A side-by-side on price, jurisdiction, devices, and what each service is genuinely good at.
| Windscribe | CyberGhost | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9/mo, or $69/yr ($5.75/mo) — plus a pay-per-location Build-A-Plan from $1/location/mo | Aggressive long-term-plan discounts, noticeably higher at the month-to-month rate |
| Jurisdiction | Canada (a Five Eyes member — worth weighing against jurisdictions like Panama or Switzerland) | Romania |
| Free plan | Free plan with a genuinely usable monthly data allowance (rare among major VPNs) | No ongoing free plan |
| Simultaneous devices | Unlimited simultaneous devices on paid plans | 7 simultaneous connections |
| Server footprint | 69+ countries, 112+ cities | 9,000+ servers in 100 countries |
| Transparency | Open-source apps, published transparency reports and a public court-order track record | Owned by Kape Technologies (which also owns ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access) |
| Ad/tracker blocker | R.O.B.E.R.T. — DNS-level blocker for ads, trackers, malware and more, toggled by category | Built-in ad and tracker blocking |
Dedicated streaming-optimized servers and a longer-than-average 45-day money-back window. On price: aggressive long-term-plan discounts, noticeably higher at the month-to-month rate. On jurisdiction, CyberGhost is based in Romania, which some privacy-conscious users will prefer over Windscribe's Canadian, Five-Eyes jurisdiction — though jurisdiction alone says little about day-to-day server performance.
Windscribe's free tier is a genuine, usable product rather than a trial, its R.O.B.E.R.T. blocker gives per-category control that most built-in ad/tracker blockers don't, and Build-A-Plan pricing lets you pay only for the countries you use instead of one flat rate. For 7 simultaneous connections on CyberGhost versus unlimited simultaneous devices on paid plans on Windscribe, household use cases with many devices will often favor whichever service doesn't force an upgrade just to add one more phone or laptop.
If you already know you want CyberGhost's specific strengths — dedicated streaming-optimized servers and a longer-than-average 45-day money-back window — and you're comfortable paying from day one, it's a reasonable pick. If you'd rather test a real product for free first, want granular per-category ad/tracker blocking, or only need coverage in a handful of countries, Windscribe's free tier and Build-A-Plan pricing are worth trying before you commit to either service annually.
CyberGhost's huge server count and 45-day guarantee suit indecisive streamers; Windscribe's R.O.B.E.R.T. blocker and pay-per-location pricing suit anyone who wants precise control over both cost and what gets blocked.