| VPN | Private Internet Access |
| Based in | USA |
| Logs | No logs |
| Price | $2.69/mo. |
| Support | Email and Chat |
| Refund | 30 days |
| Website | PrivateInternetAccess.com |
Private Internet Access is a longstanding veteran in the VPN industry — but a lot has changed in the past few years.
In this Private Internet Access (PIA) review, we set out to see how the VPN stacks up against the competition. To do this, we purchased a PIA subscription, researched the company’s background, and then thoroughly tested the VPN apps. Here are the questions this PIA review will answer:
- How fast are PIA servers in various locations around the US and Europe?
- How well do the VPN applications work?
- Does this VPN have any data leaks or security problems?
- Does it work well with Netflix and other streaming services?
So let’s begin with an overview of our findings before getting into the details.
Private Internet Access overview
Here is a brief overview of the test results and research findings for this PIA review:
+ Pros
- User-friendly and secure VPN apps
- Extra privacy and security features
- Tested and proven no logs VPN provider
- Low prices
– Cons
- Inconsistent speeds
- Based in the US (bad privacy jurisdiction)
- Does not work well for Netflix and streaming
- Now part of a VPN conglomerate (Kape)
Additional research findings:
- PIA support tests
- Convicted cryptocurrency criminal hired as the CTO of PIA
- Does PIA work well for torrenting?
Private Internet Access Pros
User-friendly and secure VPN apps
Private Internet Access offers a nice selection of VPN apps for desktop and mobile operating systems. Additionally, PIA also has browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera browsers. Below you can see all of the PIA VPN apps:
Note: Most of the leading VPNs today support more than just desktop and mobile operating systems. For comparison, we pointed out in our Surfshark vs NordVPN report that both of these VPNs support gaming systems, Smart TVs, Firestick, routers, and all major desktop and mobile operating systems.
PIA Windows app
For this PIA review, I thoroughly tested out the Windows VPN client. Overall, the Windows client feels polished and it’s also user-friendly. I also liked the “dark mode” design. Below you can see the PIA Windows client which expands or collapses to reveal more settings and options. Here is the collapsed version displaying basic connection info:
The app hovers above the tray in the bottom-right corner of the desktop. In addition to all the features we covered above, the PIA desktop client also has:
- Light and dark modes
- Settings to open VPN client on system startup
- Connect on launch settings (to a specified VPN server)
- Different language settings
- Customizable DNS options
- Port forwarding
Overall the PIA desktop clients work well. It may be a decent choice if you want a user-friendly VPN for PC operating systems.
Security and privacy test results
Most people using VPNs today need a service that is secure and free of data leaks. And while data leaks are common with some free VPN apps, this is not something we should expect with a premium (paid) service that promises security.
So to test this, I ran both the Windows and Mac OS clients through some basic VPN tests and checks to identify leaks or broken features.
Below I’m testing the PIA Windows VPN client for leaks while connected to a server in Sweden. You can see in our test results below that we did not identify any leaks or problems with the PIA VPN apps.
I also tested the PIA Mac OS client and found it to be secure and without leaks. Although I’m not sure I would consider PIA to be one of the best VPNs for Mac, it may still be a decent choice for Mac users.
PIA also implements a good kill switch with their VPN apps, which will block traffic if the VPN connection drops for any reason. This ensures all traffic remains encrypted and protected by the VPN tunnel.
The PIA kill switch has three levels:
- Off: does not block any traffic
- Auto: blocks outside traffic when the VPN is on
- Always: Also blocks all traffic when the VPN is off
In testing out the kill switch with various interruptions, everything appeared to work well.
Extra privacy and security features
Despite being a basic VPN service, Private Internet Access still offers some good privacy and security features.
In addition to the multi-level kill switch we discussed above, PIA also provides:
- Various data encryption options, including WireGuard
- A VPN ad blocking feature called PIA MACE
First, the WireGuard protocol is an excellent feature that usually offers big advantages with performance. However, in our tests for this PIA review, WireGuard speeds were not very good (we’ll examine slow speeds further below). Nonetheless, the WireGuard VPN protocol does still offer some advantages, including upgraded security and more reliability on mobile devices.
