Let’s just clear up the question of what on earth is UnoTelly.
Is it a VPN service provider or a Smart DNS service?
Well, it is a VPN service provider even though its name suggests the company sells some kind of TV sets.
A VPN stands for Virtual Private Network.
And we all know what VPN service providers do.
They protect a user’s privacy online.
And that is exactly what UnoTelly markets to potential customers.
It sets itself up as a security service along with a service to protect one’s privacy.
UnoTelly goes up step further than other VPN service providers though.
How?
By telling the user that UnoTelly VPN is for users who want privacy only.
The company also tells users that they should use its VPN service for any other purposes.
Hence if you thought you would buy UnoTelly to “do” something else, then you should look elsewhere.
Yes.
UnoTelly won’t help you if you want to engage in P2P file transfers or torrenting.
So does that mean UnoTelly isn’t any good?
Well, not really.
You see, UnoTelly has a gold subscription package.
It is called UnoVPN.
UnoTelly is actually the parent company behind UnoVPN, sort of.
With that out of the way, let’s take a cursory look at the features it offers to its users.
UnoVPN comes with a default OpenVPN encryption technology.
As we have mentioned time and time again, OpenVPN is indeed the best VPN protocol in the market.
Hence, any VPN service provider that uses this service is doing itself a favor.
And that is about it as far as positives go for UnoVPN.
Yes.
Really.
That is it.
Next up we’ll briefly discuss the negatives of this VPN service provider before diving into the full UnoTelly review.
UnoVPN is expensive.
It is slow.
And doesn’t feel like a powerful VPN service provider.
You will have to read the full review to find out if we recommend it or not.
But from the outset, you should know that this isn’t a VPN service provider for everybody.
Since UnoVPN is still in its stage of infancy, we’ll give it some slack.
UnoTelly offers this VPN service as a part of its premium package.
UnoTelly also has a Smart DNS (Domain Name System) service.
The one we are going to review in this review is UnoVPN, not UnoDNS.
If you want to know more about UnoDNS then just know that it is an alternative to UnoVPN.
Its entire focus is on unblocking geo-restricted websites and content.
In other words, it doesn’t really add anything to your online security.
Table of Contents
Price
As mentioned before, UnoVPN is a part of UnoTelly Gold subscription package.
As far as UnoVPN itself goes, well it has about four subscription packages.
The lowest amount you can pay for UnoVPN on a monthly basis is $4.93.
The highest you can expect to pay is around $7.95 per month.
That isn’t really cheap.
You can, however, pay on a monthly, half-yearly, quarterly or annually basis.
UnoVPN will give you discounts on longer subscription periods.
But that is something that all VPN service providers do.
As we have just pointed out, UnoVPN isn’t cheap.
It isn’t all that expensive either.
But for reasons you shall discover later in this review, you will see that UnoVPN is a bit expensive for what it gives to the users.
However, if you compare just the prices and not the quality of VPN service, then UnoVPN is close to the industry average.
Again, we will mention that the level of service that UnoVPN gives you, it should cost users a lot less.
Payment Methods.
- PayPal
- Visa
- Mastercard
Each of the UnoVPN subscription packages come with a three-day trial for free.
Users can avail that without paying anything.
Moreover, users can also take advantage of a seven-day no questions asked money-back guarantee.
As mentioned just now, if you want to then you can try out UnoVPN trial option without paying any money.
But that only comes as a part of its 14-day money back guarantee.
Additionally, UnoVPN also has a good referral program.
For each friend that you bring to the VPN service, you can earn a certain percentage as a referral fee.
What about Bitcoin?
About that.
UnoVPN doesn’t offer Bitcoin as a payment method at the time of writing this review.
Features
UnoTelly is a company that is based in Canada.
You probably know this Canadian firm, UnoTelly, more as a Smart DNS service rather than a VPN service provider.
And that is correct.
UnoTelly offers its VPN service in addition to its Smart DNS service.
It basically bolsters the overall offerings of the company.
If we had reviewed UnoVPN about a year ago, we would have given it very low marks in the security category.
Why?
Because back then it only implemented the PPTP Protocol (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol).
As you might already know, PPTP is very insecure.
