PureVPN Review

PureVPN was founded in 2007 by GZ Systems Ltd, which operates under the jurisdiction of Hong Kong, putting it beyond the reach of the privacy-unfriendly US and EU.

PureVPN says it specifically chose Hong Kong for its headquarters because there are no mandatory data retention laws, therefore it isn’t a legal requirement to store user data or share it with any third parties.

PureVPN clearly states that “if and when [it] receive[s] subpoenas that are legally upheld in the court of law in Hong Kong, [it] won’t be of much help since [it has] almost nothing of value to share”, which is reassuring.

Previous controversies surrounding PureVPN’s logging policy means we’re still a little skeptical of this VPN service – you might want to look into providers with strict no-logs policies, such as CyberGhost or PrivateVPN.

It emerged that in an online harassment case that took place in October 2017 the FBI was able to identify the accused by matching the IP address of a PureVPN server used in the crime with the true IP address that he used to connect to the server.

While we don’t condone the actions of the alleged criminal, PureVPN didn’t tell customers it logged their IP address, and claimed to only log connection times and bandwidth used. Even worse, it made the false claim that: “We do NOT keep any logs that can identify or help in monitoring a user’s activity,” which clearly isn’t the case.

However, PureVPN has recently gone some way to redeeming itself with the introduction of a completely revamped logging policy, where the only information collected is:

• The day you connect to a specific VPN server location
• Your Internet Service Provider
• Total bandwidth used by each user

It does not log:

• Your originating IP address
• Connection timestamps
• DNS requests
• The IP address of your chosen VPN server

This means that nothing you do online can be traced back to you as an individual, restoring a little bit of our confidence in the service.

PureVPN has also gone so far as to commission an independent audit of its logging policy to win back its users’ trust.

PureVPN isn’t the fastest VPN we’ve tested, but it’s still pretty quick.

Download and upload speeds on nearby servers (e.g. London to London) are more than fast enough for buffer-free streaming.

Our proprietary speed testing tool also showed impressive consistency across the whole of PureVPN’s server network.

Download speed without PureVPN: 91.42Mbps

Download speed with PureVPN: 72.73Mbps

Our download speed loss when PureVPN is running: 20%

PureVPN performs fairly well over international connections, like the UK to the Australia, but some connections are a bit hit-and-miss (like the UK to the US).

Take a look at the VPN speeds we recorded in our London-based tests (remember that our internet connection without a VPN is 100Mbps):

• USA: 31Mbps (download) & 19Mbps (upload)
• Germany: 63Mbps (download) & 55Mbps (upload)
• Singapore: 42Mbps (download) & 10Mbps (upload)
• Australia: 41Mbps (download) & 6Mbps (upload)

As you can see, PureVPN’s upload speeds aren’t very fast on long-distance connections, but unless you plan to torrent on faraway servers this shouldn’t be an issue.

PureVPN’s ping times are average, so gamers might be better off looking at other VPNs with super low latency. You can check out our VPN recommendations for gaming here.

Looking for the fastest VPN in 2020? Then take a look at Private Internet Access.

 

PureVPN has VPN servers in 140 countries across six continents, catering to more than just the popular destinations like North America and Western Europe (although it still has VPN servers in the UK, the US, Canada, and Australia for those who need them).

PureVPN operates over 2,000 servers in total – some of these are virtual servers, which are marked with a ‘V’ on PureVPN’s server locations list. All of the other physical servers are owned by PureVPN.

What’s most impressive is the 300,000+ IP addresses – that’s one of the highest numbers we’ve ever seen and massively reduces the risk of server congestion, guaranteeing high VPN speeds.

A choice of 13 different US city-level servers and four different Australia city-level servers means that PureVPN provides coast-to-coast coverage. You can drill down to multiple cities in a number of countries:

• Australia (4)
• Canada (3)
• China (2)
• Czech Republic (2)
• France (2)
• Germany (5)
• Malaysia (2)
• South Africa (2)
• UK (4)
• US (13)

PureVPN is a decent VPN if you’re looking for fast, hassle-free access to major streaming services.

PureVPN Stream Mode unlocks over 20 listed TV streaming services and channels using optimized VPN servers, including:

• Netflix
• BBC iPlayer
• Amazon Prime
• Sky TV
• Hulu
• ABC
• ESPN

Throughout our regular tests, we generally had no issues accessing popular streaming services through the dedicated servers, but on occasion we had to try a couple of different servers in order to gain access to our favorite shows.

PureVPN isn’t a good choice for Kodi fans and torrenters, even if P2P is permitted on the majority of its VPN servers.

The past issues with PureVPN’s logging policy prevent us from recommending this VPN service for privacy-sensitive P2P activities. You can read more about PureVPN’s logging policy below.

Some readers have also reported that PureVPN support agents have recommended using Dedicated IPs for P2P traffic, which is bad advice.

