Mysterium Network · customer evidence
We read what customers wrote in three places: 1,200 support conversations (a sample of the 87,170 on record), 2,757 comments typed into the cancellation form, and 936 app-store reviews. Each text was sorted into 22 complaint types. This page ranks them and says what each one means.
All 22 complaint types, ordered by how often they come up in support conversations. The other two columns show the same type in the cancellation comments and in app-store reviews. Each figure is the share of that source mentioning the complaint; one text can mention more than one.
| Complaint | Support conversations | Cancellation comments | App-store reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can't connectThe VPN will not connect at all: connection attempts fail or error out.Connection | 11.8% | 5.5% | 7.8% |
| Charged without wanting itCharged after cancelling, charged twice, or auto-renewed when they did not expect it.Money | 8.0% | 8.5% | 4.3% |
| Paid, but nothing was creditedMoney was taken (card, store, crypto) but the account shows no subscription or balance.Money | 7.3% | 0.7% | 5.2% |
| Can't log inLogin fails, login emails never arrive, or they are logged out and cannot get back.Account and support | 5.4% | 1.3% | 6.0% |
| Account suspended (error 7040)A paid account was disabled, suspended or flagged; the app shows error 7040.Account and support | 4.1% | 1.3% | 2.5% |
| “It doesn’t work”, no detailThe customer says it does not work or is useless, without naming a symptom.No detail | 4.0% | 7.9% | 7.6% |
| SlowSlow speeds, high ping, or suspected throttling.Connection | 3.8% | 1.8% | 2.8% |
| App bugs and crashesThe app will not open, crashes, freezes, or shows wrong information.Product | 3.8% | 1.0% | 6.2% |
| Wanted location or IP type missingThe country, city, server or residential option the customer needs is not offered.Connection | 3.2% | 3.2% | 4.7% |
| Bad IPsThe IP changes by itself, has been used before, or a datacenter IP is sold as residential.Connection | 3.0% | 1.5% | 11.1% |
| Websites detect and block itSites, streaming or survey apps spot the VPN and refuse access.Connection | 2.8% | 3.8% | 2.9% |
| Can't cancelTried to cancel or stop auto-renewal and could not, or the request was ignored.Money | 2.6% | 1.1% | 1.7% |
| Keeps disconnectingThe connection drops, switches off by itself, or cuts out during use.Connection | 2.4% | 0.7% | 10.4% |
| Support slow or unhelpfulNo reply, slow replies, unresolved tickets, or unhelpful answers.Account and support | 1.8% | 0.7% | 7.1% |
| Missing featureAuto-connect, multi-hop controls, ad blocking, protocol choice, or another expected capability is absent.Product | 1.5% | 1.7% | 3.3% |
| Checkout failsCard declined, payment stuck, or the payment method they want is missing.Money | 1.4% | 0.4% | 0.9% |
| Refund refused or never arrivedA refund was asked for and delayed, refused, or bounced to Apple, Google or PayPal.Money | 1.3% | 0.2% | 3.5% |
| Connected, but no internetThe app says connected, but nothing loads while it is on.Connection | 1.2% | 1.0% | 2.9% |
| Privacy or security exposureReal IP exposed, unknown device on the account, data leak, no working kill switch.Account and support | 1.2% | 0.6% | 2.5% |
| Too expensiveThe price is too high, or went up.Money | 1.0% | 3.3% | 6.3% |
| Bought the wrong planThe plan, tier or product they bought is not the one they needed.Money | 0.7% | 3.0% | 0.5% |
| No free trialAn advertised trial did not appear; had to pay before trying.Money | 0.7% | 0.0% | 0.7% |
Support: 1,200 user-started conversations, sampled across 2023–2026 from 87,170. Cancellation: all 2,757 comments typed into the free-text box. Reviews: all 936 Mysterium reviews on the App Store and Google Play; reviewers skew negative, so read that column as direction.
On the cancellation form, “too expensive” is the most-ticked reason: 35.8% of 9,060 people leaving. But read what the same people typed in the comment box and price nearly disappears: 3.3% wrote about price, while 8.5% wrote about a charge they did not want: after cancelling, twice, or an auto-renewal they did not expect. A menu offering “too expensive” is where people who were charged wrongly end up clicking.
The three most common support conversations are can't connect (11.8%), charged without wanting it (8.0%) and paid, but nothing was credited (7.3%). Price ranks 20th of 22, at 1.0%. Nobody opens a support conversation about the price; they open one when something they paid for did not work.
