Private Internet Access Review

We measured our connection speeds before and after connecting to a Private Internet Access server in London, close to our physical location.

Here are the results:

When we review VPNs, we always use the same scientific speed-testing process, and the VPN’s fastest protocol, to keep tests fair and consistent.

Testing PIA’s speeds, we recorded a speed loss of just 6% on short-distance connections — an incredibly fast result.

International Speed Test Results

Long-distance connection speeds were less impressive, but still fast enough for streaming, torrenting, and web browsing.

We connected to servers in the US, Australia, Germany, and Singapore from our London office, measuring our speeds before and after.

As expected, the servers located furthest from our office in the UK recorded the largest speed losses.

However, even over the longest possible distances PIA is still incredibly fast. If you need to connect to the other side of the world then you can count on PIA to affect your download speeds as little as possible – we only saw a 35% drop when connected to Australia.

The main issue which arose in our testing with PIA is that it lacks consistency of some of its fastest rivals. There can be big swings from week-to-week, which holds it back – but only slightly.

There are still faster VPN services than PIA, mainly over long-distances. In our Hotspot Shield review we highlight’s the VPN’s exceptional global speeds.

PIA’s Speeds Compared to Other Top VPNs

The graph below compares PIA’s average speed loss to other popular VPNs using our custom VPN speed test tool.

We developed this tool in-house, using our infrastructure and resources. This allows us to display the unbiased speed results as they’re recorded.

Compare Private Internet Access’ speeds across different cities

As our chart shows, PIA is slower than NordVPN.

Still, you can rely on PIA VPN to deliver the fast-enough connections for smooth streaming and torrenting, wherever you are in the world.

One limitation to bear in mind is that our tool currently only monitors OpenVPN speeds for PIA. We hope to be able to track its WireGuard performance in the future, which is where it really shone in our manual testing.

PIA VPN’s privacy policy states outright that all user activity is “NOT recorded, logged or stored at all.”

This commitment to privacy makes it a rare outlier among competing services that often collect some form of connection data.

Private Internet Access does collect your email address and payment details at sign-up, which is standard practice.

Regular Transparency Reports

PIA also releases regular transparency reports that detail the number of requests for data it has received from government agencies.

Server Seizures

As we mentioned above, the VPN’s no-logs policy has been externally verified on several occasions.

The FBI subpoenaed PIA in a 2016 court case, but despite receiving an official data request, PIA simply had no information to hand over.

The Russian government also seized PIA servers in 2016 but did not find any retained connection or activity data.

PIA subsequently removed all of its Russian VPN servers in protest to this incident. A bold move we want to see more VPN service providers follow.

As well, the VPN’s no-logs policy claims have been audited as recently as August 2022. Deloitte, the auditor, found that no details that could be used to identify PIA users are stored on the VPN’s servers.

These court cases are real-world tests supporting the company’s logging claims.

Based in Privacy-Unfriendly US

PIA is headquartered in the United States, which is widely considered to be one of the worst places to base a VPN company.

The US is a founding member of the Five Eyes (FVEY) intelligence alliance, which has automatic systems in place to collect and share surveillance data with Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK.

The Patriot Act also gives US authorities sweeping powers to collect and retain data, especially through the use of National Security Letters.

We typically discourage using a VPN based in a Five Eyes country like the US. However, a verified no-logs policy can offset most issues posed by an invasive government.

After multiple real-world verifications, we are confident that PIA’s privacy policy and logging practices can withstand its privacy-unfriendly jurisdiction, and you can trust this VPN with your data.

Who’s Behind Private Internet Access?

In November 2019, Kape Technologies acquired Private Internet Access from London Trust Media Inc. (LTMI), a company with an established history in creating privacy tools, including PIA VPN in 2010.

At the time, the acquisition of PIA garnered a some controversy.

The bulk of the backlash stemmed from Kape’s past activities in the advertising space when it was known as Crossrider. We discuss more about this in our CyberGhost VPN review.

On the whole, PIA VPN has always gone above and beyond to champion digital privacy, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t trust this established VPN.

Equally, Kape is determined to move on from its Crossrider days and is doubling down on its commitments to privacy and internet security. It now operates three trustworthy VPN services, including ExpressVPN and CyberGhost.

How Private Is Private Internet Access Compared to Other VPNs?

We’ve collected quantitative data on five private VPNs. In the table below, you can see how PIA compares to other VPNs on key metrics, such as logging policy and jurisdiction.

