Private Internet Access Reviews 2024 - Why 9.5 Stars?

Private Internet Access has one of the cheapest VPN subscriptions available — you can sign up for as little as $2.03/月. With such a low price, I wondered whether PIA could really stand out against its higher-priced competitors. It’s been around for 10+ years, so it could be one of the best-value VPNs out there.

I decided to find out just how good it is by looking into the company’s logging policy, security features, and testing out its speeds. In addition, I performed in-depth tests on its ability to unblock streaming platforms, its torrenting performance, and every other aspect of the VPN to see where it ranks among other top VPNs.

Overall, Private Internet Access is a secure choice and a good value for the money. With its strong torrenting performance and customizable security options, it’s impressive that you can get a subscription for so little. And considering it comes with a trustworthy 30-day money-back guarantee, it shows that this VPN really has faith in its product. With that said, even though it’s one of the cheapest, I wouldn’t call it the best. There are still a few VPNs out there that it falls short of.

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Private Internet Access is good at unblocking streaming platforms. I was able to unblock US Netflix and libraries from 8 other countries without any issues. Hulu and HBO Max were a bit tougher, but I unblocked them with some simple troubleshooting. The only platforms I tested that didn’t work were ITV and ESPN+.

I tested 25+ servers and unblocked the following platforms:

Unblocked: Netflix (US, UK, Japan, and 6 Other Libraries)

I easily unblocked US Netflix and was able to watch shows and movies without buffering. My first test was on the Seattle server. It took about 3 seconds to load, but then Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D played back without any interruptions.

I was also able to watch shows from 9 other regions

The Denver server worked just as well. However, the Texas server gave me a significantly longer load time.

In addition to the US library, I was able to unblock Netflix regions in the following countries:

However, I didn’t need to use the optimized streaming servers to unblock Netflix libraries. There are streaming-optimized servers in the US, Japan, the UK, Denmark, Sweden, and Italy. These servers are meant to improve your performance during streaming, but I didn’t notice any difference. For example, the non-optimized Tokyo server took 16 seconds to load Netflix and so did the JP Streaming Optimized server.

Overall, it was easy to unblock libraries in countries far away from me (I’m located in the US). I had one small issue accessing Netflix France, but once I switched from Chrome to Microsoft Edge it loaded up.

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Unblocked: Disney+

I was able to stream on Disney+, but the video buffered several times during playback.

Chrome didn't work for me, so I recommend using Microsoft Edge

The platform loaded up right away, and I was able to start watching Loki instantly. The picture quality was great; it was just annoying that the video kept pausing to load.

Unblocked: Hulu

While I was able to access Hulu, it only worked with a streaming optimized server. When I tried using the Seattle server, I was blocked no matter which browser I tried.

The US West Streaming Optimized server works best

The video played back great once I had access. I watched Logan in HD without any dips in quality or choppiness.

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Unblocked: Amazon Prime Video

It couldn’t have been easier to unblock Amazon Prime Video. I connected to the Seattle server, went to the website, clicked on Cinderella, and it loaded instantly.

The video played back in HD without any interruptions

Private Internet Access worked just as well with 5 other US servers, which is great because the US library has a lot of the most popular content.

Unblocked: HBO Max

HBO Max took a bit of work, but I was able to unblock it. Normal servers were blocked, and the US East Streaming Optimized server didn’t work either.

I watched several episodes without any technical issues

However, I got it to work with the other US Streaming Optimized server. I watched 3 episodes of Harley Quinn without any buffering.

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Unblocked: BBC iPlayer

I was able to watch BBC iPlayer with the London Streaming Server. My first test with the non-optimized server in London was blocked.

BBC iPlayer is free, all you need is a VPN to access it

Once I had access, the videos played back fairly well. I did have to wait around 5 seconds for each to load, and there were a few instances of buffering.

