PrivadoVPN Review 2024: Is It Secure & Easy to Use?

PrivadoVPN is secure, fast, easy to use, and good for torrenting, but it’s honestly just an average VPN — all of the VPNs on our list of the top 10 VPNs for 2024 offer a much better value.

PrivadoVPN has industry-standard VPN security features, including 256-bit AES encryption, a kill switch, and a no-logs policy. It also comes with IPv6 and DNS leak protection and allows up to 10 connections, which makes PrivadoVPN a good option for people with a lot of devices or large households.

While there are a lot of things I like about PrivadoVPN, it has many areas that need improvement — for example, PrivadoVPN is missing advanced security features like RAM-only servers and perfect forward secrecy, it doesn’t have extra features like a malware blocker, and it doesn’t work with a lot of streaming sites (including Hulu, Disney+, and Max). Also, it lacks detailed troubleshooting guides and some setup tutorials and doesn’t have live chat.

PrivadoVPN has a decent free plan and paid monthly and yearly plans, and its yearly plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

PrivadoVPN Full Review — Pretty Good for Torrenting & Browsing (But Not Much More)

I spent a few weeks testing and researching PrivadoVPN to see how it compares to other top VPNs on the market. Despite a few issues, I can safely say it’s a pretty good torrenting VPN.

PrivadoVPN allows P2P traffic on all 377 of its servers, works with popular torrenting apps like qBittorrent and Vuze, and has fast download speeds. It also comes with SOCKS5 proxy servers, which provide faster torrenting speeds than a regular VPN connection. In addition, PrivadoVPN keeps your torrenting secure and private with a kill switch, bank-grade encryption, a strict no-logs policy, and strong leak protection.

But PrivadoVPN isn’t good for streaming, it lacks extras like a double VPN feature and a malware blocker, and it’s missing advanced security features like perfect forward secrecy.

Overall, Privado is a good and secure VPN for basic online activities like browsing and sharing files, but it doesn’t have a lot of things that I expect from a top-rated VPN.

PrivadoVPN Plans & Pricing — Good Free Plan & Competitive Paid Options

PrivadoVPN has a free plan and paid monthly and yearly plans.

The free plan is pretty good — it’s ad-free and comes with a no-logs policy, access to servers in 10 countries ((the UK, the US, India, the Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Mexico, and France), and P2P support. But it doesn’t have streaming support, it lets you use the VPN on 1 device, and it limits you to 10 GB of data per month, which is still pretty good for browsing or downloading small torrents (1–2 GB files or smaller). I think there are better free VPNs out there — Proton VPN is my favorite one because it has unlimited data and high-end security features.

PrivadoVPN offers very competitive monthly, yearly, and 24-month plans, with prices that start as low as $1.99 / month. The paid plans add unlimited data, 10 simultaneous connections (the industry average is 5–7 connections), servers in 48 countries, streaming support, and access to SOCKS5 proxies.

However, ExpressVPN, Private Internet Access, and CyberGhost VPN all provide better value — they all have advanced security features, maintain faster speeds, and work with more streaming sites.

PrivadoVPN accepts credit cards and PayPal but doesn’t accept cryptocurrencies, which offer more privacy. PrivadoVPN backs its yearly plans with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

PrivadoVPN Features — Comes With All the Essentials

PrivadoVPN has the following industry-standard VPN security features:

• 256-bit AES encryption. PrivadoVPN uses the same encryption as banks and militaries to protect your data.
• No-logs policy. PrivadoVPN doesn’t log your IP address and internet traffic (the sites you visit and the files you download).
• Kill switch. This feature disables your internet access if you’re not connected to PrivadoVPN to protect you from accidental traffic leaks. But top brands like ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN have kill switches that are only triggered when your VPN connection drops, which is more flexible and convenient — you can still go online without connecting to the VPN.

PrivadoVPN supports the OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPSec, and Wireguard protocols. They’re all secure and fast, but IKEv2/IPSec is faster than OpenVPN, and Wireguard is the fastest of them all. However, OpenVPN is more flexible with TCP and UDP support as well as 4 port options: 1194, 443, 8080, and 8443. It also has an automatic setting that will adjust your protocol for you depending on your activity.