Although Netflix’s strong geo-blocks stop many VPNs from working with the service, Private Internet Access streams US Netflix with ease.

For the most reliable performance, connect to the ‘Streaming Optimized’ servers.

Having said that, our ExpressVPN review and Windscribe analysis detail how both VPNs are far more effective at bypassing Netflix geo-blocks around the world.

PIA Streams UK Video Content

We also tested the “UK London-Streaming” server, and Private Internet Access unblocked BBC iPlayer every time.

For the time being, we can safely say that PIA now consistently works with all UK streaming services, including ITV Hub and All 4.

PIA Unblocks Prime Video, Hulu & HBO Max

Our tests found PIA VPN is one of the best VPNs for Hotstar, and it works with many other content platforms like Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, and Amazon Prime Video.

On top of this, PIA’s fast speeds mean you won’t experience any lag when streaming shows in HD or 4K.

PIA’s Streaming Performance Compared to Other Top VPNs

The table below compares Private Internet Access to other streaming VPNs based on Netflix and BBC iPlayer access, and whether Smart DNS is available.

We test PIA VPN’s access in China weekly, using our test Shanghai server. We make a remote connection from within the country and verify whether PIA truly works in China, or not.

Over the past three months, PIA has recorded an uptime of 100% in China.

To bypass the Great Firewall with PIA, use the OpenVPN protocol and enable the Shadowsocks proxy within the app’s settings.

Watch us using PIA to access blocked websites in China in the video below.

PIA’s Shadowsocks Beats Censorship

PIA uses Shadowsocks, which is a third-party proxy developed specifically for use in China.

Although Shadowsocks is not as safe or effective as proprietary VPN obfuscation tools, it can access popular apps and websites like Instagram, Facebook, Gmail, and WhatsApp.

PIA is the best VPN for torrenting. It allows P2P and file-sharing activity on all of its servers, which is a much more direct approach than some competing providers.

PIA is compatible with all popular torrent clients including BitTorrent, Deluge, uTorrent, and Transmission.

MACE, PIA’s built-in ad blocker, can also help block any trackers or malware you come across in the process.

In our P2P tests, we were able to successfully torrent on all PIA’s servers. You can torrent from any server location, with no bandwidth or other limits. Simply connect to your nearest VPN server and start downloading.

Using PIA, we downloaded a torrent file at a rate of 9.6MiB/s. This is one of the fastest results, beating other top VPNs, like ExpressVPN and NordVPN.

As our torrenting speeds were fast and stable, and we quickly downloaded and played an episode of the show we were looking for.

PIA Has an Impressive Port Forwarding Tool

PIA’s port forwarding feature redirects incoming connections to bypass any NAT firewall.

Port Forwarding lets you increase the number of torrenting peers you can communicate with, and drastically improves P2P upload speeds. The PIA settings let you forward to ports 443, 80, 110, 53, 8080, and 9201.

PIA’s VPN Kill Switch Is Very Effective

All PIA apps come with a VPN kill switch to protect your traffic if your internet connection suddenly drops.

This is especially important when torrenting files. Without a working kill switch, your real IP address would be visible to everyone in the event of a VPN connection failure.

PIA supports OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, and L2TP/IPSec protocols with the option to choose between UDP and TCP connections.

The default setting protects your connection with AES 128-bit encryption, but we recommend you select the AES-256 cipher in the settings interface.

There is built-in protection against IPv4 and IPv6 leaks, DNS leak protection, and a VPN kill switch on all platforms.

Our tests detected no IP, DNS, or WebRTC leaks in any application.

Private DNS Servers

PIA also owns and operates its own private DNS servers, which means your DNS requests are resolved by Private Internet Access rather than your ISP. The apps are flexible, too – the Windows client can also be set to use any custom DNS of your choice.

Highly Customizable Encryption

Unlike a lot of VPN services, PIA gives you detailed control over the algorithms and protocols used to encrypt your data.

Adjusting your encryption settings is useful for optimizing performance and configuring the VPN to suit your security needs.

The default settings protect your connection with OpenVPN and AES 128-bit encryption. You can step up the encryption type to AES-256 (CBC or GCM) in the settings menu.

You can also choose the encryption level used for data authentication and the VPN handshake. These processes allow your device and the server it is contacting to verify the authenticity of the connection and the data being transmitted.

