Every time I get to review a VPN service with a seemingly comical name, I always question whether it’s even worth it or not. But after reviewing Goose VPN, I can definitely say that you should never judge a book by its cover, or in this case — by its name.
If you want a VPN service that’s very simplistic in design, fast, comes with all the basic features, works with Netflix, and is also affordable, then Goose VPN is perfect for you.
But is it better than its competitors? Is it worth getting in 2023? Does it have what it takes to be recommended on TheVPNExperts? Read on to find out.
Key Findings from GooseVPN Review
| Servers | Multiple servers in 20+ countries |
| Best feature | Best Feature 256-Bit encryption, Kill switch, DNS leak protection, auto-connect |
| Does Goose VPN work with Netflix? | Yes, and it also works great with Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, but didn’t work with BBC iPlayer and Disney+ |
| Is Goose VPN good for Torrenting? | Supports torrenting on a few P2P servers |
| Customer Support | No live chat support |
| Money back guarantee | 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Goose VPNPricing | $189.33/mo 5-year plan |
| Other findings | Zero Traffic Logs & works great with Firestick |
Goose VPN Speed Test Analysis
When I tested out the speed of Goose VPN with my 100 Mbps connection, I was actually quite amazed by how it performed. Even though Goose VPN doesn’t come with the “automatic best server location” option, it still managed to offer great speeds even when I manually picked different servers.
To make my speed test as comprehensive as possible, I tested out both short and long-distance servers offered by Goose VPN. It offers multiple servers (exact number undisclosed) in 20+ countries. Here’s how Goose VPN performed in my speed test:
| Countries | Distance | Download Speed | Upload Speed | Ping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 14792.34 km | 57.75 Mbps | 41.34 Mbps | 286 ms |
| Canada, P2P server | 6453.43 km | 82.09 Mbps | 96 Mbps | 210 ms |
| Switzerland, P2P server | 627.7 km | 88 Mbps | 90.09 Mbps | 148 ms |
| United Kingdom | 677.04 km | 89.75 Mbps | 91.09 Mbps | 176 ms |
| Singapore | 10468.58 km | 93.92 Mbps | 87.09 Mbps | 88 ms |
| USA, Streaming server | 7505.72 km | 70.59 Mbps | 45.25 Mbps | 233 ms |
When I was testing Goose VPN, I made sure to select servers dispersed all over the world just to get a proper idea of its performance. One thing I found missing was an option for automatic server selection. That’s something other VPNs like CyberGhost offer.
However, since Goose VPN displays network strength with a small Wi-Fi symbol in front of each server location within the app, it makes it very convenient to pick fast and stable servers. Anyways, let’s look at how Goose VPN performed over short and long-distance servers.
Short distance servers
Since I’m physically headquartered in the Netherlands, I decided to connect to the United Kingdom and Switzerland server locations first because they were only approximately 600 Kms away from me.
Through my ISP (T-Mobile) in the Netherlands, I first connected to the UK server using my 100 Mbps connection. When I ran a quick speed test, I managed to get a download speed of 89.75 Mbps, an upload speed of 91.09 Mbps, and a ping of 176 ms. That’s a 10.25% decrease in download speed and an 8.91% decrease in upload speed, which is barely noticeable.
The Swiss server also performed exceptionally well. When I ran the test, I managed to get a download speed of 88 Mbps, an upload speed of 90.09 Mbps with a significantly low 145 ms ping.
Streaming and playing games with these servers was also a pleasure. I managed to stream Netflix shows in proper HD quality and play even play 1080p videos on YouTube without any lag or connectivity issues.
I also played a couple of sessions of PUBG with GooseVPN and had nothing to complain about. During the 5-6 matches that I played, I never noticed my pings exceeding 200 ms which was quite impressive.
Overall, if we talk about short-distance servers, Goose VPN is definitely fast. Now let’s check out how Goose VPN performs over long-distance servers.
Long-distance servers
To test out the long-distance speed performance of Goose VPN, I chose server locations like USA, Singapore, Canada, and Australia.
With the Australian server, I did notice my speeds drop slightly. However, I wouldn’t say dramatically. Since the server I was connected to was 14792.34 km away from me, I managed to get a download speed of 57.74 Mbps and 41.34 Mbps upload speed.
Next, I connected to the Canadian server, but this time I managed to get an impressive download speed of 82.09 Mbps and an upload speed of 96 Mbps.
As for the remaining two locations, I managed to get a download speed of 93.92 Mbps from the Singapore server and a 70.59 Mbps download speed from the US server. So just to summarize, Goose VPN is definitely capable of delivering fast speeds on short and long-distance servers.
