Test Results
| Sources | Targets |
|---|---|
| Alblasserdam, Netherlands | Alblasserdam, Netherlands |
| London, UK | London, UK |
| Phoenix, AZ (U.S. West Coast) | London, UK |
| Miami, FL | London, UK |
| London, UK | Hood River, OR (U.S. West Coast) |
| *London, UK | *Miami, FL |
| *Phoenix, AZ (U.S. West Coast) | *Hoover River, OR (U.S. West Coast) |
*Source/target combos are comparable to the five other VPN services we've reviewed.
We connected to one of AirVPN's servers in its home town of Alblasserdam, Netherlands, and then pointed Speedtest.net to a location in Alblasserdam as well to test the maximum speed and minimum latency. Speedtest showed a 37.60 Mb/s download speed, a 33.47 Mb/s upload speed and a ping of 48ms, which was close enough to the one shown on AirVPNs Servers window of 45ms.
We then did a London-to-London test by choosing the usual TreudlerGroup's server. This resulted in a 25.50 Mb/s download speed, a 27.90 Mb/s upload speed and a 63ms ping, which was higher than the 50ms ping shown in AirVPN.
Selecting the Phoenix (U.S. West Coast) server in AirVPN and then the same London server on Speedtest.net resulted in a 4.42 Mb/s download speed, 8.67 Mb/s upload speed and a 362ms ping.
Choosing the Miami server in AirVPN with the same London target in Speedtest.net showed a download speed of 4.54 Mb/s, an upload speed of 9.91 Mb/s and a ping of 284ms.
When we reversed roles and went with the London location in the AirVPN client and then selected Hood River, Oregon (U.S. West Coast), the download and upload bandwidth, as well as the latency, improved greatly to 23.05 Mb/s, 18.28 Mb/s and 204ms, respectively. The numbers from London to Miami are even better at 28.88 Mb/s download speed, 35.28 Mb/s upload speed and only a 160ms ping.
Finally, with the AirVPN client connected to Phoenix and with the Hoover River, Oregon (U.S. West Coast) server selected on Speedtest.net, we can see a download speed of 6.20 Mb/s, an upload speed of 2.05 Mb/s and a ping of 257ms.
The reason the download and upload speeds are so much lower and the latency so much higher when testing the American servers is because the test was done within Europe. Therefore, the links to the U.S. show significantly worse throughput and latency compared with the tests done with European servers (for both AirVPN and Speedtest.net). Users in North American that connect to the U.S. AirVPN servers should see much better download/upload speeds and latency (similar to those seen within Europe). However, when connecting to a European AirVPN server before routing back the U.S., the speeds should decrease and the latency should increase because of the traveled distance.
AirVPN looks like a solid VPN service, especially if what you care most about is security and privacy. The latency between U.S. and Europe is not that great, so you probably shouldn't game competitively over the VPN service, but for browsing the Web or watching streaming video (which is usually buffered before it starts anyway), it should work quite well.
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