Head to head
The gap
The security score is not a total of good things. It starts at 100 and eight channels each take a share of what is left, so one channel can settle a record on its own. Both records are drawn here on the same scale — the model’s own cap of 0.9 — rather than on a scale fitted to this pair, which would make every comparison look equally dramatic.
Line by line
Every field the contract publishes about a provider, in the contract’s own groups, including the rows where the two agree — a table that printed only differences would invent a disagreement, and one that printed only the interesting rows would be us choosing what is interesting. Open a group to read its rows; each one says how many it holds and how many of them the two records answer differently.
A green cell means the methodology itself prices that value below the other one, not that we prefer it. Rows the model does not price carry no mark at all: price is never marked, because nothing in the model says cheaper is safer, and neither is coverage, platform count or devices. Where a value was never established the cell says so instead of showing a zero.
What actually happened
Other pairs
Pairs within the top ten get a page — 80 comparisons in all. Records below that are not paired here: a comparison earns a page where the choice between the two is a real one, and that choice is made near the top of the register.
Security
Usability
Rank 4 of 68 in the register
Italy · Commercial VPN
Exits in 23 countries
Security
Usability
Rank 6 of 68 in the register
United States · Commercial VPN
Exits in 91 countries
1 documented demand, none of which produced data
1 documented demand, none of which produced data
Recent changes
Open questions
Still open on this record.
Retention, unchecked by anyone. No independent audit has ever been commissioned (V01=no, based on consensus among reviewers and the absence of any AirVPN announcement of one, rather than a primary AirVPN denial) — retention (C01) rests entirely on the provider's own privacy notice, never checked by an outside party.
No transparency report, no canary. No transparency report of government/legal requests and no warrant canary could be found on airvpn.org (P05, P07 unknown) — the site does publish periodic 'mission' reports, but those cover donations to NGOs, not law-enforcement requests, so they do not establish P05.
What the forum threads show. Forum threads show users repeatedly asking AirVPN for a warrant canary with no confirmation from staff that one exists, which is suggestive but not a primary denial, so P07 stays unknown rather than 'none'.
Counts nobody publishes. Request/data-handover counts are consequently also unknown (P08, P09), and total subscriber count is never disclosed (M08 unknown) — AirVPN publishes only a live concurrently-connected-users counter, not a registered-user or subscriber total, so silence/ignorance carry real weight here.
Builds and pentests. Reproducible builds are not documented on AirVPN's own build-from-source page (eddie.website/support/build/), and no dedicated client/infrastructure pentest could be found (V13, V14 unknown). Kill switch scope and split-tunneling behaviour are sourced to a third-party review rather than AirVPN's own documentation (U08, U09 at confidence C) because the relevant FAQ pages could not be reached directly through the site's routing (they render via JavaScript and returned only a loading shell to a plain fetch).
Coverage outside the affiliates. Press coverage is not affiliate-only: BleepingComputer, a mainstream outlet outside the affiliate-aggregator list, has published an independent review carrying its own affiliate-disclosure notice rather than being confined to affiliate directories (X08=no). Its same review also found AirVPN failed every streaming service it tried — Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, ABC, NBC, CBS — which is why U12b_streaming_works now reads no rather than the addictivetips.com-sourced partial it carried before that host was ruled forbidden.
The yearly price. U04b_price_yearly=4.08 is the EUR effective-monthly rate of the one-year plan (49 EUR/year) on airvpn.org/buy/, flat on renewal like every AirVPN term.
The wordmark. AirVPN serves its wordmark only as PNG (/static/img/logo/web_header.png, logo_horiz.png) and has no press or brand page, so logos/airvpn.svg is left absent per AUDITOR.md §1 rather than tracing a raster.
Still open on this record.
What the report is. The security score rests on a Deloitte Audit SRL limited assurance report under ISAE 3000 (Revised), signed 19 December 2025 for the configuration as of 31 October 2025. Read what that is: the conclusion is negative assurance — "nothing has come to our attention" — against a description PIA's own management wrote, and the report states it provides no assurance for any other period.
Who the report is for. The auditor also restricts the report to PIA management and disclaims responsibility to any other reader, so the strongest document in this record is one whose author declines a duty of care toward the person reading it here. Procedures were performed on a sample basis, which is why fleet coverage is recorded as a sample.
