What about Astrill VPN, does it work in China?

What about Astrill VPN?

You may have heard about this VPN through various channels, what about Astrill VPN? Does it work in China and is it good? To be quite sure, Astrill VPN not only works, but also may be one of the most reliable VPNs in these years, its shunt management feature may be the most powerful among all VPNs at the moment, but the price of this VPN may also be the most expensive.

vantage

• China can use: Astrill VPN is the daily VPN of many foreigners living in China, this site first learned about this VPN is also through the recommendation of this crowd, so it is assumed that Astrill VPN Chinese users may be at least tens of thousands of people!
• Static IP: Astrill VPN is one of the few VPNs that provide static IP, static IP is non-shared, only the server address you use, can be purchased as an add-on to the package, $5 per month is not expensive at all, this feature will be quite useful for the domestic overseas platform (Facebook Ads, LinkedIn, etc.) to do marketing friends, you can avoid frequent switching of IP platform accounts for frequent Ban. Switching IP platform account is Ban, can also maximize the use of Google by Captcha!
• Multi-protocol: Supports OpenVPN, StealthVPN, OpenWeb, Wireguard and other protocols. In terms of wall penetration, Astrill VPN has always been one of the more stable VPNs in the group, and even in the sensitive period of upgrading China’s network control, it can still provide stable connections.
• Clear node list: Astrill VPN client provides a user-friendly node list, which allows users to intuitively and quickly switch to server nodes labeled with the “China” suffix without having to try them out one by one, and most of the time even unlabeled nodes can be connected, which can be used to support a wide range of web-directed applications (e.g. Netflix). It can be used to support a wide range of web-targeted applications (e.g. Netflix ). Astrill VPN’s servers are all physical, guaranteeing IP availability, and it has the largest pool of IP addresses (including private IPs) in Asia.
• Unlimited number of devices: Astrill VPN does not limit the number of simultaneous connections, so you can install it on as many supported devices as you want without having to buy additional capacity.
• Router support: Astrill VPN can be installed and used on a router and retains most of the functionality of a non-router client.
• Powerful Intelligent Connectivity: Astrill VPN supports multi-layer and multi-granularity traffic diversion configurations, which is especially useful for Astrill VPN China customers, who can set up traffic differentiation at the system/application/browser/website layers to decide which applications/websites go through the VPN tunnel and which don’t, to ensure smooth access to foreign and domestic services at the same time.
• Security Switch: Astrill VPN will automatically and temporarily cut off network traffic when connecting, placing any kind of accidental traffic leakage to safeguard your online data.
• VPN sharing: Through the built-in VPN sharing function, you only need to install and start Astrill VPN on one device, open the VPN sharing, and all other devices in the same LAN can realize over the wall through the proxy address provided by Astrill VPN without installing the client separately, so theoretically, Astrill VPN can allow any device to go over the wall, so long as the system of the device supports the setting of SOCKS5 proxy. As long as the device’s system supports setting up SOCKS5 proxy, it will work.
• Business VPN: Astrill VPN provides a faster and lower latency business VPN, providing stable and fast extranet access for organizations running in China.

drawbacks

• Expensive: Astrill VPN is probably the most expensive of all Chinese VPNs, even the more favorable yearly payment packages cost more than $10 per month, while other first-tier VPNs cost around $5 per month for the same package.
• No refunds: Astrill VPN does not support refunds after purchase, while other Tier 1 VPNs support at least 7 days no-excuses refunds, and many commercial VPNs such as ExpressVPN support 30 days no-excuses refunds for unlimited packages!
• Payment Methods: Astrill VPN does not support Alipay/WeChat/UnionPay card and other payment methods that Chinese users are more familiar with, which increases the threshold for many Chinese users to get the
• Logging policy: I can’t say for sure if Astrill VPN’s zero-logging policy has been triple-audited (as ExpressVPN has done ), and from the official website and what I can find on the web, I don’t think it has, which means that it’s hard to conclusively prove how Astrill VPN treats user data in the way it does
• Login method: Astrill VPN client login requires a mailbox password before you can connect to the server to establish a VPN tunnel, this login process is safe or not, if a careless user registers with a mailbox in China, there may be a great risk of being listened to and cracked, I can’t really judge how safe it is, maybe Astrill VPN has already dealt with this problem, however, it’s always psychologically reassuring to display the user’s mailbox explicitly on the VPN client. Perhaps Astrill VPN has dealt with this issue well, but displaying the user’s e-mail address in plain text on the VPN client is psychologically unsettling. In fact, this clumsy method of user authentication is being abandoned by the VPN market as a whole, so let’s hope that Astrill VPN can keep up with the times!

