard)	Unlimited	$3.00/month	Get dealRead review

For a fuller picture of where each product sits, read the ZoogVPN review, Proton VPN review, PureVPN review, Windscribe review.

How it differs from the other four

Astrill VPN is the most specialised of the five. Two proprietary obfuscation protocols is more than ZoogVPN's two only in the sense that both are offered on routers, which ZoogVPN's are not. Against Proton VPN, Astrill offers more obfuscation options but publishes less about how any of them work. Against PureVPN and Windscribe it is the only one of the three with obfuscation at all. The costs are real: no IKEv2, so no dedicated mobility protocol, and the lowest simultaneous-device allowance of the five as published on this site.

Before you subscribe

Most regret with a VPN subscription comes from buying on a feature list and discovering a platform gap afterwards. The refund window exists for this; use it deliberately rather than hoping.

1. Confirm the protocol you actually need is available on the device you will use it on. Per-platform availability varies more than headline protocol counts suggest.
2. Check the current price and terms at checkout. Figures on this site are preserved as previously published and are not refreshed from vendor sources.
3. Run the leak and kill-switch checks above in the first day, while a refund is still straightforward.
4. Test the specific thing you are buying for — a particular network, a particular service, a particular country — rather than a generic speed test.
5. If something does not work, request the refund inside the stated window rather than waiting to see whether it improves.

Frequently asked questions