How to Use PIA VPN with Netflix & Fix It Not Working

Watch the video tutorial below to see how simple it is to use PIA VPN with Netflix:

Private Internet Access is a highly-rated service overall, and a good Netflix VPN.

The VPN service reliably works with Netflix in the US and Italy. Sadly, PIA cannot access Netflix libraries in other countries, such as Japan, Canada, or Australia.

On the whole, there are better VPNs than Private Internet Access if streaming Netflix is your main priority.

Better Netflix alternatives, like ExpressVPN and Surfshark, unlock more regions, are faster, and offer a Smart DNS tool for greater device compatibility.

Here’s a summary of the pros and cons of using Private Internet Access with Netflix:

PROS	CONS
Works reliably with US Netflix Fast speeds for HD streaming Unblocks BBC iPlayer & Prime Video Apps for Fire TV & Android TV Huge server network 24 hour live chat support	Only works with 2 Netflix libraries Smart DNS doesn’t work with Netflix Unreliable Fire TV application

In the rest of this section, we detail the benefits and drawbacks of using PIA with Netflix.

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 57Mbps.

Therefore, wherever you’re located, you’ll be able to stream Netflix content in HD or 4K with no buffering or lag.

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 or Surfshark.

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 17,087 servers in 84 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, Italy, Japan, Finland, and Sweden.

Sadly, our PIA VPN tests revealed that the US, UK, Japan, Sweden, and Finland servers don’t work with Netflix.

These servers do work more consistently with other popular streaming services, like Disney+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video.

Strong Privacy & Security

Private Internet Access comes with leading privacy and security features.

The VPN encrypts traffic using the AES-256 cipher and uses Perfect Forward Secrecy. It also operates first-party DNS servers with leak prevention to ensure your ISP, as well as any other third parties, are unable to view your browsing history.

For Netflix streaming, the biggest drawback of PIA’s privacy and security features is that it has no native support for network obfuscation.

This means it’s unable to fully mask the fact that network traffic is being rerouted through the VPN. Thus, Netflix may be able to identify VPN connections and block them, as it is already doing for libraries in Canada, Australia, and other regions.

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, and Android TV.

You can use PIA on up to ten of these devices at the same time, which is double the allowance of some other popular VPN services.

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 Apple 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. We encourage PIA to issue a fix for this as soon as possible.

Although it is a reasonable option for streaming Netflix, PIA is not as good as ExpressVPN and some other popular streaming VPNs.

Testing 55 services, we found better VPNs that accessed a larger number of Netflix regions at faster speeds.

Here’s a table comparing how the three top Netflix VPNs compare to PIA:

VPN Service	Netflix Libaries	Speed	Servers	Cheapest Monthly Price	Monthly Data Cap
ExpressVPN	10	97Mbps	3,000	$6.67	Unlimited
Surfshark	11	95Mbps	3,200+	$2.30	Unlimited
Windscribe Free	6	90Mbps	11	Free	10GB
Private Internet Access	2	95Mbps	17,087	$2.19	Unlimited

ExpressVPN: The Best VPN for Netflix

ExpressVPN unblocks 10 Netflix libraries, including the US. It’s one of the fastest VPNs we’ve tested and, unlike PIA, offers a Smart DNS to unblock Netflix on an Apple TV or PS4.

While PIA doesn’t use any server obfuscation techniques, ExpressVPN uses it to hide VPN traffic among regular HTTPS traffic.

The only notable drawbacks are its high price and the fact it doesn’t unblock the popular Netflix libraries of South Korea and India.

Surfshark: Good Budget Netflix VPN

Surfshark is one of the cheapest VPNs for unblocking Netflix, and it consistently unblocks 11 Netflix libraries. It delivers fast speeds across its server network, has an impressive app for Amazon Fire TV, and even works on game consoles.

Though it does have a much smaller server network than PIA, we found that almost all the servers worked with Netflix. We were also able to stream other popular sites, like Amazon Prime Video and BBC iPlayer.

If you want a cheap way to watch a huge number of Netflix libraries, Surfshark is a great choice.

Windscribe Free: Free VPN for Netflix

Windscribe Free unblocks 6 Netflix libraries, including the UK and France. However, download speeds are slow and there’s a monthly data limit of 10GB.

The data cap means you can stream about three hours of video in full HD quality per month, or about half that if you’re streaming in 4K.

You can, however, adjust usage settings to have Netflix stream in the lowest quality, which should give you up to 30 hours of streaming.