strongSwan review: score, privacy and prices
out of 10not in the main ranking (too little published data)
Mesh / self-hosted median 2.5
- Mesh / self-hosted
- Jurisdiction:Germany, 14 Eyes
- Founded2005
- Owner:secunet Security Networks AG (since 2022)
- Data completeness40%
- Checked2026-10-15
- Free plan
- Open-source apps
In 10 seconds
Strongest against its segment
- Security and protocols2.1 vs 1.8
- Censorship bypass0.5 vs 0.5
- 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 jurisdiction0.5 vs 2.3
- Jurisdiction in the 14 Eyes alliance
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.
strongSwansegment median
-
Privacy and jurisdiction30% of the score · segment median 2.30.5
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 0.50.5
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
strongSwan pricing
strongSwan does not publish a paid price we could read. Free plan: Yes free open-source software. 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 strongSwan publishes
Every fact we collected about strongSwan, 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
- The strongSwan Team / secunet Security Networks AG (IP owner)
- Registered in
- Germany (secunet); project origin Switzerland (OST Rapperswil)
- Parent company
- secunet Security Networks AG (since 2022)
- Related brands
- strongSec GmbH; codelabs GmbH
- Founded
- 2005
- Surveillance alliance (5/9/14 Eyes)
- 14 (DE, IP owner)
- Website languages
- EN
- Right-to-left languages
- No
Plans, prices and add-ons
- Plans
- free GPLv2; commercial licence (quote)
- Cheapest price a month
- 0
- Monthly plan
- 0
- Lifetime plan
- Not stated
- Family plan
- Not stated
Discounts and programmes
- Student discount
- Not stated
Limits and restrictions
- Devices at once
- Not stated
Free plan
- Free plan
- Yes free open-source software
- Free data
- Not stated
- Ads in the free plan
- No
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
- Not stated
- Account-number login
- Not stated
- 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
- Own servers
- Yes user's own server
- P2P servers
- Not stated
- Obfuscated servers
- Not stated
Network features
- RAM-only servers
- Not stated
- IPv6
- Yes IPv6 IPsec tunnel & transport
- 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
- OpenVPN✕ No
- IKEv2RFC 7296, MOBIKE, fragmentation, redirect✓ Yes
- L2TP/IPsecNo
- SSTPNo
- SoftEther✕ No
- Own protocol✕ No
- VLESS / Reality✕ No
- VMess✕ No
- Trojan✕ No
- Shadowsocks✕ No
- Hysteria2✕ No
- TUIC✕ No
- NaiveProxy✕ No
- obfs4✕ No
- AmneziaWG✕ No
- PPTP✓ No
- Other protocols
- IKEv1
- IPsec tunnel/transport
- EAP (SIM, AKA, TLS, TTLS, PEAP, MSCHAPv2), EAP-RADIUS
- TNC (PB-TNC, PA-TNC)
- Encryption
- IKEv2 suites
- X25519/Ed25519, ECDSA
- X.509/PSK
- PKCS#11 smartcards, TPM 2.0
- Perfect forward secrecy
- Yes DH key exchange
- Post-quantum encryption
- Yes RFC 9370 multiple key exchanges incl. ML-KEM / FIPS 203
- Manual configuration files
- Yes swanctl/ipsec config files; NetworkManager plugin
- Open-source apps
- Yes https://github.com/strongswan/strongswan (GPLv2)
Censorship and blocking
- Obfuscation (stealth mode)
- Not stated
- 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
- Split tunnelling
- Not stated
- Ad and malware blocker
- Not stated
- Two-factor sign-in
- Not stated
- Security audits
- Not stated
- Bug bounty
- Not stated
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
- App analyticsself-hosted✓ No
Apps and devices
- Windowsport✓ Yes
- macOSport✓ Yes
- Linuxkernels 2.6-6.x; NetworkManager plugin✓ Yes
- iOSport✓ Yes
- AndroidAndroid app✓ 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
- Not stated
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
- Not stated
- Live chat 24/7
- Not stated
- Email / tickets
- Yes commercial support via Support page
- Phone
- Not stated
- Telegram
- Not stated
- Not stated
- Discord or forum
- GitHub discussions/issues (Support page)
- Support languages
- EN
- Help articles
- Yes documentation, how-tos
- Server status page
- Not stated
For teams and business
- SSO / SAML
- Not stated
- Admin panel
- No
- Zero-trust access (ZTNA)
- No IPsec site-to-site / remote access
- Identity providers
- RADIUS (EAP-RADIUS), X.509 PKI
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.
-
Google Play
3.77 of 5, smoothed
From 444 collected reviews (raw average 3.75; all VPNs 3.90). Last 90 days: 3.00 from 4.
The company replied to 87 of 117 negative reviews (1–2 stars).
Ratings shown on the platforms themselves: Google Play 4.1 (3.62K ratings).
Reviews per month, last 12 months
43 Reddit and forum threads mention strongSwan (titles and search snippets only).
Latest reviews and related rankings
Latest reviews
Short excerpts with a link to the original. We do not reproduce reviews in full.
Google Play · 5★ · 30 Sep 2026
The swan is strong.
Google Play · 1★ · 04 Sep 2026
burgerhouse
Google Play · 1★ · 19 Aug 2026
very bad company and NORD vpn is the most bad VPN i have ever used specially in china
Rankings by user reviews
In our rankings
strongSwan appears on 1 topic pages. Its place on each:
Owner and jurisdiction
Tools for strongSwan
Sources and changes
Collected 2026-10-15. No changes recorded since the first import.
- Website
- https://strongswan.org
- Pages checked
- https://strongswan.org; https://strongswan.org/about.html
- Pricing page: commercial licensing page linked (not read)
- Privacy policy: none
- Terms of service
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