Pure VPN Review
Pure VPN
Pure VPN
- Quick Summary (TL;DR)
- Features
- Servers & Countries
- Reliability & Speed test
- Pricing & Payments
- Support
- Policies & Logging
- Expert Recommendation
Pure VPN In a Nutshell
PureVPN provides an unlimited VPN Service with 2,000+ servers in 140+ different countries, and it supports all major protocols and devices. The PureVPN software is very easy to use and has tons of great features, including a traffic log chart, auto-reconnection, a kill switch, and split tunneling.
Unfortunately, PureVPN’s customer support is problematic. We’ve contacted PureVPN’s support on multiple occasions, only to receive week-late replies or no replies at all. If you were to have any issues or need to cancel, you’d be out of luck!
The provider’s no-logging policy was also tested (and failed) when it aided an FBI investigation in 2017 (see the Policies & Logging tab). Overall, PureVPN offers great features, but its customer support needs to be improved. If you’re searching for a comparable VPN with excellent support and a more trustworthy privacy policy, check out other VPN providers we’ve tested by clicking on the link below.
Reliability & Speed Tests
PureVPN is faster than most VPN providers we tested. They own their entire network and control their own servers. They have no third parties interferring, and are thus able to ensure fast servers on their own with no outside interference. When connected, you can typically expect speeds with 90% of your maximum without a VPN. This compares well to most other VPNs, and puts them in the upper range speed-wise.
Pricing & Payments
Pure VPN has some of the most reasonable pricing plans that we have seen:
- $3.33 per month on a one-year plan. You will sign up for one year with all payments upfront.
- $8.00 per month on a three-month plan. You are billed in full every three months.
- $10.95 per month, billed monthly.
Features
The Pure VPN software is easy to install. It comes in a configuration for any type of OS or device you care to name, and a few you likely don't even know. The software also has some great features built into it, and they're quite easy to use:
- Antivirus/Antimalware
- Ad blocking
- Internet kill switch
- Split tunneling
- NAT Firewall
- DDoS protection
- Unlimited bandwidth
- P2P enabled
- Ozone
- IPv6 leak protection
- DNS leak protection
- WebRTC leak protection
There are also add-on features that you get to enjoy at an additional cost:
- Dedicated IP addresses
- Port forwarding
- DDoS protection
- P2P protection
These are all great bonus features on top of the essentials like a VPN kill switch, split tunneling, and protection from leaks. PureVPN is one of the most feature-rich providers we’ve reviewed.
Servers & Countries
PureVPN has more than 2,000 servers and 180 server locations in 140 countries worldwide. Below is a breakdown of servers in each region:
- North America: 662 servers
- Europe: 801 servers
- Asia: 321 servers
- Africa: 150 servers
- Oceania: 93 servers
- South America: 84 servers
- Central America: 12 servers
This number changes often, but at the time of this review (January 31, 2019)they displayed these numbers. There certainly is a wide selection of servers that will help ensure that you get a fast and reliable connection. Also, the more server locations, the more exclusive content you can unlock.
Support
We have nothing against PureVPN, but after recently experiencing bad customer support, and receiving complaints from customers in our feedback on the site, we have to rate PureVPN’s support poorly.
We contacted PureVPN in regards to an issue. An automated reply was sent right away, telling us that we should expect a reply within a few hours. We never did. We decided to contact customer support again using our alias (that we used to purchase PureVPN’s service) regarding a similar issue... Silence again! We tried for a third time, this time posing as a potential customer. Bam! A response came right away.
In short, our experience showed that there is customer support. However, it’s only there to sell the company’s service and will ignore you if you have an issue. The logic behind this makes no sense, but this fact alone ruins everything else that was good about this company.
PureVPN support methods
PureVPN have support, when they respond, in these ways:
- FAQs & Tutorials: One of the most extensive tutorial and FAQ sections we've found. If your question isn't answered here, good luck to you.
