SoftEther VPN review: score, privacy and prices
1.56
out of 10not in the main ranking (too little published data)
Mesh / self-hosted median 2.5
- Mesh / self-hosted
- Jurisdiction:Japan, outside 5/9/14 Eyes
- Owner:University of Tsukuba (academic project)
- Data completeness47%
- Checked2026-10-15
- No email to sign up
- Free plan
- Open-source apps
Red flag: Public security incident. A red flag caps the score at 6.0.
In 10 seconds
Strongest against its segment
- Censorship bypass2.4 vs 0.5
- Security and protocols2.1 vs 1.8
- Platforms and support2.9 vs 3.9
Weakest against its segment
- Network and streaming0.0 vs 2.8
- Price and fair terms1.2 vs 3.4
- Privacy and jurisdiction1.0 vs 2.3
- Public security incident
How the score adds up
Six sub-scores, each against the median of Mesh / self-hosted services in the main ranking (None services). Open a line to see which published facts earned points and which were missing or not disclosed.
SoftEther VPNsegment median
-
Privacy and jurisdiction30% of the score · segment median 2.31.0
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 1.82.1
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 3.41.2
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 0.52.4
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 2.80.0
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 3.92.9
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
SoftEther VPN pricing
SoftEther VPN does not publish a paid price we could read. Free plan: Yes fully free incl. commercial use. Market median across the main ranking: €3.13 a month.
Refunds, trial and payment
- Refund window
- Not stated
- Free trial
- Not stated
- Auto-renewal
- Not stated
- Payment methods
- Not stated
Everything SoftEther VPN publishes
Every fact we collected about SoftEther VPN, 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
- SoftEther VPN Project (University of Tsukuba)
- Registered in
- Japan
- Parent company
- University of Tsukuba (academic project)
- Surveillance alliance (5/9/14 Eyes)
- none
- Website languages
- EN
- JA
- ZH-Hans
- Right-to-left languages
- No
Plans, prices and add-ons
- Plans
- free (open source)
- Cheapest price a month
- 0
- Monthly plan
- 0
- 1-year plan, total
- 0
- 1-year plan, a month
- 0
- 2-year plan, total
- 0
- 2-year plan, a month
- 0
- Lifetime plan
- 0 (free)
- Family plan
- Not stated
- Business price per user
- 0
Discounts and programmes
- Student discount
- Not stated
- Affiliate programme
- No
Limits and restrictions
- Devices at once
- Not stated
Free plan
- Free plan
- Yes fully free incl. commercial use
- Free data
- Not stated
- Ads in the free plan
- No
- Other free plan terms
- self-hosted software
Payment and subscription
- PayPal
- Not stated
- Cryptocurrency
- Not stated
- Cash
- Not stated
- Gift cards
- Not stated
- Auto-renewal by default
- Not stated
- Email needed to sign up
- No
- Phone needed to sign up
- No
- Account-number login
- Not stated
- Identity check (KYC)
- No
- Money-back guarantee, days
- Not stated
Free trial terms
- Trial length
- Not stated
- Card needed for the trial
- Not stated
Server locations
- Countries
- Not stated
- Servers
- Not stated
- Server countries
- Not stated
- Middle East and North Africa
- Not stated
- Virtual locations
- Not stated
- P2P servers
- Not stated
- Obfuscated servers
- Not stated
Network features
- RAM-only servers
- Not stated
- IPv6
- Not stated
- Dedicated IP
- Not stated
- Static IP
- Not stated
- Residential IP
- Not stated
- Double VPN / multi-hop
- Not stated
- Tor over VPN
- Not stated
- SOCKS5 proxy
- Not stated
- Smart DNS
- Not stated
Protocols and encryption
- WireGuard✕ No
- OpenVPNOpenVPN server clone✓ Yes
- IKEv2Not stated
- L2TP/IPsecL2TP/IPsec, L2TPv3Yes
- SSTPMS-SSTPYes
- SoftEthernative SSL-VPN over HTTPS✓ Yes
- Own protocolSoftEther SSL-VPN (Ethernet over HTTPS)✓ Yes
- VLESS / RealityNot stated
- VMessNot stated
- TrojanNot stated
- ShadowsocksNot stated
- Hysteria2Not stated
- TUICNot stated
- NaiveProxyNot stated
- obfs4Not stated
- AmneziaWGNot stated
- Other protocols
- IPsec
- EtherIP
- L2TPv3
- Encryption
- AES-256
- RSA-4096
- SSL
- Perfect forward secrecy
- Not stated
- Post-quantum encryption
- Not stated
- Manual configuration files
- Yes self-hosted server + clients
- Open-source apps
- Yes https://github.com/SoftEtherVPN/SoftEtherVPN
Censorship and blocking
- Obfuscation (stealth mode)
- Yes traffic disguised as HTTPS, claim
- Countries it claims to work in
- Not stated
- Mirror sites or Telegram channel
- Not stated
- Calls in the UAE
- Not stated
Security
- Kill switch
- Not stated
- DNS leak protection
- Not stated
- Own DNS servers
- Yes dynamic DNS *.softether.net
- Split tunnelling
- Not stated
- Ad and malware blocker
- Not stated
- Two-factor sign-in
- Not stated
- Security audits
- No formal audit; 2023 CVE fixes with Cisco; TunnelCrack protection 2023
- Bug bounty
- Not stated
- Known incidents
- Yes CVE-2023-27395 and 5 other vulns fixed June 2023
Privacy
- No-logs policy
- Not stated
- Independent no-logs audit
- Not stated
- Transparency report
- Not stated
- Warrant canary
- Not stated
- Anonymous sign-up
- Not stated
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.
- Connection IPNot stated
- Session timesNot stated
Apps and devices
- Windowsclient & server✓ Yes
- macOS✓ Yes
- Linux✓ Yes
- iOSvia L2TP/IPsec✓ Yes
- Androidvia L2TP/IPsec✓ Yes
- Android TVNot stated
- Fire TVNot stated
- Apple TVNot stated
- ChromebookNot stated
- Smart TVNot stated
- RoutersNot stated
- NASNot stated
- Raspberry PiNot stated
- Game consolesNot stated
- Browser extensions
- No
Speed, streaming and gaming
- 10 Gbps servers
- Not stated
- Netflix
- Not stated
- BBC iPlayer
- Not stated
- Disney+
- Not stated
- Prime Video
- Not stated
- Gaming features
- Not stated
- Torrenting
- Not stated
Support
- Live chat
- No
- Live chat 24/7
- Not stated
- Phone
- No
- Telegram
- Not stated
- Not stated
- Discord or forum
- Yes softether.org/7-forum
- Server status page
- Not stated
For teams and business
- SSO / SAML
- Not stated
- SCIM provisioning
- No
- Admin panel
- Yes server manager
- Dedicated gateway
- Yes self-hosted
- Zero-trust access (ZTNA)
- No
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.
42 Reddit and forum threads mention SoftEther VPN (titles and search snippets only).
Latest reviews and related rankings
In our rankings
SoftEther VPN appears on 2 topic pages. Its place on each:
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Tools for SoftEther VPN
Sources and changes
Collected 2026-10-15. No changes recorded since the first import.
- Website
- https://softether.org
- Pages checked
- ["https://www.softether.org/"]
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