PrivateVPN Review 2019 A Solid Capable VPN (Despite a Few Flaws) Solution!ByNovak Bozovic-October 29, 2019 “3/3.1878.jpg” By visiting the PrivateVPN website we can see that it offers a very enticing package. This VPN service promises to carry strong encryption protocols without collecting your private data while at ‘ lightning speeds ‘ allowing you to enjoy the Internet. So we will bring PrivateVPN through a series of tests and see whether all those claims are true. With this said we wish you a warm welcome in our analysis of PrivateVPN! Quick Facts Jurisdiction Sweden (EU) Logs No logs at any point 22 percent on average P2P Help YES Live Chat Support YES (but not 24/7) Windows macOS iOS Android Linux and routers Cost Starts at $3.82/month Get PrivateVPN The following table should tell you whether PrivateVPN will unblock popular media Let’s have a look, then. American Netflix YES Hulu YES BBC iPlayer Amazon Prime Video YES Kodi YES And have one more table for you before we jump to our hands-on review here. This one presents our results after that VPN provider has been reviewed. And hopefully you’ll find it helpful if you don’t have the time to read this whole post. Compatibility with Pros Broad platform Strong encryption No data collection Numerous VPN protocols Unblocks popular websites. Cons Old-fashioned UI Servers A small number. Full JudgmentWe’ll take a deep look at PrivateVPN just like we do with every VPN review. This starts with an inspection of their background and reputation. Then we’ll show you how and what to expect to install this VPN, how to use it. In our central explanation of how we review VPNs, you can learn more about those individual aspects of this article.
Background Jurisdiction Reputation
“3/3.1879.jpg” In order to be comfortable using a VPN you need to be comfortable with the way your private data is treated. The best possible case is to use a VPN that does not collect your data-and in the past it should also be free from any data leaks. The most important thing to know is that PrivateVPN is based in Sweden and owned by a company called ‘ Private Kommunikation Sverige AB. ‘ This county has its own data retention laws although it is a member of the European Union. So we wanted to find out how this VPN can’t gather data (as it says on the website)? As has been proven before (we will be talking about this in the next segment) PrivateVPN does not really store logs. Even if somebody comes for your data they are not going to be able to give anything of importance.
Previous Data Leaks
You’ll be pleased to know PrivateVPN remains true to its ‘ no-logs ‘ policy. In the past, there are no data breaches that would show this VPN provider would store data that could reveal its users. With that said it is important to note that in the past PrivateVPN is one of the rare VPNs with no scandals related to privacy.
Supported Platforms Applications
“3/3.1880.jpg” You’ll note that web browsers are lacking when it comes to PrivateVPN platform and app support. Other than that you should be well protected. Our Rating: 9/10. Net Desktop System Compatibility Ubuntu Chromebooks for Windows macOS. Mobile IOS Android Platforms. You should also be aware that PrivateVPN allows you to link up to 6 devices simultaneously which is plenty. Of course it counts as one device to be mounted on a router no matter how many devices you connect to that router.
Installation Initial Configuration
“3/3.1881.jpg” Everything will of course start by signing up for PrivateVPN. You will have your username and password after you pick a plan and finalize the purchase. These will be used to log in to your account on the official website of the VPN. “3/3.1882.jpg” Save the installer to your device by double-clicking it, and start the installation process. You will need to approve pick the terms of use where you want the program to be installed and that’s about it. You’ll need to restart your PC once installation is complete. Log in with your credentials after that and you are ready to go.
Prominent apps “3/3.1883.jpg” PrivateVPN did a nice job of giving its clients total security. The only thing missing is an ad-blocker which is not a big drawback. Our Rating: 9/10. In each of our VPN reviews we like to present a series of features every highly capable VPN needs. It gives us a good summary, which is helpful when comparing various options. VPN Features DNS Leak Protection Checklist IPv6 Leak Protection YES Ad-Blocker Anti-Malware Unlimited Server Switches YES Unlimited Bandwidth YES Unlimited DataPrivateVPN brings out only 150 + servers which is actually one of the smallest networks of VPN servers there. Our rating: 2.5/10. We check the server network of each VPN to see how many secure servers they are offering, and where they are located. Here’s what you need to know about the network in PrivateVPN. Server Count Data Server Number 150 + 90 + Country Number 60 Local Cities Collection YES YES At present PrivateVPN provides a little more than 150 VPN servers spread all over the world. We have to admit this isn’t much given that the most powerful VPNs carry from servers 3000 to 5500 +. It guarantees consistent efficiency and the ability to use professional servers of all kinds. With this said it is clear that PrivateVPN is on the spectrum’s ‘ lower ‘ edge. We still believe, however, that average home users might be perfectly happy with what PrivateVPN offers. We only hope this company will succeed in responding to its growing user base by adding plenty more servers to accommodate all its users.
