Universal SwizzVPN: Streaming, YouTube Adblocker, AppleTV, Lifetime

[pvalerio]

Hi!

I'm an independent developer from Switzerland who created a VPN service for iOS, macOS and Apple TV.

Featuring private & secure VPN access to worldwide locations with a lifetime purchase option.
No logs, no data collection, no registration needed. With unlimited bandwidth, speed and devices.
Works in VPN blocked countries using an automatic stealth mode. Also bypasses firewalls using TCP 443 mode.
Geo-unblocking streaming servers, integrated Adblocker, Kill Switch, DNS-over-TLS and IPv6 support.
Running in Switzerland on my own managed servers, protected by strong Swiss privacy laws.

Feedback wanted. Thanks!

App Store

 

[pacorob]

It looks nice I will give it a try to see how it is stability wise and speed wise.
Is the Lifetime Unlock really 10.99 euro forever and will that give access to all locations?

The Austrian and France servers are the free ones for those wondering. The rest is part of the weekly subscription or lifetime unlock.

Are more countries being added in the near future? I'm missing e.g. Belgium, Norway and Finland in the list?

I would also suggest you change the App Support link to the GitHub which now links to an empty GitHub account. Wouldn't it make more sense to link to some support area on the swizzvpn.ch website. It would be good to include a link on the official website to the GitHub to submit issues maybe. I also noticed the main website redirects to the App Store currently. Is the website still being build?

 

[pvalerio]

Thanks for your feedback, finally, that's the first time for my app

Yes Lifetime Unlock is forever and gives access to all locations. But this is introductory price which will go up later, maybe in the range of a yearly-subscription of other VPNs. Still figuring out if I should stay low-cost with maybe lower speeds or get more costly for better speed...

Yes I will add more countries per request. I'll look into Belgium, Norway and Finland. Any else missing?

That's a good idea. You're right, I still have to setup a proper website, I'm a bit lazy about that part...

Looking forward to your stability and speed checks

 

[pacorob]

Thanks for your feedback, finally, that's the first time for my app

Yes Lifetime Unlock is forever and gives access to all locations. But this is introductory price which will go up later, maybe in the range of a yearly-subscription of other VPNs. Still figuring out if I should stay low-cost with maybe lower speeds or get more costly for better speed...

Yes I will add more countries per request. I'll look into Belgium, Norway and Finland. Any else missing?

That's a good idea. You're right, I still have to setup a proper website, I'm a bit lazy about that part...

Looking forward to your stability and speed checks

Sure always happy to give feedback on apps. Good to know on the possible changes in future pricing. Maybe Denmark. The countries that I would use mostly are US, UK, Germany, Austria and Belgium.

No worries on the website part but if you want to make it more professional I think the app support link and website need to be added/updated.

The free Austrian one gives me currently an average download speed of 26.28Mbps down and 12.86Mbps up which is fine for e.g. video streaming. I might probably subscribe for the lifetime one before the price goes up.

 

[pvalerio]

Cool, then I'll add that to my ToDo list.

Yes you're absolutely right, will do that soon.

That speed sounds pretty low though. May I know your internet connection? I'm getting about 150 MBit/s down through Austria server from my home (WiFi) in Switzerland.

 

[pvalerio]

I added a new free-server: US Middle

I also submitted a new version 2.8.2 which adds new settings and features. So stay tuned.

 

[Apple_Robert]

In my opinion, the app should show the current IP of the connected device.

 

[pvalerio]

In my opinion, the app should show the current IP of the connected device.

Great idea, will implement that. Thanks!

 

[BigMcGuire]

Cool app! Speeds very acceptable for me (as a NordVPN user). Most of my VPN use is on my Mac and my iPad (which you have) so for me those apps are really important. Also, since you're looking for feedback, one of the first things I do is check out an app's website and their About Me/Us page.

When I use VPN I'm usually on cellular or metered connections so I love a counter as to how much data I've used (not a must but a nice to have).

$8.99 one time for lifetime is amazing. Purchased just to support a new app. I miss doing that back in the day (everything is a subscription now).

Good luck on your app!

 

[pvalerio]

Cool app! Speeds very acceptable for me (as a NordVPN user). Most of my VPN use is on my Mac and my iPad (which you have) so for me those apps are really important. Also, since you're looking for feedback, one of the first things I do is check out an app's website and their About Me/Us page.

When I use VPN I'm usually on cellular or metered connections so I love a counter as to how much data I've used (not a must but a nice to have).