What it did not examine. The report covers infrastructure only. C07a_app_sdk and C12_device_identifier are app-side facts it never examined; they now cite the privacy policy instead, which describes analytics for website visitors and opt-in diagnostic reports carrying platform and app version. Reading either as a statement about SDKs compiled into the app is the weakest link in this record, and the open-source clients are where it would actually be settled.
The 2016 subpoena rests on PIA's own word, not the court file. The only detailed account of the McWaters case (S.D. Fla., 9:16-cr-80043) sits on an affiliate site this record cannot cite; CourtListener's docket for that case names no subpoena, no provider and no outcome. P03_court_record and P12_case_history now stand on PIA's own transparency-report statement that it was subpoenaed in 2016-2017 and produced nothing — a B-level self-declaration, not a verified court record.
Notes
On the record as a whole.
AirVPN is a sole proprietorship ("AirVPN di Paolo Brini") registered in Perugia, Italy, and explicitly refuses service to residents of Italy (stated on every page footer and in the Terms of Service §1) — the practical effect is that its own home jurisdiction cannot compel it to log its own resident customers, though this is not evidence of a broader logging-mandate exemption.
AirVPN prices only in EUR (airvpn.org/buy/): 7.00 EUR/month, 49 EUR/year (4.08 EUR/month), flat on renewal. U04_price_monthly (8.11) is 7.00 EUR/month and U04b_price_yearly (56.74) is the 49 EUR/year total, both converted to USD at 1.158 EUR/USD — the rate Mullvad publishes on its own pricing page for the same date, where 5 EUR is shown as 5.79 USD — hence confidence C and a second source for the rate. Multi-year plans drop as low as 2.75 EUR/month.
A notable practice data point: public US federal court transcripts in United States v. Klyushin (D. Mass., docket 61629108, documents #183 and #217, found via CourtListener/RECAP) show a law-enforcement pen register was placed directly at the hosting company (DediPath), not at AirVPN, to monitor an AirVPN server's IP from Jan–Feb 2020; AirVPN's own staff, replying on their forum, confirmed the company had no knowledge of or involvement in the tap and that the device had to be installed outside AirVPN's own systems.
This is recorded in P12_case_history as a court_order/nothing_produced event, sourced to AirVPN's own forum confirmation (not to the PACER PDFs themselves, which returned 403 to automated fetches and were read only via a secondary summary).
On the record as a whole.
First fill 2026-08-26, refreshed 2026-09-12 on P03_court_record, P12_case_history and V12_client_open_source, refreshed again 2026-09-13 on M08_user_scale, P02_disclosure_history, P03_court_record, P05_transparency_report, P06_report_plausibility, P08_requests_received, P09_data_provided and P12_case_history, and refreshed again 2026-09-13 on U04_price_monthly and U04b_price_yearly.
The 2026-09-13 pass found PIA had published its Q1 2026 and Q2 2026 transparency reports since the record's last look at Q4 2025; the record now cites the Q2 2026 post (19 requests received, 0 resulting in data provided, covering April-June 2026, published 2026-08-06) as the freshest, with the same subpoenas/warrants/other/foreign breakdown structure as before.
M08_user_scale, P02_disclosure_history, P03_court_record and P12_case_history were re-read against the same sources and stand unchanged; the main transparency-report page still names no case beyond the 2016-2017 subpoenas already on file. The pricing re-read against the same buy-vpn-online page found both figures unchanged: month-to-month $11.95, one-year plan $47.88 billed for the first year and autorenewing at the same $47.88 with no intro/renewal gap, consistent with PIA's flat-rate pricing noted elsewhere in the catalogue.
Sourced from privateinternetaccess.com's own pages and blog, the two Deloitte ISAE 3000 (Revised) 'Independent Limited Assurance Report' PDFs (April 2024 and December 2025, both opened and read directly), Kape Technologies' own site, the Isle of Man/Companies House-sourced reporting on Kape's 2023 take-private by Unikmind Holdings (Teddy Sagi), and the official pia-foss GitHub organisation for the open-source clients.
