Urban VPN, a free virtual private network service operated by Urban Cyber Security Inc. and founded in 2018, claims to offer unlimited bandwidth, anonymous browsing, and access to geo-restricted content without cost. However, comprehensive testing and expert analysis reveal a complex picture where Urban VPN functions technically in many respects but falls significantly short of its marketing claims and the capabilities of established VPN providers. While the service does establish VPN connections and can mask IP addresses, it struggles with critical performance metrics, harbors substantial privacy concerns, lacks essential security features, and demonstrates unreliable streaming capabilities. This report examines whether Urban VPN actually works across multiple dimensions including technical functionality, performance, privacy, security, and practical usability.
Technical Functionality and Peer-to-Peer Architecture
Urban VPN operates on a fundamentally different architecture than traditional VPN services, which forms the foundation for understanding both its capabilities and limitations. Rather than routing user traffic through dedicated, company-owned data centers, Urban VPN employs a peer-to-peer (P2P) network model where user connections are routed through the devices of other Urban VPN users around the world. This architectural choice represents a significant departure from industry-standard VPN practices, similar to services like Hola VPN, and introduces both advantages and considerable disadvantages in how effectively the service operates.
The technical functionality of Urban VPN’s basic connection mechanism does work to establish encrypted connections using industry-standard protocols. The service utilizes the OpenVPN protocol with AES-256 encryption, the same encryption standard employed by market leaders like NordVPN and ExpressVPN and considered secure enough by the U.S. military to protect top-secret documents. In this regard, when you activate Urban VPN and select a server location, the application successfully creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and the VPN network, and your IP address is replaced with one from the service’s network, allowing you to appear to be browsing from a different geographical location.
However, the P2P architecture means that the quality and reliability of these connections depend entirely on the devices of other users rather than optimized servers operated by the company. When you connect to a server location in Japan, for example, you are literally connecting to another user’s device located in Japan rather than a professionally maintained data center. Additionally, when you become part of the Urban VPN P2P network by using the service, your own device’s bandwidth and network resources become available for other users to route their traffic through, creating a reciprocal arrangement that raises significant security and privacy concerns.
The free version of Urban VPN provides access to approximately 60 to 82 server locations, though this number varies across different sources and has reportedly increased to 630+ servers as of the most recent updates. The paid version claims access to 530+ to 600+ servers in 80+ countries. While the geographic spread sounds reasonably comprehensive, the number of actual servers is substantially smaller than competitors—NordVPN, for comparison, maintains nearly 8,000 servers across 120+ countries. This smaller server pool means that when many users connect simultaneously to popular locations, server congestion becomes inevitable, directly impacting connection quality and speed.
Speed and Performance Analysis
The most consistent finding across independent testing of Urban VPN is that its speed and performance are substantially substandard compared to mainstream VPN services, with multiple reviewers documenting severe speed degradation that undermines practical usability for most tasks. When examining whether Urban VPN actually works, speed performance is a critical metric, and the evidence overwhelmingly indicates functional deficiencies in this area.
Independent testing conducted across multiple review platforms consistently shows dramatic speed reductions when using Urban VPN compared to baseline internet speeds without a VPN. In one comprehensive test, a baseline internet connection without a VPN measured 100 Mbps download speed and 20 Mbps upload speed with approximately 45 milliseconds of ping. When connected to various Urban VPN servers, these speeds dropped dramatically: the United States server reduced speeds to 15-40 Mbps download, the United Kingdom to 10-25 Mbps, Japan to 5-15 Mbps, and Australia to merely 8-20 Mbps download speeds. These represent speed reductions of 50 to 80 percent compared to baseline speeds, whereas premium VPN services typically maintain 70 to 90 percent of your original speed.
Another detailed speed test showed even more severe degradation, with Urban VPN recording a 79.7 percent drop in download speed and a 67.1 percent decrease in upload speed compared to an ISP connection. During practical testing simulating a typical user’s workflow—opening multiple tabs for research, using Google services like Docs and Drive, and streaming occasional 1080p video—websites loaded slowly with a noticeable dip in connectivity compared to unprotected browsing. Users reported that browsing remained functional for basic web pages but became noticeably sluggish, with streaming video experiencing substantial buffering and inconsistent performance.
