Unblock US review show you if Unblock US is safe. Also tell you if Unblock US legit, real or if it is scam and fake. Unblock US complaints and feedback of its users are also reviewed. Are you really looking for true and unbiased Unblock US reviews?
If yes, you have come to the right place!
What fish will pass if it is judged by its ability to climb trees? What monkey will pass if it is judged by its ability to swim the ocean length?
Yet that is what many users have done (and still do) when they place Unblock US besides VPN services and judge it based on its ability (or inability) to deliver what a VPN service should.
Before going into this review, it is important to state what Unblock US is and what it is not; because it is only when you understand what something is that you can correctly rate it, and avoid the error of judging a fish by its ability (or inability) to climb trees.
Unblock US is safe and legit to use. And there have never being complaints of information leakage or the vpn not being safe.
John says:
“Love this service, love their customer skills, love the simplicity, and its the best few quid i spend all month. wouldnt be without it now. Running via apple tv, and xbox one, all from the touch of my iphone. absolutely excellent service. LOVE THEM”
Mike says:
“Never had issues with netflix/hulu or other services related to US regional broadcast restrictions.
It works on all my units , even on Sony GoogleTV”
Ben says:
“this is a great service and it works as advertised. All the geo-location restricted sites works as advertised on all devices connected on the network where the required DNS settings have been implemented on the router. This includes BBC iPlayer, hulu, last.fm, netflix and the works. I use it for my Apple TV2 to connect to iTunes and Netflix and it works great. Also on my iPad to connect to ABC Player, Netflix and last.fm.
fantastic service that utilizes the full connection (unlike the alternative VPN services one could choose). I wholeheartedly recommend this service, which I find cheap, reliable and great value”
Chris says:
“I was searching around for a dns so i could watch American crunchyroll and then i gave this site a shoot. And it really works an so easy to setup an use. I’m so much gonna subscribe to this site when my trial is over. By rhe way im on Xbox One :-)”
It must be said that Unblock US is not a VPN, but a smart DNS. A VPN service provide security and privacy while broswing online. They do this by encrypting your data so that anyone monitoring would not know what you are doing; they also mask your IP Address and give you anonymity, by replacing your real IP address by one of their own, and making you appear to be somewhere else. On the other hand, a Smart DNS service neither encrypt your data nor change the IP address of your device.
If you expect Unblock US to give you secure connections (by encrypting your traffic) or anonymity (by giving you a virtual IP address), then you’re expecting a fish to climb trees. What you need is a VPN, not a Smart DNS.
Smart DNS services basically unblock geo-restricted websites giving you access to contents that otherwise wouldn’t be available to you. It does this by changing the DNS of your device and rerouting it through a dedicated server located in the country where that specific website you are trying to access is based.
If you know that Netflix for example has over 13000 titles, but in some countries they only offer 2000 titles; then you’ll understand that users are missing out on a lot of contents because of the location restrictions of streaming services. The solution? Smart DNS.
As a Smart DNS service, what Unblock US promises is to help you access your favorite websites without third-party snooping, redirects, and internet throttling. Do they deliver on this promise?
The cardinal parameters we will be looking at in rating the Unblock US Smart DNS service are the following:
Unblock US is all about unblocking. They have a long list of channels that they unblock for your viewing pleasure. This list consists of over 160 geoblocked channels from around the world, including top channels such as: Netflix, Hulu, HBO GO, BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, Amazon Instant Video, Now TV, Sky Go, Sky Sports and so many more.
It is no longer news that the streaming giant Netflix has been clamping down on VPN services and have successfully blocked a host of VPN services from helping users to beat its geo restrictions. VPN services that give access to Netflix are becoming rarer by the day.
However, Netflix is not a tree, but a water body; and the fish that is Unblock US has shown that while it may fail in climbing trees it has almost unparalleled expertise in swimming the waters. You’ll be hard pressed to see any service (be it VPN) that can match Unblock US Netflix capability. The Unblock US Smart DNS service supports 25 Netflix regions each with different TV shows and movies. The supported Netflix regions are:
| North America | Europe | South America | Asia | Oceania |
| US Canada Mexico | UK Ireland Germany Spain France Portugal Norway Sweden Denmark Netherland Finland Austria Italy Luxembourg Belgium Switzerland | Brazil Argentina Colombia | Japan | Australia New Zealand |
Another interesting thing is that the Unblock US Smart DNS service allows you to make a request to them to add channels that you would want to access but are not currently supported.
