StrongVPN review (2026): 12 devices, Smart DNS and a strict refund policy

What StrongVPN is in 2026

StrongVPN is one of the older consumer VPNs still on sale. Its about page says the company started in South Lake Tahoe, California, in 1994 selling PCs, moved into dial-up internet and server hosting, and launched the VPN in 2005. Today the service is run by Strong Technology, LLC, which the site's footer describes as a Ziff Davis company, with an address on Fifth Avenue in New York. Ziff Davis also owns IPVanish, so the two are sister brands.

The product is a standard paid VPN with two extras. Every plan covers 12 devices at once, connects over WireGuard by default, and runs on more than 950 servers in over 30 countries. On top of that you get StrongDNS, a Smart DNS service for devices that cannot run a VPN app, and StrongProxy, a Chrome extension that moves only your browser traffic.

There is no free plan. You pay $11.99 a month, or $47.69 for the first year on the annual plan with the promotion running on November 4, 2026. Only the annual plan comes with a refund, which shapes how you should try it. The rest of this review covers setup, the features you will use, what it costs over two years, support, and how it compares with IPVanish and Surfshark.

Signing up and getting connected

You buy StrongVPN on its own checkout page. You choose the annual or monthly plan, enter an email address and pay by card, PayPal or Alipay; the checkout also has a BitPay option for paying in crypto, and iPhone users can buy inside the iOS app through Apple. The page states the renewal price before you pay and says the subscription renews automatically.

Once your account exists, you download the app for your device, sign in with your StrongVPN username and password, and press Connect. The app picks a server for you with its Best Available Location option, or you can filter the list by country and city. WireGuard is the default protocol in the apps that support it, so most people never touch the protocol setting.

Manual setup takes longer but is well documented. For routers and Linux, you log in at wg.strongvpn.com, choose your operating system and a location, and press Generate to get a WireGuard configuration file. The help centre has about 400 articles, many of them step-by-step router guides with screenshots, and they were updated through 2026.

One sign-up detail can trip you up later. Alipay payments are not charged automatically, so you pay each renewal invoice by hand, and purchases made through Apple must be cancelled and refunded through your Apple account, not through StrongVPN.

Protocols, Scramble and connection options

StrongVPN supports more protocols than most rivals, partly because it has been around long enough to keep the old ones. In the apps you can choose WireGuard, IKEv2, OpenVPN over UDP or TCP, and the older IPSec. Its help centre also lists L2TP, SSTP and PPTP for manual and legacy setups. PPTP is weak by modern standards, so leave it alone unless an old device gives you no choice.

StrongVPN recommends WireGuard for the best mix of speed and security, and IKEv2 on Windows, macOS and iOS. IKEv2 has one practical advantage on a phone: with MOBIKE support it keeps the VPN connected while you move between Wi-Fi and mobile data.

The feature worth knowing about if you travel is OpenVPN Scramble. It is a patch on top of OpenVPN that disguises the traffic so it looks less like a VPN, and it works over UDP or TCP. Hotel, campus and office networks that block VPNs often let a scrambled OpenVPN connection through. StrongVPN also suggests TCP port 443 or UDP port 53 if you cannot connect, because firewalls rarely block those.

Treat Scramble as a fallback for the odd blocked network. If you live somewhere with heavy state censorship, a VPN built around its own obfuscation protocols, such as Astrill VPN, is a closer fit.

Servers and locations

StrongVPN lists more than 950 servers across 59 cities and 59,500 VPN IP addresses. Its own pages disagree slightly on the country count: the plans page says 30 countries, the homepage says 30+, and a help article updated in September 2026 says 35. Either way, the network is smaller than the big names, so check the locations page for the cities you need before you buy.

The server list covers the usual places for a VPN of this size, including several cities each in the United States, Canada and Australia, plus Europe, Latin America and parts of Asia. Each server on the public locations page has its own speed test link, which helps you pick a nearby server for a manual setup.

The company says it owns its servers and cites that as the reason it can keep its no-logs promise. The current plans use shared IP addresses, which means many customers appear from the same address. StrongVPN used to sell dedicated IP packages and says in its privacy policy that those were not built for anonymity; customers still on one can move to a shared-IP plan at no charge.

We did not run our own speed tests for this update. If speed matters to you, use the 30-day window on the annual plan to test the servers you will use most.

