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By Will Ellis

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Last Updated on January 2, 2024

Vanished VPN is an Australia-based VPN service that has only been around since 2016.

As such, they are fairly untested and haven’t exactly penetrated the marketplace the way that other VPN service providers have.

Visit Vanished VPN

Their big claim to fame was a plug by Lifehacker who called them their “favourite VPN for accessing US Netflix.”

While a handful of companies live up to the hype, and more often than not, a majority of them don’t. Vanished VPN has been in the spotlight since this plug from Lifehacker. Let’s jump into it to see if they live up to the hype!

Vanished VPN Overview

What is Vanished VPN?

Vanished VPN is a little more than the average run of the mill VPN. The VPN service itself is advertised as being ideal for overseas shopping, online gaming, sports and streaming. The service is a virtual private network solution out of our favorite place in the world, Australia.

If you’re all about that straya pride then sit down, immerse yourself kookaburra laughter, get on the internet, and start surfing with Vanished VPN.

Besides being an Aussie VPN, Vanished VPN isn’t just a VPN. It also has created the Invizbox.

The Invizbox is a mini router enables users to connect their Smart TV, Playstation or Xbox to the VPN’s server. It’s a pretty ingenious device that takes this VPN service from a normal VPN based in Australia to one that is thinking outside of the box.

Keep reading to learn more about the Invizbox and what the implications are when it comes to being based in Australia.

The Pros of Vanished VPN

Vanished VPN is far from a perfect VPN service. There are three main aspects that headline the positives of Vanished VPN: Geo-unblocking, the Invizbox, and ease of use. They also have over 1300 servers and allow torrenting with up to 3 simultaneous connections

Geo-Unblocking Solution ✔️

Geo-blocking refers to sites blocking people in other countries from viewing restricted content.

If you have lived in Australia for any amount of time you will know that geo restrictions are a real killer for enjoying content the rest of the English speaking world has easy access to. For Aussies eager to watch their favourite American TV shows, Vanished VPN seems to be a viable option.

With Vanished VPN, you’ll be able to catch up on the newest episodes of Game of Thrones and enjoy old faves like Dexter, Breaking Bad or the Netflix show Orange is the New Black (see best VPNs for Netflix). Vanished VPN is able to gain access to BBC iPlayer, ITV, Hulu, Crackle and other geo-blocked streaming services.

Invizbox ✔️

This is meant to be all about the VPN service of Vanished VPN but the Invizbox is too cool not to go into a little bit. Personally, this is our favorite thing about Vanished VPN. It almost seems like the creators of Vanished VPN created the Invizbox then created the VPN service to go along with their piece of hardware. With everything they’ve gotten right with the Invizbox, I have faith that Vanished VPN will correct the issues I’m going to get into later on.

All you have to do with the Invizbox is connect it to your router. Once it’s connected to your router you can start using your devices like normal. Just by plugging in the Invizbox, all of your internet traffic is encrypted.

The way the device works is pretty cool as you can use 4 different VPN servers at once. This is very good for streaming different content.

The Invizbox isn’t perfect but it’s rather innovative and definitely worth checking out.

How to Use Vanished VPN

One of the good things we can say about Vanished VPN is that they are pretty informative in terms of configuration. They offer detailed setup guides for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows, Android, ATV, PS4, PS3, Sports, Chromecast, Surface, Routers and more.

If you’ve decided to go with Vanished VPN, the signup/setup process is rather simple. You just register your account by providing your email address and creating a password. Once you’ve completed signup, their setup guides will walk you through the process of accessing their interface on a range of compatible devices.

For those using Windows, you will have to download the OpenVPN app and apply the Vanished VPN openVPN configuration files. This will take about five minutes.

From there, it’s really quite easy.

1. Download and install the OpenVPN software from openvpn.net. Make sure to allow the TAP drivers to install when you receive the pop-up later on during the installation.
   
2. Download the Vanished VPN OpenVPN config file from here for the Server that you want (i.e. usa.ovpn for the USA VPN to watch US Netflix).
   
3. Move the file that you downloaded (USA.ovpn in our example) to your OpenVPN config folder at (C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config). Click continue when asked for administrator access to continue.
4. Right click on the OpenVPN GUI shortcut icon on your desktop, and choose ‘run as administrator’.
   
5. Right click on the OpenVPN icon in the taskbar at the bottom of your screen.
6. Select the connection that you want (USA in our example), and select ‘connect’ from the drop down menu.
   
7. Copy and paste your VPN username (your email address) and password that you can see on the ‘my account’ dashboard on our site. These are case sensitive.
   
8. The icon should turn green to show that you’re connected.
9. To test that you’re connected, try and play some content from the location that you are now connected to (for example if you are connected to USA, navigate to netflix.com and you should see the US catalogue).

You’re all set, mate!

