Private Internet Access VPN review: a low-cost VPN for all your devices

Private Internet Access is a VPN service that promises to protect your privacy on all your devices and lets you hide your location to unblock content at very affordable prices. That sounds like a winning combination.

Intrigued by the offer, I decided to test out the speed and reliability of this leading VPN service. For the sake of brevity, Private Internet Access abbreviates its long name to PIA. In my review, I’ll cover PIA’s subscription pricing, usability, features, customer service, and more.

Tiers and pricing

There’s no trial version of PIA and no free version either. You have to subscribe for at least a month to use it. The good news is that prices are affordable and there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee. There are some good free VPNs with minimal restrictions if you don’t need a full-time, high-speed solution.

It’s $12 monthly, $40 annually, or $80 for three years. You get a nice reward if you’re ready to make a long commitment. Subscribing for a year cuts the average cost to $3 per month, while the three-year plan cuts that to $2. You also get three bonus months with the longest plan.

If you try a month of PIA and keep it for three months, you might as well go for the annual plan. After six months, you’ve almost paid for a three-year subscription.

Every PIA plan supports unlimited connections so you can use it on all your phones, tablets, computers, and other connected devices. That’s why it ranks high on our list of the best VPNs for multiple devices.

Design

As PIA was downloading, the webpage gave me instructions to install the app. The process is simple but it’s never a bad idea to provide help during setup.

The same is true of the installer, giving a quick tour along the way. For example, PIA reminded me of all the supported platforms so I could use the VPN on all my devices.

After installation, the app shrinks to a tiny window docked to the system tray at the bottom right of my screen. I opened the settings and found the option to make it a movable window.

The main window has an arrow at the bottom to expand and show more options, but it’s still a small, narrow panel that feels cramped. That said, PIA manages to pack several quick toggles, favorite servers, and information in a small space so it could work well for notebooks with small screens.

The settings window takes a more modern approach with tabs in a left sidebar for easy access to various VPN and app options.

Features

A good VPN should offer excellent privacy and security without sacrificing too much internet speed. I found PIA to connect quickly, but performance was quite slow, reaching just 172 Mbps when connected to a nearby U.S. server.

I’m just across the border in Canada with a 900 Mbps Ethernet connection. Fast, streaming VPNs like ExpressVPN, yield SpeedTest results over 700 Mbps, so I dug into the settings to see if I could improve PIA’s download speed.

I noticed it defaulted to OpenVPN, so I switched to WireGuard which is usually faster. I also chose a different server. That made a huge difference, increasing download rates to 555 Mbps, about average for my system when using a VPN. Upload speed was also respectable, reaching 51 Mbps with a ping of 36ms.

I tried several servers in Canada but the best I could get is 92 Mbps down and 26 Mbps up with a ping of 41ms. Perhaps PIA’s Canadian servers are overloaded. Latency was about the same as the U.S. server but the speed lagged far behind.

Distant connections are always slower but I was disappointed to get just 15 Mbps for France and 19 Mbps for the UK. I switched to OpenVPN and that helped significantly. UK speed increased to 88 Mbps and France skyrocketed to 426 Mbps.

That gave me enough hope to try far-flung Australia. The 122 Mbps download rate was reasonable for browsing down under. Germany broke the mold for overseas connections, posting its best download speed of 348 Mbps on WireGuard.

During testing, my internet stopped working. The trouble was a bad VPN connection, but PIA still protected my privacy thanks to its default kill switch that blocks internet access in case the VPN drops. That’s a fairly common feature among VPNs, but VPN server issues are rare. I switched to a different server and reconnected with no further issues.

PIA also includes blockers to prevent malware, ads, and trackers. I tested its malware detection by visiting Wicar, a website that hosts online cybersecurity tests. PIA blocked 10 of the 13 threats, which isn’t very impressive.

The best antivirus software blocks all dangerous downloads, scans for existing malware, and secures your browser from known exploits, so I’d recommend a seperate tool for that duty.

Support

When I visited PIA’s help center, I saw the usual options to search or browse support documents and user forums or contact PIA for assistance. The contact button took me to a web form to open a ticket for email support.

I wanted to chat, so I logged in and saw a chat button at the bottom right. I filled in my email address and reason for contacting support, and a live agent arrived in seconds. The replies came quickly yet were quite helpful. I got the sense I was speaking with someone familiar with VPNs who was eager to help.

When I asked which protocol was quickest, the agent correctly identified WireGuard. I followed up with a question about why OpenVPN gave better speeds sometimes. The agent clarified that there were many variables, but OpenVPN servers could have less load than WireGuard, resulting in faster downloads even though the protocol isn’t as efficient.

Privacy and security

PIA’s privacy policy clearly states the company won’t share, sell, rent, or trade your data to third-party advertisers. It uses your account information solely to provide the services you pay for.

Going further, PIA collects only what’s required for your account: your email address and payment information. The company has regular independent audits to verify that PIA’s security is good and user browsing activity is not logged. All data uses end-to-end encryption so even intercepted data would be unreadable.

Is PIA right for you?

PIA is a low-cost VPN with thousands of servers in 91 countries, providing access to international content that would otherwise be geo-blocked. It also includes dark web scans for your email address to protect your identity, and basic malware and ad blocking.

If you want a single-subscription solution, Surfshark is a top-rated VPN that also includes very complete and effective antivirus features.

While it’s not the fastest VPN, I measured good speeds in most locations. In some cases, I had to switch protocols from WireGuard to OpenVPN. Some VPNs, like the fast and popular NordVPN, offer three or more protocols.

Overall, PIA is a solid choice for an inexpensive VPN that supports unlimited device connections. The narrow user interface isn’t my favorite, but it could be a good solution for a small notebook with limited screen space.