- Email Support: Email tickets are the primary way of contacting them, and were what we had a serious issue with. Good luck to you if you need to contact them through it as our experience is that they are more sales staff than support staff.
- Live chat: Not to be used for anything serious, can be more trouble than it's worth.
Although the FAQs and tutorials are substantial, there will still come a time when you really need to talk to a real human. Based on our experience, customer support is just not PureVPN’s strength.
Policies & Logging
PureVPN keeps you anonymous and secure whenever you’re online, and it only logs a minimal amount of information. PureVPN logs server connection attempts only to track abuses. It does not log which websites you visit or outgoing traffic.
However, the provider’s logging policy came under fire in late 2017 when its logs helped FBI track Ryan Lin, a cyber stalker who had been harassing and hacking his victims’ accounts. PureVPN’s logs aided the prosecution’s case, leading to the suspect’s arrest.
This incident led PureVPN to update its privacy policy to this:
The provider explained that it only keeps network logs—bandwidth consumption and user timestamps, among others. It doesn’t keep logs that contain any personal information and browsing habits of users. However, the FBI case somehow casts a shadow over PureVPN’s “no logging” policy.
Technical Assessment
Expert Recommendation
We want to recommend PureVPN, as the company is a great option for SSTP (a very secure encryption method). It also offers dedicated IP addresses and a few other awesome features. Unfortunately, we cannot push for a VPN with bad customer support—which is the case with PureVPN—especially to those who are not tech savvy and frequently need help.
We also can’t recommend a provider whose logging policy is dubious. Although we condemn the use of VPNs for criminal activities, it’s still alarming to know that PureVPN can actually help any third party trace a user. They caught a stalker, but they could just as easily aid a stalker of someone who is trying to hide themselves.
There are plenty of alternatives that you’ll find in our Top 10 VPN list (link below). If you absolutely need some of PureVPN’s unique features, we’d say tread carefully as the features are also available on other VPN providers with better customer support.
User Reviews of Pure VPN
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BE AWARE OF THIS COMPANY - I had two problems with purevpn, unable to make connection with selected country and the worst was cancellation. I choose not to renew my subscription, had my replies to emails wanting subscription payment that I did not want the product ignored, found the service cancellation process listed on their website does not exist and continually get emails requesting payment. I pay online with debit card that has $5 balance until I need to purchase something otherwise companies like Purevpn will withdraw payments regardless of cancelled subscription so BE AWARE
Pure VPN is fast and has reliable connections with very few drops over the 7 months i have used them.It is very simple to use and if i can navigate through it with such,considering my limited tech skills i believe anyone out there can.
Their customer support informed me about their 7 day money back guarantee and immediately tried it. Its 5 months since i did that and i obviously didnt get the money back since i love the service. The speeds are superb and i am able to browse play and watch whatever i want whenever i want to.
This vpn is pretty fast if you are using it for streaming purposes like i am. I get my favourite shows and also play PS4 online with my mates back at home.
I love this service because it is very simple to use. I am not very tech savvy and my son helped me set it up since we needed a service that would let us stream stuff. It works great for us.
My third month using purevpn and the experience has been good so far. The speeds are okay and am able to do my work assured of my privacy.
I use this service to stream shows using services that are blocked in the country am working. It does a superb job by increasing my speeds as normally without using this VPN the speeds are too slow to even stream stuff on youtube.
PureVpn has awesome features, i love their Split Tunnelling feature VPN which lets me route some of my devices or app traffic through the VPN while other devices or apps maintain direct access to the internet. Using this i am assured of protection for my browsing without losing access to local network devices.
I have had PureVPN for maybe a year now. Got it for streaming purpose. Most of the channels are working fine. The speed is good as compare to other VPNs.
I have been using PureVPN for an year now. The service is great. The ping is low and there are no lag or buffering when streaming videos. I once had a problem my netflix wasn't working. They were really helpful and helped me to fix the netflix issue. I don't my people are promoting bad word about pure. Nevermind but I can grantee you there no problem with the service and customer support is very friendly.