85 out of 100, built from two weighted parts
App store ratings, part of the score
4.694.48
Researched Oct 3, 2026Claims checked: 24Separate source groups: 22Scores updated Oct 8, 2026
Private Internet Access offers unlimited simultaneous devices and 35,000+ servers in 91 countries. It says independent auditors have reviewed its no-logs policy (its own statement); we found no independent security audit of its apps or infrastructure.
How the 85 is built
Points per criterion30-day money-back guarantee
10of 15 ptsSolid EverydaySpeeds
Ranked #11 of 22 VPNs for speed in our Speed Lab.
PIA ranked #11 of 22 providers in our speed rankings, built from published third-party test results.
#2of 22Top 3 forServer Networks
35,000+ servers across 104 countries.
One of the largest VPN networks globally with 35,000+ servers in 104 countries. PIA offers extensive coverage and specialty servers for P2P, streaming, and obfuscation.
104 countries · Unlimited simultaneous devices · P2P & streaming servers
12of 15 ptsSolid CoreSecurity
Solid security, with a caveat or two.
Strong scores in Protocol (WireGuard). Room to improve in Security (Not audited).
Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN uses industry-standard security protocols to ensure everyday privacy and protect users' data online.
7of 10 ptsReliable forMost Platforms
Handles most streaming, not all.
PIA accesses 6+ Services, though performance varies by region.
PIA uses high-speed 10 Gbps servers and reliable access to access geo-restricted content without extra settings (may require occasional server selection).
#1of 22The Easiestto Use We Rank
Easy on every device you own.
PIA excels across the board here, scoring 10/10 for Devices and 10/10 for Connections.
PIA is built for simplicity and quickly protects users without requiring technical knowledge.
No technical expertise required. If you can install regular software, you can set up PIA. Advanced users have granular control when needed.
#2of 22Top 3 forTrust
Trusted at scale, priced fairly.
Strong scores in Value (3-year $2.03/mo), Money-Back (30 days), Support (24/7 live support).
Private Internet Access offers multiple pricing tiers and plan durations. Longer commitments typically offer bigger discounts. All plans backed by 30-day money-back guarantee.
All plans and add-ons
Pick a billing period and compare every tier side by side.
Best for Short-term testing, flexibility, or no long commitment
Best for Balanced commitment with good savings over the month
Best for Long-term privacy, maximum value, streaming, torrenting, multi-device households
A plain-language breakdown of everything in the plans above: what each feature is, who it helps, and whether it is worth paying for.
All plans include:
Private Internet Access has one of the better-documented no-logs records among VPNs. A 2016 FBI complaint recorded that a subpoena to PIA’s owner produced no user identity, and in 2016 PIA said Russian authorities seized servers that held no user data. Its client apps are published as open source. Its network spans 35,000+ servers across 91 countries.
PIA sits in an unusual position. It carries a documented privacy record alongside two genuine concerns: US jurisdiction and ownership by Kape Technologies. Kape was formerly known as Crossrider, which a 2015 Google and UC Berkeley study found to be the largest affiliate of two ad-injection platforms; Kape changed its name in 2018 and says it has left ad-tech. Kape announced the acquisition of PIA’s owner in 2019 at an enterprise value of about $127.6 million and has since added ExpressVPN and CyberGhost to its portfolio.
The technical reality matters here. PIA’s open-source codebase and the 2016 FBI complaint and Russian seizure all predate the Kape acquisition, as does the 2018 trial testimony described below. Whether ownership concentration creates future risk is a fair question, and the audits below are the only check on what the current architecture does.
PIA recorded 620 Mbps in the Speed Lab, placing it 9th out of 22 providers ranked. Latency measured 24 ms. Those numbers tell part of the story. Real-world performance depends on protocol choice, server distance, and what you are actually doing.
WireGuard is PIA’s fastest protocol by a clear margin. WireGuard connections typically maintain roughly 85% of baseline speeds on nearby servers. OpenVPN dropped that to around 55-65%, which matches industry norms for the older protocol. PIA offers both options across all platforms, letting users trade speed for compatibility when needed.
For everyday browsing and video calls, 620 Mbps is far more than anyone needs. The 24 ms latency keeps gaming viable on regional servers. Long-distance connections to servers 5,000+ miles away typically show expected degradation, dropping to roughly 150-250 Mbps depending on the route. That still handles 4K streaming comfortably.
Torrent users benefit from PIA’s port forwarding support. Most VPN providers dropped this feature years ago. PIA maintains it, and the speed overhead stays minimal on WireGuard. Combined with the massive 35,000+ server count, congestion is rarely an issue. You can almost always find a lightly loaded server nearby.
