Private Internet Access VPN Review 2024: Good, Cheap, and Works with Netflix

Private Internet Access (PIA) is a surprisingly solid VPN product given its very low prices. Starting at about $2 per month, you might expect a bare-bones VPN service that’s slow and barely gets the job done, but that isn't the case at all.

Our Private Internet Access review shows a high-quality service with solid speeds, loads of server locations, and a strict no-logs policy that’s been tested in court. We don’t love that PIA is based out of the U.S. (a known Five Eyes alliance country), but this doesn’t seem to have caused privacy issues so far.

Check out our PIA VPN review to dig into details about speed tests, Netflix compatibility, customer support, and more.

Private Internet Access overview

4.8

AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

VPN

Private Internet Access

• More affordable than most other VPNs, including ExpressVPN and NordVPN
• Fast internet speeds and strict no-logs policy
• Unblocks Netflix and other streaming services

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Our experience

Private Internet Access has an easy setup process. You can start by visiting the main product site and logging in to your account. From there, you can select your preferred operating system and start your download.

We like that PIA has an option for a quick tour, which can be helpful for VPN beginners. It provided tips on how to customize your dashboard, download other apps, and more. 

The interface itself might fit better in the hands of a more experienced VPN user because of its customization options, such as moving widgets around in the display and setting up your home screen.

However, beginner users should still be able to navigate through the interface easily enough. It wasn’t difficult for us to find the server list or to connect to different servers. And the settings were straightforward and understandable. 

Who is Private Internet Access best for?

• Recommended for people who want a fast and affordable VPN that can unblock streaming services, provides plenty of server locations, and has a tested no-logs policy.

Private Internet Access is a virtual private network (VPN) service based out of Denver, Colorado, that offers one of the cheapest VPNs on the market. But “cheap VPN” doesn’t necessarily mean lacking in quality.

Our tests show that PIA can offer fast speeds, high levels of privacy and security, and the opportunity to unblock regional streaming content. It’s especially helpful to know that the PIA no-logs policy has been tested multiple times in court without any user information being leaked — primarily because PIA doesn’t keep logs of user activity.

PIA prices and subscriptions

PIA VPN offers subscription plans for one month, six months, and two years. All plans come with the same features, so the only differences are the price and subscription length. Your overall monthly price goes with the longer subscription options.

The cheapest option for PIA VPN: Two-year plan for $2.19/mo (billed every two years)

The most expensive option for PIA VPN: Monthly plan for $11.99/mo

You might only need a VPN for a short period of time, including if you’re traveling abroad for a vacation and want a VPN for streaming purposes. But it’s typically the most expensive option to pay for a VPN one month at a time.

If you want to save money on a VPN, it’s often much cheaper overall to choose a longer subscription length. And with PIA VPN, you can get some dirt cheap prices.

Here’s how PIA VPN compares to other popular VPNs and their lowest monthly rates:

• ExpressVPN: $8.32/mo (billed annually)
• Hotspot Shield: $7.99/mo (billed annually)
• Proton VPN: $4.49/mo
• NordVPN: $3.39/mo (billed every two years)
• Surfshark: $2.19/mo (billed biannually)
• CyberGhost: $2.03/mo (billed every two years)
• Private Internet Access: $2.19/mo (billed every two years)

Private Internet Access costs the same or less than all the VPNs listed. And compared with ExpressVPN, PIA is four times cheaper. But remember that price isn’t everything and there are a few competitors that don’t cost much more than PIA.

For example, would it be worth it to pay about an extra $12 per year for NordVPN and its high-quality service and fast speeds?

It depends on your situation, but it’s important to realize that VPNs are generally inexpensive and you have plenty of options to choose from to meet your needs.

PIA's payment methods include:

• Credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover)
• PayPal
• Amazon Pay
• Cryptocurrencies through BitPay (bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin)

PIA makes a point of accepting crypto as a form of payment because they’re more anonymous options.

Private Internet Access features

We primarily tested PIA using its Windows app, so our experience is generally based on the features available to the Private Internet Access VPN app on Windows. You might find that your PIA experience is slightly different depending on which app you use. But we found that PIA has loads of servers to choose from, a strict no-logs policy, and an app interface that’s fairly easy to use and navigate. 

PIA's key features include:

1. Server count and countries
2. No-logs policy
3. Kill switch
4. Split tunneling
5. Encryption
6. VPN protocol
7. Identity Guard
8. Smart DNS
9. Multi-Hop
10. MACE

1. Server count and countries

• 91 countries and all 50 U.S. states

PIA doesn’t release a list of how many servers it actually has, but it verified with us that you can connect to servers in 91 countries and every U.S. state. That’s a sizable number of server locations and likely more than enough for your average VPN user.

Here’s how PIA compares to other popular VPN providers with its number of countries with servers:

• Private Internet Access: 91 countries + 50 U.S. states
  
• NordVPN: 111 countries
• ExpressVPN: 105 countries
• Surfshark: 100 countries
• CyberGhost: 100 countries
  
• Proton VPN: 91 countries
  
• Hotspot Shield: 80 countries

Although Private Internet Access offers a lower number of server countries than most popular VPNs, 91 countries is a decent number. This is important because more server locations mean more ways to use VPNs. For example, it could mean additional opportunities for you to unblock streaming services in different regions.

If you look at the PIA server list, you’ll see servers ordered by latency numbers. In general, latency is one way to measure your internet speed. So servers with lower latencies (depicted by a green color) are typically your fastest connection options based on your location.

Servers with higher latencies (depicted by an orange color) are typically your slowest connection options based on your location.

You might also notice some servers have a small globe symbol next to them. This means the server is in a “geo-located region,” which means it isn’t physically located in that country. But for all intents and purposes, connecting to one of these virtual servers still makes it seem like your connection is coming from the applicable country.

2. No-logs policy and headquarters

• PIA logs policy: No logs
• PIA headquarters: United States

PIA VPN has a strict no-logs policy and is headquartered in Colorado, United States. PIA doesn’t collect or store your data, including your internet protocol (IP) address, browsing history, DNS queries, bandwidth consumption, VPN session timestamps, or connection logs.

In general, PIA doesn’t store any data about your VPN usage or what you do while using its VPN. PIA’s no-logs policy has been tested multiple times in court without PIA releasing any relevant information. This is because PIA doesn’t track or store user information and has nothing to give, as outlined in its transparency reports.

PIA also had its no-logs policy independently audited in April 2024 by Deloitte. The report confirmed PIA’s no-logs policy because Deloitte couldn’t find any trace of user activity on PIA’s servers.

PIA uses RAM-only servers, which means data is frequently deleted and difficult to steal. And so far, the U.S. government hasn’t been able to force PIA to violate its no-logs policy. This is because of U.S. consumer protection laws, according to PIA.

But even though it hasn’t happened yet, that doesn’t mean PIA can’t eventually be forced to breach its own policies. The main fact pointing to this possibility is that Private Internet Access is U.S.-based. And the U.S. is part of the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes alliances, which are global networks involved in mass surveillance, including within their own countries.

PIA has done an excellent job so far with its privacy initiatives, and we hope it continues to do an excellent job. But being located in a country that’s part of a global surveillance network might not be the best thing for maintaining user privacy.

Note that Private Internet Access was acquired by Kape Technologies in 2019. Kape Technologies owns other VPNs, including ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN. All VPNs under the Kape brand are believed to run independently of each other.

3. Kill switch

PIA VPN provides a kill switch feature located in the Privacy section of the app settings. A VPN kill switch is designed to prevent data leaks from happening if your secure connection is interrupted.

You can choose between two different kill switch options:

• VPN Kill Switch: Your basic kill switch that prevents leaks by blocking your internet traffic from moving outside the VPN, including during an interrupted connection.
• Advanced Kill Switch: Blocks all internet traffic unless you’re connected to the VPN.