$8.99 one time for lifetime is amazing. Purchased just to support a new app. I miss doing that back in the day (everything is a subscription now).

Good luck on your app!

Thank you for your great feedback, I really appreciate it!

If everything works smooth as new people (hopefully) use my app, I will consider releasing the app also for Mac (for those with M1, M2 etc).

The data counter is a great idea, will take a look how to implement that.

BTW: the new update should now be online, please let me know if you encounter any problems with the new features.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Thank you for your great feedback, I really appreciate it!

If everything works smooth as new people (hopefully) use my app, I will consider releasing the app also for Mac (for those with M1, M2 etc).

The data counter is a great idea, will take a look how to implement that.

BTW: the new update should now be online, please let me know if you encounter any problems with the new features.

I installed the new update. You are making good progress. I would welcome a Mac version.

How did you get Adguard's permission to use them as your adblocker?

 

[pvalerio]

Thanks!

Well, I didn't ask for permission, because apparently I didn't think about it 😅. I'm just using their DNS addresses as DNS server in my VPN configuration. Don't know if that's a problem, will see what time brings... But if it is then I'll just setup my own adblocking DNS server.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Thanks!

Well, I didn't ask for permission, because apparently I didn't think about it 😅. I'm just using their DNS addresses as DNS server in my VPN configuration. Don't know if that's a problem, will see what time brings... But if it is then I'll just setup my own adblocking DNS server.

I think you will be fine on the adblock front. I had a feeling that is what you were doing but, wanted to be sure. Adblock works well for me thus far.

I turned on the kill switch. Interested to see if it works promptly. It would be great if the user got a notification when the switch kicks in.

 

[pvalerio]

I think you will be fine on the adblock front. I had a feeling that is what you were doing but, wanted to be sure. Adblock works well for me thus far.

I turned on the kill switch. Interested to see if it works promptly. It would be great if the user got a notification when the switch kicks in.

Sounds good, I hope so then! BTW, with Adblocker turned off it uses Cloudflare DNS. Just to have another option and not relying completely on AdGuard's servers.

The Kill-Switch uses a iOS-implemented feature. It just completely blocks every network connection outside the VPN tunnel or also if for example the VPN is down (which shouldn't happen), and tries to reconnect then infinitely. I had a harder time to turn the Kill-Switch off again... I implemented some logic for that, but have to test further if it disables correctly. That's why I put a warning-icon. But if everything fails just delete the VPN from iOS settings.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Sounds good, I hope so then! BTW, with Adblocker turned off it uses Cloudflare DNS. Just to have another option and not relying completely on AdGuard's servers.

The Kill-Switch uses a iOS-implemented feature. It just completely blocks every network connection outside the VPN tunnel or also if for example the VPN is down (which shouldn't happen), and tries to reconnect then infinitely. I had a harder time to turn the Kill-Switch off again... I implemented some logic for that, but have to test further if it disables correctly. That's why I put a warning-icon. But if everything fails just delete the VPN from iOS settings.

Thanks for the reply and being so attentive.

I don't know how others feel about the following but, I think It would be great if you had a way to include a DNS leak check in the settings whereby the connection was automatically checked for leaving upon establishing a connection. And if there was a leak, the connection would be dropped and the user alerted via notification. That kind of important feature could set your app apart from other VPN apps.

 

[pacorob]

Cool, then I'll add that to my ToDo list.

Yes you're absolutely right, will do that soon.

That speed sounds pretty low though. May I know your internet connection? I'm getting about 150 MBit/s down through Austria server from my home (WiFi) in Switzerland.

My glassfiber internet package is 50Mbps up/down but on average it is much higher since the provider isn't capping it on 50 so e.g. testing it just now without VPN gives a download of 73 and upload of 92 Mbps

I will test it again later today to see if the speeds on the various VPNs are still lower then expected. It might be good to also mention if the free VPNs are capped on a certain Mbps vs paid speed.

 

[energizer5680]

I wanted to try the trial subscription first. Have tested it and find it very good. Now I would like to pay the 8.99, but I can no longer find a way to the offer.
in my abonoments I only see the possibility for more weeks and not lifetime

 

[pvalerio]

Thanks for the reply and being so attentive.

I don't know how others feel about the following but, I think It would be great if you had a way to include a DNS leak check in the settings whereby the connection was automatically checked for leaving upon establishing a connection. And if there was a leak, the connection would be dropped and the user alerted via notification. That kind of important feature could set your app apart from other VPN apps.

