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General Overview
PureVPN has been around since as far back and 2007, which why we are not surprised by their claims of having 2000+ VPN servers in 180 locations. In addition, the service claims to offer an array of protocol choices, DNS support, IPv6 leak protection, and torrent support. Other features include a smart kill switch, Bitcoin payment, split tunneling and the ability to connect up to five devices. Though our question and the question many people have asked us is how good is the service in real-world use? That’s exactly what we’ll attempt to answer in this review.
Special Features
Streaming Support: PureVPN makes an extra bit of effort to unblock websites like Netflix and Hulu for Australians. It supports streaming with specific apps which means that you can use the Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu app for instance to stream content. In most cases, the streaming worked perfectly, but there were exceptions like when we tried using the BBC iPlayer app. Besides if one server does not support streaming the content you want, switch to another there are more than enough to go around.
Supports Many Payment Methods: While not a unique feature in itself being able to support numerous payment methods ensures that everyone can use the service. However, what’s interesting is that PureVPN supports paying for the service using Bitcoin, which is a cryptocurrency and can’t be traced to a user. That’s, in addition, to support for Credit Card, Alipay, gift cards, PayPal, etc. in addition to 150 other payment methods via the paymentwall platform.
Dedicated apps for various platforms: Pure VPN has dedicated apps for iOS, Windows, Android, Mac, Linux and even extensions for Firefox and Chrome. It is also possible to install PureVPN on Android TV, Kodi, Firestick and various routers.
Privacy & Anonymity
Privacy and anonymity are one of the biggest concerns for people who use VPNs. PureVPN has over the years made a big deal of their so-called zero logging policy which meant that they didn’t record your online activity. Though the small print always said that they did log some stuff including your connection time, incoming IP address and the bandwidth used.
The company has since addressed this in a blog post saying that it didn’t keep complete logs like browsing history and so they aren’t doing anything in violation of their own privacy policy. However, it does not amount to having zero logs. Plus, many people may not be comfortable with PureVPN logging and storing their real IP address which can be traced back to the ISP and its location which in other words means that their privacy isn’t great. Though it is possible to remain anonymous online when using their service except for perhaps from the authorities.
Pure VPN Speed and Performance
PureVPN may boast of blazing fast connection speeds, but in our experience, they are nothing to brag about. While better than the slowest services they still aren’t amongst the best. On average Australians will see a 20% drop in speed when connecting to a server on the Australian continent like New Zealand. Though the further they go from there the speeds will slow down exponentially. For instance, our connection to the US was 35% slower; Japan was 40% slower. Some European servers didn’t work but those that did slowed down our connection by 45%.
Ease of use (Desktop and Mobile)
PureVPN, for the most part, is easy to use across mobile and desktop devices. Though the mobile version of the software limits users to a handful of features which are just one tap away. On the desktop app though you can drill down into more advanced features and choose things like the encryption algorithm and connection type.
Pure VPN Servers and Locations in Australia
While the company boasts of having over 20 servers in Australia, we could only see 4. Now that could be because those servers were down or maybe because the company removed them and that figure wasn’t updated on the website.
Customer Support
The interesting thing about the support link is that it does not take you to the website but instead opens up a support section from within the client. Here users can open a support ticket. But in most cases, the support isn’t very helpful, but they are certainly polite.
Those in a hurry can use the live chat option on the website. It takes around 5 minutes to connect with a live person. However, most responses were canned and the suggestions weren’t much help beyond reinstalling the software or to download it again. We suspect that like us many users who find themselves needing assistance will be frustrated with the support.
Value for money
PureVPN does offer a pretty long list of features. However, in practice, few of these features can be used. The slow speeds, unhelpful support and the fact that their piracy policy is very elastic lead us to state that they are not providing good value for money.
Our Verdict
PureVPN comes with many powerful features rivaling its highly rated and well-reviewed competition but for a competitive price. However, our experience during the time reviewing the service shows that all of these don’t work as you’d expect it to. There are usability, support and server issues to deal with for the most part. It is perhaps for people who can put up with flexible privacy standards, slow speeds, and low-quality customer service in exchange for a low price. We suspect that most people will cross PureVPN off their list of considerations mainly because they don’t want to deal with the frustration of slow internet speeds.
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