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ShadeYou is a Scotland-based VPN offering its services through 25 servers in 15 countries worldwide. The service offers a free trial benefit you can use for one day only. Despite providing affordable pricing plans, support for Netflix and torrenting, a money-back guarantee, no logs policy, and leaks protection feature, the provider fell short in security big time.

This is why we don’t recommend ShadeYou as it does not offer appreciable connection speeds and does not have a massive server network like ExpressVPN.You can also Check out Best VPNs recommended by us in 2023.

We take online privacy extremely seriously, and this is why we write VPN reviews in Australia. Our ShadeYou VPN Australia Review is intended to tell you if this VPN has the means to secure your connection.

Our Rating Criteria

We have tested ShadeYou VPN as per my own rating criteria described below:

  1. Pricing – What is the cost of ShadeYou VPN in Australia?
  2. Security – Protocols & Encryption in Australia
  3. Jurisdiction – Where is ShadeYou VPN based?
  4. Speed – Does ShadeYou offer Fast Speeds in Australia?
  5. Streaming – Does it Support Netflix, Torrenting & Other Streaming Services in Australia?
  6. Leaks – IP, DNS, WebRTC & Virus Tests
  7. Trustworthiness – Logging Policy & Customer Support
  8. Compatibility – How many devices do ShadeYou VPN support in Australia?

Pricing – What is the cost of ShadeYou VPN in Australia?

This Scottish VPN service delivers attractive and cost-effective pricing plans to its users in Australia.

This service has divided its pricing strategy into standard and premium packages.

The standard package is available through three pricing plans. All pricing plans include the full function set.

  • The 1-month plan is available for a flat rate of $6.19per month
  • The 6-month plan is available for a total of $26.60, which comes to a monthly average of $4.43per month
  • The 12-month plan is available for a total of $40.72, which comes to a monthly average of $3.38per month

On the other hand, the Premium package is a bit expensive, but it comes with a few additional features. This package, too, is available through three different pricing plans.

  • The 1-month plan is available for $19.50month.
  • The 6-month plan can be bought for a total of $51.49, which makes the monthly average $8.59
  • The 12-month costs $68.70 year, which means that the monthly average of this plan is $5.72

The best part is that ShadeYou VPN Australia offers all of these pricing plans with unlimited speed and traffic without any data caps.

Moreover, you can secure your five (5) devices by availing of premium packages hassle-free.

ShadeYou-VPN-price-review

Payment Methods

Shadeyou-VPN-Payment-Methods-Review

Our review of ShadeYou VPN’s payment methods in Australia highlights that this service provides diverse options for transacting with the company.

ShadeYou VPN accepts Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Perfect Money, Web Money, Bitcoin, and many more. This is quite a vast range for a VPN like ShadeYou VPN since only a few VPN service providers can provide such extensive compatibility.

Make sure you select a payment method that you are comfortable with. Remember that it is easier to get a refund if you have made payments through a mediator PayPal.

Suppose you value your privacy the most; then, you recommend using the Bitcoin option. This is because Bitcoin transactions do not require you to share any personal information whatsoever.

Refund Policy

Even though ShadeYou provides a free version for you to test their service, they also maintain a 7-days refund policy.

Free Trial

While writing this ShadeYou VPN Australia Review, we found out that this service provides a 24-hour free trial. This trial provides a full range of ShadeYou VPN’s functions and features for everyone to try out.

The full trial can be obtained by filling out the small form on the ShadeYou VPN website, after which ShadeYou VPN emails you a link from where you can access your ShadeYou VPN account.

Once you log into your ShadeYou VPN free trial account, you will be presented with a list of tutorial categories that you can use to set up your ShadeYou VPN connection.

The setup tutorials are detailed and are presented with graphic representations of the setup process to provide effective guidance.

Moreover, if you’re interested in discounts, check out our list of best VPN deals in Australia to get premium VPNs at low rates!

Security – Protocols & Encryption in Australia

When it comes to security in Australia, ShadeYou VPN must provide clear information about the tunneling protocols they use. 

