How does PureVPN and TorGuard compare?
While TorGuard is a great vpn for torrenting, PureVPN excels in being able to access internet in restricted in countries like China.
But how do these two vpns compare in other aspects like connection speeds, streaming and advanced features like ad and malware blocking.
In this PureVPN vs TorGuard comparison, we are going to compare PureVPN with TorGuard along the lines of their privacy policies and data security among other features.
I hope that by the end of this PureVPN vs TorGuard anonymous vpn comparison, you’ll be able to choose between either TorGuard or PureVPN.
So let’s get started.
Here is a quick summary.
PureVPN | TorGuard | |
Website | purevpn.com | torguard.net |
Servers | 2,000 | 3,000 |
Jurisdiction | Hong Kong | United States |
Streaming | Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iPlayer | Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iPlayer |
Speed | 3.8/5 | 4.4/5 |
Torrenting | P2P servers | All servers |
Kill Switch | YES | YES |
Works in China? | YES | YES |
Devices | 10 | 8 |
Pricing | $ 3.33/month | $ 59.99/year |
About
PureVPN is a VPN service provider that enables you to access the internet in restricted countries like China and the UAE safely and securely.
Here is a detailed review of PureVPN.
TorGuard is a VPN company based in the United States that enables you to access the internet privately and anonymously as well as safely download torrent files.
Here is an indepth TorGuard review.
Server Collection
How does PureVPN and TorGuard compare in terms of their total servers?
The more servers a vpn has, the more options you will get when you are choosing a server to connect to in the apps.
More servers would also mean that the loads are evenly spread out, so if you find a server that doesn’t perform to your expectations you can easily switch to another.
PureVPN, at the time of writing this PureVPN vs TorGuard comparison has a collection of more than 2,000 servers that are based in 140 different countries.
TorGuard, on the flip side, has around 3,000 vpn servers that are spread in 50 different countries.
While PureVPN has its servers covering a wider geographical region, TorGuard has more servers in total.
Streaming
Will you be able to stream geo restricted content on platforms like Netflix while using either PureVPN or TorGuard?
Since it is one of the most popular activities online, a great vpn should at least be able to unblock some of the most popular video streaming platforms.
Let’s now compare PureVPN vs TorGuard streaming capabilities.
PureVPN is able to streaming geo restricted content on Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime.
In order to streaming in different regions, all you need to do is connect to a server that is based in that country.
This is because streaming servers are not labelled in PureVPN.
TorGuard, on the other hand, is not able to unblock any streaming platform using their normal shared vpn servers.
Even though it is based in the US, I couldn’t even stream Netflix US.
In order to be able to stream content using TorGuard, you have to first purchase a dedicated IP that is based in the country whose content you want to access.
With a dedicated IP, you’ll be able to stream content on most streaming platforms that are based in that country.
However, since you have to purchase this dedicated IP separately, it adds to the total cost of using TorGuard anonymous vpn service.
If you are looking for a vpn that supports streaming out of the box without additional purchases then I recommend PureVPN.
Speeds
How does PureVPN vs TorGuard speeds compare?
Most vpns will lie to you that they are the fastest vpns if you read the promotional materials on their websites.
In order to establish which is the faster vpn between PureVPN and TorGuard, I connected to three servers that are based in three different countries.
I connected to servers in the US, UK and Hong Kong and then used speedtest.net to test for upload and download speeds before and after connecting to their servers.
PureVPN was able to give me an average connection speed that was 76% of my original connection speeds.
TorGuard, on the flip side, had an average connection speed of 87% of my download speeds before connecting to their servers.
It is therefore clear that TorGuard is a much faster vpn compared to PureVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn that has great connection speeds then I recommend TorGuard over PureVPN.
Torrenting
A vpn is supposed to enable you download torrent files anonymously so that your torrenting activities cannot be traced back to you.
If they could be traced back to you, then they can easily be used against you in a court of law if you were trying to download copyrighted material.
So which vpn between PureVPN and TorGuard will be able to give you true anonymous torrenting?
PureVPN currently supports P2P files sharing, akka torrenting, only on their servers based in certain countries.
If you try to download torrent files from other servers that are not optimized for torrenting, then your traffic will get throttled or even blocked.
