PrivadoVPN Reviews 2,402

I first used the free plan and was very impressed.. I then got offered a great deal from them for 1 year plan. I took there offer and I must admit I am very happy not had any problems..
Fantastic vpn at a low price

I'm using PrivadoVPN for a few years now and it gets unusable on some VPN server countries like Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Privado server is on some kind of blacklist for quite a while which means google searches ALWAYS ask for multiple (sometimes 10 or more) captha's and youtube stops playing after exactly one minute when using the Amsterdam server. Reddit.com just refuses connection using the Amsterdam server. The problem with Privado probably is that they offer free VPN, then hackers use this using the Privado servers for their malicious actions which will result in blacklisting the IP's of those Privado servers. Amsterdam is the most blacklisted one. So Privado when used for free, it's ok but expect a lot of annoyances. When you have a paid subscription: AVOID, it's not worth the money.

I chose PrivadoVPN because it advertised free VPN access to my desired country. However, after registering and downloading the app, I discovered my desired country wasn't a free option at all, wasting my time with false advertising. This false advertising is unacceptable.

To make matters worse, cancelling my account was unnecessarily difficult. After completing the cancellation steps, it just redirected me to the dashboard without cancelling the account. This is not only frustrating but raises GDPR concerns.

I cannot recommend PrivadoVPN due to these issues.

This review is for Linux, not Windows. On 1/5/25 I gave PrivadoVPN a glowing review because they exhibited outstanding customer service trying to help me, a Linux newbie, via numerous emails and hours of my time, to use PrivadoVPN via the terminal. I finally did get it connected. But then the connection kept dropping.

So--not willing to waste any more time with PrivadoVPN, I decided to try Private Internet Access. I got the VPN installed and operating with their GUI interface on my Linux laptop in less than 10 minutes. (Another thing I like about PIA is that they have 24-7 live chat.)

PrivadoVPN was fine for Windows computers, but a big hassle for Linux. I previously wrote that I'd remain a subscriber, but now Private Internet Access works much better for me.

Claiming the 30-day money-back guarantee is a ridiculously convoluted process, you have to find several well-hidden cancellation buttons and even then they won't give you a refund without contacting their support email!
I tried the VPN but It didn't work on BBC Iplayer so I just wanted a quick easy refund.

I'm in uk and when I have the vpn on it won't let me browse alot of websites , I have to disconnect from vpn .
it won't let me cast to my tv unless I turn it off aswell .
when I connect to usa server and try to get usa netflix , I am still greeted with the uk screen
apart from that it does work well

Cannot connect to ANYTHING!
I would steer well clear of privadoVPN.
So many issues. Cannot speak to anyone.
It is honestly,terrible!
Have used a few others,all are far better than Privado.

Have had further connection issues,in Jan 2025.
Have sent them their own diagnostic,but still have to jump through unnecessary hoops for them.
I have emailed them,as it's the only way to contact them. What else they want?
I would steer clear. What's the point of having something that you can't use,when you want it?

I am currently having troubles connecting to a VPN as it says im connected but disables any wifi connectivity, tried contacting support had to send a email as there is no live chat. After hours waiting for any help still recieved nothing, at least once a month there is a issue that I need customer support assistance ( I am currently on the top plan). save your money.

