In this article, we will focus our full an undivided attention on another commercial VPN provider, one whose owning company is located in Hong Kong and has been running its services for almost 8 years now.
Although we try not to have specific criteria whenever handpicking our VPN services before writing their reviews and running our tests on them, sometimes it’s just not possible.
So, to resume my idea from above, this article in our VPN reviews is aimed at PureVPN. Its name subtly hints at the cleanness of the operation, maybe at the fact that their services are pure and therefore not tainted with any harmful components.
How this VPN will turn out in our tests and review is up for you to see in the following section of our article.
A little detective work first
Before we embark into our data digging and testing journey, we need to give you a little something-something regarding the company that owns the service at hand. The reason why we do this snooping is not random at all: we have to convince you that the service is trustworthy, or the other way around, depending on what we find.
First thing first, PureVPN was created in the year of 2006, in a “cold November morning.” The company behind the project, the ones who created, develop and support PureVPN is GZ System, a company that’s based in Hong Kong.
A year has passed and PureVPN has started offering their services to their customers in a commercial manner by providing them with VPN servers at two different locations. Shortly after they extended their network to 16 locations.
A quick rundown of PureVPN’s timeline
According to their website, in the 2009-2010 interval, they launched their first client for Windows and Mac and, subsequently, their network expanded even more. 2011-2012 was the beginning of their journey in the mobile industry, since they launched Android and iOS applications, thus expanding their network even more.
In 2013-2014 they began pushing improved applications along with add-ons for enhancing the overall usability of their services. These add-ons included a NAT firewall and an Internet Kill Switch, which are critical assets in the VPN business.
Nowadays PureVPN boasts more than 2000 servers that are available in more than 180 locations in more than 140 countries. We’ll make a quick stop on their servers count and their locations later in this article.
How well do they handle their privacy policy
As any other respectable VPN service provider, PureVPN states that they are clearly against any form of violation of privacy and that they don’t keep logs for any activity or sensitive data.
Upon registration, they require that you hand them over some of your personal information. These data bits include your name (needed for registration on their website and for their service), email address (required to create an account and for receiving various offers) and your phone number (this is only required for certain users from specific regions only, so it’s not a must for everyone).
However, at some point, there was a scandal where a “cyber-stalker” was tracked by the FBI by relying on the help of PureVPN, which revealed sensitive information about the culprit, data that was conveniently stored in their logs (source). Are they to trust today? That’s up to you to decide, but back when this incident happened they were also advocating against privacy violation; they had the same no-logging policy and yet they shared it with a Government institution anyway.
Company slip-ups
In 2013, back when they were improving their app and pushing new features for it, active PureVPN users received an email that stated the following: “Dear customer, it is to inform you that due to an incident we had to close your account permanently. We are no longer able to run an anonymization service due to legal issues we are facing.”
Later on, the email was reported as spam and PureVPN confirmed that it was, indeed, a zero-day exploit that targeted a WHCMS vulnerability. They also mentioned that the data that was compromised during the attempted attack consisted of names for a bunch of users but no billing data or Credit Card information was compromised. (source)
As mentioned above, in 2017 a document that was related to the US District Court of Massachusetts showed that, despite their no-logging policy, PureVPN logs the IP addresses of their users, since the FBI was able to get their hands on this kind of information. (source)
The basics of PureVPN
We’ve covered just about anything that needed to be known regarding the company along with their past, their accomplishments and the private data leak incident, now it’s time to talk about their popular service: PureVPN.
Firstly, as its name clearly lets you know, it’s a VPN service provider. As you may probably know, VPN services allow you to anonymize your online identity by routing all your traffic and online activity through a server that they own and control. Therefore, your identity becomes that of the server that you’re connected to.
Now let’s get a little bit technical. Like any other respectable VPN provider, PureVPN provides its users with support for several protocols in their applications. These protocols consist of the popular OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec, and PPTP.
Advanced features
A while ago, PureVPN started to provide its users with additional solutions in order to enhance their online security. These tools were antivirus/anti-malware components, APP/URL content filtering as well as IDS/IPS protection. Trust Pilot rated them well for these features and their user interface but cut back on their rating for issues regarding slow speeds.
The extra features that are bundled within the app include but are not limited to DNS leak protection (critical importance), an Internet Kill Switch that was also mentioned above, split tunneling, IPv6 leak protection, and multiple VPN gateways. It is also worth mentioning that they provide you with unlimited bandwidth and UDP/TCP access, thus increasing the convenience of using such a service.
