Private Internet Access VPN Review

A fair caveat before drawing conclusions: PIA was tested on a 387.70 Mbps base connection, while the competitor numbers in our project tests were taken on faster lines (between 466 and 520 Mbps base). Some of the gap is explained by available headroom rather than PIA underperforming.

That said, even when you normalise for base speed, PIA finishes last or near-last on every European route. NordVPN preserves around 90% of its base in Europe; PIA preserves 50% to 66%. That is a meaningful efficiency gap, not just a line-speed artefact.

The US East result cannot be excused by base differences. ExpressVPN returned 185 Mbps to New York from a 510 Mbps base (36%). PIA returned 81 Mbps from a 387 Mbps base (21%). That is a real shortfall on a route that matters for streaming Netflix US, Hulu, HBO Max, and US sports services from the UK.

Australia is more nuanced. PIA’s Adelaide result of 155 Mbps holds up reasonably well in the comparison, sitting close to ExpressVPN’s 163 Mbps and behind only the front-runners. The Perth issue is the larger concern there, not the absolute speed of Adelaide.

See the test results yourself

Below are the raw Speedtest results from our PIA testing on 5th June 2026, including the no-VPN baseline for reference. All tests were run from the same UK TalkTalk connection in Manchester using WireGuard.

Australia tested via Adelaide because PIA’s Perth server, the closest physical location, was unresponsive at the time of testing.

Bottom line on speed

PIA is fast enough for the things most people actually do with a VPN, browsing, HD and 4K streaming on nearby servers, light gaming, and standard downloads.

If your home connection sits in the 50 to 200 Mbps range and you mostly connect to UK or European servers, you are very unlikely to notice the difference in day-to-day use.

But if you have a fast connection and want a VPN that preserves as much of it as possible, or if your main use case involves regular connections to US East servers, the gap is real and worth taking seriously.

NordVPN is the clearest speed leader in our tests, followed by Surfshark, CyberGhost, and ExpressVPN in roughly that order. PIA sits clearly behind all four.

3. Privacy & Logging

No-logs policy

PIA’s privacy policy is unambiguous: no traffic logs, no connection timestamps, no browsing history, no DNS queries, no bandwidth records. The only data PIA retains is your email address and basic billing information required for tax compliance.

This claim has been tested under serious legal pressure on multiple occasions, and on every occasion PIA has been unable to produce data because none was retained.

Three independent Deloitte audits

PIA has now completed three independent audits by Deloitte, one of the Big Four global accounting firms.

The first audit was completed in June 2022 by Deloitte, confirming that PIA’s server configurations matched its no-logs claims. A second audit followed in April 2024.

The most recent audit, conducted by Deloitte Audit Romania under the ISAE 3000 (Revised) standard, examined PIA’s VPN configuration, management systems, and the token-based dedicated IP technology.

All three passed. Three audits from a Big Four firm is a meaningful body of evidence, and it places PIA alongside CyberGhost and ExpressVPN in the “regularly audited” tier of the industry.

RAM-only NextGen servers

PIA’s entire server network runs on diskless, RAM-only servers. Every server reboot wipes all data permanently because there is no physical storage medium where logs could persist.

If a server is seized, there is nothing on it to recover. This was independently verified as part of the Deloitte audit work.

This is the same infrastructure model used by NordVPN and ExpressVPN, and combined with the no-logs policy and quarterly transparency reports, it represents a substantial privacy guarantee.

Open-source apps

This is a genuinely standout feature that very few major VPNs offer. All of PIA’s client applications are open source and available on GitHub: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS.

Anyone with the technical skills, security researchers, developers, journalists, or paranoid users, can read the actual code, check for backdoors, and verify that the app does what PIA claims it does.

This level of transparency is rare and earns PIA significant credibility on privacy claims.

It is also why PIA tends to be trusted by the open-source and Linux communities more than most commercial VPNs.

Quarterly transparency reports

PIA publishes a transparency report every quarter detailing legal and law enforcement requests received and how each was handled.

The Q1 2025 report disclosed 24 requests from domestic and international authorities. None resulted in user data being disclosed because PIA’s RAM-only infrastructure leaves no data to disclose.