Goose VPN Passed DNS Leak tests
Aside from speed, one thing every VPN should offer is leak protection. You just can’t risk using a VPN that can expose your identity and online browsing habits. Luckily, Goose VPN actually comes with a built-in DNS leak protection option.
To test out whether Goose VPN was prone to VPN to leaks, I connected to several server locations and ran multiple leak tests. Impressively, Goose VPN managed to pass all my tests without any issues. Here’s a screenshot of the test result.
Since I was connected to the U.S server, my Netherlands’ original IP address is masked and nowhere to be seen. My IPv6 address is not reachable and the DNS server that I’m connected to is also from the U.S and not from the Netherlands as you can see from the screenshot.
That’s a clear sign that Goose VPN is actually leak proof.
I also conducted leak tests for other server locations as well. Here’s a neat little table with all the leak test results.
| Countries | IP Leak | DNS Leak |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | Passed | Passed |
| Canada, P2P server | Passed | Passed |
| Switzerland, P2P server | Passed | Passed |
| United Kingdom | Passed | Passed |
| USA, Streaming server | Passed | Passed |
| Singapore | Passed | Passed |
So overall, Goose VPN passed all my leak tests without failing once. It’s DNS leak protection option is watertight and actually world as advertised.
Goose VPN Can Unblock Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, but not Disney Plus & BBC iPlayer
But considering the fact that it still managed to unblock most streaming services with ease and it offers optimized streaming servers, I think that Goose VPN is a good option for streaming in 2020.
When I tried unblocking U.S Netflix, I just connected to the “USA, Streaming server” and searched for “Incredibles 2”. Within a couple of seconds, I was able to stream the movie without encountering any buffering issues or proxy errors.
Here’s a screenshot of my Netherlands IP address why I’m physically located:
Now here’s a screenshot of me playing “Incredibles 2” on Netflix U.S with the “USA, Streaming server”:
Then after that, I tried accessing BBC iPlayer, but unfortunately, that didn’t work because of proxy issues. Even after trying both U.K server locations, I was still unable to unblock the BBC iPlayer. Here’s a screenshot of that:
I also tried accessing Disney Plus and that too didn’t work. When I clicked on the Login button, the screen got stuck and was unable to type in my username and password. I tried multiple times even after clearing my web cache but nothing seemed to work.
But on the plus side, Hulu worked flawlessly with GooseVPN. With the US streaming server, I was able to stream “Rick and Morty” without any issues. Here’s a screenshot of that:
I also tried streaming Amazon Prime and it also worked great with GooseVPN. Here’s a screenshot of me playing a random movie on Amazon Prime with GooseVPN.
Last but not least, I also tried playing content on Kodi with GooseVPN and that worked out quite well too. But do keep in mind that since there’s no GooseVPN Kodi add-on that you can install, you will have to run Goose VPN in the background when streaming any movie or show on Kodi.
So just to conclude, Goose VPN might not be the ultimate streaming VPN, but it works with most streaming services and actually gets the job done without any annoyance.
Goose VPN is a Great Option for Torrenting
When it comes to torrenting performance, Goose VPN is great. Just like it offers streaming servers, it also offers P2P servers. It also offers unlimited bandwidth, DNS leak protection, Kill switch and a no-logs policy which are all ideal features for downloading torrents securely.
To test out Goose VPN’s torrenting performance, I first connected to its “Germany, P2P server”. When I started to download a 5.23 GiB large file, I managed to achieve a downloading speed of around 1.3 MiB/s and an uploading speed of 0 B/s with 3 seeds.
Even after connecting to other P2P servers like Denmark, Bulgaria, Canada, and Switzerland, I barely noticed any connection issues or speed drops. Overall, considering Goose VPN’s torrenting performance and its features, I think it deserves 10/10 points.
Goose VPN Offers Awesome Apps
The user experience of Goose VPN is very minimalistic and easy. Even a new VPN user should have no issues using Goose VPN.
The Windows setup file of Goose VPN is very small in size and takes up only 13.8 Mbps. It literally takes just a few minutes to get installed. The same goes for the macOS app of Goose VPN as well.
The iOS and Android apps, both are very well designed and easy to use. Part of the reason may be why the iOS app has a 4.7 and the Android app has a 3.6-star rating.
As far as ease of use is considered, I like that Goose VPN doesn’t clutter tons of options together that no one would probably ever use. It comes with few options which are all organized into different tabs.
