Goose VPN is a straightforward service that runs on almost anything.
Goose VPN is a Netherlands-based privacy provider with some appealing features and products. Goose has a compact network of 25 countries. Most are in Europe and North America, but there are also servers in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan and Singapore (most support P2P.) A wide range of apps cover Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, while a Chrome extension runs everywhere, and there are bonus setup instructions for Linux, routers and more. Unusually, there’s no arbitrary device limit. That puts Goose VPN ahead of big names like ExpressVPN (which limits you to five simultaneous connections) and NordVPN (six), although a few providers, including Windscribe and Surfshark, also have no restrictions. Support is available 24/7/365 via live chat and email. That’s not provided by some minimum wage third-party based halfway around the world, either – Goose says it doesn’t outsource support, which gets a thumbs-up from us. A monthly billed account is priced at $12.99, similar to CyberGhost, ExpressVPN, HideMyAss and VyprVPN. Paying for a year upfront cuts the cost to a very reasonable $4.99 and the two-year plan is an effective $2.99 a month. As we write, a special three-year deal is just $2.75 a month (a $99 up-front payment.) Although there are some cheaper deals around – Private Internet Access‘ one-year plan is priced at $3.33 a month, Surfshark’s two-year offering is $2.49 a month for the first term – Goose VPN beats most of the competition. Goose does score in another area, though: the first month comes free, the best trial period we’ve found. You must hand over your payment details, but you’re not billed until the first 30 days are up. If there are problems, just close your account from the website and there’s nothing to pay. Goose also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, but you only qualify for this if you’ve transferred less than a tiny 100MB of data. As Goose offers a month for free, anyway, we’re not going to complain, but it’s worth keeping in mind. Do all your testing in the free month, because unless you’ve not been able to connect at all, you’re unlikely to qualify for the money-back guarantee. Goose boasts of its ’no log policy‘ at the top of the website, but if you’ve ever gone VPN shopping you’ll know every provider does the same, even when it’s not entirely true. That’s why it’s always a good idea to drill down into the small print and discover what’s really going on. The Privacy Policy explains that Goose doesn’t log users‘ internet activities – „for example, websites visited, DNS-search results, emails sent and received, usernames or entered passwords, etc.“ Even better, the policy goes on to cover session data, explaining that the service doesn’t store your originating IP address, or any information about the VPN servers you use within a session. The only data logged is the bandwidth use per account. That’s not uncommon, though, and it can’t on its own compromise your privacy. There’s more good news when the policy points out that Goose owns and manages its own network, giving it much greater control over how the servers are set up and operated. While browsing the small print, we noticed an interesting fair use policy.