4. Split tunneling

Split tunneling is a feature that allows you to bypass the secure VPN connection with specific apps and IP addresses. PIA offers this feature in the app settings on the Split Tunnel tab.

You might use the split tunneling feature if you don’t want an app to be slowed down by a VPN and you aren’t worried about security or privacy within that app. For example, you might allow an online video game to bypass the VPN connection so you can maintain fast speeds while gaming. In the meantime, your other online activities remain private and secure.

5. Encryption

PIA lets you choose between AES-128 or AES-256 encryption. These are some of the strongest encryption algorithms available and are widely used by organizations worldwide. You can find the encryption options in the Protocols tab of the app settings within the OpenVPN protocol section.

6. VPN protocol

PIA offers multiple VPN protocols to help ensure your security while maintaining high levels of transparency. This includes the open-source WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols, as well as IKEv2/IPsec. You can find the available protocols in your app settings in the Protocols tab.

Note that Private Internet Access with OpenVPN and WireGuard were the only available options we saw on the Windows desktop app. But we did see all three protocols, including IKEv2/IPsec, were available in the iOS app.

7. Identity Guard

PIA Identity Guard is a feature that can help you see whether an email address has been part of a data breach. We found this feature in our online account using a Chrome browser.

Selecting the Identity Guard tab brings you to a breach monitoring page on the PIA website. Here, you can enter an email address and PIA will check to see whether it’s been exposed.

We entered one of our junk emails (an email we use to sign up for all kinds of services and subscriptions) to see what would pop up. We first had to confirm an email from PIA to start the monitoring process.

After confirming the email, we found our junk email had been part of two recent data breaches. This wasn’t surprising, but still helpful information. You can add multiple email addresses and receive notifications from PIA about breach alerts.

8. Smart DNS

Smart DNS is a way to use a VPN on devices that might not typically have access to a VPN app. For example, your PlayStation, Xbox, Apple TV, or smart TV might not have an app store with the PIA VPN app. But you can still use the Smart DNS feature to set up different devices with PIA functionality.

You can find Smart DNS options in your online account in the Smart DNS tab.

Note that Smart DNS won’t give your device a secure VPN connection, but it can change your device’s virtual location. For example, you can choose locations in the U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K., and the Netherlands. This can be helpful for accessing regional streaming content.

9. Multi-Hop

Multi-Hop is a feature within the PIA app settings in the Multi-Hop tab. This security feature routes your VPN connection through an additional server. This is often called “double VPN” on other VPNs.

Multi-Hop is designed to offer more security with your connection by offering another layer of encryption. You can also hide that you’re using a VPN, which is called obfuscating your connection.

The PIA Multi-Hop feature offers the Shadowsocks and SOCKS5 proxies. SOCKS5 proxy servers, which include Shadowsocks, are designed to mask your true IP address by routing you through a server with a different IP address. They aren’t as secure or private as VPNs, but they can offer an additional layer of anonymity.

10. MACE

PIA MACE is a feature you can find in the app that blocks ads, trackers, and malware. It’s located in the app settings in the Privacy tab.

We wanted to test MACE out with its ad blocker feature, so we opened up a page on Forbes.com, a site that typically has tons of annoying ads. We first opened the page without turning on the MACE feature or connecting to the VPN and we immediately found a giant ad.

We then turned on the MACE feature and connected to the VPN. The same ad had disappeared and we didn’t find any other ads on the page.

PIA VPN test results

We conducted a speed test and some leak tests to see how PIA VPN performed with maintaining reasonable internet speeds and overall privacy. We also tested whether PIA could unblock different Netflix content libraries.

These tests were run using the PIA VPN Windows app on a desktop PC running Windows 10 from a physical location in the U.S.

PIA VPN passed all of the tests we performed. Here are the details for each set of tests.

Speed tests

• Speed test results: Private Internet Access passed its speed tests with closeby server locations but slowed down significantly for further locations. 