Below you can see the encryption options in the PIA Windows app:
In most cases, the WireGuard protocol offers big advantages over OpenVPN. For example, you can really see this in the recent NordVPN vs IPVanish comparison.
PIA MACE ad blocker
Another good feature offered by PIA is the ad blocker, which they call PIA MACE.
PIA MACE blocks domains for advertisements, trackers, and malware. Unlike some other ad blocker options, PIA MACE does not have the ability to white list certain domains, or adjust the filter settings. It is simply On or Off.
While some ad blocker is better than no ad blocker, I would not recommend using PIA MAC as your primary ad blocker. When I tested different VPN ad blockers, I found that PIA’s ad blocker did not block as many domains as other options.
In terms of VPN ad blockers, NordVPN, Surfshark, and Perfect Privacy performed better than PIA, while PureVPN and CyberGhost performed the worst. We compare and contrast the two in our Surfshark vs PIA guide.
Overall, PIA does well in terms of security and privacy features, even if the ad blocker is not very robust.
PIA is a tested and proven “no logs” VPN
Many VPN services claim to be “no logs” – but few have actually been tested and/or verified.
Private Internet Access is one of the few verified no logs VPN services that has survived real-world tests. There were two separate court cases where Private Internet Access was subpoenaed for data logs, but they could not provide any information.
The first court case occurred in 2016 when the FBI demanded logs concerning a PIA user who had allegedly been making bomb threats. As discussed in official court records, the only information PIA was able to provide was a cluster of VPN IP addresses that were allegedly used for the crime:
A subpoena was sent to London Trust Media [Private Internet Access] and the only information they could provide is that the cluster of IP addresses being used was from the east coast of the United States.
The second court case occurred in June 2018, when US authorities again demanded data logs for a criminal investigation. Once again, however, PIA was not able to provide any data on the accused VPN user:
John Allan Arsenault, general counsel for London Trust Media, a VPN company, testified about how many VPN companies, including his, intentionally don’t retain logs of internet activity of their clients so that they cannot be produced in response to subpoenas from law enforcement or others. London Trust Media operates the brand Private Internet Access (PIA), which owns several IP addresses used to hack Embarcadero Media.
Private Internet Access does not log user activity, such as what files they accessed or changes they made to a website.
While PIA has not undergone an audit to verify their “no logs” policies, such as with NordVPN and VyprVPN, these two court cases certainly validate their claims.
Court cases are indeed a good test to verify logging claims. After all, a court case revealed that PureVPN had been logging customer data and handing it over to US authorities, despite claiming to be a “no logs” VPN service. (You can get the details in our PureVPN review.)
You can read the PIA privacy policy for more info.
Low prices for PIA subscriptions
Private Internet Access has previously been among the best cheap VPNs on the market, with very affordable prices.
Right now there are three basic pricing tiers:
At under $3 per month with the two-year plan, PIA is very affordable. They currently do not offer any free trials. However, with a 30 day refund window, it does function like a free trial VPN allowing you to test the service and cancel if you don’t like it.
Refund policy – All plans come with a 30 day refund policy, which is about average for the VPN industry. Reading through the Terms of Service, I did find a few exceptions to the 30 day refund window:
Due to limitations with 3rd party payment processors, certain accounts cannot be refunded by PIA directly. Accounts purchased through the Apple Store, Giftcards or 3rd party deal sites, can only be refunded by the payment processor.
It’s interesting to see a mention of “Giftcards” in the refund policy since PIA does not offer that payment option anymore. You will also be denied a refund if you “materially breach” any part of the Terms of Service.
Payment options – At the time of this PIA review, they currently offer four different payment methods, as you can see below:
This is a pretty good selection of options. Some VPNs do not even support cryptocurrency payments, as we noted in the IPVanish review. So overall this is another strong point for PIA.
Now let’s move on to some of the drawbacks with Private Internet Access.
Private Internet Access Cons
Now that we’ve covered some of the pros of PIA, we’ll look at the cons.