The public CourtListener docket for United States v. McWaters (9:16-cr-80043, S.D. Fla.) was opened but names no subpoena, VPN provider or outcome; the affiliate writeup (vpncompare.co.uk) that describes that subpoena in detail was dropped as a forbidden source, and TorrentFreak's own coverage returned HTTP 403 to every fetch attempt this run, curl included. P03/P12 now rest on PIA's own transparency-report self-declaration instead.
Wikipedia was dropped from V12 in favour of the GitHub organisation itself. No affiliate or 'best VPN' aggregator site was used as a factual source anywhere in this record, even though several turned up repeatedly in search results with plausible-looking numbers (server counts, user counts, audit dates) that could not be cross-checked against a primary page and were discarded rather than used.
13 Sep 20261 changes
Why this provider is in the catalogueM14_inclusion_basis
hand_picked, adverse_record changed to adverse_record
12 Sep 20263 changes
Chronology of documented enforcement eventsP12_case_history
{"date":"2016-03","kind":"subpoena","outcome":"nothing_produced","source_url":"https://www.vpncompare.co.uk/private-internet-access-no-log-claim-put-to-the-test/"} changed to {"date":"2016-03","kind":"subpoena","outcome":"nothing_produced","source_url":"https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/transparency-report"}
Security scoresecurity.score
27 changed to 25
Requests received in periodP08_requests_received
30 changed to 19
30 Aug 20261 changes
Weakest protocol still offeredC13_weakest_protocol
wireguard changed to not on the record
12 Sep 20265 changes
Major streaming services reachableU12b_streaming_works
partial changed to no
Usability scoreusability.score
60 changed to 57
Security scoresecurity.score
40 changed to 37
Monthly price USD, month-to-month plan, as chargedU04_price_monthly
8.11 changed to 8.12
Yearly plan price USD, first term as chargedU04b_price_yearly
56.74 changed to 56.84
| ChannelPressure taken from what was left | AirVPNDominant channel: Retention0 to 0.9, longer is worse | Private Internet AccessDominant channel: Integrity0 to 0.9, longer is worse |
|---|---|---|
| IntegrityHas it been caught saying one thing and doing another? | 0.000 | 0.459 |
| RetentionDoes a record exist that links traffic to a person, and who checked? | 0.349 | 0.188 |
| JurisdictionCan someone compel what exists, without the provider getting a say? | 0.000 | 0.272 |
| SilenceTen years, millions of users and nothing on record? | 0.240 | 0.000 |
| IgnoranceHow much of this did nobody establish? | 0.162 | 0.071 |
| HygieneWhat identifying material is collected in passing, and can the client be checked at all? | 0.066 | 0.101 |
| ArchitectureWho operates the exit, and what does it do to the traffic? | 0.050 | 0.050 |
| DisclosureHas it already handed something over? | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| What is left of 100The channels multiply: each one takes a share of what the one before it left standing | 37 | 25 |
AirVPN and Private Internet Access were assessed by the HushFleet team: AirVPN scores 37/100 for security, in the Weak band, and Private Internet Access 25/100, in the Insufficient band. The 12-point gap opens widest on Integrity — “Has it been caught saying one thing and doing another?” — taking 0% from AirVPN and 46% from Private Internet Access.
