Private VPN: One of the best vpn services

Summary

Expert rating

Opinion

Private VPN is still a very good vpn service with both site and software as well as support entirely in Swedish. They impress by offering access to all tested streaming services, but the speeds are unfortunately a little too uneven. In addition, we lack a cheap long-term subscription.
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Tested product:

Private VPN

Price for monthly payment: SEK 105 per month
Price for year-round subscription: About 21 kroner per month
Other price options: Three-month subscription for SEK 63 per month

Swedish Private VPN has consistently placed itself at the top of our vpn tests. When we now retest the service, it once again places itself high in comparison to other services. There have been some small improvements since the last time, but unfortunately also a couple of deteriorations. This means that Private VPN does not reach first place this time either.
One of the deteriorations is immediately noticeable when it is time to sign a subscription. They have all become a bit more expensive, although there are no huge differences. A monthly subscription now costs SEK 95 (versus SEK 84 previously) and a three-month subscription now costs SEK 63 per month (versus SEK 50 previously).

The annual subscriptions are also more expensive, with a cost of SEK 52 per month now (versus SEK 41 previously). At the time of writing, however, they have a campaign where they offer an extra 12 months when signing up for an annual subscription, which lowers the cost to SEK 26 per month.

Unfortunately, longer (and cheaper) subscriptions than that are missing, which is something we complained about last time as well. It’s a shame, because the lack of really long and really cheap subscriptions is one of the things that prevents Private VPN from reaching the coveted first place.

We also lack some kind of free trial subscription or a free version of the service. However, like most other competitors, it has a 30-day “money back guarantee”. A guarantee that is also fulfilled without problems.

A small plus also because the site as well as the software and support are entirely in Swedish.

Access to all streaming services

Private VPN has around 100 servers in 63 countries. There are about twenty more servers than last time, but the same number of countries. In the past, it has fared well in terms of speed compared to competitors, despite the relatively low number of servers. Unfortunately not quite this time.

Against Swedish servers it goes well. We get up to a whopping 123 Mbit/s, which competes well with other top competitors. But against British the result is only 45 Mbit/s and against American 42 Mbit/s. This on a 250 Mbit/s connection, which means that Private VPN comes up to 49 percent for Swedish servers, 18 percent for British and 17 percent for American.

Fully approved for the speeds against Swedish servers in other words, but a clear deterioration this time against British and American ones.

However, Private VPN, as one of the few services, still manages to provide access to all the streaming services we test. In other words, we have access to SVT Play, TV4 Play, Swedish Disney Plus and Swedish HBO Max, as well as American Netflix, American HBO Max and British BBC Iplayer. This is very impressive!

In other words, Private VPN consolidates its place at the top, but would need a bit smoother (and better) speeds and some cheaper long-term subscriptions to be able to challenge for the top spot!

Specifications

Service:

Private VPN

Tested: September 2022
Contact: privatevpn.com
Country of operation: Sweden
Number of servers: 100+ in 63 countries
Site in Swedish: Yes
Program in Swedish: Yes
Software for PC: Yes
Software for Mac: Yes
Kill switch: Yes
Number of concurrent units: Ten
Average speed Swedish server with 250 Mbit/s connection: 123 Mbit/s (49 percent).
Average speed UK server with 250 Mbit/s connection: 45 Mbit/s (18 percent).
Average speed American server with 250 Mbit/s connection: 42 Mbit/s (17 percent).
Access to SVT play: Yes*
Access to TV4 Play: Yes*
Access to Swedish Disney+: Yes*
Access to Swedish HBO Max: Yes*
Access BBC Iplayer: Yes*
Access to US Netflix: Yes*
Access to American HBO Max: Yes*
Price for monthly payment: SEK 105 per month
Price for year-round subscription: About 21 kroner per month
Other price options: Three-month subscription for SEK 63 per month

* Netflix and other streaming services actively work to block access via vpn services. The fact that a certain streaming service worked at the time of testing is no guarantee that it works today.