PureVPN Review 2022 – A Feature-packed Tool With Good Speed And Security

Founded in 2006, PureVPN is one of the oldest VPNs on the market, offering a high-speed and secure connection at a reasonable price. We came across questions like, “is PureVPN safe?,” or how “does PureVPN work with Netflix?” and decided to find the answers.

This Hong Kong-based VPN provider offers many functionalities on a variety of platforms. It has torrent support, and excellent security, and over 6,500 servers in more than 180 locations.

In our PureVPN review, we’ll look into this provider’s features and evaluate them. 

Let’s get started.

Speed

We all want a reliable and fast connection. The truth is, when you’re connected to a VPN, your network speed will drop, at least to some extent. 

With this in mind, we ran a PureVPN speed test, and its performance was average. Before connecting to the PureVPN server, our speed was around 200Mbps.

When using the UK server nearest our office, our download speeds dropped to around 180Mbps, which is an excellent performance.

Then, we moved on to a US server. We saw speeds in the range of 90–150Mbps, which is again above-average performance, although a bit inconsistent. 

In our long-distance tests, when connected to servers in South East Asia and Australia our speed slowed down to a disappointing average of 20–30Mbps. If a fast connection to a distant server is among your priorities you might want to opt for another provider, such as ExpressVPN.

Security and Privacy

Speed should not be the only factor when choosing a VPN. Other important criteria include privacy and security. So is PureVPN safe? Let’s take a closer look.

Encryption

PureVPN uses 256-bit military-level encryption to protect your data. It’s considered unbreakable and is currently the highest standard for encryption.

Security Protocols

PureVPN implements lots of different and reliable security protocols—OpenVPN, IKEv2, SSTP, PPTP, and L2TP. All of them vary in speed, and you are free to pick the one that suits your needs best.

Kill Switch

PureVPN has an automatic kill switch that prevents unprotected data from leaving your network in the rare event of your VPN connection dropping. The feature works on the apps for Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Leak Protection

PureVPN offers DNS, IPV6, and WebRTC leak protection, keeping your personal data, such as real IP address, completely secure.

Jurisdiction

PureVPN has its headquarters in Hong Kong and is outside the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliances jurisdiction, unlike other popular providers, such as Windscribe.

So, can PureVPN be trusted?

Although the provider claims it has a zero-log policy, an incident occurred in 2017 when a man was arrested for cyberstalking. PureVPN provided the authorities records, including his IP address and work. The incident left users worried that this may happen again. 

But since the incident, the company has issued a statement saying it updates its privacy policy. The current management says it does not collect and keep records like IP addresses, assigned VPN server IP addresses, VPN session timestamps, browsing activities, and DNS requests.

Additionally, the provider’s privacy policy has been audited by a security auditing company, Altius IT, headquartered in the US. 

Split Tunnelling

PureVPN allows split tunnelling with its Android and Windows apps. When we turned on the feature, the software gave us a list of the applications, and we just selected the ones that should connect through the VPN. 

It would be nice if PureVPN had this feature on all operating systems. To be fair, it’s hard to find services that have it on Apple devices, as the latest versions of iOS and macOS don’t yet support it. So even industry heavyweights like NordVPN don’t offer it for iPhones and MacBooks.

Additionally, PureVPN has features like SOCKS5 proxy to help you speed up and secure your connection. 

PureVPN Servers and Server Locations

PureVPN has over 6,500 servers in 180 locations spread across 140 countries globally. You can find the PureVPN server list on its official website. Here are the main locations:

• North America: 1,776 servers
• Europe: 2,736 servers
• Asia: 552 servers
• South America: 144 servers
• Oceania: 450 servers
• Africa: 90 servers

There are 567 PureVPN servers in the UK—399 of them are located in London, 147 in Manchester, 18 in Gosport, and 3 in Maidenhead. 

The overall number of servers is higher than most competitors, although it varies greatly from one provider to another. For instance, Private Internet Access has more than 30,000, while IPVanish has around 1,600 servers.

VPN’s Primary Uses

Now that we’ve established how fast and secure PureVPN is let’s take a look at what it can do. 