Each report also covers PIA’s bug bounty programme submissions and an overview of the broader privacy and cybersecurity landscape.

Court-tested in 2016 and 2018

Two real-world court cases have tested PIA’s no-logs claim under legal pressure.

In 2016, the FBI subpoenaed PIA for user data related to a bomb threat case. PIA could only provide that the connection had come from a cluster of US East Coast IP addresses. No user identity or activity was disclosed.

In 2018, US authorities served PIA again in a hacking case. PIA’s general counsel testified that the company intentionally retains no activity logs and therefore had nothing to provide.

Both cases predate the Kape Technologies acquisition so you may not feel they hold weight any longer, but they remain the strongest practical proof that PIA’s no-logs claim is real.

Jurisdiction

PIA is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, United States. The US is a founding member of the 5 Eyes intelligence alliance and an extended member of the 14 Eyes surveillance arrangement.

On the face of it, that is not ideal for a privacy service. The mitigating factors are significant: the US has no mandatory VPN data retention laws, PIA holds no data to hand over regardless of who asks, and the no-logs claim has been tested in court and audited by Deloitte three times.

That said, if you want a VPN headquartered outside any ‘Eyes alliance’, NordVPN (Panama), CyberGhost (Romania), or ExpressVPN (British Virgin Islands) are stronger jurisdictional choices.

Kape Technologies ownership

PIA was acquired by Kape Technologies in November 2019. Kape now also owns ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, and ZenMate, giving one parent company a significant share of the commercial VPN market.

Kape was formerly known as Crossrider, which had a controversial early history operating a development platform that third parties used to distribute adware.

Crossrider itself did not create or distribute malware, but the association is real, and it predates the company’s full pivot to cybersecurity in 2018.

Three Deloitte audits since 2022 confirm no such practices apply to PIA’s current operation. It is fair context to know, but it should be weighed against the current audit record rather than treated as an active concern.

The Mark Karpeles question

For completeness: PIA hired former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles as CTO in April 2018. Karpeles was later found guilty of tampering with financial records by a Japanese court in 2019 (he was acquitted of embezzlement charges).

PIA’s co-founder Andrew Lee defended the appointment publicly at the time as a “second chance” decision.

Whether this is a meaningful concern is a personal judgement: if it bothers you, it is worth knowing; if you take the view that the audit record and court-tested no-logs policy speak louder than executive history, it is not material.

Neither Andrew Lee or Mark Karpeles work at PIA and haven’t for many years, so this tale serves little but as a historical point of the company.

4. Security Features

Protocols

PIA has retired PPTP and L2TP/IPSec entirely. Both protocols are considered insecure by modern standards and no longer appear in the apps.

Encryption

PIA uses AES-256-GCM by default for both WireGuard and OpenVPN. Handshakes use a 4096-bit RSA certificate with SHA256 authentication, which is at the strong end of what any VPN provider offers.

PIA is unusual in that it lets you downgrade encryption to AES-128-GCM on OpenVPN if you want a small speed gain in exchange for a small reduction in encryption strength. AES-128 is still considered essentially uncrackable, so the trade-off is reasonable. WireGuard uses ChaCha20 (effectively 256-bit equivalent) and is not configurable.

The CBC cipher mode that older PIA versions supported has been removed, leaving GCM only. This is a more secure modern choice.

Multi-Hop and Shadowsocks obfuscation

PIA bundles multi-hop routing with Shadowsocks obfuscation into a single feature. Available on OpenVPN only.

When enabled, your traffic is routed through a Shadowsocks proxy server first, then through your chosen PIA VPN server. The Shadowsocks proxy is available in the US, UK, Switzerland, Netherlands, Canada, and Japan.

The obfuscation makes your VPN traffic look like normal HTTPS to network monitoring tools. This is useful on networks that actively block VPN traffic, such as some workplace networks, university Wi-Fi, or restrictive networks in countries with VPN bans.

It is not the equal of ExpressVPN’s Lightway with dedicated obfuscation, but it is genuinely useful feature.

Multi-level kill switch

PIA’s kill switch has three modes:

Off does what you would expect, no kill switch is active.

VPN Kill Seitch blocks all internet traffic outside the VPN tunnel when the VPN is connected. If the VPN drops, traffic is blocked until reconnection.

Advanced Kill switch blocks all internet traffic any time PIA is not actively connected, including when the app is not running. This is the strongest setting and the one we recommend for privacy-critical use.

Depending on your device, all three types of setting may not be available and it may be a case of either on or off.

In our testing, the kill switch worked reliably across all three modes on Windows. Behaviour on macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS was equivalent.

DNS leak protection

PIA routes DNS queries through its own private encrypted DNS servers by default. You can also configure custom DNS or DNS over HTTPS through the app settings.

In repeated leak testing across all current PIA clients, we found no DNS, WebRTC, or IPv6 leaks. PIA disables IPv6 routing entirely to prevent the leaks that some other VPNs allow through.

PIA MACE ad and tracker blocker

PIA MACE blocks domains associated with advertising, trackers, and malware at the DNS level. It is a single toggle in the Privacy settings, with no whitelist or filter customisation.

In our testing it performed well against standard advertising on news sites like Forbes and the Daily Mail, blocking most banner ads. However, recent independent testing by TechRadar found MACE to be weak against phishing URLs, blocking only two out of 100 fresh malicious URLs from OpenPhish.

The likely explanation is that MACE relies on a known-bad blocklist that does not refresh quickly enough to catch new phishing campaigns.

MACE is a useful add-on against everyday tracking but should not be your primary defence against phishing or malicious sites. A dedicated tool like Bitdefender or Malwarebytes is better suited for that.

Identity Guard

Included free with every subscription, Identity Guard monitors your email address for inclusion in known data breaches. You can configure email alerts when new breaches are detected. It is a small but useful addition that several competitors charge extra for.

5. Server Network

PIA operates one of the largest VPN networks in the industry. It’s claimed there are over 29,650+ servers although PIA doesn’t publish this number any more across 90 countries.

Server count alone is not the right metric to judge a VPN on, but PIA’s network is genuinely large and well distributed.

Coverage is strongest across North America, Europe, and South America. Asia Pacific coverage is reasonable. Africa and the Middle East have lighter coverage, though PIA does maintain presence in South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, and Algeria.

All 50 US states

PIA is one of very few VPNs with server locations in every single US state. NordVPN covers around 17 US locations; ExpressVPN about 25; PIA covers all 50.

This is genuinely useful if you need a local IP from a less-populated state for state-restricted services like online gambling, sports streaming with regional blackouts, or simply preserving low ping by connecting closer to home.

NextGen RAM-only servers

The entire PIA server network now runs on diskless, RAM-only servers operating on 10 Gbps lines. Data is wiped on every reboot, and the hardware contains no persistent storage that could retain logs.

PIA owns and operates its own private DNS servers within this infrastructure, meaning DNS queries do not pass through third-party providers.

Geolocated (virtual) servers

Many of PIA’s locations are geolocated servers, the company’s term for virtual servers. The hardware sits in a nearby country with strong privacy regulations, while the assigned IP address comes from the destination country.

PIA is unusually transparent about this. The website publishes the full list of which locations are geolocated and where the underlying hardware is physically located. The app itself can highlight virtual locations if you want to avoid them.

In practice this matters most for users who specifically need physical infrastructure in a country, for example for legal data residency reasons. For most users, virtual locations work identically to physical ones.

PIA makes heavy use of virtual servers, more so than many other providers and they’re heavily in use across the US.

More concerning is their use across Asia Pacific. Only 4 servers are physically located which are Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Sinapore.

The other 15 countries are virtual servers, and this covers everything from China to Bangladesh, Cambodia to South Korea. This means most of these are likely physically located in Singapore.

Thailand is also an odd omission, considering how popular a travel location it is, it’s one that you would expect would be covered.

Dedicated IP add-on

A dedicated IP is available in five countries: the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany. The token-based privacy system means PIA itself cannot link your dedicated IP to your account, which is a genuine industry first.

Most useful for repeated banking, brokerage, or work platform access, or for users who get hit with CAPTCHA challenges on shared VPN IPs.

