Along with good server options, the service also provides its users with 24/7 customer support, a 256-bit military encryption, multi-device compatibility, a 31-day money back guarantee and a range of different price plans. All features will be disclosed throughout the review.
**Official website: https://www.purevpn.com
PureVPN is a decent VPN service that offers worldwide coverage and tough encryption for its users. They allow you to connect up to 5 devices and offer specific servers for specific needs.
Pricing and Packages
PureVPN offers pretty average prices, but when I was on the price packages they were offering a 2 year deal for just $3.29 a month, which is one of the cheapest deals I’ve seen. Keeping prices cheap is a great thing when providing a VPN service as price is the main factor that is considered before making the final purchase decision. In addition, PureVPN was not discriminating between packages and no matter what package you chose, you would still receive the same features, which is always nice to know. As with every VPN service I review, the more committed you are to their services, the cheaper you receive it. With PureVPN, this was no exception as they were offering a 2-year deal for just $3.29 a month.
PureVPN has three price plans like most other VPN services but with a slight twist, as there is no 6-month plan. There are, however, monthly, annually and 2-year packages. The monthly package starts at a pricey $10.95 a month with zero savings and then starts to go down as you commit more to their services. The annual plan goes down in price and comes in at $2.95 a month, and then the 2-year plan comes in a very cheap $3.29 which is one of the cheapest prices I have seen as of yet.
Payment Options
Like any good VPN service, PureVPN provides various ways for you to pay for their services. The purpose of a VPN network is to keep you safe when surfing the web, so any good VPN service should also feel obligated to make sure you are safe when purchasing their software. PureVPN does exactly that and offers one of the largest payment selections I have seen.
For starters, it accepts all major credit/debit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, as well as one of the safest third-party applications on the internet – PayPal. PayPal is an incredibly secure way to pay on the internet and allows customers to confirm that they have received the product before they pay. PureVPN also allows a whole host of alternative payments such as Alipay, Bitpay and Cashu. You can even pay with gift cards! As PureVPN allows its customers to pay by bitcoin, this adds a whole other level of security to the purchase, as bitcoin is not traceable and doesn’t link your details to the purchase.
PureVPN Setup and User-Friendliness
Setup was quick and easy and took under 6 minutes. Once you have created an account, you can go to the download screen and choose the correct version to download, which depends on the system you are running. I ran the installation through Windows as that was the system I was running. Once you have clicked ‘download’, a set of instructions will appear on how to install the software. You can decide where the file is saved and you simply have to follow the instructions on the installation. The tutorial was easy to understand and was not complicated at all. Another good thing to note that my computer wasn’t required to restart, which is always a bonus. Once the setup was complete you’ll be greeted with a PureVPN log-in window where you will have to log in with your account details. The windows client was basic but smooth and initially gave me a list of options on how I want to use the VPN. I could either use it from streaming, internet freedom, security, and privacy, file-sharing or remote/keep no logs IP. The great thing about the client is that you do not have to commit to one purpose, but can switch freely whenever you feel like it. I wasn’t able to try out all the features, so I simply tried out the ‘security/privacy’ option.
Upon clicking, you will be greeted with a screen that prompts you to choose your location. There were loads of locations open for me and I was impressed with the global reach. I was surprised to see that no instant connect button would connect me to the nearest and best connection, so I was required to scroll down until I found the UK.
There is also the option to choose from many different encryptions. I was surprised to see so much choice and particularly liked that you could set it to automatic to receive the best security.
Another note to make was that each location told you whether P2P was available, which was a nice addition. Once connected you get a confirmation screen that tells you you’re connected to the VPN and that you are secure. It also tells you what security you have enabled and what you do not.
As for the rest of the client’s features, it had a lot of options. On the main screen, you have the option to view a global map that is fairly gimmicky, and there was also a new VPN hotspot feature that allows you to turn your device into a hotspot for all your other devices and allows you connect up to 5 devices. The settings are also great and let you choose between the different modes available, as well as letting you change a bunch of preferences. The settings allow you to change the way the application starts up, you can modify the encryption and security, enable a kill switch and even turn on split-tunneling to only secure particular applications.
One thing to be noted was that although I had no trouble connecting to a variety of servers, for some reason I was unable to connect to the Hong Kong server. However, aside from the connection problems, the client was great, simple and had several good options that allowed me to modify my experience to what I liked.
Servers and Speeds
As mentioned above, PureVPN has over 2000+ servers in 140+ different countries around the world and in some hard to get places like Egypt and South Africa. This global reach allows users to connect from just about anywhere in the world, letting people bypass all sorts of content filters and have unprecedented access to the internet. Connections to these servers were pretty solid and speedy, but not necessarily the fastest in the industry.
However, I did attempt to connect to the streaming servers and couldn’t seem to connect to anything. Moreover, during testing, I found many DNS and IPv6 leaks that were revealing my location, which was very disappointing, especially since I had DNS and IPv6 leak prevention turned on in the settings! However, on a positive note, you can watch Netflix on this VPN, which is rare.
Compatibility
As all good VPN services should, PureVPN offers the ability to connect to multiple devices at once, 5 to be exact. This should be no surprise since we live in a digital age where we are progressively moving away from laptops towards our mobile devices, and thus needing protection whilst we search on the go. PureVPN is compatible with a massive 50 other platforms including IOS, Android, a range of gaming consoles, Linux and many, many more. No matter what device you have, you’ll probably be good to use PureVPN.
The IOS client was the same as the Windows client and offered the same options. There was also a free version of the app in the app store that non-subscribers could get. The free app also had a range of features but not as many as the subscribed version.
Customer Support
When I was testing the live chat, there was a significant delay in the reply and it took about 10 minutes, which I thought was relatively poor considering they promote 24/7 customer care. The question was simple and I received a fairly robotic answer. Although the support wasn’t terrible it isn’t one of PureVPN’s strengths.
Privacy and Security
PureVPN has a sturdy security system and offers awesome options like no 3rd party activity, Wi-Fi security, and an automatic protocol selection. PureVPN also offers a large range of security protocols such as OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, SSTP, and IKEv2. However, OpenVPN is still the best and safest protocol to use so it would seem silly to choose anything over it.
Also, PureVPN offers AES-256-bit military encryption and SHA-1 data authentication, again, making it very secure. Moreover, PureVPN does not keep any logs on the activity of its users, except for personal logs which they argue are for monitoring user duration and bandwidth. Despite the good security features, we did experience DNS leaks as mentioned earlier so tread carefully when trusting PureVPN’s security. To further add to the security, PureVPN also allows you to buy add-ons for the subscriptions that cost an additional $1.99 a month. These features include a dedicated IP, NAT firewall and DDoS protection.
Free-Trial and Refund Policy
Unfortunately, there was no free trial offered with PureVPN, which is surprising as anything free gives a unique selling point to the software. There is, however, a 31-day money-back guarantee which allows customers to claim their money back if they are not satisfied with the service.
Conclusion
To conclude, PureVPN is a decent VPN service and at the cheap price of $2.99, you can’t complain. The service offers a massive selection of payment options and has a global reach with over 750 servers in 141 countries around the world. Also, the software client is fantastic and is easy to use, offering plenty of options for users to customize and change their security settings to how they like. PureVPN has tight security with military-grade encryptions and various protocols. Despite this, however, DNS and IPv6 leaks were found and my location was being compromised. Moreover, I couldn’t seem to connect to every server, especially when I was trying to stream. PureVPN is a great service, but until they sort their connection and security out it becomes hard to recommend them.
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