Security for everyone - Reviewing PureVPN

No matter what are you using the internet for, safety is essential. Today there are an increasing number of risks, ranging from malware to hackers, spyware, identity theft and so on. While using a good antivirus is essential, using a VPN service to protect your privacy on the internet is highly recommended. There are many services to choose from, PureVPN being one of them. Read this review and see whether it is a good choice for you:

What PureVPN has to offer

PureVPN is one of the oldest VPN service providers on the market. The service was launched in 2007 in Hong Kong. The company is the only well-known one of its kind in Hong Kong, which makes it unique. Also, being based there is an advantage, as the service can operate without the burden of so-called "Big Brother laws," and the company can offer VPN without being bothered by government monitoring. Still, there is a recent case where PureVPN provided logs to the FBI in a criminal investigation case.

You can subscribe to the PureVPN service by choosing one of the three available plans, which differ only in pricing and duration:

• the 1-month plan costs $9.95 per month
• the 6-month plan has a price of $47.70 per 6 months (or $7.95/month)
• the 2-year plan comes in at $59 for two years (or $2.45/month) as a holiday deal

The company offers no free trial version of the PureVPN software; you can buy a 3-day trial account for $2.50, or purchase any of the three plans, which all have a 7-day money back guarantee.

All plans come with the same base features of the PureVPN service. They offer unlimited speed and bandwidth, over 750 servers in 140 countries, P2P support, antivirus, anti-malware, intrusion detection and protection, ad-blocking, app filtering, five simultaneous connections, split tunneling, 256-bit data encryption, compatibility with multiple protocols (OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, SSTP, and IKEv2), an internet kill switch and DDoS Protection.

PureVPN has dedicated applications for Windows, Mac OS, Android, iOS, Android TV, Kodi, and Firestick, as well as VPN plugins for Chrome and Firefox. It can be manually configured on any operating system that offers VPN support, and you can set it up on many routers as well, thus protecting your entire network. In this review, we are focusing on the PureVPN application for Windows.

As for global VPN server coverage, PureVPN has an impressive list of servers spanning the entire globe and all continents. There are some rare countries covered as well, like Russia, or locations in Africa or South America. Note that some of these servers are virtual servers, which means that they are not physically where they appear to be - these are marked on the PureVPN website and should provide the same VPN experience like the physical servers.

When subscribing to the VPN service, there are many payment methods to choose from: although you cannot pay directly with your credit or debit card, you can use PayPal, Alipay, Cashu, a series of gift cards, cryptocurrencies via CoinPayments and all the payment methods offered by PaymentWall. The possibility to pay in cryptocurrencies means that you can order the service with only an email address and no additional personal information.

Download and installation

To install the PureVPN application on Windows, you have to download and run the 28.0 MB setup file, called purevpn_setup.exe. The installer is straightforward, and the application gets installed in a matter of seconds.

PureVPN might ask you to allow the installation of virtual network drivers (TAP-Windows Provider V9 Network adapters). If asked, choose Install to allow the installation; otherwise, the application will not work.

Note that if you have other VPN software installed, the virtual network adapters might conflict, thus making one or both VPN applications unusable. It is recommended to have only a single VPN client installed on your Windows computer at any given time.

Our first impression of PureVPN is positive: the service offers lots of VPN servers covering the whole world, and you can find servers even in countries where they rarely are available in other VPN services. The installation procedure is simple and fast. There is no free trial available, but there is a 7-day money back guarantee which is useful if you change your mind. Full privacy is guaranteed during purchase if you choose to pay in cryptocurrencies. Although the service has lots of great features, it is not OK that the company keeps logs of user activity.

Using PureVPN on Windows

On the first launch, the PureVPN application greets you with a login screen: to use this service, you need to have an account and log in.

Enter your credentials and click Login to start using the app. If you do not already have an account, click Sign Up to open your browser and create one and purchase a plan.

As soon as you are logged in, you get to see a mode selector interface. PureVPN has five preset modes to choose from, and each of them has a different purpose. These are the following:

• Stream: faster for video streaming and gaming
• Internet freedom: for access to any and all online content, circumventing geographic restrictions
• Security/Privacy: full security against cyber threats and complete anonymity
• File-sharing: dedicated to file-sharing, mostly on P2P networks
• Dedicated IP: if you purchase your IP address from PureVPN, you can use it with this mode

The various modes offer different balances between security and speed. You can read about them on this specific support page.