I really like the fact that the app mentions which servers are optimized for streaming and which ones are optimized for torrenting. I find it really handy.
I also like that Goose VPN gives you popup notifications telling you that you’re not connected to Goose VPN. This way, you’ll never forget. I’m clumsy so I find it very handy. Overall, Goose VPN is super user-friendly.
Goose VPN Offers a Legit No-Logging Policy
The only way to fully trust any VPN service is if it keeps no logs. Otherwise, what’s the point of using a VPN in the first place. If we talk about Goose VPN, it is actually a no-logs VPN service. If you head over to their privacy policy page, you’ll see that they clearly mention not collecting any usage logs. They do log bandwidth usage; however, that’s something you don’t have to worry about as it is pretty standard.
Here’s a snippet from their privacy policy:
Goose does not save any registrations of internet activities of users (for example, websites visited, DNS-search results, e-mails sent and received, usernames or entered passwords, etc.) in a cache memory nor does it collect this, or save this, or aggregates this, or use this through the network servers of GOOSE VPN.
So, judging by their privacy policy, I think GooseVPN is trustworthy and legitimately doesn’t keep any logs.
GooseVPN Offers a 30-Days Money-Back Guarantee – Proven
Like most top-tier VPNs, Goose VPN offers a 30-days money-back guarantee. However, there’s just one problem. You see, you can only get a refund if you consume 100MB of data. If you go over the limit, you will not be eligible for a refund. That’s something I find quite weird because 100MBs is just not enough to test out any VPN service.
But to be fair, at least they’ll refund you your money, unlike some other VPNs that I’ve talked about in my refund policy expose.
Anyways, as I was saying, when I asked Goose VPN’s support team for a refund via email, I got a reply within a couple of hours. That’s not too bad, but having a live chat option would have been better.
After telling them that I needed a refund, their support team quickly checked my account details and processed my refund request there and then. After waiting for around 10 days, I got my money back in my bank account. Overall, completely satisfied with their refund process.
Key Features of Goose VPN
If we talk about features, GooseVPN is decently equipped. Although it doesn’t come with a lot of advanced features, I still think that it offers a decent amount of features for its price. Following are some of the highlighted features of Goose VPN:
- 256-bit AES encryption
- Four protocols (IKEv2, OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP/IPsec)
- Streaming and P2P servers
- Kill Switch
- Three languages (English, Dutch & German)
- DNS leak protection
256-bit AES encryption
Goose VPN offers strong 256-bit AES encryption which is the industry standard nowadays. It is super secure and keeps your sensitive data hidden from the prying eyes of ISPs, cybercriminals, and government agencies.
Four protocols (IKEv2, OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP/IPsec)
Aside from encryption, GooseVPN also offers industry-standard VPN protocols. You can pick between IKEv2, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, and OpenVPN. If you’re not sure which protocol to use, I like that Goose VPN gives you an option for automatic protocol selection. That’s something a lot of people might appreciate.
One thing you’re not going to find in GooseVPN is the new WireGuard protocol. That’s something other VPN providers are offering nowadays.
Streaming and P2P servers
One thing not many VPN providers offer is optimized servers for different uses. But what I love about GooseVPN is that it offers and labels both P2P and streaming servers in its apps.
This makes it super easy to know which server you’re supposed to use when downloading torrents and which serves to use while using streaming services like Netflix.
Kill Switch
Like most VPN nowadays, GooseVPN comes standard with a Kill Switch feature. It works as advertised and the good thing is, you can actually turn on or off this feature, unlike CyberGhost. You can find this feature in the connections tab.
Three languages (English, Dutch & German)
Another feature, or should I say a customizable option available in GooseVPN, is that you can choose between three different languages. You can either use the entire app in English, Dutch, or German. That is pretty cool, I guess.
DNS leak protection
Last but not least, GooseVPN offers DNS leak protection. This is one feature not many VPN providers offer. I’m not sure why. Thankfully, GooseVPN gives you an option to enable or disable this feature as well. I have tested this feature and it worked flawlessly without failing once.
Analysis of Servers
Another thing that I find weird about GooseVPN is that they don’t offer any Middle Eastern servers. Literally every other VPN nowadays offers servers in a few Middle Eastern countries like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. In comparison, Surfshark, which only costs $2.30/mo offers 3200+ servers and better coverage in my opinion.
While we’re talking about servers, I think that I should also mention that GooseVPN doesn’t offer any servers in China. It does, however, offer servers in Hong Kong. Well, talk about its performance in China a bit later on in this review so stick around.
