Windscribe is one of the most popular free VPNs. Its long-lasting existence in the marketplace cemented its name as a reliable, safe, and secure provider that’s also easy to use. When talking about free VPNs, many people aren’t going to trust them at first.
And I think they’re right. Free providers are known for intrusive logging practices, poor security, and no other standout features to differentiate them from their paid competitors. Windscribe, however, has had a free VPN service for quite some time and it isn’t going to be as bad as you’d think it is.
But many potential users are still wondering – is Winscribe safe and secure? The answer lies in this article, as I go over all of its security features and examine this provider to see if you can fully trust it. In fact, you can check my full Windscribe review I did recently as well. In this review, I talked about everything you should know about it and not just security and privacy. Thus, if you’re interested in more factors aside from this, feel free to check it out. If not… well, you can just keep reading this article instead!
Is Windscribe Safe to Use? Security Features Examined
To start this analysis and answer the question “is Windscribe VPN safe and secure?”, we first must focus on its security features. You’ll find these features in its application and most of them can be controlled, enabled, or disabled by your hand.
Firewall (Kill Switch)
Speaking of features you can enable or disable, I will talk about Windscribe’s kill switch. This feature is called a Firewall within the app, which may confuse some people. However, as it’s located on the home screen and can be controlled via a single button, you’ll quickly realize its function.
If you visit the Settings menu, you’ll find that this kill switch has several options too. If you set it to Automatic, it’ll decide when to spring into action – usually when your VPN connection breaks and it must protect your IP and DNS addresses.
Next, Windscribe lets you set the kill switch to “Always On” which makes it function like the kill switch in NordVPN. This means it won’t let you access the internet if you’re not connected to any of Windscribe’s servers. I don’t recommend this option if you don’t plan on using this VPN every second.
Finally, I like that the provider lets you select the manual mode when utilizing this kill switch. This allows you to customize the way it works to your accord. Windscribe is a highly-customizable provider even in its free version, so it comes as no surprise that this is one of the aspects you can control.
256-bit Encryption
What you can’t control – and it doesn’t matter – is 256-bit encryption. 256-bit encryption is extremely important for ensuring your online security. In my article about free vs paid VPNs, I outlined that free providers usually rely on 128-bit encryption or they have no encryption at all.
That is not the case with this provider. Instead, it uses this bank-grade encryption to make sure your online activities are fully secured and cannot be tracked. This is the highest level of encryption you can get and the provider offers it in both free and paid plans, which is a big relief.
R.O.B.E.R.T. (Private DNS)
Another important feature here is called R.O.B.E.R.T. For my convenience, I’ll just call it Robert. Robert is a fancy name for the private DNS feature that this provider offers. You see, when browsing the web, your DNS requests are routed through a free DNS service in most cases.
These services tend to monitor your connection and collect your browsing history, which they sell to companies to employ targeted ads you often see online. Robert is something completely different. It’s a proprietary DNS service owned by Windscribe that blocks ads and trackers.
It also routes your connection through this DNS service, which prevents other services from snooping on your online activities and collecting relevant information. This feature is always enabled and I’m glad it’s that way because you don’t have to tweak anything to get this layer of security.
WireGuard Protocol
Windscribe offers powerful VPN protocols such as Windscribe, OpenVPN, and IKEv2. WireGuard is especially interesting because it’s much faster than OpenVPN, offering shorter connection times and top-grade security.
Unlike Hide.me, this provider has WireGuard even in the free version, which I found extremely useful for ensuring maximum performance. In addition, the provider offers protocols like Stealth and WStunnel which aim to obfuscate your traffic and bypass censorship.
Interestingly, many people reported that Windscribe VPN works in China when using Stealth sometimes, which is quite unusual for a free VPN.
Split Tunneling
The final security feature worth mentioning is split tunneling. This feature won’t bring anything new to the table but it’s good to know that you can use it to secure only certain parts of your online traffic. You include or exclude IPs, hostnames, and apps from using a VPN tunnel.
Simply enable split tunneling and add the entries to the list of apps that will or won’t take advantage of a VPN connection. You can, for example, exclude your banking application from using it, as you don’t need to change your IP address when accessing your bank account.
Does Windscribe VPN Store Logs? Analysis of Its Privacy Policy & Jurisdiction
As you learned, this provider gives you a lot of great features even as a free user. But is Windscribe safe and secure when talking about logging and making sure your privacy is intact? That’s something I’ll answer in this section of the analysis.
Where Is Windscribe Based?
First, we must mention the jurisdiction of this VPN which plays a huge role in how safe it’s going to be. Unfortunately, Windscribe is based in Canada, and along with the UK and the US, this country is a founding member of the 5 Eyes alliance.
These countries are known for government surveillance and data retention, which sometimes forces VPN companies to store logs and hand them out to the authorities. HMA VPN, a UK-based provider, cooperated with the FBI and provided user-related logs on a few occasions.
Windscribe, on the other hand, didn’t have these incidents and despite its Canadian jurisdiction, it still maintains a no-logging policy.
Is Windscribe Safe in Terms of Logging Practices?
Speaking of which, the provider surely isn’t the best in terms of logging but its no-logging policy sounds pretty confident and genuine.
In short, the provider will not store logs regarding your IP address, timestamps, online activities, session information, and other relevant information. Its privacy policy is pretty short as well, which means it isn’t trying to sugarcoat or hide its logging practices in riddles and complex sentences.
To function properly, the provider must store some logs, which don’t have to be compromised. Is Windscribe safe and secure then? Yes. As you can see, it stores logs of used bandwidth and the moment of the last VPN usage.
This is obviously here for free users with a 10 GB bandwidth limit, to prevent potential abuse and going over limits. Luckily, even this irrelevant information is stored for 30 days, so the provider doesn’t keep an entire history of your VPN usage. It therefore falls into the category of no logging VPNs.
To back up its no-logging practices, the provider also includes transparency reports and on its site, you can see that it planned several audits.
IP & DNS Leak Tests: Let’s See if There’re Any Leaks
If you’re still wondering if Windscribe VPN is safe to use, there’s only one thing left to do – a proper IP and DNS leak test. So far, we can say that the answer to the question “is Windscribe safe and secure?” is positive because of its no-logging practices and great security features.
Thanks to them, the provider exhibits excellent performance when talking about preserving your IP and DNS addresses and keeping them away from the public eye. When I connected to a US server using this provider, I went to a site called ipleak.net to check for leaks.
As you can see, my US IP and DNS addresses are displayed on the site, with no signs of my IP address from Europe (where I’m located). Since I already changed my VPN location to the US, I wanted to check another site called browserleaks.com.
Once again, the results were phenomenal, with no leaks that could compromise my privacy – well done!
So Is Windscribe Safe to Use?
In the end, we have to give a definitive answer to the question. Is Windscribe safe and secure? As you can guess, the answer is indeed positive, as this free provider showed great results during all my analyses and tests.
It showed no IP leaks, all while providing crucial security features and offering a no-logging policy. Sure, it’s based in Canada, which can be a problem down the road, but so far, the provider had no issues with leaking information to the authorities as HMA, PureVPN, and many other providers did.
If you’re thinking about using it, be aware of its 10 GB bandwidth limit which won’t be enough for day-to-day use. Thus, if you want unlimited bandwidth and great performance, considering a premium provider like ExpressVPN or even CyberGhost is a better idea.
