PureVPN Review

PureVPN
PureVPN
3 out of 5 stars
3
  • pro
    10 simultaneous connections
  • pro
    Stacks of servers and locations
  • con
    P2P blocking breaks other services
John Brandon
Apr 14, 2022
Icon Time To Read7 min read

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With so many virtual private network (VPN) services out there to choose from, it’s easy to get overwhelmed when it comes to picking the best VPN service for you. Sure, there are the popular picks like household-VPN-name NordVPN or big-name competitor ExpressVPN, but there are other contenders like PureVPN that have their own unique features to consider.

PureVPN has some pretty loud hiccups, but there are still some shiny pros for those seeking a VPN contender.

Our top five VPNs
Info Box

We’re currently revisiting and updating our VPN reviews, but below is our current pick of the best VPN services that we pay the most attention to when cross-referencing features and determining overall value:

  1. NordVPN
  2. ExpressVPN
  3. Hotspot Shield
  4. CyberGhost
  5. PureVPN

PureVPN prices and plans

Of the 13 VPNs we’ve reviewed, you won’t find PureVPN in the top three for cheapest VPN pricing, whether you’re looking at monthly, annual, or multi-year pricing models offered by some VPN providers. But it is the cheapest of our current top five.

The table below breaks down the three pricing options available from PureVPN.

PureVPN prices and contract lengths
Plan
Monthly price
Upfront price
Detail

One-month plan

$10.95/mo.

$10.95/mo.

One-year plan

$5.83/mo.

$69.95/mo.

Two-year plan

$3.33/mo.

$79.99/mo.

Data effective 04/14/2022. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

As is the VPN pricing trend, the more you pay upfront, the better value you get overall. You also get a seven-day trial with the one-year plan, and this one-week trial also can be bought for $0.99 cents if you’re so inclined. That said, PureVPN does have a 31-day money-back guarantee on its plans, so you can use that as part of an extended trial, too, if you don’t mind ponying-up more cash initially. Still, the best value comes from the two-year plan with what breaks down to a $3.33 monthly fee.

Check out the table below to see how PureVPN compares to our current picks of the top five VPNs.

PureVPN price comparison with other VPNs
Provider
Price
Standout feature
Detail
PureVPN

$10.95/mo.

Stacks of servers

NordVPN

$11.95/mo.

User-friendly, speedy connection

ExpressVPN

$12.95/mo.

Blocks ads of your choice on all devices

Hotspot Shield

$12.99/mo.

Incredibly fast performance

CyberGhost

$12.99/mo.

Seven simultaneous devices

Data effective 04/14/2022. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

P4

PureVPN connectivity and user experience

If you’re new to VPNs, PureVPN has a fantastic guided onboarding process, which tells you everything you need to know to get connected. When installing the software on a Windows computer, there’s even a pre-ticked option to install a PureVPN Chrome extension, and it’s great to see that PureVPN supports Windows versions right back to Windows XP.

Once the PureVPN software is installed, it does take a breath to load up, unlike other VPNs we’ve revied that start instantly. When it is open, tap the giant circle button in the middle of the screen to connect, then hit it again to disconnect. It takes about four seconds to connect to a server, and unlike other VPNs, you don’t usually have to wait extra time for your internet connection to catch up. Because disconnection also feels close to instantaneous, it means real-time online services like music streaming weren’t interrupted during our tests.

The PureVPN software shows the location you’re connected to, your current VPN IP address, and your upload and download speeds in relation to the online tasks you’re currently performing. If you were to just click connect, it’d find the best nearest server, but you can also click on the globe icon to find recommended servers, recent locations, and any favorites that you’ve manually starred. This screen also lets you browse locations by popularity or search for them. There’s also a handy support button for quick access to FAQs and live chat (it launches a browser), which is a nice in-app touch.

In terms of locations, PureVPN has the most of our current top five VPNs with more than 140 countries covered. Well, that’s the number that PureVPN claims; it was 118 by my count at the time of updating this review. That’s still a lot – the most out of our top five VPNs – but it’s not quite the “140+” claim.

As for servers, PureVPN is second only to CyberGhost for total number of servers as far as our current top five VPNs are concerned: PureVPN has 6,500+ and CyberGhost has 7,000+ (albeit only in 91+ countries). Even though PureVPN plays second fiddle to CyberGhost for server count, PureVPN is ahead for both the number of servers and countries compared to the other three VPNs in our top five. You can see the full PureVPN server list here. It is a shame that you have to disconnect from a server before connecting to another one on the PureVPN software (not the app), which involves unnecessary clicks.

