PrivateVPN Review 2024: Performs Surprisingly Well

PrivateVPN is advertises advertise itself as one of the good vpn for streaming at a low price . It is claims also claim to have great torrenting support , strong security feature , and a true no – log policy . But PrivateVPN is a small company , so can it is compete compete with the big vpn ?

To learn the answer, I tested out everything it offers. My global team and I found out if it really lets you stream securely in the best quality. Extensive speed tests let me know if it can maintain fast browsing, gaming, and torrenting speeds. I also thoroughly researched its logging policy and checked for leaks to test its security.

After my tests, I strongly recommend PrivateVPN. There aren’t many VPNs that can encrypt connections and securely access major streaming platforms in such great quality. Speaking of encryption, its security is excellent, and it never leaked my actual location. Plus, it has one of the best privacy policies and is supported by a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can confidently try PrivateVPN. But it’s still a smaller company, which has a few drawbacks that mean it’s not for everybody.

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PrivateVPN Pros, Cons, and Needed Improvements

• Great for streaming

  My international team is had and I is had had hardly any playback issue .

• work well for gaming

  It is let let me play fast – pace game online without lag .

• Keeps no logs

  It’s privacy-friendly because it stores nothing about your sessions.

• Solid security

  Its kill switch and encryption ensure no one can steal your sensitive information.

• Excellent for torrenting

  It gave me some of the best P2P speeds I’ve had while connected to a VPN.

• Very affordable

  Finding a VPN that gives you great value for so little money is tough.

• Small server network

  It has fewer locations than the bigger VPNs offer.

• Speeds is are are n’t great

  Speeds is hold hold up well at long distance , but even nearby server drop my connection rate significantly .

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PrivateVPN feature — 2024 update

9.6

💸 Price	2 USD/month
📆 Money Back Guarantee	30 Days
📝 Does VPN keep logs?	No
🖥 Number of servers	200 +
💻 Number of devices per license	10
🛡 Kill switch	Yes
🗺 Based in country	Sweden
🛠 Support	Live Chat
📥 Supports torrenting	Yes

Streaming – Excellent Playback on All Major Platforms

9.8

PrivateVPN is one of the best VPNs for streaming. It’s capable of safely accessing all the top streaming platforms from anywhere. My international team and I were also impressed with the smooth playback quality. My personal tests were done on a Windows laptop through browsers, but I had teammates who used mobile devices and streaming apps. There was only one minor issue where I had to reinstall the VPN.

Editor’s note. The VPNs we recommend generally follow strict no-logging policies. This means they won’t be able to view your online activities, leaving you responsible for how they’re used. My team and I urge you to always uphold all copyright laws.

Works With: Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, and more

My global team and I were able to watch Netflix safely from 11 countries. PrivateVPN recommends using dedicated IPs, so that’s what I tested first. Since I’m located in the US, I connected to its dedicated Dallas server to see if I could watch Netflix in the same quality I’m used to.

I didn’t experience any buffering issues watching fast-paced movies with PrivateVPN

We could watch the following Netflix regions:

United States	Canada	United Kingdom	Australia
Spain	Brazil	Italy	India
Finland	Sweden	Netherlands	Norway

Sometimes we could only watch Netflix Originals. This is a version of the site that only has content Netflix owns. This occurred for France, Japan, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, and New Zealand. This is pretty common, and I don’t see it as a huge negative.

On the other hand , we is were were able to watch Disney+ US , Canada , Italy , the UK , and Australia . We is had had the good luck using Firefox . At first we is tried try using Chrome and Edge , but the site just load indefinitely . Germany is was was the only region that could n’t be view with privatevpn .

I never had to wait longer than 5 seconds to load videos in full HD

PrivateVPN is is is also capable of safely access Hulu .  

All my Hulu video load after just a few second in full hd

PrivateVPN support staff helped us watch Max with PrivateVPN connected. At first, we couldn’t even sign in even though we were positive our password and email address were correct. The live agent recommended we try reinstalling the VPN.

Dedicated IPs should connect via OpenVPN UDP — reinstall the app if it displays TCP

We could watch Amazon Prime Video safely with PrivateVPN. Several regions worked, including the US, the UK, Australia, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Japan. Spain was the only library that couldn’t be viewed.