All credit to UnoVPN for improving its service as it now offers the industry-standard OpenVPN VPN Protocol as well.
OpenVPN is the most secure VPN protocol available in the market today.
The thing is, the main reason you want to sign up for a VPN service is that you want security.
If a VPN service provider isn’t even giving you that, then you are better off with something else.
All users can avail an unlimited number of simultaneous connections.
Yes.
With just one account you can connect as many devices as you want.
Moreover, UnoVPN allows users to connect to an unlimited number of source IP addresses.
That is a plus as well.
Perhaps that is the reason why UnoVPN is on the slightly expensive side.
Make no mistake, these two features make UnoTelly one insanely generous VPN service provider.
On a side note, if you sign up for UnoTelly Smart DNS service, you can only use one IP per account.
The Smart DNS service has other advantages such as granting access to more than 300 channels to users for streaming purposes.
How does UnoTell do that?
Well, it is over 30 high-speed Smart DNS servers.
These basically enable UnoTelly to provide such offerings to users.
That is also the reason why UnoTelly markets its Smart DNS service as the best service for unblocking streaming sites.
FOr security and privacy, it likes to market its VPN service.
Servers
UnoVPN offers VPN servers in six major countries including the likes of,
- The US
- Netherlands
- The UK
- Switzerland
- Germany
- Canada
As you can probably see for yourself, the selection of countries is pretty limited.
Moreover, also consider the fact that you are almost paying UnoVPN premium rates.
Hence, we would have expected much more for the price the company is charging its customers.
As mentioned before, UnoVPN does not allow P2P on its servers.
It bans it totally on its US servers.
While, it says it doesn’t recommend P2P activity on its other servers.
If you want to take UnoVPN advice on P2P downloading, then go ahead.
But there are other VPN service providers who don’t put limitations like that on you.
Security
No VPN service provider is truly a VPN service provider if it doesn’t take care of business on the security side.
UnoVPN makes use of a PPTP encryption technology along with the OpenVPN protocol.
The PPTP encryption technology (128-bit MPPE) is not very secure.
And as always, regardless of what other options are available, we always tell clients to go for OpenVPN.
OpenVPN is the most secure and reliable VPN protocol in the industry today.
How does UnoVPN implement the OpenVPN protocol?
Well, it implements it with a 128-bit Blowfish cipher which is the default cipher that is built right into the OpenVPN app.
Generally speaking, security experts do consider it as secure.
But VPN service providers have to take extra measures to guard against its weaknesses.
UnoVPN representatives won’t help you that much if you want to know more about the company’s OpenVPN implementation.
But that is okay.
Right now we know that for the Data, OpenVPN uses BF-CBC along with 128-bit key
And for authorization, it uses TLS with 1024-bit key
While that may sound secure, the VPN industry no longer considers the 1024-bit authentication as secure.
Right now, the top VPN service providers all go with 2048-bit authentication.
Hence, UnoVPN isn’t exactly the most secure VPN service provider you are likely to find on the market today.
It isn’t that good for privacy either.
Privacy Policy
According to official documents, UnoVPN does keep connection logs.
It says on that on its privacy policy page.
But these aren’t your usual logs.
The company says it keeps a minimum amount of logs.
Logs such as,
- The time the user connected to the service.
- The time the user disconnected from the service
Along with that the company also keeps logs on how much bandwidth the user consumed.
That is necessary because the UnoVPN has to calculate how much a particular user downloaded via P2P file transfers.
UnoVPN links this information with the user’s account details.
In other words, it doesn’t associate the information its logs with the user’s IP address.
This isn’t that great because that could potentially give the user away in case of an incident.
For example, if the authorities in Canada approach UnoVPN with a legal warrant, then the company would have no other choice but to submit the information it has stored on its users.
And when it does hand over the required IP address, authorities could get their people to carry out a time correlation attack.
What does that mean for the end user?
That means that authorities could know the websites the user visited in the past using UnoVPN records.
UnoTelly defends itself though.
The company makes it clear that it doesn’t log anything that is illegal.
The company also says that it does not keep any logs that aren’t in accordance with the laws (local laws) of its server’s host country.
To put it another way, UnoVPN may collect user usage logs.
