Private Internet Access vs PureVPN in 2024

You might be wrong if you think choosing a VPN is easy. There are hundreds of VPNs nowadays, and finding the most suitable one for your needs is not that obvious.

PureVPN and Private Internet Access are pretty solid VPN providers. They offer strong security features, a significant amount of servers, support different streaming services, and are also quite affordable.

But you need to choose only one. Fortunately, we decided to help you and thoroughly tested and researched both providers. So, are you ready to see which one will win the PureVPN vs. PIA comparison?

PureVPN vs PIA: specifications

Private Internet Access (PIA) and PureVPN are two tough competitors. They share a lot of similarities, but still, one of them has an edge advantage.  PIA comes with the largest server fleet on the market. However, in terms of other important aspects, PureVPN surpasses PIA with better .

When we compared all essential aspects, PureVPN emerged as a winner, but let’s get into more details!

PureVPN vs PIA: pricing

If you’re looking for an affordable VPN, you’re in the right place! PureVPN and PIA offer some budget-friendly plans for their long-term VPN plans, along with some fantastic features. However, we decided to give a point to PureVPN. It has a slightly longer money-back guarantee, the option to test the service before committing, and many more payment options.

PureVPN pricing

PureVPN offers a 7-day “free” trial, but you still need to pay $0.99. Still, you can still have a risk-free testing experience due to its 31-day money-back guarantee. And now, let’s explore its plans:

• $12.95/month for a monthly plan
• $3.70/month for a yearly subscription
• $1.99/month for a two-year subscription

Signing up for the most extended subscription grants you a nice 90% discount. On the other hand, you can also use a PureVPN coupon code to get a different deal.

Keep in mind that some PureVPN features don’t come with the standard subscription. Instead, you’ll have to pay extra if you want some additional benefits:

• A dedicated IP costs an additional $2.99/month. It allows you to choose an exclusive IP for yourself from seven different countries (Singapore, Malta, Germany, Canada, UK, Australia, USA).
• DDoS protection costs $3.99/month. If that seems excessive, you can look through our list of best VPNs for gaming, which also offer some DDoS protection.
• Port forwarding costs an extra $0.99/month
• PureKeep costs $0.99/month, it’s a secure password manager
• PurePrivacy is a tracker blocker and data breach scanner for $2.49/month
• PureEncrypt is an encrypted file vault and cloud storage for $1.29/month

This VPN allows purchases with a credit card, PayPal, CoinGate, PaymentWall, and Bitcoin. In other words, you will enjoy an additional security layer from the anonymous payments.

Private Internet Access pricing

PIA doesn’t offer a free trial, but you will also benefit from its 30-day money-back guarantee. In comparison, it offers more affordable pricing plans:

• $11.95/month for a monthly subscription
• $3.33/month for an annual plan
• $2.03/month for the three-year plan

If you opt for the most extended subscription plan, you’ll be rewarded with a 83% discount. Alternatively, you can scout for different deals by looking at the available PIA coupon codes.

Unsurprisingly, Private Internet Access offers an optional feature as well in the form of a dedicated IP. It costs an additional $5.00/month, and you can choose your IP address from five different locations – USA, UK, Canada, Germany, and Australia.

When we compared the payment methods, they were pretty similar. You can use a credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Bitcoin, and also enjoy anonymous payments.

Speed comparison

We used our in-house VPN speed test to determine the performance of each VPN. And although both PureVPN and Private Internet Access have implemented the speedy WireGuard tunneling protocol, the former is considerably faster than the latter.

PIA might have more servers worldwide, but PureVPN still provides faster speeds. This makes it the winner in this Private Internet Access vs. PureVPN round.

PureVPN comes with a great number of robust VPN protocols, such as WireGuard, OpenVPN IKEv2, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, and SSTP. PIA only offers WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2, but these protocols aren’t enough to beat it.

PureVPN vs PIA: which is more secure?

In terms of safety, both providers are trying to do their best to ensure complete user privacy. These VPNs come with all necessary security features:

• AES-256 encryption
• IP and DNS leak protection
• A robust kill switch
• Audited no-logs policies

But if we had to pick just one, unfortunately, it would be a draw. PureVPN and Private Internet Access come with all the right aspects and features to counteract their drawbacks. Let’s see what we’re talking about.

