PrivateInternetAccess
Overall User Rating – (Jump to user reviews)
Website: www.privateinternetaccess.com
Price: From $3.33 / Month. (If purchased via 12-month plan) Accepts Bitcoins and Ripple.
Our Rating: – 85%
Protection: 5/5
Software / GUI: 3/5
Features: 3.5/5
Speed: 4.5/5
Ease of Use: 4.5/5
Service Overview and Reviews
Protocols: Open VPN, PPTP plus L2TP/IPsec.
Service: PrivateInternetAccess offers a paid VPN service with 3160+ servers in 33+ countries.
The software is installed using the normal OpenVPN GUI and there is a TCP option for each server. Set-up for PPTP is via control panel. Also compatible with Mac, Linux and Android.
PrivateInternetAccess utilize shared IP addresses rather than dynamic or static IPs, so it should not be possible to match a user to an external IP.
They allow up to two simultaneous connections, so users using OpenVPN can also multi-hop which enables the highest levels of anonymity.
Use up to 5 devices simultaneously.
Privacy: No traffic or request logs are kept and they maintain they cannot match a user to any activity on their system as they utilize shared IPs. See their Policy/Terms/FAQ
Our Thoughts: This is a rapidly expanding VPN service with very good speeds across their network and they are hard to beat on price for the longer term plans. Privacy is placed at a premium and you can pay using decentralized currencies such as Bitcoins or Ripple.
PrivateInternetAccess User Reviews
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Please rate PrivateInternetAccess from your own experience via the form at the bottom of this page.
PrivateInternetAccess Speed Test Results
PrivateInternetAccess Speed Test
Below you can see our testing results for PrivateInternetAccess. For more details of how we conduct our speed tests go to VPN Speed Tests
Test PC #1 – United States – OS (Ubuntu 11.10) – ISP (Cox)
| SpeedTest.net (Firefox) | Location | Ping | Download | Upload |
| Not Using VPN | United States | 32 | 18.83 | 7.22 |
| OpenVPN | Netherlands | 196 | 6.94 | 6.02 |
| OpenVPN | United States | 40 | 12.64 | 6.94 |
| OpenVPN | United Kingdom | 179 | 7.9 | 4.84 |
| OpenVPN | Canada | 123 | 4.32 | 4.00 |
| Download Test (Curl) | Location | File Size | Av. Speed/sec | Time/mins |
| Not Using VPN | United States | 783M | 1640k | 08:08 |
| OpenVPN | Netherlands | 783M | 1256k | 10:37 |
| OpenVPN | United States | 783M | 1204k | 11:05 |
| OpenVPN | United Kingdom | 783M | 1222k | 10:55 |
| OpenVPN | Canada | 783M | 1377k | 09:41 |
| P2P Test (Deluge) | Location | File Size | Av. Speed/sec | Time/mins |
| Not Using VPN | United States | 703.1Mb | 1.6Mb | 06:57 |
| OpenVPN | Netherlands | 703.1Mb | 1.59Mb | 07:23 |
| OpenVPN | United States | 703.1Mb | 1.62Mb | 07:14 |
| OpenVPN | United Kingdom | 703.1Mb | 1.61Mb | 07:16 |
| OpenVPN | Canada | 703.1Mb | 1.52Mb | 07:44 |
Test PC #2 – United Kingdom – OS (Win 7) – ISP (Sky)
| SpeedTest.net (Firefox) | Location | Ping | Download | Upload |
| Not Using VPN | United Kingdom | 32 | 10.56 | 0.94 |
| OpenVPN | Switzerland | 59 | 8.37 | 0.89 |
| OpenVPN | United States | 107 | 9.12 | 0.87 |
| OpenVPN | United Kingdom | 41 | 9.92 | 0.89 |
| Download Test (Curl) | Location | File Size | Av. Speed/sec | Time/mins |
| Not Using VPN | United Kingdom | 620M | 1241k | 08:31 |
| OpenVPN | Switzerland | 620M | 1119k | 09:27 |
| OpenVPN | United States | 620M | 899k | 11:45 |
| OpenVPN | United Kingdom | 620M | 1141k | 09:16 |
| P2P Test (uTorrent) | Location | File Size | Av. Speed/sec | Time/mins |
| Not Using VPN | United Kingdom | 695Mb | 1.1Mb | 10:22 |
| OpenVPN | Switzerland | 695Mb | 0.81Mb | 14:47 |
| OpenVPN | United States | 695Mb | 0.97Mb | 12:16 |
| OpenVPN | United Kingdom | 695Mb | 1.0Mb | 11:07 |
Tips: There are four US servers to pick from but selection is random so you may have to reconnect a couple of times if you insist on a particular US server.
Note: The handshake protocol (MSCHAP_V2) used by many PPTP connections has been cracked and therefore PPTP could now be considered unencrypted. For maximum security use OpenVPN or L2TP.
The best VPN! you don’t worry for your privacy or any info given to DMCA!. they are the best!
very happy with the service, the price and the payment method
Everything was fine when I was using their service on a monthly basis but literally AS SOON as I bought a year subscription they started THROTTLING my speeds and now they are practically useless as a vpn provider. It hasn’t even been 2 months since I bought the subscription. I cannot get above 8M down speeds on ANY of their servers now when before I could get above 30. It says right in their agreement that they throttle if you use more than they would like. I wish I would have known that before I paid for a subscription because now I have 10 months of a useless vpn. I WOULD RECOMMEND USING A DIFFERENT VPN. THIS ONE THROTTLES.