How to get Astrill VPN China?

You can sign up for an account from the Astrill VPN website, you can use the language drop down in the top right corner of the webpage to switch to the Chinese display, you need to provide an email address for registration, for security reasons, it is recommended to use a foreign email address and sign up with a strong password. Chinese users buying Astrill VPN, try to pay with PayPal, or Bitcoin if you have the conditions, the security is the best, Astrill VPN accepts VISA/MASTER foreign currency credit cards issued by the Bank of China, but it is not recommended to use them directly.

This is the price of Astrill VPN personal package: monthly payment is $25 per month, half-yearly payment is $16.67 per month ($100 total), and yearly payment is $12.50 per month ($150 total). The price of this VPN is the most expensive of the wall-flipping VPNs I’ve used so far, but considering the quality of the service it provides, I think it’s worth every penny. You have the option to purchase a private IP for $5 per month and a VIP add-on for $10 per month. The private IP gives you exclusive access to a fixed IP, which gives you stable access to all kinds of services abroad, and the VIP service offers lower latency servers and better anonymity with multi-hop connections for gamers in Asia.

Astrill VPN also offers a commercial version, the base package is 10 accounts with 100G of traffic per month at $9 per month per account for $1,080 per year, the price goes down when you buy more than 20 accounts, up to 200 accounts at $7.92 per year per account for $19,020 per year, and you have the option of a larger traffic pack that will be charged separately.

Note that Astrill VPN is not free nor does it offer a trial, Astrill VPN does not support refund after purchase, if you mind this, I suggest you to buy other wall-flipping software that can also help you to flip the wall from China. Also, I was not able to find any valid Astrill VPN coupons on the internet, I was under the impression that no official coupons are ever offered.

Astrill VPN Download

After successful payment, you will receive an email and can log in to the backend of the website with the provided email address and set password to download the Astrill VPN client.

Astrill VPN offers client downloads for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, and routers. Its client version updates are very infrequent, so it doesn’t require frequent upgrades and is very stable.

Windows client supports Windows 7/8/10/11, macOS client supports Mac OS X 10.14+, macOS 11/12, iOS client supports iOS 9+ (32-bit or above) systems (can only be downloaded from Apple’s non-China App Store), Linux client supports Debian, Ubuntu 16+, Linux Mint 10+ 64-bit or above systems, Android client supports Android 4.4+ systems, router client is available for router devices supporting OpenVPN and RouterPro. Linux client supports Debian, Ubuntu 16+, Linux Mint 10+ 64-bit or above, Android client supports Android 4.4+, Router client is available for router devices that support OpenVPN and RouterPro.

Readers are not recommended to download the Astrill VPN client from any other third-party websites or app stores other than the official website and Apple’s official app store. There are fake clients such as the so-called “Astrill Free VPN” circulating on the Internet, which may steal your login information and are very insecure, so please consult with customer service on the official website if you have any questions first. If you have any questions, please contact the customer service of the official website.

Using Astrill VPN

After downloading and installing Astrill VPN, it is very simple to use, roughly step by step:

