PureVPN Review

PureVPN has evaded our best VPN list, despite being one of the largest virtual private network services available. Although its fast speed and low price are enough to dethrone even the toughest of competitions, PureVPN falls short in other areas (read our PureVPN vs. ExpressVPN matchup to see that in action). 

In this PureVPN review, we’re going to run the service through the wringer, testing out its speed, features and more. Along the way, we’ll also touch on its security and privacy, as well as its server locations and price, all before giving our verdict. 

For the price, PureVPN is a good service. The speed is excellent as long as you hunt around for the right server, and the asking price is cheaper than most of its competitors. That’s weighed against its disjointed interface, lackluster support and spotty streaming performance, though. Even so, with a 31-day money-back guarantee, there’s no risk in giving it a try.

If you’d rather just skip to the top, make sure to read our ExpressVPN review. 

Strengths & Weaknesses

Alternatives for PureVPN

Features

PureVPN has a different approach to using a VPN. Rather than simply presenting you with a list of servers, there are multiple modes you can choose between, based on what you want to do online. 

In most cases, those modes simply change the locations you’re shown, but some of them open additional features (for example, the streaming mode lets you connect based on a website). 

Otherwise, the features are standard. PureVPN includes a kill switch that will block your internet connection if the VPN ever disconnects, as well as a speed test that will estimate the latency of PureVPN’s locations. Although the speed test works, we like the look and feel of ExpressVPN’s more.

PureVPN has other features, but only if you pay extra. You can purchase port forwarding, DDoS protection and/or a dedicated IP address, each of which cost $0.99 per month. Although we understand not including a dedicated IP address, PureVPN should include DDoS protection for free.  

Its standout feature is split tunneling, which is included for free. It’s a beta feature, meaning you’ll have to tick the beta feature switch in the application to access it. It works on a per-app basis, allowing you to send some apps through the VPN tunnel while other apps stay on your standard connection.

We’re happy with the kill switch, speed test and split tunneling, though we take some issue with the modes (more on that in the “ease of use” section below). The only missing feature is app kill (read our Astrill review for a service that offers it). That said, app kill is a fairly rare feature, so we’re not docking PureVPN too hard for omitting it. 

PureVPN Chrome Extension

PureVPN offers a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, a fact that’s practically beat into your head while using the application. Like most VPN extensions, it serves as a  stripped-back way to control your connection. You can choose your location, set up a bypass list and, of course, connect. 

Although the desktop application has more settings, we’d recommend using the extension for day-to-day usage (that’s a rarity for VPNs). The streamlined connection process works much better than the desktop application, allowing you to choose your location and connect without worrying about what mode you’re in.

PureVPN Features Overview

Pricing

PureVPN is one of those services that’s always running a deal. You may see different durations and lower prices based on where you look. For the purposes of this review, we stuck with the available durations and prices on PureVPN’s website. Based on our past experience with the service, these are the most accurate.

PureVPN Unlimited GB Bandwidth 10 Included Devices Bitcoin	1-month plan $ 10.95/ month 1-year plan $ 5.81/ month $69.72 billed every year Save 47 % 1-year plan $ 1.65 $99.00 5 years Save 85 %

As a monthly or annual service, PureVPN falls short. Although not overpriced like Hide.me (read our Hide.me review to learn more about that), PureVPN is in line with the rest of the market. If you’re looking for a short duration subscription, we recommend PIA, which offers a year of service for less than $40 (read our Private Internet Access review). 

For those who are looking toward the future, though, there’s no service quite like PureVPN. It’s one of the only providers to allow you to purchase five years upfront, and at a highly discounted rate. Breaking down the math, your monthly cost is around $1.60 when going with the five-year plan, which is a steal.

We have consistently touted CyberGhost as a premiere budget option, as its three-year plan is only $99 (read our CyberGhost review). Based on pricing alone, though, PureVPN wins the battle. Although it falls short in some areas — we’ll get to those throughout the review — the pricing is solid.