Luckily, the torrenting servers are easy to identify as they are labelled.
TorGuard, on the flip side, support torrent downloads on all their servers.
So you don’t have to first connect to any special P2P server before you start torrenting with TorGuard since all their servers are dedicated for torrenting.
Besides, since TorGuard does not keep logs and delivers better speeds, it is best suited for anonymous torrenting.
If you are looking for a vpn that is great for torrenting then I recommend TorGuard instead of PureVPN.
Privacy Policy
How does PureVPN vs TorGuard privacy policies compare?
A vpn that is serious about making you anonymous online will ensure that they collect as little information about as possible.
This means that they will not have any logs on their servers that can used to identify you.
So which one between PureVPN and TorGuard does not have logs that can be used to identify you?
PureVPN, being based in Hong Kong, is in a country that is great for privacy.
In addition to that, PureVPN states in their privacy policy that they do not keep logs of your IP address or DNS queries.
That being said, they also state that they do collect logs of your server location, bandwidth usage as well as your internet service provider.
TorGuard, to begin with, is based in the United States which is far from being a friendly place for a vpn company that claims to provide anonymous internet access.
However, TorGuard is really big on providing private internet access and states that they do not log your traffic in their privacy policy.
I don’t find that convincing though.
TorGuard should be more clear about what data they keep and what they don’t because all vpns need some kind of logs in order to function properly.
If you are looking for a vpn that has a no logs policy, then currently I would recommend TorGuard instead of PureVPN.
Encryption and Data Protection
Encryption protocols are used to ensure that your data is secure online.
A strong encryption technology ensures that your personal information is impossible to decrypt by any other device except the device for which this information was intended.
Which encryption protocols do PureVPN and TorGuard use?
PureVPN uses an AES 256-bit encryption technology to encrypt your personal information before it is transmitted.
Since this encryption technology has never been hacked before, it guarantees the security of your data online.
TorGuard on the other hand supports both 256-bit and 128-bit encryption technologies.
You have the option of choosing the encryption technology to use in your apps.
In addition to these encryption technologies, these vpns also certain connection protocols to ensure that your data is safely transmitted.
PureVPN supports various protocols that include OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPSec, SSTP and PPTP protocols.
TorGuard also supports a variety of protocols like OpenVPN, OpenConnect, L2TP/IPSec and IKEv2.
You’ll need the OpenConnect protocol especially if you want to connect to internet in countries like China and Iran.
Overall, both TorGuard and PureVPN will provide you secure internet access.
Ad Blocker
Are you getting sick of aggressive advertising from most of the websites that you visit these days?
Do you realize that once you see a particular ad on a particular website, that ad keeps following you around the web everywhere you go?
This can often be very intrusive and annoying.
Thanks to the ad blocking capabilities of most vpns, you’ll be able to disable these ads and block ad tracking on the websites that you visit.
How does TorGuard vs PureVPN compare in terms of their ad blocking capabilities?
PureVPN and TorGuard both have an inbuilt ad blocker in their applications that enable you to turn off these ads.
They also have malware blockers that will enable you to protect your devices from getting infected by malware anytime you visit a known malware infected website.
If you are looking for a vpn with an inbuilt ad blocker then I recommend either TorGuard or PureVPN.
Dedicated IPs
Do you get a dedicated IP address with either PureVPN or TorGuard anonymous vpns?
If you want to be able to access your work network remotely, then you’ll need a dedicated IP address from your vpn.
This is the case because your work network is probably security sensitive and only allows remote access on an IP by IP basis.
Which is not the case if you connect to the internet using a shared IP address that keep changing every time.
PureVPN and TorGuard anonymous vpns, luckily, support dedicated IPs as a premium addon that you’ll have to purchase separately from your normal vpn subscription.
Even though it adds to the cost of your vpn in general, it gives you a dedicated IP that is secure and only used by you.
You can then whitelist this dedicated IP in your applications or networks that need it.
On the contrary, you should know that vpn dedicated IPs are not great for anonymity.
Since these IPs are tied to your account, any activity on these IPs can also very easily be traced back to you.
So I don’t recommend that you use them for prohibited or controversial activities like downloading any kind of torrent files.
If you are looking for a vpn that supports a dedicated IP then either PureVPN or TorGuard is a great option.