Friends who may live in mainland China, please listen to my comments. This is the best VPN I have ever used in mainland China, bar none.
Although Privado officially does not clearly guarantee its availability in mainland China, after my testing, it is stable.
I am a citizen of Mainland China. I have tried more than 5 VPNs in the world. My personal experience of using Privado in Mainland China for more than half a year proves that Privado is far superior to the so-called top VPN companies in the industry, such as ExpressVPN NordVPN, etc. These VPNs perform very poorly in front of GFW and are almost unusable. Please do not be deceived by their overwhelming marketing.
1. Stable. This is very valuable for people who want to access the international Internet in mainland China. VPNs that can do this are very scarce, because they are either advertised and marketed as being able to be used in mainland China but are actually full of problems, or they are not supported at all. Privado offers an impressed stability.
2. Worth trying. Although I am a premium user, Privado provides 10GB of free data per month for free accounts, which is not a loss for anyone who wants to try it. Even free data can unblock streaming, such as Netflix, which I'm impressed about.
3. Reliable protocols. If you are in China, please try its openVPN+TCP/UDP+Scramble protocol as a last resort option. This generally allows you to bypass GFW to connect to the Internet. But under normal circumstances, its IKEv2 and Wireguard protocols can also connect to the Internet.
4. Premium is better. When you are a premium user, you have unlimited traffic, and you can connect to Privado servers on specific devices through the downloaded openVPN/WireGuard/Socks profiles. I'm impressed by the wide range of terminals it's compatible with. If you are a geek and you know proxy applications such as Surge, Clash, V2Ray that are widely used in mainland China, you can even configure Privado's server in it!
5. Trustworthy. Different from the "airport services"(this is a slang term used to describe service providers that provide bypass GFW services to residents of mainland China) of shadowsocks/R, trojan vmess and other protocols, Privado is a serious service provider whose privacy and security are trustworthy.
Here are some shortcomings:
1. The IPs are not clean. Privado's server IP is often determined to be different from Privado's own identification, which rarely occurs with other VPNs.
2. The speed is not fast. Although under the WireGuard and IKEv2 protocols, Privado's network speed appears faster, but it is still slower than the average speed in the VPN industry. I hope Privado will strengthen its speed in mainland China.
----------The following is the Chinese version------------------:
请可能在中国大陆生活的朋友倾听我的评价和建议。这是我在中国大陆使用过的最好用的VPN，没有之一。尽管Privado官方并没有明确保障在中国大陆的可用性，但经过我的测试，它很稳定。我是中国大陆的公民，我尝试过世面上5款以上的VPN，我以我在中国大陆使用Privado超过半年的亲身使用体验来证明，Privado有远超过行业所谓顶尖VPN公司的水平，例如ExpressVPN Nord VPN 等，这些所谓的国际知名VPN在中国大陆的GFW面前表现非常差劲，几乎无法使用，请不要被它们铺天盖地的营销欺骗。
1，稳定和可靠。这对于在中国大陆使用国际互联网的人来说十分宝贵，能做到这点的VPN是十分稀缺的，因为它们要么是广告营销下宣传可以在中国大陆使用但实则问题百出，要么是根本不支持在中国大陆使用。而Privado提供了让我印象深刻的稳定性。
2，尽管我是付费用户，Privado仍然提供了每月10GB的免费流量供低级账户使用，这对于任何想尝试的人来说都不亏。即使免费流量都可以解锁流媒体，例如Netflix，这令我印象深刻。
3，如果你在中国，请试一试它的openVPN+TCP/UDP+Scramble协议，把它作为保底的最后选项，这一般能够让你绕过GFW实现联网。但一般情况下，它的IKEv2、Wireguard协议都能够联通国际互联网。
4，如果你是付费用户，你的体验会更上一层楼。除了每月无限流量，你甚至可以通过单独的openVPN/WireGuard 配置文件来在特定的设备上连接Privado的服务器。其适配的终端之广泛令我印象深刻。如果你是极客，而且你懂得Surge Clash V2Ray等在中国大陆广泛应用的代理应用程序，你甚至可以在里面配置Privado的服务器！
5，不同于在中国大陆广泛盛行的shadowsocks/R、trojan vmess等协议的灰色机场服务（这是一个用以描述给中国大陆居民提供绕过GFW服务的服务商的俚语），Privado作为一家正经的VPN厂商，其隐私和安全性是值得信赖的。
一下是一些美中不足：
1，IP并不干净。Privado的服务器IP会经常被判定为不同于Privado自己的标识，这种情况很少出现在其他VPN上。
2，网络速度不快。虽然WireGuard与IKEv2协议下，Privado的网速已经和其他VPN厂商差不多了，但仍然慢于VPN业界的平均速度。可能是中国大陆的地理位置因素限制，我不清楚个中原因，希望Privado加强这方面建设。