Inconsistent speeds
One of the biggest drawbacks we noted in this PIA review was with performance. This was somewhat surprising, however, since most VPNs that support WireGuard have excellent performance. With PIA, I ran numerous speed tests on a 500 Mbps internet connection (baseline speed) from my testing lab in the United States.
In order to give PIA the best performance test possible, I selected the WireGuard VPN protocol and ran speed tests with the latest version of the PIA Windows client. Now let’s examine the results.
Here was a PIA server in Seattle at 41 Mbps:
This is really bad. Getting only 41 Mbps on a 500 Mbps connection is definitely slower than average. So let’s examine some other locations.
Here was a PIA server in Los Angeles, California at 85 Mbps:
While this is better than the previous test result, it is still quite slow. We should be getting speeds over 200 Mbps, especially with the WireGuard protocol.
Next, I tested a PIA server in New York, which gave me about 23 Mbps.
With PIA servers in the United States, it is clear that this is a slow VPN.
For the final speed test, I decided to try a location across the pond in the United Kingdom. Here was a PIA server in London, UK, which gave me 10 Mbps.
With slow speeds like this, PIA is certainly not the best VPN for the UK if you value performance.
In previous PIA reviews, speeds were better. It seems that speeds with Private Internet Access are getting worse, even after adding WireGuard.
Comparison with VPNs that are faster than PIA
For comparison, the fastest VPN we have tested here on Restore Privacy is NordVPN. It also supports the WireGuard protocol and has a huge global network of fast servers. We could routinely get speeds over 300 Mbps in our tests for the NordVPN review. Here is one server location in Seattle with speeds of 445 Mbps:
Check out NordVPN with WireGuard here >>
We will also be publishing more speed comparisons in the PIA vs NordVPN report.
Based in the US (bad privacy jurisdiction)
While Private Internet Access does well in some areas of privacy, one major drawback is the jurisdiction.
PIA is based in the United States, which is a member of the five eyes surveillance alliance. And aside from the surveillance concerns, there are also legal drawbacks to operating a VPN in the US. The biggest issue is that the US government can legally force businesses to log customer data and provide this to authorities. Additionally, authorities can also issue gag orders, thereby prohibiting the business from alerting its customers to privacy violations (see National Security Letters).
There are previous examples of this happening, such as with IPVanish being forced to log user data, despite being a “no logs” VPN. Another example was Lavabit being coerced to hand over encryption keys.
How important is jurisdiction?
Ultimately, the answer is that it depends on your unique needs and threat model, which you should consider when selecting the best VPN service for your needs. Many people disagree about the importance of jurisdiction, and the answer is not entirely clear, simply because we cannot see what’s going on behind the scenes.
As a business operating in the United States, PIA is still obligated to comply with all US laws, regulations, and court orders – or shut down like Lavabit in 2013. It’s also worth noting that the previous “no logs” court cases happened under previous ownership, not the current parent company (Kape).
PIA does not work well for streaming
Private Internet Access has never done well for streaming in my tests. For example, Netflix has always been hit or miss. I’ve tested US servers with PIA to Access Netflix, and I was blocked out.
Private Internet Access may get through with some servers, but it did not work with the ones I tried to use. It is not the best VPN for Netflix based on my own tests, but things are constantly in flux when it comes to Netflix and VPNs, so you may want to test this yourself.
It’s also important to note that the Netflix VPN issue is always a cat and mouse game that continues to evolve. Even though I could not access Netflix with Private Internet Access, there may be a few servers in the network that are getting through (but I gave up). Two of the best VPNs for Netflix are currently NordVPN and ExpressVPN.
I also tested out BBC iPlayer, which is a popular streaming service for UK content — and it’s also free. Once again, however, PIA was not able to get through and was blocked out. Below you can see I’m using a PIA server in London, but BBC iPlayer is still not accessible.
In PIA’s defense, there are only a few VPNs that work for BBC iPlayer, with most others getting blocked.
Note: Many people also use VPNs on streaming devices. One such example of this is using a VPN for Firestick. Unfortunately, PIA does not offer a dedicated Firestick app at this time.