Ease of use “3/3.1885.jpg” Although the most polished VPN PrivateVPN comes with a simple (although old-fashioned) interface. Our Rating: 8/10. We will now look at how PrivateVPN sounds, and how simple it is to use it. Something simple yet powerful enough to give you complete freedom of the way you browse the web after all. When you first launch PrivateVPN you can actually see its ‘ Simple ‘ gui. It consists of a drop-down menu, where you can find all the servers. You click on ‘ Connect ‘ to select a server, and you’re ready to go. But PrivateVPN knows that there are several advanced users who want to use this app, and they have also created an Advanced version. Clicking on the ‘ Advanced ‘ button will show you the extended interface of the program. “3/3.1886.jpg” Dashboard: This is where the majority of your time will be spent. You can choose a starter server. You can choose two further options based on the selected server. First you select the desired VPN protocol (the most commonly used of which is OpenVPN). And you can also choose the encryption level from AES-128 to AES-256 (GCM or CBC). Clicking on ‘ Link ‘ will show you the configuration of your external IP address port forwarding and the linked time. “3/3.1887.jpg” Settings: PrivateVPN limits the settings to a minimum. You can decide whether you want the application to auto-start on system startup. And if you decide to do so you can automatically instruct PrivateVPN to connect to a secure server. You can then also enable / disable notifications to decide if you want to reconnect to the Windows TAP driver on connection failure repair and see log files. Note that when you contact customer support, log files are helpful so this is where you will find them. “3/3.1888.jpg” Connect Guard: This is a very interesting set of options now. We highly recommend allowing protection against IPv6 and DNS leakage. You should also enable kill-switch of the application to prevent your data from leaking if a secure connection is dropped. You can then use something called Software Protection. You can always determine which applications you want to keep secure. Such programs can automatically shut down when a safe connection drops down. Aside from unblocking BBC iPlayer PrivateVPN, your response to unblocking popular streaming media websites is. Our Rating: 8/10. We are checking each VPN to see if it can unblock popular website streaming outside the USA. We find this a very important aspect of VPNs, as many individuals use it mainly to unblock websites. Media Streaming Torrenting Support Netflix US YES BBC iPlayer NO Amazon Prime Video YES YES With PrivateVPN it’s easy to unblock popular media streaming websites. Selecting a server can show you which ones will unblock other websites. Netflix Hulu and Amazon Prime Video can be unblocked in the US (you need to use a VPN first to set up a US account). You will unblock both Netflix and Sky using servers in the UK. And in India some servers can unblock services such as Hotstar. This is not the case even though PrivateVPN says they will unblock BBC iPlayer outside the UK. We tested all seven of its UK-based servers and they could not unblock this service. Let us not forget to say torrenting is supported by PrivateVPN. You are free to download torrent files using a torrent client of your choosing, using all of its servers. There are no limitations or caps for the data here.
“3/3.1891.jpg” It’s safe to say that you can trust PrivateVPN to keep your personal data securely encrypted and protected from anyone else on the Internet. Our Score: ‘ 10/10. To investigate what kind of security and data protection you can expect, we’re going to look at three areas of PrivateVPN. First, we’re going to talk about the application’s encryption protocols, then we’re going to check its logging policy and do a DNS leak test.
Just like any capable VPN PrivateVPN, we’re doing our best to hide your real identity.PrivateVPN brings out only 150 + servers which is actually one of the smallest networks of VPN servers there. Our rating: 2.5/10. We check the server network of each VPN to see how many secure servers they are offering, and where they are located. Here’s what you need to know about the network in PrivateVPN. Server Count Data Server Number 150 + 90 + Country Number 60 Local Cities Collection YES YES At present PrivateVPN provides a little more than 150 VPN servers spread all over the world. We have to admit this isn’t much given that the most powerful VPNs carry from servers 3000 to 5500 +. It guarantees consistent efficiency and the ability to use professional servers of all kinds. With this said it is clear that PrivateVPN is on the spectrum’s ‘ lower ‘ edge. We still believe, however, that average home users might be perfectly happy with what PrivateVPN offers. We only hope this company will succeed in responding to its growing user base by adding plenty more servers to accommodate all its users.