PrivadoVPN provides DNS and IPv6 leak protection, but it lacks WebRTC leak protection. I ran tests on servers in 10+ countries and never saw any leaks. I still recommend manually disabling WebRTC to make sure you’re 100% safe. Other top VPNs (like ExpressVPN) handle everything in the background for you by providing full protection against all leaks.

PrivadoVPN also has a couple of extra features:

• Split-tunneling. This is a useful tool that allows you to choose which apps, websites, and IPs use or don’t use the VPN tunnel. This is great as many VPNs only allow you to control which apps use the VPN tunnel, not IPs or websites. PrivadoVPN’s split-tunneling worked great during my tests and gave me faster speeds for streaming, file sharing, and gaming.
• Ad Blocker. The VPN’s ad blocker is pretty unique as it is only accessible through your account on PrivadoVPN’s website. It’s sorted into 3 main categories: Threats, Family Security, and Social. In each category, you can turn toggles on and off to control what the VPN allows you to access. Overall, it did a very good job at blocking the requested types of sites. I tested it by accessing social sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch, adult content sites, liquor store sites, and cryptocurrency websites, and it blocked all of these. However, it let me access multiple vaping store websites even when I had that category enabled, so it isn’t foolproof. The ad blocker also worked pretty well: it blocked me from accessing known malicious websites, and I didn’t see any ads on typically ad-heavy sites like news websites.
• Obfuscation. PrivadoVPN has obfuscation via the OpenVPN protocol. To enable it, you simply click on the Scramble option. It’s available on all apps including iOS and Android mobile apps.

Overall, PrivadoVPN is missing WebRTC leak protection, but it still provides good leak protection and comes with essential VPN security features like split-tunneling, fast and secure protocols, an ad blocker, and obfuscation.

PrivadoVPN Privacy & Security — Strict No-Logs Policy & Privacy-Friendly Location

PrivadoVPN has a strict no-logs policy — it doesn’t log your IP address and traffic (the sites you visit and the files you download). It only logs your email address (for account creation and communication) and bandwidth usage (to limit data usage for free users).

But PrivadoVPN hasn’t undergone an independent audit to verify its no-logs policy like ExpressVPN and TunnelBear. Also, PrivadoVPN doesn’t release regular transparency reports (like CyberGhost VPN, Proton VPN, and TunnelBear), which disclose how many requests for user data a VPN received and prove that it didn’t hand over any information. I really wish PrivadoVPN would conduct an audit or release a transparency report in the future to be more aligned with other top VPNs in terms of privacy.

PrivadoVPN is headquartered in Switzerland, a privacy-friendly country outside the jurisdiction of the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliances (a group of countries that share surveillance data with each other).

Overall, PrivadoVPN has a clear no-logs policy (but it’s not audited) and is located in a country that has strong privacy laws.

PrivadoVPN Speed & Performance — Maintains Fast Speeds on Distant Servers

I ran multiple speed tests on my Windows 10 PC in all 48 countries where PrivadoVPN has a server to determine my average VPN speeds. I had the fastest speeds while connected to a server in my country (Romania), but I also maintained fast speeds on distant servers in Israel, the US, Canada, Thailand, and even Japan.

First, I ran a speed test without being connected to the VPN to get a baseline of my internet service provider (ISP) speeds. Next, I used PrivadoVPN’s quick-connect feature (Best Location), which automatically connected me to the fastest VPN server for my location (a local server in Romania). Finally, I tested a long-distance server in the US. Here are the results:

Overall, when I tested a local server, I experienced an 82% slowdown, which normally isn’t good — but Romania has very fast internet speeds so the slowdown didn’t affect my online activities. Most websites loaded in 2–3 seconds, and 4K videos loaded in 2–3 seconds and didn’t buffer when I skipped through them.

When my colleague in the US west coast connected to a distant server on the east coast, his speeds decreased by about 93%, but he still had fast speeds — he told me that HD videos on Amazon Prime US loaded in less than 5 seconds and didn’t buffer, his Voice over IP (VoIP) calls never dropped, and he had fast torrenting speeds (he downloaded an 11 GB file in 10–15 minutes, which is really good).

PrivadoVPN Servers & IP Addresses — Small Network, but It Has a Good Color-Coding System

PrivadoVPN has 377 servers in 48 countries. PrivadoVPN has many servers in Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia, but there are very few servers in South America, Africa, and the Middle East. Other top VPNs have bigger networks with servers in most regions of the world — ExpressVPN has servers in 105 countries and CyberGhost VPN has servers in 100 countries.

I really like that PrivadoVPN displays the server latency (how long it takes an internet signal to travel from your device to the VPN server) to help you identify fast servers (VyprVPN and Private Internet Access also display this cool metric). PrivadoVPN also uses a color-coding system to help you quickly identify the servers with the lowest latency (green = good and red = bad). In my tests, PrivadoVPN’s latency was accurate — I always had faster speeds when I used servers marked with green-colored latency.

Like ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access, PrivadoVPN allows torrenting on all servers — some top VPNs only let you torrent on dedicated servers (for example, HMA VPN has P2P servers in 6 countries), so you might not always find a nearby server to get fast downloads.

Overall, PrivadoVPN has a smaller server network than other top VPNs, but users in Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia should have an easy time finding a nearby server to get fast speeds. Also, PrivadoVPN uses a color-coded system that helps you identify servers with the lowest latency, and it allows torrenting on all servers.

PrivadoVPN Streaming & Torrenting — Good for Torrenting, Okay for Streaming

PrivadoVPN is only decent for streaming — it works with Amazon Prime, Netflix, and BBC iPlayer, but it doesn’t work with Disney+, Hulu, or Max. It also works with less popular channels like VRV, Crunchyroll, and Sony Crackle.

If you want a VPN that consistently works with Disney+ and all of the other popular streaming services, I recommend ExpressVPN, which claims to work with 100+ streaming sites and has some of the fastest speeds out there.

But PrivadoVPN is good for torrenting. All servers allow P2P traffic and it works with top torrenting apps (like qBittorrent and uTorrent).

I also like that PrivadoVPN has SOCKS5 servers in 30+ countries — SOCKS5 servers hide your IP address just like a VPN, but they don’t use encryption (which makes your data heavier and causes slowdowns), so SOCKS5 servers provide faster speeds. In my tests, my speeds were 40% faster when I used SOCKS5 servers. Plus, I like how easy it is to set up and use PrivadoVPN’s SOCKS5 servers (you use a dropdown menu in the account dashboard to get the server login information, and there are helpful tutorials for most P2P apps). Still, other VPNs like PrivateVPN and IPVanish have SOCKS5 servers in more countries, so it’s easier to find nearby servers to get faster downloads.

That said, I think other top VPNs provide better torrenting support — for example, ExpressVPN allows torrenting in 105 countries and has very fast P2P speeds, and Private Internet Access supports P2P traffic on all servers and allows port forwarding, which connects you to more peers for faster download speeds.

Overall, PrivadoVPN works with top sites like Amazon Prime US, Netflix, and BBC iPlayer, but it’s not good for streaming Hulu, Max, or Disney+. It allows P2P traffic on all servers, works with popular torrenting apps, and also has SOCKS5 servers.

PrivadoVPN Ease of Use: Mobile & Desktop Apps — Intuitive & Easy to Use

PrivadoVPN has apps for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Android TV, and Fire TV, but it’s missing a Linux app (ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN have good Linux apps). The installation process is very simple — I installed PrivadoVPN on my Android, iPhone, MacBook Pro, and Windows 10 PC in 1–2 minutes.

I like the mobile apps because they’re very intuitive. PrivadoVPN’s iOS and Android apps have 1-click connections, and it’s easy to manually connect to a server. Plus, they have a search field, so you don’t have to scroll through the list of servers to find the one you want. However, I don’t like that the iOS app lacks a kill switch, and on Android, the kill switch has to be enabled in your device settings, which isn’t convenient — most top VPNs like PrivateVPN and TunnelBear have a kill switch on Android, and a few VPNs (like Private Internet Access) even have a kill switch on iOS. The Android app also has split-tunneling, but the iOS app doesn’t.

Like the mobile apps, PrivadoVPN’s desktop apps are user-friendly. It’s really easy to connect to a server because there’s a quick-connect feature and search field, and you can sort the servers by latency. Also, there are convenient auto-connect options that allow you to automatically connect to the fastest VPN server using the Best Location feature, connect to the last server you used, connect to a random server when you open the app, or a random server from your Favorites list.

Overall, PrivadoVPN’s desktop apps are better than its mobile apps because they have a convenient kill switch and more connection options. Also, the Android app has a few extra features than the iOS app, like split-tunneling. But I like that all apps have an intuitive design and are easy to use.

PrivadoVPN Customer Support — Room for Improvement

PrivadoVPN provides a good range of customer support options — there are thorough FAQs, setup guides for each of the 6 supported device types, troubleshooting guides, all with helpful images to make explanations clearer. Privado also uses a ticketing system for email support. One downside is the absence of live chat.

PrivadoVPN’s FAQs are informative and easy to understand. In most instances, these FAQs were enough to address my questions, eliminating the need to reach out to the support team. They do a great job of answering basic questions about how the VPN works and its benefits. Plus, they’re really well organized which is helpful for quickly finding what you’re looking for, and there’s also a search bar.

I also tested PrivadoVPN’s email support via the ticketing system. On average, I received a reply in 3-4 hours, which is good, but the answers were sometimes vague and I had to follow up with more questions. Plus, even when I asked a very basic question, the first reply asked for details like my username, country, app version, operating system, protocol, and more that didn’t have anything to do with my query. Other top VPNs like ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access have better email support — their reps always fully answered my questions.

But I don’t like that PrivadoVPN is missing in-depth troubleshooting guides and setup tutorials for some platforms — it only has basic tutorials for its main apps (iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, AndroidTV, and FireTV) and manual setup instructions for routers and Linux. Top VPNs like ExpressVPN have more detailed support libraries that include troubleshooting guides for connectivity and streaming issues, as well as setup tutorials for all platforms, including video guides.

Overall, PrivadoVPN’s email support needs improvement, it doesn’t have live chat, and it’s missing detailed troubleshooting guides, but I like that it has helpful FAQs and basic setup guides for things like routers and the SOCKS5 proxy.

Is PrivadoVPN Secure & Easy to Use in 2024?

PrivadoVPN has good security features, fast speeds, user-friendly apps, and provides good torrenting support, but it’s a basic VPN and there are better options available on the market in 2024.

PrivadoVPN secures your data with industry-standard security features like 256-bit AES encryption, a no-logs policy, and a kill switch. It also provides IPv6 and DNS leak protection, and it supports up to 10 devices. Plus, it comes with extras like split-tunneling and an ad blocker.

However, PrivadoVPN doesn’t have advanced security features like perfect forward secrecy and RAM-only servers, its no-logs policy isn’t audited, and it doesn’t work with Hulu, Disney+, and Max. Plus, I’d like to see live chat and more detailed guide articles in its support section.

PrivadoVPN has a decent free plan and paid monthly, yearly, and 24-month plans, and the yearly plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is PrivadoVPN safe?

Yes, PrivadoVPN comes with industry-standard VPN security features (256-bit AES encryption, a kill switch, and a no-logs policy), and it also provides IPv6 and DNS leak protection.

However, PrivadoVPN is missing advanced security features like perfect forward secrecy and RAM-only servers, plus its no-logs policy hasn’t been audited.

If you’re looking for an extremely safe VPN, I recommend ExpressVPN — in addition to essential VPN security features, its no-logs policy has been independently audited and confirmed, it includes WebRTC leak protection, and it has advanced security features like perfect forward secrecy and RAM-only servers.

Does PrivadoVPN work with Netflix?

Yes, PrivadoVPN does work with Netflix libraries around the world. It also works with BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime, as well as with smaller sites like VRV and Crunchyroll. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work with many of the most popular sites like Max and Disney+.

Is PrivadoVPN free?

Yes, PrivadoVPN has a decent free plan. The free plan is ad-free, secure, fast, and supports P2P traffic in 10 countries, including the UK, the US, and the Netherlands. But it limits you to 1 device and 10 GB of data per month, which is enough for some browsing and downloading small torrents (1–2 GB files or smaller).

Is PrivadoVPN good for torrenting?

Yes, PrivadoVPN supports P2P traffic on all 377 servers, works with popular torrenting apps, and has fast downloads. It also has SOCKS5 proxy servers (which provide faster downloads than a VPN connection) in 30+ countries. And it includes great security features, including 256-bit AES encryption, a no-logs policy, a kill switch, and DNS and IPv6 leak protection.