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Cybersecurity · head to head

CyberGhost VPN vs Soketi

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CyberGhost VPN

Cybersecurity

Consumer VPN operated from Romania and owned by Kape Technologies, with a no-logs claim audited by Deloitte.

From
$2.19/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Soketi logo

Soketi

Developer Tools

Self-hosted, Pusher-compatible WebSockets server with a stalled maintenance record

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Soketi has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: CyberGhost VPN kape Technologies, the parent, was formerly Crossrider, a browser extension platform whose technology was widely used to distribute adware, and Kape now also owns VPN review sites, so third-party rankings a buyer might use to verify the product can come from the same corporate group.; Soketi maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • They diverge on capability: CyberGhost VPN covers NoSpy servers, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CyberGhost VPN and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where CyberGhost VPN and Soketi differ
AttributeCyberGhost VPNSoketi
Starting price$2.19/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Desktop, MobileLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools
Founded2011Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in CyberGhost VPN

  • NoSpy servers
  • Audited no-logs policy
  • WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2
  • Streaming-labelled servers
  • Dedicated IP via token
  • Kill switch
  • Split tunnelling
  • Smart Rules

Only in Soketi

  • Pusher protocol compatibility
  • Presence and private channels
  • Horizontal scaling
  • App management backends
  • Webhooks
  • Prometheus metrics

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

CyberGhost VPN

  • A household that wants one subscription covering several devices for streaming and public Wi-Finot Soketi
  • A buyer who specifically wants a provider outside the Fourteen Eyes with a published third-party no-logs auditnot Soketi
  • Torrenting on a connection where the internet provider throttles or logs peer-to-peer trafficnot Soketi
  • Travellers needing to reach home-country services from abroad without configuring anything technicalnot Soketi

Soketi

  • A Laravel application that already uses Echo and wants to stop paying a hosted realtime providernot CyberGhost VPN
  • Realtime notifications or presence indicators where data must not leave your own infrastructure for compliance reasonsnot CyberGhost VPN
  • A local or CI environment that needs a Pusher-compatible server without hitting a paid accountnot CyberGhost VPN
  • A high-connection-count application where hosted per-connection pricing has become the largest line in the infrastructure billnot CyberGhost VPN

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

CyberGhost VPN

  • Kape Technologies, the parent, was formerly Crossrider, a browser extension platform whose technology was widely used to distribute adware, and Kape now also owns VPN review sites, so third-party rankings a buyer might use to verify the product can come from the same corporate group.
  • Pricing is structured so that the deep discount applies to the longest initial term and the standard rate applies at renewal, which means the figure used to make the decision is not the figure paid in year three unless the subscriber renegotiates or churns.
  • The Deloitte engagement is point-in-time assurance over stated policy and server configuration, so it confirms things were as described when examined and says nothing about how the infrastructure behaves today or after an ownership change.
  • Client capability differs sharply by platform: the Linux client is command-line only and lacks the kill switch and split tunnelling that the Windows client has, so a mixed-device household does not get the protection that reviews of the Windows app describe.
  • Streaming-optimised server labels go stale because platforms block address ranges continually, and the practical support answer is to try a different server, which makes the labelled-server feature less dependable than the marketing implies.

Soketi

  • Maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • Dependency drift on Node and uWebSockets.js will eventually force you to fork or migrate, and that cost is unbudgeted at the point you adopt it.
  • There is no commercial support to buy, so a production incident at three in the morning is entirely your problem with no escalation path.
  • Scaling beyond a single node needs Redis and careful configuration, and getting presence channels correct across nodes is a genuine source of subtle bugs.
  • It implements the Pusher protocol rather than tracking it, so any protocol feature Pusher adds later will not appear, and the compatibility guarantee slowly decays.

Pricing, plan by plan

CyberGhost VPN

$2.19/month
  • 1 Month$12.99/month
    • 7 devices
    • 9000+ servers
    • Unlimited bandwidth
  • 2 Years + 2 Months$2.19/month
    • All features
    • Best value
    • 45-day guarantee
  • 6 Months$6.99/month
    • All features
    • 45-day guarantee

Soketi

Free
  • SoketiFree
    • MIT licensed
    • Unlimited connections subject to your own hardware
    • No vendor billing

Which should you pick?

Choose CyberGhost VPN if

  • You need nospy servers.
  • You work on Web, Desktop, Mobile.
  • You also want audited no-logs policy.
CyberGhost VPN review

Choose Soketi if

  • You need pusher protocol compatibility.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want presence and private channels.
Soketi review

Questions people ask

Is CyberGhost VPN or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. CyberGhost VPN starts at $2.19/month and Soketi at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, CyberGhost VPN or Soketi?
Soketi has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $2.19/month for CyberGhost VPN and Free for Soketi.
Does CyberGhost VPN or Soketi run on more platforms?
CyberGhost VPN runs on Web, Desktop, Mobile. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Soketi for free?
Yes. Soketi has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. CyberGhost VPN starts at $2.19/month.
What is CyberGhost VPN best used for?
CyberGhost VPN is most often used for a household that wants one subscription covering several devices for streaming and public wi-fi, a buyer who specifically wants a provider outside the fourteen eyes with a published third-party no-logs audit, torrenting on a connection where the internet provider throttles or logs peer-to-peer traffic, travellers needing to reach home-country services from abroad without configuring anything technical. Of those, a household that wants one subscription covering several devices for streaming and public wi-fi and a buyer who specifically wants a provider outside the fourteen eyes with a published third-party no-logs audit are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can CyberGhost VPN do that Soketi cannot?
CyberGhost VPN covers NoSpy servers, Audited no-logs policy, WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2, Streaming-labelled servers. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

CyberGhost VPN: Who owns CyberGhost?

Kape Technologies, which acquired it in 2017. Kape was formerly called Crossrider and also owns ExpressVPN, Private Internet Access and Zenmate, plus the review sites vpnMentor and Wizcase.

Soketi: Is Soketi still maintained?

Barely. The maintainer has stated that available time is very limited and releases have been sparse; treat it as community-maintained.

CyberGhost VPN: Has the no-logs claim been independently audited?

Yes. Deloitte has examined the no-logs policy and server configuration and published an assurance report. Note that this is a point-in-time engagement, not continuous monitoring.

Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

No. Pusher client SDKs and Laravel Echo work by changing the host, port and credentials.

CyberGhost VPN: What jurisdiction is it under?

The service is operated from Romania, which has no mandatory communications data retention law in force and is not a member of the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangements. Ownership sits with Kape, headquartered in the UK.

Soketi: What does it cost?

Nothing in licence fees. It is MIT licensed; you pay for the server it runs on.

CyberGhost VPN: Does it work with streaming services?

Often, using the servers labelled for each service, but this changes constantly as platforms block address ranges. Treat streaming access as a feature that may stop working on any given day rather than a guarantee.

Soketi: What are people moving to?

Laravel Reverb for Laravel applications, and Sockudo, a Rust reimplementation, for others.

CyberGhost VPN: Can I use it on Linux or a router?

There is a command-line Linux client with fewer features than the desktop apps, and router use requires manual OpenVPN configuration rather than an official app.

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