Today’s internet users are more privacy-focused than ever. This is due to the innumerable ways in which our data can be poached, stored, sold, and even misused.
This means that the market for VPNs and other privacy-related software is booming. But this increase in competition comes with the problem of choice. With so many options to choose from, which VPN do you invest your money in?
This article aims to make the quest for your next VPN a little easier by comparing Private Internet Access and PureVPN, two of the relatively well-known names in the space. We will put them through their paces and see which is the best for your next purchase.
| 🏆 Winner: | Private Internet Access |
| ⭐ Rating: | |
| 🥇 Overall Rank: | #4 out of #24 |
| 📖 Logs Policy: | Stringent zero-logs policy |
| 💵 Price: | $2.30/month |
| 🖥️ Servers: | 17087+ Servers in 84 Countries |
| 🍿 Streaming Services: | Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, BBC iPlayer, and more |
A Bird’s Eye View: PureVPN Vs Private Internet Access
Here are some stand-out features for both contenders:
| PureVPN | Private Internet Access |
|---|---|
| Extensive Server network | Better for traffic routing |
| Good for P2P sharing | Advanced features and very granular controls |
| Great for media and streaming | Great for torrenting |
| Good Customer Support | More devices at less cost |
PureVPN Vs. Private Internet Access: Which One is the Fastest?
When it comes to picking the fastest VPN provider, there are a ton of factors to take into consideration. One of the most important is the speed of their tunneling protocols. That’s why to compare the speed, we tested the fastest protocols available for two popular VPN providers – ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access (PIA).
ExpressVPN uses their in-house-built Lightway tunnel as their fastest protocol, while PIA has the market-leading WireGuard protocol. We tested both of their speeds manually with the help of their fastest tunneling you can check the results below.
It’s important to note that the results of these speed tests can vary due to many factors such as the location of the server, the user’s internet speed, and the time of day. Therefore, the results of these tests don’t necessarily represent the ultimate truth, but they are somewhat accurate.
| ExpressVPN | PIA | |
| The USA | ||
| Download | 248 Mbps | 206 Mbps |
| Upload | 277 Mbps | 88 Mbps |
| The UK | ||
| Download | 243 Mbps | 291 Mbps |
| Upload | 274 Mbps | 271 Mbps |
| Canada | ||
| Download | 163 Mbps | 229 Mbps |
| Upload | 152 Mbps | 87 Mbps |
| Germany | ||
| Download | 207 Mbps | 246 Mbps |
| Upload | 61 Mbps | 27 Mbps |
As one can deduce from the result, ExpressVPN did much better than PIA in terms of upload speed. However, Private Internet Access outperforms in the overall download speed. It is unclear to pick one winner in this section, so we will call it a tie.
PureVPN Vs. Private Internet Access: Pricing
Higher prices mean more money out of your pocket. So any frugal person would want a VPN that serves them well but also saves them a few bucks. This is why, while not the only factor, price is a significant consideration in any purchase decision.
Here’s how our contenders stand in the price comparison:
| PureVPN | PIA | |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription Periods offered | Monthly, Yearly and 5-years Bundle | Monthly, Yearly, 3-year Bundle |
| Minimum Monthly Cost | $3.33 | $2.30 |
| Maximum Monthly Cost | $10.95 | $11.95 |
| Yearly Cost | $49.92 | $39.95 |
| Guarantee Period | 31 days | 30 days |
| Special Offers | 5 years for just $1.33/month and save 73% and 7 Days free trial account for just $0.99 | None |
It’s pretty close, but Private Internet Access is the better option in terms of price, being that it is comparably priced to PureVPN without having any discounts. This means it’s not liable to become more expensive if the provider chooses to stop the discount.
This round goes to Private Internet Access.
Which VPN Should You Get For Streaming? PureVPN Vs. Private Internet Access.
