SmartyDNS review: score, privacy and prices

3.38

out of 10#82 of 377 in the main ranking
Smart DNS median 1.9

  • Smart DNS
  • Jurisdiction:Romania, alliance not disclosed
  • Founded2013
  • Data completeness93%
  • Checked2026-10-15
  • Trial without a card

In 10 seconds

Strongest against its segment

  • Censorship bypass2.9 vs 0.0
  • Security and protocols2.5 vs 0.0
  • Privacy and jurisdiction3.0 vs 1.0

Weakest against its segment

  • Network and streaming2.9 vs 2.3
  • Price and fair terms4.9 vs 4.2
  • Platforms and support5.2 vs 4.3

Compare SmartyDNS side by side with other VPNs

How the score adds up

Six sub-scores, each against the median of Smart DNS services in the main ranking (11 services). Open a line to see which published facts earned points and which were missing or not disclosed.

SmartyDNSsegment median

  • Privacy and jurisdiction30% of the score · segment median 1.03.0
    What earned points
    • No-logs policy +2
    • Independent no-logs audit +3
    • No-logs confirmed in court +1
    • Warrant canary +1
    • Transparency report +1
    • Sign-up without email +1.5
    • Account number sign-up +0.5
    • Stores connection IP (penalty) −3
    • Public incident (penalty) −2
  • Security and protocols20% of the score · segment median 0.02.5
    What earned points
    • Kill switch +2
    • DNS leak protection +1.5
    • RAM-only servers +1
    • Post-quantum encryption +1
    • Perfect forward secrecy +0.5
    • Security audit +2
    • Open-source clients +1.5
    • 2FA +1
    • Multi-hop +1
    • Bug bounty +1
    • Only PPTP / L2TP (penalty) −2
  • Price and fair terms15% of the score · segment median 4.24.9
    What earned points
    • Free plan +1.5
    • Free trial +1
    • Trial without a card +1
    • Crypto payments +1
    • Cash payments +0.5
  • Censorship bypass15% of the score · segment median 0.02.9
    What earned points
    • Stealth / obfuscation +2
    • VLESS / Reality +1.5
    • Trojan +1
    • Hysteria2 +1
    • Shadowsocks +1
    • AmneziaWG +1
    • obfs4 +0.5
    • TUIC +0.5
    • NaiveProxy +0.5
    • Mirrors or Telegram channel +0.5
    • VoIP in the UAE (claimed) +0.5
    • Manual configs +0.5
  • Network and streaming10% of the score · segment median 2.32.9
    What earned points
    • 10 Gbps servers +1
    • Dedicated IP +0.5
    • Port forwarding +0.5
    • MENA locations +0.5
    • Torrenting allowed +1
  • Platforms and support10% of the score · segment median 4.35.2
    What earned points
    • Routers +1
    • Browser extensions +0.5
    • Split tunneling +1
    • Ad / tracker blocker +1
    • 24/7 live chat +2
    • live chat +0.5
    • Support on Telegram +0.5
    • Status page +0.5

SmartyDNS pricing

The cheapest way in is €3.58 a month, paid upfront for the longest term. After that term, SmartyDNS renews at its standard price. Market median across the main ranking: €3.13 a month.

Real cost over 1, 2 and 3 years

What you pay to keep SmartyDNS running: the first term, then renewals at the published renewal price. Where no renewal price is published, plans shorter than a year are counted as repeat payments at the current price; longer plans show a dash after their term. Converted to euros at the rates used in our data (1 USD = €0.86). The lowest cost for each period is marked.