That’s basically all great news so far, but what’s infinitely less great – particularly because this is meant to be a background companion designed to protect what you normally do online – is how PureVPN doesn’t always play nice with particular sites and services.

Further testing and research suggest that this is likely related to PureVPN’s heavy-handed treatment of peer-to-peer (P2P) services, which includes Slack but also is more commonly connected to torrenting. This PureVPN P2P support page flags US, UK, Canada, and Australia. While this could be seen as an admirable overextension to respect local anti-piracy laws, it does undermine the practicality of treating PureVPN as a background protector that doesn’t get in the way of your usual internet goings-on, including the abundance of legal P2P uses.

After the $0.99 trial period, the cost is equivalent to a more common $6.49 per month (1 year charged upfront at $77.88) —about what you would expect from other powerful VPN services but not as low as the annual plan for Private Internet Access (PIA), which works out to only $2.85 per month.

PureVPN number of devices

PureVPN takes out another top spot in comparison to its top-five peers by offering the most simultaneous connections for a single account. While most VPN services are going to struggle to compete with the unlimited simultaneous connections offered by Surfshark, PureVPN blitzes its nearest competitors by allowing for 10 simultaneous connections. Compare that to the seven on offer from CyberGhost, the six from NordVPN, and the five apiece for ExpressVPN and Hotspot Shield.

Below is a list of devices that officially support both the PureVPN app and manual configuration:

  • Windows
  • Mac
  • iOS
  • Android
  • Linux
  • DD-WRT routers
  • Kindle
  • Amazon Fire TV
  • Amazon Fire TV Stick
  • Kodi

While there are a lot of expected devices in the app-supported list above, it’s great to see some love for devices like Kindle. And below is a list of devices that officially support PureVPN manual configuration only:

  • Linksys routers
  • Asus routers
  • Belkin routers
  • Tomato routers
  • TP-Link routers
  • D-Link routers
  • MikroTik routers
  • Sitecom Gigabit routers
  • Sabai routers
  • TRENDnet routers
  • Blackberry
  • Nintendo consoles
  • Boxee box
  • Google Chromebook
  • pfSense
  • Microsoft Surface
  • Synology NAS
  • Freebox
  • Blu-ray players
  • Sonos
  • Siemens
  • Asus DSL
  • Raspberry Pi
  • PlayStation 3
  • PlayStation 4
  • Chromecast
  • Xbox
  • Xbox 360
  • Xbox One
  • Unroad Home
  • Bell
  • Nvidia Shield
  • Buffalo
  • Apple TV
  • Apple Time Capsule
  • LG smart TVs
  • Western Digital Live TVs
  • Panasonic TVs
  • Android TVs
  • Now TV Box
  • Samsung TVs
  • Toshiba TVs
  • LG Smart TV upgrader box
  • Roku

As you can likely tell from all the scrolling it took to reach this bit of text, that’s a lot of supported devices. Thankfully, there are configuration guides for a lot of these devices on this PureVPN support blog.

PureVPN speeds

Because of how a VPN works, there’s no getting around the reality that your total connection speed will be slowed when using one. Depending on the VPN service, download and/or upload speeds will be partially or greatly impacted, while latency – the overall responsiveness of your connection – tends to take the most noticeable hit. The table below is reflective of speeds achieved with a Superloop NBN 100/40Mbps Fibre-to-the-Curb (FTTC) connection when I tested PureVPN during the middle of the day (using Speedtest.net, and you can test your internet speed here).

PureVPN AU and US server latency and speeds
VPN server
Download speed
Upload speed
Latency

No VPN

93.78Mbps

37.51Mbps

5ms

AU VPN

87.46Mbps(~7% difference)

35.44Mbps(~6% difference)

6ms(~17% difference)

US VPN (recommended)

57.41Mbps(~49% difference)

9.35Mbps(~75% difference)

295ms(~98% difference)

US VPN (manual, closest)

62.30Mbps(~34% difference)

20.21Mbps(~46% difference)

191ms(~97% difference)

In terms of speeds, PureVPN fares well in terms of connecting to Australian servers (Sydney was the recommended server). Latency effectively remained unchanged with acceptable percentage differences for download and upload. It starts to fall apart when connecting to other international servers, though.

Strangely, PureVPN’s recommended US server was in Phoenix, which bucks the trend of my recent tests that tend to default to a server that’s closer to the US West Coast. Connected to this server, it’s no wonder that the latency, as well as upload and download speeds, had massively noticeable percentage differences compared to the Sydney-based PureVPN server.

PureVPN streaming

One of the use cases for a VPN is stepping around geo-blocked content, which is handy if you don’t mind running the risk of having your account banned (read the Ts and Cs) for a chance at streaming content from the US or other regions.