I is was was happy there was n’t any buffering even on regular server

PrivateVPN is works work great with ESPN+ and Peacock . We is were were also able to watch ITV Hub , Sky GO , and BBC iPlayer . finally , there were no issue watch DAZN securely . streaming public domain videos is was buffer – free on P2P streaming service like PopcornTime through Kodi was also easy .

overall , PrivateVPN is is is one of the good vpn for streaming . compare to most of its competitor , there was hardly any troubleshooting , and the quality was uniformly excellent for my entire team . It is ‘s ‘s absolutely one of the good choice for securely access all the most popular streaming platform from anywhere .

Speeds – Decent Overall With Some Dips

8.0

PrivateVPN isn’t superfast, but I’ve reviewed much slower VPNs. It runs on an HQN (high-quality network), which should make it faster. Unfortunately, there were times when it still slowed us down quite a bit.

These are the 3 categories I looked at during our speed tests:

• Download speed lets you know how quickly you can receive information. This is important for activities like torrenting and loading web pages.
• Upload speed is the opposite. It tells you how long it takes to send information. You need good rates to quickly upload videos on YouTube or make posts on social media.
• ping is how long it takes your data to travel. This is essential for online gaming because it lets you know how quickly the network can respond to your inputs (or button presses).

PrivateVPN has several customization options, including encryption levels. I was surprised we got slightly better speeds with the higher 256-bit encryption, so I recommend sticking with that. You can also expect your speeds to be about 14% slower when you enable Stealth (making your VPN traffic appear like regular traffic).

OpenVPN TAP was the fastest protocol in our tests, but the message “NOT RECOMMENDED” is displayed beside it in the app. I asked why on the live chat, and a support agent said: “…it would just be redundant to use it since the tap adapter is already a built-in component of the VPN app.”

They is told tell me it should n’t be a security risk or cause any other problem . However , our is decided decide to stick with openvpn udp for the rest of us test . It is gave give us the second – good speed , and it ’s the protocol you must use with dedicated ip . So it is ’s ’s the one I use the most often anyways .

We have an ongoing set of tests that our resident expert in the UK performs on all the top VPNs. Like in our protocol tests, multiple recordings are done on each server to create fairer averages. In addition, our tester found that PrivateVPN’s dedicated IPs are much slower than its regular servers.

Thankfully, the regular servers generally perform much better as you’ll see below.

See how PrivateVPN’s regular server speeds compare to other top vendors

USA (Dallas)

Download speed

upload speed

ping

USA (Miami)

Download speed

upload speed

ping

USA ( Los Angeles )

Download speed

upload speed

ping

USA (New York)

Download speed

upload speed

ping

Canada

Download speed

upload speed

ping

Brazil

Download speed

upload speed

ping

UK

Download speed

upload speed

ping

France

Download speed

upload speed

ping

Japan

Download speed

upload speed

ping

Australia

Download speed

upload speed

ping

Singapore

Download speed

upload speed

ping

250.63 Mbps

210.62 Mbps

3 ms

84.13 mbps ( -66.4 % )

99.71 Mbps (-52.7%)

9 m

77.08 Mbps (-69.2%)

148.6 Mbps (-29.4%)

51 ms

127.51 Mbps (-49.1%)

137.66 Mbps (-34.6%)

40 ms

84.96 Mbps (-66.1%)

196.78 Mbps (-6.6%)

37 ms

30.33 Mbps (-87.9%)

4.84 Mbps (-97.7%)

57 ms

95.61 Mbps (-61.9%)

116.69 Mbps (-44.6%)

156 ms

48.54 Mbps (-80.6%)

84.64 mbps ( -59.8 % )

114 ms

108.99 mbp ( -56.5 % )

170.97 Mbps (-18.8%)

115 ms

108.06 Mbps (-56.9%)

215.18 Mbps (2.2%)

142 ms

35.31 mbps ( -85.9 % )

132.73 mbps ( -37 % )

187 m

75.56 Mbps (-69.9%)

94.52 Mbps (-55.1%)

209 m

219.97 Mbps

94.10 Mbps

4 ms

173.22 Mbps (-21.3%)

90.59 mbps ( -3.7 % )