ShadeYou VPN offers PPTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN protocols. All three protocols are accessible through all of ShadeYou VPN’s pricing plans, so you will never have to worry about the level of encryption you want to use.

  • L2TP comes with the standard encryption IPSec with a pre-shared key
  • PPTP comes with Microsoft’s CHAP v2
  • OpenVPN comes with AES-256 bit cipher and RSA-1024 Handshake

You will have to set up your ShadeYou VPN on your preferred device/OS, depending upon your choice protocol, since every protocol has a slightly different setup process.

ShadeYou VPN uses AES encryption for data encryption in Australia. Upon using its standard service, we checked its log files, and the connection revealed that it used a 1024-bit key.

On the other hand, its official site claims that the standard package comes with a 2048-bit key, while the premium package provides a 4096-bit key. Sadly, it was not the case when we used its standard plan. The 1024-bit key is no longer considered secure.

In terms of additional services, ShadeYou VPN offers a free proxy service that is accessible through the ShadeYou VPN home page. The Anonymizer provides five neat options.

Once you enter the URL of the website you want to access through ShadeYou VPN’s free proxy, all you have to do is hit ‘Anonymizer’ on the website’s upper bar.

Jurisdiction – Where is ShadeYou VPN based?

The jurisdiction of ShadeYou VPN is not safe for users.

ShadeYou VPN is a Scotland-based service. Unfortunately, the service exists within the jurisdiction of 5 eyes countries. Hence, the provider may share the data of its users as and when required.

Still, the good thing is that it follows the notion of no logging in the right direction.

ShadeYou VPN is expanding rapidly and currently has VPN servers set up in 15 countries. These include the US, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Finland, Singapore, Sweden, Ukraine, Russia, Spain, Canada, Sweden, Romania, Australia, and Hong Kong.

ShadeYou VPN currently has 25 VPN servers worldwide and plans to expand rapidly within the coming years. It has recently added Australia to the list of server locations.

This makes it easy for you to access the content restricted to the Down Under.

Speed – Does ShadeYou offer Fast Speeds in Australia?

On the speed front, ShadeYou VPN has a lot of work to do.

This is because they do not offer appreciable connection speeds to their subscribers.

We used a 28 Mbps internet connection while conducting the speed test in Australia:

Speed-Before-VPN

After connecting to its US server, the speed dropped almost by 100%.

ShadeYou-VPN-Speed

This is one of the slowest VPN services in Australia we have tested so far.

Streaming – Does it Support Netflix, Torrenting & Other Streaming Services in Australia?

Luckily, you can opt ShadeYou VPN for Netflix streaming to a certain degree. It allows users to access US Netflix with ease in Australia. Moreover, the service supports the torrent activities of its users.

You can select servers available in countries like Sweden, Hong Kong, and Canada. This is how you can perform the task of torrenting securely in Australia.

On the other hand, the service does not support BBC iPlayer. Similarly, you may face issues while accessing the British version of Netflix through ShadeYou VPN.

However, ShadeYou works extremely well with Kodi. Once you do that, all your worries regarding anonymous streaming are put aside.

Leaks – IP, DNS, WebRTC & Virus Tests

ShadeYou VPN is secure in Australia since it does not leak your actual IP, DNS, or WebRTC information online. It does not expose any viruses or malware either.

While testing its IP and DNS leak security feature, we received the following result:

ShadeYou-IP-DNS

Likewise, we also performed a WebRTC leak test and received the following outcome:

WebRTC-ShadeYou

We also checked its authenticity through VirusTotal. To our surprise, it passed the app fitness test with excellence.

Virus-Test-ShadeYou

Trustworthiness – Logging Policy & Customer Support

ShadeYou VPN does not keep its users’ logs.

This ShadeYou VPN Australia Review would have been incomplete without a thorough analysis of the VPN’s privacy policy.

Hence, we browsed through ShadeYou’s website to learn about their policy regarding logs and other user data.

According to the ShadeYou VPN Australia Privacy Policy, ShadeYou VPN users are not under any threat from third-party data requisitions because ShadeYou VPN does not log any user data.

