Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN Review

Private Internet Access is the thirteenth VPN we’ve reviewed on this site, and it’s absolutely worth considering if you’re after a VPN service that ticks most of the right boxes. While it doesn’t topple the dominance of our current top three—all-rounder NordVPN, user-friendly ExpressVPN, or speedster Hotspot Shield—it’s a well-priced contender that supports a great number of simultaneous connections and boasts solid connection speeds.

From the get-go, Private Internet Access does things a little differently by not only hiding your IP address but assigning a username and password, which emphasizes anonymity from the get-go. There’s a quick-tour option for PC users after installing the PIA VPN software, but this is an incredibly easy VPN to use so it’s not essential.

It’s a great touch that PIA VPN offers latency values, color-coding them either green for good (anything below 150ms) or orange for less great. For context, my latency initially claimed to be at 137ms but was actually at 232ms when I tested my connection; on later days, the latency was listed more accurately in the 230+ range but never dropped to acceptable green levels. It’s a shame because PIA VPN is a speedy connector (about four seconds) and disconnector (two seconds), with a few seconds of breathing space to allow for your internet to catch up. Also, add a couple of extra seconds for connections to Australia or UK.

Private Internet Access claims to have 28,000+ VPN and proxy servers in 104 locations across 84 countries. That country and location count is decent, but the server count blows every other VPN we’ve reviewed out of the water, with the closest contender being the 7,000+ from CyberGhost VPN. While that server count is impressive, it’s strange that the international servers are consistently slower.

PIA VPN’s user interface is incredibly straightforward across Windows and Android (for my tests). It’s a little cleaner on Android but, whichever you’re using, connecting or disconnecting is as simple as tapping the big green connection button, while switching servers is as easy as bringing up the server list and connecting to a new server with another tap. Unlike other VPNs, PIA VPN plays nice with all of my day-to-day online software, including peer-to-peer tools like Slack, and, yes, it performed admirably in my torrent tests.

A single Private Internet Access subscription can be used for an unlimited number of simultaneous connections, which is enough to cover all of your supported devices. Other VPN services that offer unlimited streams include Windscribe VPN, IPVanish, and Surfshark.

PIA VPN also has a decent range of supported devices, which you can see below:

That range of supported devices ticks the main boxes for PC, mobile, and it offers some support and/or guides for other devices, including smart TVs, streaming boxes, and gaming consoles. You can dig around and find limited router support for PIA VPN, though.

Private Internet Access does not offer a free trial, but the company does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can try the service for a month, and if you don't love it, you can get a full refund. 

The longer you sign up for a subscription through Private Internet Access, the more money you can save. Here's the pricing breakdown for each plan: 

Regardless of the VPN provider, whenever you connect to a VPN server, your internet connection will be slowed down. In theory, connecting to a nearby server should result in minimal impact on your internet speeds, while there are acceptable speed changes when connecting to international servers. The better the server infrastructure of a VPN service, the better speeds you can expect when connected.

To test all of this with PIA VPN, I use my Superloop NBN 100/40Mbps Fibre-to-the-Curb home internet connection. The table below highlights how Private Internet Access handles server connections in the US, Australia, and the UK. For context, my NBN connection is capable of max download speeds of 99.02Mbps and upload speeds of 44.34Mbps (though the copper cabling in my building stops me from achieving these speeds).

As you might expect from my points above, the Sydney speeds are bad with a noticeable impact on my connection that brings it closer to NBN 50 speeds. Connecting to Melbourne reaped much better download and upload speeds. The speeds to the Silicon Valley server in the US are great with comparatively decent speeds to the UK, too.

One of the more common uses for a VPN service is to access geo-blocked streaming content from around the world. While people who do this do run the risk of violating user agreements for these services, it does open up a greater breadth of streaming options. Here’s how PIA VPN fares when attempting to stream with one UK service, two Australian alternatives, and five popular US options, all of which have a knack for detecting VPNs.

Private Internet Access was inconsistent in my tests, with Peacock proving to reliably work, albeit with moderate to fast buffering speeds depending on the server. The Netflix library is basically an easy win these days for most VPNs, but PIA VPN only worked when connected to certain US servers and was incredibly slow to load the library and had slow buffering results.

Normally, this is where I introduce a table that gives an idea of how Private Internet Access should work with different NBN speed tiers. But given that Netflix and Hulu only have partial support (with a slow buffering speed for Netflix), it doesn’t feel like an accurate indication of real-world use. If you’re after a VPN service for streaming, don’t go with Private Internet Access.

One of the unique features of Private Internet Access is its open-source transparency, meaning the VPN code can be scrutinized and improved by the community. PIA VPN has an admirable zero-log policy to ensure your anonymity, while there’s a DNS-based ad blocker to protect against malware, trackers, and ads. PIA VPN also has split tunneling, so you can select which apps or websites are covered by the VPN, a Smart DNS service, and an internet kill switch if PIA VPN unexpectedly disconnects.

For comparison, here’s how Private Internet Access compares to our current VPN gold medallist NordVPN. PIA VPN has the wood on NordVPN in terms of pricing, with cheaper monthly, annual, and two-year costs.

PIA VPN scores another easy win in terms of some basic numbers, with more servers (28,000+ vs 5,400) in more countries (84 vs 60) and with more simultaneous device connections (unlimited vs. six). Both VPN services have zero-log policies, Smart DNS options, split tunneling, browser extensions as well as anti-malware inclusions. Both VPN services also have high levels of encryption, 24/7 tech support, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

When it comes to streaming, NordVPN is hands down the better choice, which also carries over to my recommendation between the two VPN services: go with NordVPN.

Private Internet Access has great speeds to the US, Australia, and the UK, and it works well as a background companion that doesn’t get in the way of your daily internet goings-on.

Still, the high server count and unlimited simultaneous connections allowed are curbed by a lack of versatility when it comes to streaming services. PIA is a solid and affordable VPN, but there are better options out there.