Plan and first termFirst payment1 year2 years3 years
1 Month, 1 mo €6.84 €82.04at the current price€164.09at the current price€246.13at the current price
3 Months, 3 mo €16.30 €65.19at the current price€130.38at the current price€195.56at the current price
1 Year, 12 mo €42.96 €42.96——

Compare SmartyDNS’s full cost with other VPNs, for any number of devices

All plans as published

PlanTermPrice for termPer month€ / monthRenewal term
1 Month1 mo$7.95$7.95€6.841 mo
3 Months3 mo$18.95$6.32€5.443 mo
1 Year12 mo$49.95$4.16€3.5812 mo

Refunds, trial and payment

Refund window
30 days
Refund conditions
30 days if service did not work as advertised; no refund for crypto payments, sites not on unblock list, unlisted devices/OS, or ToS termination
Free trial
3 days, site
Card needed for trial
No
Auto-renewal
Not stated
Payment methods
PayPal; Visa; MasterCard; Amex; Bitcoin & altcoins; Alipay; WebMoney; Boleto Bancario

Everything SmartyDNS publishes

Every fact we collected about SmartyDNS, as the provider and reviewers state it. Empty fields are left out; key fields we could not find say “Not stated”. “Partial”: only on some platforms, servers or plans.

Company

Legal entity
SmartyDNS Inc. (named in affiliate terms)
Registered in
Romania (review)
Founded
2013
Surveillance alliance (5/9/14 Eyes)
Not stated
Website languages
  • EN
  • FR
  • DE
  • ES
  • RU
Right-to-left languages
No
Currencies on the site
USD

Plans, prices and add-ons

Plans
  • 1 Month
  • 3 Months
  • 1 Year (VPN + Smart DNS)
Billing terms
  • 1
  • 3
  • 12 months
Cheapest price a month
$4.16
Monthly plan
$7.95
1-year plan, total
$49.95
1-year plan, a month
$4.16
Lifetime plan
No
Family plan
Not stated
Port forwarding add-on
No
Double VPN add-on
No
Antivirus
No
Password manager
No
eSIM
No
Identity protection
No
Cloud storage
No

Discounts and programmes

Discount shown
47% (1 yr), 20% (3 mo)
Discount compared with
vs monthly price ($95.40 / $23.85)
Sale running when checked
No
Student discount
Not stated
Bonus months
No
Affiliate programme
Yes /affiliates/, manual approval, PayPal payout, min $200
Affiliate network
in-house

Limits and restrictions

Devices at once
5
Data limit
unlimited
Speed limit
unlimited (claim)
Torrenting / P2P policy
Yes torrenting promoted on home page; ToS bans IP infringement
Country restrictions
orders from proxy/VPN IPs not accepted
Prohibited by the terms
  • IP infringement/piracy
  • any illegal activity
  • reverse engineering
  • orders via proxy/VPN IP

Free plan

Free plan
No 3-day free trial
Free data
Not stated
Ads in the free plan
Not stated

Payment and subscription

Payment methods
  • PayPal
  • Visa
  • MasterCard
  • Amex
  • Bitcoin & altcoins
  • Alipay
  • WebMoney
  • Boleto Bancario
Bank card
Yes
PayPal
Yes
Cryptocurrency
Yes via Coingate
Coins accepted
Bitcoin & altcoins
Cash
No
Gift cards
Not stated
Local payment methods
  • Alipay
  • WebMoney
  • Boleto Bancario
Auto-renewal by default
Not stated
Email needed to sign up
Yes only email mandatory
Phone needed to sign up
No optional
Account-number login
No
Identity check (KYC)
No
Money-back guarantee, days
30
Refund conditions
30 days if service did not work as advertised; no refund for crypto payments, sites not on unblock list, unlisted devices/OS, or ToS termination

Free trial terms

Trial length
3 days
Where the trial is offered
site
Trial limits
no credit card, no other limitations (claim)
Card needed for the trial
No

Server locations

Countries
15
Servers
17 locations (16 cities + Singapore)

15 countries listed. A link opens our ranking of VPNs with servers there.

