PrivateVPN Review – Is It The Best VPN in 2023?

PrivateVPN Overview

This PrivateVPN review will provide you with the best information regarding this VPN.

We aim to bring reliable and honest VPN reviews all the time.

Is PrivateVPN the Best VPN?

We consider a lot of factors to check out if PrivateVPN is really worth it.

As its name suggests, PrivateVPN is claiming that is a very secure VPN provider in the market.

PrivateVPN is good in some ways than one. It has a user-friendly interface and has most of the basic features that we are looking for in a VPN. Some of these are the no-log policy, good connection, enough speed, streaming, and security. But what makes it unique from other VPNs? PrivateVPN is one of the VPNs that you can use to have access in China. Only a few are capable of bypassing the great wall of China. We will discuss this PrivateVPN feature later.

There are still some missing recipes for PrivateVPN. Even if it is good for torrenting, it does not support the use of the SOCKS5 Proxy. The Customer Service is fine but it is not 24/7. It also does not have an adblocker, which makes it hard for us to conclude our privacy from third-party advertisers.

With all of these, let us look closer to a more detailed discussion about PrivateVPN.

Pricing

The first thing to consider is the price. PrivateVPN offers great deals with a longer plan duration.

Most people only acquire VPN service for a short period of time. If you are going to take the 1-month plan, PrivateVPN is kind of in the middle of other VPN services in terms of price. There are others with much cheaper 1-month plans and a few that are more expensive.

I’d say, if you want a VPN for a short period of time, let’s say 1 month, there are others less expansive than PrivateVPN. Although, you must take note of the services, features, and technicalities that a VPN really provides. Some VPNs are less expensive with lower quality of service.

PrivateVPN Free Trials

PrivateVPN is a genuine VPN that offers a 7-day free trial, and also a 30-day money-back guarantee in all of its subscription plans.

Taking the free trial isn’t that easy though. You must contact first their customer service to grant you access to the free trial via gift code.

How To Install PrivateVPN On A Firestick

1. Click Home on your remote and scroll once to your left. It will be the search icon.

2. You can either say the app’s name to your Alexa’s voice-enabled remote or start typing it. If you ordered it, click on the suggestion when it appears.

3. Click on the PrivateVPN icon.

4. Click on Get to download.

5. Click Open.

6. Sign up to Log In.

PrivateVPN Speed Test

PrivateVPN performs admirably in all speed tests. For you to be able to stream reasonably well without the buffering wheel of doom you need a download speed of 10Mbps.

This provider has a speed of 40-60MB in Europe, 30 in the US, and even 10-15 in Australia when we were connecting from the UK.

So, you can get the speed you need whether you are streaming, torrenting, or just browsing.

Privacy /Anonymity

NoLog Policy

This is PrivateVPN’s number 1 point in their list of reasons to use them.

They clearly state that as a Swedish company, their country’s privacy laws mean that no privacy logs are kept and therefore cannot be seized by an investigation. In fact, the company goes slightly further than most by stating that they do not even know what your browsing activity is.

Mask Your IP Address

PrivateVPN can really change the user’s IP address for security, and encryption.

This is very important since this is what protects the data from trackers.

Security

We will also discuss the VPN protocols that PrivateVPN is using.

PrivateVPN offers the highest level of encryption that we have come to expect from top VPN providers.

Starting with AES-256 bit military-grade encryption which is very common to all VN providers.

Also, they have Ipv6 protection and were one of the few providers we tested that registered no leaks from DNS or ROTC, which we have seen a few times with cheaper providers or those with less up-to-date software.

IKEv2

This protocol promotes authentication and security. If you change your network connection from one Wifi to another or to cellular data, IKEv2 makes the VPN connection undisrupted.

IPSec

PrivateVPN also has an IPSec protocol. This commonly works well with IKEv2 but its main purpose is to protect all traffic that the apps acquire on a given IP address.

PPTP

This VPN protocol secures the transfer of all data and information from one point to another.

L2TP

L2TP is an extension of the PPTP that makes sure VPNs work with the internet.

