Private Internet Access
If you're looking for a fast, no-frills VPN service, Private Internet Access deserves your attention. It does what it needs to, no questions asked, though we do wish PIA had a little less trouble getting into Netflix and other streaming services. Read our full review to know more.
Six months ago, I found PIA still providing an excellent service for the money. However, in some regards, it had allowed itself to slip from the benchmark set by other VPN providers. Speeds were OK, but nothing to phone home about. Customer care was close to nonexistent – causing many complaints.
Now, PIA claims to have improved some parts of its service, so we thought it only fair to once again revisit this review. Has PIA significantly improved its service in such a short space of time? Let’s find out!
Pricing and Plans
Private Internet Access is a cheap VPN that rewards subscribers for committing for a longer period of time. Amazingly, since the last time I reviewed PIA, it has added an even cheaper two-year plan.
All of PIA’s VPN plans are exactly the same, providing the same software choices, server options, encryption levels, and privacy options. The packages only differ in price. The most costly option is the one-month subscription for $6.95 per month, which is still fantastic value for money.
For the cost of $39.95, users can get a one-year subscription ($3.33 per month). This is a superb price point that really is hard to beat considering what you get.
Finally, VPN aficionados have the option to subscribe for two years at the cost of $69.95. Paying for a two-year contract brings the average monthly cost down to just $2.91. That price is extremely competitive and allows just about anybody to join the world of premium, unlimited use secure VPNs, without having to break the bank.
Of course, it is worth remembering that if you do choose to subscribe for a longer period of time, you will be stuck with PIA for longer too. So please be sure that you definitely want this VPN before jumping in at the deep end. It is a great VPN, so you may well be happy with it – but I still recommend reading this review in its entirety.
In addition, don’t forget that PIA provides an excellent seven-day money back guarantee! That means you can test the VPN thoroughly for a week and then get your money back if you wish.
When it comes to paying, PIA accepts credit cards, PayPal, and various other online payment systems. Users may also elect to pay with “hundreds of different gift cards,” including Starbucks, Bestbuy, and Walmart.
PIA also accepts some cryptocurrencies. Bitcoins and Z-cash are accepted, though Ripple appears to have been removed as an option for about a year now.
PIA: Summary
Features
Private Internet Access is a US-based VPN located in Michigan. The VPN provides access to 3,236 servers in 29 countries. Although that is fewer server locations than some premium VPN providers – it is still a considerable amount of choice. What’s more, the servers are well-located around the globe and permit subscribers to unblock most online content.
PIA has a lot of advanced features. These include a kill switch, Domain Name System (DNS) leak protection, a built-in Socket Secure (SOCKS5) proxy, a choice of encryption protocols, auto-connect feature (that connects the VPN as soon as it is launched), port forwarding, best server detection feature, and apps for all platforms (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chrome). It also permits five simultaneous connections and allows P2P torrenting.
Another nice feature is that the website shows server counts, locations, and bandwidth stats. In addition, users can select each individual VPN server and perform an on-the-spot speed test to see how it is performing. This is a unique feature, which I test later in this review.
Security
Private Internet Access VPN is based in the US (in the state of Indiana). This isn’t ideal because the US government can impose warrants and gag orders on any firm located there. This literally means that PIA could be served a warrant telling it to begin retaining and handing over all user data AND be told to keep it a secret. The US is also home to the NSA and CIA – and is part of the Five Eyes surveillance agreement. For this reason, privacy-conscious organizations such as PrivacyTools.io tend to warn against using US-based privacy firms – their guarantees can’t be completely trusted.
The good news is that PIA does attempt to make up for this by providing a zero logs policy (which is as good as logging policies ever get). However, as mentioned, PIA could be served a gag order, and a warrant, and subscribers would have no clue. This is always a concern with US-based VPN providers and is something that you will need to consider on a personal level.
At the end of the day, we have no reason to suspect that PIA is under warrant and gag order, and for general privacy and unblocking it is more than likely a perfectly good option. As far as I can tell, PIA has never disclosed any information about its subscribers to the authorities. In addition, it has proved its no logs claim in court (which only very few VPNs have ever done). With that in mind, the vast majority of people will be happy using PIA.
Encryption Options
In terms of encryption, PIA is highly secure. It gives users a choice of options including Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP/IPSec), or OpenVPN. we recommend against using PPTP, because it is outdated and insecure. With that in mind – users only really get two secure options.
We recommend OpenVPN because it is by far the most secure (open source) encryption protocol. If you do get a PIA subscription, we strongly encourage you to connect using OpenVPN.
OpenVPN encryption is implemented excellently, which is one of the best things about PIA’s service:
Data channel: AES-256 cipher, with strong SHA256 for authorization and a handshake of RSA 4096. The Control channel is protected with AES-256 cipher with SHA384 authentication. Perfect Forward Secrecy is delivered with a DHE+RSA exchange for RSA handshakes, or ECDHE+ECDSA for ECC handshakes.
Encryption set to those levels is extremely strong. In fact, you could argue that the handshake could be made a bit weaker and your data would still be secure. For this reason, you can make use of PIA’s advanced settings to set it manually to RSA 2048. If you intend to do a lot of streaming with your VPN this will make it perform at optimum levels. PIA gives users a lot of customizable options where encryption is concerned.
Although having so many options can be a bit confusing for VPN beginners, those options are a positive part of PIA’s service. More options allow the people who need the strongest encryption to get it. Those who don’t really need it can lower it manually. Please head over to the VPN encryption page (you can find a link to it in the menu at the bottom of any page) to understand the large list of encryption options that PIA gives you. This guide is comprehensive and it will stop you from accidentally making your encryption levels too weak.
The Website
The PIA website looks awesome and is easy to navigate. Unlike many VPNs, it doesn’t conceal or make it hard to find any important details about the service. Details about encryption are freely available, and the firm does not attempt to hide that it is based in the US (though it does attempt to make it seem like a positive aspect when in reality it isn’t).
I applaud PIA for its transparency. In fact, it is fair to say that I have never seen a VPN that provides such good navigation (specifically at the bottom of every page in the fine print menu). Users can find a huge number of links to data about a massive variety of issues such as the KRACK WiFi vulnerability, IoT security, Tor vs VPN – and many others.
At the top of the homepage, users will find a navigation banner, which easily connects them to all the most important parts of the website. Those are clearly labeled: Home, How It Works, Downloads and Support, Contact Us and Join Now.
In addition, there is a link in the top right that says Member Login.
One of the best things about Private Internet Access’ website is its fantastic VPN blog. That blog is written by the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, Rick Falkvinge. Falkvinge acts as head of privacy at PIA, and writes the blog content. That blog is available to everybody including non-PIA subscribers. It is a truly outstanding source of privacy news and VPN information. We recommend this blog to everyone.
PIA also has outstanding guides and an FAQ section that includes video tutorials. These resources are truly fantastic and will allow most people to solve problems quickly. Topics range from setting up PIA VPN on a DD-WRT or Tomato router (advanced), to changing and updating your password (simple). Private Internet Access really does have one of the best VPN websites out there.
The website is a formidable resource, intended to allow subscribers to keep the service running smoothly without having to contact support.
Despite this – when compared to other services – the lack of easily attainable 24/7 support is what lets Private Internet Access VPN down. These days it is common for VPNs to have live chat support, and this is something that PIA does not have. However, considering how cheap it is, this is probably a reasonable tradeoff for most people.
Finally, the website can be viewed in 18 languages. This is pretty awesome and demonstrates the international aspirations of this VPN provider.
PIA Support
The very best VPN services provide 24/7 live chat support. Sadly this isn’t the case when it comes to PIA. Admittedly, the FAQ, blog, and website in general, are way above average. So it is a shame that PIA is lacking when it comes to this critical side of the service. Most annoyingly, PIA does advertise 24/7 support on its website. However, this was not my experience.
After clicking “submit”, I received the following message:
Moments later I received an automated email response with a tracking number. The message told me my request had been received and was in the process of being reviewed by support staff.
From that point, I had to wait seven hours for a response. This isn’t bad and is definitely an improvement on the wait I experienced last time. However, PIA claims that it has 24/7 support staff working in North America – so, in reality, a response should have arrived sooner.
Many premium VPNs have live chat support and even those that don’t often provide responses in 15 minutes or under. I would have been happy with even a two to three-hour wait, but longer than that is hard to consider 24/7. Still, seven hours is better than weeks.