How a VPN affects your internet speeds is often one of the primary concerns when choosing a VPN. We tested Private Internet Access by connecting to different servers around the world and measuring how it impacted our internet connection. While it's normal for a VPN to take up some bandwidth and reduce your internet speed, we were looking for unusual, significant dips in speeds.

We began our testing by establishing a baseline and measured our internet speed without PIA turned on. Then we connected to servers in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. We conducted our testing on a Lenovo laptop from a physical location in the U.S.

Our internet speeds were acceptable while connected to servers in the U.S. and Canada. You shouldn't have any issues doing everyday internet activities and streaming while using a PIA VPN. However, it's interesting to take a look at the results once we connected to the U.K. and Australia. 

The download speed dipped about 50% even though we still had a great internet connection. Our latency also increased significantly to 2,625% above our baseline speed while connected to the U.K. and 4,825% while connected to Australia. 

Increased latency is an issue for gamers who need a quick response for their playing. This may not impact you if you plan to only casually use your VPN, but is worth noting if you plan to use international servers.

The good news is that we didn't experience any issues or delays in connecting to any servers. You can easily connect to several different servers to find one with a speed that works for you.

Netflix tests

• Netflix test results: Private Internet Access passed its Netflix tests, but there were some errors along the way.

Some people use a VPN to watch Netflix, but sometimes streaming apps block VPN usage. We conducted tests with Private Internet Access to see if we could watch Netflix while connected to different servers around the world.

PIA has streaming-optimized servers, so we tried them out for our Netflix tests if they were available. We connected to servers in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. After connecting to the server, we opened up Netflix to see if it would connect and then sampled a show to see if there were any lag issues.

We started to have issues while connecting to the Canadian and Australian streaming-optimized servers. We started by connecting to a streaming-optimized server and were able to load the regional library just fine. However, Netflix detected PIA as soon as we selected something to watch.

We tried to resolve the issue by connecting to a regular Australian server. Surprisingly, Netflix was able to stream Law & Order: SVU without any blocks. If you experience issues while streaming with PIA, be sure to test multiple servers. 

Note that Private Internet Access advertises it works with BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, YouTube TV, ITV, and other streaming services.

DNS leak tests

• DNS leak test results: Private Internet Access passed its DNS leak test.

The domain name system (DNS) leak test reveals if a VPN is successfully masking your IP address, internet service provider (ISP), and general location. If it doesn't, it's leaking data. We used BrowserLeaks to conduct our DNS leak test.

Once we connected to Private Internet Access, we ran the DNS leak test. The VPN was able to hide our information and show the VPN server instead.

WebRTC leak tests

• WebRTC leak test results: Private Internet Access passed its WebRTC leak test.

A WebRTC leak occurs when there's a vulnerability in your internet connection and it doesn't successfully hide your information from third parties. Instead, it exposes your IP address and makes it easy for third parties to identify you.

Once again, we used BrowserLeaks to conduct the WebRTC leak test. Without the VPN on, we could see our real IP address. Then we connected to Private Internet Access. The leak test showed the VPN server IP address instead of our real IP address, so there were no WebRTC leaks detected.

Kill switch test

• Kill switch test results: Private Internet Access passed its kill switch test.

A kill switch is an essential feature for security. With a kill switch, your online activities should always be protected because it stops your internet connection if your VPN drops. 

We tested the kill switch by starting with a Spanish server then opening ipleak.net. We swapped to a server in Denmark to see if Private Internet Access would leak our true IP address. Luckily, PIA kept our real location a secret. 

PIA compatibility

You can set up the PIA VPN app on an unlimited number of devices, operating systems, mobile apps, and browser extensions, including:

• Windows (10 and 11)
• macOS (10.13+)
• Linux (Ubuntu 20.05+, Mint, Debian, Fedora, or Arch)
• Android (Android 5.1+)
• iOS (iOS 11+)
• Chrome (v48+)
• Firefox (v57+)
• Opera (v52+)
• Android TV
• Amazon Fire TV
• Routers
• Consoles (Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and more)

You can find Private Internet Access download options in your PIA account on a web browser. We were able to find download links for the Private Internet Access Chrome extension and other apps in the Downloads tab.

