How Good Is Private Internet Access for Netflix?
Private Internet Access is a highly-rated VPN overall, and a suitable VPN for Netflix, too. But there are certainly better alternatives available.
In the rest of this section, we detail the benefits and drawbacks of using PIA with Netflix in more detail.
Doesn’t Unblock as Many Netflix Libraries as Its Rivals
PIA VPN unblocks the following Netflix countries: Australia, India, Italy, Sweden, UK, and US. You can compare these results to other popular VPNs in the table below.
VPN Service | Netflix Libraries Accessed | Popular Netflix Libraries Accessed |
---|---|---|
PIA VPN | 6 | Australia, India, UK, US |
ExpressVPN | 18 | Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, UK, US |
Windscribe | 32 | Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, UK, US |
NordVPN | 17 | Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, UK, US |
CyberGhost | 10 | Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, UK, US |
Surfshark | 9 | Canada, France, India, UK, US |
As you can see, PIA VPN accesses far fewer Netflix libraries than its competitors. Unlike the very best options, ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Windscribe, it doesn’t work with Netflix in Canada, France, Germany, and Japan.
Fast Global Speeds
Using any VPN will always result in a speed reduction. As you’ll be connecting to PIA servers in different countries, long-distance connection speeds are the most important.
Private Internet Access delivered fast speeds in our Netflix streaming tests. We recorded an average global download speed of 86Mbps (14% speed loss).
Therefore, wherever you’re located, you’ll be able to stream Netflix content in HD or 4K with no buffering or lag.
Here are the download speeds that Netflix requires:
- 2Mbps for Standard Definition (SD) quality
- 5Mbps for High Definition (HD) quality
- 25Mbps for 4K/Ultra HD (UHD) quality
Here are the speeds we recorded with PIA on our 100Mbps connection:
- Germany: 84Mbps
- Japan: 85Mbps
- UK: 90Mbps
- US: 95Mbps
Despite its adequate speed performance, PIA cannot match the speeds of other top streaming VPNs.
If your baseline internet speed is slow, we recommend considering a faster VPN, like ExpressVPN.
Apps for Most Devices, but Smart DNS Doesn’t Work
You can use Private Internet Access to watch Netflix on your phone, tablet, computer, or TV. The VPN has native apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV.
While other popular VPNs, like NordVPN and ExpressVPN, limit you to 10 and 8 simultaneous connections respectively, you can use PIA on up to unlimited of these devices at the same time.
The VPN also provides browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. These provide a simple and convenient method to quickly change your Netflix region.
However, there are a couple of major drawbacks if you want to use PIA to unblock Netflix on your TV.
Firstly, the VPN’s Smart DNS feature does not unblock Netflix. You won’t be able to easily access geo-blocked Netflix libraries on your PS4 or Smart TV.
To get PIA to work with these devices, you’ll have to install the VPN on your internet router. However, this is a complex setup process, and we only recommend it for advanced VPN users.
Secondly, when using the VPN’s Fire TV app, we were only able to unblock Netflix on 25% of US servers. This is significantly less reliable than its desktop and mobile apps.
The Largest VPN Server Network
Server network size and server locations are important when choosing a VPN for Netflix.
PIA has more servers than any other VPN service. It has 18,651 servers in 91 countries.
Larger server networks make it harder for Netflix to ban each server’s IP address.
In addition, user bandwidth is spread out over a greater range of servers, resulting in minimized server load and faster speeds.
Recently, Private Internet Access even introduced streaming-optimized servers. These servers regularly refresh their IP address, increasing the likelihood of bypassing Netflix’s VPN blocks.
These servers are placed within the general list, and not in a separate part of the app. Just search ‘Streaming’ to find them. They are located in the US, UK, Australia, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Finland, and Sweden.
Sadly, our PIA VPN tests revealed that the Denmark and Finland streaming-optimized servers don’t work with Netflix.