By circumstance
| AirVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Torrenting | Allowed yes | Allowed yes |
| Streaming | Not reachable no | Reachable yes |
| Devices at once | 5 | unlimited |
| Under censorship | Claimed to work claimed | Claimed to work claimed |
| Exits in mandate countries | None | 6 United Arab Emirates, China, India, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Vietnam |
| Hosting in those countries | — the question does not arise | Physical and virtual both mixed |
| Company under a mandate | No such mandate no | No such mandate no |
| Secret orders | Orders go through a judge judicial_only | National security letters or their equivalent nsl_equivalent |
| AirVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Security | 37 weak · rank 4 of 68 | 25 insufficient · rank 6 of 68 |
| Usability | 57 out of 100 | 73 out of 100 |
| Record completeness | 82% usability 100% | 89% usability 100% |
| AirVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Who operates the exit | Run by the provider itself provider_operated | Run by the provider itself provider_operated |
| Retention as declared | Nothing that links traffic to a person none_linkable | Nothing that links traffic to a person none_linkable |
| RAM-only diskless servers | Yes, on the provider's word yes_declaredBairvpn.org · | Yes, checked by someone independent yes_verifiedAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| IP allocation model | Exit address shared between users sharedCairvpn.org · | Dedicated address offered as an option dedicated_optionBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Signup without email | Yes, on the provider's word yes_declaredBairvpn.org · | No, an email address is required noBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Anonymous payment options | Cryptocurrency paid directlyBairvpn.org · | Cryptocurrency through a processorBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Own DNS inside the tunnel | Yes, on the provider's word yes_declared | Yes, on the provider's word yes_declared |
| Worst third-party SDK category in the app | No third-party SDK noneBplay.google.com · | Analytics analyticsBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Worst third-party tracker category on the site | No third-party tracker noneBairvpn.org · | Analytics analyticsBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Who owns the hardware | Rented from third parties rentedCairvpn.org · | Owned by the provider ownedBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Offered countries that sit under a logging mandate | NoneBairvpn.org · | 6 United Arab Emirates, China, India, Kazakhstan, Turkey, VietnamBserverlist.piaservers.net · 2 sources · |
| Hosting in the mandate countries it offers | — the question does not ariseno source published | Physical and virtual both mixedBserverlist.piaservers.net · 2 sources · |
| Incorporation country mandates retention | No such mandate no | No such mandate no |
| Beneficial owner sits under a retention regime | No such regime no | No such regime no |
| Persistent device identifier | None held noneBplay.google.com · | An identifier scoped to the app app_scoped_idBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Weakest protocol still offered | — the question does not arise | — the question does not arise |
| What the exit does to passing traffic | — not established | — not established |
| AirVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| At least one independent audit | No independent audit noCbleepingcomputer.com · | Yes, and the report was read yes_verifiedAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| How the report is published | — the question does not ariseno source published | The full report is published full_pdfAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Subject of the audit | — the question does not ariseno source published | The no-logs claim itself · The infrastructureA |
| AirVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Server seizure by law enforcement | No seizure on record none_known | No seizure on record none_known |
| Actual disclosure history | No disclosure on record none_known | No disclosure on record none_known |
| Court record of compelled production | No court record none_knownno source published · | Told a court it had nothing to produce unable_to_produceBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Response to a national logging mandate | Was never present in that country no_presenceno source published · | Pulled its servers out rather than comply withdrew_physicalBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Transparency report |
| AirVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Documented gap between claim and behaviour | No documented lie noneCbleepingcomputer.com · | — not establishedno source published |
| Marketing against audit findings | — the question does not ariseno source published | — not establishedno source published |
| Ownership structure transparency | Ownership is stated and checkable clearBairvpn.org · | Ownership is partly stated partialBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Adverse events on the owner group record | Nothing adverse on record clean |
| AirVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | AirVPN di Paolo Brini — Via Sagittario 4, Perugia (PG), Italy. VAT ID IT03297800546, REA PG-279011 (individual/sole-proprietor enterprise)Bairvpn.org · | PIA Private Internet Access, Inc., 5555 DTC Parkway, Suite 360, Greenwood Village, CO 80111, USAAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| Where the company sits | Italy ITBairvpn.org · | United States USAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Year the service launched | 2010 | 2010 |
| User base scale (mass >=10M, mid >=1M, niche <1M) | — not establishedno source published |
| AirVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms with a client | 8 Android, Android TV, Fire TV, iOS, Linux, macOS, Routers, WindowsBairvpn.org · | 9 Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Routers, Android TV, Apple TV, Browser extensionBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Countries with an exit | 23 countriesBairvpn.org · | 91 countriesBserverlist.piaservers.net · 2 sources · |
| Paying monthly | $8.11 per monthCairvpn.org · 2 sources · | $11.95 per month |