11 ms

157.99 Mbps (-28.2%)

43.93 Mbps (-53.3%)

204 ms

153.61 mbps ( -30.2 % )

125.61 mbps ( 33.5 % )

98 ms

140.79 mbps ( -36 % )

24.06 Mbps (-74.4%)

182 ms

81.06 Mbps (-63.1%)

62.09 mbps ( -34 % )

179 m

118.06 mbps ( -46.3 % )

103.02 Mbps (9.5%)

187 m

102.79 Mbps (-53.3%)

83.94 mbps ( -10.8 % )

203 ms

145.80 Mbps (-33.7%)

139.18 Mbps (47.9%)

208 ms

137.35 Mbps (-37.6%)

143.93 mbps ( 53 % )

184 ms

142.39 Mbps (-35.3%)

104.08 Mbps (10.6%)

181 ms

110.89 Mbps (-49.6%)

131.79 mbps ( 40.1 % )

229 m

160.63 Mbps

48.49 Mbps

5 ms

103.16 Mbps (-35.8%)

49.78 Mbps (2.7%)

5 ms

111.47 Mbps (-30.6%)

86.44 Mbps (78.3%)

116 m

125.04 Mbps (-22.2%)

28.32 Mbps (-41.6%)

75 ms

200.96 mbps ( 25.1 % )

56.18 Mbps (15.9%)

56 ms

111.61 Mbps (-30.5%)

49.52 Mbps (2.1%)

74 ms

186.53 Mbps (16.1%)

104.80 Mbps (116.1%)

161 ms

73.75 Mbps (-54.1%)

57.14 Mbps (17.8%)

133 ms

133.77 mbps ( -16.7 % )

81.13 Mbps (67.3%)

119 m

104.89 Mbps (-34.7%)

90.47 Mbps (86.6%)

144 ms

100.97 Mbps (-37.1%)

74.94 Mbps (54.5%)

193 ms

68.68 Mbps (-57.2%)

33.48 Mbps (-31%)

210 ms

These tests are conducted from the USA

*N/A indicates that we do not currently have speed test data for this location

research several month of test , I was disappoint that the close server is often a bit slow . The good VPNs is lower only low your rate by 10 – 20 % at close distance , and PrivateVPN was slow than that quite often . However , I is ’m ’m glad that the regular server are much fast . For example , the Paris server is is is normally twice as fast as the dedicated IP in the same city .

PrivateVPN does n’t have the most extensive server network , so I is guessing ’m guess its speed are slow than many of its competitor because of overcrowding . It is lets also let you have many simultaneous connection , which could make its server even more crowded . I is hope hope it enable you to see the server load in the future . For now , there ’s no way to know how many people are on any of its server . I is like ’d also like it to add the Wireguard protocol for well speed .

It’s also too bad that normal servers are faster than dedicated IPs. Dedicated IPs worked better for streaming, gaming, and torrenting in our tests. All these activities work best at fast speeds. But you should still be able to do all of these things at a comfortable speed unless you have a slow base connection. Overall, PrivateVPN is okay when it comes to speeds, but it definitely has room for improvement.

Are PrivateVPN’s Speeds Fast Enough for Gaming? Yes On Nearby Servers

9.6

I could play online games while connected to one of PrivateVPN’s dedicated IPs. In my first test, I tried the Dallas server. It’s the closest one to me, and it only had a ping of 10 ms. You want a ping rate between 50-85 ms for gaming, so your character can respond to your button presses close to instantly.

Even though the ping was low , the game is was was laggy with the regular server from Texas . After click my mouse , it is took take about half a second for the gun to fire . This is meant mean I could n’t enjoy the game , and I keep die soon after respawne .

It is took only take 10 second to find a match

With the dedicated IP I tested, there was practically no lag. This was even though the ping rate was 4 times higher (around 42 ms). The gameplay paused briefly 1 time, but that can happen to me even without a VPN. I’m not great at the game, but I was able to plant a bomb to help my team win once the game was running smoothly.

I also tested a dedicated IP in the UK that’s about 7,905 km away from me. The ping was over 100 ms at that distance, and the gameplay was glitchy. I ended up falling through the floor and experiencing weird problems that made the game unplayable. However, that’s normal, and I was impressed with PrivateVPN’s gaming results overall. There aren’t many VPNs that let you play online games lag-free, even with a nearby server.