PIA purchased by Kape Technologies
I have an article dedicated to the issue of Kape purchasing PIA VPN. Here are the main highlights:
- Kape purchased Private Internet Access in November 2019
- Kape was formerly named Crossrider and was often associated with malware (see articles about “Crossrider malware“) – but Crossrider never created or distributed malware
- In 2017, Crossrider purchased CyberGhost VPN, and then later Zenmate
- Crossrider changed its name to Kape
- In 2021, Kape purchased ExpressVPN for about $1 billion
As we have noted before, trust is a major factor when choosing Privacy Tools. After all, a VPN has the potential to record everything you do online when you decide to use it to encrypt traffic.
Crossrider created a development platform, not malware
We have taken a closer look at Crossrider and Kape here. Ultimately, we learned that Crossrider created a development platform that third parties used to infect devices with malware. However, Crossrider itself was not the owner or creator of that malware.
Due to abuse carried out by third parties, Crossrider shut down its platform in 2016 and pivoted to the security VPN and security industry. Today, Kape is a major player in the VPN industry, owning four VPN services and a collection of VPN “review” websites.
Additional research findings:
Below are additional findings from my research of PIA for this review.
PIA support tests
Private Internet Access offers email (ticket) support and chat. Unfortunately, I was not able to reach live chat support when I tried for this review. Here was the message I received when attempting to connect with a support technician at PIA:
The chat ended, but nobody ever got back to me. This is a case of bad support in my opinion.
Most of the leading VPNs offer 24/7 live chat support with professional and responsive staff. This does not seem to be the case with PIA at this time.
Controversy surrounding the CTO of PIA
For reasons that are not entirely clear, some of the higher-ups at Private Internet Access decided to hire Mark Karpeles as the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in April 2018.
To understand why this was upsetting to many PIA users, we’ll just take a quick look at Mark Karpeles.
Mark Karpeles was running Mt. Gox in 2014 when it suddenly collapsed, with millions of dollars in Bitcoins disappearing. Karpeles was subsequently arrested in Japan and charged with fraud and embezzlement. As to where all the Bitcoins that were stored at Mt. Gox ended up, nobody seems to know:
650,000 bitcoins remain unaccounted for as a result of the Mt. Gox hack. A number of online theories have been developed as to where the missing coins are. Some have suggested that Mt. Gox never had the amount of coins that it claimed, and that Karpelés had manipulated the numbers to make it appear that Mt. Gox held more bitcoin than it in fact held.
In March 2019, Karpeles was found guilty of tampering with financial records in a Japanese court. Due to the controversy that erupted in various forums after Karpeles joined PIA, Andrew Lee (co-founder of PIA) wrote a blog post where he explained his reasoning. The post discusses “Mistakes, Forgiveness and Human Progress” – but that may not be enough for PIA users who trust the company with securing their private data.
Does PIA work well for torrenting?
When selecting the best VPN for torrenting, there are a few things you want to look for:
- Fast speeds
- Secure apps
- Good leak protection settings
While PIA offers secure apps with a kill switch, the speeds were not good in my tests. This means that torrenting will be most likely be slow. On a positive note, PIA does have port forwarding, which is useful with torrenting, but the slow speeds are still a big drawback.
Another drawback for torrenting is (once again) the US jurisdiction. The US has very strict copyright violation laws (DMCA) and many large media companies that go after people for copyright infringement. Using a VPN in an offshore jurisdiction may be safer, as they would not need to comply with copyright infringement laws or deal with DMCA issues. We cover this issue more in our ExpressVPN vs PIA comparison.
Private Internet Access review conclusion
Private Internet Access may be cheap, but it still does not offer much value. On a positive note, it does have good VPN apps that are secure and user-friendly. But even with that, these drawbacks stand out:
- Slow and inconsistent speeds
- Based in the United States
- Does not work well with streaming services
- Now part of a large VPN conglomerate (Kape Technologies)
- Mediocre support that may or may not be available
In short, we’re not recommending this VPN. There are too many other great alternatives to consider.
Stay safe!
Best alternatives to Private Internet Access
Click the VPN name below to read our full review – or grab the discount for the best savings. All of these VPNs have a 30 day money-back guarantee.
You can also check out our guide on the top-performing VPN services based on the latest test results.
If you have used Private Internet Access (PIA), feel free to share your review in the comments below.
