The cheapest headline here
Private Internet Access advertises
$2.03a month. That is the lowest advertised rate in our comparison, and the one year plan at $3.99 is barely more.
For that you get unlimited simultaneous devices, servers in 91 countries including all fifty US states, genuinely open source apps, port forwarding, and a killswitch with more settings than any rival exposes. It is a lot of product.
PIA scores 7.4 under how we rate and sits in the also considered group. The gap between what it offers and where it scores is almost entirely one thing.
What happens at renewal, and what PIA will not say
Those prices are introductory. PIA's own help centre puts it plainly: the deals on the order page "are only eligible for new accounts and are not applicable for renewals." Its terms of service reserve the right to change fees, with notice, applying at the next renewal.
So the discount ends, and something else begins, and PIA never says what.
Not on the pricing page. Not in the checkout. Not in the terms. The only standing, non-introductory number the company publishes anywhere is its monthly rate of $11.95, which is the figure every percentage discount on the pricing page is calculated against.
That is why this site anchors PIA at its standing monthly rate rather than at its campaign rate. It is not a measurement and we are not claiming it is: it is the only floor the company gives us, and quoting the campaign rate as though it were the cost would tell you less than nothing. If PIA publishes a renewal price we will re-anchor this page to it the same day.
Compare that with the vendors who do disclose. Proton VPN prints "then renews at $83.88 every 12 months" on the card you buy from. ExpressVPN prints "then autorenews at $99.95 annually" on the plan. NordVPN puts it in the checkout terms. Only PIA and Surfshark publish nothing, and those two happen to be the two with the most aggressive introductory discounting on this page.
What the product actually gives you
None of that makes the software bad, and it is worth being clear that it is not.
The apps are open source, which among the mainstream brands only PIA manages alongside Proton VPN, Mullvad and Windscribe. They expose more configuration than anything else here: protocol, encryption strength, handshake, port, DNS, and a killswitch you can set to block traffic even before the VPN starts. For someone who wants those controls it is the best app on this page. For someone who does not, it is a longer first run than Proton or ExpressVPN.
Unlimited devices, matched here by Surfshark and Windscribe. Servers in every US state on the vendor count, which nothing else here advertises and which matters if you need to appear in a specific state for a regional service. Port forwarding, which Mullvad removed.
Deloitte audited the no-logs policy in 2022 and a second security audit followed in 2024, with the results published. PIA also points to a long record of court orders and subpoenas producing no user data. We have not verified those cases ourselves, so read it as the company's position rather than as our finding, and Windscribe has the more recent and better documented version of the same argument.
Jurisdiction and ownership
Two things a buyer should weigh, neither of which is a scandal.
PIA is based in the United States, a Five Eyes member with broad subpoena powers. On paper that is the least favourable jurisdiction in this comparison. PIA says it has repeatedly been served and produced nothing. We report that as the company's position rather than as a record we checked, and either way it would not repeal the jurisdiction.
PIA is owned by Kape Technologies, which bought it in 2019 and also owns ExpressVPN, CyberGhost and ZenMate, and which in March 2021 bought Webselenese, the owner of the review sites vpnMentor and Wizcase, for $149.1 million. The ExpressVPN review sets out what that does and does not imply.
Who should buy it
Buy Private Internet Access if you are technical, you want unlimited devices and open source apps with every setting exposed, and you need a server in a particular US state. On that brief nothing here matches it, and for three years it will be the cheapest thing you could have bought.
Buy it knowing you are buying an unknown fourth year, and put a reminder in your calendar for the month before the term ends.
Do not buy it if United States jurisdiction is a hard filter, and do not buy it if you want to know the ongoing cost before you commit. Mullvad answers both objections at $5.79 a month, forever, with five devices instead of unlimited.
Prices, renewal policy, audits and ownership on this page were read from the vendor order page with the currency set to US dollars, the vendor help centre and the terms of service, on .
