Expert Rating
Benefits
- Many powerful features
- Privacy conscious
- Excellent value for money
Disadvantages
- Probably less intuitive than some others
- More speed loss than some competitors
Our verdict
Private Internet Access (PIA) offers a robust feature set that makes it one of the most impressive VPNs on the market. This comes at the cost of download speeds, but there are few VPNs that perform better for privacy-conscious users.
While we love nice, easy-to-use VPNs (and there are plenty of them), Private Internet Access (often referred to as PIA) seems aimed at more advanced users.
That’s not to say you can’t connect to a server with a click or two, and the Mac app may be as simple as many of its contemporaries, but it does offer a whole host of “power user” tools that set it apart, especially at this price.
While many VPNs offer more features on Windows, the PIA Mac app offers pretty much everything its Microsoft counterpart can do, including custom DNS, connection rules, split tunneling, and more.
All of this comes at a lower cost than many competitors, and the open source nature of PIA apps means they can be taken apart by just about anyone looking for bugs or other invasions of a user’s privacy, and the “no-logging policy” is just as robust as the others.
Find out how PIA compares to other VPNs in our reviews of the best VPNs for Mac, best VPNs for iPad, and best VPNs for iPhone.
Features and Applications
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As you’d expect from a VPN in 2024, Private Internet Access can be used on virtually any device you might need it on.
Once it launches, you can click to go directly to one of the servers available in 91 countries (the company has been beefing up its network in the last year). In my tests, the “auto” setting did a good job of selecting servers that balanced speed and privacy, moving my location to another part of the UK, for example.
Naturally, you can manually select a server with just a few clicks, and the app also has its own Chrome extension.
The main window also offers a lot of information. Rather than just displaying a server, you’ll see a performance graph, download and upload speeds, and a host of quick settings that can be easily enabled and disabled, including light mode, port forwarding, and LAN connections.
While you can use PIA to bypass geo-blocked content on your streaming service of choice, it’s more privacy-focused in many ways.
The Advanced Kill Switch will block all traffic outside the VPN even when it’s disabled, locking your device unless you’re connected to a PIA server, but the Basic Kill Switch is also available. You can use split tunneling to send some traffic through the VPN and some around it as well.
Port forwarding is easy to use, and an automation rules setup lets you create your own automations for wired, protected, and open Wi-Fi connections. That means PIA can instantly spring into action once you connect to Starbucks, or leave you to your own devices when you’re somewhere you trust.
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Multi-Hop will allow you to redirect traffic through multiple VPN servers, but it also has the advantage of potentially hiding the fact that you’re using a VPN.
Performance
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In our testing so far, we’ve found NordVPN and Surfshark to offer better speeds than most, and unfortunately, Private Internet Access won’t be challenging for the crown right now.
Its stablemate CyberGhost VPN offers more impressive speeds at the cost of some powerful features, and it’s the opposite here.
In our tests on a relatively modest 60Mbps connection, we saw a drop of about 8% on Mac when using PIA VPN. That’s not a huge drop, and it’s still relatively competitive, but download speeds did drop significantly, by about 25%.
It’s not a huge drop, but it’s definitely something to consider if you spend time sharing large files in your computing life.
Privacy and Security
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Besides the aforementioned Kill Switch and Multi-Hop Server Obfuscation, Private Internet Access has a whole host of customizable features.
There’s the automation setup I mentioned earlier, which is very easy to set up, and a whole host of DNS options to help it fit into your existing setup.
As with CyberGhost VPN, Deloitte Audit Romania audited PIA’s zero-log policy in April this year. You can see the full results here , but the main result is that after the auditor observed the server and incident management systems, PIA passed with flying colors.
This means that PIA will not report what you do, nor can the data be used to identify a user.
Prices and packages
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Considering it starts at just $2.19/£1.69 per month for all the features I mentioned (there are no subscription tiers here to complicate things), Private Internet Access is a compelling option.
However, we’re still wary of getting bogged down in a long-term plan, with VPN legislation constantly changing. On the other hand, it’s pocket change for many, and since there are no device limits, you can use it on almost anything you own for around $2/£2.
Other plans include $7.50/£5.39 per month for a six-month plan, while you can pay monthly for $12.95/£10.99. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee, for added peace of mind.
Should you buy Private Internet Access (PIA)?
Aside from its spotty speeds, Private Internet Access is a fantastic VPN for any budget that offers a wealth of features for privacy-conscious users. It offers a robust feature set that makes it one of the most impressive VPNs on the market. This comes at the cost of download speeds, but there are few better VPNs for privacy-conscious users.
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