PureVPN Review

PureVPN has a less-than-perfect history when it comes to the logging of its users’ data, and its reputation has suffered. But we’ve noticed that it has been undergoing a clean up act ever since, removing all but what it considers essential logs and moving its headquarters to the British Virgin Islands, where there are no data retention laws at all.

Improvements have been made, but more can be done. Examining PureVPN’s current privacy policy, it’s clear that it still logs too much data.

Compared to top no-logs VPNs like NordVPN and Private Internet Access, this is a lot of unnecessary information to be logged.

When we asked PureVPN why it considers this data important and whether it runs the risk of exposing users, we were told it was for the benefit of customer experience and strong connectivity.

PureVPN played down the risk to privacy with the suggestion that your activity is linked to a pool of users, not an individual. We were told:

“…we rely on obscurity to reduce the chances of linking a user with a specific activity. Instead, each activity can be linked to a pool of users which gives the users plausible deniability.”

Plausible deniability is not the same as a strictly zero logs guarantee. Compared to a VPN like Private Internet Access, which has had its no logs claims proven after server seizures, PureVPN has some catching up to do.

However, the lack of specific information goes a long way to making your activity harder to identify and we appreciate PureVPN’s transparency reports that include statistics around intellectual property complaints and legal authority requests. Reassuringly, at the bottom of each is the disclaimer that:

“PureVPN has been unable to comply with these requests as it does not maintain or log any data of its users’ online activity.”

Although, none of these transparency reports have been updated since December 2021, which should be rectified.

Always-on Audit Policy

PureVPN has elected for an always-on approach to auditing. This means that KPMG International Limited can conduct a surprise audit of PureVPN whenever it pleases.

KPMG has already twice performed audits of PureVPN and confirmed that it follows what’s stated in its privacy policy. However, as PureVPN collects some data, this is not quite the same as saying it’s a “no logs” service.

We wanted to read these reports for ourselves, but we discovered that they haven’t been made public. While PureVPN quotes praise from both reports across its website, it doesn’t link directly to them.

Most VPNs do this when audited, so we’d like PureVPN to do the same.

Who Owns PureVPN?

PureVPN operates under the umbrella of the corporate conglomerate disrupt.com.

Disrupt owns Gaditek, a Pakistani company that also runs Ivacy VPN. It’s becoming increasingly common for multiple VPN providers to be owned by larger parent companies as the industry matures and consolidates.

But we don’t like that Gaditek owns and runs four VPN review sites, which it uses to promote its own products. It also has a history of generating fake social media profiles to promote its products.

PureVPN is fast. We tested it locally and on a variety of overseas servers and it recorded fast connection speeds on both.

PureVPN is still lagging behind the fastest VPNs, but its recent speeds are quite impressive. We recorded PureVPN’s speeds when connecting to a server in the same city as us (London, UK). Check out the results:

As a general rule, any VPN which loses less than 10% of your normal internet connection is doing a good job.

Long-Distance Speed Results

Even when connecting to the far side of the world, like the US, Japan, and Australia, PureVPN delivers very good speeds.

We recorded a speed loss less than 50% connecting to the US and Japan. This may seem a sizable drop, but for such a long distance connection it’s actually fast. Australia fared worse, but we still recorded up to 29Mbps from our UK base – a respectable score.

However, PureVPN doesn’t rank with the very fastest VPNs on long-distance speeds. For example, PIA only loses 15% when connecting to New York, and ExpressVPN only 17%. This is why PureVPN speed scores fare worse.

Which PureVPN Protocol Is the Fastest?

PureVPN is fast, whichever protocol you’re using. But we ran tests on them all of its protocols so you can compare and contrast the average speeds below:

As you can see from the results, WireGuard performed the best on every connection except for the US. In this instance, IKEv2 performed better. Based on this, we recommend using WireGuard almost all of the time.

With this in mind, it’s odd that PureVPN makes IKEv2 its automatic protocol. Not only is it slower, it’s actually less safe than WireGuard.

PureVPN produces mixed results when it comes to streaming.

Positively, the VPN works with BBC iPlayer and DAZN Canada. It’s also one of the VPNs that can still unblock Hotstar.

