Personal Web Entry Assessment: An amazing-value VPN

At a Look

Skilled’s Score

Professionals

• Limitless connections
• Verified no-logs coverage
• Function parity throughout desktop apps

Cons

• Renewal costs are fairly steep
• No IPv6 assist
• Couldn’t unblock US Netflix in our newest checks

Our Verdict

Personal Web Entry (PIA) is brimming with options, is extremely customisable, and can enchantment to a variety of customers, though unblocking streaming providers was a combined bag. PIA’s two-year deal is nice worth particularly if you consider limitless connections, which makes it perfect if it’s essential use a VPN on lots of units.

Value When Reviewed

From $2.91 per 30 days

Finest Costs At the moment: Personal Web Entry

Personal Web Entry (PIA) has been working a VPN service since 2010, and has since then established itself as one of many quickest suppliers on the market, with a tried-and-tested no logging coverage in addition. 

PIA was acquired by Kape Applied sciences – who additionally owns CyberGhost, ZenMate, and ExpressVPN – in 2019. This transfer raised just a few eyebrows, largely as a result of Kape’s history as adware maker Crossrider. 

Because the acquisition, PIA has added quite a few enhancements, together with shifting to RAM-only servers, which by design erase any knowledge each time the servers are rebooted, and including assist for the WireGuard protocol. Most significantly, is the truth that in June 2022, PIA commissioned an unbiased audit from Deloitte, which discovered that PIA’s no-logs declare stands as much as scrutiny. 

As of 2023, PIA nonetheless doesn’t assist IPv6 connections, which shall be irritating information for some, however not a deal-breaker for the nice majority of VPN customers. 

The most important change is that again in March this 12 months, PIA eliminated its 10-device restrict on subscriptions, that means that there’s now no restrict on the variety of units you may hook up with the VPN.

Throw in additional options, such because the MACE advert blocker, cut up tunnelling, assist for all the main working programs, all for an inexpensive month-to-month worth (particularly if you will get it’s two- or three-year subscription offers), and PIA appears like a really engaging proposition.

Options & apps

• Home windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux apps 
• Chrome browser extensions and router assist out there
• WireGuard protocol supported 
• Cut up tunneling and killswitch on all desktop apps

PIA for Home windows and macOS presents numerous options, together with a kill change, superior cut up tunnelling, an ad- and malware blocker, multi-hop, and assist for OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols. 

The truth that the desktop apps for the 2 predominant platforms have the identical set of options is an actual constructive. It’s generally the case with VPN suppliers that the macOS equal of the Home windows app has comparatively fewer options, so bravo to PIA for not short-changing Mac customers. 

Foundry / Thomas Newton

PIA guarantees parity for its Linux app as effectively, which boasts the identical kill change and cut up tunnelling options as its Home windows and macOS counterparts. Sadly, with out a machine working Linux handy, I wasn’t in a position to confirm this. 

While you first set up the PIA app, you’re introduced with a small floating window which has a big ‘hook up with VPN now’ button, which routinely connects you to the quickest server. 

Clicking on the menu dots on the highest proper of this window sees you opening the Settings web page, which launches a slate gray management panel with white textual content and vivid inexperienced accents. It’s simply as effectively that PIA makes use of a easy color scheme and format, as a result of there’s lot of data and customisable settings at your disposal right here.

The automation instrument, for instance, can have PIA routinely join you to your chosen server everytime you be part of an open Wi-Fi community. That’s helpful in case your main cause for purchasing a VPN is safety if you’re working remotely. It could be higher if you happen to may additionally set it to attach if you launch particular apps (comparable to a BitTorrent consumer) nevertheless it’s a very good characteristic to have all the identical. 

Foundry / Thomas Newton

In contrast to many VPNs, PIA by default ranks servers by way of latency, placing the quickest connections on the prime of the pile, though it’s straightforward to seek for and choose servers from particular international locations.

PIA does have digital areas (which it calls ‘geo-located areas’) that aren’t within the locations they are saying they’re. This lets you appear to be in international locations comparable to India, say, the place VPN providers can’t function as a result of they must log person knowledge. All of those are clearly indicated by the globe icon, and if you happen to don’t wish to see them, you may take away them from the record by heading to Normal > Present Geo-Positioned Areas. 

You can too create a favourites record by clicking the guts icons, and these shall be added to the ‘Fast Join’ menu on the prime of the primary panel. 

When it comes to protocols, you could have a selection of OpenVPN and WireGuard, and there’s now an MTU probing characteristic (finest left set to Auto) which is able to decide the most effective packet measurement to make use of for the most effective pace and connection reliability.

Foundry / Thomas Newton

Settings are cut up into a number of sections, and embody choices to launch PIA on startup, join on launch and, below ‘Privateness’, the kill change settings.

