PrivadoVPN Review (2024): Secure VPN With a Focus on Privacy
PrivadoVPN is the best free VPN on the market. It offers free servers in multiple locations, including the US, the UK, The Netherlands, and Brazil.
A subscription with this VPN provider gives you access to servers in over 44 countries that can unblock virtually any streaming service, as we discovered during our PrivadoVPN review.
However, upload speeds can be slow, and sometimes, content may take a while to load. Hence, if you’re looking for a VPN with a wider server network and lightning-fast upload speeds, you’ll be better off with NordVPN.
After testing over 150 VPNs, we consider NordVPN the best VPN provider on the market, with servers in over 60 countries, consistently fast speeds, and robust security features.
Limited offer: Enjoy 69% off NordVPN!
PrivadoVPN: Pros and Cons
What We Like:
- Budget-friendly thanks to its generous free plan
- Unblocks Netflix and other streaming services
- Keep you data safe owing to its strict no-logs policy
- Ideal for downloading torrents
- Enables you to browse anonymously since it doesn't suffer from DNS or IP leaks
- Ideal for beginners because of its easy-to-use VPN apps
What We Don't Like:
- Relatively small server network
- No live chat support
PrivadoVPN is suitable for anyone who needs a good free VPN. The paid version also works well if you need a VPN for casual browsing or unblocking streaming services. Moreover, the VPN has a strict no-logs policy, so your data will be safe and won’t be shared with third parties.
Those who enjoy P2P file-sharing will find PrivadoVPN a good choice for torrenting. However, it does have a relatively small server network.
Nevertheless, during our PrivadoVPN review, we found the provider’s interface easy to use, and we recommend it to anyone looking for a budget-friendly VPN since it has of the cheapest VPN subscriptions available on the market.
Visit PrivadoVPN to learn more about what you can get for its bargain prices.
| 💵 Price | From $1.11 a month |
| 📱 Operating systems | Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux |
| 💻 Connections | 10 |
| 💳 Payment methods | PayPal, Credit card, Cryptocurrency, MINT |
| 🔒 Protocols | OpenVPN, IKEv2, WireGuard |
| 📥 Torrent options | Torrenting allowed |
| 📅 Money-back guarantee | Money-back guarantee, 30 Days |
| 📋 Logs | Zero logs |
| 🎬 Works with |
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How Much Does PrivadoVPN Cost?
PrivadoVPN’s cheapest plan is the two-year plan, which costs $1.11 per month. This plan is ideal if you want an affordable long-term VPN that you can use on up to 10 devices. What’s more? It includes three months free. So, you’ll pay for 24 months, but you’ll get access to the VPN service for 27 months.
Aside from the two-year plan, the VPN offers a monthly and yearly plan — as shown below.
- PrivadoVPN 24 Months $1.11mth Deal View offer
- PrivadoVPN 12 Months $1.33mth View offer
- PrivadoVPN 1 Month $10.99mth View offer
At $10.99, PrivadoVPN’s monthly plan is one of the cheapest in the VPN market. To give you a better understanding, most of our top VPN providers price their monthly plans between $11 and $13.
PrivadoVPN’s yearly plan is also outrageously cheap, costing only $1.33. Again, this is cut-price when you compare it to top cheap VPNs like Surfshark ($3.99). That said, it’s important to mention that mere prices are not enough to decide on a VPN; you have to consider the features and performance you’re getting.
The PrivadoVPN free plan is also good, offering 10 GB of monthly data and access to 12 server locations, which can unblock popular streaming platforms. We consider it the overall best free VPN.
If you want one of the paid plans, you can pay for it in one of the following ways:
- Credit card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, Amex, JCB, and Diners Club International)
- PayPal
- Cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin)
- Mint
We recommend using cryptocurrency if you want to remain as anonymous as possible. This makes this VPN provider rub shoulders with our best VPNs for crypto trading.
Do you get your money’s worth with PrivadoVPN?
PrivadoVPN is worth the price if you’re interested in hiding your virtual location, browsing anonymously, and unblocking regular websites.
Moreover, the VPN provider can unblock all popular streaming platforms and offer good speeds on its servers, as we discovered during our PrivadoVPN review. Therefore, you can use the VPN’s 30-day money-back guarantee to try the provider, and if you want to opt out, you can just ask for a full refund.
Does PrivadoVPN Work With Streaming?
PrivadoVPN can unblock streaming services, including Netflix, Disney Plus, BBC iPlayer, and Amazon Prime Video. We didn’t experience any lag or delays while streaming. The only reason this VPN is not on our best VPN for streaming list is that its speeds are not as fast as the VPNs on that list.