Europe 10

Americas 2

Asia and Oceania 3

Middle East and North Africa
none
Virtual locations
Not stated
P2P servers
Not stated
Obfuscated servers
Yes Obfsproxy

Network features

RAM-only servers
Not stated
IPv6
Not stated
Dedicated IP
No static shared IP
Static IP
Yes static shared IP
Residential IP
Not stated
Double VPN / multi-hop
Not stated
Tor over VPN
Not stated
SOCKS5 proxy
Yes all VPN servers usable as proxies
Smart DNS
Yes core product, 300+ sites

Protocols and encryption

  • WireGuardnot in protocol list✕ No
  • OpenVPN✓ Yes
  • IKEv2✓ Yes
  • L2TP/IPsecL2TP/IPSecYes
  • SSTPYes
  • SoftEther✓ Yes
  • Own protocol✕ No
  • VLESS / Reality✕ No
  • VMess✕ No
  • Trojan✕ No
  • Shadowsocks✕ No
  • Hysteria2✕ No
  • TUICNot stated
  • NaiveProxyNot stated
  • obfs4Obfsproxy✓ Yes
  • AmneziaWGNot stated
  • PPTP128-bit MPPE✕ Yes
Other protocols
selectable VPN protocols in app; DoH
Encryption
AES-256
Perfect forward secrecy
Not stated
Post-quantum encryption
Not stated
Manual configuration files
Yes manual connections mentioned (tutorials)
Open-source apps
Not stated

Censorship and blocking

Obfuscation (stealth mode)
Yes Obfsproxy
Countries it claims to work in
Not stated
Mirror sites or Telegram channel
Not stated
Calls in the UAE
Not stated

Security

Kill switch
Yes system-level and app-level
DNS leak protection
Yes
Own DNS servers
Yes Smart DNS + DoH
Split tunnelling
Yes Android, Android TV, Fire TV
Ad and malware blocker
Not stated
Two-factor sign-in
Not stated
Security audits
Not stated
Bug bounty
Not stated

Privacy

No-logs policy
Yes no connection or activity logs
Independent no-logs audit
No
Shared with third parties
  • payment processors (PayPal, PayPro, Coingate)
  • Google Analytics/Facebook non-personal data
  • law enforcement on subpoena
Trackers on the website
Google Analytics; Facebook
Transparency report
Not stated
Warrant canary
Not stated
Law enforcement requests
discloses registration data on subpoena/court order at own discretion
Copyright (DMCA) notices
removes/blocks content on proper copyright notice
Anonymous sign-up
No email required
GDPR / data protection officer
GDPR-style rights listed; no DPO named

What the privacy policy says is collected

Yes: collected. No: not collected. Partial: kept briefly or only in part. Not stated: the policy does not say.

  • Email✕ Yes
  • IP at sign-uplast website sign-in IP and host, fraud detection✕ Yes
  • Connection IP✓ No
  • Session times✓ No

Apps and devices

  • Windows✓ Yes
  • macOS✓ Yes
  • Linuxmanual setup, Ubuntu tutorial✓ Yes
  • iOS✓ Yes
  • AndroidPlay + APK✓ Yes
  • Android TV✓ Yes
  • Fire TV✓ Yes
  • Apple TVNot stated
  • Chromebookmanual setup tutorial✓ Yes
  • Smart TVNot stated
  • RoutersNot stated
  • NASNot stated
  • Raspberry PiNot stated
  • Game consolesNot stated
Browser extensions
Chrome; Firefox

Speed, streaming and gaming

Claimed speed
unlimited speed and bandwidth
10 Gbps servers
Not stated
Speed test in the app
Yes sort servers by speed
Netflix
Not stated
BBC iPlayer
Yes implied (UK TV unblocking testimonial)
Disney+
Not stated
Prime Video
Not stated
Gaming features
Not stated
Torrenting
Yes promoted

Support

Live chat
Yes
Live chat 24/7
No (live chat during office hours) (review)
Email / tickets
Yes tickets; support@smartydns.com
Phone
Not stated
Telegram
Not stated
WhatsApp
Not stated
Help articles
Yes setup tutorials
Server status page
Not stated

For teams and business

SSO / SAML
Not stated
Admin panel
Not stated
Zero-trust access (ZTNA)
Not stated

What users say

Reviews never change our score. Ratings are smoothed: a source’s average across all VPNs counts as 50 extra reviews, so a few five-star reviews cannot outrank thousands.

No reviews collected for this service.

28 Reddit and forum threads mention SmartyDNS (titles and search snippets only).

Latest reviews and related rankings

Questions about SmartyDNS

Answers built from what SmartyDNS publishes. Open a question to read the details.