This PIA review was last updated on April 25, 2022.
Beware of their billing practices and lack of real response when trying to cancel. My first notice of renewal was that they charged my credit card. I immediately called them but had to leave a voice mail. When I received no response after a few days and the credit card went from pending to actual charge I called my credit card company to dispute. That got a series of bot replies from PIA to which I promptly replied for instructions to cancel. I just kept getting bot replies and finally my credit card dropped my dispute. Everything was done within the 30-day-guarantees. I am going to write my credit card company again today with all my documentation to reopen my dispute. $99.00 for a 3-yr subscription to a service I have not been using at all for the last 2 years and have no more need for is too much to ignore.
Hello, can we still trust PIA since they were bought out?
Their no logs policy may have changed
I bought the service and it is totally worthless.
You can burn your money and at least you get some heat but this service you get nothing…. Just ripped off!
But why? It doesn´t help that you don´t explain the problems you had.
I was using PIA VPN. I would select a foreign country as my exit point. It would show for instance Austria. I would then look up the IP address for the exit port. Most sites would say Austria, but if you went to one of the more detailed sites to look it up, it would show as a server in the USA, hosting an Austrian IP address and have a warning about a deceptive location. Every country I tried would be the same, a server in the USA, hosting a IP address from the other country. Then I looked on a torrent site, and found other IPs that showed up as PIA VPN port in another country hosted in the USA. I believe this is called geo fraud, claiming an exit port in another country, but it really being in the same country as the entry port. I contacted PIA but had trouble explaining the issue to their not too bright help staff.
Its not worth it. Get NordVPN instead. The connections are slow and the customer support is useless. They renewed my account with an old email from 5 years ago and they locked me out since I dont have access to that email. Even after verifying account info they still cant help me. I have to call my credit card company to dispute the charge. I understand its not a common problem, but its a risk I wouldnt be willing to take.
Actually, I would like to help clear up some of this as it’s confusing-yes. PIA was fantastic and still has a decent product, but if you run MWB, which truly we all must have, at least the free browser guard. The problem is MWB is blocking all of PIA’s attempts to connect or whatever it is they do whilst being blocked by MWB-to the extent it’s every 10 seconds, another banner. To save you all time I researched this carefully; I am certain of these facts only” The company prided itself on it’s discretion, on it’s privacy issues, being in Britain but now they are US based; Kape has refused any of my requests for information-and our attorneys are getting ready to take them o-now that they are here they are subject to USA laws, NONE OF THEIR FORMER SUBSCRIPTIONS are safe any longer-and…despite trying to get a refund-I would whole heartedly suggest not trying, they are illicit, and have a look at the people on the board if you think this untrue-
So, what I did was simple, and reasonably cheap-I asked MWB to use their VPN (49.99/yr) and so far I have uninstalled everything related to PIA, but they infiltrate the PC-be certain to uninstall, not with the app-but with the control panel-for MAC, I have no idea, but of this I am certain…I hope this is helpful
I’m confused. If the same company purchased ExpressVPN, then how is that rated over PIA?
Read the Pros and Cons of each review and then it should make more sense, especially after we finish updating reviews later this month. There are many other considerations beyond ownership, such as speeds, streaming, apps, features, etc.
I just tried BBC iPlayer with the London-Streaming VPN and it worked like a charm. Unfortunately I wanted for DAZN and it doesn’t work for the latter.
One to avoid. Terrible customer service, they make it very difficult to unsubscribe – kept charging me after numerous requests to stop my subscription (due to the service continually locking me out).
Really? I hired the 2-year plan and on the same day I asked for a full refund via live chat since I wanted to use it on DAZN and it doesn’t work. I got my money back within minutes.
Same here. They keep charging you after you cancel.
I’ve been with pia for about 5 years and the only problem I’ve had with is with up and down speeds can get frustrating. contact and reply never a problem complained about speed always got an answer then just never followed thru. started at $6.95 a month and they raised their price to $9.95 a month was told as long as I’m a customer my price stays as is. I give them 4stars. they wok for me.