Unblock US state that they operate over 100 servers, but they are not as explicit when it comes to the server locations. In their words: “Unblock-Us has several server clusters all over the world. We have a great number over servers, over 100 in fact!”
While most services will provide a list of their server locations, Unblock US do not. However, the supported Netflix regions can give us a glimpse of the locations of their servers, because if they can unblock Netflix in a particular region, then they should operate a server in that region. From the Netflix regions above, we can glean that their server network reaches choice locations in North America and Europe, including South America (Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia), Asia (Japan), and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand).
This is a truly impressive Network in terms of geographical distribution because it covers almost every region of he world. Also, the wide spread of the network ensures that you are very likely to get a particular country that you wish to connect to for the country-specific contents.
The Unblock US service appeals to a lot of users because they offer an extensive package along with the Smart DNS. When you subscribe to Unblock US, along with the Smart DNS, you also get Smart VPN as part of the package. The Smart VPN is not the regular VPN that gives top notch encryption and security, but it adds a layer of security to users connections.
This is especially important because Smart DNS does not give secure connections. The Smart VPN technology that Unblock US adds to the Smart DNS seals the contents of the data that you are transmitting online and protects it from all monitoring elements.
Unblock US supports a wide range of devices and platforms. Infact, the service is compatible with virtually every platform; you can use it on Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android.
These days users do most of their browsing on mobile devices. The Unblock US service can be used on mobile phones; and as a result will appeal to a wide range of users.
You can also use Unblock US on media players such as Smart TVs, and gaming consoles. You can configure it on your routers also. This will save you the time and effort of configuring the service on individual devices; you can simply get it on the router, and connect your devices to the router. The only snag in device compatibility is that the service is not compatible with Linux.
With your one service account, Unblock US allows you to use the service on as many devices as you wish at the same time as long as they are on the same network. This is a very generous offer that will make the service appeal to users who would want to cover family or friends without paying extra to purchase another service account.
The Unblock US service is very easy to use as there is no software to download or install. All you need to do is change your DNS settings; and they provide very detailed and simple guides to help you through the process. After you’re set up, everything gets easier still; you can easily navigate to connect/ disconnect, and choose a server to connect.
VPN services generally slows internet speed, and one reason for that is the encryption involved. The Unblock US service being a Smart DNS service does not do such encryption and as a result is must faster than the regular VPN services.
The speed are obtained by measuring speed when the service is disconnected and comparing it with speed measured when the service is connected. A fast service will have insignificant reduction in network speed. The Unblock US service says this about their speed: “Due to our proprietary technology there is no loss of speed when using our service vs. direct connection”
However, my tests showed that the service dropped speed (albeit an insignificant drop). On the average, download speed and upload speed were reduced by a measly 3% and 2% respectively. If you consider that some services drop speed by as much as 50% and are still considered fast; then you’ll have to agree that the Unblock US service is super fast. Q.E.D.
The service states explicitly: “We do not maintain logs of customer location or activities online”
Unblock US claims that the very reason that they are a Smart DNS and not a VPN makes them more privacy friendly. They explain that you should have no privacy concern because none of your video/audio content or unrelated traffic goes through them, that they only reroute your DNS queries.
The Unblock US service is currently based in Barbados which is a privacy haven. While in the U.S. and in many countries across Europe there are anti privacy laws that makes it mandatory for a service provider to collect and store users’ data, in Barbados there are different data protection laws that protect users privacy.
It is worth noting that Unblock US has not always been based in Barbados. When the service started in 2010, they were based in Toronto, Canada. They moved operations to Barbados in response to proposed Canadian legislation that would have required them to keep logs on customer activities for 6 months. This shows that the service is committed to not keeping logs that will compromise the privacy of their users.
Also, Barbados is also not a member of any surveillance network such the X-Eyes alliances. With Unblock US, you can be assured that local laws will not prevail on the service to keep logs that will compromie your privacy; you can also do your online activities with peace of mind knowing that you are free from the invasive practices of intelligence agencies and surveillance alliances.