A dedicated IP address is a fixed IP address assigned to a PureVPN account, and it never changes. While it might be effective for streaming Netflix, it’s not good for privacy.

If you need a VPN for torrenting, read our guide of the best VPNs here.

PureVPN is one of the few VPN services to still work in China, despite the recent government crackdowns on VPN providers, even if it’s becoming less and less reliable as time goes on.

You’ll have to contact PureVPN’s customer support in order to receive a comprehensive guide to setting up your VPN for China. It can be a fiddly process and involves a lot of manual configuration. Even then, PureVPN is not guaranteed to always work in China.

For more reliable alternatives, take a look at the most reliable VPNs for China.

While PureVPN’s server network is huge and likely to have servers in nearby free-speech countries, there are other VPNs with much more effective solutions for other high-censorship countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia.

It used to be difficult to recommend PureVPN for anyone with stringent privacy needs due to previous issues with its logging policy, but a recent revamp means that this is no longer so much of a problem.

The PureVPN app chooses the ‘best’ VPN protocol for you on startup, but we recommend using OpenVPN (UDP and TCP) as it’s the best protocol for all-round performance and privacy. Encryption is via the ‘unbreakable’ cipher AES-256.

You can also connect with the following VPN protocols:

• IKEv2 – very fast and secure, great for mobile devices
• PPTP – very unsafe, and can be easily cracked
• L2TP – generally secure
• SSTP – comes with some potential security risks

The VPN kill switch is an essential feature, blocking all web traffic should the VPN connection drop for any reason, preventing your true IP address from being exposed.

PureVPN also protects you against DNS, IPv6 and WebRTC leaks – which our independent tests proved to be working effectively – giving you peace of mind that your online activity isn’t visible to anyone other than yourself.

The PureVPN desktop app also includes split tunneling, allowing you to direct specific traffic through the VPN and leave the rest to travel outside of the encrypted tunnel.

PureVPN used to have a malware and ad blocker (Gravity and Ozone), but these have been removed as of June 2019.

However, during our testing we did notice something a little odd.

When we connected to certain servers (in the UK), our traffic was routed through Squid proxy servers.

We got in touch with PureVPN to ask why this was and this was their response:

“It is to inform you that we are using squid on our multiple servers including UK for better routing.”

We then asked PureVPN to confirm that Squid does not log user traffic:

“It is to inform you that Yes, all logging is disabled on squid. Unfortunately, we cannot disclose for business reasons.”

We would like to see more transparency about this issue on PureVPN’s website.

Installing PureVPN is super easy and won’t trouble even the most inexperienced of VPN users. Simply download the software, follow the installation prompts, then enter your login credentials.

The PureVPN apps show promise and there’s a clear focus on user experience, but we found the execution to be inconsistent.

The main dashboard is easy enough to use and can be customized by purpose (streaming, internet freedom, file sharing, security, dedicated IP), but PureVPN’s desktop apps still feel a little clunky and old-fashioned.

Well-organized configurable options can be found in PureVPN’s settings menu, and we love the helpful explanations that go alongside some of the more advanced options, such as IPv6 leak protection.

PureVPN’s mobile apps are a little more streamlined than their desktop counterparts without compromising on advanced features.

It won’t take long to set up PureVPN’s proxy browser extensions for Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Just click ‘Download Extension’ on PureVPN’s website, add the extension to your browser, log in, and connect.

PureVPN’s customer support is pretty good, but it could still do with some improvements.

PureVPN has a 24/7 live chat feature, which is very handy for quick, simple questions. The support agents respond promptly and courteously but their knowledge doesn’t extend to more complicated queries – it was much the same story for email support.

The Support Center on the website is certainly comprehensive with lots of FAQs, troubleshooting advice and manual setup guides for loads of devices.

If you have a simple question, you’ll be able to find answers in minutes, but if it’s anything technically complicated you’ll have to be a little more persistent.

PureVPN accepts a wide range of payment methods, including some more private options:

• Credit and debit cards
• PayPal
• AliPay
• Loads of cryptocurrencies through CoinPayments, including BitCoin
• Loads of international methods through PaymentWall and BlueSnap

You can’t use PureVPN for free, but you can test out the PureVPN software for 31 days risk-free with its money-back guarantee. This is genuinely no questions asked, with no hidden data caps or restrictions. If it is due to a technical issue customer support will try and fix it first.

After your PureVPN refund request is processed and your account canceled, it can take up to 30 days for the refund payment to appear in your account.

PureVPN also offers a three-day trial account with no data cap or usage restrictions for $2.50. This is not refundable under any circumstances, including technical problems, but is a very good way to test out all of the services without worrying about going over a data allowance.

PureVPN hasn’t got a spotless past but a new logging policy and an independent audit to back it up have regained some of our trust.

While some might want to opt for a VPN with no controversies to its name, PureVPN is still a good choice for users that need access to content from all over the world (140 countries to be precise) and it’s useful for streaming Netflix and other services too.