Y’all with yout gigabit internet lol, in the area I live in the fastest I can get is 80 Mbps down / 20 Mbps up for which PIA is fast enough. Been with them 5 years+, never had any issue. As long as as courts can’t get my logs I don’t care if they hire Lucifer himself.
In all that time I only had 2 issues both of which I got reply and resolution from support within day or two via email. I do not know in what fairy tale universe you guys live in, but for most services us mortals are forced to use, 2 days is stellarly fast. I had tickets go unanswered for weeks in some streaming or online gaming platforms only to get copypasted reply without any relation to my query.
Guess it all boils down to personal experience. All I know is I’m renewing in May of next year unless something dramatically changes.
You must work for the company. You shouldn’t be spreading lies to unsuspecting readers.
I have a gigabyte connection and the best speed I’ve ever pulled with PIA is one megabyte per second. Its obviously throttled down to one megabyte per second or less. Usually far less.
Pia is so slow its like watching grass grow.
I discovered an additional downside to PIA VPN when I was at the office for the first time in months last week.
I brought my private smartphone and laptop, both having PIA VPN installed. As I sat working, I was alerted by the sysadmin that my devices were generating huge amounts of ping and other low-level IP traffic, to the tune of 200 hits per second on each device. Numerous of these hits were to suspicious/blacklisted IP addresses. I verified that the traffic was generated by PIA VPN by quitting PIA (on the laptop) and uninstalling the app (on the smartphone). After that, all suspicious traffic disappeared.
What’s noteworthy about this is that the traffic was generated by PIA VPN while I did not have a PIA VPN connection active. Our office Wifi is sufficiently secure, so I did not connect. So PIA was generating tremendous amounts of network and internet traffic while not actually in use, only loaded in memory.
I reported this to PIA support. Five emails further, I think I’ve finally gotten through to them about what the actual issue is that I’m reporting. They’ve gone from “that’s not PIA, that’s apps tunneling through the PIA VPN connection” (though I made clear there’s no active connection) through “I understand you’re experiencing memory leaks” (what? where did that come from?) to “send us a screenshot that proves the traffic occurred while PIA wasn’t connected”. So I’m also very unhappy with the quality of their support.
I’m waiting to see what their next response is, but given the mysterious traffic, and their evasive responses, and the points made in this review, I’m almost certain I’ll move to NordVPN.
Meh; Im not sure I agree on the final verdict. I use PIA on 21 pc’s. For 2.3$ a month. I’ve read there’s a limit of 10 devices, but for years now that hasnt affected me. If it does, I’ll just buy a couple more PIA accounts to cover all my devices, the price is so ridiculously cheap. The servers are pretty stable. Sometimes they’ll disconnect (a couple times a week) but PIA offers an extremely easy command line from the windows Command Prompt allowing you to connect to another server region with extreme easy; this can very easily be automated such that you can run a batch file to switch region if one doesnt work for a while.
I can see why you’d be dissatisfied if you want 400-500Mb/s speeds but jesus christ is that waaaay more than I have ever found a need for. I do some torrenting but just for private needs, and 40-80mb/s is totally fine. I guess I value stability and very cheap price far more than the author of this article. I tried NordVPN but was dissatisfied for the following reasons:
While NordVPN has a vast amount of different servers to choose from from each country/region they fairly often stop working reliably. I mean it can work for weeks, but then suddenly stop being good and then beging having fallouts on the connection (multiple seconds lags spikes). When this happens it is often permanent or lasts for a very long time (days or weeks) and you then have to try out other servers. Often the ones you try are also fucked, so it will take some time to find one that is working stably. Unlike PIA NordVPN does not offer any easy command lines to automate re connection, but even if they did the large amount unreliable servers and no way to spot them before you connect is a devastating blow to usability. Their NordVPN app interface is also annoying to use; I definitely prefer PIA’s quite simple interface that works fast and can easily be access from a quick context menu by right clicking on the PIA task icon.
Finally NordVPN has a considerable higher price while only allowing 5 devices and they are strict at enforcing this limit.
So in the end, I guess it depends on what you need the VPN for; but NordVPN seems the more expensive and more limited choice.
