TorGuard
TorGuard VPN is a privacy-focused service that offers strong encryption and a wide range of security features, making it ideal for torrenting and bypassing censorship. It has a large network of servers in over 50 countries and provides high speeds, but its interface can be complex for beginners.
What Can TorGuard Do?
TorGuard is a faintly weird mixture of the simple and complicated. At first glance, the app is super simple with just a few buttons. Dig a bit deeper, though, and you’ll quickly find that a lot lurks beneath the surface, and not all of it is good. In its current state, it’s hard to place TorGuard among thebest VPNs.
First, though, I like the app. Currently, TorGuard is supported onWindows,macOS, andLinux. It is one of the few VPNs—maybe even the only one—that has installers for different flavors of Linux, from Debian to Arch. It’s pretty cool, and I guaranteed TorGuard a spot in my roundup of thebest VPNs for Linux.
On mobile, TorGuard has apps forAndroid(there’s also anAPK) andiPhone, plus extensions for all major browsers. It covers all the basics, but there’s no support for more exotic operating systems or smart TVs. There also doesn’t seem to be a way toinstall TorGuard on routers.
The TorGuard App
Regardless of the operating system, the app is pretty much the same wherever you install it. There are no shenanigans like withNordVPN or Proton VPN, where the app can be wildly different depending on your device. There also doesn’t seem to be any stability issues; the app performs equally well on all systems.
The app itself is very straightforward. Like all my favorite VPNs (such asExpressVPN), TorGuard is operated with just a few buttons. One for settings, one to set connection parameters, one to switch servers, and a big one that switches the VPN on and off.
This is a great way to handle operations, in my mind, though it does come with a few caveats. For one, I feel the small hamburger menu (the three horizontal stripes in the upper left-hand corner) could be a little confusing for people unused to using VPNs. It assumes that users will know what aVPN tunnelis and throws unnecessary complications at users—for the record, the defaults are fine.
A further complication arises when using TorGuard on Linux. When trying to connect to aVPN serverfor the first time, I was asked to install WireGuard separately. This has never happened to me before, and I find it downright weird as the protocol should be built into the app. I’m sure it doesn’t affect the use of TorGuard, but it feels sloppy somehow.
In day-to-day use, though, I like TorGuard. The app responds well, and things like the server selection screen are laid out well. No tabbing through multiple menus to find a specific location, which can get a bit annoying when usingProton VPN or ExpressVPN
Connection times are fast, and I had no failed connections or other issues. I used TorGuard for a few days, and I never had any issues from day to day.
TorGuard Settings
Finally, I should mention TorGuard’s biggest draw for power users, which is its settings screen. Few other VPNs let you exercise this much control over your connection, let alone from the settings menu. I really like this approach, and it makes TorGuard the perfect fit for users who like their VPN just so.
That said, if you’re not sure what you’re doing, you may not want to mess with these options, as poor configuration may leave you vulnerable to threats or otherwise impact your experience in negative ways.
TorGuard Performance
TorGuard’s performance is spotty at best. When I reviewed it before, I was impressed with how consistent and fast it was during my tests. I’m not sure what happened in the meantime, but this time around, my results weren’t great, as you’re able to see in the table below (read about how Itest VPN speed).
Ping (ms)
Czechia (unprotected)
8
346
58
9
267
56
34
45
10
104
292
14
302
189
39
When I use a VPN, I prefer to see no drops below 20% (10 is better), with the exception of faraway (for me, here in Prague, Czechia) locations like the western seaboard or Asia. However, TorGuard underperformed in every location. Even a server in the same city gave me only two-thirds of my original speed, which is pretty bad.
Note that these results came from using the high-performance WireGuard protocol. Results were markedly worse using OpenConnect (an open-sourceVPN protocol), with even a server down the proverbial road only giving me about 10 Mbps. I should also note that I took every test multiple times and used only the best results; even using WireGuard, I had some extremely poor performance.
I’m not sure what’s behind these slowdowns, whether it’s a protocol issue or a case of server overload, but I find it hard to recommend TorGuard based on this inconsistent performance. When you use a VPN, you can’t always expect perfect speeds, but I feel this is too far to the other extreme.
TorGuard Pricing
One area where TorGuard has made great improvements is its pricing scheme. Where figuring out which plan you wanted used to be a chore, the choices have been reduced to just a few. There are also some interesting bundles with TorGuard’s other services, like secure mail and proxies. Though I haven’t tried these out, so I’m reserving judgment on them.
That said, I’m less enthusiastic about the other two plans. At $65 and $72 per year, respectively, not much is added besides letting you connect more devices and addingdedicated IPs. The more expensive plan also adds a router, though without testing it, I can’t tell you if it’s a good deal or not.
Privacy and Security
One of the most important aspects of any VPN is its security and privacy. TorGuard raises no red flags (with one major caveat, detailed below), but I also feel it could do a little better. Security-wise, there’s nothing to worry about, with all the important boxes ticked and the services using reputableVPN protocols.
However, totrust your VPN, you need transparency, and while TorGuard is far from opaque, it doesn’t communicate as well as I like. Theprivacy policy, for example, while covering all the bases, is rather terse.
I’m also not a huge fan of the fact that TorGuard asks for a lot of information when signing up. Using a credit card makesanonymous signupimpossible, and then TorGuard wants even more information from you, for unknown reasons.
Finally, there’s also an issue with using the service fortorrenting. TorGuard was sued a few years ago (Ars Technicahas the full story) and since then has blocked all BitTorrent traffic on its U.S.-based servers. Servers anywhere else are still working fine if you want to torrent, but it makes me a little nervous that TorGuard is on copyright watchdogs' radar. It may be an entirely unfounded fear, but I’d avoid TorGuard for torrenting.
Should You Subscribe to TorGuard?
I really want to likeTorGuard: It’s privately owned, is dedicated to Linux users, lets you tinker with it to your heart’s content, and offers a great deal. All these are important boxes for me to tick, but I find it hard to muster up any real enthusiasm for TorGuard.
I could probably live with the small issues in the app, but the poor performance and the issues with torrenting make it very difficult to make a hearty recommendation. Even at just over $30 per year, there’s no excuse to have such a poor showing during speed tests, especially when services like ExpressVPN effectively lose no speed even when connecting to the other side of the world.
Sadly, this relegates TorGuard to the niche of people who like to tinker with their VPNs. If you’re in that club, it’s a great choice. Anybody else may want to look elsewhere.