Privacy

PureVPN is headquartered in a privacy-friendly country – the British Virgin Islands. It doesn’t require VPN services to collect user data and share their online activities with the government. Plus, the nation isn’t part of the Fourteen Eyes Alliance.

On the contrary, Private Internet Access is located in the USA, which is part of the Five-Eyes Alliance. This means that if the government requests, the provider may share your online activities history. However, this VPN isn’t capable of collecting information about you due to having a hardware fleet consisting solely of RAM-only servers.

PureVPN doesn’t have any RAM servers, but there’s not much need for it when the government won’t be forcing them to log user data anytime soon.

Logging

Regarding logging, both VPNs have an audited no-logs policy.PureVPN is independently audited twice, while PIA has an independently audited zero-logs policy, plus it’s court-proven. Thus, you can rest assured that there’s no funny business happening behind the scenes.

Servers location

In this part of our Private Internet Access vs. PureVPN, PIA is the clear winner.

As we mentioned, PIA comes with an amazing number of servers in 90+ countries. Before the provider stopped displaying the number, it was around 30,000 thousand. Additionally, this VPN employs RAM-only technology on the whole fleet, meaning there is no evidence of your online activities once the servers shut down. The cherry on top is that they’re all bare metal.

On the other hand, PureVPN comes with a smaller server network – 6500+ servers in 71+ countries. Another drawback is that it doesn’t implement RAM-only technology and supports torrenting only in countries where it’s legal.

Features

This round of our PIA vs. PureVPN comparison was quite close. More precisely, both VPNs offer top-notch features, which makes this round a tie.

Smart DNS

The Smart DNS feature is of great importance if you want seamless streaming, even on devices that don’t support VPN software. It lets you change the IP address on such streaming peripherals, bypassing geo-blocks with different DNS servers in the process.

Well, you get this feature only with Private Internet Access. Unfortunately, PureVPN lacks this feature, which leaves you with an option to stream only on those devices that support VPN providers.

Ad & malware blocker

Only PIA comes with any sort of blocker, which is PIA MACE. Once enabled, it automatically blocks websites known for having intrusive advertising, deploying user trackers, and hosting malicious software or scams. However, you can’t adjust the settings or whitelist certain domains, which isn’t ideal.

Split tunneling

Split tunneling is crucial so you can control which of your apps use VPN connections and which don’t. As a result, your VPN connections aren’t overwhelmed, and the VPN can perform better. Both VPN providers have it.

PureVPN offers split tunneling, meaning you’ll be able to route your traffic through whichever apps you like. PIA also supports this feature by the name BypassVPN. It has marginally better customization options since you can also add/exclude IP addresses.

Obfuscated servers

One of the most crucial features of every VPN is to have obfuscated servers. These servers hide that you use VPN and show all traffic as a regular browsing activity. Luckily, both PureVPN and PIA come with obfuscated servers, which enhances your security even more.

Specialty servers

PureVPN also categorizes its servers according to their purpose. You’ll find:

• Quantum-resistant. Incorporate quantum-resistant encryption keys.
• Dedicated IP. For clients who bought a dedicated IP, a VPN address only a single user can utilize.
• Streaming-optimized. Provide better streaming performance and bypass geo-blocks easier.
• Obfuscated. Hides all traces of VPN usage, letting you use this tool in regions where they are blocked or heavily restricted.
• P2P. For boosting your downloads and uploads while torrenting.

PIA also comes with servers for streaming.

Other features

Additionally, PureVPN includes port forwarding and Wi-Fi security. Private Internet Access also offers port forwarding, with the addition of a SOCKS5 proxy. As such, these providers are quite on equal footing regarding features since they come with versatile perks.

Netflix and streaming comparison

Our Private Internet Access vs. PureVPN comparison goes on with one of the most important usages of a VPN provider – streaming capabilities. After long, detailed testing and a close battle, we concluded that PureVPN won this round, and it’s pretty clear why.

If Netflix US is your primary goal, then both providers unblock it pretty effectively. However, if you want to bypass geo-restrictions to other Netflix libraries, only PureVPN will help you access them.

