Head to head
The gap
The security score is not a total of good things. It starts at 100 and eight channels each take a share of what is left, so one channel can settle a record on its own. Both records are drawn here on the same scale — the model’s own cap of 0.9 — rather than on a scale fitted to this pair, which would make every comparison look equally dramatic.
Line by line
Every field the contract publishes about a provider, in the contract’s own groups, including the rows where the two agree — a table that printed only differences would invent a disagreement, and one that printed only the interesting rows would be us choosing what is interesting. Open a group to read its rows; each one says how many it holds and how many of them the two records answer differently.
A green cell means the methodology itself prices that value below the other one, not that we prefer it. Rows the model does not price carry no mark at all: price is never marked, because nothing in the model says cheaper is safer, and neither is coverage, platform count or devices. Where a value was never established the cell says so instead of showing a zero.
What actually happened
Other pairs
Pairs within the top ten get a page — 80 comparisons in all. Records below that are not paired here: a comparison earns a page where the choice between the two is a real one, and that choice is made near the top of the register.
Security
Usability
Rank 9 of 68 in the register
Romania · Commercial VPN
Exits in 91 countries
No demand on the public record
Security
Usability
Rank 8 of 68 in the register
United States · Commercial VPN
Exits in 20 countries
1 documented demand, none of which produced data
Notes
On the record as a whole.
Deloitte's third no-logs assurance report (the only one of three published as a full downloadable PDF rather than gated behind login or an email request to Deloitte) is a limited assurance, ISAE 3000 (Revised) engagement dated as of 31 October 2025 and signed 19 December 2025; it examines CyberGhost's description of its own no-logging controls on a sample basis, not the full fleet, and its conclusion is negative assurance ("nothing has come to our attention"), not a positive finding of no logs.
The privacy policy's non-personal-data list names the Google Advertising ID and gyro-sensor data under website-style language that only a mobile app can actually read.
Recent changes
No change logged on this record
1 change logged, on 13 Sep 2026
Open questions
Still open on this record.
Owner-group history. Kape Technologies, CyberGhost's parent since March 2017, traces back to Crossrider, an ad-injection SDK platform whose services were widely abused by adware and malware distributors before the 2016 pivot to VPNs. No documented lie or claim gap ties this history to CyberGhost's own conduct, but the adverse record is why this provider is catalogued at all rather than by a neutral selection rule.
Scale and reach are undocumented. No CyberGhost-specific user count could be sourced from the provider's own pages beyond "millions of customers," so M08_user_scale stands unknown, and no clean 12-month plan exists to price against U04b_price_yearly — CyberGhost sells only 1-month, 6-month and 26-month terms.
Client and build transparency are unexamined. No official CyberGhost source-code repository, reproducible-build attestation or standalone application pentest (Cure53's public index has no entry for CyberGhost or Kape) could be found, leaving V12, V13 and V14 unknown rather than a finding either way.
A disputed breach claim was not independently resolvable. A September 2024 third-party report alleged leaked CyberGhost account credentials; CyberGhost's own response denies a service-side compromise and attributes the credentials to user-side malware, but the underlying report could not be read in this session, so X09_incident_handling stays unknown rather than taking either side's account.
Two of CyberGhost's own pages disagree on its street address: the imprint names 70-72 Dionisie Lupu street, the privacy policy names 68 Polonă street, both in the same Bucharest district and both current pages rather than one being an archived leftover. Neither was treated as authoritative over the other, and the discrepancy is left for a future refresh to resolve rather than guessed at here.
Still open on this record.
No independent audit. No third-party security, infrastructure or no-logs audit of OVPN's own systems was found on its site, in press or in help documentation; the closest adversarial test of its no-logs claim is the 2020 Swedish court proceeding, which is not an audit and does not speak to the current WireGuard/OpenVPN stack in detail.
Owner-group history predates OVPN's acquisition. The adverse finding behind this record's inclusion (X04) is a 2017 complaint against AnchorFree, Pango's corporate predecessor, over Hotspot Shield's ad-network data sharing — six years before Pango acquired OVPN. It was never adjudicated by the FTC, and OVPN's own infrastructure and policies are separately documented in this record.
Corporate structure split across two entities. OVPN's current Terms of Service and Privacy Notice name OVPN Inc. (Redwood City, California) as the contracting party, while OVPN's own help center names OVPN Integritet AB (Sweden, org. no. 556999-4469) as the operator. Both are described as under the same ultimate owner, Pango; which entity holds the infrastructure and legal responsibility for a given user was not resolved further.
13 Sep 20261 changes
Security scoresecurity.score
25 changed to 24
CyberGhost VPN and OVPN were assessed by the HushFleet team and both placed in the Insufficient band: CyberGhost VPN scores 21/100 for security, OVPN 24/100. The 3-point gap opens widest on Retention — “Does a record exist that links traffic to a person, and who checked?” — taking 45% from CyberGhost VPN and 33% from OVPN.