But it would only do so if the country of its VPN server that the user has connected to, has those awful mandatory data retention laws.
Hence, UnoVPN isn’t great when it comes to ensuring user privacy.
And the same goes for UnoDNS, UnoTelly Smart DNS service.
That service too keeps logs on its users.
The company clearly mentions when users utilize the company’s DNS servers, UnoDNS collects information such as,
- User IP address
- DNS requests that the user may make via his/her device setup
UnoDNS clarifies that the company collects such information only to authenticate the user on the company’s servers.
The company also uses the logs to direct users to the relevant links.
In short, if you are the type of user who values his/her privacy a lot, then UnoVPN or UnoDNS isn’t for you.
UnoTelly is nowhere near the ideal VPN service provider when it comes to privacy.
There are many other VPN service providers that have better privacy policies.
Moreover, they also cost less than UnoVPN.
So why would you want to settle for a VPN service provider like UnoVPN?
Different taste perhaps?
Moving on.
The Official Website
As we have already mentioned that UnoTelly mainly focuses on its Smart DNS service via its official website.
UnoTelly makes it very clear to visiting users topics such as,
- How to access geo-restricted websites and streaming services all around the world
Once the user has subscribed to UnoTelly services, the company grants the user access to its dashboard area.
The dashboard area looks like it is useful.
The company also gives a guided tour of the official website and the features.
It also informs users what is available for them courtesy of their subscription packages.
The dashboard area is without a doubt an excellent idea.
It allows users to quickly scan everything that is on offer.
Moreover, users can quickly learn what they can and can’t do with their new DNS service.
But here is the problem:
UnoTelly doesn’t give UnoVPN the same attention.
During the official tour, you don’t really get to know anything about UnoVPN.
If you want more information on UnoVPN you will have to make your way to the company’s knowledge base section.
That is the only way to know more.
Moreover, UnoTelly doesn’t present the user with any technical details on its VPN service.
As mentioned before, we tried to research the company’s encryption implementation methods, and we couldn’t find much on the official website.
THis is definitely a drawback of the official website.
Some would say that it shows UnoTelly lack of transparency.
Like we said before, UnoVPN loses lots of points for not explaining its encryption technologies properly.
The Blog
UnoTelly also has an official blog.
The blog, just like the official website, concentrates on UnoDNS service and not on UnoVPN.
There is very little information on UnoVPN.
Again, that is surprising.
The official UnoTelly website has other useful sections as well.
Such as the videos section.
This videos section is basically a tutorial area.
It shows the users how they can get UnoDNS working on almost all major devices.
So if you want to know how to properly set up streaming devices, then UnoTelly videos tutorial area is great for that.
Some alternative options for you...
Customer Support
Users who register themselves with UnoTelly can take advantage of the company’s 24/7 live chat feature.
That is great.
UnoTelly already has a knowledge base section, and hence the live chat feature only puts the icing on the cake.
UnoVPN does well to make up for the little information the company has about its VPN service on the official website.
Expect UnoTelly representatives to respond to your question very quickly.
Our research shows that UnoTelly representatives should get in touch with you within a couple of minutes if you are using the live chat feature.
UnoTelly also has the traditional ticketing system.
Expect UnoTelly support staff to solve your query rather quickly.
Of course, if you ask them about their encryption technologies, then they will take some time, as we have mentioned before.
Even then, don’t expect them to take more than a couple of hours.
Our research for this UnoVPN review shows that UnoTelly has helpful and polite customer support staff.
Knowledge Base Section
As mentioned before, just have a knowledge base section is a good practice.
And while UnoTelly doesn’t have the greatest knowledge base section, the fact that it is there is something we think we should award points for.
It isn’t bad.
It’s just that, it isn’t the best we have ever seen either.
The knowledge base section has a search function which works rather well.
But the problem is that UnoTelly has cluttered its official website’s knowledge base section a lot.
With that, you may ask?
With a list of questions and categories.
This makes browsing the knowledge base section and the categories it has, as close to impossible as you can get.
Searching is quite necessary when you want to find answers to questions that aren’t the standard.
The knowledge base section doesn’t have that organization level where you would find answers to your questions quickly.
There is also another annoying little thing we didn’t talk about:
The requirement that the user must re-enter his/her email address in order to even open up a support ticket.