finally a good free vpn with p2p

Till couple of months back the service was great you can find couple of cities with green bars (less server stress/load) but from last one month or so you cannot find any city with green bars most of the time servers are red or if you're lucky you'll find server with amber bars (stressed out servers) Seemingly new customers are joining in, good for business but apparently capacity planning is not done very well to ramp up the infrastructure, hopefully they will beef-up the infra to support increasing demand for a better user experience.

OK ... they saw this and replied. FIXED!!! The problem was going thru their damn site. It is a great service, easy to use, intuitive (except paying). Like all great software, when it works you have no idea that it is there.

Thanks for fixing the prob. Wish I knew why it happened.

My accounted lapsed cannot reconnect
My accounted lapsed. I paid again. Would not connect. Send 4 "support" requests, nothing, no acknowledgement.

Reinstalled. No joy. Cannot get hold of a human.

Really bad. Sadly it was a great experience up to 3 days ago.

Zero stars if I could.

1. Their Linux/OpenVPN support is terrible -- try importing any of their configs into Fedora and you get an error. They refuse to fix.

2. The available servers in any given location are a joke. You have to go to their "server list" to see what is up at the moment.

LOOK ELSEWHERE.

I would give up if I were you, what a load of crap. I thought I would save money as there were a lot of rave review, but OH NO another rip off company. All day spent trying to get the VPN set up (and why do you keep changing my password (I wonder) when I can't have something safe that I know. I would like my money back please ASAP

Update: 28th April: They refunded almost 40usd, but not quite. 38.72usd. So let me understand, they nick 7% on their refund? Ok they can make a lot of money on this with a lot of people.

Update. 3:25 pm Thailand time. They refused to return my money after many emails and even showing them a copy of my bank activity. Please stay away from these low life criminals.

Purchased a 2 yr package and it worked 1 day and also very slow. 40usd. This morning they have blocked it and now want to me buy another package.

Customer Service almost impossible to contact, and only by email. No live chat.
What is shocking is Tom's and PC Mag praised about how great it is. I am shocked, will never trust them again.

Recently for some reason most locations are in Iran when I live in Europe and choose EUROPEAN server and google then shows result in Persian calendar. And also browsing websites became very slow on any server

I feel compelled to share my frustration with PrivadoVPN and their service and support team. For several months now, I've encountered consistent issues with the geo-location feature, which has been consistently inaccurate and unreliable.

Despite reaching out with multiple support cases (#PRV00202061, #PRV00209774, #PRV00209789) since February 2024, there has been no resolution to this ongoing problems (including Tower service). As someone who heavily relies on the service, it's incredibly disappointing to see this issue persist without any tangible solutions.

The responses I've received from support have been generic at best, failing to address the root cause of the problem. What baffles me even more is the apparent shift to new services without ensuring that existing issues are adequately resolved.

I feel it's essential to inform others that PrivadoVPN's service is unreliable due to the incorrect geo-location assignments for many locations, making it practically unusable. Additionally, the DNS Tower service also experiences reliability issues, further exacerbating the problem.

Overall, my experience with PrivadoVPN has been frustrating and disappointing, and I would caution others against relying on it until these fundamental issues are addressed and resolved.

After 2 months of generic email and ping-pong with your "support" I can only say one thing:

FIX YOUR GEOLOCATION SERVICES!

Rating: 1/5 ⭐ - Unreliable service with persistent issues.

22.04.2024. "You will help me" ?
OK. Let me try again with your support.

Pros: not expensive and easy to use. Cons: when I select a location in UK all the sites I navigate to think I am in Saudi Arabia. Or Tehran. Not what I was looking for. Also many sites do not open when its on and I have to switch off to access site - this is when looking for products to buy, nothing that should be difficult. My other vpn had neither of these issues.