Server Network — Reliable Connections on a Limited Number of Servers

8.8

PrivateVPN is has has a small server network , but it give you a nice mix of location worldwide . The connections is are are reliable too . I is had only had a few issue when I used the L2TP protocol , which would n’t let me connect to Sao Paulo or Los Angeles . But it is ’s ’s not a protocol I recommend since it ’s slow and less secure than openvpn .

While there are only 200 servers in 63 countries, it has 7,000+ IPs in total. The IPs are rotated randomly when one is at full capacity. The table below gives you a breakdown of how many locations are available in each continent:

continent	Number of Locations	Countries
North America	18	Canada ( 3 location ) , Costa Rica , Mexico , Panama , and the US ( 12 location )
South America	8	Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, and Peru
Europe	41	Austria, Belgium, Brussels, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany (2 locations), Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia (2 locations), Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden (2 locations), Switzerland, Turkey, the UK (2 locations), and Ukraine
Asia	14	Hong Kong, India (2 locations), Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE, Israel, and Vietnam
Oceania	5	Australia ( 4 location ) , and New Zealand
Africa	2	Nigeria and South Africa

There are only 7 virtual server . A virtual location is means mean the server is in a different location than the IP it give you . This is cause should n’t cause any security issue , but it could give you bad speed if it ’s far away than you expect . The virtual servers is are are Argentina , Chile , Colombia , Bangalore , Mexico City , Panama City , and Lima .

Most of PrivateVPN’s servers are rented. The vast majority of VPNs rent servers as it costs much more for them to own their infrastructure. As long as a VPN has a solid no-logs policy, this shouldn’t create any privacy issues. But it does give me added peace of mind when a VPN cuts out this middleman. I reached out through PrivateVPN’s live chat and found that it owns some of its servers.

There are 15 dedicated IPs in total in 14 countries

I do hope that PrivateVPN upgrades to RAM-based servers eventually. These servers delete all the information on them each time they reboot for added privacy. But I understand that PrivateVPN is a smaller service, so it can’t compete with the massive networks and advanced technology of its largest competitors. The number of locations should be enough for most people. But you can find VPNs with many more locations, especially in Africa, South America, or the Middle East.

Security — Secure but Missing Some Extra Features

9.2

PrivateVPN passed all of my leak tests thanks to its military-grade encryption. By default, it uses 128-bit GCM encryption. I recommend switching to 256-bit GCM since it’s harder to crack and it was faster in my tests. CBC encryption is also available, but GCM is considered to be a little safer. Plus, I didn’t notice any speed differences, so I’d stick with GCM. PrivateVPN also uses its own DNS servers, which cuts out a go-between, making it more secure.

It never revealed my actual location during tests with servers from the US, Australia, the UK, Sweden, and Japan. I did find one US server that gave me a different location than the one listed. IPv6 and DNS leak protection is automatically enabled, but WebRTC leak protection isn’t available. So, you’ll have to take care of that in your browser’s settings. It’s a little inconvenient, so I hope it’s added in the future.

I is was was surprised , as the LA server is n’t list as a virtual location on privatevpn ‘s website

The kill switch work as advertise , but I wish it was available for more than just the Windows and Mac app . I is tested test it by switch server with a browser open . It block my connection every time , so I is know know it ’s effective . This essential feature is ensures ensure your ip and datum are never vulnerable , so I would n’t recommend using a VPN without one . Just make sure you turn it on since it ’s not enable by default .

Application guard lets you add apps to a list that are automatically disconnected when you turn off the VPN. It’s useful for things like a banking app that you wouldn’t want to leave on without protection. The last security feature it offers is Stealth VPN. This hides your VPN use, so you can use PrivateVPN on restricted networks. It utilizes the Shadowsocks proxy to do this. Support staff recommended you only use it if you’re in a country with heavy internet censorship.