To connect, you first have to choose a mode: if you do not need the VPN for any specific purpose, just want to connect quickly, you could select Internet Freedom or Security/Privacy for added safety.

Next, click or tap on the big Connect button to connect to a preselected server - this is not necessarily the fastest or nearest one, it is just a default server.

You can see now that the connection is in progress.

Once the connection is established, all the relevant connection information is displayed on-screen. To disconnect from the VPN, click the Disconnect button.

This method connects you to a default VPN server, but in many cases, you will need something more specific: a fast server close to your physical location, or one configured for your particular use case. In each mode, there is a server selector, where you can choose any country, or even city to connect to. Just click the country name to open it.

On top of the list, you can see your favorite servers - click the star near any server to mark it as a favorite. After your favorites, you can see all available servers.

In the Stream and Internet freedom modes, you can also choose a server by purpose. This works the same way as the country/city selector, but here you can see a list of different purposes, which stand for servers configured to be the best for those specific goals. Choose your purpose rather than a country to connect.

You can also choose to Run a Ping Test which measures the data transfer time between your computer and the VPN servers. This value can be helpful to select the fastest possible server. Remember that the lower the ping, the better.

To change mode, click the Change mode link on the main screen. This opens the Select Mode tab of the Preferences, where you can choose one of the five modes.

PureVPN's user interface is a bit cluttered and might seem complicated to use at first. The introduction of five different modes makes things simple if you have some specific purpose in mind, but it might confuse beginners, who just want to connect to a VPN server and start using it. Ping time measurement, server filtering by purpose and the option to save your favorite servers are welcome additional features and make the application easier to use.

Go to the second page of this review to learn about the additional features offered by PureVPN and the results it obtained in our performance benchmarks. You will also find our final verdict for this VPN product.

Extra features in PureVPN

Besides the basic VPN service, PureVPN offers some extra features, although these are not available in all modes. The first mode to have such extra features is Security/Privacy. These features can be toggled on the Advanced Security Features tab, accessible from the main screen. All features become active when you connect to the VPN next time.

Here you can enable an Antivirus, Content Filtering, which deals with unwanted, potentially harassing or dangerous content and IDS/IPS which helps with detecting and protecting against intruders.

You can also enable URL Filtering and App Filtering, which can block specific websites or applications from accessing the internet. These websites and apps can be configured on the PureVPN website. You cannot specify URLs or your apps but can choose to block categories of websites and can choose apps to block from a preset list, but you cannot add additional applications.

The File-sharing mode also offers some extra features, accessible from the Secure P2P tab. Here you can enable Secure P2P which is an anti-malware measure specific for this mode, and Content filtering, which is the same filter you can find in the Security/Privacy mode.

PureVPN also offers two, mode-independent extra features, accessible from Preferences, which can be opened by clicking the gear icon in the top right corner, or by clicking the Change Mode link. Here you can click the VPN Hotspot tab to configure it. This feature turns your computer into a protected Wi-Fi hotspot: other devices can connect to this new wireless network, and will connect to the internet through the VPN.

To activate the hotspot, you first need to restart PureVPN as admin (by right-clicking its icon in the system tray), choose the TCP, UDP or Stealth protocol for the application (on the App Settings tab) and connect to the VPN.

Another extra feature is Split Tunneling, which can be configured on the tab with the same name. When enabled, you can define a list of applications, and then only those will use the VPN to connect to the Internet, everything else will connect directly, bypassing the VPN connection.

PureVPN offers quite a lot of extra features, and these are useful. The anti-malware measures, content filtering, and IDS/IPS increase security, but the URL and app filtering features should allow for manual filtering. The split tunneling can be handy in some cases, while the VPN hotspot is a unique feature, as it can turn your computer into a secure router, which is especially good if you do not have a router that supports VPN.

Advanced settings and configuration

PureVPN is a highly configurable software, it offers many ways to be customized, which will be appreciated by advanced users. All settings can be configured in Preferences, where the App Settings tab has the most options. Here you can set the app to launch as soon as Windows starts, to automatically connect to a VPN server on start and to automatically reconnect if the connection drops.

