Private Internet Access Review 2022

Private Internet Access (PIA) is one of the most popular and advanced VPN services ever, due to its biggest server network, a strong focus on user privacy, and its no-logs policy.

Wanna see

  • How quick PIA download and upload speed?
  • How well does it work on Netflix?
  • How good is it for torrenting?
  • Are there differences in these options for different regions?

All answers are here.

Our tests include connection test, download speed, upload speed test, torrenting, streaming. Finally, we contacted customer support for any issue that we encountered.

Our key finding about PIA

🌍 Country of Incorporation US (Five-Eyes Member)
🖥️ Number of Countries 78
🖥️ Number of Server Location
🖥️ Number of Servers 29,643
💰 Price $9.29 per month
⤵️ Download Speed avg. 11.75 Mbps
⤴️ Upload Speed avg. 27.95 Mbps
🔒 Dedicated IP Yes
📱 Multiple Devices 10
📺 Netflix No
📥 Torrenting Yes
💻 Operation System Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Linux, and Routers
🌐 Browser extension Chrome, Firefox, Opera
🇨🇳 Does it work in China Yes
🆓 Free Trial Yes, full refund within 30 days
👩‍💼 Live Chat Support 24/7 Live Chat Support

Servers and Locations

PIA has the biggest servers network – more than 29 thousand. PIA has servers in more than 78 countries. This is the bigger number of servers among all the VPN networks.

PIA Industry average
Number of Countries 78 60
Number of Server Locations no data (mainly the USA) 120
Number of Servers 29,643 1000

The number of servers is the biggest among all the VPN networks. It is more than the industry average. This way, it is better because it makes download/upload speeds bigger in general, but these benefits are unique only to regions with many locations. In terms of the number of countries, of course, there is nothing special, but it’s still enough to gain access to blocked content.

Speed Test

The connection speed here is quite high, all speed fluctuations also fit within reasonable limits. PIA is certainly not the fastest VPN service, but when working with it, you will hardly encounter slow downloads or high ping.

Programs for connecting to VPN (Virtual Private Network – virtual private network) can significantly reduce the speed of Internet access. This is due to the nature of their work. These programs do not send a request directly to the requested website but act through a proxy server or multiple proxy servers.

Download speed

Here we provide data on 42 countries from 120. The test results of downloads are presented below.

Header Label Americas Europe Asia Pacific
Number of tested countries 11 44 26
Number of countries without test data 9 4 26
Average Download speed 5.72 Mbps 9.155 Mbps 23.44 Mbps
Min Download speed 0.61 Mbps (Mexico) 0.56 Mbps
(Georgia)
0.56 Mbps
(Qatar)
Max Download speed 52.46 Mbps
(Canada)
65.45 Mbps
(UK)
111.75 Mbps (Australia)
No VPN 153.25 Mbps 153.25 Mbps 153.25 Mbps

There was essential variation in data across countries. For example, while some connections have low average speeds (such as 0.56 Mbps from Qatar), other regions are much faster, but Australia demonstrated 111.75 Mbps of uploads and downloads speed!

The average speed for the Americas was 5.72 Mbps, for Europe –9.155 Mbps, and for the Asia Pacific – 23.44 Mbps. In particular, the minimal download speed for the Americas was 0.61 (Mexico), for Europe –0.56 Mbps (Georgia), and for Asia Pacific – 0.56 Mbps (Qatar, Asia). The quickest connection in the world was 111.75 Mbps (Australia, Asia). The average download speed for all tested countries was 11.75 Mbps.

PIA Download speed compares to no VPN (for regions)*

Header Label PIA No VPN avg Difference
Quickest 111.75Mbps 155.91 Mbps 1.39 times less
Slowest 0.56 Mbps 155.91 Mbps 276.7 times less
Average (all countries) 11.75 Mbps 155.91 Mbps 89.1 times less

*Note: We’ve tested, reviewed, and ranked dozens of top VPNs and selected the top ten that are worth your money. To do this, we carefully studied their features, market reputation, and prices.

Upload Speed

Here we provide data on 91 uploads worldwide.

