PureVPN 2023 Updated Review | Is It Secure?

  • By: Kevin
  • Date:
  • Time to read: 7 min.
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PureVPN is a VPN company whose headquarters are in the British Virgin Islands that offers both a broad and a privacy-focused VPN service. The company has all of the necessary characteristics to keep you disguised and untraceable. This updated PureVPN review will lead you through all the essentials of a good VPN that will help you make the right decision. 

How Safe Is PureVPN? 

PureVPN is a very secure VPN service. It employs AES-256 encryption and provides dependable tunneling techniques such as OpenVPN. 

Protocols for Encryption and Tunnelling

Apart from PPTP, an obsolete and insecure protocol, nearly all of PureVPN’s tunneling protocols provide AES-256 encryption.

The current industry standard for encryption is AES-256, used by the US government, military, and businesses dealing with sensitive data. The intricacy of the encryption and the large number of possible key combinations that it hard to be cracked 

PureVPN supports a variety of tunneling protocols as well. They all differ in terms of speed and security, and you may choose the one that best meets your needs from the settings screen.

Logging 

PureVPN, in general, poses some concerns but also provides some solutions. Overall, it’s a decent no-log VPN for anonymous browsing.

Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands both have data retention regulations that are sympathetic to privacy. On the other hand, many customers were unsure whether China’s pressure on the city would make PureVPN a less desirable option.

These reservations have all but vanished since the most recent changeover.

Second, PureVPN has already demonstrated its ability to leak personal data to authorities. In 2017, the business helped the FBI apprehend an alleged cyberstalker by handing over his logs. They were able to link two of the criminal’s email addresses to the same IP address.

PureVPN changed its privacy policy as a result of this occurrence to recover its users’ trust. They claim that IP addresses, allocated VPN server IP addresses, VPN session timestamps, browser activities, and DNS requests are not collected.

Their privacy policy has also been audited by the auditing companies Altius IT and KPMG.

Always-On Audit

PureVPN just revealed that it would be the first VPN provider to provide an always-on review. Their agreement with KPMG International Limited stresses the auditing firm’s ability to undertake a complete surprise audit with no advance notice. 

The message is clear: audits can happen at any time. Therefore your personal information is always safe.

Unlike most other VPN providers, this one does not agree on a set inspection day and time. This means that before the inspection, a service will not be able to be cleaned up. 

It guarantees that the VPN you’re using is safe and that the audit results haven’t been tampered with. It’s a significant step toward making the company’s day-to-day operations more visible.

KPMG recently reviewed the service and found no evidence that the company was not adhering to their no-logs claims. In the future, there will be more checks. KPMG will make these reports public.

With the VPN’s streaming profile, your connection is designed for high-speed streaming. You can increase your encryption. However, this will cause you to slow down.

For the majority of popular websites, PureVPN also has dedicated servers. 

If you wish to unblock a specific website, go to the server selection page and type in the URL to get a list of servers that will let you access it.

PureVPN is our choice, Join Now and Save!

Why PureVPN Is Best For Protocols

PureVPN has many protocols to choose from, allowing it to support a wide range of devices. While it’s understandable that the most recent protocols are the most secure – and hence the most usually suggested for VPN use – not every device you’d like to connect to your VPN can handle newer protocols like PPTP (Protocol).

With PPTP, IPSec, L2TP/IPSec, OpenVPN (TCP), OpenVPN (UDP), and SSTP protocol options on most OS systems and devices, PureVPN is a fantastic solution for multi-device support. 

You might be able to connect some of your older or less compatible gadgets with the option to utilize up to 10 devices simultaneously with one subscription. 

Pros:

  • You can connect up to ten devices at once.
  • A third-party audit backs up the no-log assertions.
  • A dedicated IP address, port forwarding, and P2P protection are among the advanced features.

Cons:

  • During the testing session, there were a few small geolocation difficulties.

Usability 

The most basic capabilities are ready to use right away when you start using this VPN. We like how the dashboard displays live upload and download speeds, so you can better understand what to expect from each network once you’ve connected. 

