NordVPN vs Private Internet Access

NordVPN is the larger brand and the more polished product. Private Internet Access is cheaper over any long term, more open about how it works, and carries a United States address that a lot of buyers treat as disqualifying before reading further. Both are worth more scrutiny than the headline suggests.

Source code anybody can read

Every Private Internet Access app is open source, on every platform. That means the claim the software makes about itself is checkable by someone who does not work there, which is a different category of assurance from a report the company commissioned. NordVPN's apps are closed.

Private Internet Access also has port forwarding, a SOCKS5 proxy, IPv6 protection and no cap on simultaneous devices. NordVPN has none of the first three and limits you to ten. Deloitte has inspected Private Internet Access three times, most recently in October 2025, and NordVPN six times, most recently that December.

There is a catch, and it is not small: Private Internet Access allowed traffic through after a restart under testing. A kill switch that fails is worse than none, because you stop watching for the thing it was meant to catch. NordVPN's holds.

What each one costs in year three

Private Internet Access renews its three-year plan at the same rate it charged. NordVPN's advertised rate covers twenty-seven months and then renews at more than three times it. Over any horizon past the first term this is not close.

Both are registered somewhere worth knowing about. Private Internet Access is in Denver, inside the five-country intelligence agreement, and is owned by Kape Technologies, which also sells two other VPNs as separate brands. NordVPN is in Panama, outside every such agreement.

Which should you choose?

Choose Private Internet Access if you want software an outsider can audit, you need port forwarding or unlimited devices, and you will confirm the kill switch after a reboot before relying on it. Choose NordVPN if the jurisdiction matters to you, or if you want the protective feature to work without you checking it.

If both the failed kill switch and the renewal price rule these out, that combination of complaints points at Windscribe, which renews at the rate it showed you and has a switch that holds.