OpenVPN

As a standard VPN protocol, PrivateVPN is also using OpenVPN. This has two types, UDP is for faster but less connection, while TCP is slower but good for connections.

Does It Work Well With Popular Streaming Apps

Kodi

PrivateVPN also has a page dedicated just to why they are a great fit if you like to use Kodi.

Kodi allows you to circumvent GeoIP restrictions so that you can access your favorite shows on Netflix, Hulu, ESPN, and hundreds of TV channels from all around the world.

Your Kodi experience can be limited because of your country of origin but using a VPN you can access hundreds of add-ons and thousands of shows, films, and sporting events.

Netflix

For most, the acid test for a VPN provider is being able to access Netflix USA which provides 100% of the available shows, as opposed to say the UK which only has 38% of Spain which only has 20%.

Using PrivateVPN you can access content in the USA or country-specific shows from 60 countries around the world.

You can also stream unlimited shows in HD due to the fast speeds, and unlimited data usage of PrivateVPN.

Hulu

Impressively, PrivateVPN can also access Hulu without a sweat.

It can also access some other popular streaming apps like Amazon Prime, and ABC.

Sadly, PrivateVPN cannot access the BBC iPlayer.

Jurisdiction

The company is based in Sweden which has strict privacy laws around individuals and companies, it is also not subject to the 5 eyes intelligence-sharing agreement. This means you can be confident of their zero logs and privacy agreements.

GeoIP Unblocking

With access to IPs in 60 countries, there is a wealth of places you can access geo-restricted content.

The wide selection of servers and countries means you don’t have a low-speed service from IP thousands of miles away either.

Servers and Server Locations

Sadly, PrivateVPN has only a few servers than other competitors. It only offers 200+ servers on 63 different servers.

Apps

PrivateVPN is available on so many devices such as Android, Firestick, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Linux. 

It is also applicable for routers.

You can only use 10 simultaneous devices in one account.

Kill Switch

PrivateVPN has a kill switch feature that is only applicable on Windows.

Kill Switch is very important. When your VPN is not working, the kill switch will disconnect you from your Wifi so that the traffic won’t be tracked back to your original IP.

Split Tunneling

PrivateVPN might be a good VPN but it does not have some great features that other VPNs have. This VPN does not have a split tunneling feature.

Split tunneling makes it seems like you don’t use a VPN so that apps that blocks VPNs won’t be able to determine you.

Leak Protection

PrivateVPN offers security of under data and information. It has DNS Leak Protection and IPv6 Leak Protection.

Torrent Policy

PrivateVPN has a clear section on torrenting, which is more than most providers, and common amongst VPN companies that have a strict and explicit no logs policy.

They offer unlimited P2P filesharing and have unrestricted bandwidth and data usage which makes them ideal for torrenting files.

Tor Compatibility

There is no explicit mention of using Tor for browsing, but we have come to expect this from VPN providers who don’t necessarily want you to use free Tor nodes when you can pay for their service.

There is nothing present which means you would be unable to have a double VPN by connecting through PrivateVPN and then The Onion.

SOCKS5 Proxy

PrivateVPN also does not have a SOCKS5 Proxy which is very much needed for torrenting. Even if this VPN can be flawlessly used for torrenting, it is much better to have a SOCKS5 Proxy.

SOCKS5 Proxy is designed to stop torrent sites to capture the user’s data and information.

Customer Support

Alongside the usual FAQ sections and Getting Started guide, PrivateVPN also has a form submission as well as a live chat, which gave us an immediate response when we tested it out.

The only problem with the live chat customer support of PrivateVPN is that it is not available 24/7. 

Final Thoughts

PrivateVPN is a good VPN that promotes security and good speed. But it really has a lot to improve.

The number of available servers should meet the range that its competitors have to offer.

Another one is the availability of customer support. It should be at least 24/7.

It should also add a split tunneling feature to its service because this is a major turn-on for most users.

These are just a few but the most important things we see when reviewing this VPN.

We hope that this was able to help you with most of your concerns about PrivateVPN.