PureVPN Review 2023

PureVPN has been around since 2007 but has recently been making big changes in its service to compete with the top VPN players in the market.

For instance, in 2021, it became the first VPN to have an always-on audit process. This means that the provider can be surprise-audited at any time to check for any stored user logs. Such a move is important to establish users’ trust in the company because, back in 2017, PureVPN shared data logs with the FBI to aid the arrest of an alleged cybercriminal.

We tested out this VPN on key aspects to help you decide if it’s worth using despite past blunders. Is PureVPN safe? Can PureVPN unblock Netflix? Where are its server locations? And is it now actually trustworthy? We’ll answer these questions and more in our full PureVPN review below.

PureVPN: A Short Review

After spending over 14 years in Hong Kong, PureVPN relocated its headquarters to the British Virgin Islands in 2021. This was part of its initiatives to enhance user experience, as the British Virgin Islands provide a privacy-centric legal environment for VPN operators.

Furthermore, PureVPN has established a clear no-logs policy and undergone audits by Altius IT and KPMG to win customers’ trust. However, its privacy policy shares that it still keeps some connection logs of non-personally identifiable data, such as your bandwidth use and consumption. Your online activity stays invisible so you can safely browse the net as you like.

In our tests, Pure VPN unblocked American Netflix but did not work with Dutch Netflix. We also could not unblock other services like BBC iPlayer. Moreover, the speeds were unreliable and quite slow at times.

PureVPN also offers special P2P servers for torrenting and works well with clients like BitTorrent, but the slow speeds might hinder the process.

PureVPN allows ten simultaneous connections and has apps for all the major platforms and devices like Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, Android TV, and more. However, some features such as split-tunneling are limited to Windows and Android apps only. PureVPN also has browser extensions for Google Chrome and Firefox.

Subscriptions start from just a couple of dollars a month for a two-year subscription. However, the price increases after the initial subscription period ends. You can take advantage of a 31-day money-back guarantee to try out the app and get a refund if you don’t enjoy the service.

All things considered, PureVPN achieves an overall score of 6.5 out of 10 in our evaluation. Read the full review below for the details.

Specifications PureVPN

💵 Price	From $2.08 per month
📱 Operating systems	Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, Windows
💻 Connections	10
💳 Payment methods	Other, Credit card, Cryptocurrency, PayPal
🔒 Protocols	IKEv2, Wireguard, OpenVPN
📥 Torrent options	Torrenting allowed
📅 Money-back guarantee	31 Days
📋 Logs	Connection Logs
🎬 Works with

Deal

Signup for PureVPN for 2 years at only $2.08 per month!

Visit PureVPN

Speed – How Fast is PureVPN?

It’s normal for VPN encryption to lower the regular speed of your connection — but it should still provide a seamless and lag-free online experience. With that in mind, we gave PureVPN a 3 out of 10 for performance.

Here are the main points to keep in mind:

• PureVPN is quite slow, especially on distant servers.
• The speed drops were very noticeable during regular day-to-day operations.

Speed test results for PureVPN

For this PureVPN review, we tested its Windows app from the Netherlands. We used our speed without the VPN as a benchmark and compared it to PureVPN’s performance on various servers.

Please note that your speeds can differ, based on your region and internet connection. The table below should just give you a general idea of our experience with PureVPN.

With that out of the way, here are the actual results of when we tested PureVPN.

As you can see, our speeds simply plummeted with PureVPN, especially on distant servers. It’s not even close to the fastest VPNs out there. Many of the locations provided highly unstable results, as well. For example, the PureVPN server in LA gave us 0 Mbps, 61.16 Mbps, and 19.59 Mbps in a span of two minutes. So, we had to deal with slow performance paired with inexcusable inconsistency.

The automatic server selector was also disappointing since we couldn’t even connect to the recommended option. Every single one of our numerous attempts was met with an error or endless loading.

Our upload speeds didn’t suffer as much (except on very distant servers) so we could see PureVPN as a decent tool for upload-hungry operations like securing your Twitch streams or video conferences.

The connection times during this VPN speed test were excellent. Apart from the Netherlands, we were able to connect to all other servers in just a couple of seconds. Admittedly, this doesn’t mean much when you have to deal with debilitating speed drops.

Speeds during daily use

PureVPN is not ideal for daily use. Even regular browsing was plagued with severe lag and many pages didn’t load at all. Naturally, watching YouTube clips and Netflix shows was a rough ride from the start.

