In this HubSpot VoIP review, we help you understand all that this popular tool offers.

As a business owner, seamless communication is key. That’s where HubSpot VoIP comes in handy, promising integrated calling within the HubSpot customer relationship management platform (CRM).

But does it deliver on its promises? We rigorously tested the platform for an authentic and unbiased analysis of HubSpot VoIP’s features, usability, pricing, and overall impact on business operations.

Our team regularly reviews all the major Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers, allowing us to accurately evaluate how HubSpot VoIP stands out compared to its alternatives. By the end of this review, you should have a clear idea of whether HubSpot VoIP is suitable for your business.

HubSpot VoIP Pros and Cons

Here is a quick rundown of all the key pros and cons of HubSpot VoIP’s software:

Still in doubt? You can take advantage of its 14-day free trial without giving your credit card details to learn firsthand how the solution fits your needs!

What Is HubSpot VoIP – Brief Overview

In the world of CRM, one name reigns supreme: HubSpot. It is internationally recognized, occupying the number one spot in the G2 Best Global Software Companies list, 2023.

It’s not just a software suite; it’s a digital ecosystem for building lasting, profitable relationships with your customers. Your team can use it to organize all your sales and customer data, create automated nurturing workflows, and generate actionable insights, all within a centralized platform.

VoIP software is one tool in HubSpot’s comprehensive toolbox and is only available as part of two main product offerings:

It caters to businesses already using HubSpot’s Sales Hub or Service Hub products, offering seamless calling functionality alongside existing contact management, sales enablement, and customer management.

You can use HubSpot’s VoIP software to receive calls in your browser using your HubSpot CRM. Imagine your sales agent closing deals with a quick call directly from a contact’s record or support reps resolving issues with a seamless call that’s just a click away.

How Does HubSpot VoIP Work?

VoIP, also called IP telephony, allows you to place and receive calls globally over the internet.

Once the HubSpot phone integration is complete, you can use its VoIP functionality to conveniently make these calls from your browser or a linked cell phone. Moreover, you can even use the HubSpot app to take notes during your conversation.

The sales agent or customer support rep is then prompted to mark the call outcome in HubSpot as soon as the call ends. For instance, they might mark it as ‘Deal Won’ if the conversation led to a new sale, or ‘Issue Resolved’ if they successfully addressed a customer’s complaint.

HubSpot also assesses your marketing and lead generation data for lead prioritization. Your team can use this to concentrate on leads with higher conversion potential, ultimately boosting your sales figures.

Additionally, you can record and automatically transcribe your calls in HubSpot VoIP. These call recordings and transcriptions come in handy for training and review purposes. The insights from these are further enhanced with the help of HubSpot’s Conversation Intelligence (CI) feature.

HubSpot VoIP Main Features – What’s Included

With HubSpot VoIP, you can benefit from a wide range of functionalities designed to help streamline your business communication processes. Here’s a closer look at some key ones.

Browser-Based Calling

HubSpot VoIP supports browser-based calling, allowing you to make and receive calls within your HubSpot account.

You can seamlessly place outbound calls and efficiently manage incoming calls directly from your browser.

However, you can only receive calls via HubSpot-provided phone numbers managed by Twilio, a third-party service. Plus, toll-free numbers are not included in the HubSpot-provided phone numbers.

Our HubSpot VoIP review revealed that HubSpot presently provides phone numbers from only some countries: the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Finland, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

For the US, UK, and Canada, your business location is not restricted, so you can operate from any other country of your choice. However, for Australia, Ireland, Finland, and the Netherlands, businesses need a local presence to align with the country-specific phone number regulations.

Remember, forwarded calls to your device might involve inbound calling charges as per your provider’s policies.

While many US telecom companies offer unlimited calls at no extra cost, it’s wise to confirm this with your telecom provider before setting up call forwarding in HubSpot.

Browser-based calling is an integral part of the HubSpot platform, assisting sales and support teams in seamlessly managing all online interactions through a single platform.

Call Transcription and Coaching

You can automatically record and transcribe your calls, giving you insights into your customer interactions that you can use to coach your team. And you can search, review, and comment on call transcriptions as needed.

During our HubSpot VoIP review, we discovered that these functionalities are absent in the Starter plan. Yet, moving up to the Professional tier, users can avail up to 750 hours of transcription per month. This can scale up to 1,500 hours in the Enterprise subscription.

You can also create Coaching Playlists in both the Professional and Enterprise account tiers. These playlists allow you to curate impactful call recordings that enhance team skills.

These playlists become helpful tools for teaching soft skills, sales techniques, and product training. Additionally, your team members can follow these playlists to receive an email notifying them that a new recording has been added to a playlist.

Conversation Intelligence

HubSpot VoIP’s CI functionality makes it smart software enabling in-depth call analysis. This is an advanced feature restricted only to Enterprise-level users.

CI operates by dissecting the automatic call transcription from recorded calls and meetings originating from HubSpot’s built-in calling tool, integrated Zoom account, or a linked third-party VoIP provider compatible with CI.

You can use CI to effortlessly navigate your team’s call data with its AI capabilities like speaker tracks, smart search, tracking specified terms, and actionable call insights.

CI also allows you to automatically associate your call recordings with all relevant CRM records, including contacts, companies, deals, and tickets. This feature enhances workflow efficiency, ensuring your agents are kept updated regarding all previous interactions with a customer before calling them again.

Detailed Call Records

Let’s explore another feature in HubSpot VoIP’s toolkit: detailed call records. This functionality is centered around recording calls to maintain a comprehensive log of conversations for future reference.

You can enable or disable call recording for all users in your account. However, it’s crucial to remain mindful of regional compliances before activating this feature, as call recording laws vary by location. Here are compliance guidelines for some jurisdictions:

This feature goes beyond simple record-keeping. It serves as an archive for detailed insights, significantly contributing to continuous improvement and enhancing your team’s customer engagement.

Custom Call Outcomes

In our hands-on exploration of HubSpot VoIP, we delved into the Custom Call Outcomes feature, a valuable addition offering enhanced organization and analysis of call activities. This functionality proved helpful for accurately tracking and understanding call patterns and results.

Within your HubSpot account, you can create up to 30 personalized call outcomes, such as lead created, contract signed, and deal won. You can make these custom outcomes a required setting for your sales agent or support rep to log as soon as they get done with their call. It helps categorize your call activities, enabling insightful reporting. They can also serve as filters in your HubSpot workflows and contact lists.

However, it’s essential to note that this required setting is only possible for outgoing calls initiated from the HubSpot browser or logged calls. Hence, it is not possible to make this a required setting for inbound, mobile, or imported calls during call outcome logging.

The Custom Call Outcomes feature simplifies call data organization, streamlines tracking, and empowers detailed reporting for smoother communication processes within your team.

HubSpot VoIP Interface – How User-Friendly Is It?

HubSpot VoIP’s appearance is clean and modern, providing a clutter-free interface that’s visually appealing across various devices.

Setting up HubSpot VoIP is relatively straightforward, but it’s essential to meet specific software requirements. These considerations are especially critical given that HubSpot’s calling services are powered through a third-party service, Twilio.

One significant aspect to highlight is the browser and network requirements set by Twilio for effective call functionality. HubSpot VoIP software is compatible with the following browsers:

You can also make recorded phone calls through the HubSpot mobile apps for Android and iOS devices.

Moreover, Twilio specifies a consistent download and upload speed of 10mbps to ensure a smooth calling experience. During our evaluation, we found these speed requirements critical, as insufficient bandwidth affected call quality.

If you encounter issues meeting these requirements, Twilio suggests the following troubleshooting methods:

Overall, HubSpot VoIP is relatively easy to navigate, for the experienced users in your team. However, for the newcomers in your team, you can provide them additional training resources or tutorials to maximize their utilization of HubSpot VoIP as part of its CRM ecosystem.

HubSpot VoIP Pricing in 2024 – What Value Do You Get?

For both Sales Hub and Service Hub editions, HubSpot offers three distinct tiers.

Each tier provides different features and benefits to suit various business needs. Let’s explore these subscription types to see what each offers and how they might benefit you.

Starter

HubSpot VoIP’s Starter plan is not the most budget-friendly entry-level option compared to standalone VoIP providers like Phone.com and MightyCall, which offer unlimited calling minutes.

It offers up to 500 monthly calling minutes and access to one HubSpot-provided phone number. It also lacks some advanced features like CI and Coaching Playlists.

Professional

This account tier offers 3,000 calling minutes and includes 750 hours of transcription each month. You can avail up to three HubSpot-provided phone numbers. You also get the Coaching Playlists feature for team training.

Enterprise

The Enterprise plan is HubSpot’s premium plan and suits larger businesses. It offers 12,000 calling minutes, supports up to five HubSpot-provided phone numbers, and includes 1,500 hours of transcription monthly. Advanced features like CI Coaching Playlists are also available.

HubSpot VoIP’s three pricing tiers are based on business size and communication needs.

The software suits customer-focused teams that are looking for a comprehensive feature base over and above a simple VoIP solution.

Each plan has unique benefits, ensuring businesses can select one that fits their requirements. Higher-tier plans offer more features, which could be valuable for businesses needing comprehensive CRM solutions.

If you are still unsure after reading our HubSpot VoIP review, you can use the 14-day free trial to test these solution offerings yourself.

HubSpot VoIP Integrations

In today’s complex digital landscape, integrations play a vital role in breaking down data silos to maximize the usefulness of your business tools.

While compiling our HubSpot VoIP integration review, we discovered that HubSpot offers a wide range of integration options. Here’s a glimpse of the valuable integrations HubSpot provides.

Slack Integration

It is possible to link your HubSpot account with Slack for task creation, notification alerts, and contact sharing. This integration simplifies team communication, keeping everything streamlined without constantly switching between two tools.

Email Integrations

You can connect your email services like Gmail, Outlook, or Microsoft Exchange to HubSpot. This way, you can save time by sending emails directly from your HubSpot app.

Facebook Messenger Integration

HubSpot can integrate with your Facebook Messenger to automatically capture contact details, support two-way interactions, schedule calls using chatbots, and monitor chat volume. Ultimately, you can manage customer interactions seamlessly on this widely used messaging platform.

Salesforce Integration

This integration syncs data between Salesforce and HubSpot, allowing sales actions directly within Salesforce records. It makes the overall sales process more efficient. Note that the Salesforce integration is exclusive to the Enterprise subscription tier.

HubSpot App Marketplace

Explore over 100 integrations in the HubSpot App Marketplace, including various VoIP providers like RingCentral, MightyCall, and Vonage. These integrations expand connectivity options to cater to your diverse business communication needs.

HubSpot VoIP Comparison with Other VoIP Services

Numerous VoIP providers are available in the market today. To determine if HubSpot is a worthy investment, we’ve analyzed and compared the unique features and use cases of all the best virtual phone services.

Below is a table summarizing our findings.

