What is CactusVPN?
CactusVPN is a service that provides you with secure usage between you and the internet. A VPN makes you anonymous online, prevents intrusions on your computer and protects you against cyber attacks. If you surf on your private or company computer completely without the protection of a VPN today, you are like an open book. It’s easy for your ISP, authorities, third parties and hackers to see what you’re doing. Examples of your vulnerability are your surfing history, bank details and passwords.
Should you sit down and make a download on something, it is very easy to track you. This is because each computer has a personal IP address. (Internet protocol address)
This makes it easy to track where you are. You can also compare it to sending a postcard without a sealed letter. Everyone at the post office can read what it says. It thus becomes completely open for those around you online to follow what you do.
Catcus VPN thus helps you with this. With their vpn, your IP address is hidden, and also changed, which makes it difficult to track you. With this, you also protect your company’s computer, so it is very common for companies to have a vpn installed.
It is common for private individuals to also obtain a VPN today to access blocked websites. An example of this is accessing unreleased seasons on Netflix. If you are abroad, you may want to be able to access SVT play, which does not work if you are connected to the internet in Turkey. But with a vpn, you can position yourself so that it looks like you are surfing in Portugal.
Is Cactus vpn safe?
Cactus VPN’s website states that they guarantee your anonymity. They claim that they do not log your data at all and that they also do not share information with third parties. We are of course reacting to why they even mention that they do not share information with third parties. If it is the case that they do not log any traffic, then they would not even have any information to hand over.
There are cases where someone has committed an online crime while browsing with a VPN. Authorities have pressured VPN services to release information. This is the worst thing that can happen to these suppliers, of course, as they live to protect their customers and it goes against their policy. Unfortunately, some cases have gone to trial and there information has been obtained to be able to convict the suspect.
This is an indication that their alleged guarantees cannot be 100% relied upon.
We have searched and also talked to Cactus VPN. No such case has happened here. Authorities must have been contacted, but they have not released any information so far.
It is also important to consider that if you use a VPN because you want to protect your computer and access blocked content, you do not need to worry. It is not illegal to own a VPN.
How much does Cactus VPN cost and is there a monthly trial?
The price for a vpn will be different depending on which subscription you subscribe to. We feel that Cactus VPN is relatively expensive when compared to other sites.
This may be due to the fact that they are a smaller VPN service with not as many customers yet, which causes the price to be slightly higher. On all their subscriptions there is a 30 day money back guarantee, we don’t find a free month with them.
The VPN subscriptions available to choose from are the ones below:
1 month
If you sign up for a month now, you get a 30% discount. Now you pay USD 70 a month instead of USD 99 a month.
3 months
Right now a three-month subscription costs USD 60 (USD 180 for 3 months) instead of approx. USD 300. This is a discount of 44%
1 year
If you sign up for 1 year, you now pay just over USD 30 a month. For the whole year, this will be a sum of approx. 400 :- Regular price is USD 1,100 so you get a discount of 68%
2 years
For the 2-year subscription, the price is currently 25 :- per month. For the two years, there will be a total sum of approx. USD 700. Here, you get a maximum discount of as much as 72% and avoid the regular price, which would have ended up at approx. USD 2,000.
How many servers does Cactus VPN have?
This is one of the smaller VPN services and they don’t have very many countries and servers. Cactus VPN is available in 22 countries and has 37 servers.
That is a very low number.
A vpn service with few servers often has problems getting the speed up and can slow down your connection a bit. It depends a bit on where you live if this service will work for you. We have tested them and tried them on different countries and servers – will report back if it was as we thought further down.
Does CactusVPN work for IPTV?
One of the first tests we subjected them to was together with an IPTV service. Since they are quite small, we expected it to slow down our speed and have difficulty connecting to this.
We placed ourselves first in Portugal and ran some Português channels. It was actually quick to connect and our connection didn’t slow down. Here we were really impressed. Especially since there is only one server in Portugal which is located in Stockholm.
However, when we switched servers we ran into a bit of a problem. Cactus VPN app logged us out and didn’t understand that we just wanted to change servers. When we got back in, luckily it didn’t throw us out again. We now chose the USA (Los Angeles) and turned on the IPTV.
Here, our connection speed was significantly reduced. Although there are also servers in Chicago, Kansas, Manassas & Seattle. We are completely convinced that it has to do with the fact that they are a small VPN service with too few servers to be able to get good speed. Since the distance is so far from us in Portugal, it doesn’t match despite some more servers in the USA.
Conclusion = It works for IPTV for us here in Portugal, probably for those in the US as well since they have their servers closer. However, if you want to be connected to another country in Portugal, it will be very noticeable on your connection.
CactusVPN for netflix or svtplay?
Cactus VPN next test was Svt play. If you are abroad, you will not be able to access this page. We positioned ourselves so it looked like we were in Germany.