In the table below, you’ll find a summary of PrivadoVPN’s streaming ability.
| Platform | Can PrivadoVPN unblock it? |
|---|---|
| Netflix (US) | ✔ |
| Netflix (UK) | ✔ |
| Netflix (localized – only for translations) | ✔ |
| Disney Plus (EU) | ✔ |
| Hulu (US) | ✔ |
| BBC iPlayer (UK) | ✔ |
| Prime Video (EU) | ✔ |
| HBO Max (EU)* | ✔ |
PrivadoVPN and Netflix
We were able to unblock Netflix libraries during our PrivadoVPN review, and this is impressive because many VPNs struggle with Netflix. For example, while connected to the VPN’s Chicago server, we streamed several seasons of shows like Supernatural, which is exclusive to Netflix US. Sometimes, we had to wait for a wee bit for the show to load.
Thankfully, we didn’t experience any lag or interruptions while streaming Netflix US, so PrivadoVPN did great at offering us a seamless viewing experience.
PrivadoVPN and Disney Plus
PrivadoVPN also gave us access to Disney Plus. Initially, we attempted to connect to Disney Plus while in Ghana, Africa. The website didn’t open, and we received a message indicating that Disney Plus is not available in our location. However, when we connected to the VPN’s US server (New York), we had access to the website and could stream any movie of our choice.
It’s also worth noting that we didn’t experience any buffering wheels while streaming.
Torrenting With PrivadoVPN
PrivadoVPN is a good choice for torrenting. Unlike other free VPNs, PrivadoVPN supports P2P traffic on all their servers and for all active accounts.
There are two options for anonymously downloading torrents. First, you can connect to the regular PrivadoVPN network to torrent securely. This will mask your IP address and encrypt your data. Encrypting and decrypting data takes time and can slow down downloads. We experienced this in practice as well: while testing, we encountered some delays during downloading.
The second option for downloading with PrivadoVPN is focused on speed. If you have a paid account, you can use a SOCKS5 proxy for downloading. SOCKS5 anonymizes your connection by masking your IP. However, your data won’t be encrypted the way it is with a VPN, so it’s not as secure as connecting to a VPN server from Privado.
We tested if PrivadoVPN actually protects torrenting traffic using ipleak.net. We connected to PrivadoVPN’s New York server and attempted to download torrents from PirateBay, one of the best torrenting sites. Ipleak showed that our original location doesn’t show; it’s the VPN’s IP that’s visible. This proves that PrivadoVPN protects you while you download torrents.
PrivadoVPN Servers and Locations
PrivadoVPN does not disclose its exact number of VPN servers but says that there are “hundreds across 44 countries.” This is relatively fewer than the best VPN providers like NordVPN, Surfshark, and CyberGhost, which have thousands of servers.
Below are the countries with PrivadoVPN servers:
- America: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United States
- Europe: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom
- Asia Pacific: Australia, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan
- Middle East & Africa: Israel, Turkey, and South Africa
PrivadoVPN doesn’t have any specialized servers. Such servers are optimized for specific purposes such as streaming, obfuscation, and P2P downloads.
Dedicated IP address
PrivadoVPN doesn’t offer dedicated IP addresses. A dedicated IP gives you a unique IP address, which is great for staying off blacklists, avoiding repeated verification requests, and working from home safely.
If you need a VPN that offers dedicated IP addresses, we recommend NordVPN. It has dedicated IPs in multiple locations, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and France.
How Fast is PrivadoVPN?
Overall, we found PrivadoVPN a fast VPN to use. While connected to the VPN’s servers during our PrivadoVPN review, we were able to surf the web, stream HD videos on YouTube and Netflix, and download torrents without any significant lag. Online games sometimes took a while to load, but once they loaded, we didn’t have any issues.
Speed test results for PrivadoVPN
We conducted our speed tests from our location in The Netherlands using a laptop with Windows 10. First, we recorded our speeds without a VPN to get baseline values. Afterward, we connected to PrivadoVPN servers in different countries across various continents to estimate the speed drop-offs.
| Server | Download (Mbps) | Upload (Mbps) | Ping (ms) |
|---|---|---|---|
| No VPN | 202.16 | 242.23 | 3 |
| The Netherlands (Amsterdam) | 195.56 | 143.14 | 6 |
| UK (London) | 193.52 | 114.61 | 14 |
| US East (New York) | 193.16 | 48.9 | 126 |
| US West (Los Angeles) | 171.31 | 26.16 | 178 |
| Japan | 122.84 | 18.6 | 241 |
| Australia | 69.27 | 15.58 | 301 |
| Brazil | 113.5 | 24.98 | 182 |
| South Africa | 143.95 | 38.8 | 174 |
As you can see from the table, PrivadoVPN’s download speeds are reasonably good. Our closest locations (The Netherlands and the UK) kept at least 90% of our download speeds. This is the standard among most of the fastest VPNs in our books. Our download speeds were much slower in faraway locations, but that’s to be expected. The further away you are from a server, the slower your speeds.
