Private Internet Access VPN Review 2023

In this Private Internet Access VPN Review, I’m gonna show you everything that you need to know about this VPN provider before deciding if you should get started with it.

I will give you a quick demo of the software and point out the main unique features of PIA.

I will also conduct a speed test to find out how fast this VPN really is.

Next, I will reveal to you which streaming services PIA is able to successfully connect to.

I will also conduct numerous privacy tests to see how safe and secure PIA is, and I will also share with you my experience when I tried their customer service channels.

Lastly, I will break down the pricing structure and help you decide which plan is best suited for you. So make sure to check out my special discount link in the description below where you will receive the best deal currently available.

1. Setup & Features (9/10)

PIA is probably one of the earliest VPN providers out there which started in 2010 and throughout its journey, it has already bagged several awards and recognitions.

Today, it has more than 24,000 servers across 77 countries.

You can install PIA very easily in less than five minutes. All you have to do is sign up on their website where you can see the Downloads option on the left side so you can select the app that you want to download based on your device.

You can download PIA on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iPhone, iPad, or get your extension for Chrome, Firefox, or Opera. For example, here’s how you can download PIA’s Chrome Extension. It is quick, easy, and in no time, I’m already connected automatically to their Singapore server.

If you’re having a hard time deciding which device to download PIA first, do not worry because you can still do so with nine more devices. To make sure your devices are secure, PIA allows you to get one subscription and use up to 10 devices at the same time which is a notch above most of its competitors except SurfShark VPN which doesn’t have any limits. 

Unfortunately, PIA doesn’t offer a free trial if you want to do a test drive first. What you can do is sign-up to any plan of your choice and get a refund within the first 30 days if you’re not satisfied using it. We’ll talk more about plans and pricing as we go along the article.

You can start trying PIA’s features using its desktop app that you can download hassle-free. Once you are logged in, there is already a default server ready for you which happens to be the fastest one based on your location. After the connection has been established, you can view the statistics by clicking on the drop-down arrow and it will show you some information such as the speed, protocol, and encryption of your VPN. Of course, you have all the freedom to choose from a bunch of servers or use the search bar to find your desired location since PIA has more than 24,000 servers!

If you want to get PIA on your mobile phone instead, all you have to do is download it from Google Play for Android users or the App Store for iOS users. The app design is almost similar to the desktop app. It’s filled with information and you can instantly connect to the fastest server based on your location.

If you want to disable VPN on trusted applications like your mobile banking apps, you can do so with split tunneling. It is a common feature to all VPN providers as you can assign certain apps that will use or bypass the VPN every time you’re connected.

When it comes to the ease of use and its features, I have given PIA a rating of 9 out of 10. PIA is probably a good recommendation if you are looking for a subscription to secure most of your devices. Its apps are designed in a way that gives its user the complete, basic statistics of a certain server but it could also look loaded in the eyes of a beginner. PIA lost one mark here because it doesn’t have a free trial as well which is something that most of its competitors offer.

2. Speed (9/10)

Now, to check if PIA has what it takes when it comes to connection speed and stability, I used Ookla to test the speed of four VPN servers from different countries but before that, I recorded my original Internet download speed which was 28.2  mbps. Next, I ran the speed test three times for each server to get the average mbps and here are the results. 

First, I tested one server in Australia and got an average speed of 21.6 mbps. This is an excellent speed for gaming, web surfing experience and for streaming HD videos and of course, it is close to my original speed which is impressive. The server in the United States recorded the fastest speed which is 24.8 mbps! The server in Canada recorded 21.1 mbps, and out of the four servers, the UK server has the slowest speed which is only at 20.5 mbps.

Based on my original speed, I can say that PIA really proved here that it’s up for competition. These speeds are all excellent and these results show close relation and very low percentage reduction in average. I have recorded only a 23.4  percent reduction in Australia, 27.3 percent in the UK, 25.2 percent in Canada, and a very low percentage reduction of 12.1 percent in the United States.

From my speed test reviews with other VPN providers, which you can also watch in my channel, I can conclude that PIA is a very strong competitor in terms of speed and with an average percentage reduction of only 22 percent, it deserves a whopping rating of 9 out of 10.

3. Streaming & Torrenting (8/10)

PIA can also unblock Netflix and other streaming platforms but compared to other VPN providers, it unblocks a lesser number of libraries– six to be exact. These are the libraries of Netflix U.S., Japan, Germany, UK, Italy, and France. I have tested it by searching for Twin Peaks, a show only available if you are in the United States, after connecting to the U.S. server. It worked perfectly and the quality is still good. While these libraries are already rich in content, PIA isn’t in the lead of the competition when it comes to unblocking and streaming Netflix overall. 

Aside from Netflix, you can also successfully unblock platforms like France TV, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney Plus, US, Ruutu, YLE, and Rai Uno with PIA.

Although PIA has disappointed me a little in unblocking Netflix libraries, it still proved to be a great choice for torrenting and surfing P2P-websites for file sharing. Not all VPN providers allow torrenting or P2P sharing but with PIA, it’s encouraged. It’s also evident here where I connected to their server and the file I’m downloading in BitTorrent didn’t get interrupted. 

Overall, PIA can still be a good recommendation for streaming and torrenting even if it can only unblock six Netflix libraries. But during my testing, we can all agree that streaming Netflix is hassle-free and is absolutely working in accessing geo-blocked shows. So for this category, I have given PIA a rating of 8 out of 10. They lost two marks here because compared to other top VPNs for streaming and torrenting, PIA can unblock a lower number of Netflix libraries.

4. Jurisdiction, Security & Privacy (7/10)

While PIA has been sailing smoothly since it was founded, it also had its rocky road moments including a history of IP leak vulnerability in November 2015. The problem got resolved in ten days, where PIA released a new version of all their apps. That’s a long time ago but just to make sure, I highly suggest always downloading their most updated app.

Now, the best thing to prove that this has been resolved is to do an IP leak test right away. Here, I used an IP leak test tool from ip leak dot org and as you can see, it showed my IP address first and the result of the IP leak test. We got a positive result here as it shows no leak detected, even on the second try.

Not the perfect time to celebrate though, as PIA is based in the United States, which is a part of the Five Eyes alliance. This means that it is based on a country that initially signed an agreement to collect, analyze, and share intelligence among other signing countries like the UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. In short, PIA can easily hand over any available information to law enforcement if they are mandated to.

But of course, PIA ensures you full security by staying true to their no-logs policy. Meaning to say, they aren’t logging your identifying information and online activities. It makes sense since how can you provide something that you don’t have any record of in the first place, right?

Going back to security, PIA uses a 128-bit data encryption by default, but you can absolutely switch it to the 256-bit encryption to protect your traffic and make security penetration almost impossible. I highly recommend you to use the 256-bit encryption as this is the standard and currently the longest encryption for website security.

It also has a selection of protocols that helps VPN safely send your data through the Internet. It offers WireGuard, PPTP, OpenVPN and L2TP or IPSec. Each protocol varies in speed but WireGuard is known to be the future of VPN protocols because of its technological structure that offers the highest levels of speed, security and privacy. If you’re up to test WireGuard, PIA will be a great option,  but in some cases, you can just let PIA automatically choose the best protocol for you depending on your location.

Now, in cases where your VPN connection drops unexpectedly due to unstable internet connection or unexpected server and networking failure, PIA will save you with its kill switch feature. Most of the time, the VPN will try to reconnect you after a disconnection, but leaks could already happen within these few seconds so the kill switch is designed to overcome this vulnerability. PIA ensures that your privacy remains intact if the VPN connection drops.

To avoid sudden VPN connection malfunctions, PIA has a feature called PIA Mace that blocks ads, trackers, and malwares before they can create a negative impact to your Internet.

Unfortunately, if you’re looking for Double VPN to add an extra layer of security since your data will be encrypted twice, PIA won’t be a good option as they don’t offer it.

Instead, they offer a Dedicated IP that you can purchase as an add-on. Unlike a shared IP, a dedicated IP can only be used by no one else but you which means your Internet footprints are solely private and aren’t hidden among other users of the shared IP. Apart from keeping you safe, the dedicated IP add-on also helps you to access sensitive accounts without any suspicion or risk including banks, corporate databases, and emails. Not all VPN providers offer the option for a dedicated IP, but you can absolutely avail it with PIA for $5 per month which is quite more expensive than other providers.

Next, the DNS Leak Test. I will use a simple DNS leak tester in Google. Now, I’m connected to a US server. You will see that the DNS leak tester already identified our VPN location. I clicked on the standard test and it showed my IP address. Only our U.S. VPN showed up here, that means that we don’t have a DNS leak. If the results showed other servers not provided by PIA, then we’re in trouble. PIA passed this test then with no DNS leaks.