Retrieving PureVPN to your device
It might feel a bit confusing to download the PureVPN application on your device, since on the homepage there’s no direct link to the setup package, and you have to do a bit of digging before you can successfully identify their location. But that’s why we’re here, so you can follow our quick instructions.
First, you have to purchase a subscription plan, then navigate to their homepage and scroll down to the bottom of their page. On the bottom-left side of the page you will see a list of VPN links listed under the “Products” category. Assuming you’re using a Windows computer, you can move on by clicking the “Windows VPN” hyperlink, which will bring you to a download page.
On the newly opened page, click the “Download VPN” button, which will bring you to yet another page, where you can click the large, green button that suggestively says “Download PureVPN APP” or use the “CLICK HERE FOR OTHER DEVICES” hyperlink to access a list of supported devices and download the app for your favorite device from there.
Note that some operating systems such as Mac or Linux also have a dropdown menu where you can customize your OS choice by either changing the distribution type, the architecture or the version.
Also, if you look at the left side of the window while you’re on the download page, you’ll be able to access a wider section of devices such as routers, gaming consoles, Smart TVs, TV Boxes and miscellaneous devices.
Creating an account and using the dashboard
After you create an account and log into it on the PureVPN website, you won’t be taken directly to your dashboard, but to a section where you can select your PureVPN username and see the current plan and add-ons that are associated with it.
However, clicking the green button in the top-right corner of the screen and hitting the “MY ACCOUNT” button takes you to the dashboard, where you can perform a lot of account-related operations. Some of them include managing your account details and upgrades, view invoices, refer a friend, see the server location list, perform port forwarding, opening a support ticket and, of course, download the apps to the device of your choice.
The “Downloads” section has four different categories, namely “Apps,” “Extensions,” “TV Apps” and “Other Devices” that you can quickly navigate to, depending on your current needs. Some of the devices that are listed there don’t come with native app support, so instead of that, you’ll have to settle with helpful guides on how to configure the service on the said devices.
Installing it is a breeze
For computer newbies, those of you who have a poor computer operating skills or lack any experience with such programs, deploying this tool on your computer will feel like a walk in the park. All you have to do is launch the executable and follow the instructions displayed on the main screen that is meant to guide you step-by-step through the whole setup process.
During the setup, you’ll also be prompted to install a TAP Windows Provider V9 Network Adapter Driver. We just call it a TAP driver. A little word of advice: install the driver (otherwise you won’t be able to use the app), but un-check the “Always trust software from “GZ Systems Limited” option. The reason behind taking this step is that in the event of another breach like the one regarding the email that we talked about above, this “permanent trust” setting can possibly be exploited.
If you’re easily amused, you can sit back and relax while the app gets installed on your PC and ocassionally throws a small joke your way by displaying it on the main installer screen. After the app gets installed, you need to log in with your credentials in order to access it to make use of its capabilities.
Running PureVPN for the first time
If you have the least experience with such tools, you can tell from the start that PureVPN has a whole lot of extra features compared to other similar services.
The greatest proof, in this case, is that after you’ve logged in with your account, you are prompted to choose between five different usage modes, which will greatly affect the usability of this program. It is possible for you to choose from Stream, Internet Freedom, Security / Privacy, File-Sharing and Dedicated IP modes by simply clicking the desired one.
Don’t worry! You can still change it back just as easily by clicking the “Change Mode” hyperlink within the main window. Although what you’re looking at right now (if you’ve made it this far) greatly varies based on what you chose as your usage mode, we’ll try to explain the app in its entirety and also include a bunch of pictures, making things even easier for you. You’re welcome.
Multiple usage modes
A feature that immediately drew our attention is the mode “library,” which lets you choose between various usage modes for the app. We felt the need to dedicate it a whole sub-title.
The “Stream” mode, as its name suggests, tunes the application and makes it suitable for streaming online content. First, you have to choose your favorite location and server from the designated category and then you can choose from a list of channels that stream online contents. So, not only you’re allowed to pick your favorite server, but the application is automatically tuned for best performance based on what channel you want to watch, as well! And there’s a ping test available in the main window as well. Neat!
