VPN Hub Premium: Pornhub's New VPN Service Needs To Work Out The Kinks

Fair speeds and a good desktop app for Windows, but the privacy policy isn’t great and there are better options if you’re looking for anonymity.

- Ian Paul

If ever there was a company meant to produce a virtual private network (VPN) service as a natural outgrowth of its business it’s Pornhub. That’s why it surprised no one, but possibly intrigued everyone, when the famous site introduced VPNhub (go.pcworld.com/vpln) in late May.

VPNhub is focused on mobile first with apps for Android and iOS that are the gateway to the free and premium services. Everyone can use VPNhub’s ad-supported service on mobile, but you’ll need a premium subscription to use the service on Mac and Windows.

For that reason, we can say at the outset that VPNhub is not an ideal choice if you’re striving for anonymity. The very fact that you have to pay with a credit card via your primary Google or Apple account makes your identity knowable.

FEATURES AND SERVICES

When I first installed VPNhub, Windows 10’s SmartScreen filter flagged it as suspicious. That could simply be a result of the app being so new, or it might be that it isn’t digitally signed. Whatever the reason, that’s not a great start to installing a VPN backed by a porn company.

After installation one thing that struck me about VPNhub is how derivative it is.

The desktop program is strikingly similar to Strong VPN (go.pcworld.com/svpn). I am not sure how that happened, but if I had to guess, VPNhub has some kind of agreement with Strong VPN parent StackPath. Not only does the interface borrow heavily from Strong VPN, but VPNhub also relies on IPVanish (go. pcworld.com/iprv; another StackPath company) for most, if not all, of its server locations.

It’s not terribly surprising for a site as large as Pornhub to hire out for a tangential service like VPNhub. Daily operations of the VPNhub site and the various apps also appear to be managed by App Atomic, a mobile development studio.