PrivateVPN Review for 2024 | A Budget and Safe VPN for Netflix

Want to play a geo-blocked title not available in your country? Can’t access a Netflix show since it is unavailable in your region?  A VPN might be of great help in this case. Here we have discussed one such tool. In this PrivateVPN review, we will see how it fares up against other competitors. 

VPN or “Virtual Private Network” is no longer an alien concept. It is used by individuals as well as professionals across the globe, for the simple reason that it helps you stay private and secure while you are surfing the world wide web.  If you wish to know what you need a VPN for and what are some of the best VPNs for Windows, you can check this post out. Here we will talk about PrivateVPN, one of the industry leaders when it comes to VPN.

What Is PrivateVPN?

PrivateVPN is a Sweden-based VPN service provider that offers both security and privacy by hiding your IP address. It also ensures that your internet connection remains stable, regardless of which country’s server you are using. Using PrivateVPN you can access geo-restricted media and even steer clear of threat actors. 

Why Use PrivateVPN?

• To hide your IP address and location, and, become anonymous while surfing the web. This way no one -  government agencies, marketers, or even search engines, will be able to track you. 
• Access your favorite games and streaming services even if they are otherwise blocked with geo-restrictions. 
• While using public Wi-Fi at an airport, cafe’ or anywhere else you can use PrivateVPN for Chrome or desktop client, and rest assured that hackers won’t be able to catch you or your data. 
• Surf the web anonymously with great speed. 

How To Use PrivateVPN

1. Download and run the Windows desktop client for PrivateVPN. 2. Log in using your username and password. 3. Select a VPN server and click on the Connect button. 

Interface

90% - Excellent

PrivateVPN comes in two views when you install the desktop client - The simple view and the Advanced view as can be seen in the screenshot below.  The “Simple view” of PrivateVPN lets you access the region you want to connect to while also giving you complete control of other settings as well. The “Advanced view” is a more concise view. You can easily shuffle between the two views with a click of a button depending on what view fits your needs.  The main dashboard features your external IP, your connection status, the encryption you are using, etc. You can easily change the locations, watch the ping details, load times, etc. this way you can select a location that offers low load and low ping. 

Features

85% - Very Good

1. No Log VPN

PrivateVPN is a no-log VPN service. This means it doesn’t maintain any logs of your web activity thereby keeping it private. How can you be sure that PrivateVPN doesn't log your data? That’s because PrivateVPN operates under Swedish privacy laws under which data logging is prohibited.

2. Choose From Several Protocols

PrivateVPN supports common protocols. And, if you use the PrivateVPN app, it will select a protocol that suits your network. The protocols offered by PrivateVPN include OpenVPN, L2TP/ IPSec, WireGuard, PPTP, and IKEv2. The reason why we have mentioned the protocols offered is that if you are not happy with the protocol that the app has selected for you, you can choose from among these protocols.  

3. Kill Switch

What if at some instance, your VPN is down? Wouldn’t your connection be vulnerable to threats? PrivateVPN keeps you protected in the event your VPN disconnects. It does so using a kill switch. When this feature is turned on, your internet is disconnected until the VPN connection is restored. 

4. Great Number of Servers

At the outset, we’d like to mention that there are some other players that offer more servers in comparison to PrivateVPN. For instance, Nord VPN provides over 5577 servers in 59 countries. That said, still the number of servers that PrivateVPN provides is decent.  PrivateVPN offers 200+ server locations in over 63 countries across America, Europe, Oceania, South America, Asia, and Africa. You can change your server location anytime you want. PrivateVPN also lets you access VPN services in countries like China as well. But, here you can only connect using the L2TP VPN. 

5. Engineered to be Fast

One thing that strikes the mind when thinking of installing a VPN is how fast it would be. Although it broadly depends upon the speed of your ISP, still you wouldn’t like constant buffering, for instance when watching Netflix with PrivateVPN, would you? PrivateVPN’s speed is decent and in fact better than many competitors. Its server connections deliver higher speeds with low latency. You can check out the “Speed” section where we have elaborated more on PrivateVPN’s speed. 

6. Unblock Netflix

So you have traveled out of your country to somewhere else and can’t access Netflix shows. What would you do now? The good news is, as for Netflix, PrivateVPN is hailed as one of the best options. Thanks to 2048-bit encryption and unlimited bandwidth, PrivateVPN accesses Netflix titles as no other VPN does. It even lets you connect up to 6 devices to Netflix, all at once.

Updates

85% - Very Good

Every time you fire up the app, it checks for any new updates. These updates are important as new features are released through these updates and the app is kept bug free. 

Pricing

80% - Good

As for PrivateVPN’s pricing, it is one of the budget options. Its monthly plan starts at $9.90 which is low compared to ExpressVPN which is priced at $12.95. However, the latter still gets an edge over PrivateVPN in certain instances. You can use PrivateVPN free for 7 days with no risks. But, before that, you will have to sign up for a plan. Below you can find the screenshot of plans offered by PrivateVPN. Also, PrivateVPN offers a full 30-day money-back guarantee. 

Speed

85% - Very Good

We tried PrivateVPN on several occasions and tested its performance. More than 50% of its servers were capable of unblocking most of the streaming platforms including Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and a few others. If considering Netflix, PrivateVPN was able to block many Netflix regions.  Next, we tried to ascertain the speed of PrivateVPN. When we surfed the web using local servers (nearby servers) using OpenVPN, we saw a dip of nearly 8-10% in the speed. However, when we selected far away servers such as the one in the USA, we saw a dip of nearly 45%. Still, we can conclude that PrivateVPN’s speed is possibly one of the best, if not the best. 

Customer Support

90% - Excellent

We won't say that PrivateVPN’s customer support is the best but it does its job fairly well. At any given time if you get stuck you can first refer to the FAQs or knowledge base content that would answer most of your questions regarding the app’s usage or more.  Even if after referring to the guides, you are unable to find an answer to your queries, you can get in touch with support staff via “Live chat”. The staff generally replies to your queries within a few minutes of you asking the question. In our case, when we put forth a query, the support staff was prompt and replied back within a couple of minutes.    Another way you can put forth your queries in greater detail is to reach out via email. You can send in your queries at support@privatevpn.com

Wrapping Up

In the end, we’d like to conclude that concealing your online identity is highly recommended if you want to access geo-restricted content or if you are using the internet at a place that is prone to be attacked by hackers. And, for that, PrivateVPN is a great option. If you have already tried it, do share your experience in the comments section below. For more such content, keep reading Top10PCSoftware. You can also find us on Facebook, Flipboard, and Pinterest.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Is PrivateVPN secure? Yes, PrivateVPN is one of the most secure VPNs. It uses military-grade encryption to hide your online presence. It even has a kill switch that terminates your internet connection should the VPN connection drop. It also comes with a variety of protocols.  Q2. Is PrivateVPN trustworthy? PrivateVPN can be trusted because it has a strict no-logs policy. This means under no circumstances does it log your data and thereby keep your online presence secure and anonymous.  Q3. Is PrivateVPN good for streaming? Almost 50% or even more servers of PrivateVPN are capable of unblocking services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+ and many others.  Q4. Does PrivateVPN work on Netflix? Yes, PrivateVPN is capable of unblocking Netflix.