Moving on, we will check the exposure of my browser to WebRTC leaks while using PIA. You will see this box with red warning texts that say WebRTC is not protected and my IP address is exposed to sites that I visit. I can conclude from here that the PIA app alone doesn’t make the cut to secure me from WebRTC leaks. Instead, what they suggest is installing plugins or extensions to prevent WebRTC leaks depending on your browser.

For example, you can install a free plugin called WebRTC Network Limiter when using Google Chrome, it will prevent any WebRTC or Chrome Extension leaks.

I have given PIA a rating of 7 out of 10 for its security and privacy features and here are the reasons why they lost three marks in this category. First of all, they have revealed that an IP leak has happened in the past but they have already resolved it. Second reason why I gave it a not so high score is because of its jurisdiction located in the United States which is a member of the Five Eyes alliance. Lastly, they don’t have a Double VPN feature.

5. Support & Reliability (7/10)

It is important to commit to a provider that can ensure support to you whenever you need it. Unfortunately, PIA doesn’t have phone support but it has a 24 7 email and live chat channels that I have both tried multiple times. Let me share my experience with you. First of all, the gateway to their support teams is actually just a very small area on the upper right side of their website. It’s almost hard to find that’s why I think most people don’t believe in their support team. PIA’s chat support allows you to search their knowledge base or get connected to a live agent right away which I think is a good feature to save you time if your concerns are not resolvable by any of their articles. Their chat support is fast, in fact, their average response speed from my past experiences is only two minutes. The agents seem knowledgeable and they also provide references according to your inquiries.

I also tried their email support and I got a response directly answering my question after roughly 24 hours. This isn’t the fastest response, so if you have urgent questions, my suggestion is reach out to their live chat support.

If you want reliability testimonies in numbers, I hate to break it to you but PIA is behind the competition race based on more than 6,000 Trustpilot ratings. It only garnered an average of 3.8 out of 5, fed with dust by PureVPN’s 4.7 and NordVPN’s 4.4 to name a few.

For its support and reliability, I have given PIA just a passing rating of 7 out of 10. While there is no doubt in saying that they have great chat support, they can still work on delivering faster email responses and over 6,000 Trustpilot ratings also speaks a lot of disappointment with PIA’s reliability.

6. Pricing (8/10)

Now, let’s talk about the pricing plans. PIA offers a one-month subscription for $9.95. The monthly price will be heavily discounted if you choose to subscribe for a longer period. If you pick up a one-year plan, you will only pay $39.95. Technically, the monthly fee has now reduced to only $3.33. If you choose the two-year plan, you will only have to pay $69.95. Now, this really decreased the monthly price down even further to just $2.69! On top of that, you will also get additional two months of subscription. So if you have the budget and are happy with the performance within 30 days of testing out PIA, I always recommend you to buy the longest plan as this will save you so much money.

Currently, you can pay via credit card, Paypal, Amazon Pay, or bitcoin if you prefer the cryptocurrency method of payment to become even more anonymous.

But if you don’t think PIA is for you, you are liable for their 30-day money-back guarantee. Regardless of your subscription, you can get a full refund within 30 days if you’re not satisfied with PIA. All you have to do is contact them through chat or email and request a refund.

Overall for its pricing, I have given PIA a rating of 8 out of 10. While its value for the one-month subscription is higher compared to other VPN providers, there’s no denying that it offers the most discounted prices in the longer subscriptions.

Recommendation (8/10)

As a summary, I gave PIA a rating of 8 out of 10. The basic features of PIA make it exceptional such as the number of its servers and devices you can connect to simultaneously. It also has fast speed which also makes up for a great experience whether you’re streaming or torrenting. But if you’re the type of person who’s very detail-oriented, you might want to consider the risk of your safety given the fact that PIA is under the U.S. jurisdiction and it also has a rough history of user IPs getting leaked. Overall, PIA will be a great choice if you are looking for a cheap VPN with the most number of servers. 

In general, I recommend ExpressVPN as the best overall VPN software because of its top-tier features and benefits. If your sole purpose for getting VPN is streaming, then I believe you and NordVPN would make a perfect match with their blazing fast speeds. And lastly, If you want to begin with the cheapest VPN and get the most bang for your buck, then SurfShark will be your best choice. More information on these three VPN providers is in the description if you are interested.

If you are already confident in starting today, feel free to click the link in the description to select your PIA package with the best discount. But if you think PIA is not right for you, then this VPN alternative would definitely be the one I recommend you strongly consider. I’ll see you over in that next article.