PrivadoVPN
PrivadoVPN is a VPN vendor that has recently started offering its services directly to consumers. Previously, you could only get it as a free addition through another service’s plans, such as Newshosting.
Price
PrivadoVPN has a free plan. However, it is limited to 10GB of VPN traffic per month, only includes access to 12 global servers, supports only one active VPN connection at a time, and doesn’t offer the Socks5 proxy.
Besides the free plan, it also offers a monthly and annual subscription option, with support for up to 10 simultaneous connections, access to “hundreds” of global servers, unlimited monthly VPN traffic, and the Socks5 proxy. As usual, the annual plan is the more affordable one, at $4.99/month. The only accepted payment method is via a credit card.
PrivadoVPN’s paying plans support up to 10 simultaneous VPN connections at any time and come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Alternatives
PrivadoVPN’s service isn’t as good as the one you’d get if you opted for the likes of ExpressVPN, NordVPN, or CyberGhost. It’s slower than them, can’t unblock Netflix and BBC iPlayer, its apps are more basic, and it doesn’t have as many VPN servers as they do. However, like Windscribe, it offers a free monthly plan limited to 10GB of VPN traffic and a handful of servers, which is one of its best assets.
Streaming
Even though many VPN providers can give their users access to localized libraries on streaming services like BBC iPlayer and Netflix that are often unavailable in certain regions, PrivadoVPN can’t do that. It may have to do with the fact that its focus is more on providing you privacy than unblocking popular streaming content.
About the company
PrivadoVPN is run by a Switzerland-based VPN vendor called Privado Networks that gives you access to “hundreds” of VPN servers in 45 countries around the world, including in Serbia, Thailand, Mexico, Iceland, Poland, Turkey, Brazil, and others.
Privacy and encryption
This VPN provider uses the IKEv2 and OpenVPN (UDP and TCP) connection protocols, as well as the optional kill switch - a mechanism that shuts down your Internet access if the VPN connection is terminated. However, the kill switch isn’t on by default, potentially leaving unaware users without the full protection until they realize to turn it on.
Torrenting is allowed and there are no limitations or speed throttling whatsoever.
PrivadoVPN’s Privacy Policy says this VPN doesn’t store “any data about what any specific user browsed or accessed” through its connection. It adds that the VPN is unable to “connect activity originating from an IP address from our VPN servers to activity conducted by an individual user”.
It further says that the provider encrypts all data over its VPN connections, and doesn’t “inspect or record the contents of what you’re viewing, browsing or doing through the PrivadoVPN connections”. Finally, the policy ends by stating that PrivadoVPN never logs “browsing history, traffic destination, data content, IP addresses, or DNS queries.”
The document does however state that the provider collects information on used bandwidth, mobile analytics, “anonymous, aggregate statistics, such as the type of operating systems and devices that are commonly used”, as well as mobile identifiers provided by iOS and Android devices but that these identifiers “do not contain your email address or name”.
That said, it concludes by saying that it is “unable to supply any information for requests related to a PrivadoVPN user’s browsing history, traffic destination, data content, IP addresses, or DNS queries”, because “this information does not exist”.
This is all rather detailed but we’d also like to see independent confirmation of these claims by an outside auditor that would examine the PrivadoVPN platform and issue a public report on its findings.
Support
PrivadoVPN has apps for Windows, Mac, Android, FireOS, iOS, and Android TV. You can also use its VPN configuration, SOCKS5 proxy credentials, and manual guides to install the service on additional devices such as routers.
At the moment of writing, the iOS app had an excellent score - 4.7 stars (out of 5), as rated by 14 people. Until that moment, the app has only been updated once. Its Android counterpart had a lower score - 4 stars and it was rated by 292 people (out of 10,000+ who downloaded it). It had been updated just a week before this review was written.
Should you require assistance with the VPN service, you can also contact PrivadoVPN’s support directly via email, create a ticket, or you can visit its support site and blog where you’ll find knowledge guides, news, how-to guides, service updates, and news. We tried the email route and got a response fairly quickly - within 30 minutes.
PrivadoVPN also has a presence on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit.
Speed and experience
The Windows app is rather simplistic so it was easy to get around. That said, it took its sweet time to connect (around 10 seconds) and we never got any notifications when it connected or disconnected. The interface was slightly frustrating because the locations weren’t listed alphabetically so we had trouble finding the desired location.
We tested the provider’s download speeds on a 72Mbps testing connection and a location in Southeast Europe. The first server we were interested in was in the Netherlands and it got us a very low 8.80Mbps (the “automatic” protocol setting was on).
Then, we wanted to see how a server in the UK would fare so we picked London. The result was similar to the previous server - 10.17 Mbps. After this test, we hopped over on the other side of the Atlantic ocean - to New York, US. The speeds across the pond were expectedly lower - reaching a very slow 5.49Mbps.
Finally, it was time to check up on Argentina. We connected to a VPN server in Buenos Aires which hailed a much lower and very slow 2.35Mbps.
Verdict
PrivadoVPN isn’t a complex VPN solution such as ExpressVPN. After all, the latter is a lot faster, has more options, features, and much larger server infrastructure, as well as being able to unblock localized streaming libraries. However, considering you’re still getting support for torrenting, 10 simultaneous connections, strong security, helpful customer support, solid device support, and a free 10GB of traffic per month - it’s still a decent VPN option for a modest user.
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