HubSpot VoIP as part of Sales Hub or Service Hub is a must-have if you’re looking for a centralized platform to manage your diverse customer interactions. With it, you can manage your entire customer journey from one place, streamlining workflows and boosting efficiency.

Additionally, you can leverage its AI-powered capabilities in intelligent call logging and data analysis for improved business results, stronger client relationships and higher conversion rates.

To support your team, HubSpot also provides responsive and knowledgeable customer service through various support channels like email, phone, and live chat. Most users value its helpful documentation, extensive knowledge base, and active community forum.

Still unsure if HubSpot VoIP is the right fit for your business? You can test the software through a risk-free 14-day trial without submitting your credit card information.

What Do Other HubSpot Reviews Say?

For a true assessment of user satisfaction, we analyzed HubSpot’s user reviews. We referred to authentic software review sites like G2 and TrustPilot.

Given the popularity of HubSpot, it is no surprise that the HubSpot Sales Hub and Service Hub have rave reviews on G2, averaging 4.4 out of 5 stars from about 13,000 reviews.

Sales users have reported a positive impact on their sales pipelines with the help of HubSpot’s platform. They describe how the calling functionality really helped them seamlessly reach out to their prospects.

Users also mentioned that they value the smooth transition between their laptops and mobile devices when using the app for activities like making calls and sending emails. The convenience of effortlessly switching between devices enhances their overall experience with the platform.

However, some users were disappointed by the poor call quality of HubSpot’s built-in VoIP software. Consequently, they opted for HubSpot’s integration with other top VoIP providers to ensure a better calling experience.

Despite this limitation, they still preferred using HubSpot’s Sales Hub in combination with other calling tools as they valued its exceptional contacts database and detailed contact records for future reference.

Overall, users appreciate the ease of use of this streamlined CRM platform, a one-stop hub for all their marketing, sales, and customer service needs.

Why You Can Trust Our Review of HubSpot VoIP

Seeking further insights about other leading VoIP service providers? The TechReport team offers extensive coverage of all the best VoIP services. Explore all the guides listed below for comprehensive reviews of other VoIP providers:

Why You Can Trust TechReport’s Review of HubSpot VoIP?

We adopt a data-driven approach by conducting a detailed analysis of user reviews with extensive hands-on product testing.

While researching for this HubSpot VoIP review, we engaged with the software’s demo and explored the 14-day free trial. We also navigated help site content and conversed with customer support to ensure the reliability and authenticity of our assessments.

Then, we conducted an in-depth analysis of user reviews posted on authentic review sites like G2 and TrustPilot to assess user satisfaction.

Accordingly, we wrote this review highlighting exactly what the software has to offer, both the good and the bad.

How to Use HubSpot VoIP Step-By-Step

While compiling this HubSpot VoIP review, we analyzed the software’s set-up process. The following is the step-by-step guide for you to follow.

Step 1 – Subscribe and Navigate to the Contacts Section

To start, opt for a suitable subscription tier for either Sales Hub or Service Hub, depending on your business needs. Once subscribed, log in to your account and navigate to the contacts section.

Step 2 – Create An Account

Once in the contact database, find the contact you have to call. You can use the search functionality or the filters to easily find your desired contact.

Step 3 – Connect to an IPVanish VPN Server

You can call the contact from their record page via HubSpot’s browser or mobile app.

However, you must connect your phone number with the HubSpot app first to make this call.

Step 4 – Connect Your Phone Number

Click ‘Connect phone number’ enter your phone number in the pop-up bar.

You will then receive a verification code to ensure the correct phone number is connected to your account.

Step 5 – Phone Number Verification Completed

Finally, with verification out of the way, you can start your call with your chosen contact and make notes for your team.

Is HubSpot VoIP the Best Choice for Your Business?

So, what’s our verdict from our HubSpot VoIP review? HubSpot VoIP offers true value when integrated into HubSpot’s broader CRM platform. It’s a good choice if you want streamlined customer interactions and efficient contact management.

For top-tier calling capabilities or high-quality VoIP services, specialized providers are a better fit. Nonetheless, some users get the best of both worlds by integrating HubSpot Sales Hub with a leading VoIP provider for better call quality.

You must evaluate your business goals and priorities before choosing HubSpot VoIP. To make this choice easier, you can test it risk-free with a 14-day trial.

This trial lets you explore the features firsthand without any financial commitment, helping you determine the software’s suitability for your business.

HubSpot VoIP Review FAQs

The post HubSpot VoIP Review 2024 — Does It Offer Good Phone Integration? appeared first on The Tech Report.

The question, ‘Is it illegal to spy on someone?’ is not as straightforward as it might seem. While eavesdropping and private investigators have existed for ages, spy apps and GPS trackers are a recent phenomenon. The rapid evolution of technology brings to question where you need to draw the legality line.

On the surface, spying on any individual without their consent undoubtedly seems like an illegal activity. However, there are many gray areas that can change this answer depending on the circumstances.

It is critical that you know your rights and the potential consequences of crossing legal boundaries. To help you, this comprehensive guide sheds light on the law against spying and ethics surrounding this often-taboo topic.

Why Are People Looking to Spy on Someone?

An individual’s urge to spy on others is driven by a variety of motives that are, in most cases, self-serving:

The above is just a short list. There are innumerable other reasons an individual, company, or service may justify spying on you.

Did you know that when you click ‘I agree’ or ‘I consent’ on websites, your data is often sold to data brokers?

Private data collected from your website activity and social media usage analysis serves as a valuable data source for brokers.
Coupled with other publicly available sources like court records, motor vehicle data, and voter registration information, data brokers construct elaborate customer profiles.

Companies acquire these profiles to potentially target you with personalized ads. Additionally, this data may also be utilized for other purposes such as fraud detection, risk mitigation, and people search services.

Can You Legally Spy on Someone?

Yes, there are ways that allow you to legally spy on someone in this digitally-evolving world. Data brokers certainly can, without any restrictions.

While the specific legalities may differ based on your location (we discuss this in the next section), the following spying scenarios are legal in most cases.

Purchasing from Data Brokers

With a simple name and email address, you can pay online data brokers to find out plenty of information regarding any target.

For instance, banks and credit card companies could use this method to legally access your personal financial data for fraud detection and risk management purposes. However, such practices may expose your sensitive financial information to potential data breaches.

However, the accuracy of this information depends on how active and connected your target is in the online world.
For instance, if someone explores baby-related websites while organizing a baby shower, data brokers might inaccurately categorize them as ‘new parents.’

Parental Monitoring

Given that parents are their children’s guardians, they are legally allowed to monitor their activities and track their location to ensure their safety.

With the rapid advancement of digital technology, parents are increasingly using parental control apps to set limits on the content their children consume on the internet.

These apps, such as mSpy, also help parents stay informed of all the potentially dangerous online interactions their children are taking part in. Parents can stay updated about unsolicited contact from strangers, exposure to explicit content, or instances of cyberbullying.

mSpy runs undetected on your child’s phone, allowing you to track their location and monitor their messages, calls, social media interactions, website history, and downloaded content.

But that’s not all! You can also block certain inappropriate or harmful websites and apps as well as track how much time they spend on each app. If you are uncertain of its effectiveness, you can try it risk-free by benefiting from its 14-day money-back guarantee.

Surveillance Cameras in Your House

Given that your house is not a public space or shared property, you are allowed to place surveillance cameras inside your home for your safety and peace of mind. You can even install a smart doorbell to monitor all the visitors that come to your house, even in your absence.

However, for the domestic CCTV footage captured outside of your premises, the laws are tougher. You must ensure that your neighbors or those passing by are aware that they are being watched.

In such cases, you might also have to show or delete a recording if someone demands you to do so. Although enforcing such stringent laws is difficult, erring on the side of caution is always advisable.

Monitoring Your Car

Similar to your house, your car is also your private property. Hence, you are allowed to place a GPS tracker or dashcam inside it.

There are several reasons you might want to do this, for example, to find your car if it is stolen, lower insurance premiums, or keep track of your children.

What Is Illegal When You Spy on Someone?

Laws against spying are continuously amended to try and keep up with evolving spy technology.

However, there are still a lot of gray areas, which makes it difficult to say for certain what is illegal. Here are some spying scenarios that may land you in deep legal trouble.

Changing Legal Landscape of the Data Broker Industry

The legal landscape of online data collection and processing is changing rapidly, specifically in the data broker industry. In particular, the US and EU have put in place stringent laws governing the data broker market.

In the US, Vermont’s 2018 law mandates data brokers register with the state and disclose their data collection practices. This law is also currently under consideration by New York.

Additionally, the California Consumer Privacy Act empowers the state’s residents to request their data from brokers, delete it, and opt out of data selling.

Moreover, in the EU, the General Data Protection Regulation enforces highly stringent data protection rules safeguarding individuals’ privacy.

However, research by Duke University has pointed out a concerning lack of regulations in the US regarding data brokers selling sensitive information linked to the mental health data of vulnerable individuals in society.

While personalized ads may seem harmless, the opaque use of data feels invasive and unsettling. It raises ethical concerns about transparency in data usage, especially considering the potentially sensitive nature of the information.

Recently, BetterHelp, a leading online mental health platform, was fined $7.8 million by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC fined them for selling patients’ personal health information to platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Snapchat without explicit consent from their customers.

Spying on Someone on Their Private Property

For those wondering if it is illegal to spy on someone in their house, the answer is yes (in most cases). Placing hidden cameras, listening devices, or other spying equipment to potentially eavesdrop on private conversations without consent on someone else’s property is illegal in most countries.

Law enforcement agents are the only ones allowed to do so in certain cases while following strict legal procedures. For instance, in the UK, such surveillance is governed by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).

Recording Someone Without Their Consent

It is also generally considered illegal to record someone without their consent (if you are not part of that conversation).

This especially pertains to situations where you are recording highly sensitive or private conversations. For those wondering, this also answers the question, ‘Is it illegal to spy on someone’s phone without them knowing?’

While such confidential information might come in handy in legal battles like lawsuits and divorces, it can possibly be inadmissible in courts as it is considered a breach of privacy.

Harassment and Stalking

Spying that amounts to physical or online harassment, bullying, and stalking is globally considered a major legal offense that is punishable by law.

Not only are these activities illegal, they are also highly harmful. The activities can lead to the victim feeling unsafe in their own home, resulting in extreme emotional distress.

If you are being harassed or stalked, it is important to know that you are not alone. There are resources available to help you. You must immediately report the situation to the police and seek advice from a trusted friend, family member, or mental health professional.

Can You Spy on Your Spouse?

For those suspecting their partner of wrongdoings like infidelity, cheating spouse tracker apps are often seen as a spying solution to seemingly reveal all that is hidden. The legality of spying on your spouse depends on multiple factors:

Even if legally possible, spying is never the answer. It is ethically questionable and can cause more harm to your relationship than the actual issue at hand.

