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

Personal Web Entry is a VPN service that guarantees to guard your privateness on all of your units and allows you to conceal your location to unblock content material at very reasonably priced costs. That feels like a successful mixture.

Intrigued by the provide, I made a decision to check out the velocity and reliability of this main VPN service. For the sake of brevity, Personal Web Entry abbreviates its lengthy identify to PIA. In my evaluate, I’ll cowl PIA’s subscription pricing, usability, options, customer support, and extra.

Tiers and pricing

There’s no trial model of PIA and no free model both. It’s important to subscribe for at the very least a month to make use of it. The excellent news is that costs are reasonably priced and there’s a 30-day money-back assure. There are some good free VPNs with minimal restrictions when you don’t want a full-time, high-speed resolution.

It’s $12 month-to-month, $40 yearly, or $80 for 3 years. You get a pleasant reward when you’re able to make an extended dedication. Subscribing for a yr cuts the typical price to $3 monthly, whereas the three-year plan cuts that to $2. You additionally get three bonus months with the longest plan.

In the event you strive a month of PIA and hold it for 3 months, you may as properly go for the annual plan. After six months, you’ve virtually paid for a three-year subscription.

Each PIA plan helps limitless connections so you should utilize it on all of your telephones, tablets, computer systems, and different related units. That’s why it ranks excessive on our checklist of the very best VPNs for a number of units.

Design

As PIA was downloading, the webpage gave me directions to put in the app. The method is easy but it surely’s by no means a nasty thought to supply assist throughout setup.

The identical is true of the installer, giving a fast tour alongside the best way. For instance, PIA jogged my memory of all of the supported platforms so I might use the VPN on all my units.

After set up, the app shrinks to a tiny window docked to the system tray on the backside proper of my display screen. I opened the settings and located the choice to make it a movable window.

The primary window has an arrow on the backside to increase and present extra choices, but it surely’s nonetheless a small, slender panel that feels cramped. That mentioned, PIA manages to pack a number of fast toggles, favourite servers, and knowledge in a small house so it might work properly for notebooks with small screens.

The settings window takes a extra fashionable method with tabs in a left sidebar for simple entry to varied VPN and app choices.

Options

A superb VPN ought to provide wonderful privateness and safety with out sacrificing an excessive amount of web velocity. I discovered PIA to attach rapidly, however efficiency was fairly sluggish, reaching simply 172 Mbps when related to a close-by U.S. server.

I’m simply throughout the border in Canada with a 900 Mbps Ethernet connection. Quick, streaming VPNs like ExpressVPN, yield SpeedTest outcomes over 700 Mbps, so I dug into the settings to see if I might enhance PIA’s obtain velocity.

I observed it defaulted to OpenVPN, so I switched to WireGuard which is normally sooner. I additionally selected a distinct server. That made an enormous distinction, growing obtain charges to 555 Mbps, about common for my system when utilizing a VPN. Add velocity was additionally respectable, reaching 51 Mbps with a ping of 36ms.

I attempted a number of servers in Canada however the very best I might get is 92 Mbps down and 26 Mbps up with a ping of 41ms. Maybe PIA’s Canadian servers are overloaded. Latency was about the identical because the U.S. server however the velocity lagged far behind.

Distant connections are all the time slower however I used to be disenchanted to get simply 15 Mbps for France and 19 Mbps for the UK. I switched to OpenVPN and that helped considerably. UK velocity elevated to 88 Mbps and France skyrocketed to 426 Mbps.

That gave me sufficient hope to strive far-flung Australia. The 122 Mbps obtain charge was affordable for shopping down underneath. Germany broke the mildew for abroad connections, posting its greatest obtain velocity of 348 Mbps on WireGuard.

Throughout testing, my web stopped working. The difficulty was a nasty VPN connection, however PIA nonetheless protected my privateness because of its default kill swap that blocks web entry in case the VPN drops. That’s a reasonably frequent function amongst VPNs, however VPN server points are uncommon. I switched to a distinct server and reconnected with no additional points.

PIA additionally consists of blockers to forestall malware, advertisements, and trackers. I examined its malware detection by visiting Wicar, an internet site that hosts on-line cybersecurity exams. PIA blocked 10 of the 13 threats, which isn’t very spectacular.

One of the best antivirus software program blocks all harmful downloads, scans for present malware, and secures your browser from recognized exploits, so I’d suggest a seperate device for that obligation.

Help

After I visited PIA’s assist middle, I noticed the same old choices to look or browse assist paperwork and person boards or contact PIA for help. The contact button took me to an online kind to open a ticket for e-mail assist.

I needed to speak, so I logged in and noticed a chat button on the backside proper. I stuffed in my e-mail deal with and motive for contacting assist, and a reside agent arrived in seconds. The replies got here rapidly but have been fairly useful. I bought the sense I used to be talking with somebody aware of VPNs who was keen to assist.

After I requested which protocol was quickest, the agent accurately recognized WireGuard. I adopted up with a query about why OpenVPN gave higher speeds typically. The agent clarified that there have been many variables, however OpenVPN servers might have much less load than WireGuard, leading to sooner downloads although the protocol isn’t as environment friendly.

Privateness and safety

PIA’s privateness coverage clearly states the corporate received’t share, promote, lease, or commerce your knowledge to third-party advertisers. It makes use of your account data solely to supply the providers you pay for.

Going additional, PIA collects solely what’s required to your account: your e-mail deal with and fee data. The corporate has common impartial audits to confirm that PIA’s safety is sweet and person shopping exercise shouldn’t be logged. All knowledge makes use of end-to-end encryption so even intercepted knowledge could be unreadable.

Is PIA best for you?

PIA is a low-cost VPN with hundreds of servers in 91 nations, offering entry to worldwide content material that will in any other case be geo-blocked. It additionally consists of darkish internet scans to your e-mail deal with to guard your id, and fundamental malware and advert blocking.

If you’d like a single-subscription resolution, Surfshark is a top-rated VPN that additionally consists of very full and efficient antivirus options.

Whereas it’s not the quickest VPN, I measured good speeds in most areas. In some instances, I needed to swap protocols from WireGuard to OpenVPN. Some VPNs, just like the quick and fashionable NordVPN, provide three or extra protocols.

Total, PIA is a strong selection for an affordable VPN that helps limitless gadget connections. The slender person interface isn’t my favourite, but it surely could possibly be a superb resolution for a small pocket book with restricted display screen house.