OverPlay is a VPN provided by a young British security services company, youhou! It’s growing strong nowadays in the world of VPN. With servers in over 48 countries, and a high speed connection, they have an attractive product range. They offer both a VPN service and a smart DNS service, to unlock the streaming channels. Let’s review OverPlay in details now.
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OverPlay, a British VPN not only for the Brits
OverPlay contacted me a while back to test their VPN and Smart DNS services. As you know, we talk a lot about VPNs but less about Smart DNS. Just once actually, during the review of StrongVPN and its StrongDNS service.
A quick reminder: A smart DNS service allows you to enter Over Play server with your original IP address. It’s smart because the server is already configured to grant you access to any website that is normally restricted. For example, with this service you can reach Netflix US or BBC without any connection problem.
What’s the difference between OverPlay SmartDNS and SmartDNS + VPN?
With SmartDNS, you need to setup the DNS servers in your PC or in your mobile. That’s it, you can now watch TV streaming from anywhere. A VPN service is not required to access the streaming TV websites.
Pros: You will use 100% of your broadband connection and you don’t need to install any other application.
Cons: SmartDNS doesn’t encrypt your connection. You’re not protected when surfing. Then you can’t change your IP to emulate another country.
I found it’s comfortable to use the VPN on my PC and to insert the SmartDNS in my router. All the devices in the house can access any website.
The idea of offering these services is quite convincing, but the price itself is not…
OverPlay: Plans and pricing
You have only 2 packages for each service with Over Play. You can subscribe for 1 month or for 1 year. The VPN is twice more expensive than the SmartDNS. But the SmartDNS is included with the VPN. If you subscribe for 12 months, you’ll get a 15% discount minimum, which is the most economical.
As usual, the offers can change, click on the picture to get the latest promotions.
In my opinion, purchasing only the SmartDNS is a bit too expensive. Indeed, for the same price you can get a high quality VPN like PureVPN. You’ll unblock the blocked contents and be protected as well.
It’s possible to cancel your subscription every month, but there is no money back policy. You’ll have to pay for the ongoing month.
Summary sheet for OverPlay
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Does it register your activities? | No, you're safe with a strict no-log policy |
| Is it safe for torrenting? | Yes, you can use it for P2P |
| What Netflix catalogue is available? | US, UK, FR, CA, AU, DE |
| Simultaneous logins | Up to 1 connections simultaneously |
| How many countries do it cover? | 50+ |
| On what platforms is it available? | Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS |
| Money-back guarantee policy | 5 days |
| Available protocols | PPTP, L2TP, OpenVPN |
| Type of traffic data? | Unlimited |
| Type of Cipher | AES 256 bits, the most secure encryption in the World |
| How many IP Addresses does it provide? | 10,000+ |
| How many servers are available? | 650+ |
The VPN Over Play in details
A simple interface for Windows and Mac, nothing spectacular
At the first launch, you have to login.
In the Menu, under Connection, if you select Advance mode, you’ll see the interface as the photo above. Otherwise you’ll only get a country list, without the servers and without seeing the latency in ms.
All the servers offerOpenVPN protocol. And you have to check whetherPPTP or L2TP protocols are active. For a better understanding of protocols, read my guide about VPN Protocols.
Finally, select a VPN server, click on connect and the game is done!
Options, where are you?
Overplay is a young VPN. There are not many options, just the basic ones… Not even the connection when the computer starts… Nothing!
In fact, most tabs and menus will redirect you to their website…
However, despite the lack of options, the VPN is good!
A SMART Server on each continent
A good thing to note about OverPlay is that it offers servers (called Smart), on almost each continent. Only the Africa server is still missing.
Why is it a good service?
Let’s take an example: You’re in India and you want to watch Netflix from the USA. Usually you’d connect to the USA server to get an American IP and connect to Netflix. But the connection can be slow, because the server is located on the other side of the world.
With OverPlay, you can connect to the closest Smart server, to have a low latency. On the picture below, the Europe server offers 50ms. You can access Netflix (or other blocked streaming website) with a good connection.
Note that other VPNs have similar services, to emulate other continents, like HideMyAss and PureVPN.
Great support and guide
A great guide is available in English to help you during setup. And the operation is simple: Just insert the username and password, destination server and protocol type and you are done.
NO APP for mobile!
That’s quite the bummer… OverPlay doesn’t have any application for mobile… Fortunately,you can manually configure the connection profile for Android, iPhone and iPad. But still…
Overplay is no torrent lover…
OverPlay is settled in UK, and its policy is clear: It’s forbidden to use the VPN to download movies, music or other material protected by copyright. They’ll have no qualms about cooperating with the authorities in case you get caught. If you want to download torrents, I highly recommend you to use some other VPNs, with no logs policy!
What about SmartDNS?
Once you have subscribed, go to “ account” and click on SmartDNS to get the list of countries you can unblock. Select the country you want.
At this point you’ll have a DNS server. Just set it up on your computer, to unblock the specified country. If you prefer, you can download their app to automatically setup your connection. In short, a child’s play.