Really good speeds (I’m in Australia) for NL, US and UK servers, great support and forum, plus the cheapest 12 month VPN plan around. PIA OpenVPN client has excellent features, however is somewhat hit and miss. I had dropouts and other issues with the PIA client, and eventually just ended up using OpenVPN GUI. Despite one of the best “No Logs” Policy, I would personally prefer a non-US provider, however would still definitely recommend PIA to anyone.
I’ve tried a few VPNs over the years. PIA is excellent so far. Speed hasn’t taken a hit at all on the US server I use. On some tests it’s better than not using it. I like the complete anonymity and the price is spectacular.
I don’t use their client software as I’m using Viscosity (which is a rock solid replacement for Tunnelblick) plus DNSCrypt. VPN clients don’t always play nice with DNSCrypt and it takes a little bit of work to get the setup with Viscosity to work, but it does. BTW I had to figure that out on my own as I couldn’t find any solution on the ‘net. And that was when I using a different VPN that had much slower speeds (ProXPN).
Also nice that there is an iOS profile to use. Wish it would stay connected like Onavo does regardless of being on WiFi or Cellular.
I’m in the UK and have been with these guys since May! Apart from a few initial niggles and problems that were dealt with speedily and politely I have nothing but praise for this company! PIA was the 6th VPN service I tried before deciding I was home!
Don’t understand all the neg reviews, unless, as stated above, they are falsely planted by jealous rivals.
Fucking horrible provider. After hearing so much about them I though, yeah why not.
Linux client?!?! PIA just gives a .sh that installs network manager in ubuntu. THIS IS NOT A LINUX CLIENT
PIA is a waste of time and money. They have bad software, NO knowledgebase to speak of. I’ve been in IT
for 10+ years and had a seriously hard time getting this to run. Once I did I was dissapointed to see
they have barely any locations and the VPN speed is not that great.
I’m asking for a refund as I already found a better provider.
Several of the customer here are completely ignorant (eg. Linus).
PIA offers clients for Windows and Mac. For Linux, the setup requires a little work, but anybody can do that.
I’ve found it very stable and very cheap, and I use it permanently.
They have several servers around the world, so that one can choose.
The speed is good to very good, although I’ve found that some servers have some problems with some websites. For example, right now I can’t execute the test on https://www.dnsleaktest.com on the dutch server, while I can with the german one.
All in all, I’ve tried other ~3 services in the past, and this is the best.
I am using Private Internet Access right now. It works well and being in the US means they dont have to log. All those other commenters are bs, and I wouldnt be surprised if they were made by the other vpn companies.
The speeds and reliability and support is good for the money.
But they are registered in the USA so this ‘we don’t log or share things’ talk is hogwash. Any VPN provider in the USA has an obligation to work with the authorities (the Patriot Act) so this is as anonymous as HMA (non-existent).
Response taken from PIA’s answers given to TorrentFreak’s article VPN Services That Take Your Anonymity Seriously, 2013 Edition:-
1. We absolutely do not maintain any VPN logs of any kind. We utilize shared IP addresses rather than dynamic or static IPs, so it is not possible to match a user to an external IP. These are some of the many solutions we have implemented to enable the strongest levels of anonymity amongst VPN services.
2. Our company currently operates out of the United States with gigabit gateways in the US, Canada, Germany, France, UK, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Romania. We chose the US, since it is one of the few countries without a mandatory data retention law. We will not share any information with third parties without a valid court order. With that said, it is impossible to match a user to any activity on our system since we utilize shared IPs and maintain absolutely no logs.
They lie. They are registered in the USA.
errr….Yep! That’s what they say in 2 above. No lie.
PIA is terrible in fact.
1 – It’s in us law to have backdoors in things like VPNs. So a us-based service is bad from the get go. Did Snowden teach people nothing?
2 – 3300 servers? Yea right lol. I’ll tell you what it is: VPS instances. A VPS is a virtual server running on another server. Like a virtual machine. The problem? If A, B and C “servers” are running on D computer, then D computer can track everything A, B and C do. This is not necessarily a bad setup IF you tell customers honestly; but PIA doesn’t.
3 – They say no logs. But have you checked their ToS? Their ToS basically tells you not to do bad stuff using their service. Well it follows then, that in order to know if people do bad stuff, you have to log. Duh.
4 – They advertise themselves as being secure. But they aren’t really. First of all the highest security settings aren’t the default, which likely means many unsuspecting users use relatively weak protocols and types of encryption. Secondly, they support protocols like PPTP and L2TP, which are KNOWN to have been cracked/are insecure.
5 – They use analytics like google analytics on their website. No logs? No tracking? Sure? How interesting.
6 – Their software, aka their “client”, is a joke. At least on Windows. While connected to one of their servers for instance, you can’t change any of the client settings. You must first disconnect from everything. Seriously? You can barely open the settings tabs to even look at it, in fact. To add insult to injury, the client is both ugly, lacks features and is closed-source; which means no one can say how secure it really is. But closed source is bad. If that wasn’t bad enough, their client also leaks your real DNS & IP addresses in tests.
7 – Their forum mods have been known to seemingly censor controversial topics on their forums as well.
So for these reasons, I don’t rate PIA highly at all. But if you don’t care about your privacy and security, then it’s a good enough VPN.