It’s nice to see the kill change is enabled by default, so all site visitors shall be blocked if the VPN connection drops. In contrast to rivals you could have two decisions: Auto (the default) which blocks any site visitors flowing outdoors the VPN when linked. The At all times setting is totally different: it’ll block any web site visitors in any respect if the VPN isn’t linked.

MACE is an additional characteristic which blocks web adverts and trackers.

Below ‘Community’ you’ll discover the choice to make use of PIA’s DNS servers (the default) however you may as well use your ISPs (not beneficial) and even your individual customized server settings.

There actually are options galore within the Home windows app, together with the power to ahead ports, which could pace up P2P downloads, and a Proxy part the place you may configure additional safety. There’s a Devoted IP menu, however you’ll must pay additional for one among these – they’re not included with a normal subscription. PIA is happy with having the ability to provide a devoted IP tackle with out compromising privateness. NordVPN will promote you a devoted IP tackle, however provides a warning, “Please remember that if you buy a devoted IP, your e mail shall be linked to that IP tackle.” Which means your on-line exercise could possibly be traced again to you.

Foundry / Thomas Newton

Cut up tunnelling was solely added to PIA a few years in the past, however is now one one of the crucial configurable on the market. The characteristic often permits you to select which apps are routed outdoors the VPN tunnel, however with PIA you may create a whitelist or blacklist this manner and select whether or not the record of apps makes use of the VPN or bypasses it.

There’s additionally the choice to configure the kill change to solely block the connection to particular apps when the VPN connection stops unexpectedly, and the weird skill to ship DNS requests outdoors the VPN for apps that are set to attach outdoors the VPN. Put merely, you could have extra cut up tunnelling choices in PIA (in Home windows, macOS and Linux) than another VPN we’ve examined.

Foundry / Thomas Newton

Mac customers get a really related interface, and loads of options similar to within the Home windows app. We’ve already talked about cut up tunnelling, however there’s additionally a kill change, the MACE characteristic for blocking harmful domains and people that are identified for adverts.

Servers could be ordered in varied methods, and present ping time, simply as in Home windows. And the massive join button means you don’t should be a VPN professional to make use of it.

Look within the settings and also you’ll discover basically the identical choice as Home windows customers get, which isn’t often the case.

Foundry / Thomas Newton

Browser extensions

PIA additionally presents Chrome, Firefox or Opera extensions which replicate lots of the options of the desktop apps, like advert and tracker blocking, and it’ll implement HTTPS, nevertheless, as in 2022 – and certainly like many other ‘VPN’ extensions, they’re proxy providers and don’t use the VPN service itself.

Cell apps

By and enormous, the cell apps replicate the options of their desktop counterparts. Each the iOS and Android apps characteristic a kill change, assist OpenVPN and WireGuard, and if you happen to’re paying for a devoted IP tackle, you should utilize this in your cell units too.

Foundry / Thomas Newton

Key variations embody the truth that the iOS app doesn’t assist customized DNS, it’s a case of use PIA’s DNS or go house. You may arrange Siri instructions to hook up with and disconnect from PIA, and there’s a Safari Content material Blocker, which basically acts as a shortcut to the iOS content material blocker in your iPhone’s settings.

Equally, the Android app doesn’t characteristic a kill change of its personal per se – the choice within the app merely factors you within the course of your cellphone’s native VPN menu, which helps you to toggle an always-on mode, and block any connections which don’t undergo the VPN.

Foundry / Thomas Newton

Unblocking

In 2023, unblocking streaming providers is all the time going to be one thing of a raffle. Streaming suppliers are smart to the truth that a lot of their prospects use VPNs to entry regional content material which in any other case wouldn’t be out there to them. Subsequently, accessing US Netflix or BBC iPlayer from outdoors the States or the UK gained’t all the time work. 

This time round, we discovered it unattainable to entry US Netflix, whatever the gadget we had been utilizing. We tried varied US servers, together with those optimised for streaming, and each time we discovered ourselves both unable to log in to the service, or once in a while, not in a position to entry Netflix in any respect. 

Netflix would both throw up an “Incorrect password. Please attempt once more or you may reset your password” message (regardless of that very same password working as quickly as we disconnected from PIA), or generally, when making an attempt to entry Netflix by way of a browser, we’d get a stark ‘SERVICE UNAVAILABLE’ message.

We had no such issues accessing Netflix’s US library from the UK in September 2022, so the probabilities are that it will unblock the streaming service once more as soon as PIA is successful this specific cat-and-mouse sport.

On the plus facet, PIA unblocked BBC iPlayer and ITVX when utilizing the UK London-Streaming server. Nonetheless, when any of the common UK servers had been chosen, iPlayer and ITVX weren’t accessible, proving that the optimised servers can truly work.

