Pure Usenet Review
4.0/5
4/5
- Low Price Usenet Provider
- Founded 2000
- 7 Day Free Trial Included
- 4,100 Days Retention
Pure Usenet Overview
Stars:
4.0/5
Free Trial:
1 Week / Unlimited
Features:
4,100 Days Retention
Unlimited Downloads
Unlimited Speeds
Save 20% with Annual
Payment:
Credit Card, PayPal, iDEAL, Bitcoin, paysafecard
- Low-cost Dutch provider
- Accepts Bitcoin as Payment Method
- Unlimited speeds & downloads available
- Lower number of connections than other providers
Low-cost Dutch provider
Accepts Bitcoin as Payment Method
Unlimited speeds & downloads available
Lower number of connections than other providers
Disclaimer – Prices may change frequently and despite our best efforts it is possible that some may be out of date. Please visit the provider’s official website for exact pricing.
Pure Usenet Overview
Pure Usenet is another popular Usenet provider founded in 2000 and based in the Netherlands. Unlike most of their European counterparts, they do not require a Dutch IP address to sign-up for their services. This means that anyone around the world can access their servers. To get you hooked, Pure Usenet also offers a 7-day free trial to test their services.
Pure Usenet made its name by offering very competitive pricing compared to its rivals while providing good retention, unlimited data and anonymous payment methods for users all around the world. However, the offered low price comes at the cost of fewer features and cut-backs on essential items.
Here is an analysis of their price and performance metrics before you choose Pure Usenet as your provider.
Why We Recommend Pure Usenet
1.) Price
What makes Pure Usenet different is its pricing model. For a yearly subscription, their customers can pick packages as low as 3.09€/month for a download speed of 20Mbps. Their mid-tier package is at 4.53€/month for a download speed of 60Mbps. The largest package offers unlimited Mbps for 5.97€/month.
If you don’t want to commit to a yearly subscription, you can also opt for their month-to-month plans which are a little more expensive.
2.) Performance
4,100 Days Retention
Pure Usenet offers a consistent 4100 days of retention across all available plans. This means that you can download files that are approximately 8 years old. This number is lower than the high-end providers, whose options are at least 33% more. It is, nonetheless, a good effort considering that some competitors will offer around 1100 days or less of retention.
Retention rate is an important factor when choosing your provider, as it will ultimately dictate how long a file will be accessible in a server. While the offered retention rate is average, it is often good enough for people who don’t need access to very early media.
Connections
Their smaller package (M) offers 8 connections while the mid (XL) and larger (XXL) package offer 12 connections. This is a standard number of connections that is generally offered at a minimum by high-end providers.
The number of connections is necessary to attain the full potential of your Internet connection and provided Internet speed limit. Files in Usenet are usually split into smaller files and each split file will take 1 connection to download. This means if the media you want to download is split into 5, it will take 5 out of 8(or 12) simultaneous connections to download.
Download Speed
If your Internet service provider has a limit, it may be better to choose one of the lower-tier plans. For example, if your broadband plan allows up to 50 Mbps download, then you would want to choose the Pure XL package, with a download speed of up to 60 Mbps.
Their tiered plans include 20Mbps, 60 Mbps and unlimited speed. Being one of the big promises in the Usenet community, most providers will offer unlimited speed to match your ISP speed.
Download Limits
One of the most attractive aspects of Pure Usenet is the fact that their larger package offers unlimited downloads. That means that you can download all the content to your heart’s content.
3.) Security
Security-wise, Pure Usenet will offer SSL Encryption in all of their subscription packages. This is the basic security option that most providers will include. SSL provides encryption for communication over data moving from point A to point B. This means that the content of your downloads remains confidential and unknown to your service provider.
However, your search history on your browser is not protected. That is why you may want to consider purchasing a VPN for an additional layer of security.
An additional security benefit of Pure Usenet is that it is one of the few Usenet providers that accepts Bitcoin as a payment method. Bitcoin as a payment method is only available for non-recurring Pure Usenet plans.
Things We Like Less About Pure Usenet
While Pure Usenet has many compelling traits that would make one choose them as their preferred provider, here are a couple of reasons we gave it a lower than average rating:
For one, other providers will offer more retention. As stated, Pure Usenet offers a retention rate of 4100 days, which is a little lower than the usual 4500+ days. You may find this more than satisfactory if you want to access recent files. However, anything older than 8 years will be out of the equation.
Secondly, Pure Usenet does not have its own Newsreader. Newsreaders are required to search, access and download files from the Usenet servers. Ultimately, anyone who subscribes to a Usenet provider will need a Newsreader to access its content. Since Pure Usenet does not offer a Newsreader, customers must choose their own Usenet newsreader to use with the service. That being said, many providers will opt to include a newsreader in their subscription package to eliminate the hassle of searching elsewhere.
Finally, Pure Usenet does not include a VPN in any of their packages. While Usenet is a safe method to download content, a VPN is still necessary to fully protect your web traffic.
Bottom Line
Pure Usenet is a good way for newcomers to test the ground of the Usenet community. While it isn’t as powerful as many providers currently available on the market, Pure Usenet offers flexible pricing plans and many of the needed features to get started.
The downfall of this provider is the lower than average retention rate, missing Newsreader and missing VPN extension, which many Usenet providers choose to include in their package to enhance user experience. A newsreader is necessary for users to access newsgroups and a VPN extension ensures complete anonymity for browser activities.
While the pricing may be appealing, choosing Pure Usenet as a provider means that the user will need to invest a bit more time, money and energy to find a separate Newsreader and VPN that suit their needs.
How to Get Started with Pure Usenet
Getting started with Pure Usenet is as easy as any other provider. You can look at their packages and sign up for their 7-day trial using this link.
