I came into this review thinking of Private Internet Access (PIA) as one of the better VPNs. It's in the Kape Technologies portfolio, along with the top-tier ExpressVPN and the generally reliable CyberGhost. It's one of the cheapest VPNs out there, its interfaces hold together and it boasts plenty of server locations. Sadly, I was either misremembering PIA, or it used to be better until someone at Kape fell asleep at the switch. The more I tested this VPN, the more I came to terms with the fact that it's much harder to recommend these days, especially compared to the entries in our best VPN guide. The biggest culprit is unmoored download speeds that swing wildly from acceptable to unusable, but I also encountered dropped connections, high latencies and dead ends in the UI. I want to make it very clear that this PIA review is a snapshot of a moment in time. I don't think this is an inherently bad service, but it needs to do a lot of work to right the ship. As I go through my usual 11-point testing plan, I'll make a (hopefully) cogent case for why you should give PIA a miss as of now. Editor's note (10/20/25): We've overhauled our VPN coverage to provide more detailed, actionable buying advice. Going forward, we'll continue to update both our best VPN list and individual reviews (like this one) as circumstances change. Most recently, we added official scores to all of our VPN reviews.Check out how we test VPNs to learn more about the new standards we're using. Table of contents

Private Internet Access (PIA) comes with some of the best pricing of any VPN, and often doesn't feel like a budget service. I say "often" because, sadly, it does sometimes feel like you get what you pay for with PIA. While I'm working on seeing what settings iron out the kinks, the fact is that PIA doesn't always leave you with the internet speeds you need for everyday use.If you've found PIA unreliable, you may want to know how to end your subscription, get a refund and trade up to a more stable VPN service. Here, I'll explain how to stop your subscription from renewing, get your money back and delete your account (if you want to go that far).How to turn off auto-renewal for PIALike with most VPNs, the standard way to cancel PIA is to stop your subscription from renewing at the end of the current payment period. Whether you've signed up for one month, one year or three years, you'll get to keep using the VPN until that time expires. Here's the process to follow.