Generally speaking, I do not consider either of these VPNs to be very good for streaming. Right now there are only two VPNs that work with BBC iPlayer on a consistent basis. In addition to Netflix, we also found PIA to get blocked with BBC iPlayer.
PIA VS PUREVPN TRIAL
Prices increase significantly after the initial trial period. PureVPN could be considered a cheap VPN since it offers a $.99 one-week trial - but you need to read the fine print. Sow which one of these two comes out with a better price? Many people are looking to save money on a VPN. However, with PIA and PureVPN, we do not see any server security audits. Many VPNs have undergone various security audits, such as with NordVPN and TunnelBear. Unfortunately with PIA, it’s also difficult to find any details on the quality of the servers they use. We see a few other VPNs using virtual locations, as we discussed in the ExpressVPN vs Surfshark comparison. Recently, they have begun using more virtual server locations, which is when the VPN “virtually” has locations in certain exotic countries. Private Internet Access has a smaller server network with fewer locations than PureVPN. The majority of PIA’s servers are located in the United States. Virtual servers are usually logged by the server host, so this creates privacy concerns. Often times VPNs will use cheap virtual servers instead of dedicated premium servers. I suspect this may be due to their overloaded servers – but there’s no way to know for sure, because they don’t provide a server status page with real-time bandwidth.įurthermore, there is very little information about the quality of the servers – another concerning factor. PureVPN works hard to emphasize their large server network, but it suffers from various connection problems, which I observed when testing for the review. For example, in the NordVPN vs PIA comparison, NordVPN outperformed PIA in all locations we tested. Note that PIA has historically not matched other leading VPN services. And both of these VPNs were far slower than other leading VPNs. Here was see that PureVPN was actually faster than Private Internet Access - but only by about 8 Mbps. Here was one PureVPN speed test with a US server with speeds of 59 Mbps: These problems with reliability also match up with feedback I have gotten from other PureVPN users. Unreliable speeds (sometimes OK, but usually very slow).Could not connect to many of their VPN servers.Here are some of the problems I discovered: My testing found PureVPN to be pretty unreliable, which is thoroughly documented in the PureVPN review. Additionally, being based in the US, PIA could be forced to log user data at any time, as we have seen with other US-based VPNs, such as IPVanish. This is generally considered to be a bad privacy jurisdiction because it is part of the Five Eyes alliance. One major drawback with Private Internet Access is that it is based in the United States.
Speeds were mediocre, and like PureVPN, Private Internet Access does not do well with streaming content. While PIA performed better in testing than PureVPN, it still comes with many notable drawbacks. Kape bought ExpressVPN in September 2021. In late 2019, PIA was acquired by Kape, which has been on a buying spree and also owns other VPN services. Private Internet Access (PIA) is one of the older players in the VPN industry - but a lot has changed in just the past few years. Now let’s take a look at Private Internet Access. They later confirmed this to be true after various outlets picked up the story – see my article VPNs Are Lying About Logs. Based on official court records, we learned that PureVPN was cooperating with the FBI ( Federal Bureau of Investigation) by logging user data and handing it over to authorities. PureVPN was also found to be logging users.
These problems included data leaks, slow speeds, broken features, and connection issues. While PureVPN looks good on the surface, testing and analysis for the PureVPN review uncovered many problems. PureVPN is run by a company called Gaditek, which is based in Karachi, Pakistan, although the VPN is officially under Hong Kong jurisdiction. PureVPN and Private Internet Access are both large VPN providers – but is either one a good choice? This in-depth PureVPN vs PIA comparison will reveal a clear winner between the two, while also suggesting some alternative VPNs that performed much better in our testing.Īfter covering an overview of each VPN, here are the areas we will examine for this PIA vs PureVPN guide: