Total VPN Review 2024

A Quick Introduction: What’s Total VPN?

Total VPN is a VPN service from TotalAV. It may seem like it’s separate from TotalAV entirely – it has its own , pricing, and deals – but upon closer inspection, we found that it actually uses the same apps as TotalAV. We also learned that it’s nothing different from the VPN service included in our TotalAV antivirus subscription from when we tested the antivirus.

Our TotalAV review focused on the software’s anti-malware features. This time around, we’re putting our blinders on and focusing on just the VPN. Here are a few quick facts about Total VPN to get us started:

>> Further Reading: How Much Does a VPN Usually Cost?

Total VPN Features: Does It Pass Our Standards?

VPNs provide online privacy through encryption and tunneling. Online traffic leaving and going into your VPN-protected device is encrypted and then routed through a VPN server. That way, no one outside your network can see what you’re doing. That’s the short version of what a VPN does.

As for why VPNs do that, it’s because there are a lot of parties interested in our online data. Since 2017, internet providers in the U.S. have been granted legal rights to collect and sell data from users, including browsing Before that was a thing, the Snowden leaks all but confirmed that Big Brother is watching our every move And of course, there are the people who have always been interested in our data: hackers, data brokers, ad agencies, big tech companies, and so on.

A VPN’s job is crucial to our privacy, which is why we hold them to a high standard. It’s not enough that we know what they do. We want to know how they do it, and of course, we want to test them personally to see how well they work. Let’s see how Total VPN fares.

>> Learn More: How to Check If a VPN Is Working

Test of Privacy: Total VPN’s Logging Policy

The very first thing we looked at after getting a subscription was Total VPN’s privacy policy. Using a VPN is like handing a sitter the key to your house. You hired them to watch your home in your absence, but it could very easily backfire if they’re not trustworthy. It pays not to be too trusting when choosing a VPN.

Total VPN is usually packaged with TotalAV, and so it’s covered by the same privacy policy as the antivirus software. In fact, the privacy policy on Total VPN’s is an exact copy of the one on the TotalAV

We liked what we saw from the privacy policy for the most part. Although nowhere does it call Total VPN a “no-logs” VPN, it lists the types of data the service collects and specifies that none of the collected data can be used to identify a user’s browsing history.

There’s just one thing: Total VPN may collect device identifiers, which may include a device’s IP address and location data from mobile devices. It’s not a cardinal sin for VPNs to do that. We found in our Surfshark review that it does the same, and it’s still one of the VPNs we trust the most. The difference between Surfshark and Total VPN is that the former explains that it deletes recorded IP addresses immediately after disconnecting. Total VPN doesn’t mention if and when it deletes that information.

We would have liked to see a more detailed privacy policy from Total VPN that explains what data the VPN collects, specifically, but the all-inclusive privacy policy is not that bad. We’re giving it a passing grade.

>> Learn More: What Are the Best No-Logs VPNs?

Test of Security: How Total VPN Protects Your Privacy

Next to the privacy policy, it’s critical to know how a VPN actually protects your privacy. We know that VPNs use encryption and tunneling, but what encryption standards and tunneling protocols are in use? Here’s what we learned.

For tunneling, Total VPN let us choose between OpenVPN and IKEv2 — at least on our Windows and Mac laptops. IKEv2 was the default, but we prefer OpenVPN. On our Android and iPhones, however, there was no option to change the VPN protocol. The smartphone app also doesn’t say which protocol is in use, only that the VPN is connected.

A VPN protocol (or tunneling protocol) is a set of instructions for how a VPN routes traffic to the internet. It directly affects how fast and secure your connections will be. We like OpenVPN because it provides a great balance between security and speed. It’s actually one of the top VPN protocols today, so it’s great that Total VPN offers it, even though it’s not the default.

As for VPN encryption, it wasn’t clear what Total VPN used to encrypt our traffic, but given the fact that it offers OpenVPN, it’s very likely that it uses either 128-bit or 256-bit AES. Those encryption standards are actually the same — they’re both part of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) — the only difference being the number of cipher blocks; 256-bit contains more cypher blocks and is tougher to crack, which is why it’s our gold standard for encryption.

Given that Total VPN offers widely accepted VPN encryption and tunneling protocols, we’re giving it a passing mark here. That said, we would have liked to see more customizability, particularly on mobile. Smartphones don’t handle VPN traffic as well as desktops, so we find that a protocol more lightweight than OpenVPN, such as WireGuard, is usually best for Androids and iPhones. Total VPN doesn’t offer it.

If you want a more mobile-friendly VPN, check out NordVPN. It’s both our top-pick VPN for Androids and our favorite VPN to use on our iPhones and iPads. It offers WireGuard, has a ton of customizable options, and is plenty fast and secure.