Also Unblocks: Kodi, Crunchyroll, Peacock and more

Private Internet Access also works with Kodi and Popcorn Time. Kodi is a free app that makes it easier to stream media on all your devices. However, it can also be used to access platforms that have illegal content. My team and I don’t condone any illegal activity, so I recommend you only watch copyright-free content on these channels.

Popcorn Time is a popular Kodi add-on that offers P2P streaming. I used it to watch the public domain movie Night of the Living Dead. It took a few minutes to load since there weren’t many seeders, but it played back perfectly once it was loaded.

I also unblocked Peacock, Paramount+, Crunchyroll, and several other platforms. It even works well with Twitch. After I hopped on the Vegas server, I was able to jump into a livestream of the music producer Decap without any loading times.

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Blocked by: ITV and ESPN+

I made several attempts, but I just couldn’t unblock ESPN+ or ITV. The UK Manchester and the UK London Streaming servers let me access the ITV website. However, as soon as I’d click on a show like Emmerdale it would tell me it’s unavailable. I know this isn’t true because I can access it with other VPNs. I reached out to Private Internet Access’ live chat for some help with this problem.

I appreciated customer support's honesty and troubleshooting tips

The support agent told me to disconnect and reconnect to get a new IP address. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. They also told me that there are some streaming services PIA just doesn’t support and ESPN+ is one of them. While I was impressed with how many platforms it could unblock, ExpressVPN is more reliable for unblocking streaming platforms (and never caused my streams to lag).

It has a huge server list with great global coverage, so you’ll be able to access content from around the world. Private Internet Access claims to have the largest server network of any VPN. It offers an impressive 29,650 servers in 90 countries.

The server size is vast, but it’s important to note that it only has 90 locations. So, there are VPNs out there with less servers, but a lot more server locations. For example, CyberGhost has 11,690 servers in 100 countries; ExpressVPN offers 3,000 servers in 105 countries, so there are VPNs with better global coverage available.

PIA has most of its servers in North America and Europe, but there’s still strong worldwide coverage. Having so many servers improves speeds because it prevents overcrowding, which can slow your speeds down. It also makes it harder for streaming services to flag IPs they notice being used by multiple people. Plus, it makes it easier to find a server close to you, which will give you the best speeds.

PIA also has an option to sign up for a Dedicated IP. This will give you an IP address that only you use and helps prevent constant CAPTCHA checks and getting flagged on safe sites. It costs $5 extra per month, and it only offers IPs in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and Germany. It’s not a bad price (CyberGhost offers it for the same), but it’s too bad it’s not available in more locations.

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Does PIA Use Virtual Locations? Yes

Private Internet Access has virtual servers in 35 locations. There are 121 locations total, so virtual locations make up about 25%. That’s not bad, and I don’t have a problem with virtual locations. However, there are VPNs that don’t use any if it concerns you.

It takes a long time to receive responses over email too

One negative of having virtual locations is that it might lower your speeds. Since the server is actually in another country, it might be farther away from you than it appears, which means your data will have to travel farther.

On the positive side, having virtual locations allows PIA to offer locations in countries where it can be unsafe to have physical servers. It used to have physical servers in Brazil and Russia but removed them over privacy concerns. You can still use locations in these countries, but it’s now done through virtual servers.

The other icons next to the servers are latency and favorites

Private Internet Access also owns all of its servers, so you don’t have to worry about a third party handling your data. Most VPNs use outside companies to handle at least a few of their servers, and some VPNs only use rented servers. It also gives you the option to use DNS servers owned by the company. Plus, all of its servers are RAM-based, so every time a server gets rebooted its data is erased. This is safer than servers with hard drives that are more complicated to wipe. All the work put into these servers is impressive and shows that Private Internet Access is dedicated to protecting your data.

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Private Internet Access is pretty fast on local servers, but long distance servers can lower your speeds considerably. I performed all of my tests on a Microsoft Surface Laptop running Windows 10. The app was set to the OpenVPN UDP protocol with 128-bit encryption because it gave me the best speeds compared to other protocols.