StrongDNS, StrongProxy and streaming

StrongDNS is the part of StrongVPN that most rivals do not bundle. It is a Smart DNS service: you change the DNS servers on a device to StrongDNS addresses, and supported websites and apps see you as being in another region. There is no app and no encryption, so it does not slow your connection, and StrongVPN says it supports more than 140 services and an unlimited number of devices.

The point is to reach devices a VPN app cannot. StrongVPN lists routers, Roku players, Apple TV, Xbox, PlayStation, smart TVs, computers and phones as compatible. Because there is no encryption, StrongDNS does nothing for privacy, and StrongVPN advises against running StrongDNS and the VPN on the same device at once.

StrongProxy is a Chrome extension with 14 locations. It changes the IP address for Chrome only and leaves your other apps alone, which is useful when you want one browser on another country's site while the rest of the computer uses your normal connection.

On streaming, StrongVPN is careful. Its site says the service is not meant for getting around copyright restrictions and tells you to check each streaming service's terms of use. The old version of this review called StrongVPN one of the best VPNs for Netflix; we have not tested that claim again and would not rely on it.

Devices, TVs and routers

Twelve connections at once is generous. It is enough for a family's phones, laptops and a tablet or two, and each connection can use its own protocol and location. Above 12, StrongVPN points you to a VPN router, which counts as one connection and covers every device behind it.

There are apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV, and ChromeOS users install the Android app from the Google Play Store. Linux has no dedicated StrongVPN app; you set it up with WireGuard or OpenVPN from the command line or a network manager, using StrongVPN's guides.

Apple TV is the gap. Since tvOS 17 an Apple TV can run VPN apps, but StrongVPN has not released one and says it hopes to. Its advice is to connect the Apple TV through a StrongVPN router, or to use StrongDNS instead.

Router support is a real strength. The supported routers article covers stock firmware on many ASUS models, Asus Merlin, and DD-WRT, Tomato or Sabai firmware on Belkin, Buffalo, D-Link, GL.iNet, Linksys, Netgear and TP-Link. It also lists models that are not supported and explains why, which saves you buying the wrong one. StrongVPN also sells preloaded routers through Sabai Technology, with a 90-day satisfaction period and a one-year hardware guarantee according to its refund policy.

Kill switch, split tunneling and app limits

The apps cover the basics but leave gaps. The kill switch, which blocks your internet if the VPN drops so your real IP address is not exposed, is available in the Windows and macOS apps only. On a Mac it works only with OpenVPN or L2TP selected, so if you use WireGuard or IKEv2 on macOS you lose it. StrongVPN's help centre lists no kill switch for the iOS or Android apps.

Split tunneling lets you choose apps that bypass the VPN, such as a banking app that blocks foreign IP addresses. StrongVPN offers it in the Android, Android TV and Fire TV apps, and on Android phones the option appears when you use OpenVPN. It is not listed for Windows, macOS or iOS.

Other settings are what you would expect: auto-reconnect, connecting when the app opens, a protocol picker, IPv6 leak protection on macOS, an Allow LAN Access option so you can still reach a printer, and light and dark modes. The apps are plain and easy to read.

If a kill switch on your phone matters to you, StrongVPN is the wrong pick. IPVanish lists both a kill switch and split tunneling as standard features, and Surfshark includes split tunneling under the name Bypasser.

Privacy, logging and ownership

StrongVPN calls itself a zero-logging VPN. Its privacy policy, last updated April 14, 2025, says it does not collect or log any traffic and does not track your browsing while you are connected. It keeps the details it needs to run your account: name, email address and billing information. It uses those to create accounts, take payments, contact subscribers and troubleshoot problems.

We found no published independent audit of that promise on StrongVPN's site, so you are taking the policy on trust. The policy also covers the website separately: it uses cookies and analytics, and under some circumstances shares data you give the site to show you ads, with an opt-out.

The ownership is worth knowing. Strong Technology, LLC is part of Ziff Davis, a US media and internet company that also owns IPVanish. The privacy policy names Ziff Davis and lets the company move data within the group companies. For most people this changes little, but if you are choosing a VPN partly on where it is based, StrongVPN is a US company and its legal terms reflect that.

The company says it owns its servers and that its staff include Linux, Mac, Windows and router specialists across the US, France, Australia, Japan and Malaysia.

Pricing and value

StrongVPN has two plans on its site, both with the same features.

• Monthly: $11.99 a month. No refund.
• Annual: $47.69 for the first year with the current 47% promotion, which works out at $3.97 a month. It renews at $89.99 a year, and it carries the 30-day money-back guarantee.