>> Learn More: NordVPN review

Test of Features: Does Total VPN Have Enough?

TotalVPN works. Isn’t that enough? Well, not really. There’s a stark difference between a VPN that works and a VPN that works well, in the same sense that a car that runs isn’t necessarily a car that runs well. We’re not looking for top-of-the-line features here; we just want to make sure Total VPN has the necessary VPN features to provide a smooth user experience. Does it?

After extensively testing its desktop and smartphone apps, we found that it offers only one of the three features we were looking for. Fortunately, it happened to be the one that’s most important: a kill switch.

The kill switch is a fail-safe measure. Let’s say you’re browsing and then the VPN connection suddenly drops. It happens. It happened to us twice while testing Total VPN. Without a kill switch, you would continue browsing without knowing you’re no longer browsing privately. With a kill switch, your device would go on a total network blackout. You won’t be able to browse or do anything online unless you reconnect the VPN. It protects you from accidentally using the internet without protection, and that’s why it’s so important.

As for the features that are missing from Total VPN, they are split tunneling and multi-hop.

• Split tunneling: Split tunneling creates two traffic streams, one that is encrypted and another that’s not. The encrypted stream is protected by the VPN; the unencrypted one runs like a normal non-VPN network, which we usually use for apps that are not VPN-friendly, like weather and traffic apps that need to see our real IP address to know our location. You can usually set apps or websites to use either of the two streams.
• Multi-hop: A multi-hop connection is an enhanced VPN connection. It doubles your encryption and tunneling, so instead of encrypting data and routing traffic to one server, it encrypts twice and makes it pass through two servers for extra privacy. It isn’t something you’d use daily, but it comes in handy in case you want to be extra sure about your privacy.

Whether or not Total VPN passes this round depends on how much use you have for split tunneling and multi-hop. If you don’t care for those features, having a kill switch is enough, but if you want to have them at your disposal, you might want to look elsewhere. Try Private Internet Access, for example. It has a highly customizable split tunneling feature, and it offers speedy multi-hop through a proxy server.

>> See More: Private Internet Access Review

Test of Performance: How Well Did Total VPN Work?

We’re now on the final leg of our Total VPN test, and here, we’re going to talk about our actual experience with the VPN. We focused our performance tests on three crucial areas:

• Speed
• IP address protection
• Website/content unblocking

Speed

For starters, take a look at the charts below, which show how Total VPN’s speeds compared to our network speeds (upload speed, download speed, and latency when not connected to a VPN) on desktop and mobile.

Desktop

Smartphone (iOS)

On both desktop and mobile, our speed took a nosedive after connecting to Total VPN. The download speed dropped by 30 percent, while the upload speed went down by as much as 70 percent. Those aren’t great percentages, to be honest. It’s clear that Total VPN isn’t one of the fastest VPNs around. In our VPN speed test experiment, the average download speed drop was 6 percent. For the download speed, it was 44 percent. Those make Total VPN below average in terms of general upload and download speeds.

On the other hand, Total VPN increased our network latency (aka ping) severalfold, but it kept it below 80 ms. It was even better on mobile: less than 40 ms. The latency is the network’s reaction time, so lower is better here. With those readings, Total VPN would make a good gaming VPN. Gamers need low ping for a lag-free experience, and Total VPN’s 40 to 80 ms latency is within the recommended range.

IP Address Protection

How well a VPN protects your IP address is another measure of a VPN’s performance. One of the main jobs of a VPN is to hide your IP address behind a VPN server. It gives the illusion that it changes your IP address, because then the websites you go to will see the server’s IP address instead of your real one.

That said, IP address leaks can happen. The most common types of leaks are DNS and WebRTC leaks, which is why we use testing tools to see if a VPN is exhibiting any symptoms of a leak.

First, we checked that it changed our IP address, using a normal IP checker tool. Total VPN passed; it gave us an IP address in the U.K., which is where the server we connected to was located.

Next, we did a DNS leak test. It showed that our IP address, as detected by the DNS server, was the same U.K. IP address we got earlier. If it detected our real IP address (which is tied to a U.S. location), that would have meant that there was a DNS leak. Fortunately, Total AV passed.

Lastly, we did a WebRTC leak test, which checked the IP address our browser was sharing via the WebRTC feature (used for real-time communication like video chatting). Once again, it showed the same U.K. IP address, which means Total AV passed.

Having passed all tests, we can confidently say now that Total VPN’s IP address protection is strong.