Auto-connect will set you up on the fastest server available. I was impressed with how well this worked. When I used it, I was connected to a Seattle server. This surprised me because there are much closer locations. However, when I tested out the closer servers (Las Vegas and California), Seattle was much faster. So, this feature works as advertised.

Overall, my speeds dropped a little more than I expected. On the closer servers, I had an average percentage drop of 34 percent. This increased to a 64 percent decrease from my normal connection rates on long distance locations. It’s normal for a VPN to drop your speeds around 10-20 percent, so this isn’t a great result. I still had average download speeds above 20 Mbps, so I didn’t notice much difference while streaming or browsing. However, if you have a slower base internet speed (say 25 Mbps), a 64 percent drop in speed would probably be more notiecable.

It gave me speeds of 14.97 Mbps, which is too slow to stream in Ultra HD

You can usually connect to local or long-distance servers quickly.  The average time it took to connect to a local server was 3 seconds, and the distant servers were just a little bit slower at 5 seconds. However, occasionally I would encounter a server that took a while like the India server, which took 14 seconds in my test. I also tested out Private Internet Access’ video conferencing capabilities, and it worked well. The video and audio on Zoom worked with only a slight delay, which is comparable to my normal experience.

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Local Test Results

In my first test, auto-connect set me up on the Seattle server, which only dropped my base speed by 10 percent.

Even when speeds dropped, it was still fast enough to stream in HD

Below are my speed stats with no VPN.

No VPN connection (Moreno Valley, CA, US):

With the VPN connected, my ping rate increased by 29 ms, which still isn’t too bad. My upload speed also fell by nearly 3 Mbps.

Seattle, US:

On my next test, I tried out the Las Vegas server, which is about 2,000 km closer to me than Seattle. My ping rate was better, and the upload speed was almost identical to Seattle. However, the download speed fell by a little over 50 percent.

Las Vegas, US:

The final local server I tested was in Vancouver, 1773 km away. The download rate was much better. It was only a 35 percent drop from my original speed. The ping was the same as the Seattle location, but my upload rate was 0 Mbps, which is concerning.

Vancouver, Canada:

Overall, my local tests show that Private Internet Access can achieve good speeds with servers close to you, although it’s pretty inconsistent. I recommend using the auto-connect feature to ensure you get the best speeds.

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Long-Distance Results

PIA’s speeds didn’t drop significantly until the server was over 4,000 km away. The Florida server is 3,660 km away from me, and its speeds held up well. However, the speeds dropped by a lot after that.

Florida, US:

The next server I tested was in London, 8,704 km away. This is where my speed took a big dip. My download rate was 80 percent slower than my test without a VPN. For comparison, I was able to increase my speeds by 10 percent with a London server using ExpressVPN. So, I was pretty disappointed with this result.

London, UK:

The Tokyo server is almost the same distance away, but it was much faster, although it still gave me more than a 70 percent decrease in speed, which is not good.

Tokyo, Japan

The server in Sao Paulo had a very high ping rate and slow upload speeds. It’s 9,805 km away from me, but I still didn’t notice much difference when streaming or browsing.

Sao Paulo, Brazil

On long-distance servers, Private Internet Access loses a lot of speed and showed inconsistencies like the local speeds did. Because of that, there are other VPNs I recommend to get fast speeds even when servers are far away.

You can use nearby servers to play online games, but long-distance locations make gaming impossible. I used the Seattle server to play Hearthstone with a ping rate of only 47 ms. It’s difficult to play online with a ping rate over 100 ms. It took 2 minutes to find a match. With no VPN connected, I can get a match in 30 seconds or less most of the time. However, once the game loaded up, I was able to play just fine without any lag.

I had to wait a little long to find a match, but the game played great

Next, I tried using servers in Florida and Tokyo. I waited 5 minutes to find a match, and it wouldn’t even load. So, it’s possible to game with Private Internet Access, but only on local servers.

