Thunder VPN Review | Do Not Trust This VPN

There is no doubt that VPNs have become a hot item these days and many people seem to be looking out for free VPNs. Lately, one free VPN service, and in their opening salvo to our Thunder VPN Review, they claim to be a ‘lightning fast app to provide free VPN proxy service’. This app is currently available on the Google Play Store.

It claims to unlimited VPN access via many servers with a strict no-logging policy. In fact, there is no requirement even for users to register, it requires no additional app permissions and works on mobile data. Sounds too good to be true? You might be right. Let’s look at how Thunder VPN actually compares to its claims.

2023 Update: Since the early review, we've noted that ThunderVPN has not improved much. The service is as dubious as ever, and our recommendation not to use this VPN stands firm.

Thunder VPN has Horribly Slow Speeds

As always when testing VPN connections, it's always advisable to do a baseline check so you’ll know what your ‘raw’ speeds are at the time. For this test, we used a Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro and got a baseline of around 46Mbps Down and 27Mbps Up.

Speed Test on Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro with No VPN

Firing up SpeedTest for our Thunder VPN Review, we tried to run the speed test on the default connection, which Thunder VPN claimed was the best for us. In this case, their Japan server managed to connect, but we could not do anything on that connection, not even browse.

We then switched to their France server and managed to get a connection. Thunder VPN gave us a speed of roughly 2Mbps Down and 9Mbps up. Even for a free VPN service, that’s a pretty appalling drop.

ThunderVPN France Server Speed

Thunder VPN Review - Terrible Speeds
Speed Test Result of ThunderVPN France Server

Comparatively, we ran the test on a TorGuard connection just to check if there might be something unusual happening. TorGuard was fine and almost matched our baseline speed at 33Mbps Down and 40Mbps Up.

TorGuard Comparative Speed Test

Thunder VPN Review
Speed Test Result on Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro for TorGuard

To be fair to Thunder VPN, the physical distance from a VPN server also affects VPN speeds. However, their number of servers and locations contrasts sharply with their claim of running many servers.

We are not impressed and think it’s likely any apps you try to run while connected to Thunder VPN are likely to give you hiccups in performance.

Important Update 24/Apr/2020 – We've noted that Thunder VPN still appears to be going strong so decided that we needed to re-look at its performance. The results were pretty strange given their increase in user numbers – performance has, in fact, dropped even further;

Speed Test Updated 24/Apr/2020 – Results Link

We can only urge users to exercise caution in this VPN service provider and urge you not to give in to the temptation of a free service.


Only Nine Server Locations

Thunder VPN has servers in 9 locations worldwide (8, if you count the US East and West coast as one). Outside the US, the locations are all in Europe, with the single Asia location being Japan. There is no word of the number of servers it operates in these locations.

If you were to compare this with a paid VPN service – let’s take ExpressVPN for example. ExpressVPN has some great offers from time to time which brings down its price a little. Yet no matter how much you pay, you're getting access to thousands of servers in more than 100 locations worldwide.

That's just something to think about. In fact, this VPN has even fewer server locations than Whoer, which is really saying something in terms of VPNs.


Privacy Policy – Not So Private?

Almost every VPN service provider today tries to assure its users that it has a strict no-logging policy. This is probably the result of the stink many users raised after some VPN companies released user logs to authorities some time back.

For a company that is involved in providing security and privacy services, this kind of trust violation is a cardinal sin. We’re unsure how Thunder VPN will hold up against authority pressure, but let’s consider a few things.

Discrepancies in the Privacy Policy

Thunder VPN

Thunder VPN claims to collect no logs and yet it also in the same policy document says it might contain some information (quite a lot of information actually). Reading between the lines, it doesn’t log browsing traffic – which is meaningless.

VPN users want anonymity – meaning our identities are shielded. There's no point in having a half-baked privacy policy to placate the masses if it doesn’t mesh with the true spirit of anonymity!