Torrenting was a mixed bag, depending on the server we were testing at the time. We also wouldn’t recommend using Pure as a gaming VPN. The speeds are just too inconsistent and you’ll be losing games left and right due to framerate drops and frequent disconnects.

The overall experience was rather disappointing. As such, we would always recommend going with lighting-fast options like Surfshark instead of PureVPN.

Safety – How Secure is PureVPN?

The main purpose of a VPN is to anonymize your browsing and keep your personal info hidden at all times. In order to do that, it has to encrypt your online traffic, hide your real IP, and maintain a zero-logging policy. PureVPN’s current security setup gets it a 7 out of 10.

Here are our main takeaways about its overall safety:

• PureVPN supports OpenVPN, IKEv2, and WireGuard protocols.
• This VPN service maintains a good privacy policy without any dangerous logging.
• PureVPN comes with an automatic internet kill switch.
• You can purchase several security-oriented add-ons with your subscription.
• During our tests, we didn’t experience any data leaks.
• The registration process requires only your email and payment method.

Protocols

PureVPN currently supports three VPN protocols:

• OpenVPN (TCP/UDP): The most popular VPN tunnel out there. It’s known for its excellent speeds and security and should be ideal for most VPN users.
• IKEv2: Very popular among mobile users due to its excellent reconnection and network-switching capabilities. It’s also less CPU-hungry than OpenVPN.
• WireGuard: In our opinion, this tunnel is the future of VPNs. Its speeds and security are comparable to OpenVPN but its codebase is much smaller. This makes it more difficult to hack and exploit.

You can pick the VPN protocol manually or let the client choose the best option for you. Note that the TCP and UDP options refer to OpenVPN. If you check “Connect to Fallback,” PureVPN will use the next best VPN protocol when you are unable to connect using your preferred option.

The VPN encryption will depend on your chosen protocol – OpenVPN and IKEv2 use the AES-256 cipher while WireGuard employs ChaCha20. Using ChaCha is also a lifesaver for older devices that can’t support AES hardware acceleration.

Logging and privacy

PureVPN is owned by a company called GZ Systems Ltd., which is based in the British Virgin Islands. It was headquartered in Hong Kong for 14 years but the team decided to move in 2021.

The BVI has no mandatory data retention laws and is outside of the Eyes alliance, which makes it a pretty VPN-friendly location. ExpressVPN, one of the top VPN providers, is also headquartered there.

PureVPN revised its Privacy Policy in 2018 and became a zero-log VPN company. It doesn’t record any harmful info that could identify you or trace your online activities back to you, such as your IP addresses.

At this point, PureVPN’s logging policy was audited by Altius IT in 2019 and KPMG in 2020. Both reports painted PureVPN as a no-logging service. In 2021, the company adopted a so-called “always-on audit policy,” which means that KPMG can perform surprise audits at any time without prior notice.

The main information logged by PureVPN includes your email address, password, and payment method. In other words, the credentials provided during your account creation. The company also monitors your total bandwidth spent while using PureVPN.

It also keeps records of all the correspondence you have with the company, such as through customer support. However, none of these logs are particularly worrying from a privacy standpoint.

Kill switch

A kill switch is a security feature that automatically cuts your internet access if you lose your VPN connection. This prevents your IP address and other information from leaking out.

The PureVPN Windows app and Mac app come with an automatic kill switch, which was enabled by default for us. This can be confusing for beginners who might have no idea why their connection is failing.

Does PureVPN leak your data?

During our testing for this PureVPN review, we didn’t see any dangerous data leaks. Our ipleak.net test only showed data pertaining to the PureVPN servers we were connected to at the time.

PureVPN’s official website also features some nifty tools, including an IP checker and tests for DNS, WebRTC, and IPv6 leaks.

What information does PureVPN need?

To create a PureVPN account, you will need to provide the following information:

• Email address
• Payment info

For complete privacy, you can always create an anonymous email address and buy your PureVPN subscription with crypto. We advise against using credit cards since you’ll have to provide a lot more info, including your name.

Usability – How User-Friendly is PureVPN?

PureVPN is a beginner-friendly service with some advanced features that cater to power users. Our experience during preparation for this PureVPN review earned it an 8 out of 10 for usability.

• The website is well-designed and easy to navigate.
• The promotional pop-ups became quite annoying after a while.
• The PureVPN installation process is quick and easy.
• Its apps are simple and beginner-friendly.
• The pricing of this VPN provider is reasonable.
• The customer support team is easy to reach and very helpful.

PureVPN’s website and installation process

The PureVPN website is well laid out and easy to navigate. Right in the center of the homepage is a button to get PureVPN, which redirects you to the pricing page. At the top, there’s a menu to browse different aspects of the VPN and get more information.