6. Streaming

Streaming has historically been a weak spot for PIA, but the introduction of streaming-optimised servers has substantially improved the situation. The optimised servers refresh their IP addresses frequently to avoid detection, and they cover 11 countries.

That said, streaming results are still inconsistent compared to streaming-focused VPNs like ExpressVPN and NordVPN.

Does PIA work with Netflix?

Yes, on the streaming-optimised servers. In our tests, Netflix US, UK, Japan, Germany, and Canada all worked without needing to cycle through multiple servers. The streaming-optimised servers refresh their IPs frequently to stay ahead of Netflix’s VPN detection.

If you connect to a regular (non-streaming) PIA server, Netflix detection is more likely, and you may be prompted to disable your VPN. Stick to the streaming category in the app and access is reliable.

Does PIA work with BBC iPlayer?

Yes. The UK streaming-optimised server worked cleanly for iPlayer in repeated testing, including live broadcasts and full HD playback. No buffering issues and no error messages.

UK streaming: ITVX, Channel 4, My5, Now TV

For UK users abroad or non-UK viewers wanting access to British TV, PIA’s UK streaming server covered ITVX, Channel 4, and My5 reliably in our tests. Now TV was more variable, working on some sessions and prompting VPN detection on others.

Does PIA work with Disney+?

This is the area where PIA most clearly trails. In our recent tests, Disney+ was hit and miss across PIA’s US servers. The US East and US West streaming-optimised servers gave us the most success, but neither was consistent.

Other reviewers have reported similar inconsistencies in 2026. If Disney+ is a primary streaming need, NordVPN or ExpressVPN are more reliable choices.

Does PIA work with Amazon Prime Video?

Similar story. Login worked on US Prime Video, but playback was frequently blocked with the VPN detection error. We got it working occasionally on US East streaming-optimised servers but the experience was inconsistent.

HBO Max and US sports

HBO Max worked reliably on the US East streaming-optimised server, allowing full HD playback with no detection issues. Hulu, ESPN+, and Peacock also worked from US streaming-optimised servers, making PIA a reasonable choice for accessing US sports and Hulu content from the UK.

7. Torrenting & P2P

PIA is one of the strongest VPN choices for torrenting and remains a perennial recommendation in the P2P community. All servers in the network support P2P traffic, so there is no need to switch to a specialist torrenting category like with some competitors.

For serious torrenters, PIA offers two features that most rivals do not.

Port forwarding increases the number of peer connections you can accept, which improves seeding efficiency and download speeds on swarms with limited seeders. PIA is one of the very few major VPNs to still support port forwarding.

The important caveat: port forwarding is not available on US servers. PIA’s support team confirms this is due to legal considerations specific to the US. If port forwarding is critical to your workflow, connect to a European or Canadian server.

SOCKS5 proxy support gives you an alternative path for clients like qBittorrent or Deluge where you may want to route torrent traffic through the proxy while keeping browser traffic on the full VPN tunnel.

The multi-level kill switch handles the most important protection: if the VPN drops mid-download, your real IP is not exposed and your torrent client stops transferring rather than reverting to your ISP connection.

One important caveat for UK users: PIA is based in the US, which has aggressive DMCA enforcement.

PIA’s no-logs claim has been court-tested and audited, so the practical risk to users is low, but it is worth being aware that PIA cannot operate outside US law if a request is properly served. The no-logs design simply means there is no data to hand over.

It’s worth remembering, though that a VPN is not a tool to protect you from carrying out illegal actions. Downloading copyrighted content is illegal regardless of if you use a VPN or not.

8. Apps

Mobile apps

PIA offers full-featured apps for Android and iOS. The Android app got a noticeable refresh recently and finally introduced a proper dark mode, but we’ll be honest: it still does not look as polished as NordVPN’s or Surfshark’s Android apps.

The typography feels dated and the layout looks like it was designed by an engineer rather than a designer. Not ugly, just plain.

What it lacks in visual polish, it more than makes up for once you dig into the settings menu. We’ve spent a lot of time poking around in this app, and the depth of configuration is genuinely impressive: protocol selection, encryption levels, MACE ad blocking, split tunneling, port forwarding, custom DNS, Multi-Hop with Shadowsocks, and a proper rules engine for automatic connection triggers.

