PureVPN

PureVPN is a fast VPN with mostly positive reviews. It offers strong data encryption, plenty of secure protocols, as well as features for seamless torrenting and streaming, making it a great VPN for media consumption. On the other hand, PureVPN’s critics mention rather inconsistent speed results and mixed security reputation.

However, recently, this VPN has greatly improved in some regards. For example, it became the very first VPN with an Always-On Audit, which means that its security got an enormous upgrade.

Therefore, we put this provider to a big test, and answered all of the main questions. Is PureVPN safe? Does it keep any logs? Can it unblock Netflix?

PureVPN has made it to our list of best VPNs and there are some reasons behind that! Keep on reading our review to get to know more about PureVPN and what it brings to be one of the best VPNs out there.

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PureVPN pros and cons

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Is PureVPN good for streaming?

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While it’s not the best VPN for streaming, PureVPN is able to unlock some geo-blocked content depending on the server you’re connected to. Also, it has a dedicated app for Apple TV, which is a big plus.

And for those who are willing to sacrifice security for a better streaming experience, PureVPN offers a Proxy Control feature. It allows you to access geo-restricted sites but your connection is not being encrypted. Meaning that you may get better speeds by making a tradeoff between security.

Unblocking Netflix with PureVPN

Luckily, I managed to unblock the US library of Netflix on my first try. The VPN also unblocked the Japanese library without a flaw.

Unfortunately, PureVPN wasn’t successful at unblocking the French and German libraries – Chrome simply displayed content from my own country.

Some users even report that Netflix doesn’t load at all when this VPN is in use. However, your experience may vary based on the tunneling protocol, the server used, and your browser.

In case you have trouble accessing this streaming site, you can check out our list of the best VPNs for Netflix.

Does PureVPN unblock other platforms?

I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to unblock BBC iPlayer with PureVPN. However, the connection was incredibly slow and I experienced lots of buffering. This might have been due to a busy server.

I also tried my luck with DAZN and successfully unblocked it with the help of a UK server. However, the streaming site didn’t work when I was connected to a US server.

Unsurprisingly, accessing geo-blocked content from YouTube was a piece of cake, as I have yet to see a VPN that doesn’t unblock this streaming service.

Is PureVPN good for torrenting?

Yes, PureVPN is a decent choice for torrenting. However, keep in mind that not all PureVPN’s servers support it. That’s because the VPN provider has blocked P2P on servers located in countries that prohibit file sharing (the US, the UK, Canada, etc.). Luckily, there are still lots of servers to choose from.

You can see which of them support P2P on the list under the Locations tab.

So, I checked whether torrenting with PureVPN truly works. I had no issues but the speeds weren’t great: it took 25 minutes to download a 5GB Linux installation image, while it only takes 3 minutes without a VPN.

Take a look at this list of the best VPNs for torrenting if you’re looking for better P2P speeds.

Plans and pricing

PureVPN is one of the least expensive VPNs on the market, even beating such cheapskates like Surfshark and Windscribe when it comes to long-term subscriptions.

Get the best PureVPN deal

No matter which PureVPN subscription plan you buy, you’ll get the same features together with the possibility to use the VPN on 10 devices simultaneously (just keep in mind that the VPN’s Terms of Service prohibit sharing your account with other people – even family members).

The best value for PureVPN is there when you purchase a long-term plan. With the biggest savings on a 5-year plan, it’s by far the cheapest option from the ones available. There’s also a 31-day money-back guarantee that lets you change your mind in case you’re not satisfied with the service.

You can also get PureVPN for a single month for $10.95. Taking into account all the other VPNs on the market, this is not an outrageous price for a monthly subscription.

The payment options include PayPal, credit cards, and a variety of crypto currencies like Bitcoin. However, some PureVPN landing pages don’t display the crypto payment option, which is rather confusing.

• Even though PureVPN is already cheap, you can save even more money by using these mouth-watering PureVPN coupons!

Can you get PureVPN for free?

There is no free version of PureVPN. However, there’s the possibility to try out the full service for seven days for only $0.99. This will give you a clear idea if the VPN fits your needs – for example, whether it works with your preferred streaming platforms.