Streaming is the new cable. No one wants to let some network exec dictate what they should watch anymore. And with the widespread adoption of streaming, people also want to watch shows from all over the world.
A good VPN can make this happen by unlocking geo-restricted content from a variety of platforms. That’s why this has become such a significant use case for VPNs over the course of the pandemic.
Here’s how our contenders compare in this category:
| PureVPN | PIA | |
|---|---|---|
| Netflix | ✅ (7 Libraries) | ✅ (6 libraries) |
| Amazon Prime | ✅ | ✅ |
| Disney+ | ✅ | ✅ |
| DAZN | ❌ | ✅ |
| Hulu | ✅ | ✅ |
| BBC iPlayer | ✅ | ✅ (but unreliable) |
| Smart DNS | ✅ | ✅ |
As far as the number of platforms and libraries are concerned, both our contenders are pretty even. PIA can unlock DAZN but has one less Netflix library, so it’s neck and neck.
But PureVPN’s ace in the hole is its dedicated Streaming Mode. This allows it to optimize for streaming, and offer an overall better viewing experience with less buffering.
This category goes to PureVPN.
Servers and Performance – Which One’s the Best?
This is another feature that matters a lot when it comes to streaming, While ExpressVPN offers much more countries, Private Internet Access has more servers. It has about ten times more servers than ExpressVPN.
Even then, their number of countries isn’t that far off. If you look at the chart below, while ExpressVPN may have more options for countries like America, and Asian Pacific European, Private Internet Access lets its user have much more freedom with having servers in the Middle East or Africa.
| ExpressVPN | Private Internet Access | |
| Servers | 3000+ | 30000+ |
| Countries | 94 | 83 |
| Americas | 13 | 9 |
| Europe | 47 | 42 |
| Asia Pacific | 26 | 16 |
| Middle East and Africa | 5 | 10 |
Having more servers is always beneficial because if everyone is on one server, it will get crowded super fast, which results in a lag in connection and speed.
While looking at this server list, it is pretty obvious the winner is none other than Private Internet Access VPN.
ExpressVPN Vs PIA: Which One Of The Least Privacy-Friendly VPN
Privacy is really important in a VPN. Thankfully these two VPNs come with excellent policies for privacy. They do not retain any personal information that can identify their users. In fact, even payment bots offer anonymous payment methods to take privacy one step ahead.
However, ExpressVPN does collect your anonymous connection logs, which include your choice of server, the date you connect to it, and the amount of data transferred that happens each day. However, they claim that they do not keep any information that is identifiable to the customer
Although the connection data recorded by ExpressVPN cannot be utilized in identifying their customers, it is not the same as a VPN having a zero-logs policy. Now if you look at Private Internet Access (PIA) it follows a strict no-log policy
PIA wins in privacy as it does not have any bit that makes us hesitate when it comes to privacy.
ExpressVPN vs PIA: Which VPN Has Advance Security Features
You can compare the features of both VPNs in the table below:
| Security Feature | ExpressVPN | Private Internet Access |
| VPN protocols | IKEv2/IPSec, L2TP/IPSec, OpenVPN (TCP/UDP), Lightway, PPTP | IKEv2/IPSec, L2TP/IPSec, OpenVPN (TCP/UDP), PPTP |
| Encryption Cipher | AES-256 | AES-256 |
| Kill Switch | Yes | Yes |
| Leak Protection | DNS, IPv6, WebRTC | DNS, IPv6, WebRTC |
| First-Party DNS Servers | Yes | Yes |
| Perfect Forward Secrecy | Yes | Yes |
| Split Tunneling | Yes | Yes |
| Tor over VPN | Yes | Yes |
| Open-Source Apps | Yes | Yes |
When it comes to online security, encryption is yet another crucial aspect that any VPN should provide. ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access (PIA) are both VPNs that use the same level of encryption to keep your online activities safe and secure.
