Are you looking for a recent PrivateVPN vs StrongVPN comparison?
PrivateVPN and StrongVPN are some of the few vpns that are able to work and access censored content in China.
But how do these two vpns compare in other aspects like their connection speeds and streaming capabilities?
In this PrivateVPN vs StrongVPN comparison, we are going to compare PrivateVPN with StrongVPN along the lines of their speeds, torrenting support as well as advanced security features like malware blocking.
I hope that by the end of this StrongVPN vs PrivateVPN comparison, you’ll be able to choose between either StrongVPN or PrivateVPN.
So let’s get started.
Here is a quick summary.
| PrivateVPN | StrongVPN | |
| Website | privatevpn.com | strongvpn.com |
| Servers | 150 | 950 |
| Jurisdiction | Sweden | United States |
| Streaming | Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iPlayer | Netflix, Hulu, Amazon |
| Speed | 4.3/5 | 4.2/5 |
| Torrenting | P2P servers | All servers |
| Kill Switch | YES | YES |
| Works in China? | YES | YES |
| Devices | 6 | 12 |
| Pricing | $ 2.55/month | $ 5.83/month |
About
PrivateVPN is a VPN company located in Sweden that provides you anonymous and secure internet access services using secure encryption technologies and connection protocols.
Click here for a detailed PrivateVPN review.
StrongVPN, on the other hand, is headquartered in the United States and will enable you to access the internet securely and private including in restricted countries like China.
Here is a more in depth StrongVPN review.
Server Collection
How many server does PrivateVPN and StrongVPN have?
Let’s start this PrivateVPN vs StrongVPN comparison by looking at their total servr counts as well as distribution.
The more distributed vpn servers are, the easier it is to get a server to connect to in any country that you might want to connect to.
PrivateVPN is at the very bottom with only 150 servers in total that are located in 60 countries.
StrongVPN, on the flip side, has more than 950 servers but these servers are only based in 30 countries.
So as you can see, while StrongVPN has more servers in general, PrivateVPN has their few server cover a wider geographical area than StrongVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn with servers located in more countries, then I recommend PrivateVPN.
Streaming
How many streaming platforms will be able to unblock using either PrivateVPN or StrongVPN?
Since streaming geo restricted entertainment content on platforms like Amazon Prime is a very popular activity, most vpn users want to to know if they’ll be able to unblock their favorite streaming platform before purchasing a vpn.
If you are looking for a vpn that is great for streaming, then the more the platforms it can unblock the better.
PrivateVPN is able to unblock a ton of streaming platforms including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and iPlayer.
All their streaming servers are labelled which makes it very easy to find the best server for your favorite streaming platform.
StrongVPN, on the other hand, is only able to unblock Netflix and Hulu using their servers based in the US.
In order to unblock these platforms, you first to connect to any of their servers based in these countries as their streaming servers are not labelled.
It is therefore evident that PrivateVPN is able to unblock more streaming platforms than StrongVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn that is great for streaming then I recommend PrivateVPN over StrongVPN.
Speeds
Do you sometimes feel offended when every vpn claims to be the fastest on their websites… even though some of them know it’s not true?
Yeah… me too.
That’s why I tested these two vpns manually so that I can rate their speeds where they belong… and not based on some marketing gimmick.
The faster the speeds the better the streaming and file downloads experience.
How does PrivateVPN vs StrongVPN speeds compare?
In order their connection speeds, I connected to three different servers based in Hong Kong, the US and UK.
I then used the website speedtest.net to measure the download and upload speeds before and after connecting to the servers.
PrivateVPN and StrongVPN both gave great connection speeds.
PrivateVPN maintained an average download speed of 86% of my original speeds while StrongVPN had an average of 83% of my before download speeds.
As you can see, both StrongVPN and PrivateVPN offer fast speeds even though PrivateVPN is slightly faster than StrongVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn that has great connection speeds then either PrivateVPN or StrongVPN is a great option.
Torrenting
How does StrongVPN and PrivateVPN compare in terms of their torrenting support?
Staying anonymous online is very crucial especially when downloading any king of torrent files from the internet.
In order to stay anonymous and keep your torrenting private, you should only download torrent files after connecting to an anonymous vpn that will hide your real IP address.
PrivateVPN allows P2P file sharing of specific servers.
In order to access the dedicated torrenting servers, click on torrenting in the servers list and then choose the best torrenting server for you.