Kill Switch
A vpn will encrypt your traffic and channel it through your vpn tunnel, making your invisible to your ISP.
However, this only continues to happen as long as you remain connected to your vpn server.
In any case your vpn app disconnects from the server, that happens a couple times during the day, your real IP gets revealed your anonymity online is compromised.
If you want to ensure that you don’t let your guard down at any time, then you need an automatic internet kill switch.
With a kill switch your internet access is turned off anytime your app disconnects from the vpn servers.
This is to ensure that your real IP is not exposed through your other applications that will continue to try and access the internet without a vpn.
PureVPN and TorGuard both have vpn kill switches that will ensure that internet access is only possible on your device when you are connected to the vpn servers.
So those instances, like when your are switching servers, when your IP could be exposed do not occur.
If you are looking for a vpn with a kill switch then either PureVPN or TorGuard is a great option.
Split Tunnelling
In case you need some of your applications to have their traffic routed as usual through your ISP then you need a split tunnel.
A split tunnel enables you to whitelist some apps of your device so that their internet traffic is not encrypted and channelled through your vpn tunnel.
While this makes the traffic on these apps transparent because they are not visible to your ISP, there are instances when this is necessary for these apps to continue to operate optimally.
An example in point is your application that runs your backups.
Because vpns cause drops in speeds, you may not want this application to be slowed by the vpn connection speeds.
In that case, therefore, you’ll want to whitelist it in your split tunnel so that it can enjoy the fully connection speeds of your internet connection without the vpn.
PureVPN and TorGuard both have split tunnelling capabilities in their apps that will enables you whitelist apps.
I should remind you that applications in the split do not benefit from the additional security that a vpn provides.
Works in China?
If you want a vpn that you can carry with you to China, can you count on either TorGuard or PureVPN to bail you out?
Let’s now compare PureVPN vs TorGuard in terms of the capabilities to bypass China’s firewall.
In order for any vpn to be able to work flawlessly in China, it needs to be able to make its traffic look like normal https traffic and bypass the deep packet inspection technology of China’s firewall.
PureVPN and TorGuard both have the capacity to be able to bypass China’s firewall.
PureVPN even has servers that are based in China that you can connect to if you want to access content that is restricted to the Chinese audience.
However, in order to be able to use TorGuard to access censored content in China, you need to change your connection protocol to OpenConnect and activate the STunnel feature.
Nonetheless, both TorGuard and PureVPN will give you uninterrupted internet access when in China.
If you are looking for a vpn that works in China then both TorGuard and PureVPN are great options.
Pricing
How much does it cost to purchase TorGuard and PureVPN?
As we near the end of this TorGuard vs PureVPN comparison in 2021, let’s look at their pricing plans to see which one is cheaper.
PureVPN has its longest and cheapest plan being the 2 year plan that costs $ 3.33/month while TorGuard has a 1 year plan that costs $ 59.99/year which amounts to approximately $ 5/month.
As you can see, PureVPN is a cheaper vpn in the long term as compared to TorGuard.
If you are looking for a vpn that is slightly cheaper then I recommend PureVPN over TorGuard.
Payment Options
A good vpn should be able to provide you with various payment options.
In fact, if they provide you with anonymous payments methods, you can give less information about yourself when signing up because these payment methods do not require a billing address.
Let’s finish this PureVPN vs TorGuard comparison by looking at the various payment methods that each one supports.
PureVPN and TorGuard currently support all major credit cards, PayPal and cryptocurrency payments like Bitcoin.
In fact, PureVPN supports the largest collection of cryptocurrencies.
Sign up with a fake email address and then pay with some Bitcoins and nobody will get to know who you are.
If you are looking for the best vpns for crypto currencies then I recommend PureVPN over TorGuard.
In Conclusion
I hope this PureVPN vs TorGuard has helped you learn about the pros and cons of TorGuard and PureVPN.
Are you now ready to make a choice between PureVPN and TorGuard?
If you are looking for a vpn that has great connection speeds, supports torrenting on all servers and does not keep logs then I recommend TorGuard.
However, if you are looking for a vpn with better streaming support, covers a wide geographical region, works in China and can bare with average connection speeds, then I recommend PureVPN.
Have you used either PureVPN or TorGuard before?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below.