One more point about NordVPN, it has a nasty tendency to require you to reenter login information after some time, not sure what prompts that, if it is some update or simply some security timer. I have NEVER ever encountered that with PIA, it’s just so annoying to have to manually reenter login information now and then on multiple devices.
This is spot on! do not use Private Internet Access (PIA) as they are a waste of money and time. I tried out their 30 day money back guarantee. Purchased the 12 months package via Paypal. I’ve expierienced nothing but slow connection speeds. Only two ping locations that shows reasonable ping of 31ms. Laggy when you’re doing face 2 face networking via webcam or live streaming Audio and video is not in sync. AVOID at all costs! PIA is a rip off!. One more thing! when you go to request or a refund within the 30 day money back period. They don’t refund right away they will send you multiple emails and questions about what kind of faults you’re experiencing and continually ask that you give them the opportunity to help you fix issues that are not fixable. completely jbig waste of time and a huuuuge Headache!.
Most of their ips are blocked / flagged as a VPN by services these days. You will get Suspected Network Sharing Device or Confirmed Network Sharing Device if you do a “whats my ip” test.
They also throttle your speed once you sign up for a long period.
Complete waste of money and support is useless.
Re: “They also throttle your speed once you sign up for a long period.”
That’s bull. I’ve been using PIA for over 5 years and speed is determined by a number of factors such as connection protocol (e.g. Wireguard or Open VPN) and which of their 40,000+ servers you connect to. But I can use it for Netflix and other TV streaming services. It is true that every once and a while their servers in a particular region become blacklisted and you won’t be able to use them for a service like Netflix. But since they are always adding servers, the chances are you will be able to use them to connect in that region again eventually…you just need to wait until they provide a new IP for that region. It may be a month. In the meantime, just change servers to another in the same country if you can (e.g. from California to Texas, USA). Helpful hint – the IP addresses that get used the most are the most likely to be blacklisted. I sometime sacrifice speed for the ability to connect through a non-blacklisted PIA provided IP.
If there’s a worse VPN than PIA I’d like to know what it is since I’ve never come across anything worse than PIA,
Doesn’t fool BBC iPlayer and they have also ignored my support tickets. Look elsewhere.
Avoid PIA VPN is my advice. A recently rolled out world wide “server upgrade” also requires a “client update” to get access. The problem is their “client upgrade” does not work with older Androids or Windows 7 devices leaving many old and new customers with hardly any servers to use. They did not warn customers they were going to do this. Further, their support people seem unable or unwilling to reply to questions about the issue. By contrast Nord VPN support provided advice about their service in less than 12 hours when I enquired yesterday. In a nutshell I would now rate PIA as a product not fit for purpose for many users and their customer support as indifferent and slow to say the least. I’ve asked for a refund if they cant solve their server access denial for my androids and Nord are looking in line to be my next VPN provider.
Hi,
their wireguard support is equal to 0. Either use their app or it won’t work…WTH ?
Please remove the misleading paragraph about Nord VPN offering a free trial. I went to the coupon page and fell for their clickbait but there was no free trial — “NordVPN also offers a 30 day money-back guarantee, as well as a free trial (described on the NordVPN coupon page).”
They offer a 30 day money back guarantee, that’s not a trial offer in my mind.
Thanks for pointing that out. Back in 2019, NordVPN offered a 7 day free trial, but that was discontinued and did not last long. Now, you can just get a 30 day money-back guarantee on all plans, which basically works like a trial window, allowing you to test the VPN risk-free. Anyway, I removed that reference.
Wow! I wish I had read this before I jumped into my renewal/money mess I am in Now with PIA. Having been a member for about four years my two year renewal plan was too expensive so I renewed for one year but before completing the deal I was offered a two year deal that I accepted. This week my Visa statement shows they want me to pay $29usd and the same day a charge of $30.95usd for two year plan. Frustration to no end because I cannot “Talk” to anybody about this and they keep telling me this is because I upgraded from the one year to a two year and I say yes but I only agreed to pay $29.00usd so refund the U$30.95usd. Nope, they use bullsh$t baffles brains and refuse to allow me to talk to the Billing/Accounts people. So there downfall is threefold based US, Convicted criminal and stealing money from customers.