By circumstance
| CyberGhost VPN | OVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Torrenting | Allowed yes | Allowed yes |
| Streaming | Reachable yes | Reachable yes |
| Devices at once | 7 | 4 |
| Under censorship | — not established | Claimed to work claimed |
| Exits in mandate countries | 7 United Arab Emirates, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Vietnam | None |
| Hosting in those countries | Physical and virtual both mixed | — the question does not arise |
| Company under a mandate | No such mandate no | — not established |
| Secret orders | — not established | National security letters or their equivalent nsl_equivalent |
| ChannelPressure taken from what was left | CyberGhost VPNDominant channel: Retention0 to 0.9, longer is worse | OVPNDominant channel: Retention0 to 0.9, longer is worse |
|---|---|---|
| RetentionDoes a record exist that links traffic to a person, and who checked? | 0.450 | 0.329 |
| IntegrityHas it been caught saying one thing and doing another? | 0.325 | 0.323 |
| IgnoranceHow much of this did nobody establish? | 0.181 | 0.227 |
| JurisdictionCan someone compel what exists, without the provider getting a say? | 0.136 | 0.200 |
| HygieneWhat identifying material is collected in passing, and can the client be checked at all? | 0.150 | 0.104 |
| ArchitectureWho operates the exit, and what does it do to the traffic? | 0.050 | 0.050 |
| DisclosureHas it already handed something over? | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| SilenceTen years, millions of users and nothing on record? | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| What is left of 100The channels multiply: each one takes a share of what the one before it left standing | 21 | 24 |
| CyberGhost VPN | OVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Security | 21 insufficient · rank 9 of 68 | 24 insufficient · rank 8 of 68 |
| Usability | 69 out of 100 | 62 out of 100 |
| Record completeness | 76% usability 92% | 70% usability 100% |
| CyberGhost VPN | OVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Who operates the exit | Run by the provider itself provider_operated | Run by the provider itself provider_operated |
| Retention as declared | Aggregate counts only aggregates_onlyBcyberghostvpn.com · | Nothing that links traffic to a person none_linkableBovpn.com · |
| RAM-only diskless servers | Yes, checked by someone independent yes_verifiedAdownload.cyberghostvpn.com · | Yes, on the provider's word yes_declaredBovpn.com · |
| IP allocation model | Dedicated address offered as an option dedicated_option | Dedicated address offered as an option dedicated_option |
| Signup without email | No, an email address is required noBcyberghostvpn.com · | Yes, on the provider's word yes_declaredBsupport.ovpn.com · |
| Anonymous payment options | Cryptocurrency through a processor | Cryptocurrency through a processor |
| Own DNS inside the tunnel | — not establishedno source published | Yes, on the provider's word yes_declaredBovpn.com · |
| Worst third-party SDK category in the app | Install attribution attributionBcyberghostvpn.com · | Crash reporting crashBapps.apple.com · |
| Worst third-party tracker category on the site | Analytics analytics | Analytics analytics |
| Who owns the hardware | — not establishedno source published | Owned by the provider ownedBovpn.com · |
| Offered countries that sit under a logging mandate | 7 United Arab Emirates, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkey, VietnamBcyberghostvpn.com · | NoneBovpn.com · |
| Hosting in the mandate countries it offers | Physical and virtual both mixedBcyberghostvpn.com · | — the question does not ariseBovpn.com · |
| Incorporation country mandates retention | No such mandate noBcyberghostvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
| Beneficial owner sits under a retention regime | No such regime noBunikmind-holdings.com · | — not establishedno source published |
| Persistent device identifier | A resettable advertising identifier resettable_ad_idBcyberghostvpn.com · | None held noneBplay.google.com · 3 sources · |
| Weakest protocol still offered | — the question does not arise | — the question does not arise |
| What the exit does to passing traffic | — not established | — not established |
| CyberGhost VPN | OVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| At least one independent audit | Yes, and the report was read yes_verifiedAdownload.cyberghostvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
| How the report is published | The full report is published full_pdfBcyberghostvpn.com · 2 sources · | — not establishedno source published |
| Subject of the audit | The no-logs claim itselfAdownload.cyberghostvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
| Server fleet coverage | A sample of servers sample |
| CyberGhost VPN | OVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Server seizure by law enforcement | No seizure on record none_known | No seizure on record none_known |
| Actual disclosure history | No disclosure on record none_known | No disclosure on record none_known |
| Court record of compelled production | No court record none_knownno source published · | Told a court it had nothing to produce unable_to_produceBovpn.com · |
| Response to a national logging mandate | — not established | — not established |
| Transparency report | Current, with request numbers fresh_with_numbers | Current, with request numbers fresh_with_numbers |
| Reported numbers plausible for this scale | The numbers are plausible at this scale plausible |
| CyberGhost VPN | OVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Documented gap between claim and behaviour | No documented lie none | No documented lie none |
| Marketing against audit findings | No gap on record none | No gap on record none |
| Ownership structure transparency | Ownership is stated and checkable clear | Ownership is stated and checkable clear |