Thunder VPN – Of Dubious Origins

Free-signal homepage
Attempting to access Thunder VPN's parent company primary domain came up with this

Thunder VPN was created and is run by a little-known company called Signal Laboratories Inc. The best we could discover about this company is that it was founded in 2014 and has revenue in the ballpark of $7 million.

Unfortunately, their website is blank except for a basic background and a tagline stating “Get with the Signal.” Their Linkedin and Facebook profiles are similarly lackluster and contain very little information.

Incidentally, the homepage for Thunder VPN is actually thunder.free-signal.com which is not that unusual. However, accessing the main URL gave us a blank (see image above). Meanwhile, the homepage of the parent company at www.siglabs.com is pretty much a blank page with a stock image placeholder.

If that isn't enough to raise warning bells, then the fact that it is allegedly run out of Menlo Park, California, should. When looking for a VPN service, do try to find one that is based in a country with weak data retention laws – North America isn't one of them.

Security and Encryption – Say What?

After anonymity comes security, which is related in a way to how good the encryption on the VPN connection is. Many VPN service providers will happily crow about their connection protocols and encryption, since that is what they use to assure users of security!

Take for example, the recent announcements from NordVPN and IVPN about their moves concerning the WireGuard protocol. This is one of the core pillars of a VPN, and Thunder VPN avoids the topic altogether—no word of protocols, no word of encryptions.

Even chunks of its description on the Google Play Store are lifted off the Internet and recycled. We shudder to think what else they recycle.

Thunder VPN Privacy Policy

Thunder VPN Can't Streaming or Torrent

Regarding access, this is one tiny bright spark in our Thunder VPN Review. By connecting to their UK server, we could use the BBC iPlayer, which technically means that the geolocation spoofing works fine.

This might be useful if you’re just looking to get around regional blocks on some content sometimes. Yet keep in mind the slow speeds that it offers. You might be pulling your hair out when you’ve waited for those streams to finish buffering.

As for torrenting, seriously? Who’s going to torrent with a downlink speed THAT slow?

Thunder VPN is Free Forever

Thunder VPN costs nothing to download and use. You get immediate access to this free VPN in all its glory – what little there is. There's no freemium model, free trial to assess before you buy, or any other pricing model. It's provided at zero cost.

Presumably, alarm bells are ringing alongside a flashing red bulb in your mind by now. The simple reality is nothing in life is free. That goes doubly so for a service like Thunder VPN. It costs a lot of money to set up and run the servers and software that a service like Thunder VPN needs to survive.

Most likely, Thunder VPN is profiting off you somehow. Likely in the form of your data.


Final Thoughts: Should You Try ThunderVPN?

To be honest, even we were shocked by the results of our Thunder VPN Review. Yes, indeed, people generally accept slightly lower standards for free services. We think free services should always be taken up with a hefty dose of skepticism, but that is a rant for another day.

The fact that there is such a high volume of searches for Thunder VPN and that it is rated quite well on Google Play is indeed troubling. While I realize this review is only a drop in the ocean of people talking about it, I hope their findings match mine to bring this warning to a bigger audience.

There are simply too many unknowns and grey areas about Thunder VPN to make this a recommendable service. In other cases, perhaps, but where your security, privacy, and anonymity are concerned on the Internet, no.

When it comes to a VPN service, much more than the price, we urge you to consider a reputable service. There are many out there, such as NordVPN, which has frequent offers at practically unbeatable prices. Read our NordVPN review here.

Thunder VPN Review Summary
1.2 / 5 ...
Pros
  • It's free
  • Cons
  • Doubtful claims
  • Unclear privacy policies
  • False Advertising
  • Very slow
  • Summary
    For those who have not tried Thunder VPN - don't. While there are some good free services around, Thunder VPN certainly isn't one of them and in fact, is more likely to steal and sell your data than protect you.
    Performance
    Security
    Features
    Useability
    Pricing

    Instead, we highly recommend the following;

    Timothy Shim

    Tim is a former tech journalist turned web technology junkie. He spends his time exploring the best in digital privacy and security tools. Meanwhile, experiments with SEO continue to increase his blood pressure. ( Contact Tim on Linkedin )

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