| Server fleet coverage | — the question does not ariseno source published | A sample of servers sampleAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Auditor name | — the question does not ariseno source published | Deloitte Audit SRL (Romania)Aassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Auditor category | — the question does not ariseno source published | One of the Big Four big4Aassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Assurance standard | — the question does not ariseno source published | ISAE 3000 isae3000Aassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Date of latest report | — the question does not ariseno source published | 2025-12-19Aassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Audit cadence | — the question does not ariseno source published | Repeated, at no fixed interval repeated_irregularBprivateinternetaccess.com · 3 sources · |
|---|
| Total published audits | 0Cbleepingcomputer.com · | 3Bprivateinternetaccess.com · 3 sources · |
|---|
| Retention as the report states it | — the question does not ariseno source published | Nothing that links traffic to a person none_linkableAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Client source code published | Every client all | Every client all |
|---|
| Reproducible builds | — not established | — not established |
|---|
| Separate pentest | — not established | — not established |
|---|
| Strength of the assurance opinion | — the question does not ariseno source published | A limited-assurance conclusion limitedAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| — not establishedno source published |
Current, with request numbers fresh_with_numbersBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Reported numbers plausible for this scale | — the question does not ariseno source published | The numbers are plausible at this scale plausibleCprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Warrant canary discipline | — not establishedno source published | Never had one noneBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Requests received | — not establishedno source published | 19Bprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Requests that produced data | — not establishedno source published | 0Bprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Secret-order regime | Orders go through a judge judicial_onlyCairvpn.org · | National security letters or their equivalent nsl_equivalentCeff.org · |
|---|
| Chronology of documented enforcement events | 1 documented demandBairvpn.org · | 1 documented demandBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
A history of adware or malware adware_malware_historyCen.wikipedia.org · 3 sources · |
| How the service is paid for | Paid subscriptions only paid_only | Paid subscriptions only paid_only |
|---|
| Claims of 100% anonymity or military-grade crypto | Makes no such claim noCairvpn.org · | Claims total anonymity or military-grade encryption yesBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Aggressive lifetime subscriptions | Does not no | Does not no |
|---|
| Coverage exists only on affiliate sites | Covered outside affiliate sites too no | Covered outside affiliate sites too no |
|---|
| Security incident and how it was disclosed | No incident on record none_known | No incident on record none_known |
|---|
| Affiliate programme and payout tier | A standard payout standard | A standard payout standard |
|---|
| Owner-run review media discloses the tie | — the question does not arise | — the question does not arise |
|---|
| App store declaration | The store form matches the published policy matches_policy | The store form matches the published policy matches_policy |
|---|
Mid: a million users or more midBinvestegate.co.uk · |
| Ultimate beneficial owner as written | Paolo Brini, sole owner/operator trading as 'AirVPN di Paolo Brini'. The service began in 2010 as a project of a small group of Rome-based activists/hacktivists (initially operated by a company called Iridium), and was formalized under a dedicated company with Brini as owner in November 2012.Bairvpn.org · 2 sources · | Teddy Sagi, via Unikmind Holdings Limited (Isle of Man), sole shareholder of Kape Technologies plc since the May 2023 delisting; Kape owns PIA Private Internet Access, Inc.Cen.wikipedia.org · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Other businesses of the owner group | None disclosedBairvpn.org · | Antivirus · A review directory · Adtech or adwareCen.wikipedia.org · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Country of the ultimate beneficial owner | ITBairvpn.org · | IMBcains.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Owner group | independentBairvpn.org · | kapeBkape.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Date the current owner took control | — the question does not ariseno source published | 2019-12Bkape.com · |
|---|
| Role of this brand inside the group | The group's principal brand principalBairvpn.org · | A secondary brand secondary_brandCkape.com · |
|---|
| Infrastructure shared with cluster siblings | Separate infrastructure separateBairvpn.org · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| Paying yearly | $56.74 a year at renewal, billed onceCairvpn.org · 2 sources · | $47.88 a year at renewal, billed onceBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Usable free tier | No free tier none | No free tier none |
|---|
| Works under active censorship | Claimed to work claimed | Claimed to work claimed |
|---|
| Protocols offered | 3 WireGuard, OpenVPN, An obfuscated protocolBairvpn.org · | 3 WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2Bhelpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Kill switch coverage | On some platforms partialCeddie.website · 2 sources · | On every platform all_platformsBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Split tunneling available | Not available noCbleepingcomputer.com · | Available yesBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Simultaneous connections | 5Bairvpn.org · | unlimitedBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Friction to start using it | No account needed no_accountBairvpn.org · | An email address only email_onlyBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| P2P allowed | Allowed yes | Allowed yes |
|---|
| Major streaming services reachable | Not reachable noCbleepingcomputer.com · | Reachable yesBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
