PrivateVPN Review: Great Performance With Modest Features

Abeerah Hashim  - Security Expert
Last updated: July 22, 2023
Read time: 29 minutes Disclosure
Facts checked by Ali Qamar
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PrivateVPN offers superior data security features. Yet, it has an unclear data-logs policy. Find out if it's good enough to trust and use.

Whether good or bad, the rise of VPNs in the technology sector hints at least one positive thing about internet users. That is, people are concerned about their online security.

Indeed, the flurry of consumers in the VPN market has attracted more tech freaks to join the bandwagon.

But, a problem with newer VPNs is that you can’t trust their reliability and longevity unless they prove otherwise. That’s why the old VPNs appear more reliable.

One such VPN is PrivateVPN. Despite not being as popular as others, its resilient existence for such a long time has undoubtedly earned it some loyal users. And today, PrivateVPN is one of the trusted VPNs providing robust security to consumers.

But should I really prefer using PrivateVPN instead of other VPNs? We hear you ask.

That’s what we will discuss in detail in this PrivateVPN review.

PrivateVPN overview

PrivateVPN is a dedicated VPN from a Swedish firm Privat Global AB. The VPN’s terms and conditions mention the company name as “Privat Kommunikation Sverige AB” with a precise Swedish address.

Sweden is a part of the 14-Eyes alliance, so you can naturally expect the software to log your data to some extent. But, PrivateVPN boasts a (generally) no-logs policy. (We’ll discuss this in detail later.)

The VPN service started off in 2009, thus becoming one of the oldest VPNs that have endured all anti-VPN measures over the years. Throughout this time, PrivateVPN has offered premium privacy and security features protecting the users. That’s how they achieved a credible stance in this realm.

Currently, PrivateVPN boasts a customer base of over 75,000, while it has secured 15000TB of data (according to their website).

Let’s analyze the VPN for the basic parameters in this PrivateVPN review.

Pros and cons

Pros
  • Unblocks BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Hulu and more
  • Support up to 10 simultaneous connections
  • Customizable encryption
  • User-friendly apps
  • 30-day money-back guarantee
  • Great for torrenting
Cons
  • Small server fleet
  • No-split tunneling on some apps
  • Reduced speed on some servers

Servers and network coverage

Private VPN updated servers info
One thing we liked about PrivateVPN is that the service shows users the ping time of each server.

The first thing that PrivacySavvy looks for in the case of a VPN is its server locations and network coverage.

Given the long period of its existence, we initially expected it to have a vast server network like the other old VPNs. For instance, ExpressVPN has over 3,000 servers, NordVPN has 5,400+, and Private Internet Access (PIA) has 35,000+ servers.

However, in the case of PrivateVPN, we didn’t find it to have a vast network. Currently, the VPN list just over 200 servers on its network. That’s a bit disappointing.