PrivadoVPN Review 2024: Before You Buy, Is It Worth It?

PrivadoVPN imposed significant slowdowns

PrivadoVPN fell short of my expectations considering that this VPN is marketed with speed as one of the main focuses. My home network download speed is right around 400Mbps. However, my speeds dropped to 30-50% of that when connected to the VPN.

During my testing, I also found that the server names did not quite line up every time. For instance, I tested my speed from the server labeled “Mexico City” but found that my traffic was being routed through Amsterdam instead.

Speed Test Results

Through my testing, I found that my speeds were rather inconsistent between local and distant servers. I also experienced relatively high ping on most servers, with no real consistency between said latency and my connection speeds.

I found that connecting to PrivadoVPN impacted my connection speeds

These speeds were enough for web browsing and content streaming, but I found consistency to be the biggest problem. It’s hard to gauge what sort of speeds you are going to get, especially considering the inconsistent latency.

Is PrivadoVPN Fast Enough for Gaming? No

The inconsistent latency makes it difficult to get a positive gaming experience. While these speeds may look okay from a speed test perspective, I found my actual ping to be quite a bit higher when I hopped into a game of Rocket League.

Such high latency means that this VPN is not ideal for gaming. For a VPN that can deliver fast speeds and a low-latency experience, I recommend ExpressVPN. It has lightning-fast speeds and offers low latency across most of its servers.

Server Network — A Limited Selection

Even considering this VPN’s small size, it has a limited range of server coverage in 45 countries and 58 cities with 200 servers in total. That’s not a whole lot compared to other competitors of similar size.

Now, these are all physical servers, which the VPN proudly notes on its website as a key feature. This means that there are no extra parties involved when it comes to protecting your data. PrivadoVPN won’t have to share information with the server owners since the company owns all of its physical servers and does not use virtual servers.

The site’s server list has useful information regarding the type of connections available for each region. Each country has a drop-down list that shows the city-level servers as well. All of the servers can be used for any task. There aren’t any that are specifically optimized for any specific thing like gaming, streaming, or P2P file-sharing.

In the desktop application, you can see the latency of a given server before you connect. While this feature has the potential to be useful, I did not find it to be all that accurate. I found my real latency to be significantly higher than the number reported in the application.

Put simply, this VPN isn’t going to cut it if you need a wealth of server options. This network doesn’t quite meet my expectations, though I did like the fact that these servers were all physical and owned by the VPN. If you’re looking for more comprehensive coverage, I recommend taking a look at ExpressVPN. It has well over 3,000 servers in 94 countries.

Editors' Note: ExpressVPN and this site are in the same ownership group.

Security — Exceptional Encryption

PrivadoVPN’s network is secured by industry-standard AES 256-bit encryption that will ensure your data remains protected. In addition to encryption, this VPN protects its user’s information with IPLeak and DNS protection that act as additional barriers between prying eyes and your data.

You can also make use of an automatic kill-switch that will sever your connection to the internet if your connection to the VPN’s network ever fails. This will ensure that there are no breaks in your protection. It does not come toggled on by default, but the option is always available below your server connection status.

PrivadoVPN also has a robust selection of security protocols including OpenVPN (UDP & TCP) and IKEv2/IPsec. The fastest option will be used by default, but you can toggle that in the app and opt for a slower connection like OpenVPN UDP for even better protection.

Privacy — A Strict No-Logs Policy

Privacy is PrivadoVPN’s number one concern, and this VPN delivers an exceptionally private network. It is stated clearly in the VPN’s privacy policy that it does not keep or store any sort of user information. This VPN does not store your data on any sort of long-form data storage. Instead, critical information is sent to RAM (Random Access Memory) cache where it can only be stored for a few short moments before it no longer exists.

In addition to having an air-tight no-logs policy, PrivadoVPN is backed by Sweden’s information protection laws. Being located in Sweden means that PrivadoVPN is not required to keep user information nor is the VPN required to share any information with authorities. Sweden is outside of any information-sharing alliances, which means your data will never be kept or shared with other countries.

Torrenting — Comprehensive Server Support

One of PrivadoVPN’s key selling points is that they believe that “Nobody Should Tell You How to Share Files.” All of the VPN’s servers allow for P2P file-sharing with no limits, though you will have a much better experience on the premium server options that offer SOCKS5 proxy connections that enable faster speeds. The free version of the VPN does allow for torrenting, but you can expect slower speeds compared to the premium server options.

Proxies are different from VPNs in that a proxy works through a given application rather than through your entire connection. A proxy does not encrypt data. What it does is mask your IP while you use a P2P client and keep you anonymous while you use it. This allows for much faster speeds since you don’t have to worry about the complex process of data encryption.

Those quick speeds are backed up by the VPN’s strict no-logs policy and robust security protocols. These features make this VPN great for the privacy-minded user looking to use P2P connections. Just make sure to check your local laws and ISP policies before torrenting, as such laws vary from country to country. When in doubt, be sure that whatever you are torrenting is available from the public domain.

Does PrivadoVPN Work in China? Unsure

The support team was unable to provide a firm answer. Since I am not located in China, I reached out to PrivadoVPN’s support team to see if it was possible to connect to the network while in China.

This response tells me that this VPN has not been extensively tested in China, so I would avoid using it if you are located there. For a VPN that is guaranteed to work in China, I recommend ExpressVPN. It has been shown to consistently bypass governmental firewalls set in place to detect VPNs.

Regardless of which VPN you decide to use in China, be sure to download it before you arrive in the country. Chinese authorities often block non-approved VPNs in the region from accessing content from your home country. While these policies are in place, there have been no recorded cases of authorities punishing travelers for using non-approved VPNs.

PrivadoVPN has a 24/7 ticket-based support team with fast turnaround times. All of my inquiries were answered within a couple of hours, and the site does have a range of helpful resources that cover frequently asked questions and other common concerns. The support team was knowledgeable and able to answer all of my questions even if the answers to my questions weren’t quite what I expected, which was the case for my question about China support.

The ticket-based support system is the only one that PrivadoVPN uses. There isn’t a live chat option. I think having a live chat with representatives available would be a helpful feature, even if it was only available during certain times. Thankfully, you can expect fairly quick turnaround times with the current ticket-based system. There were a couple of instances where my questions were replied to within 30 minutes with my max waiting time coming in at a couple of hours.