1. Launch Astrill VPN client, enter your email and password to log in, you can check Remember Password and Auto Connect, so that every time you launch the client you will be automatically logged in and connected, it’s very convenient, in the default OpenWeb protocol (you can change the protocol in the upper right corner of the client), it takes only a few seconds from logging in to successfully connecting to the client, and after you connect to the client, you can use the Speed Test in the drop-down menu in the upper left corner of the client to measure the speed without any other settings. After connecting, you can use the Speed Test in the drop-down menu on the left corner of the client to measure the speed, without any other settings, you have already successfully climbed over the wall!
2. If you find that the client is slow to log in, you can cancel and retry, usually successful, pay attention to check whether the three-way firewall (excluding Windows comes with a firewall), antivirus software, if there is a problem with logging in, you can close and retry.
3. If you log in successfully but find that you can’t connect (the ON/OFF switch on the interface can’t be switched to the ON side, and there is no data feedback from the speed indicator at the bottom), this is a problem that may be encountered by Chinese users of Astrill VPN, you can cancel the connection first, and then reconnect to it by selecting a different node in the node drop-down list, it is recommended that you search for China, which is the most suitable server to connect to in China. We recommend searching for China in the node list, and prioritizing the nodes with “China” suffix in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and the United States for the highest success rate and fastest speed.
4. If you still can’t connect successfully after replacing several nodes, you can replace the protocol in the upper right corner of the client, StealthVPN and Wireguard are both available, you can start with StealthVPN, which is Astrill VPN’s self-developed protocol with the strongest ability to penetrate the wall, the disadvantage is that the connection is slower, and the speed of the connection is also slower than OpenWeb and Wireguard. Slow, which is determined by the complexity of the protocol’s encryption and obfuscation algorithms, in the domestic network control of some of the tightest special period, StealthVPN’s connectivity rate due to other protocols
5. Astrill VPN has powerful Split Tunneling support, you can configure which applications/apps/websites to tunnel with or without VPN from the menu in the top left corner of the client, you can set which browsers the Astrill VPN is applied to, and you can set whether you want the Astrill VPN to work only with browsers or not. You can set which browsers the Astrill VPN will be used on, set whether the Astrill VPN will be used on browsers only, turn on Smart Mode and let the client decide which traffic will be tunneled through the VPN, or turn on Global Mode and force all traffic to be tunneled through the VPN, which is probably the most flexible VPN on the market in terms of connectivity configuration.
6. Astrill VPN can also provide SOCKS5 proxy to all devices on the LAN via VPN Sharing function. Any other device on the same LAN, as long as it is configured with this proxy address and port, can realize scientific Internet access without installing the Astrill VPN client.

Astrill VPN vs. ExpressVPN

• Price: After the discount, Astrill VPN’s annual subscription is still twice as expensive as ExpressVPN, so it’s a matter of opinion whether it’s worth it or not.
• Device support: ExpressVPN’s direct device support (which provides the client) is far more comprehensive than Astrill VPN, and it can even be installed directly to the game host for use, although Astrill VPN can also be used by devices without the client installed through the clever VPN sharing feature, which I think is probably far more efficient, and far more convenient than just setting up a SOCKS5 proxy. It’s far easier to download and install the client device by device, but then again, that’s only if the devices are on the same LAN!
• Number of nodes suitable for China: The number of nodes available in China for the visible Astrill VPN is more than that of ExpressVPN, which only has three or five recommended nodes for Chinese users all year round, but many of my friends have tried it, and in fact, many of the non-recommended nodes can also be used.
• Streaming function: I have to admit, Astrill VPN is superior, ExpressVPN only supports streaming by application, does not support streaming by URL, in fact, streaming by URL is much more useful for Chinese users, although it can be solved by separate browsers, but it is still not as convenient as direct streaming by URL.
• Privacy: From what I can find, both products promise reliable IP hiding, automatic disconnection when connecting, DNS leak prevention and other features, but ExpressVPN’s zero-logging promise is confirmed by a third-party organization audit, and I can’t confirm that for Astrill VPN. At this point, if you are extremely concerned about privacy, you should consider ExpressVPN.
• Connection limit: ExpressVPN supports simultaneous connection of 5 devices, Astrill VPN is not limited, I hope that ExpressVPN can release this limitation as soon as possible, I feel that ExpressVPN delays in providing the ability to share the VPN, in order to let the old customers due to the limitations of the number of devices to expand the capacity of the money out of pocket, Astrill VPN that is not limited to the number of connections, but also provide Astrill VPN has no connection limit and offers VPN sharing, which is very generous.
• Client: Astrill VPN requires an email password to log in, which I find a major bug in the trend of modern VPN products generally abandoning this method of logging in. Perhaps the best thing about Astrill VPN is that it 100% guarantees that this log-in process won’t be listened to and cracked, otherwise this would have been the most important reason for me to give up on it. ExpressVPN’s account registration also uses an email address, but when you activate the client, you only need to enter a serial number, not an email address, and it’s a one-time event, which is much safer, at least from the point of view of security.

Overall, both ExpressVPN and Astrill VPN work in China and both work well, what about Astrill VPN? Whether its advantages in certain features are worth its price, you need to make a judgment based on your own needs. As far as I know, the number of Astrill VPN users in China should be far less than the number of ExpressVPN users, the latter is the number one VPN in the list of major wall-flipping information websites, and this site is no exception, I think that from the cost-effective point of view, ExpressVPN seems to be higher, and I don’t know if there are any channels to buy Astrill VPN at a price close to the price, if any of the readers knows, please Let me know, because I really can’t find it, thanks.