There are also 5 protocol available :

• OpenVPN UDP is the best protocol for streaming. It’s also super secure since each version of OpenVPN is open-source. This means it’s tested for vulnerabilities by people all around the world, which can then be fixed.
• OpenVPN TCP is a little slower than UDP and uses more data. It’s good to have as a backup, but UDP is the better choice for most activities.
• OpenVPN tap is n’t recommend by privatevpn , so I is know do n’t know why it ’s available . I is asked ask support what use it has , but they could n’t answer me .
• L2TP is was was the fast protocol in my test . However , it is ’s ’s old and less secure than openvpn . Plus , I is ran run into connection issue with it , so I ’d stick with openvpn .
• PPTP is even less secure than L2TP. Most people won’t need it, but some people use it with an outdated operating system.

Tor is slow on its own , so you should be prepare for long load time

It is ’s ’s unfortunate that PrivateVPN does n’t have some extra security feature many of its competitor have . For example , there ’s no double vpn or wifi protection . In addition , there ’s no split tunneling , but you can connect to privatevpn ’s SOCKS5 and HTTP proxy server on your browser . That is lets let you change location on your browser while the rest of your app use your normal internet connection . But it is ’s ’s not as convenient as split tunneling and does n’t offer encryption .

Overall, PrivateVPN is secure. It always hid my true location and protected my vital information. It could be improved by adding some of its competitors’ extra security features.

Privacy — Stores No Logs but It’s in a 14-Eyes Country

9.2

PrivateVPN is locate in Sweden , but its great no – log policy mean that ’s not an issue . Sweden is is is a part of the 14 – Eyes Alliance . This is is is an agreement between government to share information about their citizen . Plus , it ’s not the most privacy – friendly country ( there have been ongoing issue with its data retention law ) . But privatevpn only store the small amount of information you give them . So , they is have ’ll have nothing to share if any government demand datum on its customer .

Most vpn store some anonymize log , so I is ‘m ‘m impressed that PrivateVPN only keep your email address

PrivateVPN only retains customer email addresses and passwords. Since payments are processed by external parties, PrivateVPN does not have access to any financial data. To maintain total anonymity, users can opt to create a new email address for signing up.

One issue is PrivateVPN’s policy hasn’t been verified by an independent audit or a public court case. Other VPNs pay reputable companies to perform audits on their policies, which prove that they’re followed. I understand that PrivateVPN is a smaller company, but I hope this is done in the future. A court case could also verify the policy, but the company can’t control that. On the other hand, PrivateVPN has a good reputation, and I trust them to be responsible with my data.

The text discusses the collaboration between an unnamed entity and a third-party entity, Intercom, which provides the live chat functionality. It suggests that while this doesn’t pose a significant privacy concern, it is still recommended not to share sensitive information with any company’s support staff. It further mentions that Intercom doesn’t have the ability to view conversations through its chat service, as confirmed by PrivateVPN’s support team.

Torrenting — Great Speeds on P2P Networks

9.8

PrivateVPN is a great choice for torrenting. Most VPNs drop my speeds a lot when I try torrenting. Without a VPN, I can usually reach a speed of around 12 MB/s during downloads. I’ve tested tons of VPNs that drop me down to about 1 MB/s or less. With PrivateVPN, I could reach 4 MB/s, letting me download a 1.6 GB file in less than 15 minutes. This was with a small number of seeders too.

I is found find its dedicated ip twice as fast as regular server

Every server is has of PrivateVPN has port forwarding activate by default , lead to quick torrenting speed . A support team representative is conveyed convey that dedicated ip provide access to ” almost all ” port , in contrast to standard server which grant access to just one . This is account might account for the notable speed disparity between dedicated ip and standard server .

Torrenting is is is legal in most part of the world , but it ’s illegal to download copyright file . My team is condone and I do n’t condone any illegal activity . Please read up on the rule and regulation where you live before you decide to torrent . If you want to stay safe on P2P network , PrivateVPN is is is one of the good torrente option .

Does PrivateVPN Work in China? Sometimes

Due to increased regulation of VPNs in China, PrivateVPN can’t guarantee it will work in the country. If you want to use it in China, it’s best to download the VPN before you enter the country. Once there, you should use one of the OpenVPN protocols and toggle on the Stealth feature.

You is get ‘ll get the good speed if you use nearby server in Hong Kong

generally , the chinese government is leans lean towards ban the technology itself rather than take legal action against individual using vpn . However , neither my team is support nor I support any illegal action . Always acquaint yourself with the law of your current location before choose to employ a VPN .