That holds true even if you access the support ticket section via your dashboard area.
It’s not really a deal breaker but such annoyances do add up and become cumbersome of the users.
Installation
Let’s start with the signup process.
If you want to register for UnoVPN via UnoTelly then you have to provide three things,
- Your first name
- A password
- An email address
After that, UnoTelly will instantly give you access to a superb free trial to its UnoDNS for a period of three days.
If you confirm the email address you provided the company will allow a further five days worth of free UnoDNS to you.
You can extend that period even further via UnoCredits.
Users with enough time on their hands, can earn UnoCredits if they refer their friends.
There is more:
The company makes it possible for users to earn a free trial of its UnoVPN service as well.
If you want to avail that offer you will have to follow a link in the official website’s knowledge base section.
This will add a UnoVPN free three-day trial directly into the user’s, i.e you, shopping cart.
Of course, you will still have to “pay” for the free time.
Not just with money though.
Payment Details
If you want to pay for UnoVPN via your credit card then you will have to provide UnoTelly your credit card details.
The company won’t charge you anything for the free trial but it will require your credit card information.
If you decide that you would like to pay for your free trial with the help of PayPal, then Unotelly won’t require any more details.
In fact, UnoTelly doesn’t even want you to log in to your PayPal account.
Hence, if you are concerned about your privacy, then choose PayPal in this case since there is no Bitcoin available.
Our research shows that you should subscribe to UnoVPN for at least a month to properly test our the service.
Does UnoVPN honor its 14-day mammoth money-back guarantee?
Our research shows that it does.
Remember that even if you decide to pay with Paypal, you will still have to provide UnoTelly with a billing address.
As mentioned before, you can’t pay via Bitcoin.
Which is, again, sad
User Interface
UnoVPN doesn’t have any dedicated apps for any operating system.
In other words, if you want to use UnoVPN you will have to use a third-party software application.
Usually, people use OpenVPN for that purpose.
That is the only way you can connect to UnoVPN servers.
While that may not sound like a good thing but the OpenVPN app is very secure.
It comes with a DNS leak protection feature which is great if you want more security.
The bad part about using OpenVPN apps is that they don’t come with any advanced features that other top VPN service providers come with.
Like what?
Like a Kill switch feature or a stealth feature.
UnoVPN has none of that.
Needless to say, we would have expected much more from a paid VPN service provider.
And since UnoVPN isn’t exactly cheap, it should have provided users with dedicated apps.
VPN Client
As pointed out earlier as well, UnoVPN doesn’t have a custom built VPN software application.
This isn’t reasonable when UnoVPN charges its users so much money.
However, OpenVPN nowadays has a great third-party VPN app.
It has a great user interface and generally provides a decent user experience.
Moreover, OpenVPN apps usually make it easy for users to operate its VPN apps.
It is also free to download.
Additionally, OpenVPN app comes with a brand new DNS leak protection feature in its latest version.
This makes OpenVPN app very safe to make use of.
UnoTelly has god support for users who want to connect via TunnelBlick.
This is relevant to only Mac users though.
But UnoTelly also has support for regular OpenVPN files which have the .ovpn extension.
Hence, users should ensure that they are downloading and then using the correct files.
That is, the correct files for the specific client that you are making use of.
To do that, you can take a look at how your file names end.
They should either end with .ovpn or with .tblk.
There is nothing wrong with using third-party VPN client applications.
Especially when they are as good as OpenVPN VPN apps.
But since, UnoVPN is a professional VPN service provider and an expensive one at that, it should do more.
With OpenVPN, you never know what kind of a problem you may run into.
That is in addition to the problems that UnoVPN may through your way.
Expect to have some form of logging problems while using UnoVPN servers with OpenVPN VPN app.
Sometimes nothing works apart from changing your login credentials.
As you can probably imagine, this can add another layer of frustration to set up your VPN on your system.
Speed
To test out your VPN service provider, you can always make use of sites like,
What does our research show?
Our research for this UnoVPN review shows that UnoVPN doesn’t have fast VPN servers.
In fact, if there is one thing negative about this VPN service provider then it is its speed.
