NOTE: JonDonym will be closing its services on August 31, 2021. While their operators will ensure that existing users can consume existing plans, purchasing new plans is no longer possible. The review below is kept for historical purposes.
JonDonym isn’t a VPN service. It’s an anonymizing service that operates in a fashion similar to Tor. It mixes your traffic and encrypts it. As is the case when using Tor, your ISP will be able to tell that you’re using the service but won’t be able to tell what you’re doing on the Internet while you’re connected. This service is a bit pricey, but the advantages include a very high-speed connection and far fewer users on the network.
Pricing & Plans
JonDonym charges based on a time/bandwidth plan. The pricing is as follows:
- Medium: 4 Months, 1.5GB/month for €30
- Large: 4 Months, 5GB/month for €75
- S-Volume: 6 Months, 650MB/month €5
- M-Volume:1 Year, 1.5GB/month €10
- L-Volume: 2 years, 6.5GB/month €40
You can pay via PayPal.
Free Trial/ Money-back Guarantee
There is no money back guarantee with the service, but you can get a free trial just by signing up and giving your email address.
Privacy & Anonymity
JonDonym does not log traffic. They may if they’re presented with a valid legal obligation, but otherwise they do not.
Torrent Policy
This service is not appropriate for torrenting.
Customer Support
JonDonym has extensive support options. There are help pages at the site. There’s also a forum, an FAQ and a Wiki. Failing those options, you can contact support via email.
Product Testing
JonDonym works very similarly to Tor and, in fact, it’s essentially a paid version of the same thing, with some important differences.
JonDonym installs in two parts, if you go the recommended route. The first download will connect you to their network of mixers. Your connection is routed through these “mix operators,” encrypting your traffic and concealing your IP address.
The second download, JonDoFox, adds an extension to your Firefox browser that allows you to use it anonymously. You can also connect programs manually over the service, which is a far more complicated process.
This software works on Windows, Mac and Linux. There’s also a live DVD version and a console version that allows you to use their service without the GUI.
Countries Supported:
Speed Test
Even though this isn’t a VPN service, we went ahead and tested the speed. It was very fast, barely slowing down our 50Mbps connection from its baseline speed.
IPCheck and DNSLeak Test
Our IP address came back as being located in France. The service did hide our DNS server, as well.
Feature Summary
- Anonymous browsing
- Firefox add-on
- Java based
- Free version with lower speed and fewer anonymization features
We Liked
- Easy to install
- Excellent support documentation
- Live DVD option
Areas for Improvement
The price is a bit high for this service, especially considering that there’s a free option out there, i.e. Tor.
Conclusion
JonDonym is faster than Tor for certain, but it also comes at a cost. It doesn’t give you access to the hidden resources that Tor does, either, and it concentrates on what’s already available on the clear web. Its main selling point is that it anonymizes your traffic and, where that’s concerned, it did do exactly what the product claims. However, given that Tor comes at no cost and gives you access to resources that aren’t even available on the greater web, that option still beats JonDonym out.
How can JonDonym justify the costs, If Tor offers more and is free to use.