Healthy relationships are those that are built upon open communication and trust. Secretly spying is a breach of your spouse’s trust and privacy. Once lost, this trust is hard to win back.

How to Protect Yourself from Spying

If you are worried about someone secretly spying on you, you must know how to protect yourself to ensure your safety and well-being. Here are some tips to help you stay protected:

Even with these privacy measures, if you still believe that someone is spying on you, you must immediately seek assistance from a cybersecurity expert or law enforcement officer for better guidance against this potential threat.

Gathering Information Without Illegal Spying

There are many legal spying techniques for those looking to gather information about someone.

With consent, they can legally monitor their property, like home, car, phone, or computer. They can also legally record a conversation after obtaining consent.

Parents are legally allowed to track their children’s location and monitor their online activities with the help of parental control apps like the well-trusted mSpy app. User reviews on sites like Trustpilot can help you find a reputable app.

However, secretly recording a conversation you are not part of or spying on someone on their private property is generally illegal. An even worse offense is using spying tactics to harass or stalk someone (both physically and digitally). This is considered a major crime and is dealt with strictly under the law.

To safeguard yourself from such scenarios, it is important to remain vigilant of your surroundings, both physically and digitally.

Protect your physical surroundings by making sure your home is securely locked when you are away. You must also stay vigilant for any unusual activities or individuals in your neighborhood or workplace. Trust your instincts and notify the authorities promptly if you notice anything suspicious.

You must also place stringent online security measures, like hard-to-guess passwords and two-factor authentication, on all your devices and online accounts, as well as use a VPN to keep your online activity hidden.

FAQs

References

• I Bought a Report on Everything That’s Known About Me Online (The Atlantic)
• Jury finds former Uber security chief guilty of concealing data breach (Reuters)
• Guidance on Vermont’s Act 171 of 2018 Data Broker Regulation (Vermont Office of the Attorney General)
• California Consumer Privacy Act (State of California Department of Justice)
• General Data Protection Regulation (Intersoft Consulting)
• Data Brokers and the Sale of Americans’ Mental Health Data (Duke University)
• FTC Complaint Against Better Help (Federal Trade Commission)
• Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) (legislation.gov.uk)
• Harassment and Stalking (Sentencing Council)

The post Is It Illegal to Spy on Someone Without Their Knowledge? appeared first on The Tech Report.

Tired of your partner behaving suspiciously? Want to know exactly what they are hiding?

Spynger claims to help put your mind at ease by supporting you in finding out exactly what your spouse is up to behind your back by monitoring all their activities.

But is the app truly good at what it claims to do? In this Spynger review, we will help put all your doubts to rest by revealing the results of our hands-on testing of this cheater spy app.

Not only that, we will share all our discoveries, both positives and negatives, of this cheaters app with you in this comprehensive guide. With all this information at hand, you will know for sure if Spynger is exactly what you are looking for to help put your mind at ease.

Spynger Pros and Cons

During our in-depth exploration of this spy app, we discovered all its strengths and weaknesses. Following is a quick breakdown:

Given the lack of trusted user reviews and free trial, we recommend you to opt for mSpy which tops our list of best phone spy apps in 2024. It stands out for its accurate live location tracking, ambient voice recorder, access to browsing history and stored/shared multimedia files, and remote camera.

The icing on the cake is that mSpy has more than a decade of experience in the spy industry with millions of users globally.

What Is Spynger & Does It Work?

All the features of this monitoring apphelp you figure out what your partner is doing behind your back. From SMS to social media chats to real-time location, you can secretly track exactly what they are up to throughout their day.

You can even keep tabs on the call log or take it up a notch by eavesdropping on the conversations to find out what it’s all about.

Any suspicious activity is easily recorded for you to confront your partner with concrete proof in hand.

All these records with real-time insights are showcased in a comprehensive dashboard for your ease of use.

Is Spynger Legit?

User reviews for Spynger are absent from trusted review platforms like TrustPilot and G2 which makes it difficult to judge user satisfaction.

That said, most people will not want to boast that they have used a spy app. Hence, the lack of reviews possibly indicate that most users of Spynger were satisfied with the results of this app. Survivorship Bias is what you can call it – people are using it successfully so don’t see a need to review it.

Spynger does claim to offer end-to-end encryption to ensure that monitored data is not accessible to anyone except you and your spouse.

However, it is important to note that Spynger does need root access to your partner’s devices and apps for it to help you monitor their activities and location.

Beware that spying on anyone, even your partner, is not ethically right in most scenarios due to serious privacy violations that can have legal consequences. In case you get caught, it can also irreversibly damage your relationship even if your spouse is innocent.

Hence, it is best to only track their activities after obtaining their permission to ensure you are not crossing any boundaries.

Main Features of Spynger

Spynger claims to offer a bunch of features critical for catching infidelity red-handed.

So, we had to put these features to test! Following is our honest assessment of the app’s main offerings:

Stealth Mode

Nothing’s worse than being caught spying on your significant other without solid reasoning. It is a battle you are not prepared to handle.

While testing the app, the most interesting feature we found was Spynger’s stealth mode that allowed the app to run in the background. It remains entirely undetected, allowing you to access and monitor your significant other’s activities without them suspecting anything.

Moreover, you can also connect remotely to an iOS device without jailbreaking (unauthorized modifications) by simply utilizing your partner’s iCloud backup.

Location Tracking & Alerts

You can use Spynger to get real-time location insights of your partner’s whereabouts. This information is visible clearly on Spynger’s dashboard with exact location, dates, and time stamps.

As seen above, the map view allows you to keep track of where exactly your partner is at any point in time.

Plus, with geofencing, you can go one step further by getting alerted when your spouse goes outside certain geographical boundaries (set by you).

Monitor Social Network Interactions

Internet users spend an average of 151 minutes daily on social media sites. Your spouse is no different! Knowing who they interact with regularly is critical.

Spynger allows you to monitor all your spouse’s interactions on social media platforms. You can not only read through their chats, but also view any shared or saved multimedia files like photos, videos, voicenotes, documents, or links.

From WhatsApp to Snapchat to Tinder, you can simply go to your desired social network category on the Spynger dashboard to keep tabs on your partner’s interactions.

Remote Screenshot

All your spying efforts are in vain if you’re not able to secure concrete evidence to confront your partner. For that purpose, we tested Spynger’s remote screenshot functionality. We believe it is truly a valuable feature for you to maintain a record of all the activities you might not approve of.

With this handy feature, you can capture all that happens on your partner’s screen from fishy conversations to inappropriate content. This will allow you to stay one step ahead of your unfaithful partner.

Access to Deleted Content

If your spouse is truly hiding something, their call logs and message history will not give you the whole picture! You need access to what’s gone. This is not just deleted content but also what your partner typed but chose not to send.

While testing, Spynger allowed us to access everything typed on the monitored phone, be it deleted messages, saved drafts, or messages that your partner chose not to send after typing them in.

Spynger Pricing 2024 – How Expensive Is It Against Competitors?

Spynger’s subscription plans offer three flexible options, allowing you to choose the duration that best suits your needs.

You can either go for Monthly, Quarterly or Annual subscription, with a lower per month price if you opt for the latter two plans. We will recommend you to opt for the Annual subscription as it offers the best value for money.

With Spynger, you can also benefit from discounted rates for the 1st year of your subscription.

You are also entitled to a 14-day refund policy in case you are not satisfied with the quality of the product or any of it fails to achieve any of its claimed benefits. In such a case, you can contact sales@spynger.com to cancel the subscription within this time frame.

Spynger Compared to Other Spy Apps

There is no shortage of spy apps these days. So, how does Spynger stack up against its alternatives? Here’s a highlight of the key offerings of the best phone spy apps to help you make an informed decision:

Compared to other alternatives, the Spynger specifically stands out for its particular focus on spouse monitoring to reveal the hidden secrets of unfaithful partners. For that purpose, its stealth mode is truly impressive compared to its alternatives.

Apart from this, Spynger doesn’t have many unique features. While it is a good spy app, it is not the best value for money.
Given its low user base and lack of authentic Spynger reviews online, we will recommend you to opt for a more trusted alternative like mSpy.

If you are still unsure, you can play around with mSpy’s demo, which is available online on its website.

Spynger Alternatives – Does It Get Any Better?

There’s no shortage of options when it comes to paid or free cheaters apps. It can get difficult to choose what is best for your particular scenario.

We don’t recommend free spy apps due to the sensitive nature of the data accessible to these apps. Free apps don’t prioritize security which can lead to you and your spouse’s data getting in the hands of the wrong people.

There is also a possibility that these free apps might even sell the target phone’s data to third parties. Hence, it is best to err on the side of caution by opting for a paid app.

Our team at TechReport has compiled comprehensive spy app reviews and curated lists of the best Spy apps available in the market. Rather than trying out each of the apps yourself, quickly decide based on these detailed guides:

Why You Can Trust TechReport’s Review of Spynger?

Our mission at TechReport is to give you reliable tech-related guidance to help you choose the best tools and platforms. We aim to provide you with an unbiased Spynger review using the result of our rigorous testing of this cheating app.

We have similarly tested other spy apps like mSpy and EyeZy, which has allowed us to accurately point out the pros and cons of Spynger.

Not only that, we also tested out the products to determine the user-friendliness of its interface for first-time users.

Overall, our first hand testing has enabled us to provide you with an honest assessment of its capabilities.

How to Install and Use Spynger in 2024 – A Step-By-Step Guide

Spynger’s set-up process is quite simple and easy to follow. Here is how to spy on your spouse using Spyner:

Step 1 – Sign Up for Spynger Subscription

To sign up, you must head to the Spynger website and choose one of its paid subscription plans to start your spying journey.

Step 2 – Create A Spynger Account

Now, simply create a Spynger account using an email of your choice. Smartly choose an email that is not accessible to your spouse.

Step 3 – Prepare Target Device

If it is an Android device, you must access the target device to disable Play Protect. With it disabled, you may install Spynger’s android app for cheaters on their device (as you the app is not available on Play Store).

In the case of an iOS device, you must acquire your target device’s iCloud credentials. For this purpose, your partner’s phone must have iCloud backup enabled. This will then allow you to discreetly acquire your partner’s phone data without jailbreaking.

Step 4 – Connect the Installed App to Your Spynger Profile

Lastly, you need to agree to the mandatory terms and conditions of Spynger. With this done, you can connect your Spynger account to the target device and start monitoring all their activities without getting caught!

Spynger Ease of Use

With an intuitive and user-friendly dashboard offering live insights, we were impressed how easy it was to use Spynger. You, as a first-time user, can quickly get started without any worries.

We particularly liked that the comprehensive dashboard also showcased the target device’s top websites and contacts, with additional details, to keep you informed on your partner’s interactions.

Moreover, with both iOS and Android apps for cheaters, Spynger caters well to your needs. Once your account is connected to the target device, you can remotely monitor the target device without your partner’s knowledge.