Once you’ve chosen a subscription package and created your personal account, you can click on “My Account” in the top-right corner and pick the “Members Login” option. This will grant you access to your personal dashboard.

This client area is a bit of a mess, though. It’s clogged with promotional offers instead of offering a clean and streamlined center of operation. Having said that, your personal dashboard allows you to manage your account, check your subscription, download apps for your devices, upgrade your plan, and much more.

PureVPN supports all major platforms and devices, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and VPN routers. It also provides an Android app, iOS app, and even an Android TV app. It also offers browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox.

We primarily tested the PureVPN Windows app for this review. Here’s how to install it:

1. Go to PureVPN’s official website.
2. Pick a subscription option.
3. Sign up with your chosen credentials.
4. Download the installation file for your device.
5. Wait for the PureVPN app to download.
6. Click on the downloaded file to start the installation.
7. Follow the on-screen instructions.
8. Log in to your PureVPN client with your chosen username and password.

Note that you can also download the PureVPN app without creating an account beforehand. However, this doesn’t make much sense since you won’t be able to use it until you go through the steps described above. You’ll get this screen and will have to create an account anyway.

After your purchase, you’ll also get your first email from PureVPN. It contains a useful setup guide that can help beginners hit the ground running with this service. Power users will most likely just ignore it.

However, this will be just the first email of many. You’ll start getting messages from the support team, promotional emails, and much more. In your personal dashboard, there’s an option to block this if you don’t wish to receive such materials from PureVPN. However, this button did absolutely nothing, in our experience.

PureVPN can support up to 10 simultaneous connections, which is quite generous. This will meet the needs of most VPN users out there, including entire households.

PureVPN’s appearance and ease of use

PureVPN features a very simple and beginner-friendly user interface. It does have some advanced options but beginners will have no trouble finding their way around.

The main window is practically empty, save for the prominent on/off button in the middle. Naturally, there’s a promotional offer right underneath it. Once you connect, though, you’ll see information about your current location, your assigned IP, and total traffic. There’s even an option to rate your connection quality.

Clicking on the globe icon on the left will open up the PureVPN server list. Here, you can browse all the locations, check the recommended server, create a list of favorites, and see recent locations.

The “Settings” menu (the cog icon in the bottom-left corner) branches out into:

• General settings: Allows you to enable the automatic app launch, kill switch, connection notifications, ping values, auto-updates and select a language.
• Protocol: It lets you choose a VPN tunnel.
• Split tunneling: Allows you to customize your split tunneling preferences.

PureVPN supports 12 different languages. This is an okay selection that should cover most of the VPN user base.

Split tunneling

Split tunneling lets you allow trusted apps to access the internet directly (without VPN protection). Note that PureVPN only features split tunneling for apps, not websites. If you want the so-called “URL split tunneling,” we recommend going with CyberGhost instead.

You can easily create a list of apps that won’t be able to go online without VPN protection. For example, you never want to let uTorrent do its thing without a VPN backup.

Split tunneling is an excellent addition that allows you to avoid unnecessary encryption when using trusted apps. It also helps with online banking apps since you won’t be accessing them with different IPs, which can cause suspicion.

Pricing and payment methods

PureVPN seems like a pretty cheap VPN if you go for a two-year plan, but the downside is that the price changes after your initial subscription period ends. Below is an overview of the subscription options:

• 1 month: $10.95/month (billed $10.95 every month)
• 1 year: $3.24/month (billed $38.88 every year)
• 2 years + 3 months free: $2.08/month (billed $49.95 for the first 27 months)
• Family Plan: $16.95/month (billed $16.95 every month) – allows you to add up to five family members to your network

Every purchase comes with a 31-day money-back guarantee, which means you can try the service and get a full refund if you’re not satisfied within a month’s time. However, note that crypto payments cannot be refunded.

There are a few networking add-ons available for an extra fee, as listed in the image below, namely dedicated IP and port forwarding.

Lastly, you can boost your “basic” subscription with two security add-ons as well. Namely, you can purchase PureKeep password manager, PurePrivacy social media security & privacy enhancer, and PureEncrypt file encryptor.

When it comes to payment methods, PureVPN accepts the following options:

• Credit cards (VISA, MasterCard, AMEX, UnionPay)
• PayPal
• Cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum)
• Regional payment methods (WebMoney, QIWI)

As always, we recommend buying a VPN anonymously with Bitcoin. If you don’t have that option, PayPal is the second best method. We advise against using credit cards since you’ll be volunteering quite a bit of personal data.