Coming up next, the “Internet Freedom” mode that lets you unlock the Internet’s various tools for you, some of which might be locked in your region or by your network administrator. After picking this mode, you can go even further as to choose a secondary purpose between VoIP, Social Media, Entertainment Channels (Faster Streaming), Online Gaming, Optimized for China (Alternative), Watch Sports Channels (Faster Streaming) and Watch Zattoo (Faster Streaming). You can pick your favorite modes, which will make them easier to access. The same thing goes with the channels above.
“File-Sharing” lets you activate a feature called P2P protection, which aims to block viruses, malware, and other malicious components from downloading on your computer. However, users might prefer something more privacy-oriented, something like disconnecting if the VPN server drops. You can also filter unwanted web content from this mode.
The “Security / Privacy” module grants you access to a tool called Ozone, which in turn lets you tamper with other settings, which can be simply toggled. These include antivirus, a content filter, IDS/IPS detection and protection, URL filtering and app filtering. The last two features can be further configured.
Last, but not least, you can pick the “Dedicated IP” usage mode, which enables you to pick a favorite protocol from a menu and insert a host name in the designated box. This will turn your IP into a static one, one that you can easily configure from the main window.
Extensive configuration menu
We’ve decided: PureVPN has a lot of features compared to other VPN apps. Although we highly appreciate the extended range of possibilities this number of features gives us, some users might get lost in this “maze.” The good part is that each feature is briefly explained, and the help documentation is always there to aid you if you feel confused.
Since it’s of vital importance to our research, we also analyzed each tiny part of the configuration section of this app, which was pretty rich, to be honest.
Accessibility-wise, it ranks well. In order to access it, you just need to click the gear-shaped button in the main window. This will bring you to the settings section, which spawns a menu on the left side of the screen and displays its contents in the center of the window.
If you’re already here, you probably notice that it has a lot of categories, such as App Settings, Select Mode, Network Type, Advanced Options, VPN Hotspot, Split Tunneling, and Port Forwarding. The rest of them are related to updates, help, feedback, and support.
Configure things the easy way
Starting from the top of the list, the “App Settings” category makes it easy to tamper with app-related parameters by simply toggling them or choosing them from a combo menu. You can reconnect automatically if the connection drops, launch the app on system startup, automatically connect to a private server after launching the app, disconnect the VPN upon exiting the program, ping servers on startup, launch the default browser after connection, set the language and pick your favorite protocol. Pretty impressive, right?
The second in this list is the “Select Mode,” which enables you to choose how you want to use the app, we talked about this in the section above. Nothing complicated here.
The “Network Type” is another part of the configuration menu, but we advise you not to change the default setting here unless you know what you are doing, as misusing this feature might compromise your overall security.
A more complicated side of this menu consists of the settings you can tamper with in the “Advanced Options” category. Here you can enable 256-bit encryption, toggle the exclusive use of PureVPN DNS servers while connected, enable the IPv6 leak protection, set an alert if the VPN or Gravity feature is disconnected, activate the Internet Kill Switch and activate the Multi Port feature. As usual, a brief description of what each option does is available in the window you’re navigating on.
Among the remaining features in the Options menu that you can toy with we can find the VPN Hotspot, which, as its name suggests, creates a VPN-protected Hotspot for wireless devices to use safely, the Split Tunneling feature which grants you control over what apps use your VPN and the Port Forwarding tool that lets you access an Internet-device from anywhere you are.
A list of servers
As stated above, PureVPN boasts 2000+ servers located in more than 140 countries. But let’s find out precisely what those numbers are.
Test routines
As we always did so far, after milking the subject of any relevant information bit we can find, it’s time to run our tests and see how the service stands against security and speed test. That’s what really matters whenever you pick a reliable VPN service. For once it needs to protect your data against any kind of attack, leak or unfortunate event and only after making sure that your connection is airtight you need to worry about speed issues. Because a fast VPN service is worthless if your data is made public every now and then – you might as well use your default connection and ditch the VPN altogether.
Okay, back to business. We are going to use the IPX tool, as we did before, to run a series of tests against PureVPN’s defenses and the fast.com website to see how fast the VPN can go when connected to various servers.
The test results are in!
First, we analyze the security results. The IP address was successfully spoofed, our location was instantly changed to the one we selected from the VPN’s main window (country, city, longitude, and latitude), our ASN was changed accordingly, the ISP just as well, the domain name was purevpn.com and the IP type set to “Non-Residential (Data Center).” So far so good.