Goose VPN Apps Compatibility
As far as app compatibility is concerned, Goose VPN is quite good. Currently, it offers apps for almost all operating systems and devices.
Since it is compatible with routers, that means that you can use it on other devices like gaming consoles and even popular smart TVs. Best of all, I think it’s great that you can use a single subscription plan on unlimited devices simultaneously.
Here are all the devices that Goose VPN supports:
- Windows
- Mac
- Linux
- Android
- Android TV
- iOS
- Chrome
- Routers
GooseVPN for macOS & Windows
Goose VPN offers minimalistic apps for both Windows and macOS. These apps are well-designed and very easy to use. I love how easy it is to select between servers. Moving through different options is very convenient thanks to different tabs. That said, advanced users might prefer more options.
Here’s how the Windows and macOS apps of GooseVPN looks like:
As you can clearly tell, the interface is very basic. I do wish that GooseVPN would have added an option to filter servers based on pings. That would have been quite convenient.
GooseVPN for Android & iOS
The mobile apps of GooseVPN are also very minimalist in design and very easy to use. I personally like that its iOS and Android apps don’t overwhelm you with tons of options, however, some may prefer a more feature-rich user experience.
It all comes down to personal preference.
As for UI experience, you get a massive connect and disconnect button in the middle of the screen and below that you have an option to choose servers either automatically or manually. Speaking of servers, you do options to pick servers for streaming and torrenting which is super handy.
You also get one more option for advanced settings, which lets you choose protocols, turn on or off the “Smart Server” feature, and the “Smart Safe” feature which automatically turns on or off Goose VPN on trusted networks.
Overall, despite the lack of advanced features like Split tunneling or Ad-blockers, I still think Goose VPN’s mobile apps are functional and come with enough features for most people.
Goose VPN Browser Extensions
Goose VPN advertises a browser extension for Chrome, however, it’s not actually available on the Chrome Web Store. That’s something I find very weird.
Although I’m not actually a big fan of VPN browser extensions, I do believe that a lot of people use it just for its convenience. Overall, Goose VPN should definitely add extensions for different browsers in their apps sections.
Goose VPN Router App
Goose VPN is also compatible with routers. You can find installation guides for different routers on their website. Here’s are all the router brands that are compatible with Goose VPN:
- Asus RT-AC66U
- Asus RT-N16/RT-N18U/RT-AC68U/RT-AC87U/RT-AC3200
- Netgear (L2TP mode)
- D-Link 600 (D-Link series with L2TP/PPTP support)
I love that their setup guides are very easy to understand and follow. Even if you’re a newbie, you should have no trouble configuring Goose VPN on your DD-WRT supported router.
But unlike some other VPNs, GooseVPN doesn’t offer preconfigured routers. I looked over at “FlashRouters” but had no luck.
Does it work in China?
Since Goose VPN doesn’t actually offer any servers in China, it’s likely that you’re not going to able to access most Chinese geo-restricted content from outside China even with the Hong Kong server.
Besides, Goose VPN itself accepts the fact that its service and other VPN services are blocked by the Chinese government.
So, if you’re inside China and want to access foreign websites like Google and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, Goose VPN isn’t going to be helpful because of the Great Firewall of China. That’s something my foreign college who resides in mainland China has confirmed.
That being said, you might have some luck in some regions in China if you configure Goose VPN via the Open VPN Connect app beforehand.
Best Alternative to Goose VPN
Although Goose VPN is perfect for a lot of people, some might prefer more advanced features and more servers. After all, GooseVPN does offer fewer servers and features when compared to its competitors like Surfshark and NordVPN.
Even though GooseVPN costs more than Surfshark, it still lacks features like Double hop, Ad-blocker, and Split tunneling. That is something to consider if you’re going to be paying $189.33/mo for GooseVPN.
Overall, I’m not saying that Goose VPN is by any means bad. But I do believe that there are other VPN providers out there that can offer more bang for your buck.
If you want to get a VPN that offers more server and features, you might find my in-depth Surfshark vs NordVPN vs PureVPN and CyberGhost vs ExpressVPN vs Surfshark comparisons helpful.
Do I Recommend Goose VPN?
After extensively testing Goose VPN for a week, I came to the conclusion that Goose VPN is actually perfect for a lot of people. To be honest with you, its basic features and minimalist design is actually what makes it so appealing. After all, I don’t know many people that actually prefer using split tunneling or double hop features.
Overall, if you’re okay with not having thousands of servers or advanced features, then Goose VPN is perfect for you. It is fast, lightweight, functional, and gets the job done every time.