Ease of use “3/3.1885.jpg” Although the most polished VPN PrivateVPN comes with a simple (although old-fashioned) interface. Our Rating: 8/10. We will now look at how PrivateVPN sounds, and how simple it is to use it. Something simple yet powerful enough to give you complete freedom of the way you browse the web after all. When you first launch PrivateVPN you can actually see its ‘ Simple ‘ gui. It consists of a drop-down menu, where you can find all the servers. You click on ‘ Connect ‘ to select a server, and you’re ready to go. But PrivateVPN knows that there are several advanced users who want to use this app, and they have also created an Advanced version. Clicking on the ‘ Advanced ‘ button will show you the extended interface of the program. “3/3.1886.jpg” Dashboard: This is where the majority of your time will be spent. You can choose a starter server. You can choose two further options based on the selected server. First you select the desired VPN protocol (the most commonly used of which is OpenVPN). And you can also choose the encryption level from AES-128 to AES-256 (GCM or CBC). Clicking on ‘ Link ‘ will show you the configuration of your external IP address port forwarding and the linked time. “3/3.1887.jpg” Settings: PrivateVPN limits the settings to a minimum. You can decide whether you want the application to auto-start on system startup. And if you decide to do so you can automatically instruct PrivateVPN to connect to a secure server. You can then also enable / disable notifications to decide if you want to reconnect to the Windows TAP driver on connection failure repair and see log files. Note that when you contact customer support, log files are helpful so this is where you will find them. “3/3.1888.jpg” Connect Guard: This is a very interesting set of options now. We highly recommend allowing protection against IPv6 and DNS leakage. You should also enable kill-switch of the application to prevent your data from leaking if a secure connection is dropped. You can then use something called Software Protection. You can always determine which applications you want to keep secure. Such programs can automatically shut down when a safe connection drops down. Aside from unblocking BBC iPlayer PrivateVPN, your response to unblocking popular streaming media websites is. Our Rating: 8/10. We are checking each VPN to see if it can unblock popular website streaming outside the USA. We find this a very important aspect of VPNs, as many individuals use it mainly to unblock websites. Media Streaming Torrenting Support Netflix US YES BBC iPlayer NO Amazon Prime Video YES YES With PrivateVPN it’s easy to unblock popular media streaming websites. Selecting a server can show you which ones will unblock other websites. Netflix Hulu and Amazon Prime Video can be unblocked in the US (you need to use a VPN first to set up a US account). You will unblock both Netflix and Sky using servers in the UK. And in India some servers can unblock services such as Hotstar. This is not the case even though PrivateVPN says they will unblock BBC iPlayer outside the UK. We tested all seven of its UK-based servers and they could not unblock this service. Let us not forget to say torrenting is supported by PrivateVPN. You are free to download torrent files using a torrent client of your choosing, using all of its servers. There are no limitations or caps for the data here.
“3/3.1891.jpg” It’s safe to say that you can trust PrivateVPN to keep your personal data securely encrypted and protected from anyone else on the Internet. Our Score: ‘ 10/10. To investigate what kind of security and data protection you can expect, we’re going to look at three areas of PrivateVPN. First, we’re going to talk about the application’s encryption protocols, then we’re going to check its logging policy and do a DNS leak test.
Just like any capable VPN PrivateVPN, we’re doing our best to hide your real identity.3/3.1892.jpg We have decided to run a DNS leak check after connecting to a server in the USA. And based on the results we got websites can only see the details from PrivateVPN. It means third parties will see a remote DNS server and our virtual IP address ensuring your personal data will be kept secure.
Speed Performance
PrivateVPN is one of the best performing VPNs out there, with a speed reduction of about 22 per cent. Our rating: 8.5/10. Now, we will test PrivateVPN’s output. This means connecting to multiple servers based on their location, and checking their speeds. First, we’ll start by checking the speed of your ‘ naked ‘ Web connection to get our baseline data. “3/3.1894.jpg” Figure 1 The efficiency of our Web connection ‘ naked ‘ First of all we tested our Web connection speed without using a VPN. We have 147.86 Mbps to download, and 9.73 Mbps to upload. We will use those numbers to measure PrivateVPN’s potential speed reduction. Figure 2 The output of a PrivateVPN server near by. As normal we start with a server nearby. We are in Europe and PrivateVPN offered us a server that was located in a neighboring country. We ran a speed test after we linked to that server. We finally got 133.33 Mbps to download, and 8.98 Mbps to upload. “3/3.1896.jpg” Figure 3 Remote PrivateVPN server performance; Lastly we wanted to connect to a remote server which is located in the USA in our case. We have selected a server that can unblock media streaming websites as they are very popular with any VPN provider. We have 97.10 Mbps for downloading, and 5.54 for uploading. Upload Speed Reduction Baseline Speed 147.86 Mbps 9.73 Mbps Nearby Server 133.33 Mbps 8.89 Mbps 9.8 percent Remote Server “3/3.1897.jpg” PrivateVPN offers a variety of ways to get help and get answers to your questions. Although it offers support for live chat, it is not offered 24/7. Our Rating: 9/10. You should turn to its official website in case of any questions or concerns concerning PrivateVPN. That is where you will find a dedicated support section with numerous available resources. So here’s what you can expect: Live Chat support: The company provides live chat support located in the website’s bottom-right corner. We have found however that this option is not available 24/7. You’ll be able to send a message more regularly and have the company respond to you by email. Configuration Guides: PrivateVPN also provides a set of beautifully written configuration guides for just about any device supported. Also, there are videos which make this process as easy as it might be. Ticket support: And finally, there’s the traditional customer support method. You should send an email to tech support team for this VPN. You can expect them to answer, on average, within one day. All in all it is good to know that in case of any questions PrivateVPN has your back. It would be nice to see a 24/7 live chat support that may be the only drawback to the whole customer support system.