Those are the prices on November 4, 2026. The checkout says renewal pricing is subject to change and that StrongVPN gives notice of any change.

Over two years, the annual plan costs $47.69 plus $89.99, or $137.68. Two years of the monthly plan costs $287.76. So if you are going to keep StrongVPN, the annual plan is the only sensible choice, and you should note the renewal date: the jump from $47.69 to $89.99 is the largest cost in the first two years.

The refund rules are strict. You get a full refund only if you cancel an annual plan within 30 days and choose to cancel now rather than on renewal. Renewal payments are never refunded, and there are no partial refunds. StrongVPN says refunds usually take 24 to 48 hours.

There are a few ways to pay less. StrongVPN posts coupon codes on its site, blog and social accounts, and its referral scheme gives you $20 of account credit when a friend you refer stays past their 30-day guarantee period.

The plans page also lists 3GB of free eSIM data for new customers, supplied by aloSIM. The help article gave an activation deadline of September 30, 2026, so ask support whether the offer still applies before you count on it.

Support

StrongVPN offers live chat and email support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through the chat widget on its help pages and a support ticket form. Its about page says support runs every day of the year.

The help centre is the better first stop for setup questions. It has around 400 articles, with separate guides for each app, every supported router family, Linux distributions, StrongDNS on dozens of devices, and common problems such as a VPN that drops on a router or local printers that stop working while you are connected. Many of these articles were revised in 2026.

The cancellation article is worth reading before you buy. It explains the steps, the difference between cancelling now and on renewal, and why that choice decides whether you get your money back. A system status page shows whether a problem is on StrongVPN's side.

StrongVPN vs IPVanish

IPVanish is the obvious comparison because Ziff Davis owns both. The prices land close together in year one: IPVanish's Essential yearly plan was $46.68 for the first year on November 4, 2026, against StrongVPN's $47.69. After that StrongVPN is cheaper, renewing at $89.99 a year against IPVanish Essential's $99.99. StrongVPN's monthly plan is also cheaper, at $11.99 against $14.99.

IPVanish gives you more for the money in the apps. It allows unlimited devices instead of 12, lists a kill switch and split tunneling among its features, and has an Apple TV app and a Linux app. IPVanish also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Choose StrongVPN if you want StrongDNS for TVs and consoles, OpenVPN Scramble, or its router guides, and 12 devices is enough. Choose IPVanish if you need more devices or want a native app on your Apple TV.

StrongVPN vs Surfshark

Surfshark is the better pick for a large household with lots of devices. It allows unlimited simultaneous connections, has apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Android TV, Apple TV and Fire TV, and includes split tunneling under the name Bypasser. It also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Its pricing page showed euros from our server, so we have not compared prices here.

StrongVPN's advantages are narrower. StrongDNS comes in the price, the router documentation is deeper, and you can set up WireGuard manually on almost anything with the config generator. If your TVs and consoles cannot run apps and you would rather set up DNS than a VPN router, StrongVPN covers that without an add-on.

If you want the most devices and the fullest apps for one price, Surfshark is the stronger choice. If you want a long-running provider with Smart DNS included and you are happy with 12 connections, StrongVPN gives you that for $47.69 in the first year.

Pricing and value

StrongVPN has two plans with the same features. The monthly plan is $11.99 a month with no refund. The annual plan is $47.69 for the first year ($3.97 a month) with the current promotion, renews at $89.99 a year, and is the only plan with the 30-day money-back guarantee. There is no free plan or free trial for the VPN; StrongDNS alone has a 7-day trial. Prices checked November 4, 2026.

Who should buy it

Buy StrongVPN if you want one subscription for up to 12 devices and you also have TVs, consoles or media boxes that cannot run a VPN app, because StrongDNS covers those at no extra cost. It also suits people who are comfortable setting up a VPN on a router and want good guides for it, and travelers who sometimes need OpenVPN Scramble to get past a blocked hotel or office network. Take the annual plan, test it inside 30 days, and set a reminder before the renewal.

Who should skip it

Skip StrongVPN if you want to try a VPN month to month with a refund, if you need a kill switch on your phone, or if you want a native Apple TV app. Large households that need more than 12 connections without a router will get more from Surfshark or IPVanish. If you need a free VPN, Windscribe has a free plan with 10GB a month. If you live under heavy censorship, look at a VPN built around stealth protocols, such as Astrill VPN.