PureVPN Trial

If you try PureVPN and decide it’s not for you, you can take advantage of its 31-day money-back guarantee. 

If you’re so inclined, you can also purchase a seven-day trial account for $0.99. You can also access a free seven-day trial by installing the Chrome or Firefox extension. After the trial, you’ll be automatically subscribed to the annual plan. 

PureVPN Lifetime

When conducting our research, we often came across the term “PureVPN lifetime subscription.” A few years ago, PureVPN offered a lifetime subscription to its services for around $70. 

However, when you now land on the “lifetime subscription” page, PureVPN clarifies that it’s the five-year plan. In short, at the time of writing, there isn’t a lifetime option available. That said, PureVPN has offered it in the past.

User Friendliness

Signing up for PureVPN is like joining any other VPN. On the website, there are multiple buttons leading to the checkout page, which asks you for your duration, email address and payment method. Although you confirm payment on this page, there’s still a process to go through to get set up. 

After that, you’ll be brought to a five-part setup process. First, PureVPN asks what you want to use the VPN for, which may seem irrelevant, but isn’t. Based on your answer, PureVPN will recommend which app you should download. 

For instance, those who are looking to stream are recommended the browser extension, while those looking to download are suggested the Windows application. 

Once you’ve made your decision, you can download the application of your choice. While the application is downloading, PureVPN will present you with your generated username and password. 

Both are random strings of letters and numbers, so we recommend using one of our best password managers to store them. Also on this page, you can view a setup guide for your platform, should you need it.  

PureVPN Download

After the download finishes, you’ll have to go through installation. PureVPN asks you on the main screen to agree to its terms and gives you the option to install the browser extension for Chrome or Firefox. There’s also the option to run PureVPN when you log in to Windows. 

Once it’s done, you can log in using the provided credentials. Back on the website, PureVPN asks if you’re connected. If you’re having trouble, you select that you’re not connected and PureVPN will point you toward live chat. Although those who are familiar with VPNs could close out of this signup process, there’s more to see at the end. 

After confirming that you’re connected, you’ll be given your “member’s area” credentials, which are different from your account credentials (annoying, but good for privacy). You’ll have to set your own password, which requires you to go through a “forgot password” process, when a reset link is emailed to you.  

PureVPN Member’s Area

The member’s area looks impressive, but it doesn’t have much going on. That’s not to say it isn’t useful, though. You can upgrade your plan, browse other installers, access the support area and purchase add-ons, such as a dedicated IP and port forwarding. 

You could sign up for a PureVPN subscription and never touch the member’s area. However, it’s still useful to have a central hub to find your account information and support, even if you could piece together the information on your own. 

PureVPN Login

Back on desktop, PureVPN will ask you to log in once you boot up the application. After entering your credentials, you’ll be presented with a list of modes and asked to choose one. 

The modes don’t change anything about your connection. Rather, they change the locations you see first. If you choose the file-sharing mode, for example, you’ll see the peer-to-peer rated servers at the top. 

We don’t mind the modes, but it makes navigating the server list difficult. They’re essentially more confusing filtering options, which makes getting around harder than it needs to be. We’d much prefer an alphabetical list of locations, as well as the option to filter servers based on what they’re rated for, the general location and the latency.  

The whole application mirrors that clunkiness. Once you’ve selected a location, the list will disappear, which is confusing considering the application opens with the server list open. Likewise, the streaming mode includes a feature where you can tell PureVPN what website you want to connect to, and it will automatically find a server and launch that website. However, you can’t find that option on any of the other modes. 

On Windows, PureVPN feels like an accumulation of a lot of ideas that are good in theory but don’t play well when put together. We can clearly see the effort PureVPN is putting in to add new ways to control a VPN, but the ideas aren’t fully realized. A streamlined UI would work better, even if that means dropping some of the features that make PureVPN unique.