Unblocking iPlayer is a little bit of a win, as a result of after we examined PIA in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, we had no luck. We had been in a position to entry it in 2021, however not in 2022. 

Tough-to-unblock RTÉ Participant was not accessible from the only Republic of Eire-based server.

Efficiency

We encountered no IP or DNS leaks throughout testing, on any of our take a look at units, backing up PIA’s declare to stop DNS leaks by default.

PIA guarantees good speeds, as its servers are fitted with 10Gbps community adapters, and also you’ve a selection of OpenVPN or the newer, sooner WireGuard protocol. So long as you don’t have a half-gigabit broadband connection (or sooner), you shouldn’t discover the VPN making any distinction to the pace of your connection, until you’re linked to a server on the other facet of the world.

One uncommon commentary is that within the Home windows app that we used to run pace checks, there isn’t a computerized protocol choice. It defaults to OpenVPN and it’s as much as you to change manually to WireGuard: PIA gained’t determine which one is finest for the server you select.

Above are the speeds we recorded in September 2023 from a BT full fibre broadband connection in London with nominal speeds of 900Mbps down and 110Mbps up. Unusually, PIA picked a server in Belgium for the Auto choice, not a type of primarily based in London very near us. And with OpenVPN left because the default, speeds had been by no means spectacular.

Switching manually to the London server and toggling the protocol to WireGuard boosted speeds to 330Mbps down and 102.3Mbps up. It’s potential add speeds are sooner: this determine could be very near my broadband’s add pace restrict.

If in case you have quick broadband you are able to do your individual testing at no cost by signing up for a month as there’s a 30-day a reimbursement assure, as long as you don’t pay by Apple Pay (as refunds can solely be processed by way of Apple). There’s no free trial.

Privateness Coverage

PIA is headquartered in the US, which is a purple flag to anybody who is aware of in regards to the 5 Eyes intelligence community of nations. 
Nonetheless, courtroom orders have demonstrated that PIA doesn’t hand over connection logs– as a result of there’s by no means been any logs to hand over, one thing which PIA is eager to spotlight on its transparency report page.

PIA’s privacy policy is fairly straightforward to search out on its web site, and spells out in plain English: “We DO NOT acquire or retailer shopping historical past, linked content material, person IPs, connection time stamps, bandwidth logs, DNS queries, or something like that. We acquire and retain zero person logs.”

The unbiased audit from Deloitte has confirmed that its servers are certainly arrange to not retailer any person knowledge, and PIA’s NextGen server system can be designed to stop knowledge retention by default. 

It’s additionally value mentioning right here that every one of PIA’s apps are open supply, demonstrating that it has completely nothing to cover.

Plus, you may pay anonymously by way of cryptocurrency and join utilizing a burner e mail tackle,  permitting for additional privateness. Simply keep in mind that a VPN does not make you anonymous online.

Value & subscriptions

The usual month-to-month charge for PIA in 2023 is £9.99 / US$11.95 / AU$19.79. 

On the time of writing, the introductory costs for one 12 months are £32.49 / US$39.95 / AU$65.04.

After that, you’ll pay £119.88 / US$143.40 / AU$237.48 – equal to the usual month-to-month charge, paid in a single go. 

Once we checked PIA was additionally providing a ‘2 12 months + 2 months’ bundle, which prices £43.94 / US$56.94, or £1.69 / $2.19 per 30 days. That’s actually good worth.

All PIA subscriptions characteristic a 30-day money-back assure, however there are not any free trials. 

There is no such thing as a gadget restrict connected to PIA subscriptions, so that you’re free to put in software program on as many desktops, laptops, telephones, and tablets as you want and join all of them to the VPN on the similar time. 

Lastly, as talked about above, you may pay with cryptocurrencies with a Bitpay account if you happen to don’t fancy utilizing your bank card, or PayPal account. 

For alternate options, see our roundup of the best VPN services.

Verdict

Personal Web Entry is a good general VPN service that’s brimming with options, presents parity throughout its desktop apps, good speeds, and quite a few enhanced privateness options. 

It’s not the quickest service on the market, or the most cost effective, however PIA is up entrance about its privateness strategies, and an unbiased audit have confirmed that it doesn’t preserve connection logs. 

Points with accessing US Netflix this time round make PIA exhausting to suggest if unblocking streaming providers is principally why you need a VPN, though it did unblock BBC iPlayer from outdoors the UK, and it’s value remembering that previously, PIA has unblocked Netflix simply effective, so it was simply unlucky it didn’t on the few events we tried this time round.

In case your web connection has round 300Mbps obtain speeds, PIA shall be quick sufficient for you. However these with sooner broadband may effectively wish to have a look at NordVPN or Surfshark.