Private Internet Access Review 2025 (Pros and Cons)

In this Private Internet Access VPN review, we set out to see how well PIA VPN stacks up against today's more intense competition. To do this, we purchased a PIA VPN subscription, researched the company's background, and then thoroughly tested the PIA VPN apps. But could it handle one of the toughest challenges for any VPN today? Our streaming tests revealed some unexpected results.

Here are just some of the questions this PIA review will answer for you:

• 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?

We are going to get down into the details in this review, so let's begin with an overview of our findings before getting our hands really dirty.

Private Internet Access overview

Here is a brief overview of the test results and research findings for this PIA review:

Additional research findings:

• PIA support test
• Convicted cryptocurrency criminal hired as the CTO of PIA
• PIA is not the best choice 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:

PIA Windows app

For this PIA review, we thoroughly tested the Windows VPN client. Overall, the Windows client feels polished and it's also user-friendly. We also liked the “dark mode” design. Below you can see the PIA Windows client (app) which expands or collapses to reveal more settings and options. Here is the collapsed version displaying basic connection info:

The PIA VPN app hovers above the tray in the bottom-right corner of the desktop. In addition to all the features we covered above, the Private Internet Access 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
• Split tunneling

Overall the PIA desktop clients work well. It may be a decent choice if you want a user-friendly VPN for PC operating systems.

You can also use Private Internet Access on some types of routers. As we noted in the guide on the best VPNs for Apple TV, a VPN router is useful for protecting all types of devices in your household.

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:

1. Off: does not block any traffic
2. Auto: blocks outside traffic when the VPN is on
3. 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
• Split tunneling
• Dedicated IP addresses

WireGuard support with mixed results

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 any ad blocker is better than no ad blocker, I would not recommend using PIA MACE 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 two of them 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.

Split tunneling feature

Private Internet Access has added a split tunneling feature. Split tunneling is very useful because there are some apps, programs, and websites that are simply not compatible with VPNs. For example, many banking websites will block connections from VPN servers.

Split tunneling allows you to deal with this kind of problem without disconnecting the VPN. You configure the Private Internet Access VPN app to route “problematic” traffic directly to the internet, while continuing to pass the rest through the encrypted VPN tunnel.

Dedicated IP addresses are available

For certain use cases, you need a dedicated IP address. These include securely accessing remote corporate networks, hosting servers or websites, avoiding CAPTCHA checks, maintaining consistent access to IP-restricted systems, and ensuring smoother online banking or payment processing. Private Internet Access is one of the few VPNs that offers dedicated IP addresses. You have your choice of locations: United States, Canada, Australia, UK, and Germany. At the time of writing this review, adding a dedicated IP address to your Private Internet Access subscription would add $2.50 per month to the subscription cost.

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 to survive 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.

In addition to these real-world examples, PIA has also undergone two independent security audits to verify their “no logs” policies.

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.

Note that you will 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. There is also the option to pay for PIA using gift cards from approved retailers. 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 of 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 1000 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 299 Mbps:

This is more than enough for lagless streaming, but we can't ignore the fact that there is a 70% speed loss. This is definitely slower than average. So let's examine some other locations.

Here was a PIA server in Los Angeles, California at 263 Mbps:

This is even slightly slower than the Seattle server. We should be getting speeds over 500 Mbps, especially with the WireGuard protocol.

Next, I tested a PIA server in New York, which gave me about 500 Mbps.

This time, the speed was significantly better, although the connection still experienced a noticeable 50% drop. With PIA servers in the United States, it is clear that this is not a fast 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 261 Mbps.

This is on par with the performance on US servers, so PIA certainly isn't the best VPN for the UK if you value performance.

Comparison with VPNs that are faster than PIA

For comparison, the fastest VPN we have tested here on CyberInsider is NordVPN. It also supports the WireGuard protocol and has a huge global network of fast servers. We could routinely get speeds over 800 Mbps in our tests for the NordVPN review. Here is one server location in Seattle with speeds of 892 Mbps:

Check out NordVPN with WireGuard here >>

We have additional 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. 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 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 works relatively well for streaming

Private Internet Access hasn’t consistently performed well for streaming in my past tests — Netflix, in particular, has been hit or miss. This time, however, I was able to access Netflix on the first try using its U.S. servers and stream smoothly without any buffering.

While it may not consistently match the performance of top-tier Netflix VPNs, it seems PIA has improved its streaming capabilities. That said, streaming access can vary depending on the server and region, so results may differ.

It's also worth remembering that Netflix’s VPN detection remains a constant game of cat and mouse. Just because a VPN works today doesn’t guarantee it will tomorrow. Still, in my experience, PIA is now a viable option for Netflix — at least with some servers. For the most consistent and reliable access, however, NordVPN and ExpressVPN remain top recommendations.

I also tested out HBO Max alongside Netflix, and at first, I ran into an error when connecting through a standard U.S. server — HBO Max flagged the VPN and blocked access. But after switching to a U.S. server optimized for streaming, the problem disappeared, and I was able to watch Duster in 4K without any interruptions.

That said, it's unclear how consistent the streaming experience is across PIA’s entire server network, so using streaming-optimized servers is recommended when available. It’s also reasonable to expect that PIA can access other popular streaming platforms, though performance may vary.

PIA support test

Private Internet Access provides both email (ticket-based) support and live chat. For this review, I tested the live chat option. The process begins with an AI chatbot, which attempted to answer my question about obfuscated servers. When the response didn’t fully address my inquiry, it offered to connect me with a human support agent. Below is the transcript of my conversation with a PIA support technician:

The support agent responded quickly and was both courteous and knowledgeable. They provided a clear explanation of how obfuscated servers work with PIA and answered all of my follow-up questions without delay. Overall, the experience was smooth and professional.

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:

1. Fast speeds
2. Secure apps
3. 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 most likely be slow, depending on your base speed. On a positive note, PIA does have port forwarding, which is useful with torrenting, but the below-average speeds are still a notable 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 FAQ

Private Internet Access review conclusion

Private Internet Access is a cheap VPN. The company has been adding features to increase the value of the service, but it still lags behind industry leaders like NordVPN or Surfshark. On a positive note, it does have good VPN apps that are secure and user-friendly. But even with that, these drawbacks stand out:

• Below-average speeds for a top VPN
• Based in the United States
• Now part of a large VPN conglomerate (Kape Technologies)

In short, while the company continues to improve its service, it may still fall short for users with specific needs or expectations. Depending on what you're looking for in a VPN, there may be better-suited alternatives worth considering.

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.

1. NordVPN review  (with a 76% discount coupon)
2. Surfshark review 
3. ExpressVPN review

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, feel free to share your review in the comments below.