Also, PureVPN offers a 31-day money-back guarantee. So, you will have plenty of time to find out everything you need to know about the service.

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PureVPN servers and locations

With regard to the number of servers, at first glance PureVPN can compete even with the most popular VPNs like NordVPN and ExpressVPN, as it offers 6500+ servers in 78 countries:

There are two types of servers offered by PureVPN. A good chunk of them are physical, which means that they are physically located in the country they appear to be in.

However, a lot of PureVPN’s servers are virtual. A virtual server seems to be located in a different country than it actually is. For example, if you choose to connect to a Bulgarian server, it might be located in Greece. Luckily, you’ll be assigned a Bulgarian IP address anyway. What does it mean for you? Simply put, you can’t hope to get a similar level of performance compared to a physical server.

If you use their Android app, you can also choose one of four modes to filter the servers according to your needs: Stream, Internet Freedom, Security/Privacy, and File Sharing. Besides that, if you don’t find a server in the country you need, you can contact support and request such a server.

Additionally, PureVPN has Quantum-Resistant servers in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. They use encryption keys that are generated using a verifiable quantum process to provide better security and privacy.

You can check out the full list of both virtual and physical servers on the official site of PureVPN.

Connecting to a server

Once you know which country you need, it’s easy to connect to a server using PureVPN. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Click on the little globe icon on the left side of the screen.

2. Choose your preferred location.

3. That’s it! You’re connected.

Does PureVPN work in China?

Most likely – yes, PureVPN should work in China (even though it’s difficult to check this). That is because the Chinese government is highly preventing the usage of VPNs and some servers can get blocked by the Great Firewall.

PureVPN supports the SSTP tunneling protocol, which is usually able to bypass the Great Firewall. In case you’re not happy with the service, feel free to browse our take on the best VPNs for China.

Speed and performance: Is PureVPN fast?

Data period:11.10 – 11.24

	Download	Upload
United States	159 Mbit/s	288 Mbit/s
Canada	217 Mbit/s	391 Mbit/s
United Kingdom	187 Mbit/s	357 Mbit/s

See live VPN provider data on our VPN speed test tool

PureVPN supports the WireGuard protocol, which offers really good speeds. The average download speed was 200 Mbps, while the average upload speed was 210 Mbps.

However, you won’t be able to use certain features when WireGuard is selected, like split tunneling or the dedicated IP option.

In any case, while the speeds aren’t as high as some of the other top VPN providers, such as NordVPN or Surfshark, PureVPN is generally pretty fast. If you want to maximise speed, be sure to choose the server location closest to your actual location.

When using the Windows app, I find it convenient that you can see the ping of every location before connecting to it. In this way, you can find the fastest servers without the need to test them first. Also, while connected to a server, the app shows the current upload and download speed, as well as the tunneling protocol in use.

PureVPN performance with other protocols

PureVPN also showed impressive speed test results with OpenVPN UDP: many locations had low download speed drop-offs. On the other hand, the speed fluctuates quite a bit when connected to the US and UK servers, while the Canadian server speed seems to be more stable.

And with a newly implemented extra security layer – multiport – OpenVPN tunnel automatically connects you to one of the specified ports which eliminates the struggle of a manual setup. Plus, you can connect to several servers simultaneously so you wouldn’t need to disconnect from a VPN to change them.

Nevertheless, IKEv2 was much faster than OpenVPN TCP but also much less consistent. In addition, OpenVPN TCP severely impacted the speeds, making it one of the least effective options for more distant locations.

Here are the average download/upload speeds when using each of the available tunneling protocols (I tested 10 locations in total):

• Baseline: 300Mbps download/300Mbps upload

• WireGuard: 200/210
• IKEv2: 167/12
• OpenVPN UDP: 145/141
• OpenVPN TCP: 37/14

You can clearly see that the speeds with WireGuard are the best from the bunch.

Also, IKEv2 offers a bit better download speeds than OpenVPN UDP. However, its download speeds are far from impressive.

Also, you might have some connection issues when using the IKEv2 tunneling protocol. During my tests, some servers kept disconnecting and I even lost internet access while being connected to the VPN. This really hurt the average speed test scores.

Now, let’s take a look at how the best speeds of PureVPN compare to other fast VPN providers: