Mashable's Charles Poladian praised PureVPN in 2018 when it was based in Hong Kong, which he says has "favorable data laws" and "isn't part of the intelligence-gathering alliance". Brian Nadel of Tom's Guide criticized PureVPN for requiring real names for user signups, even when users employ Bitcoin or gift cards for payment. It does not store what websites a customer is accessing. PureVPN also stores HTTP cookies for online advertising purposes as well as user account information like email address and credit card data. To prevent misuse and monitor quality, it records how much bandwidth customers are using. PureVPN does not store the exact time a customer accessed VPN. PureVPN stores logs containing information about what Internet service provider a customer used to access it service and which day the service was used. PureVPN places virtual servers close to the country they say it is at, which Eddy found problematic for users who want to avoid their data passing through certain countries. Eddy found that in 87 of those countries, PureVPN's servers are virtual servers that merely make the servers seem to be in a different country than where it really is at.
Max Eddy of PC Magazine said PureVPN "offers some of the best geographic diversity I have yet seen among VPN companies" though "not everything is necessarily as it seems". Their servers are in 180 separate locations and in Africa, Asia, Australia, Central America, Europe, North America, and South America. PureVPN has more than 2,000 servers in over 140 countries. It allocated 200 servers for peer-to-peer file sharing and BitTorrent usage but does not provide any servers for accessing the Tor network. PureVPN can be run at the same time on five sessions.
PureVPN provides desktop clients for Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows and mobile clients for Android and iOS. PureVPN offers users the option to turn on the "VPN Hotspot", allowing other devices to use the PureVPN hotspot connection. Other configuration options include the transport protocol (the less safe UDP or the more safe but less speedy TCP) and split tunneling (choosing the apps that will direct traffic through the VPN). It then uses this selection to choose specific servers for customers to send their Internet traffic through. PureVPN allows customers to select what they plan to do such as browsing social media, conducting Voice over IP calls, and streaming videos. According to Mashable's Charles Poladian, "many credible reports" indicated that PureVPN was unsuccessful in overcoming China's Great Firewall. Internet Freedom, for example, lets customers select which countries their Internet traffic is going through when trying to bypass the Great Firewall of China. Each category has a different configuration.
PureVPN's homepage allows users to select from four categories: Stream, Internet Freedom, Security/Privacy, and File Sharing. Founded in 2007, it employs contractors in the United States, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Pakistan, the British Virgin Islands, and formerly Hong Kong. PureVPN was co-founded by Uzair Gadit who is based in Pakistan. Its mailing address is in Tortola, the British Virgin Islands.
PureVPN is owned by GZ Systems Limited, a software company that creates cybersecurity apps. The service has been criticized for having inconsistent speeds, being unable to access Netflix videos, and having usability problems. It stores the day and the Internet service provider through which a user accesses the service but does not store the name of the website or actual time of access. PureVPN requires users to provide their real names to use the service. PureVPN's 2000 servers are located in 140 countries with 87 of those countries having virtual servers that make the servers seem to be in a different country than where they are actually at.
The user's selection then determines which servers through which their traffic will be routed. PureVPN allows users to select from four categories: Stream, Internet Freedom, Security/Privacy, and File Sharing. Founded in 2007, the company is based in the British Virgin Islands. PureVPN is a commercial VPN service owned by GZ Systems Ltd.