We noticed that PIA VPN had loads of excellent reviews and high ratings for both its iOS and Android apps. The PIA VPN app on Google Play has 4.5 out of 5 stars with more than 85,300 reviews. The PIA VPN app on the Apple App Store has 4.7 out of 5 stars with over 108,000 ratings.

PIA customer support

Private Internet Access offers customer support through its support website, email, live chat, forums, and social media channels. You can also submit error reports through the PIA app (we were able to see this option on the Windows app) and fill out a contact form through the support portal.

The PIA social media channels include Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. PIA also has a YouTube channel, but the last upload was more than a year ago. You can send an email to the PIA support team at [email protected].

Live chat

Private Internet Access offers 24/7 live chat available to anyone on its website. We decided to see what the chat experience was like by asking a PIA representative a few questions. You can find the chat button in the bottom right corner of just about any page on the main PIA website.

After starting the live chat, we were quickly (within a few seconds) transferred to a live agent to begin our conversation. 

Our first question was regarding the issues we had while using the streaming-optimized servers. The representative was thorough about asking us our location, operating system, and how we were accessing Netflix. They provided us with tips to troubleshoot our connection.

Overall, the customer support agent was polite, friendly, and understandable.

Support portal

The PIA support portal provides loads of resources for PIA users or anyone who’s interested in learning more about this VPN. This includes guides, announcements, and a knowledge base area with FAQs.

The news section of the support website is especially helpful because it provides updates about relevant events for PIA users. For example, an announcement about maintenance on a specific server gives you a heads-up that you won’t be able to use that server for a certain period of time.

The section with different guides can also be helpful if you need a few tips on how to use PIA in different ways or how to set it up on certain devices. This could include installing PIA VPN on Windows, macOS, Android, or iOS devices.

Top alternatives

Private Internet Access has a lot to offer, but it struggled with some speed tests and is based in a Five Eyes alliance country. We've compiled some of our top alternatives that excel in speed, security, and more: 

Price	$3.39–$15.99/mo	$2.19–$17.95/mo	$2.03–$12.99/mo
Free version
Max # of connected devices	10	Unlimited	7
# of servers	6,300+ servers in 111 countries	3,200 in 100 countries	Servers in 100 countries
VPN protocol	NordLynx (WireGuard), OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPsec	WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2	Lightway, OpenVPN, IKEv2
Encryption	AES 256-bit	AES 256-bit	AES 256-bit
No-logs policy	No logs	No logs	No logs
Headquarters	Panama	The Netherlands	Romania
Netflix access
Learn more	Get NordVPN	Get Surfshark	Get CyberGhost

FAQs

Bottom line: Is Private Internet Access good?

Yes, Private Internet Access is a good VPN that does just about everything right. It’s fast, affordable, private, and secure. And you get plenty of server locations with opportunities to unblock regional streaming content. Even better, the PIA no-logs policy has been tested in court and successfully audited by an independent third party.

But the PIA headquarters in the U.S. is a tad concerning. Nothing has happened yet for PIA to breach its no-logs policy, but the U.S. is a well-known member of a global surveillance group of countries.

PIA has a lot going for it, including 24/7 customer service. If you're not sold on this service, see how PIA compares with other top VPNs:

• Private Internet Access vs. NordVPN
• Private Internet Access vs. Proton VPN
• Private Internet Access vs. ExpressVPN

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4.8

AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Editorial Rating

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On Private Internet Access's website

VPN

Private Internet Access

• More affordable than most other VPNs, including ExpressVPN and NordVPN
• Fast internet speeds and strict no-logs policy
• Unblocks Netflix and other streaming services

Author Details

Ben Walker

About the Author

Ben Walker is a security, travel, and credit card writer with a passion for all things internet and technology, whether it's using VPNs while away from home or organizing his life with password managers.

Sara J. Nguyen