SoftEther VPN Providers Compared: Paid Services and Free VPN Gate
SoftEther is software, so the download alone gives you nothing to connect to: you need a provider running the servers. Eleven services on this list do, all drawn from the site's main ranking: nine consumer VPNs, one Smart DNS service (SmartyDNS) and the free VPN Gate relay network. RocketVPN tops the page because the scoring puts 40% on censorship bypass, CactusVPN is the stronger privacy pick with an independent audit, VPN Jantit costs €0.86 a month, and VPN Gate works for nothing but logs who connects. Read more
Sorted by this page’s weighting: Censorship bypass weighs 40% on this page. Each row also shows the overall score.
Ready-made lists
- Works under heavy blocking
- Anonymous
- Honest free
- Trial without a card
- No price rise at renewal
- Netflix and streaming
- Gaming
- For business
All filters by topic: Price and payment · Anonymity and privacy · VPN security · VPN protocols · VPNs by platform · VPNs by use case · Travel and restrictions · VPN jurisdictions · VPN servers by country · VPN customer support · VPN segments
| # | Service | Page score | Protocols | Clients and configs | Obfuscation | From | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RocketVPN | 4.01overall 3.70 | WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec… | — | Yes V2Ray TLS camouflage,… | Protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec…; Obfuscation: yes (V2Ray TLS camouflage,… | €3.59per month |
| 2 | CactusVPN | 3.51overall 4.17 | WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec… | — | Yes obfsproxy, VPN over ICMP/DNS | Protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec…; Obfuscation: yes (obfsproxy, VPN over ICMP/DNS) | €3.41per month |
| 3 | VPN Jantit | 3.39overall 2.82 | WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec… | accounts/configs for third-party… | Yes Reality, SSH WS/CDN, SlowDNS | Protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec…; Clients and configs: accounts/configs for third-party…; Obfuscation: yes (Reality, SSH WS/CDN, SlowDNS) | €0.86per month |
| 4 | Hide.me | 3.36overall 3.97 | WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, SSTP… | — | Yes StealthGuard; SoftEther for… | Protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, SSTP…; Obfuscation: yes (StealthGuard; SoftEther for… | €2.69per month |
| 5 | SmartyDNS | 3.23overall 3.38 | OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec, SSTP… | manual connections mentioned… | Yes Obfsproxy | Protocols: OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec, SSTP…; Clients and configs: manual connections mentioned…; Obfuscation: yes (Obfsproxy) | €3.58per month |
| 6 | VPNCity | 2.65overall 2.56 | WireGuard, OpenVPN, SoftEther, Shadowsocks | — | Yes (Easy Firewall Traversal)… | Protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN, SoftEther, Shadowsocks; Obfuscation: yes (Easy Firewall Traversal)… | €1.43per month |
| 7 | IPBurger VPN | 1.87overall 2.65 | OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, SoftEther | — | — | Protocols: OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, SoftEther | €4.65per month |
| 8 | HideIPVPN | 1.55overall 2.19 | WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec… | — | — | Protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec… | €2.57per month |
| 9 | VPN Gate | 1.00overall 1.02 | OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, SSTP, SoftEther | .ovpn files; L2TP/SSTP settings… | No | Protocols: OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, SSTP, SoftEther; Clients and configs: .ovpn files; L2TP/SSTP settings…; Obfuscation: no | — |
| 10 | BullVPN | 0.90overall 1.28 | OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec, SoftEther | — | — | Protocols: OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec, SoftEther | €4.15per month |
| 11 | 24vc | 0.64overall 0.91 | OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, SoftEther | — | — | Protocols: OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, SoftEther | €4.30per month |
SoftEther VPN providers at the top of this list
| Service | Page score | Overall | Registered in | Cheapest plan | Money-back | Devices |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RocketVPN | 4.01 | 3.7 | USA | €3.59/mo (12 months) | none | 5 |
| CactusVPN | 3.51 | 4.17 | Moldova | €3.41/mo (2 years) | 30 days (not for crypto) | unlimited per household |
| VPN Jantit | 3.39 | 2.82 | Indonesia | $1 per 30 days in points (€0.86) | refunds as points | 10 per VPN |
The two scores order the same services differently, and that is the point: the page preset rewards bypass, the overall formula weights privacy and security more. RocketVPN treats every payment as final but offers a 24-hour trial without a card. CactusVPN locks its renewal price while the subscription stays active, and Jantit never auto-renews; you top up points.