We cannot think of another mobile VPN app that puts this much under the hood.

The automation rules are the standout. Telling the app “always connect when I join unknown Wi-Fi” sounds small until you have it set up, after which we stopped thinking about the VPN entirely. It just worked in the background.

The iOS app is visually more polished, helped along by Apple’s design system, but loses some Android features along the way. Split tunneling is unavailable because Apple does not allow third-party VPN apps to implement it at the operating system level.

The protocol options drop to WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2. If you live on iOS, the experience is cleaner but slightly less powerful.

Both mobile apps include a 7-day free trial when signing up through the app store, which is a fair test window before committing.

Both apps include split tunneling (Android only, as noted), the kill switch, PIA MACE, and the full server list including the streaming-optimised category.

The honest summary: PIA’s mobile apps are for tinkerers. If you want something that looks beautiful and connects with one tap, NordVPN or Surfshark will please you more on day one.

If you want granular control over protocol, encryption, DNS, automation, and obfuscation, PIA gives you more than anyone else in this price range. The dated visual design is the price of admission.

Desktop apps

We spent most of our testing time on the Windows app, so the bulk of this section reflects that experience. The macOS app shares the same interface and most of the feature set, but we’ll flag the differences worth knowing about.

The Windows client opens to a compact home screen with the last used server pre-selected. One click connects, which is exactly how a VPN should behave when you just want protection without thinking about it.

Below the connect button is a small drop-down arrow that expands the app into the full dashboard.

This is where PIA’s modular design shines: we could pin the performance graph, IP information, port forwarding status, and quick settings tiles to the dashboard, or hide them if we wanted a minimal view.

After a few days we’d built a layout that surfaced exactly the information we cared about.

The settings menu is where the Windows app earns its reputation. There are pages for connection automation, protocol selection (with the ability to switch encryption strength), DNS configuration, kill switch behaviour with three modes, split tunneling rules, port forwarding, Multi-Hop with Shadowsocks obfuscation, and proxy options.

We’ve used a lot of VPN apps over the years and PIA’s Windows client gives more granular control than any of them.

A welcome update since our last review: split tunneling has returned to the macOS app after a period when it was missing. macOS users no longer need to choose between PIA and split tunneling functionality, which is a notable improvement.

From what we’ve seen of the macOS client in screenshots and changelogs, the interface is essentially identical to Windows, the protocol options are the same (WireGuard and OpenVPN), and the settings menu structure matches.

The main practical difference is that the Windows app receives feature updates first; macOS tends to follow a release or two behind.

The Windows app remains the most fully-featured PIA client overall. If you split your time between desktop and mobile, this is the device where you’ll want to do your detailed configuration.

Linux

PIA offers a full graphical interface Linux client for Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Fedora, and Arch. This is rare. Most major VPNs offer command-line-only support for Linux, if they offer anything at all.

The Linux GUI exposes nearly all the features of the desktop apps, including the kill switch, split tunneling, port forwarding, and protocol selection. For Linux as a daily driver, this is one of the best options available.

Fire TV and streaming devices

PIA has a native Fire TV app. It is downloadable through the Amazon Appstore on Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, and Fire TV Cube. The interface is remote-friendly, with the streaming-optimised server categories prominent in the main menu.

We found navigating simple. If you’ve used a VPN on a FireTV device before you’ll know how some aren’t remote control friendly, so you’ll be pleased to know in our tests they passed the family member threshold meaning anyone can navigate and use the app effortlessly.

PIA also supports Apple TV with a native tvOS app, and Android TV via the standard Android app.

Routers

PIA does support VPN-compatible routers. Setup guides are available for DD-WRT, Tomato, Asuswrt-Merlin, pfSense, OpenWRT, and LEDE. For a more plug-and-play option, PIA partners with FlashRouters to sell preconfigured routers shipped ready to use.

Router setup is the right approach for households that want every connected device, including those without native VPN support like games consoles, Smart TVs, or older devices, to route through PIA on a single connection.

