PureVPN Review: Should You Trust It?

PureVPN tends to pop up in users’ search for a quality VPN service provider, and promises to rival the industry giants. And we want to believe them. After all, we strongly believe in online privacy, and hiding your IP with a VPN is a powerful starting point. It will conceal your activity and browsing history from the sight and logging of your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and identity from the websites you visit. Unfortunately, like with most things in life, not everything is created equal. So, to determine if their claims are true, let’s jump straight into our PureVPN review.

PureVPN Quick Overview

Feature	Description
Founded	2007
Headquarters	Hong Kong
Servers	6,500+ servers in 140+ countries
Protocols	OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec, PPTP, SSTP, and more
Encryption	AES-256 bit encryption
Logging Policy	No logs policy
Split Tunneling	Available
Kill Switch	Yes, for enhanced security
Streaming	Works with Netflix, Hulu, and more
P2P Support	Available on specific servers
Device Support	Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, routers, and more
Customer Support	24/7 live chat, email, ticketing system
Money-Back Guarantee	31-day refund policy
Price Range	Various plans with monthly and yearly options
Additional Features	Ad-blocker, NAT firewall, dedicated IPs, and more.

PureVPN Features

Here’s a list of pivotal features of PureVPN:

Headquarters and No-log Policy

PureVPN is based in Hong Kong, China, and is outside of the 5, 9, and 14-Eyes Alliance jurisdiction. However, they have a shady history you should know about. In 2016, a criminal investigation credited PureVPN for helping supply information about two e-mail accounts of their users. This helped the government identify the home and workplace IP addresses of one of the users. Luckily, right after the news broke, they worked to boost their reputation. In June 2019, they passed a security audit by Altius IT. In late October 2020, they obtained a no-log certification from KPMG, one of the 4 leading global security audit firms.

Server Base

PureVPN operates 6,500+ servers in 140+ countries around the world. This rivals one of the VPN providers with the biggest server networks – CyberGhost, for example. In contrast, it’s still far behind the #1 place, Private Internet Access.

Speed

Here’s what we observed when we connected to PureVPN servers in these countries:

• Our country (in Europe). Download speed went down by between 5% and 10%, and we felt no difference.
• The United Kingdom. From multiple tests, we averaged the speed reduction to between 35% and 50%.
• The United States. Our speed shrunk considerably, by more than 80%.
• Canada. We noticed our download speed dropped by close to 90%.

Encryption and Leak Protection

PureVPN uses AES 256-bit encryption to protect the Internet traffic between your home Internet connection and the VPN server. As for leak detection, we ran utilized a few test sites for VPN checking and found no IPv4, IPv6, DNS, or WebRTC leaks. There were a few IPv6 leaks when using PPTP, but that protocol is outdated and shouldn’t be used anyway.

Bandwidth, Data Usage, Multi Logins

PureVPN provides unlimited data usage and unmetered bandwidth when connected to their VPN servers. Moreover, they allow up to 10 simultaneous connections to the VPN network.

Unblocking Streaming Services

PureVPN is surprisingly effective with bypassing Netflix VPN block. We also circumvented anti-VPN measures on:

• Hulu
• HBO Max
• BBC iPlayer
• Amazon Prime Video
• ITV Hub

Security Protocols and 24/7 Customer Care

PureVPN Customer Service is available 24/7/365 via e-mail, chat, or internal tickets. As for VPN protocols, PureVPN offers PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, SSTP, IKEv2/IPSec, OpenVPN (TCP/UDP), and Stealth (Obfuscated OpenVPN) in their apps.

Additional Features of PureVPN

For some, bonus features are a crucial part of a PureVPN review. Here’s what to expect:

Does PureVPN work in China?

Yes, PureVPN bypassed the Great Firewall of China effortlessly, to and from the country. And, although China’s VPN use can be illegal, and the government is notorious for citizen surveillance, their no-logging policy eliminates any worries.

Kill Switch

PureVPN offers a kill switch feature that terminates Internet traffic when the VPN connection drops and restores it whenever a VPN connectivity is back.

Split Tunneling

Split tunneling allows you to keep the VPN always ON by taking certain apps outside of the VPN tunnel. This is ideal if you need to access local online banking while watching streaming services.

Content Filter and Port Forwarding

PureVPN comes with a Content Filter feature that blocks ads, tracking domains, and embedded malware. Port Forwarding allows you to block or unblock ports while connected to a VPN.

PureVPN Installation and User Interface

After signing up, downloading and installing PureVPN is intuitive and takes less than 5 minutes. They have apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and browser VPN extensions for Chrome and Firefox. You can also install PureVPN on routers, Smart TV, PlayStation, Xbox, Roku, and more.

Desktop app functionality

The PureVPN desktop app is perfect for beginners thanks to 5 Modes of operating:

• Stream. Presents a list of servers optimized for streaming. This means that they use a less-secure protocol or reduce the encryption level to increase Internet speed.
• Internet Freedom. Gives you a choice of servers optimized for bypassing VPN blocks.
• Security / Privacy. Use the highest possible encryption and most secure protocol.
• File-Sharing. Gives you a list of servers that support P2P transfer e.g., torrenting.
• Dedicated IP. Sold separately, and allows you to get a static IP for your VPN connection.

PureVPN Pricing

PureVPN has 4 price tiers:

• 7-day paid trial – For $0.99 and a discount on a 1-year plan, you can use try PureVPN for 7 days with no commitments.
• 1-month plan – $10.95/month
• 1-year plan – $5.82/month after a 7-day paid trial
• 2-year plan – $3.22/month with a 70% discount

How does PureVPN price compare?

Its short-term price is competitive, but many VPN services offer a free trial, albeit with reduced services or select VPN servers. Still, we don’t believe $0.99 is a problem. Their 2-year plan is more expensive than better VPN providers such as IPVanish or HideMyAss, but also slightly cheaper than NordVPN or Hide.me. PureVPN’s 31-day money-back guarantee is also superior compared to the standard 30 days. Unfortunately, the VPN provider only allows paying with credit/debit cards or PayPal.

Conclusion

During our review of PureVPN, we noticed VPN provider focuses on introducing new features rather than improving their existing ones. For example, they quickly upgraded from 2,000+ to 6,500+ servers, but without increases in speed and bandwidth of the old ones. That remains the primary drawback – other aspects are not too far behind or dominant. Fixing the speed problem should be a priority, because it makes streaming, torrenting, and browsing media-heavy websites a struggle. So, to wrap up our PureVPN review, improvements in that aspect would undoubtedly make everyone elated.