A series of information was not available to display, which is a good thing. These data bits included IPv6 geolocation, DNS and Flash IP. The WebRTC Public address was pointed at PureVPN’s server’s address. As usual, we’ll include a link to our test results so you can analyze them and maybe compare them with yours. We actually encourage you to take these tests yourself and compare the results with ours, thus convincing yourself that our reviews and test results are entirely transparent, we’re not trying to cover anything up.
As you can see from the test results, our IP-based timezone was successfully spoofed, but the JavaScript-based timezone revealed our real one, making it a little bit easier for snoopers to pinpoint our country. It’s not a biggie, but some users would prefer having this information covered up as well.
Concerning speed now, we’ve run our speed tests for each region, we picked relevant servers for each region and then ran a test speed on fast.com. The results are as follows, as you can also see in the screenshots:
Asia – 2.5 Mbps;
Africa – 2.0 Mbps;
Europe – 23 Mbps;
Central America – 1.6 Mbps;
North America – 87 Mbps;
South America – 2.3 Mbps;
Oceania – 1.2 Mbps.
The speed is not bad at all, compared with other similar services. The US / North America servers reached the highest speed values during our tests, with an outstanding limit of 87 Mbps, while the lowest speed was reached in Oceania. However, it is not uncommon that servers located in Oceania to score low at speed tests, as tests on other VPN apps have shown.
Let’s talk about the money
First of all, let’s set things straight: PureVPN is not a free service and does not provide you with a free trial whatsoever. You have to buy a subscription plan before you can install and run the application on your computer.
The reason behind making such services not free in the first place is that servers need maintenance and if the service is free, then usually you pay with something else. Usually, free services either harvest your data and sell it to the highest bidder or they install malware on your computer and use it to collect your data, mine for crypto-currency or generally damage your computer.
So it’s really no choice when it comes to choosing between free and paid VPN services. Sure, before you decide to buy an application, it is vital to try it and see if it fits your needs like it should, therefore the lack of any trial from PureVPN might seem a little extreme. What if you don’t like it? What if it doesn’t work on your computer? There are a lot of what-ifs.
In this case, you’ll be glad to know that the company embraces a 31-day money-back guarantee. How does that work? If during the 31-day period you decide that PureVPN isn’t exactly your cup of tea, you can drop it and get your money back. Simple and plain.
Plans and supported payment modes
We’ve agreed that sacrificing a few bucks per month isn’t exactly what you need (although maybe it is what you want) when it comes to keeping your online identity private.
Now let’s talk about the subscription plans PureVPN offers to their clients. First of all, it is worth mentioning that purchasing any subscription plan lets you access the apps from up to 5 devices at the same time. Aside from the already-popular Windows app, PureVPN also supports Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and many other Internet-enabled devices.
If you want to try out their extensions, you can also implement PureVPN in your favorite browser (but only if your favorite browser is either Firefox or Chrome). This can help you extend the functionality of the application and enhance its capabilities even more.
The plans are as follows:
- A 1 Month plan – 10.95$ per month – no savings whatsoever;
- A 1 Year plan – 2.99$ instead of 10.95$ per month – 73% savings but you pay 35.88$ yearly. The next year will be charged at 64.95$.
- A 3 Months plan – 8$ per month instead of 10.95$ per month – 27% savings but the payment is once every 3 months instead of monthly.
Luckily for you, PureVPN has a lot of payment methods, making it possible for virtually any user to be able to process their payment money. These payment methods include:
- Credit Cards: Visa, Mastercard, American Express;
- Paypal;
- Alipay;
- Crypto-curency;
- PaymentWall;
- BlueSnap;
- GiftCards.
Please note that Crypto-currency and GiftCards payments are non-refundable!
The sum of all parts
The last part of our review is our opinion about PureVPN, and while we hope you will draw your own conclusion each time you read one of our reviews, it’s impossible not to throw our two cents on the matter.
PureVPN can be easily installed, its interface is simple enough to be used even by novices, its extensive set of features makes it suitable for both novices and pros, our tests deemed it almost 100% secure (the timezone test revealed our actual timezone) and overall a fast service.
If you’re not one to judge, you might overlook the fact that the company has a data-logging history. However, if you’re really paranoid about your online activity and would prefer a service that has a clean sheet regarding selling or “borrowing” your data to Government institutions, then nobody will judge you.
PROs:
+ Secure environment, no leaks detected; (4)
+ Easy to install and use, even by novices; (3)
CONs:
– Pricey subscription plans; (3)
– Has a data-logging history, despite their zero-log policy; (1)
PureVPN receives a 2.75/5 rating.
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