You can set the application to disconnect from the VPN when you exit, to launch the default web browser as soon as you connect and to run a ping test on startup. You can also select a protocol to use (you can find out more about the different protocols in this support article) and the user interface language.

The Advanced Options tab offers additional settings. Under Security, you can enable 256-bit encryption and IPv6 leak protection for added security and set a reminder to notify you if you are not connected to a VPN server.

If you activate the Internet Kill Switch, PureVPN will completely disconnect you from the Internet if the VPN connection drops. You can choose to have yourself disconnected even if you manually disconnect from the VPN.

Activating Multi Port is for advanced users, but it can be helpful if you are facing port blocking issues.

PureVPN has quite a lot of advanced features to configure. Most of these are just for comfort, but it can enhance your security or VPN experience.

Performance and speed

It is a common drawback for all VPN services that when you use them, your internet connection's speed will decrease. This is normal because you are no longer directly connected to the internet, but through a VPN server. It is vital to use a VPN service that does not dramatically affect your speed. To check how much PureVPN affects our connection speed, we ran a couple of tests using the popular Speedtest.net service.

We were using PureVPN on an internet connection that is advertised as having a speed of 100 Mbps for both download and upload. The screenshot below shows the rates measured by Speedtest.net before installing PureVPN on our test computer. Although the speeds are not exactly what the ISP advertises, they are relatively close to 100 Mbps.

For our first test, we used PureVPN to establish a VPN connection to the fastest possible server. This was located in the same country we are in, Romania. There was some loss of speed, but not very much, even though it was a bit slower than in the case of the fastest VPN services we have reviewed so far.

Next, we used a server on the same continent, but in a different country: Germany, Europe. The download speed dropped to around 45 Mbps, while the upload speed decreased even more, it was around 28 Mbps. Again, this is a slightly worse result than the fastest VPN services that we tested.

For our third test, we chose a server in a distant location, that is also highly popular for VPN connections: the United States. The speeds dropped quite a bit, especially the upload speed, which was under 10 Mbps. This is a rather weak result for a US VPN.

For the last test, we used a server on the other side of the world, in Australia. Here we measured a download speed of about 10 Mbps and an upload speed of about 5 Mbps. This is quite usual since this server is far from us.

If you are using a VPN service, you have to deal with some speed loss. In this regard, PureVPN is not the best service: most servers are not very slow, but all of them are at least a bit slower than those offered by competitors. Still, the speeds are acceptable for everyday use.

Default settings you might consider adjusting

PureVPN has a lot of settings to experiment with, and here is how we recommend setting up their Windows application:

• By default, PureVPN starts up with your computer but does not connect to a VPN server. If you do not always need VPN, you might want to disable this, to make your Windows boot faster. If you always need a VPN connection, chose a server to connect to each time Windows starts automatically.
• You should enable the Kill Switch to make sure that you are accessing the internet securely whenever required.
• Use the Security/Privacy mode if you want to stay safe, and enable Antivirus and IDS/IPS
• You can use PureVPN to control what content your children can access by enabling Content Filtering and URL Filtering and blocking unwanted websites

PureVPN has many settings to experiment with: some of them can alter your browsing experience quite a lot, or offer added security. Most of them are set up well by default, but feel free to use our recommendations to fine-tune the PureVPN application.

Pros and cons

The positive features of PureVPN are the following:

• There are many VPN servers available
• It is customizable with advanced options
• It is available on many platforms, including on wireless routers
• It is one of the few VPN services to provide servers in Russia
• It provides additional security features, not available in many other VPN applications
• It provides unique extra features, like VPN Hotspot

The PureVPN application has some negative features as well:

• Cluttered user interface that can be confusing at first
• VPN servers tend to be slower than those offered by competitors
• VPN traffic is logged
• There is no free trial

Verdict

PureVPN is one of the longest-standing VPN services in the world, and this is quite obvious. The service comes with many features, it is available on a large selection of platforms, there are servers in every corner of the world, and there are tons of settings to fiddle with, making it very customizable. Unfortunately, your VPN connections may suffer from speed issues, and the user interface of their Windows desktop app can be intimidating for newcomers. Overall, PureVPN is a solid competitor that can be great for everyday use, especially for more advanced users.