PrivadoVPN’s upload speeds were quite disappointing, however. For instance, we lost nearly 90% of our unprotected speeds when we connected to the VPN’s Los Angeles servers. The upload results suggest that this provider might not be great for upload-related activities. PrivadoVPN’s pings are within the ballpark of what most good VPNs offer.
Is PrivadoVPN Safe?
We consider PrivadoVPN a secure VPN that can help you browse the internet anonymously and keep you safe online. The VPN provider uses AES 256-bit encryption and strong VPN protocols, namely IKEv2, OpenVPN, and WireGuard. It doesn’t leak user data and implements a strict no-logs policy.
Does PrivadoVPN leak your data?
Our PrivadoVPN review revealed that the provider doesn’t leak your data. To verify this, we connected to the VPN’s servers and checked our IP address using our IP address tool. The results showed that PrivadoVPN successfully spoofed our virtual location.
We also ran further tests using browserleaks.com. First, we checked our IP address to see if PrivadoVPN suffers from IPv4/IPv6 leaks. We also checked if it suffers from DNS or WebRTC leaks. The results showed that PrivadoVPN has DNS leak protection.
Can you sign up to PrivadoVPN anonymously?
Privado accepts crypto payments, which provides a measure of anonymity. The service integrated with Coinbase in 2022, allowing users to pay with popular cryptos like Ethereum, Dogecoin, and ApeCoin.
To create a Privado free VPN account, you only need a verified email address. To create a premium account that gives you access to all features, you will also need to provide your credit card or PayPal information.
You can pay for PrivadoVPN with your crypto wallet and crypto debit card, much like many other VPNs you can buy with Bitcoin.
Logging and privacy
PrivadoVPN is based in Switzerland, where the privacy of users is well protected. As a result of this, PrivadoVPN doesn’t need to keep any user logs. On top of that, Swiss law requires requests for customer data from PrivadoVPN to be disclosed to the customer.
PrivadoVPN has a strict no-logs policy and doesn’t store any sensitive information about users’ online activities. This includes IP addresses, browsing history, traffic destination, data content, and DNS queries.
That said, PrivadoVPN collects the following data to provide its services:
- Your email address and your username
- Payment details
- Information you share with customer support
- Anonymous aggregate statistics, such as commonly used operating systems and devices, installs and uninstalls
This data is stored on RAM servers, which means it cannot be stored for long periods of time. In other words, PrivadoVPN couldn’t even keep user logs if they wanted to. The VPN service knows that users are connecting to the network, but they have no data telling them who’s connected, where they are, or what they’re doing.
PrivadoVPN’s logging policy and server network haven’t gone through an independent audit yet. Such audits lend credence to a VPN’s strict no-logs claims. That’s why top-rated VPNs like NordVPN have undergone several independent audits.
Protocols and encryption
PrivadoVPN uses AES 256-bit encryption and supports the following VPN protocols:
- OpenVPN (UDP): By far the strongest combination of speed and security. Works on almost any network.
- OpenVPN (TCP): Slightly slower than OpenVPN (UDP), but more secure and works on almost all networks.
- IKEv2/IPsec: Faster than OpenVPN protocols but may not work on some networks.
- WireGuard: The latest VPN protocol that’s super fast and secure.
All of these are secure protocols, but PrivadoVPN uses IKEv2 by default. You can change this in the “Settings” section of the app. When speed is a priority, we recommend using WireGuard. Additionally, PrivadoVPN also offers a SOCKS 5 proxy, which is helpful for hiding your IP address from online services.
Overall, it’s easy to switch protocols on PrivadoVPN, and they work as intended.
Kill switch
PrivadoVPN has a kill switch in its desktop apps. During our PrivadoVPN review, we discovered that this kill switch immediately closes off your internet connection when your VPN connection is interrupted, so your information won’t leak online.
PrivadoVPN’s kill switch is a system-wide kill switch, so your entire device will be disconnected from the internet when the VPN disconnects. Other VPNs say NordVPN, have app-level kill switches that only affect specified apps or URLs.
The kill switch function can be found in the dashboard on PrivadoVPN’s macOS and Windows app, so you can easily enable or disable it.
We tested the kill switch by setting up a PageRefresher for whatismyipaddress.com and disconnecting from our VPN connection. It was only the VPN’s IP address that kept showing, proving that the kill switch works.
