Buffered VPN review – Based on analytics and real user experience

If you need an additional privacy layer, you should always go for an offshore service provider. As the off-shore areas are not recognized by other countries, the VPN service provider will not face any kind of law enforcement issues.

Yet, privacy is not a big deal if the service is not giving us what we actually need. Therefore, we will be digging deep into off-shore based Buffered VPN service and see if the company meets our overall performance expectation.

Country, server coverage, and performance test

A relatively new player in the market, BufferedVPN offers 30+ locations around the world. The coverage looks fine. However, there are so many locations missing in South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Apart from that, North America and Europe are well covered!

The service has a long way ahead to keep up with its competitors. The number of deployed servers are counting. We just need to wait and see the following new locations.

So, there are not many servers available to us. That should not be hard to manage and give us a pleasing speed performance right?

Check my worldwide speed test!

Buffered VPN download/upload performance test

I ran the stress test with a 50 Mbit download, and 10 Mbit upload fiber connection. Both the USA and Europe servers were promising. Download speed was at the finest point where you can enjoy fast surfing experience, watch full HD videos and download torrent files with a blazingly fast performance blazing.

Furthermore, I was able to get the most out of my upload limit.

Overall, Buffered VPN is one of the fastest VPN service provider in the market. Even though they are a new company, they are competing well against HideMyAss, Cyberghost, and StrongVPN.

Number tells the truth, all the time!

Buffered VPN torrenting performance

As always, I choose Netherland servers for torrenting.

In the speed test above, I was expecting a torrent download performance less than 1 MB/Second. However, Buffered VPN proved me wrong and helped me download 240 MB file less than 4 minutes.

Still, the average download speed was 1.5 MB/second and this is a lot less than its competitors.

check buffered vpn torrent download speed

As for the bigger files, 1.5-2MB/sec download speed will be a mediocre download experience if you are an impatient person.

Definitely, the company should focus on deploying new and well optimized P2P servers.

Buffered VPN Popcorn time Experience – Is it fast enough?

Yes, it is.

I tried Buffered VPN to watch a random TV show on the Popcorn time. It took around 30 seconds to collect download seeds and around one minute to see the beginning of the show.

Actually, the show quality was relatively good and the download speed was between 200-300 KB/second. Such speed will give us an average 480p quality.

You will need more than 400 KB/second to watch HD shows.

My overall Popcorn time experience was fine with average download speed and Buffered VPN has passed the test with acceptable performance. Not so great!

Please check my live experience below.

Buffered VPN online gaming experience

Coming soon…

Buffered VPN NetFlix and BBC iPlayer experience

Sadly, Buffered VPN is not working with Netflix. It is blocked and there is no way around to stream any USA shows with this service.

On the other hand, it rests assured that you will get full HD streaming quality while you are using your Buffered VPN account to watch BBC iPlayer. With the new version of the software, it works fine and I have not experienced any problem so far.

Buffered VPN BBC iPlayer streaming quality

check if buffered vpn is working fine with the bbc iplayer or not.

I have decided to update this review after a year and still, Buffered VPN cannot bypass Netflix censorship. Thereby, it is not recommended for streaming services!

If you like to stream your local shows abroad, take a look at Cyberghost and VPN Unlimited for a greater experience.

Pricing and refund policy

Currently, Buffered VPN has three plans: monthly, biennial and annual plan. The more payment period extends, the less you pay. In other words, when you choose the biennial plan, you will save %68.

Thinking of the service you will get, the price policy looks a bit pricy.

Earlier, the one and only payment option was Paypal. Yet now, the company now accepts Credit Cart and coin payments. This is a big step ahead to collect secure payments all around the world.

The time has come to ask for a refund.

You may not like the service right? According to our test in Turkey, the company website is accessible and their service can be purchased without any problem. However, ISPs in Turkey blocked the BufferedVPN connection so hard that under any circumstances, you cannot connect to VPN servers. (Our tests were handled earlier than March 2018 blocage)

You might face such issues in your country and may want to ask for a refund.

Here are some important key points you have to consider in advance!