Customer service

It’s vital for a VPN to have good customer support so that any technical issues you run into can be resolved quickly. It’s easy to reach the PureVPN customer support team through 24/7 live chat or email. The support agents are adequately knowledgeable and helpful.

You can access the customer support team through your PureVPN app, personal dashboard, or the official website.

The PureVPN website also has an extensive support page with information covering the setup process and troubleshooting the most common issues. A handy FAQ section helps you find quick answers to your questions. You can also open a support ticket, and the PureVPN team will get back to you and help you out.

Server Network – Can PureVPN Unblock the Internet?

PureVPN has an extensive global network, which is bigger than those of some of the best VPNs. Such a sizeable network should help avoid any server overloading issues and offer fast and stable speeds.

Unfortunately, as we described above, PureVPN is quite slow despite its numerous servers worldwide. It still gets an 8 out of 10 for its current setup.

• PureVPN has over 6,500+ servers across 70+ countries.
• Most of the servers are physical, but there are a few virtual servers, as well.
• PureVPN can unblock Netflix US but no other streaming platforms.
• Torrenting is allowed, but there are no P2P servers in some western countries.
• Dedicated IP addresses are available at an extra cost.

Number of servers and locations

At the moment, PureVPN has 6,500+ servers spread across 70+ countries and 90+ locations. This is a good server network, which makes PureVPN’s poor performance even more puzzling.

You can access the full list of PureVPN’s servers through your client. You can also see a list of individual VPN servers, which is not something many VPNs offer. Every server has a ping indicator, which can be turned off (an unnecessary option, in our opinion).

As you can see, PureVPN also offers something called “Quantum Resistant servers.” Allegedly, these servers come equipped with special encryption that should be able to resist quantum computers developed in the coming decades. In other words, they serve no practical purpose today and feel a bit gimmicky, in our opinion.

You can always check the availability of each individual server on the official website.

To get an idea of PureVPN’s server list, see below for a list of PureVPN’s server locations.

• Africa: Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa
• Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Brunei, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Oman, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE, and Vietnam
• Europe: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom
• The Americas: Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexica, Panama Puerto Rico, and the United States
• Oceania: Australia and New Zealand

PureVPN is transparent about the locations of its virtual servers. Unfortunately, they are not marked in the client and there’s no way of differentiating them from their physical counterparts. When you connect to one of these virtual servers, you are assigned an IP address from the country of your choice but your traffic is routed via a server in another country, which for PureVPN is the United States.

PureVPN and streaming (Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, BBC iPlayer)

PureVPN unblocked American Netflix but the slow speeds caused problems in loading and streaming videos. We did not have any luck unblocking other regional versions of Netflix like Dutch or French Netflix.

We were further disappointed that it didn’t work for other streaming services, such as Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime. So, despite the affordable price, PureVPN is not a good option if you want to bypass geo-blocks to stream content. We recommend going with a reliable option like NordVPN instead.

PureVPN and torrents

PureVPN supports torrenting and has special servers set up for peer-to-peer (P2P) file transfers. However, none of these P2P servers are located in major western countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, or Australia. So if you’re in any of these regions, you may have a slow torrenting experience. You can also opt for port forwarding for faster torrenting at an additional charge per month.

Dedicated IP

PureVPN offers dedicated IPs as an add-on feature for $2.99 per month. This is an anonymous IP address that a VPN exclusively assigns to you. So, you are assigned this IP each time you connect to the VPN. The advantage is that you can enjoy higher speeds and reliability due to less congestion.

But using a dedicated IP address also has a downside. Since you won’t be randomly switching between different IPs, all your activity can be traced back to your dedicated IP, which might pose a security risk.

Our Experience with PureVPN

PureVPN is quite decently priced but unfortunately, it simply does not perform well. We were disappointed with its slow speeds and inability to bypass the VPN-blocking technologies of most streaming services. It also worked only with American Netflix — and the slow speeds hampered the experience.

Although it supports torrenting, speed can be an issue here, too. So, it’s not really useful as a VPN for torrenting. This is a shame because otherwise, the VPN service does pretty well in terms of security and privacy. It has overhauled its image after disclosing user logs to authorities in the past.

Today, PureVPN has been audited and does not record any personally identifiable user data. Moreover, it uses the best encryption standards and security protocols to keep you anonymous online. The apps are also pretty easy to use and are available on almost any platform.

We would love to see PureVPN improve its speed and features to truly compete with the best VPNs out there.