Why am I getting slow speeds with Speedify?

There are a variety of factors that can affect the speeds that you get when connecting with Speedify. Below are some common things you can check to make sure you are getting the best speeds with Speedify. Speedify's default settings should work well in a most cases, but if you seeing performance problems, try the suggestions below.

Location

Speedify is a VPN, which means that your Internet traffic is forwarded through a VPN server before going to its destination on the Internet. Your location relative to the Speedify VPN server can have a big impact on the speeds you get. Connecting to a server that is far away from you will add increased latency and can reduce performance.
You should try to choose the Speedify server closest to you. If you are not seeing good performance with the closest location, you can also try other nearby locations. Speedify uses a variety of server hosting providers, sometimes multiple providers, in one location. Choosing between multiple nearby server locations, or even between the server instances within the same location, may yield different results.
If you are in a country that does not have a Speedify server, then you should try the servers from several nearby countries to see what works the best for you. Because of how Internet cables are connected, the country that is geographically closest might not always be the best performing option.

Maximum Speed

For most of Speedify's public server locations, users can expect to get up to around 200 - 300 Mbps through Speedify. The exact maximum speed can vary by location. In some locations of the world, the maximum speed of a server can be slower or faster than that range. If you have a 300 Mbps+ connection that you want to use consistently with Speedify, then you should consider getting a Speedify dedicated server, which can support up to 1 Gbps of throughput in most locations. With a public server, you might reach higher speeds, but you will be competing with other users on the server for the bandwidth.

Transport Mode

Speedify can connect between your client device and the Speedify server with several transport modes: TCP, TCP Multiple, UDP, and HTTPS. By default, Speedify's automatic mode will try to pick the best transport options for you, but it might not always make the right choice. Giving Speedify a hint about which transport mode to use can help in some cases.
  • Try TCP Multiple Mode. TCP Multiple Mode is usually used for specific setup or scenario as stated below.

    1. Connections with high latency or packet loss.
    2. Connecting to servers far away (i.e. other countries).
    3. If you have fast internet connection (i.e. 100+ Mbps).
  • Try TCP Mode. TCP is often the most efficient and best performing protocol for Speedify, but there are some cases where you might want to try using UDP instead:

    1. Your Internet connection has high latency or packet loss
    2. You are located far away from the Speedify server
    3. You are using applications that are sensitive to latency increases. For example, gaming, stock trading, Twitch streaming, etc.

    If you fall into any of the cases above and you are not seeing good performance, try changing to UDP transport mode.
  • Try HTTPS Mode. If you are in a location with a restrictive network, such as a library, hospital, or even a country with restrictive Internet, sometimes these connections will block Speedify from connecting over the normal TCP and UDP connections. In this case, Speedify will automatically fall back to using HTTPS. However, sometimes these types of connections will let the TCP and UDP connections through, but throttle them to really slow speeds. In that case, manually switching Speedify to try HTTPS while on a restrictive network might help to improve the speeds you get.

Bonding Mode

If you are connected with multiple Internet connections, Speedify offers three different modes for how it uses multiple connections: Speed, Redundant, and Streaming.

Speed Mode

Speed mode will bond multiple Internet connections to give you more speed. If you are not getting good combined speeds from Speedify, check the Combined Speeds section below.

Redundant Mode

Redundant mode is focused on minimizing latency and improving reliability. It will send the same data across multiple connections at the same time, and deliver what arrives first. Redundant mode will operate at the speed of your fastest single connection and does not bond connection speeds like in Speed mode. Redundant mode should be used when you have important traffic that you want to make sure gets through.

Streaming Mode

Streaming mode operates exactly the same as Speed Mode for most traffic. However, it is watching for traffic from real-time streams, such as Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom, Twitch, etc., which it considers important. When streaming mode detects a real-time stream, it prioritizes that streaming traffic ahead of other traffic and dynamically switches between Speed and Redundant mode for just the streaming traffic, depending on the network conditions.
The bonding mode you select can drastically affect the performance you get with Speedify. If you know you need combined speeds from your connections, then you should not use Redundant mode. If you are trying to do gaming over multiple unreliable and variable connections, then Redundant mode can be a good choice.

Combined Speeds

If you are trying to diagnose issues with combining multiple Internet connections, the above sections are all relevant, but there are some additional steps you can take.
1. Verify that all individual connections perform correctly with and without Speedify. Start with running Speedify with one Internet connection at a time and verify that the speeds you are getting with the single connection are correct. Sometimes, one particular connection does not perform well over Speedify and that ends up causing an issue with combined speeds.
2. After testing each individual connection, then test the combined speed. If you identified a slow performing individual connection, try taking it out and running a test without it. Speedify has a built-in test speed function that makes it easy to test each individual connection and then the combined speed. You can also use https://www.speedtest.net/ or other testing services. When using https://www.speedtest.net/ or other services, make sure that the https://www.speedtest.net/ server is located close to the Speedify server. If the data needs to travel far from the Speedify server to the https://www.speedtest.net/ server, that can reduce performance. 
3. If the speed or latency of two connections is very different, they often won't combine well. For example, trying to combine a 100 Mbps connection with a 1 Mbps connection won't give any benefit, because of the big difference in speed. Similarly, combining a low latency cable connection with a high latency satellite connection usually won't combine well.
4. Check Speedify settings. In addition to the settings described above, some other settings can affect how Speedify combines connections. The main setting to check is priority.
By default, the priority will be set to Automatic and Speedify will decide how to use the connections. Speedify will aim to set all cellular connections as Secondary to avoid using them too much as cellular connections are often times more expensive. 
Setting both connections to Primary means Speedify will always try to bond them.
If a connection is set to Secondary (default for cellular connections), Speedify will avoid trying to use it unless the Primary connection is fully utilized or not working. If the Primary connection is above 30 Mbps, a Secondary connection will not be used at all.
Backup connections will never be used for bonding.
5. Check for conflicts between connections. Check that each Internet connection is coming from a separate source.
  • In most cases, connecting to your one Internet connection over both Wi-Fi and Ethernet will not increase your speeds.
  • Using multiple Wi-Fi connections can be subject to wireless interference. This usually shows up as each Wi-Fi connection performing normally individually, but the combined speed of the two connections is the same as (or even less than) one connection. Because the two connections are competing for the same wireless bandwidth in the air, the two connections are physically not able to transmit more data. Switching the Wi-Fi connections to use non-conflicting channels can help to resolve this. https://www.metageek.com/training/resources/why-channels-1-6-11.html
  • Cellular connections from the same provider. Similar to Wi-Fi, using multiple cellular connections to the same provider (or on the same frequency) can cause conflicts as well due to wireless interference. For example, if you are in a low signal area, both cellular connections can end up competing for the same bandwidth. In some cases, it is possible to use multiple connections from the same provider, if there is sufficient bandwidth, but using cellular connections from different providers is recommended.

Contact Support

If you tried everything above and you are still having trouble, you can contact Speedify Support. You might have found a bug in Speedify. Email us at support@speedify.com