Is SmartyDNS safe? Logging policy, audits and jurisdiction

Privacy and jurisdiction 3.0/10 and security 2.5/10 (segment medians 1.0 and 0.0). No red flag in our data. Independent no-logs audit: ✕ No.

In 10 seconds

  • Kill switch

Privacy

Jurisdiction
Romania, alliance not disclosed
Legal entity
SmartyDNS Inc. (named in affiliate terms)
No-logs policy
Yes no connection or activity logs
Shared with third parties
payment processors (PayPal, PayPro, Coingate); Google Analytics/Facebook non-personal data; law enforcement on subpoena
Trackers on the website
Google Analytics; Facebook

Security

Kill switch
Yes (yes (system-level and app-level))
DNS leak protection
Yes
Encryption
AES-256
Two-factor sign-in
Not stated

SmartyDNS not working? Common causes and what to check

4 things to check, built from what SmartyDNS publishes about its apps, protocols and support. We do not test connections ourselves.

What to check

Switch protocol in the app: SmartyDNS lists OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec, SSTP, SoftEther, obfs4.

If the network blocks VPNs, turn on obfuscation (Obfsproxy).

Try a manual configuration (manual connections mentioned (tutorials)).

Contact support: live chat, email.

Support when the VPN is blocked

Live chat
Yes
Live chat 24/7
No (live chat during office hours) (review)
Email
Yes tickets; support@smartydns.com

SmartyDNS refund policy: how to ask for your money back

SmartyDNS refund window: 30 days. Conditions: 30 days if service did not work as advertised; no refund for crypto payments, sites not on unblock list, unlisted devices/OS, or ToS…

Refund terms

Refund window
30
Conditions
30 days if service did not work as advertised; no refund for crypto payments, sites not on unblock list, unlisted devices/OS, or ToS termination
Refund on monthly plans
Not stated
Refund for App Store / Google Play purchases
Not stated
Refund for unused time
Not stated
Free trial
3

SmartyDNS free trial: length, terms and payment details

SmartyDNS free trial: 3, site. Card needed: no.

Trial terms

Length
3
Card needed
No
Limits
no credit card, no other limitations (claim)
Refund window
30
Free plan
No 3-day free trial

SmartyDNS coupons and discounts: official prices and promo terms

SmartyDNS publishes no promo code on its own site in what we read, so we list none. We never invent codes or copy them from coupon sites; below are the official prices.

Discounts on the official site

Promo codes
Not stated
Sale running when checked
No
Discount shown
47% (1 yr), 20% (3 mo)
Discount compared with
vs monthly price ($95.40 / $23.85)
Bonus months
No
Checked
2026-10-15

Who owns SmartyDNS? Company, jurisdiction and related brands

SmartyDNS is run by SmartyDNS Inc. (named in affiliate terms), registered in Romania (review).

Company

Registered in
Romania (review)
Founded
2013

Jurisdiction

In our rankings

SmartyDNS appears on 201 topic pages. Its place on each:

Show all 201

Owner and jurisdiction

Sources and changes

Collected 2026-10-15. No changes recorded since the first import.

Website
https://smartydns.com
Pages checked
["https://www.smartydns.com/", "https://www.smartydns.com/pricing/", "https://www.smartydns.com/features/", "https://www.smartydns.com/terms-conditions/", "https://www.smartydns.com/free-vpn-trial/", "https://www.smartydns.com/vpn-app/"]
Other sources used
simultaneous_devices/protocols/encryption/p2p_policy/port_forwarding/dedicated_ip/static_ip: https://www.smartydns.com/support/faq-vpn/; servers_count/countries_list/socks5_proxy: https://www.smartydns.com/vpn-server-locations/; linux/chromebook: https://www.smartydns.com/support/vpn-setup-tutorials/; trial_limits/refund_conditions: https://www.smartydns.com/support/faq-general/; registration_country/live_chat_247/nologs_audit: https://www.vpnmentor.com/reviews/smartydns/ (2023)

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