@Stephan Frederickson
pia never sells user data
for this your profile been blocked that they understood you are using vpn and maybe pia’s ip that you used it is in blacklist
and you told with other vpn,your profile not blocked
because they didn’t understand you are using vpn(for example very site like netflix has severely method for vpn blocking and they understand that we use vpn)
and the second hypothesis is that your vpn’s ip not in blacklist
Pia’s privacy policy has been proven many times
best regards
One of the best data seller VPN.
Once, I used PIA after listening to his popularity for “upwork.com”. but after using pia within 2 days my profile was blocked by Upwork for an unknown reason and I losted $1000.
do you contacted with upwork support and have you asked them about blocking account?
maybe using vpn is against their rules
i have never heard that Pia sells data
VPN uses violate “upwork.com” policy.
I using other(name not mention) VPN in “upwork.com” for 6 months but my profile can’t catch by Upwork.
After using PIA within 2 days my profile was blocked by Upwork.
My way is very complex for the use of a VPN. so, without my data selling to Upwork. Upwork never knows, who I am.
But unfortunately, within 2 days my profile was blocked by Upwork which means my data sold.
That is not how any of this works. They blocked all PIA endpoints and any account that connect from one. Your data has nothing to do with it
hey Sven Taylor
i want buy pia subscription but I’m afraid that kape will spy on my data what’s your solution?does pia is still secure?pia has transparency report also,does transparency report is a marketing trick or is real?
can kape access users’ information that exchanged by Pia at any time?
thanks
Check out the best VPN recommendations.
Just noticed, their PIA driver is not signed, what does this mean?
This is a very useful article. I’ve been a Private Internet Access customer for a few years now (and it just renewed for another year in December, unfortunately). My primary purpose is to conceal my torrenting activity. And now I’m torn: Since I just recently paid again for an entire year of service, do I just ride it out, and switch in December? Or are the concerns expressed here urgent enough that I need to drop them like a hot potato, and switch to another service? What do you all think?
I want to use to VPNs at the same time , for example Expressvn router ( or whomever) and another vpn provider on my desktop. However , when I contact Expressvpn and flashrouters.com they responded by telling me that they dont advise to do that cause it will cause complications between the two and will crash. I contacted Torguard VPN and they said its perfeclty fine to do so . So now Im really confused. Can you provide some guidance and perhaps which providers might be compatible to connect double vpns . I also think perfect-privacy is a good provider your thoughts…
No, it won’t cause problems. Another great option to check out for a VPN router is Vilfo. It can apparently achieve faster speeds than any other VPN router over 400 Mbps with a wired ethernet connection.
What are your thoughts regarding Torguard VPN & their Email service.
And when it comes to having permanent unrecoverable emails that have been deleted?
Perfect Privacy VPN and OVPN.com , in respect to security , encyption , NO LOGS , NO LOGS OF Metadata or connection time etc… Which one would you favor?
TorGuard VPN and email seem like OK options, but the parent company is based in the US. In the past, TorGuard tried to get their business out of the US by moving the parent company to Nevis, but that was only temporary and now they are officially back under US jurisdiction.
Using VPNs or email services that are based in the US is an unnecessary risk and puts your data in danger – but it all depends on your threat model and how much privacy and security you are looking for. There are a few concrete examples we know of where US government compelled privacy-focused businesses to collect data for government agencies while also slapping them with gag orders to prevent them from warning their users:
– Riseup, a Seattle-based VPN and secure email service hit with data requests and a gag order
– Lavabit, a US secure email service hit data requests and gag order, but the owner decided to shut down the company
There are probably many more examples we don’t even know about.
To your VPN question, it all comes down to personal preference, and both are great options that meet your criteria. That being said, I like Perfect Privacy for the extra features of NeuroRouting and also TrackStop.
I have been using PIA for a few years now and cannot complain. The last time I renewed was right before they raised their prices a year or so ago. After reading this review and all the comments, I’m on the fence about renewing again in the future. I did not know they are US based — I never bothered to check before. I am in the US, but I never use any of their US servers. That said, I am still very happy with the speeds I get. Often times I forget if I am even connected.