Private Internet Access has some strong, adjustable security options. It offers multiple encryption levels and protocols that can be mixed and matched. PIA also has split tunneling and a kill switch. On top of that, I consider Private Internet Access safe since it has several open-source apps, and it passed all of my leak tests.

Solid Encryption

Private Internet Access offers military-grade 256-bit encryption, which makes it impossible for anyone to spy on your data. With the OpenVPN protocol, the default setting is 128-bit encryption, but I recommend moving it up to 256-bit. I didn’t find any difference in speeds during my tests, so there’s no reason not to use the highest level of encryption for the highest level of protection. If you’re using WireGuard, the encryption level is always 256-bit.

I recommend using 256-bit encryption since it didn't affect my speeds

In addition, you can no longer change the handshake settings or choose between a few data authentication options. Private Internet Access removed this customization option to fix compatibility issues and make the VPN more stable. While these were nice options for advanced users, I don’t see it as a problem. Now, the VPN defaults to the most secure settings (GCM ciphers and the RSA-4096 certificate), so you’ll still get top-notch security. The same level is used for both protocols.

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Leak Test Results — Passed

I didn’t find any DNS, WebRTC or IP leaks. After performing tests with 4 virtual locations and 6 bare-metal servers, PIA never leaked any of my vital information. The tests I conducted show you which IP addresses are visible to the websites you visit (which can be easily accessed by people who want to steal your data).

No one was able to see my real IP while I was connected to PIA

The only IPs that showed up were the ones I was connected to on the VPN.

Open Source Apps

Several of its apps are open source, which makes them safer because anyone can check them for security vulnerabilities. So far, the Firefox and Chrome extensions, its desktop apps, and the app for Android devices have been made open source. Making these applications open source shows that Private Internet Access is transparent with its customers and communities concerned with internet security.

Reliable Kill Switch

The kill switch blocks your internet traffic if the VPN gets disconnected. This is an essential feature because it ensures there’s never a chance for hackers to steal your data because your real IP can’t be accidentally leaked. For my tests, I kept a browser open while I switched servers and the page wouldn’t load if the VPN was still connecting. That’s how I knew it was working.

The Advanced Kill Switch blocks all traffic until the VPN is connected

This feature is available on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS devices.

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Split Tunneling to Reroute Traffic

This feature lets you route some traffic through the VPN tunnel, and the rest through your regular connection. I like to keep my banking app outside of the VPN, so my account isn’t blocked, for example.

You can keep access to your local news while you watch a Netflix library from another country

It’s available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and you can exempt apps (not websites) on Android and iOS devices.

Protocols — 3 Good Options

You can use OpenVPN and WireGuard on every app; these are strong protocols, but other VPNs offer more. Protocols are a set of rules your VPN follows that tell it how to encrypt your traffic. OpenVPN is the safest because it’s open source, so it’s constantly checked for vulnerabilities.

WireGuard can sometimes be faster, but OpenVPN beat it in my speed tests. In addition to WireGuard and OpenVPN, the iOS app has access to IPsec (IKEv2). This is an older protocol that can be faster, but I don’t recommend it because it’s less secure.

MACE Ad Blocker — Only Blocks Some Ads

The ad blocker won’t remove all ads. In the app, PIA claims MACE blocks trackers, malware, and ads. However, while it worked to block ads on several sites I tested when I put it through an advanced test, many ads still got through.

It also can't block YouTube ads

It also doesn't give you the ability to whitelist (exempt sites or apps). Plus, I was disappointed that it can’t block ads on YouTube videos, so I’d recommend using a separate ad blocker with PIA.