That would be a bit overkill to implement for me... But in the next version newly added "Current IP address" info, I was playing around with fetching the data with "wait for network connection" (to get the IP information), and with Kill-Switch enabled it never got any data when it was reconnecting the VPN or changing from Cellular to WiFi etc. So I think it's a trustful implementation of Apple. I like to stay as "native" as possible.

I wanted to try the trial subscription first. Have tested it and find it very good. Now I would like to pay the 8.99, but I can no longer find a way to the offer.
in my abonoments I only see the possibility for more weeks and not lifetime

I thought about that use case, but I didn't find a nice solution yet... If you want to do that, you have to cancel the subscription in App Store app. After the trial ends, you then can buy lifetime from the app. It doesn't show lifetime in subscriptions because that a one-time purchase.

My glassfiber internet package is 50Mbps up/down but on average it is much higher since the provider isn't capping it on 50 so e.g. testing it just now without VPN gives a download of 73 and upload of 92 Mbps

I will test it again later today to see if the speeds on the various VPNs are still lower then expected. It might be good to also mention if the free VPNs are capped on a certain Mbps vs paid speed.

I see, that sounds better! Currently there are no bandwidth or traffic limits on any servers. Though the more people on a server (which usually are the free servers), the lower the speed. I will add information if something changes. I also may add an icon next to the server which shows its current load.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I was always curious about that - the cost to the owner of the VPN servers. I don't like being wasteful if I can help it so I rarely have VPN on unless I'm out and about in a place without wifi or strong signal for tethering. Makes sense - I've never really seen a VPN owner encourage less "usage" in that aspect - good to know.

I always figure that the #1 difficulty of most apps is exposure - getting known so people can use it. You got "Swiss" going for you - a lot of people I know love using "Swiss made" apps because that's synonymous with quality and privacy. (Ex: Proton mail).

Biggest concern that I had was if it would work well with Apple's Private Relay - and SwizzVPN works perfectly with that. I think that was a problem with other VPN apps and iOS 16 when iOS 16 came out - but it's much better now.

Cool to see the beginnings of an app like this. Will be letting friends/family know.

 

[pvalerio]

@BigMcGuire: Well, I'm curious too Actually I'm just putting all my know-how and ideas and dreams into something and this is how the jorney began... I still have to figure out a lot, and time will tell how it goes. And yeah, I have my tricks to keep usage/costs down . And those 3 free servers for example all have something common, else I wouldn't be able to give unlimited free access to them.

And yeah you're right, marketing is my biggest "issue" where I'm completely new at, since I'm coming from a technical side. But just trying to trust in my guts and try out different things... You're right about the "Swiss" part, most users as of now are from the US or other sides of the planet, from Switzerland just about 1%.

That's also nice to hear, I never tried Private Relay, but good to hear it works! Probably a positive side-effect to not do too fancy things on the programming-side.

Really appreciate that, thanks!

 

[pvalerio]

New update is online, now showing the current IP under advanced settings.

I also added a toggle at the bottom to manually show/hide Premium buy options, for those who want to switch from trial/subscription to lifetime. After that you can cancel the subscription in App Store App.

Question for you: May I know where you‘re from and which countries you need the most? And what for do you use VPN?

 

[Vref]

What’s their logging policy?

What protocols do they offer?

What jurisdiction are they in?

Do they have a canary letter?

Have them been independently audited?


I’d go express VPN or Nord

 

[BigMcGuire]

New update is online, now showing the current IP under advanced settings.

I also added a toggle at the bottom to manually show/hide Premium buy options, for those who want to switch from trial/subscription to lifetime. After that you can cancel the subscription in App Store App.

Question for you: May I know where you‘re from and which countries you need the most? And what for do you use VPN?

Western USA.
Just USA and I don't see that changing anytime soon for me.
I use VPN to make sure my traffic isn't sniffable when I'm out and about (usually for work) in places that don't have secured wifi that I trust or I don't have strong cellular signal (which is more often than not). I've travelled all over the USA. Sometimes I'll pop it on if I'm at a university on their wifi.

 

[pvalerio]

What’s their logging policy?

What protocols do they offer?

What jurisdiction are they in?

Do they have a canary letter?

Have them been independently audited?


I’d go express VPN or Nord

- No Logging
- OpenVPN UDP and TCP
- Switzerland
- No
- No

 

[Vref]

K

- No Logging
- OpenVPN UDP and TCP
- Switzerland
- No
- No

Why no canary letter?

No independent audit PLUS no letter = hard to trust