StrongVPN, on the flip side, support torrenting activities on all their servers and do not require you to first connect to any special P2P servers.
If you want to start torrenting, you use any StrongVPN server since all their servers are P2P optimized.
Since both vpns also don’t keep your IP addresses as we’ll see in a moment, both StrongVPN and PrivateVPN offer you anonymous torrenting.
If you are looking for a vpn that is better suited for torrenting then I recommend StrongVPN as they support anonymous torrenting on all their servers.
Privacy Policy
You don’t want your ISP, your government or your vpn company owning your entire internet history.
That’s giving too much power to one single entity which might easily be used against you someday… even if you think you have nothing to hide.
Everyone has something to hide.
Let’s now compare PrivateVPN vs StrongVPN in terms of their privacy policies to establish the vpn that offers true privacy online.
While PrivateVPN is based in Sweden, StrongVPN is based in the United States, which are both unfriendly countries for privacy.
This is because both these countries are founding members of the 14 eyes countries alliance that surveille their citizens and then share their personal information.
The also have laws that obligate vpn companies to comply whenever the government asks for users logs.
That being said, both vpns are committed to providing you private internet access as they state in their privacy policies that they do not keep logs of your internet traffic.
Even though that is rather vague, as they could be more specific of the particular logs that they don’t keep, it’s a breath of fresh air as other vpns located in such jurisdictions have been know to keep logs of your IPs.
So both PrivateVPN and StrongVPN have zero log policies.
If you are looking for a vpn that offers a no logs policy then either PrivateVPN or StrongVPN is a great option.
Encryption and Data Protection
Once data packets are broadcasted from your device it is not a guarantee that only the intended destination device is listening.
Hackers could also be listening to this traffic using packet sniffing tools.
If you want to make it impossible for these hackers to see your actual information even after grabbing your data packets, you should ensure that it is encrypted in a format that is impossible to crack.
PrivateVPN and StrongVPN both support NSA recommend 256-bit encryption technology to encrypt your data.
In addition to that, PrivateVPN also supports a 128-bit encryption that is equally secure and cannot be hacked.
Apart from the encryption technologies, these vpns also support connection protocols that ensure secure communication between vpn apps and vpn servers.
PrivateVPN gives your connection protocol options that include OpenVPN, L2TP, IPSec, PPTP and IKEv2 protocols.
StrongVPN, on the other hand, allows connections through OpenVPN, IKEv2, SSTP, L2TP and WireGuard vpn protocols.
Overall, both StrongVPN and PrivateVPN will provide you secure internet access thanks to the advanced technologies that they both use.
If you are looking for a vpn that guarantee secure internet browsing then I recommend either StrongVPN or PrivateVPN.
Ad Blockers
When it comes to advanced security features like ad blocker, some vpns are definitely better than others.
A vpn ad blocker enables you to disable ads on the websites that you visit and enjoy an ad free browsing experience.
So you not only are able to browse without ads, but these sites are also not able to track you with their scripts and follow you around the web.
In addition to ad blockers, some vpns also have malware blockers that will protect you from known phishing websites.
How do PrivateVPN and StrongVPN compare in terms of their ad blocking capabilities?
Unfortunately, neither StrongVPN nor PrivateVPN have ad blockers at the time of writing this PrivateVPN vs StrongVPN comparison.
So if you are looking for a vpn that has an inbuilt ad and malware blocker, why don’t you check out CyberGhost or Private Internet Access?
Dedicated IPs
Usually, you are supposed to connect to the internet using a shared IP address.
By ensuring that you are using an IP that is also used by thousands of others, a vpn company ensures that certain activities on these servers cannot be traced back to you.
So a vpn will often change the IP of the server you connect to in order to provide you a new IP address.
A dedicated IP, on the other hand ensures that you are only accessing the internet using the same IP address and that this IP is tied to your account.
You’ll need a dedicated IP to access a sensitive application that needs you to whitelist your IP first… like your work IP address.
PrivateVPN provides you a dedicated IP address that you can use in this sense.
However, since this feature is available to all users with a standard subscription, you can still find that your dedicated IP is also being used by another individual.
So you can call it a static IP that provides you a server that will always provide you the same IP every time.
StrongVPN, unfortunately, does not support any dedicated IPs at the time of writing this PrivateVPN vs StrongVPN comparison in 2021.