PureVPN can also access Netflix Japan, Canada, Italy, and France. However, this is nowhere near the 32 Netflix libraries Windscribe unblocks.

Furthermore, PureVPN struggles to work with popular US streaming platforms. It fails to unblock US Netflix, and can’t bypass Hulu’s VPN blocks.

Here is a list of all the streaming services we test VPNs for and how well PureVPN does:

• All 4 (UK)

• Amazon Prime Video (US)

• BBC iPlayer (UK)

• DAZN (Canada)

• Disney+ Star (UK)

• HBO Max (US)

• Hotstar (India)

• Hulu (US)

• ITV Player (UK)

• LINE TV (Taiwan)

• Netflix Germany

• Netflix UK

• Netflix US

PureVPN does not list optimized streaming servers like CyberGhost and others do, so you’re left to guess which servers work. Some do and some don’t.

For example, at the time of testing the UK London server did not work to unblock BBC iPlayer, but the Manchester one did. Likewise, we only managed to unblock HBO Max after testing a number of US server locations.

PureVPN comes with a number of P2P servers optimized for file sharing, but they only make up around half of the network. As a result, some regions suffer. For example if you live in the south of Africa, your nearest torrenting server is in Angola – potentially thousands of miles away.

PureVPN delivers an average torrenting speed of 8.9MiB/s. For context, the best-rated VPNs for torrenting, like IPVanish, record an average bitrate of 9.9MiB. PureVPN’s torrenting speeds are very good, but could be faster.

We’re more worried about PureVPN’s imperfect privacy policy, past logging controversies, and flawed kill switch. This could lead to an accidental exposure of your real IP address, and anonymity isn’t guaranteed.

On top of that, port forwarding isn’t included as part of the regular PureVPN subscription package, meaning torrenters looking for faster speeds suffer.

VPNs like ExpressVPN don’t include port forwarding, either, but others like PIA do. Ideally, users will be given the choice.

There are better, more trustworthy VPNs for torrenting out there.

All the Best Protocols, but Some Connection Issues

PureVPN lets you connect via four security protocols: IKEv2, IPSec (macOS and iOS only), OpenVPN (TCP or UDP), and WireGuard. We’re pleased to see PureVPN scrap a range of outdated protocols, too, getting rid of L2TP and PPTP.

While there isn’t much customization available via settings, PureVPN does include some toggle options, including Connect to Fallback . This automatically switches to another protocol if PureVPN struggles to find a reliable connection.

Unfortunately, this happens far too frequently, mainly when you’re not using the automatic protocol. Our preferred protocol is WireGuard, due to its mix of performance and security, but we experienced connection problems when using it and PureVPN tried to get us to switch to lesser protocols IKEv2 and IPSec.

When testing PureVPN’s iOS app, we were unable to establish a VPN connection entirely (Error Code 408) without using its automatic protocol. This makes all other protocol options redundant.

The automatic protocol on macOS is IPSec and IKEv2 on Windows. This is confusing as the two are traditionally combined, with IKEv2 providing authentication while IPSec provides the encryption.

PureVPN uses IPSec as a standalone protocol. But this is particularly outdated. It has even been suggested that IPSec is a compromised protocol.

We’d like to see OpenVPN or WireGuard be made the automatic choice. This way, VPN newcomers who don’t know or care about protocols will still be using the best.

Does PureVPN Actually Encrypt Your Traffic?

We wanted to see whether PureVPN actually protects your data transfers. We ran it through a tool called Wireshark that gets under the hood to inspect packets of data.

As you can see in the screenshot below, when connected to PureVPN our data was converted into a random assortment of nonsense and nothing is visible in plain text.

This means that PureVPN effectively encrypts your traffic to make it indecipherable to snoopers.

This is a great result, and it isn’t surprising as it uses AES-256 encryption, which is considered the best.

PureVPN also employ “Quantum Resistant Encryption Keys” (QR Servers) across a number of servers, which PureVPN claims offers increased security and increased resistance to hacking attacks. This is only supported on the UDP protocol and on these server locations:

• Australia – Brisbane
• Australia – Melbourne
• Australia – Perth
• Australia – Sydney
• Canada – Toronto
• Germany
• Netherlands
• Singapore
• UK- London
• US – New Jersey
• US – California

Does PureVPN Leak Your Data?