Beyond raw speed, the P2P architecture introduces additional performance variability because your connection quality directly depends on the internet quality of the specific user device you are routed through. If you happen to connect through a user in Japan who has a poor internet connection, your speeds will be limited by that connection. Conversely, if you connect through another user with fast fiber internet, your speeds may be relatively better. This unpredictability makes Urban VPN’s performance unreliable and unpredictable across sessions, with users unable to know what speed to expect when they connect.
Furthermore, Urban VPN demonstrated difficulty maintaining stable connections once established. When connecting to specific servers such as France, testers experienced random disconnections even after the app confirmed successful connection. These disconnections are particularly problematic because they interrupt browsing sessions and create security risks, as traffic may momentarily transmit without VPN protection if a kill switch feature is absent.
Privacy and Security Assessment
Examining whether Urban VPN actually works for privacy and security—supposedly core VPN functions—reveals serious deficiencies that fundamentally undermine trust in the service. Urban VPN makes bold claims about privacy protection, stating prominently that “We do not want to know your identity and we do not collect data to try and figure out who you are,” yet the company’s own privacy policy contradicts these assertions extensively, documenting comprehensive data collection that directly undermines the stated privacy promise.
Urban VPN’s privacy policy, examined across multiple independent reviews, reveals that the company collects extensive categories of personal and behavioral data that defeat the purpose of using a VPN for privacy. The service collects and retains your approximate geolocation, browser type, operating system, access times and dates, online identifiers such as Cookie IDs and IP addresses, advertising IDs, web browsing data including search engine results, web pages visited, clicked links, shopping cart items, and detailed information about content viewed by users. Most troublingly, Urban VPN specifically admits in its privacy policy to collecting what it describes as “individually identifiable information, namely information that identifies an individual or entity or may with reasonable effort identify an individual,” which directly contradicts claims about not wanting to know users’ identities.
The purpose of this extensive data collection becomes clear when examining Urban VPN’s business model and affiliations. The company is affiliated with BiScience, a company specializing in digital marketing and web data extraction, and this relationship explains why Urban VPN can afford to offer a free service. The company monetizes user data by sharing browsing history, behavioral data, and other collected information with BiScience and its network of “Business Partners” and advertisers. According to research on BIScience’s collection practices, the company operates multiple extensions and applications that collect clickstream data under false pretenses, collecting raw URLs and browsing activity under the guise of providing ad blocking or malware protection services.
Urban VPN’s privacy policy explicitly states that “it may share, sell, or make a commercial use of the aggregated coded data” it collects, and users attempting to opt out of this data sharing through the “Do Not Sell” option on the website are redirected to the premium paid plan offer rather than being provided with genuine privacy protections. This approach represents a coercive monetization strategy where privacy-conscious users must pay for what should be a basic right when using privacy-focused software. You can read more about Urban VPN: Unlimited Free Access or a Risky Choice? – TechJury.
Critically, Urban VPN has never undergone independent third-party audits to verify its privacy and security claims. Leading VPN providers like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Private Internet Access all undergo regular independent security audits by reputable third-party firms to verify their no-logs policies and security practices. Urban VPN provides no such verification, meaning claims about encryption effectiveness, data deletion procedures, and security protocols remain unverified and cannot be independently confirmed.
The absence of a kill switch feature—a standard security feature in modern VPNs that immediately blocks all internet traffic if the VPN connection drops—represents another critical security failure. Without this protection, if Urban VPN’s connection drops unexpectedly, your real IP address and unencrypted traffic may transmit across the internet without protection. While Urban VPN recently announced that a kill switch feature is “coming soon” to mobile and desktop platforms, the feature remains unavailable on most platforms, leaving users vulnerable.
Additionally, independent testing revealed DNS leaks in Urban VPN’s protection, where DNS requests intended to be routed through the encrypted VPN tunnel were instead leaking through the user’s ISP’s DNS servers. DNS leaks expose information about websites you visit to your ISP and potentially to malicious actors, defeating the purpose of using a VPN. These leaks occurred despite Urban VPN’s claims to provide DNS leak protection, indicating that the protection mechanisms do not work as intended.