During our exploration, we found that it runs entirely undetected on the target device. Hence, you can easily use it without worrying about getting caught red-handed!

Should You Get Spynger?

We find that Spynger is an easy to use phone spy app for secretly monitoring all the activities of your spouse.

The app offers a comprehensive feature set to monitor all the various platforms that your partner uses. However, the lack of user reviews and company information indicates that you must be cautious when opting for this solution.

With all the facts revealed to you in this Spynger review, you can decide if Spynger is truly the spy tool for you.
Still set on trying out the solution? With its 14-day refund policy, you can give the solution a try to see if it truly lives up to your expectations!

Spynger Review FAQs

References

• Surveillance Ethics (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• The State of Stalkerware 2021(Coalition Against Stalkerware)
• Unauthorized modification of iOS (Apple Support)
• Daily time spent on social networking by internet users worldwide from 2012 to 2023 (Statista)

The post Spynger Review 2024 — Does It Offer Good Mobile Monitoring? appeared first on The Tech Report.

As enjoyable as it is, traveling comes with its own challenges. Online security is one such challenge. Which is why this guide will help you find the best VPN for travelers to help you have one thing less to worry about.

But how exactly does a VPN help? It encrypts your internet traffic, creating a private tunnel that shields your data from the prying eyes of ISPs, hackers, and governments alike.

That said, not all VPNs are suitable for your on-the-go browsing needs.

You need a VPN that is secure, but also fast and reliable in unlocking geoblocked content, no matter your location. And, of course, it should do all this while being battery-efficient and device-agnostic.

In this comprehensive guide, we take a practical approach to finding the best VPN for travelers. Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or embarking on your first international journey, we equip you with the knowledge and insights to make an informed decision.

Why You Need a VPN for Traveling

With iron-clad data encryption supported by modern encryption protocols, you can use VPN to safely browse on the go without a worry! On my last trip to London, I used the free airport Wi-Fi to find vegetarian restaurants and book tickets for the London Eye and Madame Tussauds.

Of course, my VPN (Virtual Private Network) enabled me to browse online without a worry. Now, you must wonder what a VPN has to do with all this. Well, here are all the reasons why I feel safe and more at ease while browsing the internet on a VPN-protected device.

Stay Safe on on Public Wi-Fi Networks

Public Wi-Fi networks are often unencrypted, which means that anyone on the same network can potentially see your browsing activity and infect your device with malware.

With the right tools, a cybercriminal can use a WiFi honeypot to infect your device, get a hold of your passwords. They can then easily sell your personal data or demand a ransom from you.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) warns that unsecured Wi-Fi networks can facilitate data-in-transit attacks such as eavesdropping, potentially compromising your confidential information like login credentials and financial data.

Such attacks pose significant risks, leading to identity theft and financial loss.

While over 80% of all reported fraud in the UK in 2021 was cyber-enabled, only a third of UK citizens perceived themselves as likely victims, according to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

A VPN protects you against such attacks by encrypting your internet traffic, shielding your data from potential hackers and cybercriminals. It also ensures your online activities remain confidential and secure.

Bypass Content Restrictions

While traveling, you must have come across geo-blocks restricting access to your favorite shows or websites. A VPN allows you to bypass these limitations by virtually relocating your device, granting you access to geo-blocked content.

For instance, you can stream movies or access websites that might otherwise be unavailable in your current location.

This is possible with the help of premium VPN service providers, like ExpressVPN, that have secure servers in 100+ countries to help you access content from all over the world despite your location.

Safeguards Online Privacy

Your online activities are constantly watched!

Since the release of the Snowden revelations, the rising threat of government-led surveillance is a looming concern. The disclosures revealed the extensive monitoring by government agencies, intensifying worries about privacy breaches.

Our online activities face constant scrutiny, compelling us to confront the challenge of maintaining privacy as a fundamental right for all amidst the pervasive threats of government surveillance and ISP censorship.

A VPN encrypts your internet traffic and hides your IP address, keeping third parties from tracking your browsing habits or accessing your data. This ensures your online privacy, securing your anonymity and protecting you from unwanted surveillance across platforms.

What to Look for in a VPN for Traveling

To help you find the best VPN service provider for your travel adventures, we have put together a list of essential features for the best browsing experience on the move.

Security Measures

Choose a VPN that offers top-tier security features such as AES 256-bit encryption, a kill switch, DNS leak protection, ad blockers, and threat protection.

These advanced security layers ensure your online safety, especially crucial when accessing sensitive information over public networks during your travels.

Encryption Protocols

An ideal travel VPN supports standard encryption protocols like OpenVPN, ensuring secure data transmission.

Some premium services, like ExpressVPN, provide proprietary protocols like the Lightway Protocol. Lightway offers enhanced performance without compromising security—a valuable asset for seamless browsing during your travels.

No-Logs Policy

Prioritize VPNs with independently audited no-logs policies verified by third parties. This commitment to user privacy ensures that your online activities remain confidential and free from logging or monitoring.

The location of the VPN provider also plays a crucial role in protecting your privacy. Hence, we advise you to opt for VPN providers based in countries with robust privacy laws and minimal data retention requirements.

VPN providers headquartered in these countries are generally considered more privacy-conscious and less likely to compromise your data.

Cross-Platform Compatibility

When selecting a VPN for traveling abroad, make sure it’s compatible with all your devices and operating systems. It must have dedicated apps for each platform, ensuring seamless compatibility to protect your data consistently, regardless of the device you’re using.

Additionally, consider the number of simultaneous device connections supported by the VPN. This is particularly important for travelers who frequently switch between devices, such as their phone, laptop, and tablet.

Choose a VPN that allows you to connect multiple devices simultaneously to maintain uninterrupted protection during your travel endeavors.

Battery Drain

Phones help us stay connected while on the go. For this purpose, you must opt for a VPN that is optimized to consume minimal battery power. Otherwise, your phone might be frequently out of battery, with you frantically searching for a charging spot every two hours.

Finding a VPN for travel that balances performance without draining your device’s battery during extended use can significantly enhance your travel experience.

Look for VPN providers supporting lightweight protocols specifically designed for mobile devices. ExpressVPN’s Lightway protocol is an excellent example, offering exceptional performance while minimizing battery consumption. This makes it an ideal choice for travelers who heavily depend on their smartphones and tablets.

Browsing Speed

The fastest VPN services have optimized servers strategically located across various regions. These servers ensure reduced latency and faster connection speeds by minimizing the distance data travels between your device and the server.

Additionally, VPNs employing advanced protocols and technologies, like WireGuard or Lightway, maintain consistently high speeds while offering a reliable infrastructure that avoids bottlenecks, ensuring swift and seamless browsing experiences that prioritizes user security.

Streaming Performance

Unlocking your favorite shows and streaming platforms is not enough. A VPN must also ensure that you can stream without constant interruptions like buffering.

To ensure seamless streaming, regardless of location, prioritize VPNs best for streaming with a global network of optimized servers specifically designed for streaming on popular platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+.

Streaming-focused VPN providers equip their servers with the necessary bandwidth and processing power to support high-definition content.

Hence, the best VPN for international travel supports HD streaming without compromising speed or video quality, even in remote locations.

Global Server Network

Choose VPNs boasting a robust global server network encompassing various countries and locations.

Extensive server coverage, like ExpressVPN’s server presence in 100+ countries, grants you access to geo-blocked content worldwide, and enhances your browsing capabilities while traveling.

Should You Use a Free VPN?

Free VPN service providers do exist. And who doesn’t like free options? But, these are not worth the trade-off.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to most free VPN providers.

The primary purpose of a VPN is to safeguard your online privacy. However, many free VPNs often betray this trust by logging your browsing activity and selling your data to third-party advertisers:

It gets worse. We were continuously redirected to harmful websites, which exposed our devices to further security risks. Plus, ads were constantly popping up during our browsing session which were highly distracting and annoying.

Hence, we advise you to prioritize your safety and security by investing in a reputable paid VPN like ExpressVPN. Millions worldwide trust it and enjoy features like safe and fast browsing with the Lightway protocol, split tunneling, threat manager, and DNS leak protection.

These premium VPNs offer robust security features, global server access, and consistently high speeds, providing the protection and performance you need to stay connected and protected while exploring the world.

Best VPN for Travelers – Our Top Picks

Keeping all these critical attributes in mind, we have compiled a list of our tried-and-tested top travel VPN service providers that we believe are the best fit for various traveler needs:

Keep Your Devices Safe While Traveling

Overall, securing your online presence while traveling is crucial. A VPN can be your travel companion, securing you from all the threats of public Wi-Fi networks.

When choosing a VPN for travel, you must prioritize security features like encryption, no-logs policy, and optimal server locations. Also, look for cross-device compatibility and minimal battery consumption for hassle-free protection across your devices.

Remember, a VPN won’t just help you access geo-blocked content. It will also help you preserve your online privacy despite the increasing government surveillance and censorship.

Hence, it’s important to look for a trustworthy and reliable VPN, like ExpressVPN, that ensures online security, global content access, and protection of your personal data, no matter your location. Getting the best VPN for travelers will definitely enable you to enjoy your journey while staying connected safely!

FAQs

References

• Holiday Travel Tip: Use Public Wi-Fi Safely (NIST)
• NCSC Annual Review 2023 (NCSC)
• A Mini-Symposium on “Beyond Snowden” (Lawfare)
• Mapping power and jurisdiction on the internet through the lens of government-led surveillance (Internet Policy Review)
• CDT’s Complaint to the FTC on Hotspot Shield VPN (CDT)

The post Best VPN for Travelers – How to Stay Safe Abroad in 2024 appeared first on The Tech Report.

Looking to preserve your online privacy, bypass content censorship, or prevent cyber attacks? A VPN is definitely your best bet! But how exactly can you set up a VPN?

You have two paths to choose from:

Either way, we’ve got your back! We will walk you through both possibilities to help you make an informed decision. Our step-by-step setup guide will assist you in smoothly starting your VPN journey.

Pros and Cons of Making Your Own VPN

How To Set Up a Free or Paid VPN

If you want to opt for a ready-made quick solution, you’ll have to choose one of the many free or paid Virtual Private Network (VPN) providers. On the surface, going for a free option seems the most desirable, but there’s more than meets the eye.

Free VPNs might catch your attention for their no-cost promises. However, these free options often come with dangerous trade-offs, including loss of privacy, risk of malware attacks, and selling your data to third-party advertisers, proving to be much costlier in the long run.

On the other hand, premium VPN services are highly secure, tried and tested tools, trusted by millions worldwide, and they help you do much more than hide your IP addresses.

NordVPN has come out to be the best value VPN with all the critical features required for a variety of use cases, including iron-clad data privacy, protection from phishing attempts, bypassing geo-blocked content globally and, ad-blocking.