| Adverse events on the owner group record | A history of adware or malware adware_malware_history | A history of adware or malware adware_malware_history |
| How the service is paid for | Paid subscriptions only paid_only | Paid subscriptions only paid_only |
| Claims of 100% anonymity or military-grade crypto | Makes no such claim noBcyberghostvpn.com · | Claims total anonymity or military-grade encryption yes |
| CyberGhost VPN | OVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | CyberGhost S.R.L.Bcyberghostvpn.com · | OVPN Inc.Bovpn.com · |
| Where the company sits | Romania ROBcyberghostvpn.com · | United States USBovpn.com · |
| Year the service launched | 2011Bcyberghostvpn.com · | 2014Bovpn.com · |
| User base scale (mass >=10M, mid >=1M, niche <1M) |
| CyberGhost VPN | OVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms with a client | 9 Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Android TV, Fire TV, Routers, Browser extensionBsupport.cyberghostvpn.com · 2 sources · | 6 Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, RoutersBovpn.com · |
| Countries with an exit | 91 countriesBcyberghostvpn.com · | 20 countriesBovpn.com · |
| Paying monthly | $12.99 per monthBcyberghostvpn.com · | $12.00 per month |
| — not establishedno source published |
| Auditor name | Deloitte Audit S.R.L. (Deloitte Audit Romania)Adownload.cyberghostvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| Auditor category | One of the Big Four big4Adownload.cyberghostvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| Assurance standard | ISAE 3000 isae3000Adownload.cyberghostvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| Date of latest report | 2025-12-19Adownload.cyberghostvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| Audit cadence | Repeated, at no fixed interval repeated_irregularBcyberghostvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| Total published audits | 3Bcyberghostvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| Retention as the report states it | Aggregate counts only aggregates_onlyAdownload.cyberghostvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| Client source code published | — not established | — not established |
|---|
| Reproducible builds | — not established | — not established |
|---|
| Separate pentest | — not established | — not established |
|---|
| Strength of the assurance opinion | A limited-assurance conclusion limitedAdownload.cyberghostvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| — not establishedno source published |
| Warrant canary discipline | — not established | — not established |
|---|
| Requests received | 11Bcyberghostvpn.com · | 0Bovpn.com · |
|---|
| Requests that produced data | 0 | 0 |
|---|
| Secret-order regime | — not establishedno source published | National security letters or their equivalent nsl_equivalentBeff.org · |
|---|
| Chronology of documented enforcement events | 0 No demand on the public recordBcyberghostvpn.com · | 1 documented demandBovpn.com · |
|---|
| Aggressive lifetime subscriptions | Does not no | Does not no |
|---|
| Coverage exists only on affiliate sites | — not establishedno source published | Covered outside affiliate sites too noCcyberinsider.com · |
|---|
| Security incident and how it was disclosed | — not establishedno source published | No incident on record none_knownBovpn.com · |
|---|
| Affiliate programme and payout tier | A standard payout standard | A standard payout standard |
|---|
| Owner-run review media discloses the tie | — not establishedno source published | — the question does not ariseno source published |
|---|
| App store declaration | — not establishedno source published | The store form matches the published policy matches_policyBplay.google.com · 3 sources · |
|---|
| — not established |
| — not established |
| Ultimate beneficial owner as written | Teddy Sagi, sole owner of Unikmind Holdings Limited (Isle of Man), which holds Kape Technologies plc — CyberGhost's parentBunikmind-holdings.com · 2 sources · | PangoBsupport.ovpn.com · |
|---|
| Other businesses of the owner group | Antivirus · A portfolio of other apps · A review directoryBkape.com · | A portfolio of other appsCen.wikipedia.org · |
|---|
| Country of the ultimate beneficial owner | IMBunikmind-holdings.com · | USBovpn.com · |
|---|
| Owner group | kapeBkape.com · 2 sources · | pangoBsupport.ovpn.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Date the current owner took control | 2017-03Bkape.com · | 2023-05-08Bovpn.com · |
|---|
| Role of this brand inside the group | A brand the group acquired acquired_brand | A brand the group acquired acquired_brand |
|---|
| Infrastructure shared with cluster siblings | — not establishedno source published | Separate infrastructure separateBovpn.com · |
|---|
| Paying yearly | — not establishedno source published | $59.88 a year at renewal, billed onceBovpn.com · |
|---|
| Usable free tier | No free tier none | No free tier none |
|---|
| Works under active censorship | — not establishedno source published | Claimed to work claimedBsupport.ovpn.com · |
|---|
| Protocols offered | 3 WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2Bsupport.cyberghostvpn.com · | 3 OpenVPN, WireGuard, An obfuscated protocolBovpn.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Kill switch coverage | On some platforms partialBcyberghostvpn.com · 2 sources · | On desktop only desktop_onlyBsupport.ovpn.com · |
|---|
| Split tunneling available | Available yes | Available yes |
|---|
| Simultaneous connections | 7Bcyberghostvpn.com · | 4Bsupport.ovpn.com · |
|---|
| Friction to start using it | An email address only email_onlyBcyberghostvpn.com · | No account needed no_accountBsupport.ovpn.com · |
|---|
| P2P allowed | Allowed yes | Allowed yes |
|---|
| Major streaming services reachable | Reachable yes | Reachable yes |
|---|