Regarding other popular platforms, such as Hulu, Disney +, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and BBC iPlayer, you can rely only on PureVPN. Private Internet Access couldn’t reliably unblock almost any of the services, except for Hulu and YouTube TV. Not exactly great if you’re seeking a top-notch streaming VPN.

Device compatibility

If you’re looking for extensive device support, you should definitely go for PureVPN. Although PIA is also pretty compatible with various platforms, PureVPN has a minor advantage. It has dedicated clients for all kinds of devices, not only major OS, and you can manually install the VPN on plenty more.

Desktop applications

PureVPN and Private Internet Access come with dedicated apps for Windows and macOS. PureVPN is sleek looking and identical across both operating systems. What’s more, you’re essentially getting the same features, minus split tunneling, available only on Windows in this case.

PIA also takes a minimalistic approach, with most of the settings hidden away under a different tab. What’s more, they’re identical security and feature-wise.

Another plus for both VPN providers is that their Linux applications come with a GUI. You can install PureVPN on Redhat and Debian distros, while PIA is compatible with Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Fedora, Arch and other distros.

Mobile applications

When we checked for mobile apps, it was pretty straightforward. You get clients for iOS and Android phones. Both VPN services adapted their applications for mobiles well, so switching between them and desktop versions is a no-brainer.

PureVPN’s Android and iOS apps, as expected, don’t have the same features. For example, the iPhone client lacks split tunneling and you won’t find a kill switch, either. And the Android version offers a larger tunneling protocol roster, along with different server modes.

You won’t find any surprises with Private Internet Access’s apps. Just like with the desktop versions, the mobile applications are virtually the same.

Torrenting

As we’re coming closer to the end of our PureVPN vs. Private Internet Access comparison, it gets tougher and tougher. However, this round goes into PIA’s favor.

What makes a clear distinction in terms of torrenting is that PIA enables torrenting everywhere, while PureVPN allows it only in countries where it’s legal. Also, PureVPN doesn’t have a SOCKS5 proxy, while PIA includes it in all its plans.

China

China imposes a lot of strict measures when it comes to online freedom. That’s why you need a VPN that can bypass all online censorship restrictions, and that is both PureVPN and PIA.

PureVPN provides robust, obfuscated servers that hide your VPN traffic from your ISP and China’s government. It also comes with servers in China, delivering fast speeds and stable connections.

Compared to PureVPN, PIA lacks Chinese servers, which might be a drawback in bypassing online censorship effectively. But, on the other hand, you’re getting an obfuscated feature and a Shadowsocks proxy.

Customer support

It looks like in this last section of our PIA vs. PureVPN comparison, and we have a tie once again.

Both PureVPN and PIA offer 24/7 live chat, knowledgebase, email support, FAQs, and other beneficial guides. Besides this, their expert teams are knowledgeable and answer you in no time, which is what you need for a smooth VPN experience!

PureVPN vs PIA – which is better?

Although this PureVPN vs. PIA comparison was challenging and pretty close, PureVPN has an advantage over Private Internet Access and appeared as the better VPN option. With PureVPN, you can enjoy impressive speeds, an amazing streaming experience, advanced security features, and broad device capability!

However, you won’t be mistaken even if you go for Private Internet Access, as it can also fulfill your needs.

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You may also like to read:
PureVPN vs NordVPN
PureVPN vs VyprVPN
Private Internet Access vs VyprVPN
Private Internet Access vs Mullvad

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FAQ

Is PureVPN better than PIA?

Yes, PureVPN is better than PIA. Both are tough competitors, but PureVPN is better due to its minor advantages, such as streaming capabilities, top-notch security, and speeds.

Which is faster – PureVPN or Private Internet Access?

PureVPN has fantastic speeds, making it better than PIA’s average ones. PIA might have thousands of servers, but PureVPN has many strong protocols (WireGuard, OpenVPN IKEv2, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, and SSTP) and ensures consistent and reliable connections.

Is PureVPN free?

No, PureVPN is not free. However, it does offer a 7-day trial for only $0.99. After that, you can also use its 31-day money-back guarantee.

Does Netflix work with Private Internet Access?

Yes, you can use Private Internet Access for Netflix in 2024. However, the number of Netflix libraries that PIA unblocks is rather unimpressive.