Streaming and Geo-Restriction Bypass Capabilities
A practical measure of whether Urban VPN works involves testing its ability to bypass geo-restrictions and access streaming services, a primary use case for many VPN users. Testing across multiple platforms reveals that Urban VPN largely fails at this fundamental function, particularly for major streaming platforms.
When tested against popular streaming services, Urban VPN demonstrated very poor performance. Netflix, which Urban VPN’s website promotes as accessible with the service, blocked access consistently across multiple regional variations including US, UK, Japan, Australia, and Canada. Amazon Prime Video similarly failed to unload or allow access. Disney+, another service Urban VPN mentions on its website, either failed to load or entered endless loading loops that prevented viewing.
Testing against regional streaming services including BBC iPlayer, Channel 4, ITVX, 9Now, and 10Play showed that Urban VPN could not unblock any of these services. While Urban VPN does occasionally manage to bypass geo-restrictions for certain streaming sites due to its P2P approach creating residential IP addresses that streaming services initially fail to detect, this success is inconsistent and unreliable. Additionally, even when Urban VPN does manage to bypass geo-blocking, the severe speed limitations documented above make streaming problematic, with users experiencing frequent buffering, quality drops to lower resolutions, and interrupted playback.
Regarding torrenting and P2P file-sharing, Urban VPN explicitly does not support these activities. Testing confirmed that torrent downloads fail to initialize when the VPN is connected, showing zero seeds and peers available. This limitation eliminates Urban VPN as a viable option for users who engage in legitimate peer-to-peer file sharing or torrenting.
In one interesting finding, Urban VPN’s P2P architecture does provide an advantage in bypassing some geoblocks because it routes traffic through actual residential IP addresses of other users rather than recognizable data center IPs that streaming services specifically block. However, this advantage is inconsistent, frequently changes as streaming services update their blocking lists, and is undermined by the speed problems that make streaming impractical even when access is gained.
Reliability and Connection Stability
Testing and user reports demonstrate that Urban VPN’s reliability and connection stability are substantially problematic, with frequent disconnections, difficulty connecting to certain servers, and inconsistent performance that undermines the service’s dependability. Whether Urban VPN works reliably is a critical question, as an unreliable VPN that disconnects unexpectedly creates security vulnerabilities and a poor user experience.
Users report common issues including unexpected disconnections that interrupt browsing sessions, connection attempts that fail repeatedly to establish links to selected server locations, and difficulty reconnecting after disconnects. The P2P architecture exacerbates these reliability issues because the availability of specific user devices in specific locations cannot be guaranteed—if Urban VPN users are not online in the location you want to connect to, the service may be unavailable or extremely slow, creating inconsistent availability.
Mobile app users on both Android and iOS report dropped connections requiring manual reconnection, unstable connections during peak usage times, and occasional issues after app updates that temporarily break connectivity for certain devices. These connection reliability issues are particularly problematic for mobile users who may be working or streaming on-the-go and cannot tolerate frequent disconnections.
During testing periods spanning multiple days, Urban VPN demonstrated “hit and miss” performance inconsistency. Users might have decent speeds one session and terrible speeds the next, depending on which other user devices happened to be available in their selected location and that device’s current internet bandwidth availability. This unreliability makes Urban VPN unsuitable for activities requiring consistent, dependable connections, such as remote work, online meetings, or streaming important content.
The lack of customer support amplifies reliability concerns, as users experiencing connection problems have no way to contact a representative who can troubleshoot and resolve issues. The service provides only self-help guides and troubleshooting documentation but no live chat, email support, or phone support. This absence of support means users experiencing problems must solve issues independently or simply abandon the service.
Platform Compatibility and User Experience
Urban VPN’s platform compatibility is more extensive than some free VPNs, with applications available for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, as well as browser extensions for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. However, the user experience on these platforms is inconsistent, with significant limitations and concerns affecting functionality.
The desktop applications for Windows and Mac feature extremely basic interfaces with minimal functionality. Users describe the Windows app experience as having a bare-bones interface with only a Play/Stop button and a server list, offering very little in the way of features or customization. While this simplicity can appeal to beginners unfamiliar with VPN technology, it also means the absence of essential features like split tunneling, kill switches, protocol selection, or granular privacy controls that power users expect from modern VPN applications.
