Nothing of this caliber has ever happened in AdGuard! Today we release AdGuard VPN updates for all platforms — for macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. 7/7, that makes a bingo!

You probably wonder what's new in all these apps and extensions. Let's see.

What's new

Exclusions 2.0

Firstly, now you can not only add websites to exclusions but also choose among the lists of popular services. The lists are divided into eight categories: Social networks, Messengers, Video and Music streaming services, Games, Shopping, Search engines, and Work communication tools. From now on, any of these services can be added to exclusions in one click! It's especially convenient if you use Selective mode where AdGuard VPN is on only for the domains added to exclusions.

This feature is available on all platforms except iOS.

Secondly, Exclusions lists can be easily configured. If you've added a domain and some of its subdomains, they'll be grouped inside the root one. Also, when adding a root domain (example.com) its mask is added too (*.example.com) — previously, one had to enter it manually, not many users knew about it. If you've added a service, changed or removed something and now want to recover initial settings, don't worry: just press Reset to default next to the domain — this action will restore any missing domains and tick all checkboxes.

Full redesign

Both our apps and website have been redesigned. Perhaps, the visual style of the AdGuard VPN website has changed most: a landscape and many vivid illustrations have appeared there. In apps, all the illustrations and the main screen are new too (except AdGuard VPN for Mac and Windows — the design of the desktop apps will be updated soon). But you can already see what the main screen in AdGuard VPN for iOS looks like:

Besides the renewed exclusions and design, we have also found and fixed a lot of bugs and flaws, so AdGuard VPN apps and extensions turned more stable and reliable. Of course, there is always room for improvement and we definitely have things to strive for, but such simultaneous product releases cannot but make us feel happy.

Rising prices and new subscription format

Although prices went up a bit, there is an upside — we offer a new two-year subscription plan, the most cost-effective when you compare prices per month.

New prices:
Monthly subsciption — $11,99
Yearly subscription — $3,99 per month ($47.88 total price)
Two-year subscription — $2,99 per month ($71,76 total price)

Note that if you choose a two-year subscription plan, the price per month will be the same as before the price increase.

Auto-protection in AdGuard VPN for Android

The most noticeable change in AdGuard VPN for Android is Auto-protection. With this feature, you don't have to worry anymore whether your connection is secure at the moment. You can enable it for Wi-Fi, mobile networks or both. Depending on the chosen option, AdGuard VPN will turn on automatically when the device connects to cellular or Wi-Fi networks. For further convenience you can add your Wi-Fi network at home and/or work to the trusted ones, so that Auto-protection doesn't cover them.

Note that Auto-protection is not available in the Compatibility mode and in the SOCKS5 mode.

Custom DNS servers in AdGuard VPN for Mac and Windows

Following the footprints of AdGuard VPN for Android, the desktop apps now also feature DNS filtering. You can add custom DNS servers — choose from the broad selection of popular DNS providers such as Cloudflare DNS. Thanks to the new feature, AdGuard VPN users don't have to be limited to a default DNS server provided by their ISP. We suggest that you try various DNS solutions and choose one that suits you best, as each DNS provider has their perks.

Additional 10 GB to all users

The world is going through a difficult time. There are problems with access to various resources in some countries, and we can't stay away. We're giving all AdGuard VPN users, old and new, extra 10 GB in March and April. You'll have 13 GB of VPN traffic instead of three during both months — so that you can browse freely and get more information.

That seems to be it. Hurry up to update AdGuard VPN and see for yourself how different it has become. Hope you'll like it! As usual, we welcome feedback in whatever format convenient for you — share any thoughts in the comments here or on social media. See you!

We've released another update. It's technical and doesn't contain any changes for most of the users yet it fixes a major mistake.

If you use AdGuard VPN for Windows, you might notice that when pressing the Update button AdGuard ad blocker would be installed instead of the AdGuard VPN update. Obviously, it was an oversight on our part, for which we apologize to all the users who were affected by it. But one apology can't make up for it and we feel obligated to explain what happened.