Website and Content Unblocking

Lastly, we checked Total VPN’s ability to unblock websites. Remember what we talked about earlier, that VPNs change your IP address and location? If a website or streaming content is blocked in your country, you can access it by changing your location to a country where the site or content is available.

The most common application of that is streaming. We use VPNs to access Netflix, for example, when a show we’re looking for isn’t available in the U.S. library of Netflix shows but available somewhere else. Since we were already connected to a U.K. server, we attempted to watch one of our all-time favorite series, “The Office” (U.S. version), which is not available in the U.S. Netflix (ironically!) but is accessible from the U.K. library.

Netflix initially detected our U.K. location on the sign-in page; however, once we signed in, it detected that we were using a VPN and showed us its international catalog only. We didn’t see “The Office,” unfortunately.

Not willing to give up, we tried a different U.K. server. The first one we used was in London. Total VPN has another server in Manchester, so we connected to that and tried Netflix again. Same results.

Streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu have some of the strongest VPN blocks, and it seems that Total VPN can’t overcome those blocks. We tried several more times (six, to be exact), to no avail.

Does that mean Total VPN can’t unblock websites? Not in the least. It was able to unblock Facebook, which is blocked from our office network during work hours (for good reason), so it can unblock websites. It’s just not as good for unblocking streaming content as the best streaming VPNs.

>> Related: The Best VPNs for Netflix

The Total VPN App Experience

So far, our Total VPN experience has painted a picture of a decent VPN. It works, but it’s stripped of the premium features we usually expect from top VPNs. It didn’t have split tunneling or multi-hop, it couldn’t seem to unblock georestricted streaming content, and it wasn’t the best in terms of speed. It didn’t seem to have anything special going — that is, until we took a closer examination of the app.

As we mentioned at the very beginning, Total VPN uses the same app as Total AV, with the VPN being just one of the app’s many functions. Malware protection is the app’s main focus, but we also saw a password manager, an ad blocker, a data breach checker, and system tuneup tools like a junk files remover and app uninstaller.

Normally, a VPN app is one-dimensional. It gives you access to the VPN and all its features, but doesn’t do much more than that. Total VPN’s app, or rather the TotalAV app, gave us all-around cybersecurity. That’s its biggest asset. Moreover, a lot of the app’s features were actually included in our VPN subscription. Here’s a list.

What’s included:

• Smart Scan (malware protection)
• WebShield (blocks malicious sites)
• Total AdBlock (ad blocker)
• Data Breach Check
• System Tune Up (clears junk files, duplicates, etc.)

What’s not included:

• PasswordVault (password manager)

Total VPN Pricing

We’re sure you’re wondering how much a VPN with that many features costs, and truth be told, it didn’t cost us much.

We paid $29.99 for a year, but that was just an introductory price. If, after one year, we don’t cancel our VPN subscription, it will renew at the standard price, which is $119 for another year. That’s about $10 per month, which is more expensive than most VPNs, but is actually a great price considering everything it includes.

To give you something to compare it against, ExpressVPN’s plans cost a minimum of $8.32 per month or $99.95 per year. That’s just for the VPN itself since ExpressVPN doesn’t offer antivirus software. For $20 more, you’d be able to get Total VPN’s all-in-one cybersecurity package.

That said, Total VPN isn’t the most affordable VPN with antivirus. Surfshark’s pricing for its VPN and antivirus package under the Surfshark One plan costs $49.08 for the first year and then $79 for each consecutive year. Surfshark one is the reverse of TotalAV; it has a full-featured VPN with a much more basic antivirus software (see our Surfshark antivirus review), whereas TotalAV has a full-featured antivirus with a barebones VPN. Which brings us to our final point.

Conclusion: Is Total VPN Worth It?

We didn’t see a lot of upside from Total VPN. It wasn’t bad. Its speeds were OK, its connections worked, and it was able to give us some much-needed online privacy. However, it wasn’t great. Without split tunneling, we weren’t able to customize our use of the VPN. We also didn’t have the option to create multi-hop connections or choose from a wider range of VPN protocol options. Notably, we didn’t see WireGuard being offered, which is a fast and secure protocol perfect for smartphones. And then there is its failure to change our Netflix region.

It was clear that Total VPN wasn’t built by a company that specializes in VPNs, but on the plus side, it included a wide range of other cybersecurity features, focusing on malware protection. That’s where TotalAV really shined.

We’d say it’s a good option if you’re considering TotalAV for your malware protection needs. In fact, rather than buying from the Total VPN website, we recommend getting your subscription straight from TotalAV since the VPN is included in all its antivirus plans, so we suggest picking a plan based on your antivirus needs. Again, Total VPN wasn’t bad, but it’s much better as a TotalAV antivirus freebie than a stand-alone VPN.