Both ExpressVPN and PIA have the highest security with AES-256-CBC encryption, which is known to be a highly secure encryption standard that is nearly impossible to break. Additionally, they also have Perfect Forward Secrecy, a 4096-bit RSA key, and SHA-512 HMAC authentication
Both VPNs offer granular options to choose the encryption settings that work best for you and are suitable for public WiFi safety. It is hard to pick one winner here, so we will call it a tie.
ExpressVPN vs PIA: Which VPN Supports Torrenting and P2P
If you are someone who frequently downloads through BitTorrent or any other torrent clients, then you know the importance of having a good VPN service that supports P2P file sharing. Luckily, both ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access VPN are great options for this purpose.
Whether you choose ExpressVPN or PIA, you can rest assured that all servers of both support P2P and torrenting. This way you will never face the issue of being on any crowded server. This means that you will have access to a wide range of servers to choose from, allowing you to optimize your download and upload speeds.
While both VPN services are great for torrenting, there are some differences between them that you should be aware of. PIA VPN offers a SOCKS5 proxy that one can use on their torrenting client, while ExpressVPN does not. SOCKS5 is an excellent feature that helps in providing an extra layer of protection and anonymity while torrenting.
Another thing that really matters is speed. Upon testing, we saw that with ExpressVPN, speeds can vary from 6 to 15 MB/s, while with Private Internet Access, the speed ranges from 10 to 15 MB/s.
Overall, both ExpressVPN and PIA are excellent choices for torrenting and P2P file sharing. However, when it comes to picking one we will give it to PIA as it is offering better speed and SOCKS5 to help you get that additional layer of security and anonymity.
How Do These VPNs Work In Netflix and China
China
When it comes to VPN services, it’s important to have access to obfuscation technology, which is designed to disguise VPN traffic as regular HTTPS traffic. This can be a key factor in bypassing censorship in countries like China, Turkey, and Russia. Both ExpressVPN and PIA offer this critical technology, and our latest tests show that both VPN services can successfully bypass Geo-blocks in these countries.
It’s worth noting in our testing we discovered that ExpressVPN had a success rate of 83% compared to PIA’s 97% when it comes to unblocking sites in China. However, both VPNs consistently bypass restrictions in the country, which is a significant feat given that most VPN services do not work in China.
ExpressVPN’s obfuscation gets activated by default when the tunneling protocol setting is switched to Automatic. PIA, on the other hand, uses OpenVPN and Shadowsocks to obfuscate traffic. This gives PIA users more granular control over how their traffic is obfuscated, along with a good selection of anti-censorship servers.
It is difficult to pick a winner in this section, so we will call it a tie.
Netflix
Netflix is becoming a necessity for everyone with time. We all by now know that each region comes with a different library, so everyone wants to get a VPN that helps them in unblocking this so that they can enjoy streaming. Fortunately, both of the VPNs do a great job of unblocking Netflix. However, you may get more variety with PIA as it has a huge number of servers this way you can get to watch shows and movies from various different regions.
ExpressVPN vs Private Internet Access VPN Reddit
People frequently use Reddit to share their opinions and feelings on various topics. It’s a platform where communities are formed and people learn from one another’s experiences. By reading comments on PIA vs. ExpressVPN, it’s clear that PIA is the better option.
TheHydrationStation
I’ve used private internet access for almost a decade with mixed results. I’m locked in a 2-year plan which was on sale at the time. I would recommend it, though it does have some shortcomings.
Fit-Knowledge-9914
What shortcomings? I am a current PIA user and have been for about 8 years. The newish WireGuard client is amazing and the Port Forwarding on ALL regions is pretty impressive.
User
No experience with Express, but PIA has no data caps, servers all over the world, and don’t care about your torrent to the point they advertise on one torrent site I am aware of. This is besides torrenting speeds I am more than happy with. 🙂
Conclusion
While both offer excellent service and give each other tougher competition, after this analysis and comparison it is safe to say PIA gives a better complete package which makes it a better option to go for.