How is that possible? With a variety of security and privacy features for your continuous protection:

How to Set Up a Paid VPN on Windows

Windows does come with a built-in VPN, but it’s merely a VPN client, acting as a bridge that connects your Windows device to other third-party VPN services – so you still need a VPN subscription or dedicated VPN server

But here’s the catch: You’ll be wrestling with setting up profiles for different servers and encryption protocols, making the process long-winded and a bit of a hassle. Not the best use of your time, right?

Instead, directly subscribing to a premium VPN service will greatly simplify the setup.

You should choose a VPN service that offers user-friendly apps for all your devices and operating systems, including Windows. NordVPN is our top recommendation for this purpose.

Here’s a quick guide:

1. First, sign up for a premium VPN subscription on its website.
2. Once signed up, download and install the VPN app for Windows from its website or from the Windows store.
3. Open the installed app and log in with your account details.
4. Choose a server from their wide selection, hit connect, and you’re set!

However, if you still want to opt for the manual VPN setup on the Windows device or choose a VPN without a Windows app, here is a detailed guide to the manual process:

1. Sign up for a premium VPN subscription on its website.
2. Click on the Start menu and navigate to Settings.
3. In Settings, choose Network & Internet option.
4. Under Network & Internet, select VPN and click on “Add a VPN connection.”
5. Fill in the necessary details like VPN provider name, connection name, server address, and VPN type. Then, add your sign-in credentials.
6. Once configured, go back to VPN settings, find your VPN connection, and click “Connect”.

While we have shortened the process up in 6 steps, it is a technical process, which is quite error-prone.

How to Install a Paid VPN on Mac

Similar to Windows, you can set up a VPN on Mac devices either by simply downloading your subscribed VPN’s Mac app or manually setting up the VPN if your VPN doesn’t have a Mac app.

The process through an app is pretty straightforward:

1. Subscribe to your preferred VPN provider.
2. Now, head to their website or the App Store to download its Mac app.
3. After installing the app, sign in using your account details.
4. Choose your preferred server location from their list of servers.
5. Hit connect, and you’re all set to enjoy a secure browsing experience.

You can also go for the manual route. Although possible, the manual VPN setup process is much more complicated and may require you to enter technical details provided by your VPN provider.

Looking at all these complicated details, it is no wonder that most people opt for the third-party app method, preferring its user-friendly experience.

Still interested in the manual route? You must you must follow these steps:

1. Once subscribed to a premium VPN service, click on the Apple menu.
2. Go to System Preferences or System Settings (depending on your Mac version), and select Network.
3. In Network Preferences, click the “+” icon at the bottom left to add a new network connection.
4. From the Interface dropdown menu, select VPN.
5. Then, choose the VPN type and enter the Service Name.
6. Now, you must input the necessary details provided by your VPN provider in the fields of “Server Address,” “Remote ID” and “Local ID” (it is critical for you to know these details, otherwise you can’t complete the VPN configuration)
7. Save the configuration and authenticate with your username and password, if prompted.
8. Finally, click “Ok” to establish the VPN connection.

How to Set Up a Paid VPN on iOS

For iPhone or iPad, you can set up a VPN effortlessly by using your subscribed VPN provider’s app:

1. Begin by subscribing to a premium VPN — here’s our recommended list of the top VPN apps for iOS.
2. Then, swiftly navigate to the App Store and download the VPN’s iOS app.
3. Launch the installed app, log in using your account credentials.
4. Choose a server location, tap Connect, and in just a few clicks, you’re all set!

It is important to note that buying a VPN on iOS/iPad OS may not be as straightforward as on Android.

Many VPN providers don’t support direct purchases from Apple’s app store due to its high fees. In that case, you have to subscribe to the VPN service on another device or use a browser to sign up first.

Then, you can download the VPN app on your iOS/iPad OS device and log in with your account credentials to get started!

You can also set up the VPN manually on iOS by filling in all the VPN configuration details shown below.

Here’s how to set up a VPN manually on iOS devices:

1. Subscribe to the premium VPN of your choice.
2. Head to your device’s Settings.
3. Tap on General, then VPN.
4. Select the “Add VPN Configuration” option.
5. Choose the correct VPN Type and mention the Service Name
6. Input the necessary VPN details from your service provider, including the server address, remote ID, local ID.
7. Enter your username and password.
8. Save the configuration and activate the VPN switch to connect.

How to Install a Paid VPN on Android

Setting up a VPN on your Android device is also a similarly easy process with a third-party VPN app:

1. Begin by subscribing to your preferred VPN service
2. Next, head over to the Google Play Store and download their Android app.
3. Once the app is installed, you can log in to the app with your account credentials.
4. Select your preferred server location and tap connect!.

Using a VPN app simplifies the setup process, offering a user-friendly interface for secure and convenient browsing on your Android device. Our team at TechReport has tried and tested all top VPN apps for Android to help you choose the best.

You can also go for the manual set up to get a VPN configured on your Android devices. Opting for manual setup gives you control over specific settings, although it might require a bit more technical know-how.

If you prefer manual configuration, follow these steps:

1. Subscribe to a premium VPN service provider.
2. Search and navigate to the VPN section in your device’s settings.
3. Input the required VPN details provided by your service provider: server address, VPN type, and authentication credentials.
4. Save the settings
5. Toggle the VPN switch to connect.

How to Set Up a Paid VPN on a Router

Since most of your home devices are connected to the Wi-Fi network through a router, setting up a VPN connection on your router is the best way to quickly secure all your devices in one go.

However, be aware that not all routers support VPN configuration, so ensure your router is VPN-compatible before proceeding.

If your router is VPN-compatible, you can benefit from network-wide VPN protection at home. Follow these general steps to get your VPN connection configured:

1. Open your router’s settings by typing its IP address into your web browser’s address bar. Most routers have 192.168.1.1″ or “192.168.0.1.” as their IP address. If that doesn’t work for you, you must confirm with your router’s manual.
2. Log in with your router’s admin credentials
3. Locate the VPN section within the router settings menu, which might be under the Advanced Settings sections.
4. Enter the necessary VPN details provided by your VPN service provider, including the server address, encryption settings, and login credentials.
5. Save the settings and activate the VPN on your router.
6. Ensure the VPN works correctly by connecting a device to your router and confirming the VPN is active.

It is important to note that this is a general guide and specific steps can vary based on your router model.

Your owner’s manual or your VPN provider’s guide will provide you with specific VPN set up instructions to follow in case these general steps are not resulting in success.

You can also take guidance from NordVPN’s setup tutorials for all the major router models.

How to Install a Paid VPN on Linux

VPN setup on Linux distros might seem a bit more difficult, but it is definitely possible!

Most premium VPN providers unfortunately only offer Command Line Interface (CLI) apps for Linux, not the more common Graphical User Interface (GUI) apps that we’re all familiar with and that are much easier to navigate.

However, there are some exceptions to this trend, such as Surfshark and Private Internet Access, which do provide GUI apps for Linux users.

Thankfully, most VPN providers have detailed guidelines on their websites to help users navigate the seemingly complicated CLI apps to help them configure the VPN on a Linux system.

The steps for all premium VPN’s Linux apps are generally similar. Here is how you can connect to the NordVPN Linux app:

1. To get started, you need to download the NordVPN Linux app from their official website.
2. Next, open the terminal in your Linux device and enter the command “sudo apt-get install /pathToFile/nordvpn-release_1.0.0_all.deb” (remember to replace “pathToFile” with the actual path to your Downloads folder)
3. Then, you’ll be asked to enter the root password; do so and wait for the installation to finish.
4. Once done, enter the command “sudo apt-get update” to update the apt-get package list and enter the command “sudo apt-get install nordvpn” to install the NordVPN app.
5. After that, log in to your NordVPN account by entering the command “nordvpn login”.
6. Finally, you can connect to NordVPN by typing “nordvpn connect”.

By following these instructions, you’ll be all set to enjoy a secure VPN connection on your Linux devices!

Are Free VPNs Safe?

Free VPN services come with significant risks. They commonly undermine the core purpose of a VPN, which is to secure your data and ensure anonymity.

They often log your browsing activity and sell this data to third-party advertisers, compromising your privacy.

Additionally, free VPNs typically have much slower speeds and very limited server access than paid VPNs, making them unsuitable for streaming, gaming, and other bandwidth-intensive activities.

Worst of all, free VPNs may inject malware into your devices or redirect them to malicious websites. The constant bombardment of adverts during your browsing sessions makes the user experience intolerable.

Therefore, choosing free VPNs can often prove to be more costly than the expenses associated with a paid VPN.

How to Set Up a DIY VPN for Free

Yes, you heard it right! Although time-consuming, it’s absolutely possible to set up a VPN on your own. You can set it up using platforms with the Google Cloud Platform and OpenVPN without spending a dime.

Building your own VPN can be a rewarding and educational experience. If you are tech-savvy and looking for a new adventure, why not try setting it up yourself?

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Begin by visiting the OpenVPN website and selecting “Access Server on GCP”.
2. You will be redirected to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) website, where you’ll find the OpenVPN access server. Click “Launch” to start.
3. To initiate the setup, either log in or create a new GCP account. As a new member, you can usually avail a one-year free trial with $300 USD in credit, for your use during the trial period.
4. Once logged in, you can view the GCP Deployment Manager page. Click “Deploy” at the bottom of the page to proceed.
5. Once OpenVPN is deployed, access the GCP deployment manager and locate the OpenVPN VM instance named “openvpn-access-server-vm” and click “SSH” under “Connect” to access your virtual machine.
6. A new window will pop up; it is your Virtual Machine with a terminal. With this, the VPN creation is completed!
7. Now, you must change its password by typing “sudo passwd openvpn” into the terminal within the SSH window.
8. After changing the password, retrieve the External IP address from the OpenVPN VM found in GCP in the VM Instance control panel section.
9. Now, you can use the External IP to access the VPN through your browser by typing “https://{your external IP}/admin” in a new tab.
10. Log in using the username “OpenVPN” and your updated password. Now, you can view your newly created VPN’s dashboard.
11. Enable “Should client Internet traffic be routed through the VPN?” option found in the VPN settings and configure the Network Settings found on the VPN dashboard.
12. Finally, to activate the VPN on your chosen device, access https://{your external IP} and download the supported app. With this done, you can simply open the app and enable the VPN connection!

Phew! That must have been a lot to digest. Which is exactly why the DIY option is not for the faint of hearts!

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. You have to connect each of your devices manually to the VPN, which is a very tedious and complicated task. For global access, you will also have to set up and maintain servers in different regions, which is ultimately costly and time-consuming.

Moreover, you have to update and patch your VPN regularly to protect yourself from security vulnerabilities. Hence, what may seem like a cheap option in the short-term may turn out to be more expensive in the long run.

Besides, you will miss out on all the extra perks that premium VPN services offer, such as kill switch, VPN obfuscation, SmartDNS, split tunneling, and ad blocker. These features can enhance your online privacy, security, and convenience.

