Private Internet Access Review - 2016 - BestVPN.com

Dimitri Mandaras
Aug 2, 2016
7 min read

Our Private Internet Access Review found a provider forefront of the VPN market with good reason. Superlative encryption, a high degree of user choice in everything from protocol options to client setup, and a low price point by any most any metric come together to form a VPN service worthy of including privacy in the company name.

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Pricing & Plans

Plans come with discounts proportionate to the length you subscribe for starting at $6.95 per month. If you’re satisfied with the service, or trust your research and would like to take immediate advantage of some savings, you may opt for the $5.99 per month 6-month plan, or the $39.95 plan for one year’s duration – averaging out to a paltry $3.33 per month. Ok, so it’s not an insignificant sum alone, but in the context of the features discussed below and the wider VPN market, it might well be considered a great deal.

There’s a seven-day money-back guarantee in place for those wishing to try out the service risk-free, which serves to only enhance the already appealing pricing model Private Internet Access has in place.

You may pay with any major credit card, Paypal, cash money, or even BitCoin – allowing for a near perfect degree of anonymity – in addition to the other options in the image above.

Video Review

We’ve put together a Video Review of Private Internet Access(PIA)’s service below.

Features

Despite being a subsidiary of London Trust Media Inc. (which might lead you to assume UK connections), Private Internet Access is based in Michigan, USA. There isn’t any glaring attempt to hide this – slightly disconcerting from a ‘Five Eyes‘ surveillance standpoint – company tie in any way, unlike some providers which err on the disingenuous side about their registration and headquarters locations.

There are servers in place in 25 countries and counting, with North America and Europe well-covered. Additionally, Asia and the Middle East are represented, and the servers in Australia/New Zealand are definitely a welcome touch. What’s more, you’re allowed up to 5 simultaneous device connections as Private Internet Access says that users tend to have multiple devices, why not keep them safe? It’s an admirable and forthright policy from a forward thinking market-leader.

A handy server page on the main website shows clients and prospective buyers alike server counts, locations, and bandwidth stats, as another example of the design team’s client-facing attitude. Click the jump below to try out PIA, or head below for some points on security.

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Security & Privacy

Private Internet Acess has some of the best security measures and quite possibly the widest range of choices on the market. You may choose from PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, or OpenVPN, but with the lattermost option available, it wouldn’t make much sense to make any other choice (accounting for times when security is of little to no importance where speed and unblocking concerns trump all else).

What’s more, you may encrypt your data with up to AES-256, Authenticate it with up to SHA256, and handshake with up to RSA 4096 (though you will take a speed hit on account of this last one). The wide variety might sound overwhelming to a novice, but Private Internet Access’ design team have done a great job of leaving tips and mapping out the different potential results of choose one security blend over another. More on how this was accomplished on both the PIA website and the Windows VPN client in the sections below.

Private Internet Access’ legal terms clearly state the service is entirely logless. However, if a reasonable government or court-ordered request came for user data, the folks in charge may be compelled to and physically comply. Thing is, they don’t collect anything in the first place and have never been forced to do so, yet, as evidenced by the recent FBI subeonas to which PIA simply said some variation of: “We can’t hand over what was never stored.”

As with any other service (cable, internet, water, gas, and so forth), there is an element of good faith in the providing entity to keep from abusing any ‘power’ it may have over you, for any form of gain. That said, we have every reason to take Private Internet Access in good esteem as to data security, and numerous reviews on this site and elsewhere tend to back those sentiments up.

The website

Browsing the Private Internet Acess website left me with good impressions overall. The top banner has basic informational links, contact info, and subscription pathways.

Meanwhile, the bottom portion of the page after a few scrolls shows more in-depth links as found above, and legal information which should be part of your essential reading if it isn’t already.

There’s also a link to the weekly updated (or more) PIA VPN blog, written by the founder of both Private Internet Access and the Swedish Pirate Party, Rick Falkvinge. The blog comes as a strongly recommended read whether you ever sign up to the VPN service or not.

Support

Unfortunately, LiveChat support has been done away with since our last review, so you’ll have to settle for ticket based support. On the flip-side, the step by step video guides found in the Knowledgbase are quite comprehensive ranging from simple setup, to DD-WRT or Tomato routers.