InBrowser — Fast Incognito Browsing for Mobile Devices

Private Internet Access also offers its own incognito browser called InBrowser. It’s only available for Android and iOS. It can work in conjunction with the TOR network, and it deletes your history, cookies, and session data every time you log off.

iOS users can't access extensions or InBrowser, but they have an ad-blocker for Safari

It doubled the speeds on my phone (from 22.81 Mbps with Chrome to 46.49 Mbps with InBrowser). I was surprised with how fast it was. Incognito browsers are usually a little faster because they don’t run as many extensions. However, the incognito browser on Chrome is only 17 percent faster on average for me (while InBrowser was 102 percent faster). InBrowser is a nice addition, but you should use it with the VPN. It will only protect your browser and not fully encrypt the device like the VPN will.

Secure Your Device With PIA

Does Private Internet Access Keep Logs? No

Private Internet Access doesn’t store any information that can be used to identify you. It only retains your email address, payment details, state and zip code (for tax purposes), and anonymized data used to improve the service. For maximum security, you can even create a new email address and pay with cryptocurrency. On top of that, it states that it will never rent or sell any customer's information.

It has a strict no-logs policy that has been verified in court. In 2016, the FBI requested information about a user, and Private Internet Access couldn’t provide any data on their activities because none were stored.

It only collects enough data to maintain accounts and comply with tax regulations

While this court case proves the no-logging policy, it would be nice if it underwent an independent audit. However, it does publish regular transparency reports that tell you any time data is requested from the company, and it’s never had anything to share.

Ownership and Company History

Kape Technologies owns Private Internet Access. Kape used to be called Crossrider and worked in mobile ads and browser extension development. In 2018, it received backlash when its software was used by hackers to bundle adware into some of its downloads.

However, since the name change, the company no longer works in advertising and now focuses on VPNs. Kape also owns CyberGhost and ExpressVPN, 2 other trustworthy VPNs. Plus, I ran tests on the app, and it was completely free of malware.

Regardless of its ownership, Private Internet Access has been a trusted VPN for over 10 years. It supports non-profit organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Creative Commons, which are dedicated to internet freedom. Most importantly, Private Internet Access’ privacy policy has been proven in court, so I trust it to be responsible with my data.

Based in the US

Private Internet Access operates out of the United States, which isn’t the most privacy-friendly country. The US was one of the founding members of the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliance. This is a pact between governments where they promise to share information on people they’re suspicious of.

However, Private Internet Access has a strong no-logs policy that has been proven many times. It has operated for over a decade without ever storing or sharing any identifiable information on its users, so I trust them with my data.

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I could download files on P2P networks super fast while connected to Private Internet Access. In my test, I found a torrent of Night of the Living Dead. It’s a 700MB file, and it took less than 10 minutes to complete.

I downloaded a 700 Mb file in less than 10 minutes

It also lets you use port forwarding, which can really improve your speeds. This lets you access more seeders. After I turned it on, I was downloading twice as fast. However, my upload speeds never changed, staying under 3 kB/s. This is normal for me, so the VPN didn’t affect it.

You can find it under the Network section of the settings

There is also the option to use a SOCKS5 proxy, but I don’t recommend it. The way proxies work with PIA is as a double-hop, meaning it sends your connection to the proxy before moving it through the VPN tunnel. This slows down your speeds by quite a bit (91 percent for me). Even if you could connect directly to the proxy, it’s not a good idea because it wouldn’t encrypt your traffic.

You can torrent on any server with unlimited bandwidth. This is nice because many VPNs only let you torrent on a select few locations. I was able to download with BitTorrent, Deluge, and Transmission and the MACE ad blocker worked well to block ads on these programs, too. Overall, it’s a solid option I’d recommend if you plan to torrent often.

Torrent Safely With PIA

Does Private Internet Access Work in China? No

You won’t be able to use Private Internet Access in China. A customer support agent confirmed it doesn’t reliably work in the country. They also stated it doesn’t work in other restrictive countries like Turkey, the UAE, or Egypt.

A customer support agent and information on its website both stated Private Internet Access doesn't reliably work in China

If you’re looking for a VPN that works in China, there are a few options available.