App-store reviews are the one place we can compare Mysterium with other VPNs. On app bugs and crashes, can't connect, can't log in and slow, Mysterium is complained about as much as the others, or less: those are problems of the whole category. It stands out on three things: bad IPs (11.1% of Mysterium reviews, against 0.4% for similar-sized VPNs), payments that were taken but never credited (5.2% against 0.7%) and support (7.1% against 3.9%). Those three belong to Mysterium.
The eight complaints where Mysterium stands out most. The number is how many more of Mysterium’s reviews mention the complaint, in percentage points, than the rival group that mentions it most. Rivals are six VPNs of similar size (Guru VPN, Independent dVPN, TorGuard, PrivateVPN, Tower VPN, VPN Satoshi) and two market leaders (NordVPN and Turbo VPN).
App-store reviews only. Mysterium 936 reviews · similar-sized VPNs 825 · leaders 200.
| Complaint | Mysterium | Similar-sized VPNs | Leaders | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bad IPs | 11.1% | 0.4% | 0.0% | +10.7 |
| Keeps disconnecting | 10.4% | 5.4% | 7.5% | +2.9 |
| Can't connect | 7.8% | 6.9% | 7.7% | +0.1 |
| “It doesn’t work”, no detail | 7.6% | 7.5% | 2.8% | +0.1 |
| Support slow or unhelpful | 7.1% | 3.9% | 4.3% | +2.7 |
| Too expensive | 6.3% | 1.8% | 1.7% | +4.5 |
| App bugs and crashes | 6.2% | 7.5% | 7.2% | -1.3 |
| Can't log in | 6.0% | 4.5% | 6.1% | -0.1 |
| Paid, but nothing was credited | 5.2% | 0.7% | 0.7% | +4.5 |
| Wanted location or IP type missing | 4.7% | 2.6% | 1.6% | +2.1 |
| Charged without wanting it | 4.3% | 0.9% | 4.1% | +0.1 |
| Refund refused or never arrived | 3.5% | 1.9% | 3.6% | -0.1 |
| Missing feature | 3.3% | 2.2% | 1.5% | +1.1 |
| Connected, but no internet | 2.9% | 2.3% | 2.9% | +0.0 |
| Websites detect and block it | 2.9% | 4.1% | 11.1% | -8.2 |
| Slow | 2.8% | 3.7% | 6.7% | -4.0 |
| Account suspended (error 7040) | 2.5% | 0.2% | 0.0% | +2.3 |
| Privacy or security exposure | 2.5% | 0.9% | 4.6% | -2.1 |
| Can't cancel | 1.7% | 0.0% | 3.0% | -1.3 |
| Checkout fails | 0.9% | 0.2% | 0.5% | +0.3 |
| No free trial | 0.7% | 1.4% | 0.6% | -0.6 |
| Bought the wrong plan | 0.5% | 0.0% | 0.0% | +0.5 |
Share of each group’s reviews mentioning the complaint. Gap = Mysterium minus the higher of the two rival groups. Highlighted rows: Mysterium more than two points above both.
When someone cancels, they tick a reason from a fixed menu and can also type a comment. The two tell different stories.
All 9,060 people who cancelled. More than one reason can be ticked, so the shares add to more than 100%.
The 2,757 who also typed a comment; top ten of 22 shown.
“Other reason” is the single biggest tick at 35.9%: a third of the people leaving cannot find their reason on the menu. The comment box is where they say what actually happened, and it is a different list: unwanted charges, things that did not work, and blocked or detected connections.
The numbers are sizes, not precise measurements. Sorting the same texts a second time moved the typical figure by 0.0 points and the average by 0.4; about 8% of texts changed type. A 7% and an 8% are the same size. The order and the rough magnitudes hold; decimals do not.
How the sorting was done. Every text was read by two AI coders working independently, each applying the same 22-type rule book. They agreed 85% of the time. The 934 disagreements were settled one by one by a third reader, each with a written reason. The rule book was fixed before any text was sorted.
“Too expensive” is the weakest figure on the page. The rule book does not cleanly separate “too expensive” from “could not pay”, and the two were sorted inconsistently. That is part of finding 1, not an excuse for it.
This is not every complaint Mysterium receives. It covers support conversations, the cancellation form and app-store reviews. It does not cover Trustpilot, Slack, status-page or changelog records, regulator or court records, or solicited product reviews.