The browser extensions available for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox provide basic VPN functionality but similarly lack advanced features. The extensions do function to route traffic through the VPN network and mask IP addresses, but they offer limited configuration options and lack the advanced privacy and security features found in premier VPN browser extensions.
Mobile app experiences on iOS and Android are similarly basic but somewhat more stable than some users expected from a free service. However, reviews indicate that the mobile apps receive mixed assessments regarding stability and performance, with some users praising basic functionality while others report frequent crashes, slow performance, and battery drain issues.
Notably, Urban VPN does not support Linux, Smart TVs, gaming consoles, or other platforms, limiting its utility for users with diverse device ecosystems. For households wanting to protect all their devices with a single subscription, Urban VPN cannot provide this comprehensive protection. Additionally, iOS users cannot access the free version of Urban VPN at all—the service requires a paid subscription for all iOS users, unlike the free offerings for Android, Windows, and macOS.
One particularly confusing aspect of Urban VPN’s user experience involves misleading marketing claims on the website. Urban VPN’s website lists various use cases including claiming to be one of the best gaming VPNs for League of Legends, Warzone, or PUBG, and one of the best streaming VPNs for Soccer streams and NBA streams, with each use case separately linked. However, testing these links reveals they all lead to the same singular VPN download page rather than to dedicated resource pages explaining how Urban VPN addresses these specific use cases. This approach represents misleading marketing that sets user expectations incorrectly.
Data Usage and Bandwidth Implications
An often-overlooked aspect of whether Urban VPN works concerns its data usage implications, particularly the fact that as a P2P service, other users’ traffic may be routed through your device, consuming your internet bandwidth without your explicit knowledge of the volume. Testing indicated that when other Urban VPN users’ traffic is routed through your device to your location, your daily data usage can increase significantly by 500 MB to 2 GB per day, which is substantial for users with metered internet plans or limited data allowances.
This hidden data consumption is particularly problematic for users with data caps imposed by their internet service providers. Urban VPN’s terms explicitly warn about this potential issue, stating that users should not use the service if their internet plans don’t offer unlimited data. This limitation represents a serious constraint on Urban VPN’s usability for a large portion of internet users who have tiered data plans rather than truly unlimited connections.
Comparison of Claims Versus Reality
Urban VPN’s marketing claims represent significant departures from the reality documented through independent testing and user experience. The company prominently claims on its website to be “The only 100% FREE, 100% fast & 100% anonymous VPN in the world,” yet independent testing contradicts all three of these assertions.
The “100% free” claim is partially accurate—Urban VPN does offer a free version without requiring payment for basic use. However, the completely free experience is limited to specific platforms, with iOS users required to pay and Android users limited to 100MB per day on the free plan without payment for additional data. Furthermore, the monetization through data collection and sharing means users are not truly paying nothing but rather paying with their personal data and browsing history.
The “100% fast” claim is thoroughly contradicted by consistent testing showing 50 to 80 percent speed reductions compared to unprotected internet, making Urban VPN demonstrably not fast and performing substantially worse than premium VPN services. The service is suitable for basic browsing but not for streaming, gaming, video conferencing, or other bandwidth-intensive activities.
The “100% anonymous” claim is most problematic, as the extensive data collection and sharing of browsing history with affiliated companies fundamentally contradicts anonymity claims. Users browsing with Urban VPN connected are not anonymous to Urban VPN, BiScience, and Urban VPN’s business partners, even if they are anonymous to the websites they visit. This represents a misleading characterization of the privacy protections provided.
Jurisdictional and Regulatory Concerns
Urban VPN’s jurisdiction in the United States creates additional privacy concerns, as the company is subject to significant surveillance and data retention laws and can be compelled by government requests to provide user data. The United States is a founding member of the “Five Eyes” alliance, a group of countries with some of the most permissive data sharing and retention policies globally. Intelligence agencies in Five Eyes countries can compel U.S. companies to hand over user data while simultaneously preventing those companies from publicly disclosing these requests through gag orders.
