TorGuard VPN: Court-Proven Privacy & Torrenting Excellence, But Streaming Requires Extra Cost

TorGuard was founded in 2012 by VPNetworks LLC and has remained independent, with no mergers or acquisitions since its inception.

Its founder and CEO, Benjamin Van Pelt, is currently the only publicly listed employee on LinkedIn. Florida’s company registration records for VPNetworks LLC show only two associated entities: “Losey PLLC” and a role titled “Authorized Member,” leaving the corporate structure somewhat opaque.

While limited transparency about staff is common among VPN providers, TorGuard’s organizational details remain unusually vague.

The company explicitly states it “does not collect or log any data from its Virtual Private Network (VPN) or Proxy services.” Our analysis confirms TorGuard’s logging policy aligns with this claim, as it collects only anonymous server load statistics without tracking identifiable user activity.

Evidence from a Copyright Lawsuit

Though TorGuard’s no-logs policy hasn’t been independently audited, a 2022 copyright infringement lawsuit involving major Hollywood studios provided real-world validation. The studios accused TorGuard of helping users bypass torrent site blocks.

While TorGuard settled the case and now blocks torrent traffic on US servers, the trial revealed a critical detail: no user activity logs were produced as evidence.

This outcome strongly supports TorGuard’s claim of maintaining zero logs, offering concrete reassurance to subscribers.

US Jurisdiction Concerns

TorGuard’s standard subscription isn’t ideal for streaming. While it reliably accesses UK platforms like BBC iPlayer and ITV Player, it struggles with most major services—it couldn’t unblock Netflix libraries and failed to access Disney+, HBO Max, or Hulu during testing. The service’s London servers proved particularly unreliable for streaming, though the Manchester server performed better.

TorGuard doesn’t stream Disney+, HBO Max or Hulu

Hulu didn’t even let us login with the VPN service connected. Instead, we received this reminder:

“Error: Hulu is available in the U.S. only, and cannot be used with an anonymous proxy service.”

TorGuard Is Surprisingly Good at Unblocking UK Platforms

We were pleasantly surprised to see TorGuard did a great job at unblocking BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, and All 4. We didn’t experience any buffering, either.

But we don’t know how long it will be working for. Its standard servers are not the most reliable when it comes to streaming.

TorGuard’s settings offer extensive control but may overwhelm casual users.

While there are numerous advanced options, their practical utility for daily use remains questionable. The interface provides eleven distinct appearance customization choices alongside features for adding security layers, enabling ad blocking, using TorGuard’s proxy servers, or running custom scripts.

Following ExpressVPN’s lead, TorGuard upgraded its infrastructure to fully RAM-based (diskless) servers, ensuring no user data gets written to physical storage.

Powerful Encryption

The service employs AES-256-CBC encryption with industry-standard protocols. Alongside OpenVPN, TorGuard offer full cross-platform WireGuard support—a feature TorGuard helped pioneer among mainstream VPN providers.

TorGuard operates proprietary no-logs DNS servers that encrypt and route all DNS queries through the VPN tunnel. This premium protection level remains rare in the industry, with only services like VyprVPN and StrongVPN offering comparable functionality.

Complicated Kill Switch

While TorGuard includes essential IP/DNS leak protection and a kill switch mechanism, some configuration aspects might challenge less technical users despite these robust safeguards.

The kill switch stops your internet connection entirely in the unlikely event your VPN connection drops. In doing so, your true IP address is never exposed.

During our tests of the “Arm killswitches after first successful connection” option, we observed that it failed to activate the kill switch or app-specific protections. Restarting the application didn’t resolve the issue, and TorGuard’s support team confirmed this feature is currently being phased out.

The service still offers numerous advanced settings for security-focused users, with these standout features:

• App Kill
• Custom proxy servers
• Dedicated IP addresses
• Ad blocking DNS servers

TorGuard Doesn’t Leak Your IP Address or DNS

We tested TorGuard across multiple IP, DNS, and WebRTC leak scenarios, and it consistently passed without showing leaks of sensitive data.

Before conducting the tests, we connected to a server in Germany. The results confirmed that our original UK network details remained undetected throughout the process, demonstrating reliable privacy protection.