We ran PureVPN through more tests to see if it leaks your data. The results were all positive.

PureVPN did not leak IPv4 or IPv6, DNS, WebRTC, or geolocation data.

You can test PureVPN, or any other VPN, yourself by using our VPN leak test tool.

Failed Our Kill Switch Tests

It’s great that PureVPN has included a kill switch, but thanks to our unique kill switch test tool, we’ve discovered that it’s not guaranteed to hide your IP address should your internet connection fail.

Our tests show that PureVPN won’t hide your IP address when you change server location. It is also exposed after you reconnect to the internet following an unexpected disconnect.

A great VPN kill switch will ensure that your IP address is never accidentally exposed, including when changing servers. VPNs like Mullvad, Mozilla VPN, and PIA all achieve this.

To be fair to PureVPN, it warns about this whenever you go to change your server – which is more than many other VPNs. But it’s still a flaw.

While the kill switch works to cut your internet connection when you experience a sudden VPN connection drop, you should bear our findings in mind when using PureVPN.

PureVPN Extra Features

PureVPN is nowhere near as comprehensive a security package compared to VPNs like Surfshark or Windscribe, for example. It doesn’t have a VPN ad blocker and there’s no Double VPN. But you might appreciate its simplicity.

It comes with a few features worth highlighting, but you can see a complete list, and which devices they’re available on, further down this page.

Port Forwarding Costs Extra

Port forwarding is not available on PureVPN’s standard payment plan.

It’s such a useful feature for torrenters, capable of greatly increasing download speeds, that charging extra for it really is a shame.

Although it’s common for a VPN to charge extra for a dedicated IP, like PureVPN does, it’s not common to charge extra for port forwarding. Some VPNs don’t have it, but many do: like PIA.

A Stripped-back Approach to Security

Beyond the features highlighted, there’s not much else to PureVPN’s security package. Since its new apps, PureVPN has actually reduced customization and moved towards an automatic approach.

Most checkboxes have been removed and it automatically enables 256-bit encryption and IPv6 leak protection. This will increase usability for less experienced users, but if you’re a more advanced VPN user you might prefer a technical VPN like Astrill or Windscribe.

We tested PureVPN on our virtual Shanghai server to see if it can get around Chinese web censorship. It cannot.

PureVPN was quickly detected by the Great Firewall. We couldn’t even login. Only by using another VPN could we get access to our PureVPN account. This makes PureVPN completely redundant as a VPN for China.

It’s more likely to work in countries with less robust censorship blocks, and PureVPN’s diverse server network comes in useful here. But we don’t recommend it, as there are better VPNs to bypass Russian censorship.

PureVPN has invested resources into obfuscation technology, but only for OpenVPN protocol and it’s unclear whether it uses Shadowsocks, Obfsproxy, or SoftEther.

Disappointing Live Chat

PureVPN has 24/7 live chat support — because it isn’t maintained by humans. It’s difficult to get in touch with a real person and response times are slow.

Bots are rarely helpful and, what’s worse, you can only select from pre-selected categories. If none of your queries fit the ones listed, it’s not obvious what to do.

As you can see in the video below, we had to go through a series of prompts before an automatic support ticket was sent. At no point is the option to chat to a human made available.

To speak to a support agent, you should type ‘get me a human’ in the live chat. But we waited 15 minutes for someone to attend to us, and then a further 25 minutes for a reply to our first message. Sometimes our queries were completely ignored.

You’re best going straight to generating a support ticket or sending an email. The speed of response isn’t ideal, though; we sent an email at 14:21 and received a reply at 20:07 – around six hours response time.

This is disappointing as PureVPN used to have online support agents working around the clock.

Extensive Online Resources

Most impressive is PureVPN’s online support center. There are guides and walkthroughs for almost every conceivable scenario. It’s one of the best help centers we’ve seen.

There are hundreds of step-by-step walkthroughs (complete with images, although some need updating) for every platform and process you can imagine. For complex issues, this is your best way of finding a solution.