Below is a table detailing how PureVPN fared in my tests for the popular US and Australian streaming services that have a knack for sniffing out VPN connections.

PureVPN performance with popular streaming services
Service
ExpressVPN compatible?
Buffering speed
Netflix

Yes

Fast

HBO Max

Yes

Fast

Hulu

Yes

Fast

Peacock TV

No

N/A

Data as of 04/05/2023. Offers and availability vary by location and are subject to change.

Netflix, Max, and Hulu worked great with PureVPN, but Peacock had issues. While the webpage would load and trailers played in the background, clicking play on watchable content resulted in a VPN error. This was consistent across a handful of US servers I tested Peacock with. 

The next table grabs the hefty 34% best-case download difference for connecting to a PureVPN US server and applies it to the average typical evening download speeds (TEDS) for NBN providers across available fixed-line NBN speed tiers. The three columns on the right show how many simultaneous streams can be run on a single account for popular US 4K streaming services. Because Hulu has the option to upgrade to unlimited streams, it doesn’t tap out at the max limit of Netflix or HBO Max.

PureVPN speeds for popular 4K US streaming services
NBN speed tier
Average NBN TEDS
CyberGhost TEDS
Netflix 4K(25Mbps)
Hulu 4K(16Mbps)
Max 4K(25Mbps

NBN 12

11.42Mbps

7.54Mbps

Too slow

Too slow

Too slow

NBN 25

21.45Mbps

14.16Mbps

Too slow

Too slow

Too slow

NBN 50

45.17Mbps

29.81Mbps

1 stream

1 stream

1 stream

NBN 100

86.67Mbps

57.20Mbps

2 streams

3 streams

2 streams

NBN 250

212.10Mbps

139.97Mbps

4+ streams

8 streams

3+ streams

NBN 1000

337.50Mbps

222.75Mbps

4+ streams

13 streams

3+ streams

P6

PureVPN extras

One of the bigger selling points of PureVPN is its commitment to its zero-logging policy, which effectively means the company’s dedication to your anonymity is aligned with the protective purposes of VPN software. PureVPN backs its zero-log policy so much that it’s established an always-on audit policy, meaning it can be audited at any time.

There’s a wealth of information and options inside your PureVPN login. This member’s area has typical account information, but it also has easy access to port forwarding, the help desk, as well as apps, and PureVPN browser extensions. Clicking on ‘Other Devices’ provides blog guides for connecting specific devices, even if some of these are just a blanket guide for connecting via a router.

Another big tick for PureVPN is it provides inbuilt protection against viruses, malware, botnets, and spyware, which is great for additional peace of mind and also sets it apart from competitors.

PureVPN vs. other VPNs

In terms of pricing, PureVPN is at the top of our current VPNs for monthly pricing, and also has competitive pricing if you fancy an annual or biennial subscription. PureVPN’s server count is second only to CyberGhost (6,500+ vs 7,000+) in this comparison, but it effortlessly has the highest server count. Even if it’s not quite 140+ by my count, it still easily clears the 94 on offer from the next nearest top-five competitor (ExpressVPN).

If you want a VPN that covers all or a lot of your critical devices, PureVPN’s generous 10 simultaneous connections offer greater versatility than a lot of other VPNs and all of our current top five. The auditable zero-log policy provides great peace of mind, while the VPN-level antivirus and anti-malware offer great security that other VPNs do not.

PureVPN would be a proper top-three contender if it wasn’t so aggressive with its anti-P2P steps that get in the way of regular internet usage on US and Australian servers in particular. None of the other VPNs that I’ve tested have this issue. It also doesn’t help that PureVPN is one of the slowest VPNs in our recent tests.

Should I buy PureVPN?

This is a tough one. On one hand, PureVPN has many admirable features, including 10 simultaneous connections, a robust zero-logging policy as well as VPN-level antivirus and anti-malware. It also covers a lot of countries and has a stack of servers. On the other hand, the P2P blocking on US, Australian, UK, and Canadian servers make PureVPN less of an invisible protector and more of a frustration whenever it blocks regular internet activity.

PureVPN isn’t the fastest or most consistent VPN, but if you want a VPN that offers a lot of devices with servers in 140+ countries, it’s worth considering.

John Brandon
Written by
John Brandon
John Brandon is an Editorial Lead at Reviews.org covering TV apps, services, and devices. He also covers the VPN market currently. He has a long history as a journalist and author. His articles have appeared in many magazines including Wired, Popular Mechanics, FoxNews.com, Inc. Magazine, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Relevant Magazine. His hobbies include disc golf, reading books, and watching obscure Netflix documentaries. Contact him at john.brandon@reviews.org

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