Virus & Malware Checks

We scanned TorGuard’s app installer for viruses and malware, and all tests confirmed the software was clean with no detected threats.

Single Server Breach

In May 2018, TorGuard experienced an isolated security breach involving a single server.

The company promptly disclosed the incident via a blog post, explaining attackers gained root access but couldn’t decrypt user data or initiate DDoS attacks, as encryption keys remain securely stored off-server.

TorGuard issued the following statement:

TorGuard VPN or proxy traffic was not compromised during this isolated breach of a single VPN server and no sensitive information was compromised during this incident.

While the server breach had minimal impact, TorGuard’s response to the incident raised some concerns. Following the attack, the company became involved in an unusual legal dispute with NordVPN, filing a lawsuit alleging hacking and blackmail attempts by its competitor.

Copycat Code

TorGuard’s Security Initiatives

TorGuard has taken steps towards preventing security breaches:

• Bug bounty program
• Diskless RAM servers

However, there are a few missing initiatives that would further ensure security:

• Infrastructure security audit
• Vendor security assessment
• Warrant canary

TorGuard’s Windows and macOS apps look identical, which is rare for a VPN. However, they perform very differently on the two operating systems. The macOS client is much faster and didn’t produce the bugs we saw with the Windows client.

Both desktop apps offer a very long list of customizable settings and features. Some options are a bit redundant, and the sheer number can be overwhelming for VPN beginners.

To improve your experience, we recommend checking Remember Credentials in each app before logging in. This saves you from entering your details every time you connect to a server.

Windows & macOS

If you purchase a residential IP, dedicated IP, or streaming bundle, make sure to register your new IP in Settings under Server.

TorGuard works much better on macOS than on Windows. It doesn’t cause lag and connects very quickly.

We’re disappointed there’s no search bar, but you can filter servers alphabetically, by specialized type, or by region.

It’s also missing a few options found in the Windows client, including installing TUN/TAP adapters, blocking outside DNS, and some design features. However, unless you’re a power user, you likely won’t miss these.

TorGuard’s setup process is more complicated than many other VPNs. During installation, we had to enable an unusually large number of permissions.

We don’t often see this many permission requests on macOS VPN clients. Asking to view System Events and perform actions in the app is a bit concerning.

On the other hand, VPNs do need certain permissions to function properly, and TorGuard may use this access to detect bugs or software issues.

iOS & Android

You can choose between OpenVPN (UDP and TCP) and WireGuard (UDP) protocols on Android. In Settings, you can also decide whether the VPN should try to reconnect if the connection drops and enable IPv6 leak protection. You can configure a dedicated IP address, set a static DNS, or use a proxy.

However, TorGuard doesn’t offer a kill switch on Android.

TorGuard’s split tunneling feature, called Restricted Apps, is available on Android. It lets you include or exclude specific apps from the VPN, so you can use your original IP address when needed.

As on the desktop apps, you can sort servers alphabetically, in reverse alphabetical order, or by proximity. You can also filter by specialized server type or by region.

The iOS app has fewer customization options and a different design from the other clients.

TorGuard’s iOS app offers more protocol choices than the Android app. You can choose between:

• IPSec
• IKEv2
• OpenVPN
• WireGuard

There are a couple of drawbacks. First, it doesn’t have a functioning kill switch. Whether we toggled it on or off, restarted the app, or kept it running, it never blocked the network when the VPN disconnected.

Second, servers can be listed alphabetically, by proximity, or by favorites, but you can’t filter by region or by specialized server type—such as stealth or dedicated IP—like you can on Android and desktop.

Amazon Fire TV App

TorGuard has a user-friendly Fire TV app with WireGuard and OpenVPN protocol options.

However, the standard subscription doesn’t unblock international Netflix libraries. With a standard plan, you’ll only access Netflix’s own library of content. We also don’t like that there’s no kill switch.

TorGuard has VPN applications for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and even Linux. Very few VPN services offer a native Linux client with a graphical user interface.

You can also set up TorGuard on your home router, or buy a pre-configured router from TorGuard’s website. This lets all devices in your home use the VPN connection.

Games Consoles & Streaming Devices

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