Encrypt.me Review – Is It The Best VPN in 2023?

Overview

Encrypt.me is an unusual VPN provider to review. They are geared towards group (team and family) plans. We are not sure how many the sell as the prices tend to be quite high. Encrypt.me has the same parent company (J2 Global) as our most recommended VPN (IPVanish) in addition to StrongVPN, and Overplay.net. Unfortuantely, the offerings aren’t nearly as generous as its sister companies. The brand currently offers roughly 30 different servers. This compares to almost 1300 for IPVanish. Fortunatley, the news isn’t all bad though. Encrypt.me is one of the few no log VPN providers to offer a 14 day no credit card required free trial. I am sure many can come up with a good use for this.

Pricing

Encrypt.me has a slightly different pricing model as not only do they offer subscriptions, but also passes for a week. Plus, subscriptions for families and teams.

Families

These passes can secure up to 5 members.

Monthly – $12.99 / Yearly – $149.99

On a side note this package is fantastic value, depending on how they define a family. If you could put 5 users

Teams

On a pay monthly plan starting at $7.99 for 2-24 members, sliding to $6.99 25 – 99 team members and down to $5.99 for 100+ members.

Speed Test and App Overview Video

Privacy /Anonymity

Compared to other VPN providers. Encrypt.me track a lot of data, they definitely log and keep some types of logs. There wasn’t easy information available, but this is taken directly from their privacy policy. They will keep:

• The number of bytes sent and received
• The length of time connected
• The IP address connected from and the (virtual) IP we assign
• The source port of the outgoing connection with start and end times

For 16 days and then it is permanently deleted.

The following is kept indefinitely:

• Each account has a record of lifetime bytes sent and received and time connected.
• Each VPN endpoint maintains aggregate usage metrics for monitoring and analysis.
• We collect aggregate statistics for regional IP address blocks to track geographic trends and help optimize our infrastructure.

The third point is fair enough, and probably other companies do the same. But keeping the number of bytes and endpoints is damaging. For example, it’s easy to prove if you are using Bit Torrent or Kodi. There is enough vague language used within these terms to make us feel uneasy.

To us this is a big thumbs down.

Torrent Policy

Encrypt.me tracking of byte usage would make you susceptible to being tracked for downloads and uploads. Also, one specific sentence in the privacy policy makes us feel like you could be penalised for using their VPN for Torrents:

• Execute any other abusive activities, determined at our sole discretion

This could just be vague language because as a US company, they have to use those words. Or it could be enforceable.

Does It Work Well With Kodi?

Kodi allows you to gain access to the latest films, television and even live sports events. It’s an all in one entertainment centre in your living room. Without having to pay for subscriptions to the many different on demand tv providers.

However, with Encrypt.me’s policy around abusive activities, you might want to think of choosing a VPN provider with no logs on byte usage. As watching a lot of video would show up in high data usage.

Streaming Netflix?

Encrypt.me is not designed with the intention of spoofing GeoIP checks. All their VPN servers are based in the US. So, you would certainly be able to access Netflix USA. But not anywhere else.

Tor Compatibility

Encrypt.me makes no mention of Tor or using a double layer VPN service with Tor. There seems no reason why it wouldn’t work, but again it’s not explicit

GeoIP

As mentioned with Netflix, all of their servers are in the US. Encrypt.me would not work for GeoIP regional restrictions.

Speed

Speed tests came in pretty average for US and UK. But location is crucial. If you want to use this VPN in China, and all the servers are in the US< then Encrypt.me isn’t for you.

Security

Encrypt.me in its advanced article for coders, talks about the different types of encryption it uses for its iOS and Android applications which include IKEv2/IPsec, which stands for Internet Key Exchange and Internet protocol security. This is top of the line security and nothing less than you would expect at any reputable VPN provider.

Customer Support

Just email and FAQ’s. No live chat function from Encrypt.me which is pretty basic and could be frustrating if you have pressing technical issues you want resolved. I suspect corporate teams would have a more direct way to contact the company.

Jurisdiction

The company is based in the US and clearly states that it must abide by Federal Law, and also the Five Eyes. There is nothing that gives us the confidence to commit anything vaguely illegal, as we are sure that Encrypt.me would serve up your data on asking.

Apps

The VPN is designed to be used on mobile phones, to protect you while using Public WIFI, so works on Android and iOS and has great functionality.

Servers

30+ servers all based in the US

Final Thoughts for the Encrypt.me Review

Some really thoughtful pricing models and we are sure the application works well. Good if you want to protect your identity, but for most of the activities, a lot of people would use VPN like Kodi, P2P, and anonymized browsing. There are better VPN providers out there which are cheaper and keep your data completely anonymous.