Good, honest, and unbiased VPN reviews are super difficult to come across. Pretty much most of the reviews online are fabricated to deceive you into buying a VPN that’s just not worth getting.
But we here at VPNRanks work differently. Instead of just listing down the features like a generic brochure, we do our own testing and share with you our personal experience.
But why should you trust our reviews?
Well, right from the start, we purchase our own VPNs or use trial accounts for our testing to make sure what we say remains uninfluenced and unbiased.
We also use rigorous rating criteria based on nine (9) factors to ensure that every VPN we review gets evaluated and rated on the same matrices. Only then do we assign a fair rating between 1 to 5 stars.
Here’s what our review criteria look like:
Example of how we conduct VPN reviews?
Now before we discuss what we talk about in each review factor, we think you guys might be interested in a little practical example of our reviews. So without further ado, let’s dive straight into it.
#1 – PureVPN
When we reviewed PureVPN a little while ago, we wanted to steer clear of all the negative comments online and test out the service for ourselves using our 9 step rating criteria.
1. Jurisdiction
PureVPN is headquartered in the data retention free jurisdiction of Hong Kong. This puts PureVPN out of the surveillance jurisdiction of the 5-Eyes.
2. Security
When we looked over PureVPN’s security features, we found out that it offers powerful 256-bit encryption, no logs and mainstream protocols like OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, SSTP, PPTP, IKEv2, and even a Kill Switch.
3. Leaks
When we ran PureVPN through our series of leak tests, we found no IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks whatsoever. Overall PureVPN proved to be a leakproof service.
4. Servers
When we reviewed PureVPN, we found out that it offers 2000+ servers in 180+ locations. PureVPN even offers 12 physical servers in China and works exceptionally well with Netflix and torrenting.
5. Speed
Speed-wise PureVPN performed quite well. We barely noticed any drop in speed. On our 15 Mbps test connection, PureVPN managed to output 14 Mbps download speeds.
6. Streaming
When performing our streaming tests, we found PureVPN to work quite well. Although we did come across the Netflix proxy error, however, we got it to work eventually.
7. Compatibility
Compatibility wise, we really couldn’t find any device that was not compatible with PureVPN. We also liked the fact that it supports 10 multi logins, which is quite nice.
8. Pricing
Even after offering tons of features, PureVPN only costs $2.91/mo (Save 73%). Not only that, but we also liked that PureVPN offers a 31-day refund policy.
9. Trustworthiness
As for trustworthiness, we found out that PureVPN has a 5-star rating on Trustpilot and overall positive reviews on Reddit. As for their customer support, we found it to be quite slow.
Verdict
In our review, we gave it a 4.5-star rating for its features, price, speed, and for other reasons. This was just a teaser of how we reviewed PureVPN. For complete information, check out our detailed PureVPN review.
#2 – Surfshark
When reviewing Surfshark, we neglected the fact that it was cheap. We still went ahead and used our same 9 step rating criteria to test it out.
1. Jurisdiction
When looking for Surfshark’s jurisdiction, we found out that it was headquartered in the British Virgin Islands. If you don’t know, BVI is a privacy-friendly region with no mandatory data retention laws.
2. Security
As for security features, Surfshark offers AES-256-CBC/AES-256-GCM encryption, IKEv2, and OpenVPN protocols, CleanWeb among other features.
3. Leaks
When we tested Surfshark for IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks using ipleak.org, dnsleak.com, and ip8.com, we found it to be leakproof.
4. Servers
Surfshark offers around 1700+ servers in 63+ countries. The service also works in China and supports both streaming and torrenting.
5. Speed
In the speed department, Surfshark managed to achieve a 9.77 Mbps download speed on our 10 Mbps test connection.
6. Streaming
During our testing, Surfshark worked great with Netflix. We managed to stream Netflix US, BBC iPlayer, and Hulu in HD quality.
7. Compatibility
As for compatibility, Surfshark supports Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and a bunch of other devices. In addition, it offers unlimited simultaneous connections as well.
8. Pricing
Surfshark is super affordable. Its cheapest plan costs $1.99/mo only and comes with an 83% discount. It also comes with a 7-day trial and a 30-day refund policy.
9. Trustworthiness
Surfshark has an overall 4.3-star rating on Trustpilot and plenty of positive reviews on Reddit making it quite trustworthy.
Verdict
Overall, based on Surfshark’s features, price, and trustworthiness, we gave it a 4.4-star rating. For complete detail regarding everything we like and dislike about this VPN, check out our detailed Surfshark review.
#3 – NordVPN
When revisiting NordVPN for the review, we sidelined everything that we had heard about it getting hacked. To ensure that nothing influenced our opinions about NordVPN, we used our 9 step testing criteria again.
1. Jurisdiction
When figuring out where NordVPN is headquartered, we found out that it operates from Panama, which is a country with no data retention laws.
2. Security
As for security features, NordVPN offers AES-256-CBC with a 2048-bit DH key encryption, Double VPN, no logs, WireGuard technology, Onion over VPN, and much more.
3. Leaks
We were unable to find any sort of leaks with NordVPN. Even after conducting multiple tests, NordVPN didn’t leak out DNS, IP, and WebRTC.
4. Servers
NordVPN offers some 5000+ servers in 59 countries with proper support for P2P and streaming. Their obfuscated servers are capable of unblocking Chinese content as well.
5. Speed
Speed-wise NordVPN is plenty fast. On our 30 Mbps connection, we managed to achieve around 27.11 Mbps download speed with NordVPN.
6. Streaming
NordVPN easily managed to unblock Netflix and BBC iPlayer in our testing. However, we did have issues unblocking Netflix with NordVPN on Android-based boxes.
7. Compatibility
As for compatibility, NordVPN supports Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and a bunch of other devices. The best thing about it is that it supports 6 simultaneous connections.
8. Pricing
NordVPN only costs $3.49/mo (Save 70% Off). As for refunds, all subscription plans of NordVPN are covered by a 30-day refund policy.
9. Trustworthiness
NordVPN also has a 4.4-star rating on Trustpilot which makes it quite Trustworthy. Additionally, NordVPN has been independently audited twice by PricewaterhouseCoopers and VerSprite.
Verdict
Based on NordVPN’s excellent performance and overall transparency, we gave NordVPN a 4.3-stars rating. If you’re interested in reading the full review of NordVPN, here’s a link to that.