PIA operates under US jurisdiction. The standard privacy guidance says to avoid Five Eyes countries, and that logic has merit. The US can issue National Security Letters with gag orders that compel data production while prohibiting disclosure. PIA does not dismiss this concern.
The counterargument rests on architecture, not geography. A genuine no-logs system makes jurisdiction largely irrelevant. If no data exists, no legal mechanism can extract it. The 2016 FBI subpoena tested that proposition directly. A 2016 FBI complaint recorded that a subpoena to PIA’s owner in a hoax-bomb-threat investigation produced only that the IP cluster came from the US east coast and PIA’s payment methods, with no user identity. In 2016 PIA also said Russian authorities seized some of its Russian servers and that no user data was compromised because it keeps no logs, which is PIA’s own account. At a 2018 federal trial, PIA’s owner’s general counsel testified that PIA does not log user activity and keeps only the sign-up email.
These are documented events, but they are a complaint, a witness statement and PIA’s own account, not a court finding that PIA’s no-logs claim is true.
PIA has commissioned three Deloitte Romania limited-assurance engagements on its no-logs configuration (as of June 2022, January 2024 and October 2025), and all three reports can be downloaded without an account. Each is a point-in-time review against PIA’s own description of its setup, paid for by PIA, and found nothing contradicting it. PIA states that its servers run in RAM-disk mode, meaning data does not survive reboots. We found no independent penetration test of its apps or infrastructure, and the NVD lists 13 CVEs for PIA’s VPN clients, mostly local privilege-escalation flaws from 2017 to 2020, including a 2020 Linux kill-switch bypass.
Encryption options are unusually flexible. Users can choose between AES-128 and AES-256 on OpenVPN, and configure handshake and authentication settings manually. WireGuard uses ChaCha20 by default. The kill switch works at both the application and system level. MACE, PIA’s built-in DNS-level blocker, filters ads, trackers, and known malicious domains at the network layer.
PIA publishes its client apps as open source on GitHub, though we did not verify that every app, including iOS, is fully open source. This is a meaningful transparency measure, and few VPN providers expose their client codebase. Open source does not guarantee safety by itself, but it allows independent verification in a way that closed-source apps simply cannot.
PIA is commonly used to access Netflix US, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video, though results vary by server and change over time. It handles the major platforms reliably, though not flawlessly. Some sessions required switching between servers to find one that bypassed detection. This is normal across the VPN industry.
PIA does not label servers by streaming platform, unlike some competitors. You select a country, connect, and test. This approach works fine for experienced users but creates friction for anyone who wants a one-click streaming solution. Providers like ExpressVPN and NordVPN offer more guided streaming experiences.
The 35,000+ server network helps with streaming consistency. When one server gets flagged by a platform, alternatives in the same country are usually available. PIA also supports Smart DNS configuration on devices that cannot run VPN apps natively, like certain smart TVs and gaming consoles.
Streaming is not PIA’s primary selling point. It works, and it works on the platforms most people care about. But users whose top priority is reliable, effortless access to geo-restricted content may find more polished solutions elsewhere.
PIA supports unlimited simultaneous connections. That is a genuine differentiator. Most competitors cap connections at 5 to 10 devices. PIA removed the limit entirely, making it practical for households with dozens of devices.
Native apps cover Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. The Linux client includes a full graphical interface, which is rare. Most VPN providers offer Linux users only a command-line tool. PIA’s Linux app matches the feature set of its Windows and Mac counterparts almost exactly.
Browser extensions exist for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. These are proxy-based and do not encrypt all device traffic, only browser sessions. Router support covers popular firmware including DD-WRT, Tomato, and pfSense. PIA provides setup guides and preconfigured router profiles.
App quality is consistent across platforms. The interface is clean but utilitarian. It does not match the visual polish of ExpressVPN or Surfshark. Settings are accessible without being overwhelming. The quick-connect tile, server list, and protocol selector all work as expected. Advanced users can access encryption settings, split tunneling, and per-app kill switch rules without digging through menus.
PIA fits privacy-focused users who value transparency over brand polish. If open-source code, a documented no-logs record, and granular encryption settings matter to you, PIA delivers on all three. The unlimited device limit makes it excellent for families or anyone managing a mixed-device household.
Torrent users gain meaningful advantages here. Port forwarding, a documented no-logs record, and 35,000+ servers create a strong combination. Few competitors match this specific feature set for P2P use.
Budget-conscious buyers benefit too. PIA’s long-term plans rank among the cheapest available. The 30-day money-back guarantee limits the upfront risk.
PIA is not the right choice for everyone. Users who want a streamlined, one-click streaming experience will find better options with providers that offer labeled streaming servers. Anyone uncomfortable with US jurisdiction or Kape Technologies ownership has legitimate grounds to look at providers like Mullvad or Proton VPN instead. Those concerns are valid even if the current technical architecture is sound.