Speed

If PureVPN was consistent, it’d easily be one of the fastest VPNs around. It’s not wildly inconsistent — read our NordVPN review for that — but there’s some variance when bouncing around the globe. That said, as long as you use PureVPN with a decently fast unprotected speed, you should be fine.

To keep everything fair, we tested PureVPN using OpenVPN/UDP with AES-256. UDP is rated slower than PureVPN’s recommended protocol — it doesn’t specify what the recommended protocol is — but rerunning the tests on both, our results were mostly the same. We also only tested bare-metal servers.

PureVPN impressed us, maintaining the majority of our speed across North America and dropping only a little when jumping over any major body of water. As we saw when testing for the fastest VPN, though, there are clearly locations that perform worse. In our dataset above, Brisbane stands out. 

The variance isn’t backbreaking, especially if you come in with a decent connection, but it’s still present. One thing that was consistent, though, was latency. PureVPN stayed under 250ms across the board, making it worthy of our best VPN for gaming guide. 

Security

PureVPN uses AES-256 encryption by default, which, as you can read in our description of encryption, is the best stuff around. The protocol it’s paired with isn’t as clear, though. 

PureVPN defaults to an “automatic” protocol, which it claims has the best balance of speed and security. According to PureVPN, the automatic setting will try everything from PPTP to OpenVPN to see what works best for your connection.

The problem is that PureVPN never shows what protocol you’re using, if you’re set to “automatic.” That’s a problem, as you can see in our VPN protocol breakdown. 

That said, it’s not hard to change your protocol, even though PureVPN has some of the options mislabeled. IKEv2, for example, is labeled as “IKEV” in the application, even though the acronym stands for “internet key exchange.” 

Putting the security into practice, we ran PureVPN through a series of tests looking for DNS leaks, as well as WebRTC and IP leaks. On the physical servers, everything was fine, which didn’t come as a surprise. However, on the virtual servers, it was very easy to trace the physical location of the server.

Privacy

PureVPN makes it clear at the top of its privacy policy that it doesn’t keep any logs. Although this claim has stayed intact throughout the lifespan of the company, it’s possible, if not likely, that PureVPN was keeping connection logs in the past. 

In October 2017, PureVPN aided the FBI in stopping a cyberstalker who was using its services. The incident, rightfully so, raised some questions about the privacy policy and what information PureVPN collected. 

In order to shift the public opinion in the right direction, PureVPN sought out Altius IT for an independent audit. The auditors found no evidence of data collection, a fact that was banged over our heads by a PureVPN staff member, who threatened legal action against us for how we’ve previously described this incident. 

Although we’re not impressed by the threats, we’re willing, as always, to let bygones be bygones. The audit showed that no significant logs were kept, so PureVPN gets a pass this round. 

However, it’s not as cut and dry as saying PureVPN keeps no logs. When using the service, PureVPN logs the day you connected and the ISP you used. None of this could be used to directly identify you, though as browser fingerprinting can show, small amounts of information can be used to narrow the field.

The only exception is if you’re using a dedicated IP address (read our best VPN with dedicated IPs guide). Because the address is tied to your account, PureVPN has that on record. There’s no way around that, so there’s no reason to fault PureVPN. 

Even with the collection, the likelihood of anything identifying you is slim. PureVPN only requires an email address when you sign up and offers a number of anonymous payment methods. The no-logs claim is true, and your privacy is safe with PureVPN.

Streaming Performance

PureVPN struggled to break into streaming platforms, despite having a dedicated streaming mode. Using this mode, we connected to websites using the “website search” feature, which should, theoretically, connect us to a server that works for the platform we’re trying to access and automatically launch the website. 

The websites launched, but we weren’t able to stream. Amazon Prime Video and Netflix quickly blocked our connection, though we were able to load Hulu and BBC iPlayer. Again, this testing was done using PureVPN’s recommended location in the streaming mode. Connecting on our own produced different results. 