Header Label Americas Europe Asia Pacific
Number of tested states 11 44 26
Number states without test data 9 4 26
Average Upload speed 27.46 Mbps 26.718 Mbps 30.27 Mbps
Min Upload speed 6.97 Mbps (Bahamas) 0.76 Mbps (Georgia) 6.01 Mbps (Kazakstan)
Max Upload speed 39.45 Mbps (Canada) 40.62 Mbps (Moldova) 38.51 Mbps (Australia)
No VPN 42.22 Mbps 42.22 Mbps 42.22 Mbps

The average upload speed for PIA was 27.95 Mbps, and it is 1.5 times lower than No VPN. There was essential variation in data referring to regions, but. in general, the average upload speed for regions was close.

The average upload speed for the Americas was 27.46 Mbps, for Europe – 26.718 Mbps, and for the Asia Pacific – 30.27 Mbps. The minimal upload speed for the Americas was 6.97 (Bahamas), for Europe – 0.76 Mbps (Georgia), and for the Asia Pacific – 6.01 Mbps (Kazakhstan). The quickest connection for all countries was 40.62 Mbps (Moldova, Europe)– and no VPN usage upload speed was 42.22 Mbps.

PIA Upload speed

Header Label Country Download
Quickest Moldova, Europe 40.62 Mbps
Slowest Georgia, Europe 0.76 Mbps
Average (all countries) 27.95 Mbps
No VPN Connected 42.22 Mbps

PIA Upload speed compares to average (for regions)*

Header Label PIA No VPN avg Difference
Quickest 40.62 Mbps 42.42 Mbps 1.04 times less
Slowest 0.76 Mbps 42.42 Mbps 55.81 times less
Average (all countries) 27.95 Mbps 42.42 Mbps 1.5 times less

*Note: We’ve tested, reviewed, and ranked many of the top VPNs and selected the top ten that are worth your money. To do this, we carefully studied their features, market reputation, and prices.

Ping time out

Every user who loves online games has come across the concept of ping. The concept itself has several interpretations, but regardless of this, high ping always means problems with Internet speed.

PIA ping speed, ms

Header Label Americas Europe Asia Pacific
Quickest 6.97 (Bahamas) 186 (Monaco) 2.36 (Indonesia)
Slowest 370 (Argentina) 358 (Ukraine) 493 (Iran)
Average 257.9 228.27 176.7
No VPN connection 18 18 18

PIA ping speed compared to other VPNs

Header label Country Ping
Quickest Indonesia 2.36 ms
Slowest Argentina 370 ms
Overall All countries 215.9 ms
No VPN connection All countries 18

PIA ping speed compared to the industry average

Header Label PIA Other VPN avg Difference
Quickest 2.36 ms
(Indonesia)
65.83 ms 27.9 times less
Slowest 370 ms
(Argentina)
65.83 ms 5.62 times more
Overall 215.9 65.83 ms 3.28 times more

PIA is an outsider because it outperforms the other VPNs in ping speed 3.28 times.

DNS Leak Test

Many VPN providers promise privacy and security, but the reality is that user data on these services is far from safe. Information about this appears on the Internet regularly.

A side effect of the “DNS leak” is a blow to anonymity.

No VPN connected VPN connected (PIA) DNS leak test
172.253.237.2
(Central, Hong Kong)
191.96.106.4
(Digital Energy Technologies, USA)
Good
172.253.237.4
(Central, Hong Kong)
172.253.5.3
(Hong Kong)
172.253.6.1
(Hong Kong)
172.253.6.3
(Hong Kong)
173.194.171.3
(Taipei, Taiwan)

Our DNS leak test was successful with PIA. NO DNS leaks were detected.

Streaming

We tested PIA for work in different regions. They are – the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. We selected 1-2 countries from each region (the USA, UK, Japan, and South Korea). We were really disappointed that PIA does not work anywhere.

Netflix

Header label PIA – Library PIA – Streaming buffer PIA – Streaming quality
Americas
United States NO
Europe
United Kingdom NO
Asia Pacific
Japan NO
South Korea NO South Korea IP

Torrenting

Obviously, using a VPN is critical if you want to torrent safely and anonymously. The problem is that many VPNs simply don’t cut this:

  • Many VPNs are not fast enough;
  • Some don’t allow torrent;
  • Not all VPNs hide your IP address;
  • Some VPN services keep user logs.