The Negatives of Vanished VPN

We want to love Vanished VPN more than any other VPN because it’s based in our home country. However, it still has a lot of issues that need resolving. It must be said that the service is relatively new so they still have some time to establish themselves as a big player.

Australian VPN? ✖️

Being based in Australia is great and all but it doesn’t exactly bode well for us Aussies because Australia is a member of the Fourteen Eyes, a multinational cooperative who collect signal intelligence and share it with one another. This means that your sensitive data will never truly be safe, regardless of whether you are using a VPN or not.

The vast majority of reputable VPNs maintain a strict “no logs” policy which assures users that their sessions will not be recorded nor sold to third parties. Vanished VPN openly admits to saving your data for a period of 30 days. This includes your source IP address and your connection start and stop time. Read more about VPN logging here.

Although Vanished VPN claim to never log a user’s traffic or the content of said user’s communications, but is that really a claim they can make in good conscience?

Under the UKUSA Agreement and all related amendments, the Australian government can serve VPNs with subpoenas or search warrants, and that VPN would be obliged to share their users’ logs.

What’s the Cost of Vanished VPN? 💰️

There are only two pricing options with Vanished VPN, neither of which is very exciting.

They offer a standard plan or their “best offer” plan (annual).

Visit Vanished VPN

Honestly, we’re not so keen on the Standard vs. Best Offer packages since we like to “pay as you go”, and we can’t really trust a VPN that doesn’t offer a money back guarantee or a free trial.

Even some of the worst VPNs around give you a minimum 3-day free trial so you can acquaint yourself with their service and tell if they’re legit.

Cancelling Vanished VPN Service

We’re not saying you would want to cancel but this is how it works if you ever do.

All users are able to cancel their service at any time, but it is important to bear in mind that no refunds are issued. Since Vanished VPN does not issue refunds, users who have purchased a yearly subscription will not be compensated for the portion of time left on their account.

The only way to get a refund on a yearly subscription plan is to cancel within the first 30 days of service. Cancellation goes into effect as soon as Vanished VPN is notified that you want to cancel.

Is Vanished VPN Safe? 🔒️

Vanished VPN’s “Features” page appeared blank last time we used it. Therefore, there was no way for us to confirm that their service is a safe and secure one. Unlike virtually every other VPN available, they make no mention of their precise protocol or encryption.

Only a real drongo would feel like they could roam the web freely using a VPN that doesn’t disclose its method of cryptography. That’s a surefire way to get caught in yer grundies.

Vanished VPN Speed Test

Personally, this is my biggest problem with Vanished VPN. They just don’t have any speedy servers.

For the sake of ensuring the accuracy of this review, we decided to run a speed test using Speedtest.net on a 100 Mbps server in the AU. To put this in perspective, we were in Sydney at the time. So performance was not affected by rugged conditions or anything.

Here are the results of the test: 

It’s obvious from these findings that speed is not Vanished VPN’s strong suit. In fact, the speed appeared to have “vanished”. Nowhere on their website do they let potential customers know anything about their servers or protocol(s). They opted to go with the most opaque details. You might also say, it “vanished”.

Most VPNs pride themselves on listing their multitude of server locations. Vanished VPN doesn’t disclose any of this information.

Customer Support Quality 📠️

Vanished VPN does not offer 24/7 live chat like some of the better VPN solutions on the market. On the contrary, you are limited to an email only option for filing a complaint or asking any technical questions.

Their customer support team are knowledgeable enough, but this is nowhere near as great as services like NordVPN or Surfshark. Some sites rely only on a ticket system while others are there online to help you in real time. Sadly, Vanished VPN is not one of the latter.

Do We Recommend Vanished VPN? 🤔️

Vanished VPN is far from the worst or most expensive VPN. In fact, many reviewers praise the price, even though we’ve seen much better offers elsewhere. However, we would recommend this VPN if you’re only looking for something that can get around geo restrictions or if you are really into the idea of purchasing the Invizbox.

Visit Vanished VPN

There is a relative dearth of price options to this one. Many VPN sites offer free trials and 3-month packages. Vanished VPN only offers a monthly or annual billing plan, neither of which is particularly remarkable in terms of price point. There are certainly more affordable VPNs on the market, many of them with solid reputations and a track record of transparency.

By contrast, Vanished VPN provides minimal information on their practices and policies. But while the scarcity of advanced features is a drawback in this seasoned VPNer’s eyes, We can see how that might appeal to the less-experienced user who just wants the privacy and security of a VPN for casual surfing or intermittent streaming.

For all other users, we would strongly suggest that you opt for a more established and fully-featured services like NordVPN. If you want the cream of the crop, then you’re in luck. We’ve reviewed over 80 different VPNs situated across different parts of the globe and have filtered them down to the gold nuggets. Here are our top picks for the best VPNs.

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