Browser extensions

PIA offers browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. Like other VPN browser extensions, these are proxy tools that affect only browser traffic rather than the full device.

Useful for quick location changes inside the browser without connecting the main client, but not a substitute for the full VPN if device-wide protection is what you need.

InBrowser

PIA’s InBrowser is a free private mobile browser for iOS and Android. It opens every session in incognito mode, blocks ads and trackers by default, and clears all data on close.

Available regardless of whether you subscribe to PIA VPN. It is not a unique offering at this point (Brave and DuckDuckGo browser cover similar ground), but it is a useful free addition to the PIA ecosystem.

9. Customer Support

PIA’s customer support has improved significantly since our last review. The 24/7 live chat on the website now connects you to a real agent quickly.

Like most VPNs, the chat begins with an AI bot that handles common questions, if it cannot resolve your query, a human agent takes over within a minute or two in our tests.

In our chat tests, agents were knowledgeable and pleasant, with no obvious script-reading. Questions about Multi-Hop, port forwarding on US servers, and dedicated IP setup were all answered accurately on the first response.

For more complex queries, an email ticket system handles the load. Response times are reasonable, typically within a few hours.

We’re not huge fans of AI Bots in the VPNCompare offices but it seems most websites are using them these days. Thankfully the PIA bot did seem to get the answers we needed and when we couldn’t find the answer it was quick to pass us through to a real live human agent without much hoop jumping.

The PIA knowledge base is one of the most extensive in the industry. Detailed setup guides for every supported platform, troubleshooting walkthroughs for common errors, and an active community forum where experienced users and PIA staff both respond.

For most straightforward questions, the knowledge base is faster than waiting for chat.

On Trustpilot, PIA holds a rating of 4.3 out of 5 from over 10,000 reviews. The most common positive themes are app stability, unlimited connections, and the no-logs policy. The most frequent complaints relate to occasional server detection by Netflix and the renewal process being awkward to find in the account dashboard.

The 30-day money-back guarantee applies to all subscription lengths. Refunds can be requested through live chat or by submitting a support ticket. In our refund tests, the process was straightforward with no significant pushback, and the refund cleared within three business days.

If you decide PIA is not for you, the steps to cancel your PIA subscription are documented and reasonably straightforward.

10. Who PIA Is Not For

PIA is a strong all-round VPN but it is not the right choice for everyone. Here is who we would direct elsewhere.

Verdict

PIA in 2026 is a noticeably stronger service than the one we last reviewed in depth. The three Deloitte audits, RAM-only NextGen servers, fully open-source apps, quarterly transparency reports, and Multi-Hop with obfuscation collectively make PIA’s privacy and security case as solid as any in the industry.

The genuine strengths are clear. Unlimited simultaneous connections remain rare at any price and make PIA unbeatable for households or anyone with a lot of devices.

Open-source apps are a real differentiator. Port forwarding makes PIA one of the strongest torrenting choices among major VPNs. Server coverage in all 50 US states is genuinely useful, although many of these are virtual servers so take note.

The 30-day money-back guarantee gives you a real window to test the service properly.

Pricing on the three-year plan at $2.03 per month puts PIA among the best-value fully-audited VPNs available. The customer support is now genuinely 24/7 and competent, the apps are polished across every platform including Linux with a full GUI and a native Fire TV interface, and the audit and transparency record gives the no-logs claim real weight.

The limitations are equally real.

Speed is the most noticeable weakness: PIA is fast enough for everyday use but lags behind NordVPN, Surfshark, and ExpressVPN on every route in our tests, particularly long-distance.

Streaming is much improved but Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video remain inconsistent. US jurisdiction will not suit users with a strict offshore preference. PIA may work in China but the support team itself does not guarantee it.

Our conclusion: PIA is one of the best-value VPNs available in 2026, and the open-source apps, three Deloitte audits, and quarterly transparency reports give it a privacy story that is genuinely strong.

For torrenters, advanced users who want customisation, households with many devices, and anyone who values verifiable transparency over branded marketing, PIA earns a clear recommendation.

For users who need maximum speed, the most reliable streaming across every platform, or rock-solid China access, the options above it in our rankings remain worth the premium.

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