These features make it simple to create a list of favorite sites that you may save for later. If you have problems connecting to a preferred network for any reason, the program will automatically select the most appropriate protocol. 

If you have trouble connecting to a preferred network for any reason, the software will fall back on the next-best alternative. Because there is no map function, you’ll need to know the location’s name to find a server there.

Alternatively, you can connect to a new server by scrolling through the list of available alternatives.

We have a full guide on how to set up PureVPN on the phone here

Here is a full video tutorial on how to set up PureVPN in 2023.

How Fast Is PureVPN?

Speed is an important part of any VPN, and PureVPN’s performance was mixed. In user daytime tests on a 600Mbps  connection, there are excellent speeds of 190-250Mbps.

That’s seriously competitive with some of the fastest VPNs. In a 75 Mbps connection, It averaged around 64-65 Mbps, which is perfectly serviceable.

How Good Is PureVPN for Streaming And Torrenting?

PureVPN works nicely with Netflix, allowing you to access a variety of libraries with ease. It can also unlock Disney+, which is often considered one of the hardest nuts to crack.

PureVPN is quite capable when it comes to torrenting VPN performance. Split tunneling, NAT firewall protection, and reasonable download speeds are all included.

How Good Are PureVPN’s Desktop Apps?

Before we get started, it’s important to note that the findings below were obtained with an earlier PureVPN app version. Newer versions are now available, and we’ll cover them in our next round of testing.

After you’ve signed up with PureVPN, you can choose from a variety of apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android, as well as extensions for Chrome and Firefox. 

That’s all very typical, but what’s impressive is the additional support for specialty devices like Roku, routers, PlayStation and Xbox, Fire Stick, and a slew of others.

Stream, Internet Freedom, Security/Privacy, File Sharing, and Dedicated IP are the five modes available while using Windows software. However, choosing one is a bit of a challenge because, aside from the title, there isn’t much advice on which is better for which activity. 

You can find more information on the site, but we’d prefer to see it without having to look for it.

There’s also manual configuration, so you may choose your protocol and other choices – and you’ll have access to OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP, SSTP, and IKEv2 on that note. But there’s no WireGuard yet.

There are a few quirks – split tunneling has been in beta for quite some time – and the in-app assistance is poorly developed and incomplete. The gist is that PureVPN HQ has a lot of wonderful ideas but not enough staff to put them into action.

Some people encountered a variety of issues when using the product. If the app cannot connect using your preferred protocol, it will switch to another and continue until it establishes a connection – never informing you of this. 

Users observed that you set the app to ‘encryption: optional’ in the settings, which is concerning. So, in the worst-case situation, you might think you’re safe and secure, but you’re utilizing the antiquated PPTP protocol with no encryption.

You may observe that the kill switch does not work as expected when tested to the limit. The problem was created by the repeated shutting of connections, which is unlikely to happen in typical use, but it’s not outstanding.

How Good Are PureVPN’s Mobile Apps?

Things are comparable on mobile, but it’s nice to see that the applications have carried over much functionality. There are many choices, such as connection optimization for specific purposes, protocol switching, a kill switch on Android, port forwarding, and more, even if they’re not particularly simple.

In reality, when compared to the competition, mobile apps are likely to outperform desktop options overall — they outperform certain major players in terms of functionality.

What Customer Support Does PureVPN Offer?

PureVPN’s support site has been overhauled, and key tutorials have been updated to provide reasonably detailed instructions for fixing the most common issues that customers may face. There’s something for practically every operating system, as well as a bevy of Netflix recommendations.

You can also submit a support ticket from within the app, which is a fantastic experience. Customer service will thoroughly answer your question promptly. If the guides are unable to assist you, the live chat tool is your best option. PureVPN’s live chat is responsive and reliable, and you can rely on it to resolve your concerns.

Final Thoughts

PureVPN’s attractiveness originates from its wide device support, massive server network, exceptional value ultra-long-term plans, and the fact that the apps on most operating systems give a considerable level of functionality when they work correctly.

You’ll also appreciate the company’s commitment to consumer privacy, as well as the addition of KPMG’s ‘always on’ audit. As you can see, they are our choice. To see more on Pure VPN click here.