We got direct access to the site and looked up a program to watch. There it stopped. It didn’t say that we didn’t get sidetracked or get some wrong message, but it said and chewed for a long time. We updated the page and tried another program. The same problem occurred. On their website they explain that in the app you can select the function “sort by speed” which should help find the fastest server. When we used that function, we were placed in Portugal (which does not help us in the matter, as in Portugal we DO have access to the play page) There we gave up and felt only disappointed.
Time to see if Cactus VPN works with Netflix. As it is mostly series and films that first become available in the USA, the choice was logical to place us there. We logged in and chose an American series that we in Portugal do not have access to. We got in and were able to watch the episodes – this surprised us as the power hadn’t been that strong before. It could be because Netflix is big and strong.
Conclusion = Catcus vpn worked well on Netflix. We got SVT play but couldn’t get past the fact that we just stood and chewed when the program was about to start.
How many devices can I connect?
As Cactus VPN is a smaller provider of VPN services, you cannot expect a lot of functions and devices to be able to connect. We were still pleasantly surprised when you could connect up to 5 devices.
This means that you can have a VPN subscription but have both your phone, computer, TV and Xbox connected at the same time.
We tested having 5 devices connected to see if that would limit our speed somewhat like we experienced before. Having these devices connected at the same time worked as it should and we did not experience an issue around it. If you are looking for a simple VPN without major requirements, then these work perfectly for you who want to protect the devices you have at home.
Does Cactus-VPN have a support if problems occur?
After all, we tried to reach CactusVPN at the beginning of our investigation of the service and reached them right away. We chose to call in on a Wednesday at their phone number from the website. Proficient English is a requirement, but it was smooth and easy to talk to them. We explained what we were doing and they helpfully answered our questions. Big plus on this!
As a member, you can get access to a support page where you get answers to the most common questions & answers. Good and relevant information is available here, but you need to be registered to access this. If you are not registered yet, you can still click on the website, click on contact us and fill in a form there. You ask the question and enter an e-mail address to which you want the answer. Of course, we tried sending an email to see how fast they were and got a response after 4 hours.
This is a huge plus for Cactus VPN that they are so helpful and also nice over the phone. It shows that they care about their customers, and maybe their future ones.
How do I get started with CactusVPN?
Most VPN services are not advanced to get started with.
To get started with Cactus VPN, you must first register and choose which subscription you want. When you pay for the service, you download their app. On the website there are also links to how to download their vpn for e.g. firefox.
Now you log in with your e-mail address and choose which server you want to be on.
There are a few different settings you can make in the app to make it more personal and adaptable to your needs. Among other things, you can set which applications should be shut down if you lose the internet connection.
What payment options are available?
There are several different ways to pay for your VPN at Cactusvpn. You can choose to pay with your usual debit and credit card. We usually advise against this as it is easier to find information about you.
You can also pay with PayPal, which is one of the most common payment options on VPN sites.
Big plus on the edge to these as you can pay with cryptocurrency. The point of a vpn is to be anonymous and therefore it sounds nice to be able to pay with e.g. bitcoin.
Can I use it to download?
As your data is encrypted and your IP address is hidden, you can do this. Important to know is that having a VPN is not illegal. What you choose to do with it is of course your own decision. The existing laws don’t stop applying just because you got a VPN. It may be that you need to change servers as you do not get access to all content in all countries. It is therefore important not to be located on a server in China if you want to access blocked pages in China. That’s one of the big reasons why you have a VPN – to get around blocks.
Does CactusVPN have a kill switch?
Cactus vpn has a kill switch. This helps ensure that you are not surfing online without being connected to a VPN. However, you must set the app to stop internet traffic if the VPN connection is lost. You do this with their “apps killer feature” Here you set which pages you want to be shut down in the unlikely event that you lose contact.
This is as an extra security measure that is more and more common today. Not everyone has it, but Cactus VPN has it, which is good. It could be like sitting at an airport with your work computer. Here, it is common to sit with sensitive information and just as common for hackers to try to break in. If you were to lose contact, a hacker could still access you. However, if you have set all contact to be broken with a kill switch, you don’t have to worry about this problem.
What does CactusVPN get in the final rating?
In conclusion, we would choose 5 out of 10 suns for this vpn service.
What drags the rating down is that there are few countries and very few servers. This makes it difficult for us as customers to be able to place ourselves in all the places we would have liked. It also means that it does not connect quickly to the pages you want. When the app is going to select a server you are approached for the fastest speed, it should still not choose the country you are actually in as the blocks will be the same regardless of whether you have a VPN or not. The price – great importance for a lower final grade. The other sites we compared are mostly cheaper. There is a lot of attraction with discounts, but they are still more expensive.
What keeps them somewhere in the middle is their customer service. They care about the customers and they really try to keep the ones they have. Nice and easy to get hold of. The website and app are very user friendly. There are handy guides if you want help with installation. Downloading the app and getting started really doesn’t need a manual, it’s really super simple. Their payment option to pay their VPN with cryptocurrency is something we value highly for your privacy as well.