This jurisdictional reality means that even if Urban VPN genuinely implemented stronger privacy protections (which it hasn’t), users in the United States or Five Eyes allied countries would have no assurance that their data wouldn’t be provided to government agencies. Competing VPN services headquartered in privacy-friendly jurisdictions like Switzerland, Panama, or the British Virgin Islands offer better jurisdictional protection from government surveillance.
Alternative Use Cases Where Urban VPN Functions
Despite its numerous limitations, Urban VPN does function adequately for specific limited use cases where its deficiencies are less critical. For users seeking only to occasionally bypass simple website geo-restrictions while traveling, Urban VPN can work to establish a connection and mask an IP address, providing basic unblocking capability. The service works to change your visible IP location, allowing you to appear to be in different countries, which satisfies the most basic definition of VPN functionality.
Urban VPN is also adequate for basic anonymous web browsing on low-security sites when other users on the VPN are not aware of your identity, though even this use case is compromised by the extensive data Urban VPN itself collects. For users who simply want to browse websites while appearing to be from another country and are not concerned about privacy from the VPN provider itself, Urban VPN provides this basic functionality.
Additionally, Urban VPN can work for users in countries with severe internet censorship and blocking who need to bypass widespread website restrictions, though more capable VPN services would be preferable for this use case. The service’s P2P architecture can sometimes bypass certain types of geoblocking that specifically target known VPN data center IP addresses.
Expert Recommendations and Verdict
Across multiple independent reviews and security analyses, cybersecurity experts consistently conclude that they “do NOT recommend” Urban VPN and that users should avoid the service despite its free cost. Expert recommendations identify the service’s data collection practices, lack of privacy protection, poor performance, unreliability, and security vulnerabilities as disqualifying factors that outweigh the benefit of being free.
Leading reviewers specifically recommend alternatives including Proton VPN (for unlimited free bandwidth and stronger privacy), Windscribe (for more advanced features on a free plan), NordVPN (for premium performance and features), Surfshark (for affordability and advanced security), and ExpressVPN (for consistent high speeds). Even other free VPN services like Hide.me VPN and Proton VPN’s free tier are recommended over Urban VPN due to superior privacy practices, better performance, and more reliable security features.
The central contradiction defining Urban VPN is that it functions technically to establish encrypted connections and mask IP addresses—the most basic definition of VPN functionality—but fails to deliver on virtually all other important dimensions including performance, privacy protection, reliability, and feature completeness. Whether Urban VPN “works” depends entirely on how narrowly you define “works,” but by any comprehensive assessment of VPN functionality, the answer is no.
The Final Word on Urban VPN’s Performance
Urban VPN functionally establishes encrypted connections and masks user IP addresses, meeting the absolute minimum technical definition of VPN operation. However, this basic technical functionality represents virtually the only dimension on which the service adequately “works.” The comprehensive evidence from independent testing and expert analysis reveals that Urban VPN fails to work effectively across nearly all other critical dimensions including performance, privacy, security, reliability, and functionality.
Speed testing consistently demonstrates 50 to 80 percent speed reductions that undermine streaming, gaming, and video conferencing applications. The service’s P2P architecture creates unreliable performance that varies dramatically between sessions depending on the availability and quality of other user devices. DNS leaks compromise security despite claims of protection. The absence of critical security features like kill switches leaves users vulnerable when connections drop unexpectedly. Most critically, Urban VPN’s extensive data collection, sharing with affiliated marketing companies, and lack of third-party privacy audits fundamentally contradict the privacy protections that VPNs are supposed to provide.
Urban VPN’s marketingclaims about being “100% fast and 100% anonymous” are directly contradicted by both technical testing and the company’s own privacy policy. The service’s primary business model depends on monetizing user data rather than on providing genuine privacy protection. For users prioritizing actual privacy, security, reliability, and performance, Urban VPN does not work and should be avoided despite its zero-cost price point. For users with extremely limited expectations seeking only to occasionally change their visible geographic location for the most basic website access, Urban VPN provides this minimal functionality, but even then, users should be aware that their browsing data is collected and sold to third parties. Users prioritizing their genuine online privacy, security, and performance would be far better served by free or affordable alternatives with stronger privacy practices, better performance, and more reliable security features. In the context of virtual private networking, where privacy and security are fundamental requirements, Urban VPN ultimately does not work for its intended purpose.
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