PureVPN review: All of the basics, but lacking an X-factor

PureVPN in brief:

• P2P allowed: Yes, on some servers
• Simultaneous device connections: 10
• Business location: British Virgin Islands
• Number of servers: 6,500
• Number of country locations: 78
• Cost: $12.95 per month, $47.88 for 1 year, $51.36 for 2 years, or $129.60 for 5 years

PureVPN is a service based out of the British Virgin Islands—formerly Hong Kong—that comes with a clean interface, broad server network, and large feature catalog. 

The service might not offer any novel or revolutionary technology, but it tries to make up for this by striving to perfect the basics: privacy, security, and accessibility. I put the service to the test to see if it can stand out in a saturated market and whether it’s worth your time and money.

Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best VPN services for comparison.

What are PureVPN’s features and services?

PureVPN allows up to 10 simultaneous device connections. This is likely enough for most people, however there is a growing trend among top providers to provide unlimited simultaneous connections and that would’ve been more ideal.

The service currently offers a total of 6,500 servers to choose from across 78 country locations. That’s quite good for any VPN, and is one of the best reasons to choose the service over other competitors.

Unfortunately, unlike other services such as Windscribe Pro, which offers only physical servers, some of PureVPN’s server locations are virtual. VPNs typically employ these virtual servers in countries or regions where it would otherwise be difficult to safely maintain a physical server—think countries like China and Russia. Virtual servers are a kind of stopgap measure to offer these country locations without the physical infrastructure.

Thankfully, PureVPN listened to its users and recently decided to scale back its use of virtual servers. While there isn’t anything inherently wrong with virtual servers, they are sometimes known to have reliability and speed issues compared to physical servers.

A highlight of PureVPN is that it offers broad platform support including Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, Linux, browser extensions, and smart TVs. This, and its large server network seem to be the biggest draws for the service.

Sam Singleton

When you first open the Windows app you’ll encounter a pleasing white-and-purple user interface with a simple Connect button in the middle and a list of options on the left. It’d be a very slick interface if not for the addition of a side menu on the right unnecessarily serving you a bunch of upgrade recommendations.

This type of upselling is actually one of my biggest gripes with the service. Not only can you seemingly not get rid of these recommendations, but the service also bombards you with marketing emails once you sign up. I personally counted eight unwarranted emails within the first few days of using the service. But I digress.

Back on the home screen, along the left side rail you’ll find options for server locations, as well as (upgradable) data removal, dark web monitoring, and password manager tools, and the Settings menu.

Sam Singleton

Under the Settings menu there are personalization options along with standard VPN features. These include a kill switch to block internet traffic in the event of an accidental disconnection, auto-connect features, and an ad- and tracker-blocker. Here you can also change the connection protocol and enable split-tunneling, which allows you to pick and choose which apps you wish to run through the VPN and which to keep separate.

That is about the extent of what is on offer for Standard plan users. Pretty cut and dry as far as VPNs go. I can’t say that I feel like I’m getting a lot of value for my money with the Standard plan considering it’s around the same price as other top VPNs such as NordVPN and ExpressVPN that offer way more features. 

Sam Singleton

It is worth noting, though, that PureVPN does offer a plethora of add-ons for various fees. There are the options for a dedicated IP, Port Forwarding, a dedicated server, residential network, and additional simultaneous device logins. You can also choose to upgrade to the Plus or Max plans if you’d prefer to have extra security features such as a password manager, data removal, or dark web monitoring.

How much does PureVPN cost?

PureVPN’s pricing is convoluted to say the least. Not only are there three different plan tiers, but also four different contract lengths to choose from: month-to-month, 1-year, 2-year, and 5-year. Then once you finally decide on your plan, you’ll be offered a bevy of extra services that you can add on for extra fees. Those who love customization will revel in the options, but those who want simplicity are likely to come away feeling overwhelmed.

The service offers Standard, Plus, and Max tiers. The Standard plan provides just the VPN and tracker blocker. The Plus plan adds a password manager in addition to those. Then the Max tier adds additional access to a data removal service and dark web monitoring.

PureVPN’s Standard plan costs $12.95 per month, which is more expensive than most premium VPN services. The Plus plan jumps sharply to $17.95 per month and the Max plan is $19.95 per month.