That’s why we recommend you to subscribe to NordVPN, which has everything ready for you out-of-the-box, with continuously upgraded security features.

Is It Worth Setting Up a Free VPN

While, creating your own free VPN gives you a peek into how VPN works, it’s not really a walk in the park.

Setting up a DIY VPN demands a lot of time and tech know-how. It’s budget-friendly to start with, but if you’re not familiar with technical setups, it might be overwhelming. Plus, you’ve got to keep it updated to stay secure, and you don’t get to have servers around the world, not to mention simultaneous connections and easy setup for new devices.

Comparatively, premium paid VPNs are super simple to set up. Just a few clicks and you’ve got top-notch security, tons of servers, and easy-to-use apps for all your devices.

The third option of going for free ready-made VPN is not really an option in our opinion. As much as they are tempting, it is important to be careful of the additional security risks they may expose you to.

So, our recommendation for you is to go for a hassle-free, reliable, and trusted option of a premium paid VPN like NordVPN for a truly safe and private browsing experience. Doubt us? You can use its 30-day money back guarantee to test the solution without a worry!

FAQs

References

• IP Addresses (CS50, Harvard)
• Introduction to the Linux Command Line Interface (Marquette.edu)
• The Graphical User Interface: An Introduction (Penn State College of IST)
• CDT’s Complaint to the FTC on Hotspot Shield VPN (CDT)

The post How to Set Up a VPN – Guide to Free, DIY, Premium Solutions appeared first on The Tech Report.

Does IPVanish provide you the speed and secure browsing experience that it claims? This comprehensive IPVanish review delves deep into the performance and reliability of IPVanish, revealing the results of our extensive product testing.

We assessed IPVanish’s performance based on its usability, value for money, and user satisfaction, among other things.

Our team regularly reviews all the major VPN providers and we’ll share with you how exactly IPVanish stands out compared to other top VPN services.

By the end of this review, you’ll gain clarity on whether IPVanish is truly suitable for your browsing needs.

Key IPVanish Pros and Cons

Here is a quick breakdown of all the major benefits and shortcomings of the IPVanish VPN that you may face:

Have some doubts? Take advantage of IPVanish’s risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee to try out the VPN and experience its benefits and versatile use cases firsthand.

Can You Trust IPVanish?

Given that it is a US-based VPN service, it does get affected by the Five-Eyes Alliance. This ultimately led it to be embroiled in the logging scandal in 2016 as it provided FBI detailed logs of a user identified as a suspect in a child pornography case as described in this criminal affidavit.

Although this critical information helped the FBI arrest a dangerous sexual predator, it did badly damage the reputation of IPVanish as this meant their claims of no-log policy were false.

As a result, the company faced dire consequences as they lost customer trust and was ultimately acquired by Ziff Devis (previously named J2 Global).

Since its acquisition, IPVanish has crossed leaps and bounds to regain customer trust through various measures, including:

Most importantly, rather than opting for virtual servers or leasing physical servers, IPVanish actually owns almost 90% of their servers. This is impressive as this allows them to provide better speeds, with military-grade security and better privacy.

Overall, many years have passed since the one-off scandal of 2016 and it seems that IPVanish has truly upheld its promise of ensuring user anonymity with full transparency.

What is IPVanish Best for?

With 90% physical servers owned by IPVanish, this VPN service is renowned most for its ultra-fast speeds and military grade security that allows you to reliably use it in the following key areas:

Restriction-Free Content Streaming

The extensive server network throughout the globe and Wireguard tunneling protocol allows you to have fast speeds with reliable access to geo-restricted content from Netflix, Disney+, BBC iPlayer and most other popular streaming platforms.

Simply connect to a server near your desired streaming location and enjoy uninterrupted playback without buffering.

We’ve come across user reviews sharing that the VPN is not able to reliably unblock Hulu and Amazon Prime Video for them. This might be due to not using a private browsing window/incognito mode or due to the IP having been blacklisted.

If you are having trouble unblocking Hulu or Amazon Prime Video with IPVanish, you can try clearing your browser’s cookies and cache, using a private browsing window, connecting to a different VPN server location, or contacting IPVanish customer support.

If nothing else works, it might be best to give another VPN provider a try for streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime.

Torrenting Anonymously

With a balance of privacy and performance capabilities, IPVanish is ideal for all your torrenting needs. Unlike other VPNs, IPVanish supports both unlimited torrenting and P2P file sharing across its entire network of P2P-friendly servers.

For maximum download speeds, be sure to use the SOCKS5 proxy offered by IPVanish. SOCKS5 proxies are highly useful for torrenting because they can direct your torrent traffic through a different port than the standard HTTP/HTTPS ports, making it more difficult for ISPs or copyright holders to track torrent activity.

The SOCKS5 proxy complements IPVanish’s iron-clad encryption, kill switch, and strict no-logs policy, ensuring your privacy remains intact even during high-volume torrenting sessions.

Bypassing Censorship with VPN Obfuscation

Using OpenVPN Scramble, IPVanish is able to hide from VPN blocking firewalls. It’s an added layer of security over and above your encryption protocols.

It hides you in a way that government firewalls are not able to detect that you are using a VPN – basically protecting you from deep packet inspections.

With this handy feature you can use IPVanish to access any restricted or censored content from around the globe.

However, it is important to note that despite this feature, we found that the VPN is still not working in some regions like China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

Secure Browsing on Public Wi-Fi

With the rise of cybercrimes like identity theft, eavesdropping, and malware infections, public Wi-Fi is more dangerous than ever.

IPVanish VPN allows you to easily escape these dangers by ensuring secure and anonymous browsing on-the-go without worrying about most cybersecurity threats.

It encrypts all your online data and hides your IP address, protecting your data from prying eyes when using public Wi-Fi networks.

Plus, it further protects with additional security features of AES 256-bit encryption, secure encryption protocols, 40,000+ shared IP addresses, Kill Switch, DNS leak protection, and independently audited no-logs policy.

IPVanish Features – The Good and The Bad

Let’s explore these core features with an analysis of their benefits and shortcomings revealed through our hands-on testing of the VPN service:

Automatic Connection

Auto-connect feature is a practical feature from IPVanish that helps you connect on demand with the VPN based on your preset rules.

During our hands-on testing, we were impressed with the fact that this feature offers continuous device protection, even if you forget to manually connect the VPN.

Basically, you can configure it to activate VPN automatically while your device is connected to a public Wi-Fi or any other untrusted networks.

You can even define conditions for IPVanish to automatically disconnect while you use certain websites or trusted networks. And the best part is this feature is available on all IPVanish apps, including Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS.

While testing IPVanish, we were impressed with the effectiveness of Automatic Connection in securing our device from all types of network traffic exposure without requiring constant user intervention.

Kill Switch

IPVanish’s Kill Switch comes in handy as a safety net for instances when your VPN connection drops suddenly. It basically halts all your network traffic until a secure connection is re-established.

During our testing of the VPN, we found that this Kill Switch feature worked as a fail-safe back-up by instantly blocking all internet traffic as soon as the VPN connection falters.

With this activated, you can breathe easy that your sensitive online activity will not be suddenly exposed. Other user reviews also showcase a similar satisfaction with the results of this shield in protecting their anonymity from unexpected interruptions.

However, unfortunately, the Kill Switch functionality is only limited to the users of MacOS, Windows, Android, and Amazon Fire TV.

WireGuard Protocol

As one of the first VPNs to adopt this encryption protocol, IPVanish apps by default utilize WireGuard – a turbo-charged, lightweight VPN protocol offering significantly enhanced speeds, security and stability compared to older protocols like OpenVPN.

With a more streamlined encryption algorithm and minimum code length, we found WireGuard more effective in supporting faster speeds, reduced CPU usage, and improved security, with minimized vulnerabilities compared to OpenVPN.

With WireGuard protocol, our testing consistently demonstrated faster connection times and stable performance for IPVanish, particularly for mobile VPN apps that benefited from the simplified codebase requiring lower processing power.

However, despite all the benefits, this protocol is still a work in progress and currently not compatible with all the operating systems and devices out there (which is fast-changing given its increasing popularity in the VPN world).

SOCKS5 Proxy

For an optimized, high-speed torrenting experience, the SOCKS5 proxy offered by IPVanish is incredibly valuable.

You can use it to mask your IP address and location while accessing certain applications by routing this specific internet traffic through a proxy server.

A major advantage of this SOCKS5 proxy is that it provides an anonymized torrenting experience with P2P-optimized servers that are compatible with the BitTorrent protocols. You can also use it to access geo-blocked content or bypass internet restrictions in certain regions.

Note that SOCKS5 proxy is not a replacement for VPN as it does not provide the same level of privacy and data encryption (hence the faster speed provided for torrenting).

It is better to use the VPN together with the SOCKS5 option when your highest priority is utmost privacy without any chances of activity logging or monitoring. On the other hand, you can opt for SOCKS5 proxy servers alone simply as an IP address changer for online anonymity with the highest possible speed for torrenting or any other bandwidth-intensive activity.

Split Tunneling

Split tunneling is another highly valuable functionality offered by IPVanish that allows us to selectively route network traffic from certain applications or websites through the VPN and connect all the rest directly through our internet connection.

We had the liberty to choose exactly which apps or sites we wanted to route through the IPVanish tunnel. By not routing non-essential bandwidth-intensive traffic, we experience faster and better optimized VPN performance. And this was possible while maintaining our privacy when visiting apps or websites that actually require such measures.

However, you must carefully consider what traffic to route through the VPN to avoid any unexpected leakage of sensitive information through the unprotected network traffic.

IPVanish Pricing in 2024– Is It Good Value?

IPVanish is one of the most budget-friendly VPN options in the market in 2024, mainly because of its highly affordable yearly and 2-year plans displayed below:

Alongside a VPN, all subscriptions of IPVanish offer you the same core features presented in previous sections, including military-grade security, unlimited simultaneous device connections, 40,000+ shared IP addresses, SOCKS5 proxy, multiple encryption protocols, and live customer support.

Mobile app users can opt for a 7-day free trial for quick testing purposes and you can then utilize these free trial credentials on other devices as well for a complete experience.

Monthly Subscription

For beginners, the monthly subscription is a good starting point. However, it is not the most affordable, especially without the 30-day money-back guarantee.

Although very useful for a risk-free trial of the product, this money-back guarantee is only available for the yearly plans.

Yearly Subscription

The yearly subscription offers a 77% saving on the monthly price, making it seem quite a bargain – especially with the first three months free and the 30-day money-back guarantee available for testing purposes.

2-Year Subscription

The 2-year subscription is the most budget-friendly with a massive 81% cost-saving on the monthly pricing. Similar to the yearly subscription, this also offers the first three months free and a 30-day money-back guarantee for risk-free trial.

IPVanish Ease of Use – How’s the Interface?

Our team found the IPVanish user interface to be user friendly and easy to navigate due to clear design. Its compatibility with a range of devices made the experience even better.