The Unblock US service provides the support channels we’ve come to know. The self help channels and the direct contact channels.
For self help, the service has an FAQ section and guides. The guides holds detailed instructions for setting up the service on the devices supported. Since there are a host of devices supported, the guides are quite many covering every supported device. They are also very simple and contains all the details needed to get up and running. The FAQs has answers to the many questions that users have asked in the past; generally, each answer provided sufficiently answered the question it addressed.
If you need to contact one of the cutomer rep of the service, you can do that through their email support service. The company endeavours to answer all email inquiries as fast as possible (specifically under one hour from submission of inquiry, sometimes even within a few minutes). This is a very good response time, because many services can keep you waiting for up to 24 to 48 hours.
They do not have a live chat feature, but the fast response of the email service make up for this. Unblock US advertises that they have a 24/ 7 customer support service. When I learnt that they don’t have a live chat service, I wondered how their support service could be 24/ 7. I got my answer from the timeliness of their email service; infact, it is a pseudo-live chat service.
They also have a forum that allows you communicate with experts and ask them questions you might have about the service.
Unblock US has one service plan divided into two packages by billing periods. The packages have the same features, the only difference between them is the length of time that you have to access the service.
The two packages are: a monthly package, and a yearly package. The Unblock US monthly package cost $4.99; while the annual package cost $49.90.
The pricing model shows that you will be better off by going for the longer term package. The annual package is discounted by about 16.5%, to take about $10.00 off the total payment.
One down side of Unblock US pricing is that they do not have a mid term package between the monthly package and the annual package. This tend to reduce the number of persons that will subscribe to the service, because there are many users who would want more than one month of service but do not want to make the long term commitment of a one year package. These users would have been served by short term deals such as a three months deal or a six months deal.
Unblock US does not support a wide range of payment method. You can only make payments with PayPal and credit/ debit cards (specifically Visa and Master Card). This reiterate the fact that the Unblock US service is not really about privacy. The payment methods that the service supports require users to submit personal information such as credit card information when making payments; and this information can be used to track down any particular user. The very privacy focused services (which are usually VPN services) are now supporting methods that allow users pay anonymousmy such as bitcoin and other crypto currencies.
When you pay for a service, you have some expectations; and you’ll agree with me that it’ll be very frustrating if the service cannot meet those expectations.
Unblock US ensures that you do not pay for the service until you have made sure that the service satisfactorily meets your expectation of it. They do this by offering a free trial of seven days.
Unblock US advices using the free trial; in their words: “Please be sure to take advantage of our free trial to make sure the service will work for you“.
Another interesting thing about the Unblock US free trial is that you do not have to submit credit card information when signing up for it. Some services that offer free trials will require you to submit payment information when signing up. They do this so that they will automatically move you to a paid plan and charge you accordingly at the end of the trial period, except you cancel your account before the trial period ends.
Call me whatever, but I detest the practise. I strongly hold that users (and users alone) should make the decision to move to a paid plan, and that is if they were satisfied with the service during the trial period. Service providers shouldn’t force subscription on users assuming that their service was satisfactory.
You know already, I love that Unblock US does not force a subscription on users after the trial period ends. There is nothing to cancel to avoid being automatically moved to a paid plan and charged.
The Unblock US service cannot climb trees: they do not encrypt data and so do not give secured connections, and they do not give virtual IP addresses and so do not give anonymity. They cannot climb trees not because of any failing on their part; they’re simply not a tree climbing animal. They’re not a VPN service and cannot give you the online protection that a regular VPN would.
But in the deep waters of restrictions, they swim with unrivalled excellence; they unblock a lot of regions, and they give access to a lot of geo restricted channels including Netflix (in up to 25 regions). They are lightening fast; and you can stream and watch your favourite movies and shows without any throttling or interruptions, and on virtually any device because they are compatible with almost every device.
Though they do not pretend to give users secure connections, they add Smart VPN to their offering in other to give users’ connection a layer of security; and to give users privacy, they do not keep logs and even had to change their location so as to avoid from keeping logs.
If you want to bypass geo blocked channels for an optimum entertainment life; look no further. The Unblock US Smart DNS service was made with you in mind.
The only downside of this excellent Smart DNS service will be their incompatibility with Linux.
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