The Process
Signing Up
Subscribing to Private Internet Access VPN and setting up the software is very easy. All that is needed is an active email address and a valid payment method. Your level of anonymity is completely up to you because you can use Bitcoins or a gift card. This means you could use a fake name in order to further protect your digital footprint.
Once payment is accepted, subscribers can navigate to the download area to get the software they need. The PIA client is available for all popular platforms. The .ovpn config files are also available for anybody that wants to connect using third party OpenVPN GUI, OpenVPN Connect (iOS), or OpenVPN for Android.
The PIA Windows VPN Client
The Private Internet Access client (VPN software) for Windows is a fully featured VPN client. It has all the most important, top of the range features and options. It might not be the best looking or most stylish front-end I have ever seen, but it is definitely functional, easy to navigate, and extremely feature packed.
Users can easily gain access to all of the advanced VPN settings by clicking “Advanced settings” on and off in the bottom left-hand corner. In simple mode, the client shows login setting options, and a drop-down menu for choosing between server locations.
Frustratingly, however, this version of the Windows client (V75) no longer has a “connect” button in the client. For this reason, you will need to connect to the VPN by right-clicking on the PIA icon in your system tray in the bottom right of your screen.
This isn’t a huge problem, but it certainly isn’t as ergonomic as other VPN clients on the market. The good news is that you can set PIA to auto-connect – so that you don’t have to manually connect in this manner every time you start up your computer.
In advanced mode, users can select their encryption preferences. The Connection button gives users access to useful features such as port forwarding (you can use this if you’re hosting mail or gaming servers). You can also turn on a per-app kill switch to protect your data in case the VPN connection drops out (this stops you from accidentally leaking data to your ISP). Users can also select between OpenVPN UDP and TCP. UDP is better for streaming media as it typically provides slightly faster speeds.
I have noticed some people complaining that the kill switch can be bit temperamental. However, this is believed to have been improved in one of the more recent software updates. It certainly seemed to work fine during my time testing PIA, though, to be fair, I didn’t notice the VPN connection drop out.
PIA also provides DNS and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) protection. You can see the results of my tests of these features in the next section. PIA users can also select “smaller packets” which “fixes issues on some networks.”
Finally, PIA now also has a feature called PIA Mace. This blocks malware, trackers, and adverts while you are connected to the VPN. It’s a nice extra. I disabled my adblockers on an advert-heavy website and found it to work fine (for blocking adverts).
One thing worth remembering is that the PIA client does not auto-update or have an update checker. As such, you will need to check the website from time to time to see if PIA has released a new version of the VPN client.
Conclusion
I liked:
- Strong encryption and lots of customizable options
- Software of a high standard on all platforms
- Zero logs (but it’s based in the US, so could be served a warrant)
- Fully featured with a kill switch, DNS leak protection, and auto-connect
- Accepts Bitcoin
- Super cheap if you get a yearly or two-yearly subscription
- Seven-day money-back guarantee
- Easy to use
- Amazing website and blog
- Excellent FAQs and Guides
- P2P is permitted
I wasn’t so sure about:
- Customer care response took seven hours
- Killswitch fails occasionally (according to consumers)
PIA runs a high-quality VPN service that provides fantastic levels of privacy. The software is easy to use and has all the best VPN features. In addition, customer care problems (that were being reported regularly last year) appear to have been fixed. I managed to get a response from their team within half a day.
PIA is perfect for people who are accustomed to VPNs and are confident with fixing any small issues that might arise. Even people with the patience to look through the website to sort out any issues should have a good experience with PIA. However, if you prefer 24/7 live chat support- please look elsewhere.
Speeds are pretty good and are comparable to many other premium VPNs. However, it is not the fastest VPN available by any stretch of the imagination. In addition, my tests revealed that PIA VPN does not unblock Netflix US or BBC iPlayer – you get what you pay for! If unblocking BBC iPlayer is a key feature you want, take a look at our iPlayer VPN guide to ensure you get the best VPN for BBC iPlayer 2018.
If you want the very best VPN, with super fast speeds and all the best unblocking capabilities – or perhaps a VPN that isn’t based in the US (with its warrants and gag orders) – you should probably spend a few extra dollars. However, if you are looking for a workable VPN for privacy – that costs very little – Private Internet Access still remains one of the best options on the market.
Download Private Internet Access Now: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/