The default settings are for RSA-2048 and SHA-256, but you can go all the way up to RSA-4096 and SHA-384.

In short, PIA offers the strongest encryption available along with the option to choose the settings that work best for you.

The most secure settings aren’t selected by default, though, so we recommend changing them to the following configuration:

• VPN Protocol — OpenVPN UDP
• Data Encryption — AES-256 (GCM)
• Handshake — RSA-2048

Advanced Security Features

Private Internet Access also comes with a range of advanced security features designed to improve your browsing experience.

PIA’s advanced features include a VPN kill switch, split tunneling, an ad-blocker, a private browser, and SOCKS5 encrypted proxy. Here’s what all that means:

VPN Kill Switch

A kill switch prevents your IP address from leaking in the event of a dropped connection. This is an essential feature for any premium VPN service.

PIA’s kill switch works on all of its platforms including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Many top iOS VPN apps don’t feature a kill switch, which makes PIA a rare exception.

In fact, PIA has the best VPN kill switch of any service we’ve tested.

There are three separate kill switch modes: Off, Auto, and Always. The “Auto” setting will block outside traffic when the VPN is on, while “Always” prevents you from connecting to the internet prior to the VPN app launching. Sadly, the “Always” option is only available on Windows and macOS.

Split Tunneling

Split tunneling allows you to exclude certain websites and applications from the encrypted VPN tunnel.

You can therefore give let certain services continue using your standard internet connection. This helps retain functionality with devices on your home network, such as your printer or Smart Home.

Split tunneling is available on PIA’s Windows, Mac, and Android apps, and it’s located in the ‘Network’ section of the desktop app’s settings. It’s not available on iOS at all.

We tested PIA’s split tunneling setting by using apps that break if they don’t have access to the local network. We selected some apps to ‘Bypass VPN’ while all other apps were configured to ‘Use VPN’, and everything worked well.

PIA MACE

PIA MACE is a DNS-based malware and ad blocker found in the ‘Privacy’ section of the app’s settings. This feature blocks access to domains that are commonly known to host ads, trackers, and malware.

MACE isn’t a great ad blocker. You can’t white list certain domains, or adjust the filter settings: it is simply On or Off.

The inability to whitelist certain URLs means you have no choice but to keep the feature on, which ends up breaking certain websites.

Our testing also showed that MACE isn’t perfect but is still one of the best VPN ad blockers we’ve tested, even with the issues that have been reported by PIA users.

Read more about ad blockers in our evaluation of NordVPN’s ad blockers, CyberSec and Threat protection.

Inbrowser

Inbrowser is a private browser for iOS and Android. It offers a permanent private browsing experience that deletes your history, cookies, and session data every time you exit the app.

Shadowsocks Protocol

Shadowsocks is an open-source encrypted proxy that can be selected directly from the app’s interface.

Also known as SOCKS5, Shadowsocks’ speeds make it a favorite of torrenters and those looking to bypass internet censorship.

Users will require a different username and password to use the SOCKS5 proxy, which can be generated from the Client Control Panel.

Open-sourced Apps

All of PIA’s desktop applications, mobile clients, and browser extensions are open-source.

In simple terms, this means that absolutely anyone can view the applications’ source code, study how the apps are written, and contribute themselves by fixing errors and making code improvements.

VPN services such as ProtonVPN and IVPN have chosen to open-source their apps. However only a few providers do this.

Leak Test Results

PIA comes with built-in protection against IPv4, IPv6, and DNS leaks. DNS leak protection is enabled by default on the macOS app, but has to be manually enabled on the Windows app.

We can confirm that the desktop and mobile apps do not leak. We tested for IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks, and our real IP address in London was consistently protected.

Private Internet Access is simple to install and easy to use on all platforms, but you could still require some assistance.

Live chat is initiated from the bottom-right corner of the official website. You are then asked to input your account details, like your email and account ID, before connecting to a support agent.

By removing the need for a lengthy authentication procedure with the support agent, you get the answer to your query as soon as possible.

There is also a large, searchable online knowledgebase with articles covering troubleshooting, account problems, technical complications, and more.

The website’s guides section has articles covering setup and tutorials for all supported platforms. It should cover most general issues you might have with the app.

There is also a news section covering app updates, service issues, and more.

You can also contact a member of the support staff on the website’s ticket request system. While this system does work and users tend to report positive experiences, you won’t always get a fast reply. It’s also only available from 11 am to 7 pm (EST) on weekdays.