What's the matter

The day before yesterday we released a new version of AdGuard for Windows but by mistake placed it on the AdGuard VPN for Windows update channel. This update was available for a couple of minutes but it was enough to cause problems. To better understand what happened, let's first figure out how AdGuard VPN is updated.

How it works

1. AdGuard VPN asks the backend the latest version of the app available.
2. Saves the information about this version in a local database.
3. Downloads the installation package, which is in fact a full-fledged installer.
4. Checks the digital signature on this package to make sure it is really ours.
5. Runs the installation.

What's the problem

What could have happened after pressing the "Update" button? There are two possible scenarios:

• If you do not have AdGuard ad blocker installed, this package will install it. It is not supposed to be this way, and such behavior is completely unacceptable for a normal app.
• If you have the AdGuard ad blocker installed, nothing will happen. But since AdGuard VPN wasn't updated and its version hasn't changed, the information about the newer version is "stuck" in it.

We do apologize to you for this mistake and feel bad that our own negligence resulted in the incorrect update in the AdGuard VPN channel. This situation revealed the mistakes we made when designing the AdGuard VPN update process. It should not, at all, allow a situation in which the service pack that arrives is not the service pack of AdGuard VPN itself.

What we're going to do

1. We've released a technical update that has removed information about the previous update from the local database. Unfortunately, the new update has to be installed manually.
2. The new update won't allow a situation with "stuck" updates to happen again.
3. In the nearest future, we'll reduce the amount of manual work when preparing the update, this will eliminate human errors.
4. Finally, we'll build additional checks into the update process to prevent starting the update of the package other than AdGuard VPN. Similar checks will be added to the AdGuard ad blocker update procedure.

It's our fault that this problem has hit some users. We are particularly sorry for those who didn't have AdGuard ad blocker installed before. As an apology, we've given a six-month AdGuard ad blocker license and a three-month AdGuard VPN premium to all the affected users. If you are one of these people, please check your AdGuard account.

Disclaimer: all similarities with AdGuard VPN v1.1 for Windows release text are coincidental (definitely not). So if you’ve read our post about AdGuard VPN v1.1 for Windows release, you will catch a deja-vu feeling while going through this article. If you haven’t done it — let us introduce the AdGuard VPN v1.1 for Mac!

It took us three months to prepare the new version. As always, we have fixed bugs here and there to improve user experience. But more importantly, AdGuard VPN for Mac now can boast two great features: QUIC protocol support and an option to add apps to exclusions. Let's take a closer look at these two key moments.

QUIC support

We've said this before, but will repeat one more time: we really feel proud of implementing QUIC support — a feature that not many other VPN providers can brag about. With it our users get a better connection quality in less-than-ideal conditions (think of using mobile data while riding on the subway or elevator, for instance).

Let's have a quick view on how it works. Omitting the details, with TCP, a good old transport layer protocol, packets of data get transmitted in batches. And if one batch gets lost, the rest have to wait (as shown on the picture below).

Using QUIC protocol allows connection migration and won't cause packet retransmissions and Head of Line Blocking (or HoLB) queues.

If you want to dig deeper into the topic — run through this article about QUIC protocol.

Split tunneling for apps

Now not only websites can be easily added to the exclusions. Choose for which applications you need AdGuard VPN and for which you don't.

Hope you will enjoy using AdGuard VPN v1.1 for Mac! Share your impressions here or on social networks. The full list of changes as usual can be found on the GitHub.

Let’s skip a long introduction and get right to the point — we are happy to release AdGuard VPN v1.1 for Windows. It took us several months to fix bugs that were interfering with the application, identify the causes of glitches and update the VPN client. But the time of hard work is over (not for long, of course), and AdGuard VPN v1.1 for Windows is finally ready to pleasantly surprise you with stable work and few important improvements.

QUIC and stable connection

We are proud to announce that we've implemented QUIC support — a feat that not many other VPN providers can brag about. Just to remind you: QUIC is a cutting-edge network protocol which provides better speed and encryption in comparison to common TCP. How does it work? Omitting the details, with TCP packets of data get transmitted in batches. And if one batch gets lost, the rest have to wait (as shown on the picture below).

