ClearVPN Review – Is It the Best VPN for Mac

For those, who love CleanMyMac X and other tools offered by MacPaw, here’s good news, MacPaw is now offering a VPN known as ClearVPN for Mac. This new entrée, in the VPN industry, was launched in late 2020, and it offers a safe browsing experience thereby, allowing unblocking geo-restricted sites.

The VPN focuses on offering security and anonymity what users look for but it sometimes lags. Here’s a detailed review of ClearVPN.

What is ClearVPN

Offered by MacPaw, ClearVPN is a VPN service that stresses letting users access restricted sites. The idea behind creating this VPN is to allow Mac users, access their favorite services and apps with a single click without any problem.

In simple words, ClearVPN aims to make Mac users’ life as easy as possible, and for this, it uses DynamicFlow technology.

A technique that automatically selects optimum servers based on location, purpose, and network condition. This saves users from the hassle of juggling multiple servers, thus establishing a fast and interruption-free connection.

What made us test ClearVPN?

MacPaw, being a renowned name in the market for  optimization tools, duplicate file cleaner, file encryption utility, and so on, when launched VPN, we were curious to find out if it’s worth some attention or not.

Hence, we decided to dig deep and know more about ClearVPN. Here are our findings in the form of an in-depth review.

ClearVPN Review – The Best Wi-Fi Spot Protection VPN for Mac

Overall 4/5

Price 4/5

This excellent VPN for Mac offers both free and premium versions.

Where the free version allows accessing limited shortcuts, streaming services, and personalization features, the premium version gives unrestricted access to all the features and you can connect to servers in specific countries. Moreover, the premium version allows connecting up to 6 devices.

So, there are two convenient subscription options tailored to suit your needs:

Monthly Subscription: Enjoy the flexibility of a monthly plan with a complimentary 3-day trial. For just $9.99 per month, unlock uninterrupted access to our premium features.

Yearly Subscription: Optimize your savings with our yearly subscription, inclusive of a 3-day trial. For only $44.99 annually, secure a full year of premium benefits, ensuring uninterrupted enjoyment and exclusive perks.

This price breakup is still cheap as compared to names like ExpressVPN and PIA.

However, backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee, you get enough time to test and decide whether you want to use ClearVPN or not. Using credit/debit cards, PayPal and UnionPay, you can pay for CleanVPN, the best VPN with security-focused features.

Ease of Use 4.5/5

When it comes to user interfaces no one can beat MacPaw. The same is evident when you look at the CleanVPN interface. This means even a novice can use it to secure connections and access the web anonymously in a couple of clicks.

 

ClearVPN has recently undergone significant changes as far as User Interface is concerned. It goes without saying that it has become more user-friendly even for standard users who might be using VPN for the first time on their Mac.

What adds to its ease of use is its new use flow. It now features three different presets namely Location changer, Smart connection, and Streaming. Let’s discuss each of these in brief –

• Location changer – As the name suggests, as soon as you choose a location or country, you will be connected to a safe server in that country.

• Smart connection – This feature helps ClearVPN set up most efficiently based on the priority you have chosen. For example, you can pick an optimal IP address based on your current location while preserving speed. Or, you can choose to connect to a server in a country that has fewest web restrictions.

Speed 4/5

For a VPN that allows unblocking streaming sites and other restricted content, offering a lag-free speed is important. In this area, ClearVPN is a sure-shot winner as it offers great speed.

With the recent updates, the connection speed has improved significantly on all servers as a result it is much faster than before. Talking of servers, the latest version of ClearVPN offers more servers each of which offers a decent connection speed.

if you are close to any of the locations provided by ClearVPN, you can enjoy connection speed without any drops.

In addition to this, ClearVPN’s DynamicFlow technology will save you from the hassle of picking the right server. This means you can stream Full HD content without any latency as the right server will be automatically selected for you.

This VPN for Mac is easy to use and the server switching is simple. The only thing you need to do is select the purpose for the VPN, select location, and click Activate. That’s it, now the best VPN for Mac will do things on its own.

Additional Information

Speed plays an important role when testing VPN. If it offers a speed similar to a regular internet connection, we consider it best. But trust us, to some extent this determinant is pointless. Wondering why?

Simple, as new servers pop up daily internet speed is affected. Moreover, the speed varies from location to location. Having said that, ClearVPN offers a decent speed when used for torrenting, streaming content, downloading and uploading content, and so on.

Security 4/5

The main purpose of using a VPN is to securely mask IP addresses, locations, browse geo-restricted data and minimize the risk of disclosing personal information. To achieve this and to offer complete security to the user, ClearVPN employs military-grade AES-256, encryption thus protecting data transmission from attackers.

In addition to this, ClearVPN also uses OpenVPN, IPsec IKEV2, and its protocol, for data transfer. The latest version of ClearVPN comes armed with a Kill Switch that you can enable in the Settings. The Kill Switch prevents traffic leaks in case your internet connection drops.

Alongside providing great security, ClearVPN offers some extras like an ad blocker to stop unwanted ads from spoiling the online experience, malware blockers, and safe chats to safeguard the privacy of your emails.

Privacy 5/5

MacPaw values users’ privacy and hence ClearVPN works on the no-log policy. This means, even though MacPaw is headquartered in Ukraine it doesn’t store user’s data (Since, Ukraine is not a member of the 5, 9, and 14 Eyes Alliance, MacPaw, or for that matter ClearVPN is not bound by data retention laws.)

 

 

Location 4/5

The reinvented ClearVPN offers stable and fast servers in over 40 countries. You can now browse the internet with more freedom even if you are in another part of the world. It offers servers in many other countries apart from servers in Norway, Denmark, Canada, UK, US, Singapore, Greece, Germany, Ireland, Ukraine, The Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Australia, France, Switzerland, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates.

Additional Information

Only paying attention to the number of servers or locations when deciding which is the best VPN for Mac, is wrong. One should always keep the ratio of servers to countries in mind. This means a VPN that has more servers with a fewer user base will give better speed than one with lots of servers and twice the number of users. This will overburden the VPN.

Customer Support 5/5

Unlike popular VPNs, this newcomer does great when it comes to the customer support department. It offers live-chat support that comes in handy when you are looking for quick solutions.

Streaming

ClearVPN allows unblocking restricted content offered by Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, etc.

Number of Devices

Using a single account of ClearVPN, you can simultaneously connect up to 6 devices. This might not attract you as some VPNs offer unlimited connections. But looking at others who don’t allow more than 2, six devices is a quite generous device limit.

Multilingual support

ClearVPN is now available in five languages: English, Ukrainian, Spanish, French, and German. This expansion allows ClearVPN users to navigate the platform and access its innovative features in their preferred language. By offering support in multiple languages, ClearVPN aims to enhance accessibility and ensure a seamless experience for users worldwide.

ClearVPN – Alternatives

For Mac users, ClearVPN is a decent option, but if you are looking for something that has been in the market for a long, try using NordVPN, CyberGhost, ExpressVPN. These are some good alternatives for ClearVPN and they too offer security and geo-restriction unblocking.

We hope you will give it a try. Do share your feedback in the comments section.