PureVPN Netflix

Hilariously, when using the “internet freedom” mode and connecting to a U.S. server, Netflix loaded just fine. Amazon Prime Video still detected we were using a VPN, though, so be sure to read our best VPN for Amazon Prime Video guide if you want access to that platform. 

This issue goes back to the modes. Had they not been present, we would’ve been none the wiser on streaming, as using the “internet freedom” mode, the most general of the lot, worked time and again when trying to load Netflix. 

However, the attempt at convenience actually makes connecting more difficult. The streaming mode is unique, but it doesn’t work, making the whole connection process more confusing.

Server Locations

PureVPN has a lot of server locations, which, as we saw in our HideMyAss review, means that some are virtual. Numbers always fluctuate, but at the time of writing, there are more than 2,000 VPN servers spread across 180 locations in more than 140 countries. Most of them are not physical, though. 

Virtual VPN servers allow you to obtain an IP address from a certain location while connecting to a server in a different region. For instance, if you need, say, a Bangladeshi IP address, a server in the U.S. or UK can appear as if it’s in Bangladesh. The problem is that virtual servers are fairly easy to detect. 

There are security concerns when it comes to using virtual servers, too, so it’s nice to see PureVPN distinguish which servers are physical and which are virtual. That said, there are a lot of virtual locations. South America, for example, has a total of 81 servers, but only 18 of them are physical, and all of those 18 are located in Sao Paulo, Brazil. 

PureVPN Server List

The spread of physical locations is decent, though not impressive. Europe has the greatest number of physical locations, followed by North America (though most of the servers are focused in the U.S. and Canada). Nearly every exotic location has a virtual server, including the Isle of Man, Laos and Sri Lanka. 

Although some may take issue with virtual servers, PureVPN doesn’t force you to use them. It’d be one thing if major locations were virtualized, but they’re not. If you have a specific location you’re after, PureVPN can accommodate it with virtual servers. The majority of users will likely be on bare-metal servers, though.

Customer Service

Across PureVPN’s website, you’ll see a small bubble for live chat in the bottom-right corner. Despite it showing up on the main page of the website, whether you’re signed in or not, we couldn’t load live chat unless we were logged in. The member’s area, which shows a different live chat icon, gave us no issues. 

We reached out with a basic question about what the automatic protocol is, and although the representative addressed the question, it was hard to pry a clear answer out of the block of text. What the response lacked in punctuation, it made up for in broken English. Even the most basic question was too much for live chat to handle, as you can see in the exchange below. 

It’s a good idea to stick with the self-help resources, which are much better. PureVPN has detailed setup guides for nearly every platform, as well as VPN use cases and troubleshooting guides. Furthermore, these resources are laid out in an accessible knowledgebase, allowing you to quickly find the support you need. 

As we’ve seen in other areas of the service, PureVPN has disjointed support. The knowledgebase is helpful and easy to use, but direct contact brings up more questions than answers. The support is good if you’re willing to solve problems on your own. Those who need help along the way won’t find it with PureVPN.

The Verdict

PureVPN is a hard service to judge. There are some aspects of it we really like, including the low price, fast speed and easy-to-use website. However, there are a few gaps that are too big to ignore. Support isn’t as good as it could be, and the application, in an attempt to be unique, ends up being difficult to use. 

Do you plan on trying out PureVPN? Are you willing to overlook its shortcomings? Let us know in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.

PureVPN FAQs

• How to Cancel PureVPN

  You can cancel your PureVPN subscription from the member’s area. Doing so will pause your subscription with the option to restart it at any point. If you want to delete your account, you’ll need to contact PureVPN through email.

• How to Use PureVPN

  PureVPN walks you through how to download and install its application after you purchase a subscription. Once downloaded, all you need to do is choose a mode, select a server and click “connect.”

• How to Install PureVPN on Kodi

  You can install PureVPN on most platforms that Kodi supports. If you’re using Windows, for example, you’d install PureVPN on your computer, which would protect Kodi. PureVPN has a list of setup guides specifically dedicated to Kodi, so be sure to check there for your platform.