And QUIC implementation allows data to get processed without any specific order.

What does it mean for you? A stable connection in non-perfect conditions, for example, while using mobile internet or weak public Wi-Fi. If you want to dig deeper into the topic — run through this article about QUIC protocol.

Easy work with exclusions

We've made it easier to search for apps to add them to exclusions, by moving this function to the main settings section. In previous version to exclude apps from tunneling you had to be an advanced user and be able to choose a path to the app — not to mention it was tedious and time-consuming. Now it has become much more user friendly!

Just go to Settings and choose Split tunneling.

Press Add application.

And finally select an app from the list to add it to exclusions. By the way, it is still possible to choose a path to the app by clicking the Browse button.

And that's it! You've successfully added the app to the exclusions list.

To get more information and to download AdGuard VPN for Windows, visit our website.

We are really happy to make a little magic for you and release AdGuard VPN v1.1 for Windows. So, share our emotions, enjoy using new version and don’t forget to leave your comments below.

What is so special about VPN, you might think. It just masks your location. Of course, it’s good to gain access to something unavailable in your country. Or hide something from those greedy for your personal data for no matter what reasons.

But this “digital immigration”, or rather “IP tourism”, can be handy in unexpected (or at least not yet thought about) ways.

VPN is not just good for spoofing your geolocation for websites and apps that happened not to love the original one. It makes your connection secure and encrypted, saves the sensitive private data from abuse, so it is not only your location that you “hide”. Actually, if you connect to a public Wi-Fi network in a cafe or on the subway, you'd better hide anything you can.

We have hand-picked some of the important use cases where you definitely need a VPN. Let's have a look at them.

How VPN makes your life better: a couple of cases out of so many

1. Shopping abroad

Quite a pleasant feeling: to shop while abroad and buy some rare products that are not easy to find back home.

Nowadays you don't really need to physically go abroad, there is a great option of online shopping around the globe while sitting comfortably at home.
But sometimes it's hard because of the difference in payment systems and terms (specific cards are accepted, specific documents are required) for different countries.

Using a VPN and changing your virtual location to the store's country of origin you can avoid these difficulties and make your online shopping experience much more pleasant.

2. Saving money, again: cheaper airline tickets and hotels

Smart algorithms do a lot nowadays, for example, personalize prices for goods and services. An Uber ride becomes more expensive if your battery is low, or it starts to rain, or it’s Friday night, or you have the latest iPhone. How cool, right? You have your own price, made up exclusively for you!

Not quite. There is always a chance robots confuse you with a Rockefeller’s nephew (or you actually are Rockefeller’s nephew, but it is no reason for you to throw money away).

Airlines and booking agencies use your personal data to adjust prices: they want to show you a ticket’s cost not so high you’d go look for a better deal, but not too small as they want to profit. Change you location from a fancy Frisco district to, say, some Canadian outback and see what happens.

Maybe nothing. In this case, try some other locations — VPN services allow you to choose a server in different countries of the world (and it also may be helpful to use an alternative browser or clear the cookies in the one you used and search in the Private or Incognito mode). Search for the same flight day and destination on the same site — a couple of experiments will show you that prices actually differ.

Image by Vpnmentor

A VPN masks not just your IP, it protects other kinds of personal data from being harvested by companies for price personalization. Well, if you are on an air company’s blacklist, it won’t help, so please behave in the air and on earth.

You can encounter price personalization when booking a hotel or renting a car as well. The advice is the same: change location, clear cookies, swap browsers, open a tab in Incognito or Private mode, experiment, finally, google it: people share all sorts of tips and tricks.

3. An escape from corporate slavery into the world of reasonable adults

Offices, schools, campuses, universities, and all types of institutions set up their own networks for people who have to use it. Sometimes they restrict nearly everything except for Wikipedia or work-related resources. If you know you tend to procrastinate and waste your productive hours on Facebook, just reconcile and be grateful to the network administrator. But if you have some things to be done, and a website in need is blocked, help yourself to some VPN.

There is actually another good reason for strict network restrictions: security. Corporate data leaks are a global problem, public organizations suffer too, schools, oh, well, even kindergartens are subjects to cyberthreats. Use VPN to secure your connection and help the network owners be safe: the data will be encrypted.

4. Digital remigration

It’s when you have your body abroad but need your soul to be at home. Superfluous romantic aside, you just might be willing to reach your favorite site or app when being on an abroad vacation or a business trip, but without a VPN it would be impossible.

5. Tinder: more freedom, less money wasted with a VPN

There are at least three ways VPN can help enrich your Tinder experience and solve possible problems.

Change your location to meet people from other countries — without overpaying

By default, you’ll be shown possible matches near you. You can choose a wide range, but you’ll virtually stay in your city or town (with suburbs). If you are in California but want to chat with someone from Paris, just buy Tinder’s paid subscription. But it is more expensive than most VPNs and works only for Tinder, while VPN… see above.

Unfortunately, VPN can help you with that only if you use Tinder via its website tinder.com and have forbidden your browser to detect your location in the settings. Tinder knows when you are using GPS, not IP (when it asks you to "turn on device location for better experience" it means their experience, of course, that’s why you are not allowed to say "no, thanks"). There are some ways for the mobile apps too… But do not count on a VPN in this case.

VPN is not only for pretending to be somewhere else but also for pretending not to be where you are

Tinder may be blocked in your country, in your office, at your school (which is especially upsetting if you are a teacher). Use VPN to get rid of the restrictions. Facebook may also be blocked in some countries or networks. Facebook is not essential for using Tinder, but if you log in via your Facebook account, you need it to be accessible.

Tinder on its side can block you as a user

Not neсesserily because you were naughty and did bad things to other users. Some people get blocked for resetting their account too frequently, for example. Use VPN to try to create another account, although there is no guarantee you’ll succeed: Tinder uses other ways besides IP detection to catch those who try to break back in through the back door.

6. Blocked websites

Why aren’t they letting me in? It is always intriguing — what’s behind the closed door. It may be wiser not to open it if your bluebearded husband asked you not to, but the Internet becomes more and more fragmented, there are some good reasons for it and so many toxic ones. If you find a website inaccessible, VPN may serve as a master key and make the Web more wide and worldly for you.

7. Finally. Security. Again and forever.

Yes, so boring. Protect your data, save your identity to yourself, do not make yourself and your family vulnerable to scammers and marketing manipulations, bullies and loonies, do not let your company’s data leak, blah blah blah. Every VPN provider keeps talking about how secured encrypted connection through a private network enhances the safety of your digital existence — because it just does.

We at AdGuard know too well how much money and stress nonchalance can cost. AdGuard VPN is made with your well-being in mind.

Actually, AdGuard VPN does more than just let you change your location and encrypt the traffic. There are features like Kill Switch, allow- and blocklists, different operation modes, in-house protocol and more. Learn more about all its unique features in this article.

When getting ready to commit to a long-term VPN subscription, users most frequently evaluate its speed, security, and price. Those are very important points but there is so much more! There is a dozen of key assets that make AdGuard VPN unique. Let’s look at each of them separately to see why AdGuard VPN is one of a kind and how to use it to its fullest extent.

To start with, let’s go over AdGuard VPN’s unmatched features that you won’t find in any other VPN.

1. Proprietary protocol

From the very outset, we resolved to develop and deploy an in-house VPN protocol instead of picking a canned solution — that’d be too easy, plus, we weren’t satisfied with existing protocols. The result has become the AdGuard VPN protocol.

Choosing a VPN service, people often face a trade-off between fast vs. safe. The AdGuard VPN protocol is a perfect blend of speed and security, so you don’t have to bear slow internet connection or make privacy sacrifices. Among other things, it disguises itself as regular traffic and it’s much harder to detect and block it.

2. Exclusions lists

There are two operation modes in AdGuard VPN. In Regular mode, VPN works everywhere except websites added to exclusions. And vice versa, in Selective mode, VPN works nowhere but on websites added to exclusions. You can easily import/export exlcusions lists — a nice-to-have, isn’t it?

An example of an exclusion list for Selective Mode

Now, you may ask, which mode to choose? Practice shows that users prefer Selective one which makes sense, given the use cases. Most often users need VPN only on certain websites, the blocked ones or the ones that might mine extensive amounts of data. To save VPN traffic and not to sacrifice speed, using Selective mode seems sound. But other users might prefer absolute protection, and using Regular mode is the optimum solution for them.

In less than a month we will add a new feature. There will be a list of services sorted by category that you’ll be able to add to exclusions at the touch of a button.

3. Choosing a DNS server

No more relying on the DNS server provided by your ISP by default! First, it’s not safe: your ISP most likely has access to your browsing history. Second, People often underestimate DNS, yet it can remove ads and trackers, protect your device from malware or, for instance, enable safe search and block adult content.

From now you can choose DNS servers from known DNS providers such as AdGuard, Cisco, Cloudflare, Google, or Quad9, or even configure to use your own DNS server.

4. Fastest locations

Another feature that makes AdGuard VPN stand out from the crowd is that you can select a location based on its ping. In a nutshell, ping is the time it takes the data packet sent from your computer to reach the server and return. When in doubt, use a rule of thumb: the lower the ping, the closer the server, the higher its speed. We are constantly expanding the number of locations so that you can choose from a variety.

Note that to access all VPN server locations, you need to purchase an AdGuard VPN subscription.

5. Compatibility with AdGuard ad blocker

With desktop apps and browser extensions this goes without saying — there’s rarely any conflicts between apps, save for antiviruses and other similarly oriented software.

With mobile devices, on the other hand, it’s not that simple. In the vast majority of cases, two VPN-based apps will not work together, just because certain OS-induced limitations exist that prevent that from happening, both on Android and iOS.

However, we managed to find a solution to befriend AdGuard VPN and AdGuard ad blocker. When you have both AdGuard apps installed on one device simultaneously, they will automatically become compatible without any input required from you. This is a unique opportunity to take advantage of two sets of features, which you would normally have to choose between.

6. QUIC support (experimental)

QUIC is a cutting-edge protocol that has many perks. The main advantage is it can improve connection quality in non-ideal conditions – for example, on mobile devices or when connecting to public Wi-Fi. Although the new protocol won’t affect speed when the connection is fine and stable, it will definitely make the situation better for users with slow internet.

QUIC support is currently in the testing stage and may not work correctly at the moment. In the near future we will fix all the problems and tell you more about this protocol.

Now let’s switch to the item set that any decent VPN can't do without.

7. Kill Switch

Kill Switch is essential if you, for instance, often use a mobile network or connect to public Wi-Fi networks in malls, cafes, on the subway or at the airport. For the simple reason — if VPN will suddenly drop and the connection will become insecure, chances are that your sensitive information will be exposed to fraudsters or cyber criminals.

If for some reason your VPN connection is interrupted, Kill Switch will automatically disconnect the internet connection, keeping attackers away from seizing your information. With Kill Switch, rest assured that you are in safe hands. If you’re concerned about privacy or at least value your personal data, don’t overlook this bulletproof method.

8. Split tunneling

This feature resembles the exclusions lists mentioned above. The only difference is that here you can exclude apps instead of websites.

Split tunneling is currently available in AdGuard VPN for Android, Windows, and Mac.

9. Auto-Protection

This feature has been developed specifically for unsecured networks. For the convenience of users, we made it impossible to forget to enable VPN when visiting public places. Should you pop into a coffee shop and connect to a local Wi-Fi network, you’ll be automatically connected to AdGuard VPN.

Auto-protection is currently available in AdGuard VPN for iOS, it’ll appear in AdGuard for Android in 2 weeks since the publication. Also, this feature is coming soon on AdGuard VPN for Windows and Mac.

10. Simultaneous connection allowance

AdGuard VPN offers five simultaneous connections to its paid users. We place special emphasis on the word ’simultaneous’, and here is why. Some VPN providers only allow to log in to their service on five devices max. With AdGuard VPN, there’s no limit to the number of devices that can be logged in to your account, but you can have five VPN connections enabled at the same time. Those who don’t have a subscription can use AdGuard VPN on two devices, which gives us another trump card to play against competitors — most of the VPN services only have one device in their free versions.