Charts and reference images from our research, free to view and share.
Kape Technologies, formerly Crossrider (named in a 2015 Google and UC Berkeley study as the largest affiliate of two ad-injection platforms), agreed to acquire PIA’s owner in 2019 and also owns ExpressVPN and CyberGhost. PIA’s open-source codebase predates that acquisition. The 2016 FBI complaint and Russian server seizure, and the 2018 trial testimony, predate Kape as well, so that record isn’t tied to current ownership.
PIA operates under US jurisdiction, meaning it can legally receive National Security Letters with gag orders compelling data production. A genuine no-logs architecture would make jurisdiction less important, though: a 2016 FBI complaint recorded that PIA’s subpoena response contained no user identity, and PIA says Russian authorities seized servers in 2016 that held no user data. PIA’s claim that US law cannot force it to log is its own legal assertion, not a settled point.
Some, but not proof. A 2016 FBI complaint recorded that a subpoena to PIA’s owner produced no user identity, PIA’s general counsel testified in 2018 that it does not log user activity, and PIA says Russian authorities seized servers in 2016 that held no user data. Deloitte also completed three limited-assurance engagements (2022, 2024, 2025), paid for by PIA, finding nothing contradicting PIA’s own description of its no-logs setup, and PIA states that servers run in RAM-disk mode so no data survives a reboot.
PIA supports both WireGuard and OpenVPN, with WireGuard using ChaCha20 encryption by default. On OpenVPN, users can manually choose between AES-128 and AES-256 and adjust handshake and authentication settings, a level of manual control few competitors expose. A kill switch operates at both the app and system level, and PIA publishes its client apps as open source on GitHub.
PIA ranks #9 of 22 in our Speed Lab, aggregated from published third-party tests. Protocol choice matters more than the ranking alone suggests: WireGuard connections typically hold roughly 85% of baseline speed on nearby servers, while OpenVPN dropped to about 55 to 65%, consistent with that protocol’s older architecture. WireGuard is the faster default for most users.
PIA is commonly used to access Netflix US, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video, among others, though results vary by server. Unlike some competitors, PIA doesn’t label servers by streaming platform, so you pick a country, connect, and test manually, sometimes switching servers if one gets flagged. Its 35,000+ server network across 91 countries means alternatives in the same country are usually available.
PIA’s lowest rate is from $2.03/month on its longest-term plan, among the cheapest rates across VPN providers. That price includes the full feature set: unlimited simultaneous device connections, access to the 35,000+ server network across 91 countries, AES-256 encryption, and a kill switch, with no features gated behind higher tiers.
Yes, every PIA plan, including the discounted long-term tiers, is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. This applies regardless of which plan length you choose, so testing PIA on its cheapest long-term rate carries the same refund protection as the standard monthly plan. Contact support within that window to request a refund.
PIA places no cap on simultaneous connections, an unusual policy since most competitors limit accounts to a fixed device count. Native apps exist for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, and the Linux client ships with a full graphical interface rather than the command-line-only tools most providers offer Linux users, suiting households running many devices at once.
MACE is PIA’s built-in DNS-level blocker that filters ads, trackers, and known malicious domains network-wide, not just in-browser. PIA also bundles multi-hop, which routes traffic through two servers for extra encryption, and obfuscation, which disguises VPN traffic to get past restrictive networks. Split tunneling and a dedicated IP add-on round out the advanced feature set.
Port forwarding is available on select PIA servers, a feature most VPN providers dropped years ago, and speed overhead stays minimal when paired with the WireGuard protocol. Enable it in the app’s settings before connecting to a supported server, then configure your torrent client to use the forwarded port. Combined with PIA’s documented no-logs record, this setup suits P2P use specifically.
Switch to a different server in the same country, since PIA doesn’t label servers by streaming platform and detection varies session to session. With 35,000+ servers across 91 countries, alternatives are usually available quickly. If a whole region proves unreliable, PIA also supports Smart DNS configuration for devices like smart TVs and consoles that can’t run a VPN app natively.
Connect to a PIA server, then disable your Wi-Fi or unplug ethernet mid-session. A working kill switch cuts all internet access instead of reverting to your unprotected connection. PIA has had kill-switch flaws in the past (a 2020 Linux bypass is listed in the NVD), so run this check yourself. PIA offers this at both the app level and the stricter system level, which blocks all device traffic if the tunnel fails.
PIA has commissioned three limited-assurance engagements by Deloitte Audit Romania on its no-logs safeguards, as of 30 June 2022, 31 January 2024 and 31 October 2025, and published each report. Each tests conformity with a description written by PIA at a single date, gives no assurance for any other period and restricts reliance to the management and customers of PIA. No engagement by another assurance firm, and no technical penetration test of PIA, was found in the research for this page.