Streaming

First, we wanted to see if PureVPN could unblock Netflix US on most servers. 

We were pleased to find that PureVPN supports Netflix libraries from the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Japan, Germany, and France.

We tested a few other streaming services, and it proved successful with BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, and Disney+, though with a low speed and a lot of buffering.

Then, we tested it with DAZN through a UK server, and we were able to unblock it. But when linked to a US server, the streaming site didn’t function.

We were happy to discover that PureVPN for KODI runs smoothly.

Torrenting

PureVPN is an excellent option for downloading torrent files.

It has many P2P-specific servers and users get access to unlimited bandwidth, regardless of how you use it. However, it doesn’t have servers with P2P compatibility in the US, Canada, Australia, or the UK, so when using PureVPN torrenting from these locations is slower.

PureVPN stores bandwidth logs to ensure every user gets optimal speed and a smooth experience with the server.

Gaming

PureVPN is also a good choice for gamers. Although it isn’t the fastest VPN in terms of ping or upload/download speeds, it’s sufficient for a lag-free gaming experience. But if gaming is your main reason for using a VPN, you might be better off with another provider, such as CyberGhost.

Supported Platforms

No matter which platform you use, the process of installing PureVPN is simple.

As users move more and more towards mobile internet usage, mobile VPN is becoming essential. 

You can install PureVPN apps on:

What’s more, there’s a Chrome and Firefox PureVPN extension. It functions as a stripped-down version of the apps—you can choose your location, build a bypass list, and connect. That’s pretty much in line with other popular VPNs, like Surfshark.

The latest PureVPN Windows version supports the protocols OpenVPN (TCP and UDP) and IKEv2. 

But here’s the rub: You cannot jump from server to server with a single click; you need to disconnect from the current server first before connecting to a new one. 

PureVPN allows ten simultaneous logs with a single account on multiple devices. 

Mobile Apps

The PureVPN app is available for both Android and iOS devices. In terms of design and features, the iOS app is similar to the Windows version, adopting OpenVPN TCP and UDP, as well as IKEv2 protocols.

The PureVPN Android version has a broader range of features than the iOS one. It has many server modes (Stream, Security/Privacy, Internet Freedom, and File Sharing), split tunnelling, and the option to choose between NAT and non-NAT networks.

Pricing

Usually, VPN providers offer monthly or yearly price rates, and PureVPN is no different. Its price plans vary depending on the length of the period you sign up for.

A PureVPN free trial isn’t exactly free. You’ll be charged $0.99, and after the seven-day trial period passes, you’ll be subscribed automatically to the annual plan.

All of the plans also come with a 31-day money-back guarantee, which is more generous than many.

There are frequent price changes, so be on the lookout for the deals PureVPN offers.

To make our PureVPN review as helpful as possible, we compared this provider’s monthly price to some other popular VPNs:

• CyberGhost: £10.31/mo
• ExpressVPN: £11.13/mo
• NordVPN: £8.22/mo

PureVPN Customer Support

PureVPN has a comprehensive support website with several tips and help-desk manuals.

You can submit a service ticket from the app, but we had an unsatisfactory experience with it. PureVPN support agents politely answered our initial question in about 30 minutes, which isn’t bad. But the advice we got was not very detailed, and our follow-up questions got no response. 

Sub-par customer support isn’t a dealbreaker for VPNs most of the time, but it’s still an important factor. In our experience, your best bet with PureVPN is to use the live chat feature since we got a response in a matter of minutes.  

The provider has a FAQ page on its website, which has lots of helpful information. The PureVPN app has a rating of 3.5 on Amazon out of over 4,000 reviews, which is average. It does a lot better on TrustPilot, where it scores a stellar 4.7 out of more than 12,000 reviews (better than most competitors, including ExpressVPN).

Want to Consider Other Options?

The Bottom Line: Is PureVPN Worth It?

PureVPN is feature-packed and offers top-grade speed and security. The service is perfect for browsing, torrenting, and streaming. 

This VPN falls short in some areas, such as the lack of a free version, unsatisfactory customer support, and some past privacy issues.

Overall, PureVPN is one of the top services on the market, and it provides excellent value.