And you know that UnoVPN has more than one “negative things” going against it right?
Usually though, VPN service providers make sure that they have the fastest servers in the US.
Following that, they tend to focus on servers in the UK and other European countries.
UnoVPN is no different.
Even then it is slow.
Expect the VPN to struggle to load media-heavy pages.
Don’t even think about HD streaming because it will buffer a lot.
Of course, if you can live without HD streaming, then simple SD streaming shouldn’t present any problems to UnoVPN VPN servers.
Again, UnoVPN is nowhere near a fast VPN service provider.
What ABout DNS Leaks?
You can always go to sites like ipleak.net to check your VPN service provider’s VPN app.
Sites like these can help you determine if your VPN client is working as it should.
What about UnoVPN then?
Does it protect you against DNS leaks?
Yes.
It does.
Our research for this UnoVPN review shows that it protects your against DNS leaks as well as IP leaks.
Moreover, it also protects users against WebRTC or Web Real-Time Communication leaks.
This is perhaps the only good thing about UnoVPN apart from two other features that we have discussed before in the features section of this review.
Compatibility
As we have mentioned time and time again throughout this review, UnoTelly and hence UnoVPN doesn’t have a dedicated app for any platform.
Hence, you can’t really grade it based on its compatibility with other systems.
You can give it a zero however.
In other words, since you are using OpenVPN to make UnoVPN work, UnoVPN doesn’t really get any marks for the fact that OpenVPN supports most major platforms and operating systems.
Hence, we don’t really have anything to report in this section.
The only good news that we have for you is that UnoTelly has setup instructions for many platforms on its official website’s knowledge base section.
The company has included instructions for,
- OS X
- Android
- iOS
The OS X support is via TunnelBlick OpenVPN setup.
Whereas the Android and iOS support is via OpenVPN Connect OpenVPN setup.
Other features
UnoTelly doesn’t have many extra features.
In fact, the only one that is worth talking about is its Smart DNS service.
We have already done that.
We have also mentioned before that UnoDNS is only useful for those users who want to unblock geo-restricted applications.
UnoVPN Conclusion
Pros
- Config files for TunnelBlick and OpenVPN setup
- UnoTelly has a nice affiliate program for users in the form of referral payments
- Free trial
- Live chat support 24/7
- Fast customer support staff responses
- Knowledgebase section is well fleshed out.
Cons
- UnoVPN keeps logs
- Doesn’t have any dedicated apps
- Terms of service document isn’t comprehensive enough
- No P2P support
- The company requires personal information for billing purposes
- No technical information on UnoVPN encryption technology
Bottom Line
UnoVPN is basically a VPN service provider that charges a lot for what it offers.
Its parent company, UnoTelly, seems like it is more interested in selling you its other products like UnoDNS.
Hence UnoTelly itself markets UnoVPN as a VPN service for people who are concerned about privacy and the security of their data.
The company’s main product is the DNS service, not the VPN service.
And it shows on UnoVPN as well.
The Smart DNS service is the service UnoTelly wants you to use if you want to unblock streaming sites and other websites.
And that’s what all Smart DNS services do.
They unblock geo-restricted content.
UnoVPN, UnoTelly tells readers is only useful if you want to secure your web browser’s data and want to encrypt it as well.
In other words, the company has a clear idea of what each of its products is supposed to do.
Yet, UnoVPN is nowhere near a robust VPN service.
It doesn’t have a great encryption implementation method.
And that makes is one of the less secure VPN service providers.
Think about it for a second:
If a VPN service provider isn’t good at security or encryption then what good is it regardless of other features?
Or in UnoVPN, no other great features.
UnoVPN is also slow.
Its interface is clunky.
And its service suffers from major glitches.
Have we mentioned the fact that you will likely experience slow connection speeds?
Great.
If we didn’t before, then now we have.
Add to that the fact that it has bad encryption implementation standards.
UnoTelly might have a good Smart DNS service but its VPN service is not worth it.
For people who want the complete package with good privacy and unblocking features, there is always IPVanish.
IPvanish is way more reliable and good value for money than UnoVPN.
And it is so for the simple reason that it is a VPN service provider that takes its job seriously.
UnoVPN seems like an afterthought on part of UnoTelly.
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