iTop VPN Review 2023: Is This VPN Safe?

About iTop VPN

iTop is a software company based in Hong Kong. It doesn’t offer just a VPN; it also has utility tools like a screen recorder, data recovery app, desktop organizer, and password manager. The software that started it all for the company, however, is the VPN.

When talking about a VPN company, location matters a lot. After all, the privacy legislation of the region under which the company operates has a significant effect on the company’s privacy practices.

iTop is based in Hong Kong. Although Hong Kong is under China, which has terrible data privacy laws, it has its own ordinance concerning data privacy. It’s actually one of Asia’s longest-standing comprehensive data protection laws, which took effect in 1996.1

That being said, the Hong Kong national security law passed in 20202 had some VPN companies thinking twice about establishing servers there. The new law allowed Beijing to set up a security apparatus in Hong Kong to suppress national security threats, both to Hong Kong and China. It’s not as comprehensive as the Great Firewall of China, but it’s concerning nonetheless.

Has the new law affected iTop VPN’s privacy policy?

iTop’s Privacy Policy

iTop is a “no logs” VPN, which means whatever you do while connected to its servers will remain private. The company doesn’t store anything that can identify and link you to your browsing activity, like your IP address, DNS queries, and browsing history.

That’s critical for a couple of reasons. First, iTop’s privacy policy includes third-party data sharing, which means whatever information iTop may have of you can be shared with service providers or law enforcement. Second, iTop explicitly says that it will comply with legal requests such as warrants and subpoenas. If it logs your usage data, for example, law enforcement can use it against you. Fortunately, iTop has a “no-logs” policy.

iTop Features

Now that we’ve established that iTop is safe to use, let’s talk about its features. We tested the VPN, spending almost 100 hours using its apps going about our day-to-day browsing while connected to its network. We also took both the free and the premium versions for a test run.

iTop Free vs. iTop Premium

The free and premium versions use the same apps, but some features are locked for the free version. Advanced features like split tunneling are inaccessible, and so are the options to use either a dynamic or static IP address.

The most significant differences between the two versions, however, are the number of servers available and the speed of VPN connections. The free version has access to only six of the almost 100 server locations available to premium users. Moreover, these six servers provide slower speeds, partly because those with free accounts flock to these servers, creating traffic congestion.

Another thing to note is that there’s a 700 MB daily data usage limit. That’s generous enough for simple browsing, but not for streaming or downloading, which means only the premium version is suitable if you’re looking for a VPN for watching Netflix.

Here’s a quick comparison between the free and premium versions of iTop VPN.

iTop VPN Network Kill Switch

Both the premium and the free versions offer a kill switch, which is a built-in backup measure that stops all internet communications in case the VPN disconnects unexpectedly.

We like having a kill switch feature because no VPN is 100 percent reliable all the time. Even the best VPNs slip up. At least with a kill switch, we wouldn’t inadvertently use an unsecure connection if the VPN cuts out in the middle of our browsing session.

We commend iTop for including a kill switch in both free and premium accounts.

iTop Split Tunneling

Unlike the kill switch, which is necessary for your security, split tunneling is more of a miscellaneous feature that can improve your overall user experience. We use it to multitask whenever we have to use services that require a connection but don’t want the other apps we are running to use the VPN.

Split tunneling creates two tunnels – one for the VPN and another for your unencrypted network – and then lets you choose which tunnel to route traffic from which apps. For example, if you’re streaming music while researching, you may want to use the unencrypted tunnel to access local top hits from Spotify and use the VPN tunnel for your Chrome browser to keep your browsing private.

Split tunneling is exclusive to premium accounts.

iTop VPN for Streaming and Gaming

Perhaps iTop VPN’s greatest ability is to unblock websites and services, a feature almost every other VPN can do. What sets iTop VPN apart is that it has servers optimized for streaming and gaming. These servers are built with additional security to be able to bypass geographic restrictions, plus they offer great speeds.

That being said, the majority of streaming- and gaming-optimized servers are in the United States and United Kingdom. So, if you’re living in the U.S. and looking to stream Netflix Australia content, for instance, none of the optimized servers will work for you. You’re better off connecting to a regular server in Australia. If you’re traveling abroad, however, the optimized servers may come in handy.

As mentioned earlier, free accounts get access to six optimized servers, whereas premium users have dozens to choose from.

Encryption and VPN Protocols

iTop VPN doesn’t provide much customizations or even information about encryption and VPN protocols. Those two are important; VPNs use encryption to keep your browsing data private, while they use VPN protocols to create the secure tunnel through which all your VPN traffic will pass.

iTop VPN keeps information about its encryption and VPN protocols vague. For instance, rather than say which encryption standard it uses, it simply mentions that it utilizes “best in class” encryption. That said, the fact that it was able to evade IP address detection when we performed DNS and WebRTC leak tests was enough to convince us that it does offer at least some security and privacy.

iTop VPN Speed: Free vs. Premium

Besides the selection of servers, one other supposed difference between iTop VPN’s free and premium versions is speed. According to the ad banners plastered all over the app if you sign up for a free account, the max speed of the free servers is only about a third of the max speed of premium servers. Let’s put that to the test.

We tested our internet speed while connected to one of the free servers in Australia. The result is pictured above. As you can see, the speeds are pretty decent, but keep in mind that we were connected to a 500 Mbps fiber-optic network. Below was the result of a speed test we took without the VPN just a minute after.

We lost about 80 percent of our network’s download speed and over 90 percent of our upload speed. By our standards, that’s a terrible speed loss, but we kind of expected it from the free version. Aside from the best free VPNs, it’s normal to see a significant speed drop-off with free services. Let’s see, however, if the speed improves with a premium subscription.

We bought a monthly subscription and then once again connected to a server in Australia, one tagged VIP (aka for premium users only). Below you can see that only the upload speed improved. The download speed didn’t even break the 100 Mbps mark, much less deliver the three times max speed promised by the ad banners.

To be sure, we tried connecting to a bunch of other servers, and the results were largely the same. All of them kept our internet speed to below 100 Mbps.

Our Final Thoughts on iTop VPN

While it was certainly a good VPN to try out, iTop VPN didn’t really deliver top-caliber performance. The speed was suboptimal, the security and privacy measures were vague, and frankly the desktop and smartphone software seemed half-baked.

There were a number of things we liked about iTop VPN, such as the servers optimized for streaming and gaming and the ad blocker feature, but there are VPNs that deliver those alongside high speeds, clear encryption and VPN protocol standards, and good software. One that comes to mind is Surfshark. You can read about it in our Surfshark review.

Overall, iTop is safe to use, but as far as its performance, we wouldn’t put it on our top 10 list of the best VPNs.