Our limited assurance engagement is performed as of 30 of June 2022.Deloitte, one of the Big Four auditing firms, reviewed our server environment and found that we store no logs and no details that could be used to identify our users or pinpoint their activities.The audit found that, as of June 30, 2022, PIA’s server configurations are not designed to identify users or pinpoint their activities.Our limited assurance engagement is performed as of January 31st, 2024.They verified that our configurations are not designed to identify a particular user and cannot be exploited to pinpoint specific online activity.As of January 31, 2024, Deloitte confirmed that PIA's no-log infrastructure works as expected and is not vulnerable to third-party exploitation.nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that Private Internet Access’s configuration of IT systems and management of the supporting IT operations as of October 31st, 2025, were not prepared, in all material respectsThe procedures we performed do not provide any assurance about “Private Internet Access’s No-logs Policy” for any other period.This year, Deloitte Audit Romania completed its third independent review of our VPN infrastructure under the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised).Private Internet Access (PIA) has scored a hat trick with a new independent third-party audit that has once again confirmed the validity of its no-logs claims.The US National Vulnerability Database lists 13 CVEs for the VPN clients of PIA: one from 2017, one from 2018, nine from 2019, one from 2020 and one published in January 2026 for an old version (CVE-2022-50924). PIA fixed the 2017 to 2020 issues, which include nine local privilege-escalation or file-overwrite flaws from 2019 and a Linux kill-switch bypass that could leak the host IP address in forwarding setups; the remediation status of the 2026 record is unverified. A count of CVEs is an inventory, not a score.
allows remote attackers to bypass an intended VPN kill switch mechanism and read sensitive information via intercepting network trafficThe vendor has fixed this issue in v1.3.3.1 and users should install the latest version.The updater loads several DLLs from a folder that authenticated users have write access to.In PIA 2.4.0+, policy-based routing is enabled by default and is used to direct all forwarded packets to the VPN interface automatically.The vendor has released an updatePIA states that all of its VPN servers are RAM-only and run on a RAM disk with full-disk encryption. The Deloitte report of 2025 tested the configuration against that description and found nothing contrary; this was limited assurance on a description written by PIA, not a physical check that every server runs diskless.
All VPN servers run on a RAM disk leveraging full disk encryption. Once a VPN server loses power, all data associated with it is immediately lost.This is because our VPN service runs on RAM-only servers. These servers boot on a read-only image and use RAM modules, as opposed to hard disks.PIA doesn’t use hard drives for its VPN infrastructure, instead running exclusively in RAM, meaning that there is no persistent storage where logs could remainLondon Trust Media Holdings, the owner of PIA, was acquired by Kape Technologies, announced on 19 November 2019; Kape also owns CyberGhost, ZenMate and, since 2021, ExpressVPN. Kape was formerly named Crossrider, an ad-tech platform that a 2015 Google and UC Berkeley study found to be the largest affiliate of two ad-injection platforms; Kape changed its name in March 2018 and says it has left ad-tech. This is ownership history and not evidence of any practice of PIA.
London-listed Kape Technologies PLC announced on Tuesday the acquisition of Colorado-based LTMI Holdings, whose main asset is online privacy company Private Internet Access (PIA), for $127.6 million.Kape Technologies is to pay $52.9 million in cash, issue over 42.7 million in new Kape shares and pay off LTMI’s $32.1 million existing debt, valuing the US firm at $127.6 million.Kape now owns VPN services CyberGhost VPN as well as ZenMate and Private Internet Access, and with ExpressVPN onboard, that apparently takes its subscriber count up to six million.Kape used to be known as Crossrider until it changed its name in 2018 to move away from its advert-slinging past and reinvent itself as a cybersecurity outfit.Kape has moved on from those times,Crossrider is a mobile, desktop, and extension development platform that enables drop-in monetization via major ad injectors.In March 2018, the name of the company was changed to Kape Technologies plc.Published speed results and expert reviews for every major VPN.
NordVPN
Our top-rated VPN
Speed
#1 / 22
Latency
18 ms
View full review →
ExpressVPN
Lightning-fast speeds
Speed
#2 / 22
Latency
22 ms
View full review →
CyberGhost
User-friendly and powerful
Speed
#3 / 22
Latency
25 ms
View full review →
ProtonVPN
Swiss privacy meets unlimited bandwidth
Speed
#5 / 22
Latency
22 ms
View full review →
Surfshark
Unlimited devices
Speed
#6 / 22
Latency
20 ms
View full review →
Mullvad VPN
Privacy-first VPN with no accounts required
Speed
#7 / 22
Latency
20 ms
View full review →