Here is a detailed analysis of the user interface and functionalities offered on the various devices IPVanish is compatible with:

Windows App

IPVanish’s Windows app is feature-packed for Windows 10 and 11 with a sleek and simple UI.

The Quick connect option that allows automatic connection to the best server based on your location and needs.

You can tweak the user interface based on your design preference like whether to view the app in light or dark mode, view all available servers as map view or table view.

The best part is that you can mark your preferred servers as favorites, visible separately in a Favorite List tab.

In terms of features, the IPVanish Windows app offers all the features described prior to this section. In fact, its Kill Switch is better than on MacOS as it also supports local area network (LAN) blocking for additional protection against network vulnerabilities.

Mac App

While the IPVanish Mac app is less customizable compared to Windows applications, it is still highly intuitive and user friendly with much the same core interface available with Favorite List and interactive Map/List view of the servers. The application is supported by ​​macOS 10.13+.

The Quick Connect feature has transformed into an improved version called Optimal location.

This new version of Quick Connect is better suited to automatically select an ideal server based on your location, server load, and other critical factors using an intelligent load-balancing algorithm. This prevents server congestion and ensures optimal performance.

Android App

On the Android front, IPVanish’s VPN app is compatible with Android 5.1 or higher. The Android mobile app also provides you the choice of light and dark mode.

As with the desktop version, you can mark your favorite servers as well as find all the server options in a list view. Although the home page shows a visually pleasing map, it is not interactive so you must go to the Location tab to choose a server location.

Or you can simply click the Quick Connect button on the Home Screen if you don’t need to choose a server from a specific location. The Home Screen then displays your connection source and status for easy monitoring.

The app supports multiple encryption protocols, with WireGuard as the default connection protocol, and provides all the key features required for VPN to work effectively including a Kill Switch, OpenVPN Scramble, and Split Tunneling.

You can even activate automatic connection for connection on demand when required without you having to manually start the VPN.

iOS App

Although not as feature-packed as the Android app, IPVanish’s iOS app has a simple and easy to use interface with all the major features required for an optimized and secure VPN experience.

The iOS app shares a similar interface to the Android app, offering options to toggle between light and dark modes, create a Favorites List for frequently used servers, and utilize Quick Connect to establish a one-click connection with an ideal server suitable for your needs.

Unfortunately, the iOS app lacks some important features, like split tunneling and Kill Switch, which is quite troublesome. It’s nothing to do with IPVanish itself – all VPN apps have the same issues on iOS.

Other Supported Devices and OS

IPVanish also offers easy to use applications for other popular operating systems, including Linux, Chrome OS, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.

Given that IPVanish supports unmetered connections, all these IPVanish applications definitely come in handy!

How Good Is IPVanish’ Security?

VPNs are designed to protect your privacy and online activity, but without robust security measures in place, they can become a liability, exposing your data to potential breaches and leaks.

IPVanish has consistently prioritized security, providing top-notch security features to safeguard user information.

At the heart of IPVanish’s security lies AES 256-bit encryption, the same encryption standard used by the U.S. military and widely regarded as unbreakable. This encryption method ensures that your data remains scrambled and indecipherable to even the most sophisticated cybercriminals.

IPVanish also provides multiple encryption protocols to provide optimal performance in different circumstances. In addition to its encryption protocols, IPVanish adheres to a strict no-logs policy, meaning that it does not retain any user data, including browsing history, or IP addresses.

There is still a possibility that you may share connection logs with the IPVanish team for troubleshooting and development purposes. While you can try to proactively protect your personal data, there’s no guarantee the logs are foolproof in terms of device fingerprinting.

Despite IPVanish’s privacy claims and policy changes, there is still the black cloud of its 2016 logging scandal, at least until another investigation proves the opposite. Now, it comes down to you as a user to decide if you can still trust IPVanish’s renewed commitment to user privacy or not.

Industry-Standard VPN Security

The Kill Switch feature works as intended, and it really well in our IP leak testing. It prevented any unprotected data from being transmitted, ensuring that our privacy remained intact, even when we tried to actively disrupt it.

IPVanish app also offers built-in DNS leak protection, which prevents your DNS requests from being exposed to your ISP or other third parties. It was actually able to pass our DNS leak test with flying colors.

Plus, IPVanish’s unmetered device connections ensure that all your devices are simultaneously kept secure with data encryption to leave you worry-free.

IPVanish Compared to Other VPNs

So, how does IPVanish stack up against its top alternatives? Let’s see how it compares to the top VPN service providers. The following table highlights their unique offerings, top features, and monthly pricing:

While there are other noteworthy VPN providers in the market, IPVanish stands out for its affordability and the added benefit of the SOCKS5 proxy. The VPN’s SOCKS5 proxy is specifically designed to deliver improved privacy when used together with the VPN.

The unlimited device policy is an added bonus that truly adds to its value and ease of use while ensuring complete protection on all your devices.

Most importantly, unlike many VPN providers that rely on virtual servers, IPVanish owns and operates about 90% of its network infrastructure, consisting of physical servers. This ownership translates into enhanced VPN performance, service reliability, and control over server quality.

If you are still unsure, you can opt for an yearly subscription to try it risk-free by benefiting from its 30-day money-back guarantee.

What Do Other IPVanish Reviews Say?

For our IPVanish review, we also performed an in-depth analysis of user feedback provided on trusted review sites like TrustPilot and Reddit as well as the reviews posted on Play Store and App Store for the mobile apps.

We found user feedback to be mostly positives. On TrustPilot, IPVanish has an average rating of 4.2 stars with about 8,000 reviews.

Many users have given positive feedback as they found IPVanish a good value for money because of their device compatibility, robust security offerings, and affordable pricing. Despite some hiccups along the way, the VPN was able to redeem itself with its proactive customer support that quickly resolved these issues.

Similar positive reviews were published by IPVanish Android app users on the Play Store. Many have shared that they renewed their subscription as they were highly satisfied with the VPN’s performance and speed on all the various devices.

Similar positive reviews were observed for their iOS app on the App Store with users praising it for its ease of use and optimized performance.

One happy customer was left a bit disappointed when their account was disabled without any apparent reason due to some bugs. However, customer support actively worked with the customer after the review was posted and their account was up and running within 4 days, leaving them satisfied.

Our Reviews of IPVanish Alternatives

Curious about other VPN providers? The TechReport team provides comprehensive coverage of all things VPN, offering multiple guides that showcase in-depth industry analysis.

Below are a few key guides that reveal our test results, demonstrating how these top VPN solutions perform against each other:

Why You Can Trust TechReport’s Review of IPVanish?

We use a data-driven approach, combining thorough analysis of user reviews with hands-on product testing. By digging into user feedback and conducting our own firsthand testing, we ensure that our evaluations are reliable and authentic.

How to Use IPVanish in 2024 – An Easy Step-By-Step Guide

Setting up and activating IPVanish is a straightforward process. Following is a step-by-step guide to help you quickly get started:

Step 1 – Install IPVanish App

Once you have subscribed to an IPVanish subscription plan, install the VPN app on the device of your choice from the IPVanish website. In our case, we are installing a Windows app.

Step 2 – Create An Account

After installing, run the VPN application to get started. Once set up, it will ask you to login to your IPVanish account.

Step 3 – Connect to an IPVanish VPN Server

Now, you can connect to the server of your choice or simply click on Connect to auto-connect to an ideal server automatically chosen by the IPVanish VPN app.

Step 4 – Check VPN Connection Status

To verify if you are connected to the VPN and monitor its status, you can simply view the details shown on the VPN app homepage.

Step 5 – Disconnect When Needed

Finally, when you no longer need to use the VPN connection, you can simply disconnect by clicking on the Disconnect button in the homepage.

Is IPVanish Worth It?

Overall, IPVanish is a strong contender in the VPN world, particularly for users seeking a balance between price, performance and privacy. It is well-suited for users juggling multiple devices and looking to have the VPN concurrently work on all of them.

Its impressive speed, global server network, and robust security features make it a suitable choice for a wide range of use cases, from casual internet browsing to privacy-conscious scenarios, and even bandwidth-intensive torrenting.

So, what’s our verdict? We believe IPVanish offers good value for money and is definitely worth trying. With its 30-day money-back guarantee, you can sign up and test IPVanish to experience all these benefits yourself first-hand without any risk.

IPVanish Review FAQs

References

• What is Five-Eyes Alliance (Five Eyes)
• IPVanish Logging Scandal Criminal Affidavit (USDA Southern District of Indiana)
• Risks Associated with Public Wi-Fi (Geeks for Geeks)
• What is an IP Address? (Avast)
• Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Service: Definition, Facts, and Examples (Investopedia)

The post IPVanish Review — Is It Safe to Use in 2024? appeared first on The Tech Report.

For this Smartsheet review, we will put the popular cloud-based project and portfolio management tool to the test to see how it performs. Does it live up to all its promises of increased productivity with streamlined workflows?

Our team has thoroughly tested Smartsheet and similar PPM tools to compile this extensive guide covering its features, pricing, and competitor comparison to help you get the most out of this versatile platform.

Whether you’re a small team or a large organization, we’ve got you covered for all your project management needs with this Smartsheet review!

Key Smartsheet Pros and Cons

The thorough testing of Smartsheet platform and analysis of user reviews revealed severals benefits and drawbacks of the tool:

What is Smartsheet?

In today’s fast-paced work environment, managing multiple projects without a robust project management software is a nightmare.

Enter Smartsheet. A dynamic, flexible, secure, and highly customizable enterprise work management tool.

This customizable PPM tool can be tailored based on organizational structure and use cases, catering to businesses of all sizes from small startups to multinational corporations.

However, bigger organizations might face some difficulties while managing larger, complex projects given that Smartsheets lacks some critical integrations like Figma and Zoom offered by Monday.com and Asana.

That is not to say that it is a siloed tool. You can still integrate it with many other project tools including Jira, Miro, Dropbox, and Slack to ensure seamless operations.

Whether you need streamlined project management, efficient task tracking, collaborative work allocation, or data analysis, Smartsheet’s integrated environment supports you in achieving business success in the most efficient way possible.

Behind-the-Scenes: How Does Smartsheet Work?

On the surface, Smartsheet might look like a simple spreadsheet. But it’s actually designed to simplify work by automating complex project management workflows and streamlining operational processes.

Smartsheet’s collaborative platform is specially designed for teams to work together.

With its intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality, Smartsheet supports real-time collaboration by making it easy to create custom projects, assign and organize tasks, track progress, visualize data, and discuss progress with team members remotely.

All this is possible while ensuring enterprise-grade security, with measures like two-factor authentication and Single Sign-On!

The platform also understands that no two projects are the same. It offers a plethora of customizable templates, allowing you to tailor your workspace to fit the unique needs of your project.

