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VPNs for ad-blocking PrivadoVPN isn’t really a viable replacement for NordVPN or ExpressVPN, but a solid free version, cheap monthly pricing and a generous helping of simultaneous connections may tempt you to try the VPN upstart. That said, PrivadoVPN does have a Free Plan, which the provider actively spruiks on its pricing page, alongside an industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee for its annual plan. The free version includes 10GB per 30 days, which smashes the 2GB on offer from Speedify. It’s on par with the data offered by Windscribe VPN (except Windscribe offers an actual month of data), but beaten by the unlimited data offered by PureVPN’s free version. As is the trend, the best value for PrivadoVPN comes from paying for the longest duration. While that’s capped at a year, it brings the monthly pricing down to US$4.99 a month instead of US$7.99, but note that you will be paying the full year upfront (US$96). Be aware that it is an aggressive kill switch, which stops all internet connectivity on your device when you’re not connected to a PrivadoVPN server (if you have the service open), and not only in the event of an unexpected disconnection. Compared to its peers, PrivadoVPN is slow to connect. Lower-latency servers, like those located in Sydney, take about eight seconds to connect and another four seconds to show your new IP address. Connections farther away are slower: it was 10 seconds to Los Angeles and nine seconds to show my new IP, then 12 seconds to London but only three seconds to show my new IP. Mercifully, it only takes a couple of seconds to disconnect, but cancelling your connection also takes a few seconds. Privado says its VPN has “hundreds” of servers which, despite being wholly comprised of physical servers owned by the provider (and not virtual servers), isn’t a flash number compared to its peers. More concerning is the comparatively low numbers for countries (48 at the time of review) and locations (60 by my count). Considering the only Australian servers are in Sydney, those using PrivadoVPN up north, out west and in Tasmania should anticipate a greater impact to latency, download and upload speeds. During testing, there were times that connection times took longer than those outlined above or were perpetually stuck on connecting. With no control over manual server connection, this means you’re at the mercy of Privado’s automated server selection. It also doesn’t have a favourites feature nor does it offer a list of recently connected servers, so you have to scroll through the full list by country name, filter by latency or manually search for the location you want. In terms of Australian services, PrivadoVPN had no problems tackling Stan and Stan Sport, but it was blocked by Kayo. Admittedly, Kayo is very good at sniffing out VPNs, with only Windscribe, Hotspot Shield and ExpressVPN bypassing it in my tests. The table below gives you an idea of how PrivadoVPN might work with your NBN connection. It uses the current download speed averages from the latest ACCC NBN data (from participating NBN providers) to give you an idea of how the best-case 18% and 53% download speed changes for Los Angeles and London servers, respectively, might impact your overall download speed when using PrivadoVPN. The three columns on the right offer the number of simultaneous streams per connection. While Netflix has a maximum of four simultaneous streams per 4K account, Hulu and BBC iPlayer have options for unlimited streams. We know these stream numbers get ridiculous for beyond-NBN 100 plans, but they’re a good indication of speed degradation. That said, PrivadoVPN does have a Free Plan, which the provider actively spruiks on its pricing page, alongside an industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee for its annual plan. The free version includes 10GB per 30 days, which smashes the 2GB on offer from Speedify. It’s on par with the data offered by Windscribe VPN (except Windscribe offers an actual month of data), but beaten by the unlimited data offered by PureVPN’s free version. As is the trend, the best value for PrivadoVPN comes from paying for the longest duration. While that’s capped at a year, it brings the monthly pricing down to US$4.99 a month instead of US$7.99, but note that you will be paying the full year upfront (US$96).
United States (Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, New York, Miami)Mexico CityMontrealZurichLondonAmsterdamParisFrankfurtSao Paulo