If you are looking for a vpn with a dedicated IP then I recommend PrivateVPN… but if you want a dedicated IP that is unique to you then check out TorGuard.
Kill Switch
Staying anonymous online is a full time job.
By this I mean that you should always ensure that you only access the internet through a vpn if you want to ensure that your IP is never revealed.
Your IP could be revealed anytime your vpn disconnects from the server, like during an internet connection drop or when you are switching vpn servers.
A kill switch ensures that during these few seconds that your are vulnerable, your internet access is blocked for all apps on your device until the vpn reconnects.
This ensures that any other application that might continue to access the internet during this time thus exposing your IP is blocked.
Even your torrenting client has to pause and wait for your vpn to reconnect.
PrivateVPN and StrongVPN both have vpn kill switches in their apps that will ensure that your IP never gets exposed.
Once turned on, it always cut off internet access anytime you are not connected to their servers.
This way, all your internet traffic is always encrypted and channelled through your vpn tunnel.
If you are looking for a vpn that supports kill switches then either StrongVPN on PrivateVPN is a great option.
Split Tunnelling
Do you at times need to split traffic between your vpn and ISP?
While a vpn is great for privacy, there are some applications that will perform better when exempted from the vpn tunnel.
For example, let’s say your vpn causes speeds drops that are slowing down your app that runs backups.
In order to remedy this and restore your speeds, you could whitelist this application in your vpn so that its traffic goes as usual through your ISP.
This way it’s able to enjoy the maximum connection speeds that your ISP assigns you.
Unfortunately, neither PrivateVPN nor StrongVPN support split tunnelling at the time of writing this StrongVPN vs PrivateVPN comparison.
If you are looking for a vpn that has a split tunnel then I recommend NordVPN.
Works in China?
Are you thinking of using PrivateVPN or StrongVPN in China?
The Chinese government has a strong grip and control of internet usage in China and do not allow vpns to be used to access internet in China.
They want all your internet routed through your ISP so that they can see what exactly you are upto online.
So PrivateVPN and StrongVPN needs to be able to make their vpn traffic undetectable by the deep packet inspection technology of China’s firewall.
PrivateVPN and StrongVPN, luckily, are both able to work in China.
PrivateVPN is able to access censored content in China but you first need to activate its stealth vpn mode.
StrongVPN will also work in China and enable you access censored content like YouTube.com without being detected and blocked.
Both vpns have strong obfuscation technologies that are able to make their traffic look like normal https traffic and bypass the great firewall of China without being detected.
If you are looking for a vpn that you can carry with you to China then either PrivateVPN or StrongVPN is a great option.
Pricing
As we near the end of this StrongVPN vs PrivateVPN comparison, let’s look at their pricing to establish the cheaper vpn between the two.
Both PrivateVPn and StrongVPN offer the best discounts for their longest plans in order to entice you to subscribe to a longer subscription.
So if you want the best prices, go for the longer plans.
PrivateVPN has their longest plan being the 2 year plan that costs $ 2.55/month while StrongVPN has 1 year plan that costs $ 5.83/month… which is also their longest plan.
As you can see, PrivateVPN is much cheaper vpn compared to StrongVPN.
If you are looking for a cheap vpn that will save you some bucks and also provides longer subscription plans then I recommend PrivateVPN over StrongVPN.
Payment Options
Let’s now finish this StrongVPN vs PrivateVPN comparison in 2021, by looking at their payments options.
How will you pay for your vpn subscriptions?
The more payments options a vpn provides the better because it increases the chances of getting a favorable option like crypto payments that do no require you to provide a billing address.
PrivateVPN enables you to pay for your plan using credit cards, PayPal and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
StrongVPN, however, only accepts PayPal payments as well as payments through all the major credit cards.
If you are looking for a vpn that supports Bitcoin payments then I recommend PrivateVPN over StrongVPN.
In Conclusion
I hope this PrivateVPN vs StrongVPN has helped you learn about the strengths and weaknesses of these two vpns.
Are you now ready to make your choice between either PrivateVPN or StrongVPN?
If you are willing to pay more a vpn with more servers, great torrenting support and that will work in China then I recommend StrongVPN.
However, if you are looking for a cheap vpn that unblocks all major streaming platforms, has excellent connection speeds and accept Bitcoin payments then I recommend PrivateVPN.
Have you used either StrongVPN or PrivateVPN before?
Please share your experience in the comments below.