Split Tunneling
PrivadoVPN offers split tunneling, which enables users to decide which apps are routed through the VPN tunnel. PrivadoVPN calls its split tunneling feature SmartRoute. This feature is handy if you only need VPN protection for specific apps.
We used PrivadoVPN’s split tunneling, and we can confirm that it works as advertised. For instance, we were able to get the VPN to only work on Netflix and leave the other apps to run normally.
Is PrivadoVPN Easy to Use?
PrivadoVPN has desktop and mobile apps for various operating systems, including Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, FireTV, Android TV, Linux, and routers. We tested it on Windows 10 and found it easy to install and use. Connecting to servers was a breeze, and all the settings were easy to find.
PrivadoVPN on Windows
We found PrivadoVPN’s Windows app very user-friendly. We were able to install it in less than two minutes. Here are the steps to follow:
- Go to PrivadoVPN’s “Pricing” page and select either the free plan or one of the paid plans. Click the orange “Select” button under the plan you want.
- Select your payment method and pay for the provider.
- Once done, click the “Get Now” button. This will automatically generate a unique username and password for you, as well as point you to download the installer file on your system. You will also receive an email with your username and password.
- Open the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions to install the PrivadoVPN client.
When you first open PrivadoVPN, you will have to log into your account, which can be either a free or premium account. You need to enter the automatically generated username and password you got when you created your account.
Once you log in, the PrivadoVPN app dashboard shows your nearest server location and a “Click to Connect” button. At the bottom of the screen is an option to enable the kill switch.
You can click on the location to see a full list of servers and select where you want to connect.
To access the settings, click the gear icon. Here, you can customize options like selecting a protocol.
Overall, the app is well-designed and easy to navigate. It’s quite user-friendly and works well, even when using the free version. Beginners and first-time VPN users shouldn’t have an issue navigating this service.
Customer Service
The VPN’s website has a knowledge base containing answers to a lot of frequently asked questions. If your question isn’t listed there, you can always contact customer service via email. We tested customer support during our PrivadoVPN review and received clear answers to our questions within an hour.
Unfortunately, PrivadoVPN doesn’t have a live chat feature. This would definitely make their customer support even better. However, despite the lack of a live chat, we received a very quick response to our email.
PrivadoVPN’s money-back guarantee: How to get a refund
PrivadoVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all plans. This means that you can get a refund within 30 days of purchasing a subscription. To get a refund, simply reach out to the VPN’s customer support agents.
After finishing our review, we requested a refund. Impressively, the refund process was easy, and we were able to cancel and receive our money back within the same day.
What Reddit Users Think About PrivadoVPN
Like many VPNs, PrivadoVPN’s reviews on Reddit are a mixed bag. However, we noticed that there are quite a few users who praise the VPN for being cheap, user-friendly, and privacy-focused.
But, there were also some users who complained about PrivadoVPN being slow at times.
Do We Recommend PrivadoVPN?
We recommend PrivadoVPN if you need a free VPN. However, the paid version is also a good choice since it offers reasonably fast speeds, excellent unblocking ability, and good security features.
We were especially impressed with PrivadoVPN’s ability to unblock all popular streaming platforms and its strict no-logs policy. However, we were a bit disappointed with its upload speeds and the fact that sometimes content took a while to load.
Nevertheless, we recommend you try this provider for yourself. It is also currently offering some great discounts for new subscribers.
Do you have a question about PrivadoVPN? Take a look at some of our frequently asked questions below. Click on the question to see our answer.
PrivadoVPN is a very secure VPN service. This VPN uses the strongest AES 256-bit encryption available and has a strict no-logs policy. Moreover, it is based in Switzerland, which is known as a privacy-friendly region. So, it’s a highly trustworthy VPN.
Yes, PrivadoVPN unblocks Netflix and other geo-blocked streaming services like Hulu and BBC iPlayer. It has decent download speeds that ensure that you can stream without any buffering wheels.
Installing PrivadoVPN is quick and easy. The PrivadoVPN website and software have a clear and intuitive look. Because of this, PrivadoVPN is also suitable for new VPN users.
PrivadoVPN has a nice free version with 10 GB of data per month and access to 12 server locations. Its speed and security make it one of the best free VPNs on the market. To unlock all of PrivadoVPN’s features, you can get a premium subscription for a few dollars a month through our website.
PrivadoVPN is a no-logs VPN and does not collect user data. It is also based in Switzerland, which has strong privacy laws. So, it’s a trusted provider that does not collect or sell your data.
PrivadoVPN allows torrenting on all its servers and offers good speed and security. It is one of the best free VPNs for torrenting. Premium users also get access to the SOCKS5 proxy.
What Our Experts Think About PrivadoVPN
