BetterNet has been great on and off. I live in China where much of the internet is blocked by the government and using a VPN is the only way around it. At times, BetterNet would connect quickly and work fine, but other times it has tried repeatedly and failed to connect, popping up an apology message every so often while the circles around the face icon pulsed. But for at least the past week or two now, the app does work at all. When I try to connect, an advertisement pops up on the first tap, but nothing else happens. I can close the ad and tap the “connect” button again, but it does nothing - no pulsing circles, no colors, no change in the face icon’s expression, no error messages, no apologies, and no VPN connection. I sent a message, but in the automated reply message, they refused to address the problem because I’m don’t pay for their “premium” service.

I’m typing this review because of how slowly annoyed I’ve gotten from this vpn. I realize most vpns make you pay to even use them, so good on this one for being free. My problems start here: you usually have to watch an ad that you can skip after 10 seconds of view time, but then you usually have to wait another 10 seconds to click the x. Okay not that bad so far. They have to make money somehow. My problem stems from the fact sometimes the app doesn’t even connect, and forces you to watch another ad. What really frustrates me, however, is that you have to watch an ad (sometimes 2 also) just to turn it OFF. I tried to outsmart it by going into iPhone settings to turn off it there, but it very quickly turns itself back on. Obviously the greed here is me having to turn it off in the app, just to watch an ad and HOPE it turns off the first time. The vpn works as you would hope, and thankfully it’s even free. Just a minor complaint with the ads imo. I also get annoyed with the app for constantly promoting their paid version of the app which you have to swipe 7 times to end up clicking the x. Happens every so often. I get some people need money, but there’s better way to do this. Every ad just makes me want to pay less and spend my hard earned cash on another app. 3/5 stars. Fully functional but an accumulation of frustrations majorly down the score.

My husband downloaded this app for me while traveling abroad this past Aug. We agreed to the 7 day free trial. We decided it wasn’t worth it and cancelled the service BEFORE the free trial ended and just realized they have been charging my card monthly. Even though the Apple subscription page AND the their app both say I cancelled Aug 6th. They have charged me for 4 months. They refunded me for Oct and Nov but said their records show we just cancelled the service this week! LIES. I have screen shotted the cancellation and provided it for them 4 times and they still claim that the APPLE store messed up. Ummmm no. The Apple Store didn’t continue to charge my card. They also say there is nothing they can do because it’s 45 days past the other charges so I can not dispute them!!! It’s not the money, it’s the fact that they are calling us liars when we have proof of cancelation and they do not have proof that we agreed to continue the service! I logged onto the app for the first time this week to figure out what in the world was going on with the charges!!! There is no telephone number to call, no direct resource to a person, just repeated email correspondences from different people telling me that this is my fault and not theirs. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS APP OR TRY THE FREE TRIAL. They just want your credit card number to illegally charge you.