Thankfully, the service offers all of these plans for steep discounts if you opt for long-term subscriptions instead. The Standard plan drops to a much more reasonable $47.88 for one year at $3.99 per month, or $51.36 for two years at $2.14 per month. PureVPN also offers a 5-year plan but the Standard plan monthly rate curiously increases a bit, with additional savings only available on the Plus or Max tiers at this term length.

PureVPN accepts payments via credit card, PayPal, Bitcoin, and some other cryptocurrencies.

How is PureVPN’s performance?

When testing a VPN’s speeds I measure connection speeds across its servers in different countries all around the world and then compare them to my baseline internet speed. I carry out these tests across multiple days to establish a more consistent average.

PureVPN’s speeds overall performed well. Testing with WireGuard connections produced the best results where the service was able to manage 61 percent of the base download speed. Upload averages were even better with an impressive average of 79 percent of the base speed.

While these speeds were done over the WireGuard protocol, testing other protocols did slow down the connection to varying degrees. Regardless, I recommend that almost everyone use WireGuard as their default protocol for the best speed and security anyways.

These results put PureVPN into the top half for speeds of all VPNs on the market. Users should find that they’ll have no issues with everyday browsing or streaming, and high speed torrenting or video chats should also work well while connected.

When it comes to unblocking streaming content, PureVPN is a mixed bag. I found that even with the recommended streaming servers—listed under Shortcuts in the locations menu—I still wasn’t able to consistently access the sites they claimed to work with. For example, when trying to access Netflix U.S., I used the recommended server but was still met with the dreaded “connection blocked” screen.

However, some of the other recommended servers unblocked streaming sites without a hitch. I even found that random PureVPN servers not specifically recommended for streaming could successfully unblock streaming sites. So all in all, the VPN’s unblocking capabilities felt very hit-or-miss and as a result I can’t truly recommend it for streaming.

How is PureVPN’s security and privacy?

Sam Singleton

PureVPN offers three protocol options: IKEv2, OpenVPN (both TCP and UDP), and WireGuard. It also provides a feature called Connect to Fallback which, if turned on, will automatically connect to a different protocol should the original protocol connection fail to connect.

While this feature seems like a good idea, I believe that users should always opt for WireGuard and I don’t particularly like the idea that a VPN would change the connection to a less secure protocol without a user knowing it. The potential issue here being that PureVPN might rely on this as a quick fix rather than a last resort. Regardless, this feature can be turned off, which I recommend.

The app comes with a kill switch that will block all internet traffic in the event that your VPN accidentally disconnects. My kill switch tests found that the feature worked as intended, successfully blocking my internet when I needed it. 

Also, DNS leak tests showed that while connected to PureVPN’s servers, there were no leaks of my original IP address. 

In regards to PureVPN’s privacy policy, there are a few concerns. In the past, PureVPN caught some flak for cooperating with law enforcement. While the intentions were good in this instance, it doesn’t bode well for a VPN company in the business of user privacy to be breaching that trust.

Additionally, according to PureVPN’s Privacy Policy, the service collects individual timestamps, dates of last connections, and individual bandwidth usage. However, the service does maintain a “no-logs policy” and it does not collect browsing activity, customer IP addresses, or identifiable connection logs, among other things.

I do appreciate that PureVPN has undergone two independent audits on its no-logs policy in recent years. Unfortunately, it has yet to publish either of those audits publicly which is curious considering it’s common practice for most other VPN services.

Sam Singleton

PureVPN provides regularly updated Transparency Reports detailing outside data request statistics. It also promotes what it calls an “always-on” approach to auditing where outside security auditing firm KPMG can conduct surprise audits of PureVPN without any prior notice—although beyond the two audits I mentioned previously, it doesn’t seem like they’ve been taken up on this offer.

PureVPN has recently relocated from Hong Kong to its new homebase in the British Virgin Islands. This is good news as there are no mandatory data retention laws in the British Virgin Islands, nor is it a member of any international data sharing alliances such as Five, Nine, or Fourteen Eyes.

Is PureVPN worth it?

PureVPN is a worthwhile, if slightly underwhelming, VPN service that provides the basics for an affordable price. It has seemingly grown leaps and bounds in recent years, expanding its server network, improving its speeds, and updating the interface. It should also be commended for moving in the right direction to absolve itself of any privacy concerns.

That all being said, I feel like there are other services out there that offer better value for the money and provide more consistent streaming unblocking capabilities. It isn’t a bad VPN, and there is an argument to be made that it could suit novice users well, but other services do the same things better.

Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article.