Why bypass decides the order here
SoftEther itself earns no bypass credit. Its native protocol wraps Ethernet frames in HTTPS on TCP 443, which passes firewalls that only allow web traffic, but it is not an obfuscation technology. The heavy 40% weight of the bypass sub-score goes to what a provider runs alongside it: VLESS with Reality, Shadowsocks, Hysteria2, AmneziaWG. RocketVPN and VPN Jantit both hit 4.8 that way, while CactusVPN's obfsproxy plus VPN over ICMP and DNS land at 1.9.
Each leader carries one visible flaw. RocketVPN ships without DNS leak protection or a kill switch, leaks were found, and security drops to 1.1. Jantit has no no-logs policy and stores connection IPs, which crushes privacy to 0.3 and earns the site's red flag. CactusVPN holds the highest overall score, a Securitum audit, kill switch, DoH-based leak protection and split tunnelling, but its network covers only 25 countries and there is no trial. Across all eleven, only 5 publish a kill switch: when the tunnel drops, traffic leaks.
VPN Gate or a paid SoftEther provider
VPN Gate is a free academic experiment by the University of Tsukuba, the same team behind SoftEther, listing 3137 volunteer relays and requiring no registration. The catch sits in its own rules: connection logs kept centrally for at least 3 months, packet headers on each volunteer server for at least 2 weeks, handed to police on request. Fine for a quick foreign IP to reach a blocked site, useless for privacy. The VPN Gate card explains the score of 1.00 and 9th place.
Connecting to a SoftEther server on each device
| Device | Client | Protocol to pick |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | official SoftEther VPN Client Manager | native SSL-VPN on TCP 443 |
| macOS | built-in VPN settings or OpenVPN app | L2TP/IPsec or OpenVPN |
| iPhone, Android | built-in L2TP/IPsec or OpenVPN app | L2TP/IPsec with the provider's shared key |
| Router | router firmware | L2TP or OpenVPN |
The Client Manager exists only for Windows; everyone else connects through SoftEther's L2TP/IPsec or OpenVPN modes. Type the L2TP pre-shared key exactly as issued, since one wrong character kills the handshake. A provider's kill switch does not extend to the SoftEther client or the OS's built-in dialer. And skip PPTP where offered (6 of the 11 list it): its encryption broke long ago.
Running your own SoftEther VPN server instead
The server software is free under the Apache 2.0 licence from the official project site, and one build runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD and Solaris while speaking SSL-VPN, OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, MS-SSTP, EtherIP and L2TPv3 at once. Self-hosting on a VPS makes sense for a fixed exit IP or reaching home devices through NAT. A provider buys you many countries, apps and a shared IP pool instead. The site's OpenVPN vs SoftEther comparison covers the protocol choice in detail.
SoftEther FAQ
Is SoftEther VPN free?
The software is. Provider servers cost money; VPN Gate and self-hosting are the free routes.
Is SoftEther VPN safe to use?
The code is open source and actively patched. The real risk is what the server operator logs.
Does SoftEther get past DPI?
The HTTPS wrapper passes basic firewalls, but strict censorship calls for obfuscation layered on top.
Can I use SoftEther on iPhone?
Yes, via L2TP/IPsec or OpenVPN to any SoftEther server.
Which SoftEther provider to pick
RocketVPN if bypassing blocks matters most and its missing kill switch is tolerable. CactusVPN for the audited no-logs policy and locked renewal price. VPN Jantit for a €0.86 month if you accept stored connection IPs. VPN Gate for a free one-off hop when logging is irrelevant.