But that’s not all. Smartsheet enhances project tracking with real-time insights and heightened visibility into progress, displayed in your preferred format. Detailed Gantt charts and data visualizations, like Hype Cycle trends, empower you to make effective decisions by keeping an eye on what truly matters.

What is Smartsheet Used for?

According to a survey, inadequate communication between employees in a company can cause an average loss of $62.4 million per year.

To prevent this significant financial loss, Smartsheet is ideal for remote or hybrid work models, supporting effective communication, collaboration, and scalable processes.

While using this tool, we have discovered that it serves a range of business use cases. Some common Smartsheet use cases are as follows:

These are some key use cases of Smartsheets, but there are many more that this flexible tool may serve.

How Much Does Smartsheet Cost?

Smartsheet offers four pricing plans based on the number of users or editors, features, functions, and project-specific needs and requirements. These are as follows:

Free Plan

For beginners, this Free Plan serves a single user who can add up to two editors or viewers on a single account. Users can create up to 2 sheets and unlimited dashboards and reports, with 500 MB of attachment storage.

It also offers integrations with popular tools like Microsoft 365, Google Workplace, and Slack, Additionally, users can design web forms to collect data and automate up to 100 repetitive tasks.

Pro Plan

As the entry-level paid subscription, the Pro Plan is designed for small teams dealing with complex projects. In addition to the offerings of the Free Plan, this plan supports 10 editors with unlimited access to sheets, viewers, dashboards, reports, and forms.

Additionally, subscribers gain access to a broader array of integrations with 20 GB of attachment storage and allowance of 250 automations per month.

Business Plan

The Business plan caters to larger teams seeking comprehensive project management with an unlimited number of editors and automations allowed, supported by 1 TB of attachment storage.

Aside from what you get with the Pro Plan, the Business one offers robust features such as Single Sign-On and activity log ideal for organizational security as well as integration with Resource Management by Smartsheet for better project resource allocation.

Moreover, this plan boosts collaboration and reporting by integrating with visualization tools like Tableau and Power BI for enhanced functionality.

Enterprise Plan

Smartsheet’s Enterprise subscription is the most premium offering, catering to global enterprises dealing with complex projects and strict security needs. Custom pricing quotes are given based on the unique requirements of your business.

Building upon the Business features, this plan offers enterprise-grade security and governance, smart workflows, CRM integrations, and heightened security and visibility.

The plan, although pricier, has no cancellation refund as it does not lock you down into a contract. Teams looking for a flexible project management software serving larger organizations will be in for a treat.

A Look at Smartsheet’s Top Features

After a thorough testing of the platform, we are pleased to present several core features of Smartsheet that are critical for efficient project management. These key Smartsheet features are as follows:

Automated Workflows

You can save time and manual effort by using no-code automated workflow management in Smartsheet. Choose an optimized pre-built template for tasks like status requests and due date reminders. Or build your custom workflows designed to provide you results exactly the way you like it.

On top of that, you can build both one-time and recurring workflows with multiple actions and conditional paths. Do all this with reduced approval cycles without the long email chains for managing, updating, and approving user requests.

When testing this feature, we liked automated alerts the best; it ensured that users were notified on time about project updates or approval requests on email, apps, or integrated messengers like Slack. So, constant project check-ins are no longer needed with better workload management.

Gantt Charts

Gantt charts are another robust feature of Smartsheet, helping project managers track tasks, milestones, and project timelines. It displays in a timeline format and showcases crucial details such as project timeline, duration, and task dependencies.

Moreover, its drag-and-drop functionality simplifies the creation of task dependencies, adapts automatically, and adjusts timelines whenever there are changes in task dates and dependencies.

You can also use it to establish baselines to track variance and highlight main deliverables on the Critical Path, enabling visual tracking of task duration and relationships. Be sure to benefit from Smartsheet integration with the Google Calendar to easily track project milestones.

Dashboards

Another popular feature in Smartsheet is the dashboards that are custom designed using widgets to display sheets, reports, charts, forms, and external data from integrated data sources like Google Docs or Power BI.

Without granting access to the entire platform, you can even create and showcase certain dashboards to limited internal or external audiences. This offers real-time project visibility to empower stakeholders to make better decisions.

What we liked best was that these interactive, custom-built dashboards truly allowed teams from all parts of an organization to manage their projects in their own way without any roadblocks.

Customer Relationship Management

You can use Smartsheet as a customizable and intuitive CRM software to help manage your sales pipelines in a central location with an organized and updated contacts database ensuring reliable tracking of all the sales stages.

There is also a gallery of built-in templates to get your feet off the ground without the worry of figuring out the platform in one-go. And to ensure no one misses out on important deadlines, you can set automated alerts as a reminder for critical tasks like contacting customers for contract renewals or following up with an important prospect.

You can even integrate the tool with business critical apps like Slack, Dropbox and Docusign to maintain a seamless operation where your sales team can solely focus on bringing in those conversions.

Resource Management

Another specialty of Smartsheet is its resource management capabilities. From project tracking to budget monitoring to projecting hiring needs, Smartsheet ensures all elements of resource management are kept in check.

The people page helps project managers quickly allocate the right resources based on their availability and the required skills. Better yet, use the Allocation Heatmaps to swiftly identify the right people available immediately to start the project work.

Project managers and key stakeholders can also monitor the project progress through detailed visualized analytics.

The real-time budgeting, costs, and personnel hiring insights suggested by Smartsheet are incredibly useful if you need help keeping projects on track for successful delivery.

These valuable insights will truly help project managers in better decision making keeping in mind all critical variables.

Top Smartsheet Alternatives Compared in 2024

We have compared Smartsheet with its other robust alternatives and found out that each tool has its unique strengths and weaknesses. The following table highlights the different characteristics of each PPM tool based on pricing and distinguishing features.

While there is other noteworthy project management software in the market, Smartsheet stands out for its scalable platform perfect for the growing teams with changing needs.

While it’s very close in terms of features and integrations to competitors like Monday.com, Smartsheet offers robust security features like Customer Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK), and better collaborative capabilities like built-in content proofing.

Also, Smartsheet’s Free Plan has many more functionalities than Monday’s equivalent, which means you get to see a lot more of it before committing to a paid plan. Its versatility also allows it to be used across different industries and business functions.

If you have multiple projects to manage and you find spreadsheet interface familiar, we recommend you opt for Smartsheet for its exceptional automated features with an affordable pricing plan and 30-days free trial to get started.

Is Smartsheet Secure?

Enterprise software without top-notch security is particularly vulnerable to data breaches. But the great news is, if you choose to buy Smartsheet, you don’t need to worry about data security.

It offers enterprise-grade security features, including multiple permission levels, AES 256-bit encryption, 2 factor authentication, Single Sign-On and compliance with major industry standards and regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, ISO, and more — Smartsheet is a secure platform.

Interface and Ease of Use

As a beginner without prior spreadsheet knowledge and experience, Smartsheet’s interface can be challenging for you. However, familiarity and experience with spreadsheets simplify the interface and make it easy for you to start your work. Built-in template gallery is also a time-saver for those looking for a quick start.

A Quick Smartsheet Tutorial on Getting Started

There are two types of users in Smartsheet: Licensed and Free users. You can start as a free user and sign up to create an account first. The following is the step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Start A New Smartsheet Project

After Smartsheet account creation, you can start by creating a new Smartsheet project or importing your existing projects from some other platform. Built-in templates can help you get started quickly if you are struggling to create a project from scratch. You can find pre-existing templates in the Smartsheet Template Gallery to customize for your project needs.

Step 2: Task Delegation and Workflow Automation

Now, you can start assigning tasks to your team members by tagging them in your task list. But don’t stop at that! Attach any related documents for more clarity and leave comments to share detailed instructions.

Don’t forget to create automated workflows such as sending deadline reminders to team members or receiving notification when the assigned tasks are completed and ready for review.

Step 3: Team Collaboration

With all your project tasks delegated, you can now start collaborating with your team using a variety of Smartsheet’s collaborative features. Feel free to assign tasks, tag to alert users, add comments or annotations to share your views, and do much more.

Step 4: Progress Tracking

Once project work starts, you can use Smartsheet’s time tracker and progress indicators to check task ownership and progress. This way, you can easily track how much time each task takes and how close you are to completing your project goals.

Step 5: Create Dashboards for Data Visualization

With your project set up, you can now use Smartsheet’s reporting and analytics tools to gain insights into your data. Use these to create a dashboard to visualize all your critical data insights.

You can use histograms, bar graphs, pie charts, tables, and much more to create comprehensive reports and easily export them as PowerPoint or PDF for external sharing and presentations.

Step 6: Share Project Progress

Use Smartsheet to not only plan and track project progress but also share it with key stakeholders for real-time monitoring. You can easily share any sheet, report, or dashboard with stakeholders to keep them in the loop.

A Look at What Other Smartsheet Reviews Say

Alongside a through testing Smartsheet, we have analyzed Smartsheet reviews published by users. We found user feedback to be mostly positives. On G2, a trusted software review website, Smartsheet has an average rating of 4.4 stars with about 15.000 reviews.

Many users appreciate Smartsheet for its remarkable workflow automation feature along with robust collaboration and the ability to create dashboards.

Many users agree that the software does have a learning curve for new users because of its flexible and customizable nature. But that is what truly makes Smartsheet useful for them as these customizable templates and workflows can be designed specifically for their team needs, be it small departmental projects or complex organization-wide projects.

Other TechReport Project Management Guides

Interested to learn more about project management tools? TechReport has a comprehensive coverage of project management software, with multiple guides showcasing in-depth analysis of other top project management tools. Following are a few key guides revealing our test results of how these top PPM tools perform compared to each other:

Why You Can Trust TechReport’s Smartsheet Review?

We use data analysis to research user reviews and feedback, and explore the products with firsthand testing to gain reliable insights into the inner workings of the tool.

Our goal in this Smartsheet review is to provide unbiased and accurate guidance to aid in your decision-making process.

Smartsheet Review Result: Is It Worth It?

The answer depends on your answers to the following questions:

Is your business growing fast with ever-evolving needs? Are you seeking a tool to manage multiple projects with a range of customizable templates for various use cases? Do you prefer robust analytics, automation, and reporting capabilities over ease-of-use?

If your answer is yes to any one of these questions, then Smartsheet is the right choice for you. Smartsheet automates project management with customizations and flexible project tracking functionalities to tailor the solution to exactly fit your business needs.

Still not sure? Explore the Smartsheet’s Free Plan or sign up for its 30-day free trial. If you’re not satisfied, you can easily switch to another tool that suits your needs better without risking your money!

Smartsheet Review FAQs

References

• Why is Data Analytics Important for Business? (Ohio University)
• The Cost of Poor Communications (SHRM)
• Workflow Automation: Overview and Research Issues (Academia)
• What is GDPR, the EU’s new data protection law? (GDPR EU)

The post A Full Smartsheet Review with Test Findings in 2024 – Pricing, Features, and More appeared first on The Tech Report.