There are also just over 300 articles on anything and everything relating to VPNs, in general, with specific discussion on PIA’s service. Support was helpful if not particularly fast at times.

The Process

Signing Up

Setting up is a matter of registration and payment – the degree of anonymity entirely dependant on which aforementioned method you choose – then following the setup instructions in the email you receive, or navigating to the download area and following the setup instructions for your platform. Now let’s discuss the app.

The PIA Windows VPN client

The Private Internet Acess client for Windows is one of the best in terms of performance and baked-in options, if not the most eye-popping in terms of style – security is just as effective sans needless glam. Everything you’d need is within a half-wrist flick, either expand or compress the settings in the right half portion of the client using Simple/Advanced button in the bottom left corner. Keeping it simple shows the right-hand portion of the total client with login boxes and a drop-down menu for server selection as seen above.

Hitting Advanced gives you the Encryption choice menu discussed earlier in this review. While clicking on the Connection button brings up some useful options such as port forwarding (useful for P2P but somewhat less secure). It’s also great to see a killswitch in case your connection drops for any reason, and both DNS and IPv6 protection which we’ll discuss in the Testing Section below.

Save your settings, then navigate to the system tray (on your taskbar, by the time) and right click on the Private Internet Access icon. Click connect to engage with a server. The last one you chose will be at the top with the balance of server choices just below.

While the client isn’t anything remarkable to look at, it works smoothly at all times, and has such a wealth of built-in options that it’s worth a special commendation for being, frankly, excellent.

Performance (Speed, DNS, WebRTC and IPv6 Tests)

Speeds were nothing to sneeze at averaging a shade under 10 Mbps downstream on UK servers, with a bump up to 12Mbps when using Dutch servers. Most impressively, US speeds showed almost no drop-off from testing with or without a VPN, and averaged in the 6 Mbps range, which is more than adequate for any browsing any high-def streaming needs, but may be a bit tougher on the P2P front. Then again, geo-proximity contributed to the slower speeds for US servers in my testing.

DNS leakage was – like our last review – non-existent. There were no DNS or WebRTC leaks found using ipleak.net, nor IPv6 leaks from test-ipv6.com. Additionally, nothing came back from doileak.com, sort of a mix of the other two tests. While nothing was amiss during testing, it’s always good practice to test your connection periodically and make sure everything is in working order.

Other Platforms

Private Internet is compatible with Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, in addition to the Windows client and routers we previously covered.

The crucial point is that the same level of attention, setup information, FAQ support, and functionality is available across every platform, as you’d rightfully hope for and expect.

Android

The dedicated Private Internet Access Android app is a close to perfect replica of its Windows brother, with a killswitch and the same spiffy encryption options from which to choose, ditto for auto-connect, and it utilizes SSL. This is where the ability to choose TCP rather than UDP comes into play, as you’ll more than likely be connecting to WiFi at some point in your daily life or (especially) travels. As with the Windows client, there’s the built-in internet killswitch and options to specify type and level of encryption and the same choice to auto-connect when you power on your smartphone.

The speeds were more than adequate for Soundcloud and YouTube, in addition to regular browsing. The entire process being streamlined for mobile while still having decent security is no mean feat. Read on for some final remarks on Private Internet Access.

Private Internet Access Review Conclusion

I liked

Encryption Strength & Overarching Variety
Same Client Across Platforms
Logless
Bitcoin
Competitive Pricing
Money-Back Guarantee

I wasn’t so sure about

Rare Performance Fluctuations
Support Responses Can Be Slow

I hated

Nothing

In an a crowded VPN marketplace with marketing tricks and design-over-security-shrouds galore, Private Internet Access stands out for simplicity and focus on fulfilling its simple adherence to user privacy – through logless policies, rigorous encryption, and anonymous payment options, to say nothing about the abundance of choice overall. No LiveChat might be a source of frustration for some, but PIA’s low price, 7-day risk-free trial, and Security alone might make it worth your while.

Visit PIA »

Original Source: https://www.bestvpn.com/private-internet-access-review-2016/