Private Internet Access review: A low-price, high-value VPN for everyone

Private Internet Access (PIA) has seemingly been around since the advent of third-party VPNs. Since that time, it’s been a favorite VPN service for many users thanks to its excellent pricing and good privacy guarantees. Recently the service has made some truly promising improvements by lifting the device connection limit and undergoing a third-party audit. So, with these new updates how does it stack up against the other titans of the VPN market? Let’s dive in and have a look.

Private Internet Access in brief:

• P2P allowed: Yes
• Simultaneous device connections: Unlimited
• Business location: U.S.
• Number of servers: 10,000+
• Number of country locations: 90
• Cost: $11.95 per month, or $79 + 4 free months for a three year subscription

Further reading: See our roundup of the best VPN services to learn about competing products.

What are Private Internet Access’s features and services?

Upon first opening PIA you’ll notice that it has maintained the same user-interface design since the company overhauled its Windows app in 2019. You’re presented with a simple panel in the lower-right corner of your screen. By default this panel is anchored to that location unless you unlock it in the settings menu. It’s an interesting design decision and one that I’m not honestly a big fan of. It feels a bit constrained, but then again maybe I’m just used to every other VPN having a free window by default.

The Windows app itself is pretty straightforward. There’s a big on/off button at the top and below that is the VPN server location — clicking it takes you to a different screen where you’re able to view and choose a different country or server location. For countries with multiple location options you’re able to click a drop-down menu to display all of the available server locations within that country. And boy are there a lot to choose from. PIA offers servers across 90 countries and, while not officially confirmed, it’s believed to have over 10,000 servers. 

Next to each country location is its latency displayed in milliseconds and there’s a heart icon which allows you to designate a server as one of your favorites. It also conveniently denotes which servers are virtual servers with an icon that states “This is a geo-located region” next to the name. 

A virtual server is not located within the country itself, but rather assigns an IP address of the country location instead. The transparency here should be commended as not many other VPN providers willingly label which of their servers are virtual or physical.

Overall the server list layout effect is nice and simple to follow. PIA allows you to sort its server list either by latency or location name, as well. This makes it much easier for people who are only interested in speed to find the optimal connection or likewise by name to find their desired location.

Once connected, the app displays your actual IP address and the VPN address you’re using. This basic information is all you can see in the compact view, but if you click the downward-facing arrow at the bottom you can see a ton of extra details as well. 

PIA’s publication of transparency reports and up-front nature regarding user privacy and security should be commended. 

This includes quick-connect options with locations such as France, Germany, the U.S., and the UK. There are also tiles for bandwidth usage, a performance graph, data encryption and handshake settings being used, and basic settings control. If you prefer to see any of this information on the compact view instead you’re able to click the bookmark icon on any tile to display it. You can add or remove any of these options as you see fit.

While I appreciate the extra connection-details menu, when expanding the drop-down menu it shot past the bottom of my screen making it awkward to view all of the data or reshrink the menu. It’s a small gripe, I know, but an (overdue) interface update could easily remedy these clunky navigational issues.

Private Internet Access comes with a plethora of great features such as split tunneling, multi-hop, and a kill switch. It even allows you to designate an app-based kill switch, which will block traffic only on specific apps should the VPN connection break. 

It’s worth talking a little bit about PIA’s split-tunneling feature. Split tunneling allows you to pick and choose which apps you wish to run through a VPN, allowing you to optimize bandwidth for low-risk activities such as streaming or gaming. And PIA has one of the most dynamic split-tunneling features I’ve ever seen. Power users can go to town tweaking things such as which apps, IP addresses, and DNS requests are allowed to bypass the VPN. 

Additionally, taking after other VPN providers such as NordVPN and Surfshark, PIA has added a handy security extra in the form of an ad- and tracker-blocker it calls MACE, and data-breach monitoring with its Identity Guard feature. This is something that’s becoming more common as a means to entice users with a complete online security suite rather than just a VPN service. You can even opt-in to an antivirus tool from PIA for an additional fee when you sign up if you so choose. 

The convenience of this all-in-one approach is enticing, but generally speaking, a standalone antivirus software, like our favorite antivirus suites, will offer you more comprehensive coverage and overall security.

PIA is available for all major platforms including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Chrome browser, and some gaming devices and smart TVs.

How much does Private Internet Access VPN cost?

Private Internet Access has long been one of the most affordable premium VPN services on the market. That still remains that case; however, other competitors are starting to offer comparable rates — some other services can even be found cheaper, but usually with less features.

PIA offers three plans including a monthly plan, 1-year plan, and 3-year plan. The monthly rate is $11.95, which is above the industry average, but actually cheaper than other services with the same feature set.