11. Secure streaming

Streaming services don't like VPNs for obvious reasons: according to statistics, about 20% of users install a VPN mainly to watch shows, TV shows and movies bypassing geo-blocking. That's why streaming platforms tend to do everything they can to track VPN traffic and block it.

But what if you want to feel safe while watch content specific to your region? Or don't want stop watchig exciting series even when you travel to another country? The answer is simple — AdGuard VPN, which thanks to its unique protocol can remain invisible to services.

We don't endorse the use of AdGuard VPN to bypass copyright regulations.

12. Dark mode

This little ‘feature’ deserves special mention. In fact, many users crave for dark mode, so we couldn’t ignore it and added a theme switch for all AdGuard VPN products. Choose the one you like more — light, dark, or system. Hope you’ll join the dark side :)

AdGuard VPN is currently available as a desktop app for macOS and Windows, mobile app for iOS and Android, and as a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Give it a try and feel free to drop us a line about your experience by leaving a review in a relevant app store or joining the discussion on any platform.

About two months have passed since the release of the first open beta version of AdGuard VPN for Mac. That version was already good developed, so after the final changes, we decided that we are ready to present you the first official version of AdGuard VPN for Mac!

DOWNLOAD ADGUARD VPN FOR MAC

The new version has three important advantages compared to beta:

9 new localizations

In the beta version, there was only one language — English. The new version has 9 new localizations:

• Chinese Simplified
• Chinese Traditional
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Russian
• Spanish

Spoiler: soon we will add even more localizations in our application to make it more comfortable for users from other countries. You can help us in translating here.

Convenient menu in the taskbar

The quick menu in the tray (the notification area at the top of the screen) has become even more convenient! The line with the selected location has moved to the beginning of the menu, and now you can immediately see which VPN server you are connected to, which means that using the application has become even more comfortable!

Stability

Despite the fact that the beta version worked quite well, we found and fixed a few minor bugs and added a couple of new features to make our application even more reliable:

• The memory leak issue is fixed.
• It is now possible to transfer settings from previous versions of the app.
• The "Kill switch" function is added. While enabled, AdGuard VPN will instantly block access to the Internet if your connection to the VPN server is interrupted. This way you can be sure that your data is always protected and even in case of force majeure, your anonymity and security will not be compromised.

In a nutshell, yet another platform can boast of our official application. Download AdGuard VPN for Mac or AdGuard VPN for other operating systems and browsers!

And, of course, write us your comments and suggestions below or in our social networks!

When we were announcing the first open beta of AdGuard VPN for Windows som time ago, we were already pretty sure that it was stable enough and ready to be presented to a wider audience. However, better safe than sorry, as they say, so we erred on the side of caution and didn't rush the official release. Turns out, this particular time we could have gotten away with it: we found no new bugs or any other examples of unexpected behavior. So, there's no need to postpone it any longer: here comes the official release of AdGuard VPN for Windows!

DOWNLOAD ADGUARD VPN FOR WINDOWS

So... is that it? Did we just erase the 'beta' icon and called it a new version? No, although that's not too far from the truth :)

As mentioned, the beta version was already good enough, but we made some minor improvements (which you likely won't even notice). Most importantly, as we expect more and more users will try AdGuard VPN now, we translated it into several new languages! Now you can choose from the following ones:

• Chinese Simplified
• Chinese Traditional
• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Russian
• Spanish

Translations into more languages will be added in the future, but that's already 5 times more than what we offered before.

By the way, you can help us translate AdGuard VPN and other AdGuard products to your language! Join us on Crowdin and start translating right away. The most active translators even get a little something from us in return ;)

And here you go, one more AdGuard VPN product graduates from beta to a full-scale app. They grow so fast! Visit our website to download AG VPN for Windows or download directly using this link: https://127.0.0.10/vpn_windows. Let us know in the comments what new features you'd like to see going forward!