BitTorrent with PIA

We have tested PIA for work with BitTorrent. The tested performance options are file size, number of seeders, download speed, complete time. The file size was 3.5 GB. We managed to download it for 1 h 40 min, so the download speed was 662.2 kB/s with only 0.59 seeders. It’s not a great result.

BitTorrent with PIA

Header Label File size Seeders Download Speed Time
PIA 3.5 GB 0.59 666.2 kB/s 1h 40 min
Other VPNs 1.85 GB 0.878 2.1 Mbps 11 min

uTorrent with PIA

We have tested PIA for work with uTorrent. The tested performance options are file size, number of seeders, download speed, complete time. The file size was 3.5 GB. We managed to download it for 2 h 17 min, so the download speed was 602.8 kB/s with only 0.524 seeders. It’s not a great result.

uTorrent with PIA

Header Label File size Seeders Download Speed Time
PIA 3.5 GB 0.524 602.8 kb/s 2h 17 min
Other VPNs 1.85 GB 0.219 2.1 Mbps 22 min

Router

Best Routers for PIA

According to the official site, the following routers are the best for PIA:

  • Linksys WRT3200ACM DD-WRT FlashRouter – Best Router with PIA for apartment/ 1-4 Devices.
  • Asus AC5300 DD-WRT FlashRouter – Best Router with PIA for small home/ 9 Devices.
  • Netgear R6700 DD-WRT FlashRouter – Best Router with PIA for large home/ 10+ Devices.

PIA Router App

The official site recommends using the flash routers for PIA.

Best Routers for PIA

Linksys Routers Asus Routers Asus Routers
Linksys WRT3200ACM AC3200 DD-WRT FlashRouter Asus AC5300 DD-WRT FlashRouter Netgear R6700 DD-WRT FlashRouter
Linksys WRT1900ACS DD-WRT FlashRouter Asus AC68U FlashRouter Netgear R6400 FlashRouter
Netgear R7000 DD-WRT FlashRouter

Router Manually setup

Besides, the list of configured routers for use with PIA:

  • DD-WRT v40559 OpenVPN Setup;
  • LEDE 19.07.2 (OpenVPN Setup from Config File);
  • ASUS-WRT (OpenVPN Setup from Config File);
  • ASUS-WRT-Merlin 384.16 (OpenVPN Setup from Config File);
  • pfSense 2.4.5 OpenVPN Setup.

Browser extension

PIA VPN has a browser extension for:

  • Chrome;
  • Opera;
  • FireFox.

TV

PIA is one of the VPNs for Smart TV, it is compatible with the following smart TVs:

  • Amazon FireStick TV
  • Apple TV & 3,4K
  • Smart TV
  • Fire TV
  • Samsung TV
  • Roku TV
  • Other Android TVs
  • Samsung Smart TV
  • Google ChromecastApple TV
  • LG


Devices and Operating Systems

The following OS can be used with CyberGhost VPN

  • PC & Windows;
  • MacBook;
  • Android;
  • Mac.

Price

PIA offers 3 different subscription plans.

  • Subscription for 1 month –  $9.29;
  • Subscription for 12 months – $37.19, which is $3.10 per month;
  • Subscription for 36+3 months – $70, which is $1.79 per month .
Plan PIA Industry Avg Difference
1 month US$9.29 US$9.00 +3%
12 months US$3.10 US$8.00 -258%
39 months US$1.79

PIA price is higher than the industry avg. But this difference is not essential for 1 month. However, it makes sense to buy a subscription for 12+ months.

Discount

No discount is offered.

Free Trial

There is no free trial at this time. But it offers a 30-day money-back guarantee instead of 1 month.

Customer support

PIA provides great 7/24/365 customer support. We waited only 5 seconds and the reply speed was 15 seconds. The answer was great. But we were disappointed that the time to connect the agency was 40 seconds – 4 times more than the industry avg.

Header label PIA Industry AVG Difference
Connect to an agency 40 second 10 second 4 times more
Reply speed 15 second 15 second
Quality of the answer Great

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