The 1-year plan will set you back $39.96, or $3.33 per month. If you opt for the 3-year plan PIA throws in an extra four months for free and it will cost a total of $79, or $1.98 per month.

A unique and economical pricing feature of PIA’s long-term plans is that they don’t increase in price after the renewal period. So if you opt for the 1-year plan, after the first year you’ll still only be charged $39.96 for any subsequent years.

Most VPN providers will offer you an enticing long-term plan deal initially and then after the renewal period, your price will skyrocket up to a much less affordable amount for as long as you continue subscribing.

When you sign up for PIA, it only asks for your email address. It accepts a good range of payment options including credit card, PayPal, Amazon Pay, and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin — there’s also an option to use Bitpay instead of direct wallet transfers. 

How is Private Internet Access’s performance?

In my testing I measured connection speeds across PIA’s servers in six different countries all around the world and then compared them to my baseline internet speed. PIA’s speeds were alright, but they weren’t enough to make our top five fastest VPNs. Across all locations tested, the speeds averaged 49 percent of the base download speed and a more respectable 77 percent of the base upload speed. 

Of course, as one would expect, I noted that locations closer to my physical location had better speed averages, while server locations further away were slower. Also, curiously, I found that my connections while using the OpenVPN protocol were actually faster than those with WireGuard.

WireGuard is considered to be the faster of the two protocols, as OpenVPN is optimized for security over speed. So to find that my connection speeds were actually faster while using OpenVPN was a bit of a head-scratcher. Still, because the differences only averaged a few percentage points, either protocol will do speed-wise.

For a top VPN, I have to admit that these overall connection speed averages are a bit disappointing. NordVPN, one of PIA’s top competitors, has average speeds of over 72 percent of the base download speed — a full 23 percent faster. Users who demand ultra-fast connections while gaming or downloading large files may want to consider their options. For what it’s worth, I was able to play online FPS games while connected to a PIA server and had no noticeable hiccups or connection issues though.

At the end of the day, PIA’s speeds aren’t terrible and they should be plenty fast enough to allow you to stream or browse to your heart’s content without noticeable lag — depending on your own home internet connection of course.

As for streaming, Private Internet Access worked perfectly fine with all of the major streaming services such as Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. I didn’t come across any servers that were blocked and geo-restriction access was never an issue no matter which country’s server I was connected to.

How is Private Internet Access’s security and privacy?

PIA has been owned and operated by Kape Technologies, a UK-based company formerly known as Crossrider, since 2019. There have been some questions in the past about the somewhat dubious practices surrounding Crossrider. Its development platform for browser extensions was used by independent developers to deliver malicious adware and malware to users. Realizing this and facing backlash, Crossrider closed the platform in 2016 and rebranded itself as Kape Technologies. 

Since this reset, and subsequent leadership reorganization, Kape Technologies has pivoted to become a major provider of digital security software. It has gone on a run in recent years of purchasing ownership of some of the largest VPNs on the market today including PIA, ExpressVPN, ZenMate VPN, and CyberGhost VPN, as well as Mac antivirus firm Intego. 

To its credit, PIA has taken it upon itself to ease the minds of privacy-focused users with regular transparency reports. Additionally, in 2022 and most recently in 2024 it underwent independent security audits by Deloitte to review its “no-logs” policy. In both instances Deloitte confirmed that PIA stores no logs and no details that could be used to identify users or their activities. 

Privacy is the main pillar of a good VPN service and these independent audits combined with PIA’s continued willingness to strive for transparency has done a lot to rectify any concerns over its parent company’s past.

PIA uses the industry standard AES-256 encryption and both the Windows and Android apps support WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols. There is also built-in protection against DNS leaks, which I verified by using a DNS Leak test tool. I found that my real location information was never leaked while connected to PIA’s servers.

PIA also uses diskless RAM-only servers, which boot on a read-only image and use RAM modules instead of hard disks. By not storing data on hard disks, RAM-only servers are more resistant to tampering by both hackers and physical breaches. Data on RAM-only servers is also wiped with each server restart, meaning that any collected user data is usually never stored for very long. While RAM-only servers have become more commonplace among VPN providers recently, PIA was well ahead of the game by installing them years ago.

Is Private Internet Access worth it?

Private Internet Access has been at this game for a long time and it shows. The affordable VPN is well polished with a nice — if slightly outdated — interface, plenty of servers to choose from, and tons of tweakable features. The service’s continued publication of transparency reports and up-front nature regarding user privacy and security should also be commended. 

It’s true that the speeds might not be the fastest, and its parent company has had its fair share of dubious issues. But that is all seemingly in the past, and PIA has done its best to show that it is removed from all of that anyhow. While there may be other services that do one single thing better, PIA stands apart as a jack-of-all-trades that does everything well. It continues to be a top-tier VPN that, like a fine wine, is only getting better with age.

Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article.