If you:

  • used up more than 10 GB of data,
  • exceeded more than 100 sessions,
  • and stayed connected to a VPN server for more than 10 hours, you cannot ask for a refund.

These policies make the BufferedVPN one of the most restricted service provider in the market!

Desktop software and mobile apps

A few weeks ago -when I first started to review Buffered VPN, the desktop software was not well optimized. It had terrible, non-retina looking. With the latest updates in September, it has a new color as well as the quality interface.

once you logged in, this is what you will see in the buffered vpn interface

Unfortunately, there is no country search bar and the countries are lined up alphabetically. Once you click on the country, you will be automatically connected to the best available server.

What I like most about this service is that they keep their promise on the “bandwidth usage”. As you can see the image below, I downloaded more than 25 GB on a single session and there was not a single connection drop. Moreover, my account was not suspended for excessive usage.

I have to point out that Buffered VPN software needs so much improvement. It has a single protocols and settings menu is missing a key feature: kill switch.

buffered vpn setting page

Shortly, there is not much you can do in the menu. You can change the ports and switch between UDP and TCP protocols. That’s all!

Buffered VPN for mobile devices

This may sound weird but when Buffered VPN first joined the market, they did not have native Android and iOS apps. Only after several months, they got their apps approved in the stores. Now, they are all alive.

Similar to desktop software, the Android app has a clean interface and a modern looking. Fortunately this time, it has a search bar for easier access to desired locations.

Moving to the features, BufferedVPN lacks a lot! There are almost no options to play around in the settings.

There is no kill switch, no obfuscated servers, no anti-track options etc.

As we have mentioned earlier, BufferdVPN should work harder to reach the fast-moving trendline in the market.

Security protocols

“The company exclusively chooses to use only Open VPN protocol as it is more reliable to bypass firewalls in the schools, dorms, or workplaces,” they say.

As also seen in the desktop software, you cannot choose anything other than Open VPN.

It is working fine, and I have not experienced any kind of issues so far.

Free services from Buffered VPN

Currently, Buffered VPN does not offer any free service.

Is Buffered VPN working properly?

If we are talking about PC, yes it is working fine and I have not seen any issues for weeks. Moreover, it is stable. On the other hand, if you are located in a country where censorship is big deal, then you have big issues.

BufferedVPN does not have any obfuscated server or unique technology to bypass ISP blocks.

Customer support

Here is the best part.

Buffered VPN customer support is always there. I tried to chat with them on different hours of the day and my question was answered within a few seconds.

is buffered vpn customer support fast enough? Check here.

The company also improved its support page by adding some helpful articles to the knowledge base and troubleshooting categories.

Overall, I do like the customer support experience. Good to know someone is there 24/7 when you need help!

Log policy! Does Buffered VPN keep logs?

Buffered VPN does not keep any activity logs. However, there is some information being stored by the company.

Here is the list of the stored data.

does buffered vpn keep any logs? learn the details here

Summing up!

Reasons why you should choose Buffered VPN: Great speed performance, dedicated customer support, full HD BBC iPlayer streaming and simultaneous connections up to 5 devices.

Reasons not to choose BufferedVPN: No Netflix, poor software and apps, no obfuscated servers!

You should be aware of all of these pros and cons. On one hand, you can enjoy greater privacy with this off-shore VPN service provider. On the other hand, the service lacks so many key features that sometimes it becomes unbearable to use it further.

Lastly, it does not deserve to be an expensive provider with the service given!

Do we recommend Buffered VPN?

Not yet!

6.3 Total Score
Off-shore privacy

Buffered VPN is an incomplete (as of 2019), yet easy to use VPN service. It has a dedicated PC software working great for torrents, popcorn time, BBC iPlayer. The speed is realiable and you will not have any kind of connection drop issues. Lastly, Buffered VPN servers were blocked by Netflix, it cannot bypass country censorship and the smartphone apps are not feature rich!

Performance
7
Software
4
Price
5
Customer support
9
PROS
  • Average speed performance
  • Full HD BBC iPlayer streaming quality
  • Easy to use PC software
  • No activity logging
CONS
  • Blocked by Netflix
  • Incomplete apps
  • A bit pricy

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