The Privacy Policy claims that the ShadeYou VPN has been designed to be minimalistic and requires nothing more than the users’ usernames and passwords to function.

As a result, ShadeYou VPN users in Australia are never in any danger. Also, ShadeYou VPN asserts that ShadeYou VPN will not provide legal authorities with any user data, mainly because it does not collect any user data, to begin with.

Customer Support

ShadeYou-VPN-Customer-Support

According to our ShadeYou VPN ShadeYou VPN Australia Review of 2023, the customer support system of the service compromised of four components:

LiveChat/Message Drop: A small button is visible on the lower right corner of the official ShadeYou VPN website at all times. This can be used to communicate directly with a ShadeYou VPN representative. The LiveChat feature is usually available most of the time.

You can drop off a message to ShadeYou VPN with your email address when the LiveChat feature is unavailable.

FAQ: The FAQ section contains a lot of useful information about the basics of ShadeYou VPN. There is a lot of information about ShadeYou VPN’s OpenVPN options, mainly because it is ShadeYou VPN’s specialty.

Contact Form: The Contact Form is a straightforward and effective way to contact ShadeYou VPN support. The small form takes less than a minute to fill out, and the ShadeYou VPN support team replies as soon as possible. You will receive a response to your query in your email inbox.

News: The ‘News’ section of the customer support system is like ShadeYou VPN’s blog. Here you can learn about the latest developments and expansions at ShadeYou VPN. The News section is also a great place to learn about ShadeYou VPN’s server network upgrades, expansions, and downtime scenarios.

Compatibility – How many devices do ShadeYou VPN support in Australia?

ShadeYou VPN works on all versions of Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. But, you will have to install the service on devices other than Windows manually.

However, we tested out its OpenVPN solution for this ShadeYou VPN Australia Review, and the experience was rather unimpressive.

That said, you can check out our detailed guide on the best VPN for Android in Australia to explore more popular VPNs in Australia.

Conversely, we found its Windows app quite easy and simple to use. Once you sign up on the ShadeYou VPN website, you will be sent an email that will contain your login credentials and a link.

The email link will bring you to the login page on the official ShadeYou VPN website, where you can log in to your account. This way, you can use ShadeYou VPN on your Windows device in no time.

On the contrary, ShadeYou VPN does not have a custom client for mobile devices. This means there is no Shade You VPN app for Android or iOS.

Comparison between ExpressVPN in Australia & ShadeYouVPN in Australia?

There is no harm in differentiating between ExpressVPN and ShadeYouVPN as both these services offer affordable pricing plans to their users in Australia.

Here is the comparison table you can read to explore the major attributes of these providers:

Features ExpressVPN ShadeYou VPN
Price AU$10.25/mo (US$ 6.67/mo) - Save up to 49% with exclusive 1-year plans + 3 months free $2.16/mo
Servers 3,000 in 94 Countries 25 in 15 Countries
Compatibility All Devices Windows Only
Jurisdiction The British Virgin Islands Scotland
Logging Policy Zero Log Does not keep logs
Customer Support Live Chat & Email Support Live Chat, FAQs & Email
Trustpilot Score 4.6 3.7
Website ExpressVPN SHADEYOU

Alternatives to ShadeYou in Australia

If ShadeYou VPN is not for you, then you must look over to the alternative list of VPNs that has outstanding features:

Do I Recommend ShadeYou VPN in Australia?

No, we don’t recommend this VPN. Our ShadeYou VPN Australia Review disclosed that the service mainly hails from Scotland. Likewise, it does not offer the required level of encryption on its standard plan.

ShadeYou offers 124-bit encryption and keeps no logs. It also has no limits on downloading or bandwidth restrictions and also supports torrenting.  Although the service is available for a budget, it does not offer mobile apps that make it difficult for users to avail of the VPN. Likewise, the server spread of ShadeYou VPN is not much conducive.

Therefore, I would assign this VPN a 3.0/5.0 rating based on the above analysis.