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 10 of 68 in the register
Not published · Commercial VPN
Exits in 25 countries
Security
Usability
Rank 6 of 68 in the register
United States · Commercial VPN
Exits in 91 countries
No demand on the public record
1 documented demand, none of which produced data
Recent changes
No change logged on this record
Open questions
Still open on this record.
Jurisdiction. The about-us page says CactusVPN "started as a small company in Moldova" but that is company narrative, not a registration statement, and the Terms of Service state no governing law or incorporation country at all; the Securitum report names the client only as "Cactus VPN LLC" with no jurisdiction attached. M06 and the fields derived from it stay unknown until a registry record or an explicit jurisdiction clause is found.
Mandate hosting. All 25 countries in the published server list carry a data-retention mandate in this catalogue's own table, so C09b is not a narrow question here, but the server-locations page does not distinguish physical exit points from virtual ones for any location, and no per-country hosting fact was established this session.
App-level identifiers and store declarations. C07a, C12 and X12 stay unknown: no Play Store data-safety form or Apple privacy label was read this session, and the Securitum audit's whitebox scope covered server-side configuration and DNS/traffic handling, not what the mobile or extension clients transmit to app stores or analytics SDKs on their own.
Transparency and canary. No /transparency, /transparency-report, /warrant-canary or /canary path resolves on the site, and no such page turned up in the sitemap; that is an absence found by looking, not a sourced "none", so both fields stay unknown rather than being marked none.
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.
The Securitum engagement (20 Apr–7 May 2026, nine person-days, whitebox) inspected four production servers across four of CactusVPN's ~25 listed server countries and the VPN client's connection behaviour (including a Linux app used for testing, which is not among the platforms the downloads page currently lists — apparently manual/legacy client access rather than a listed product).
The report is a bespoke Securitum security assessment, not an ISAE 3000 or SOC 2 engagement, so V07/V15 record that rather than guessing an assurance tier.
Pricing carries a renewal-rate guarantee: the annual ($70/yr) and 2-year ($95/2yr) plans are both stated to renew at the same locked price "for life," which is unusual among providers in this catalogue and is not a lifetime one-time-fee scheme (X07=no).
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
CactusVPN and Private Internet Access were assessed by the HushFleet team and both placed in the Insufficient band: CactusVPN scores 20/100 for security, Private Internet Access 25/100. They share an independent audit. The 5-point gap opens widest on Integrity — “Has it been caught saying one thing and doing another?” — taking 16% from CactusVPN and 46% from Private Internet Access.
| ChannelPressure taken from what was left | CactusVPNDominant channel: Ignorance0 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? | 0.155 | 0.459 |
| IgnoranceHow much of this did nobody establish? | 0.333 | 0.071 |
| RetentionDoes a record exist that links traffic to a person, and who checked? | 0.299 | 0.188 |
| HygieneWhat identifying material is collected in passing, and can the client be checked at all? | 0.280 | 0.101 |
| JurisdictionCan someone compel what exists, without the provider getting a say? | 0.079 | 0.272 |
| SilenceTen years, millions of users and nothing on record? | 0.225 | 0.000 |
| ArchitectureWho operates the exit, and what does it do to the traffic? | 0.000 | 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 | 20 | 25 |
By circumstance
| CactusVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Torrenting | Allowed yes | Allowed yes |
| Streaming | Reachable yes | Reachable yes |
| Devices at once | unlimited | unlimited |
| Under censorship | Claimed to work claimed | Claimed to work claimed |
| Exits in mandate countries | 2 India, Russia | 6 United Arab Emirates, China, India, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Vietnam |
| Hosting in those countries | — not established | Physical and virtual both mixed |
| Company under a mandate | — not established | No such mandate no |
| Secret orders | No secret-order regime on record none_known | National security letters or their equivalent nsl_equivalent |
| CactusVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Security | 20 insufficient · rank 10 of 68 | 25 insufficient · rank 6 of 68 |
| Usability | 66 out of 100 | 73 out of 100 |
| Record completeness | 63% usability 100% | 89% usability 100% |
| CactusVPN | 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 | — not establishedno source published | Yes, checked by someone independent yes_verifiedAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| IP allocation model | Exit address shared between users sharedBcactusvpn.com · | Dedicated address offered as an option dedicated_optionBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Signup without email | No, an email address is required no | No, an email address is required no |
| Anonymous payment options | Cryptocurrency through a processor | Cryptocurrency through a processor |
| Own DNS inside the tunnel | Yes, checked by someone independent yes_verifiedAsecuritum.com · | Yes, on the provider's word yes_declaredAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| Worst third-party SDK category in the app | — not establishedno source published | Analytics analyticsBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Worst third-party tracker category on the site | Analytics analytics | Analytics analytics |
| Who owns the hardware | — not establishedno source published | Owned by the provider ownedBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Offered countries that sit under a logging mandate | 2 India, RussiaBcactusvpn.com · | 6 United Arab Emirates, China, India, Kazakhstan, Turkey, VietnamBserverlist.piaservers.net · 2 sources · |
| Hosting in the mandate countries it offers | — not establishedno source published | Physical and virtual both mixedBserverlist.piaservers.net · 2 sources · |
| Incorporation country mandates retention | — not establishedno source published | No such mandate nono source published · |
| Beneficial owner sits under a retention regime | — not establishedno source published | No such regime noBcains.com · |
| Persistent device identifier | — not establishedno source published | An identifier scoped to the app app_scoped_idBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Weakest protocol still offered | PPTP pptpBcactusvpn.com · | — the question does not ariseBhelpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| What the exit does to passing traffic | Traffic passes through unaltered noneBcactusvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
| CactusVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| At least one independent audit | Yes, and the report was read yes_verified | Yes, and the report was read yes_verified |
| How the report is published | The full report is published full_pdf | The full report is published full_pdf |
| Subject of the audit | The no-logs claim itself · The infrastructure | The no-logs claim itself · The infrastructure |
| Server fleet coverage | A sample of servers sample | A sample of servers sample |
| Auditor name | SecuritumAsecuritum.com · | Deloitte Audit SRL (Romania)Aassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| Auditor category | A security specialist security_specialist |
| CactusVPN | 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 | — not establishedno source published | Pulled its servers out rather than comply withdrew_physicalBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Transparency report | — not established |
| CactusVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Documented gap between claim and behaviour | — not established | — not established |
| Marketing against audit findings | No gap on record noneBcactusvpn.com · 2 sources · | — not establishedno source published |
| Ownership structure transparency | Ownership is stated and checkable clearBcactusvpn.com · | Ownership is partly stated partialBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Adverse events on the owner group record | — not establishedno source published | A history of adware or malware adware_malware_history |
| CactusVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Cactus VPN LLCAsecuritum.com · | PIA Private Internet Access, Inc., 5555 DTC Parkway, Suite 360, Greenwood Village, CO 80111, USAAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| Where the company sits | — not establishedno source published | United States USAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Year the service launched | 2011Bcactusvpn.com · | 2010Cen.wikipedia.org |
| CactusVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms with a client | 7 Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Android TV, Fire TV, Browser extensionBcactusvpn.com · | 9 Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Routers, Android TV, Apple TV, Browser extensionBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Countries with an exit | 25 countriesBcactusvpn.com · | 91 countriesBserverlist.piaservers.net · 2 sources · |
| Paying monthly | $15.00 per monthBcactusvpn.com · | $11.95 per month |
One of the Big Four big4Aassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| Assurance standard | Another standard otherAsecuritum.com · | ISAE 3000 isae3000Aassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Date of latest report | 2026-05-08Asecuritum.com · | 2025-12-19Aassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Audit cadence | One-off one_offAsecuritum.com · | Repeated, at no fixed interval repeated_irregularBprivateinternetaccess.com · 3 sources · |
|---|
| Total published audits | 1Asecuritum.com · | 3Bprivateinternetaccess.com · 3 sources · |
|---|
| Retention as the report states it | Nothing that links traffic to a person none_linkable | Nothing that links traffic to a person none_linkable |
|---|
| Client source code published | None noneAsecuritum.com · | Every client allBgithub.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Reproducible builds | — not established | — not established |
|---|
| Separate pentest | — not established | — not established |
|---|
| Strength of the assurance opinion | — not establishedno source published | A limited-assurance conclusion limitedAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
Current, with request numbers fresh_with_numbersBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Reported numbers plausible for this scale | — not establishedno 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 | No secret-order regime on record none_knownno source published · | National security letters or their equivalent nsl_equivalentCeff.org · |
|---|
| Chronology of documented enforcement events | — not establishedno source published | 1 documented demandBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| How the service is paid for | Paid subscriptions only paid_only | Paid subscriptions only paid_only |
|---|
| Claims of 100% anonymity or military-grade crypto | Claims total anonymity or military-grade encryption yes | Claims total anonymity or military-grade encryption yes |
|---|
| Aggressive lifetime subscriptions | Does not no | Does not no |
|---|
| Coverage exists only on affiliate sites | Covered only on sites paid to cover it yesCcactusvpn.com · | Covered outside affiliate sites too noCtechradar.com · |
|---|
| 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 | — not establishedno source published | — the question does not ariseno source published |
|---|
| App store declaration | — not establishedno source published | The store form matches the published policy matches_policyBapps.apple.com · 3 sources · |
|---|
| User base scale (mass >=10M, mid >=1M, niche <1M) | — not establishedno source published | Mid: a million users or more midBinvestegate.co.uk · |
|---|
| Ultimate beneficial owner as written | Independent; founded and run by co-founders (Sergiu Candja, Pavel Bodeanu, and colleagues), who state they have refused outside buyout offersBcactusvpn.com · | 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 disclosedBcactusvpn.com · | Antivirus · A review directory · Adtech or adwareCen.wikipedia.org · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Country of the ultimate beneficial owner | — not establishedno source published | IMBcains.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Owner group | independentBcactusvpn.com · | 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 principalBcactusvpn.com · | A secondary brand secondary_brandCkape.com · |
|---|
| Infrastructure shared with cluster siblings | Separate infrastructure separateBcactusvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| Paying yearly | $70.00 a year at renewal, billed onceBcactusvpn.com · | $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 | 8 OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, L2TP, PPTP, SSTP, A vendor protocol with published source, An obfuscated protocolBcactusvpn.com · | 3 WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2Bhelpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Kill switch coverage | On every platform all_platforms | On every platform all_platforms |
|---|
| Split tunneling available | Available yes | Available yes |
|---|
| Simultaneous connections | unlimited | unlimited |
|---|
| Friction to start using it | An email address only email_only | An email address only email_only |
|---|
| P2P allowed | Allowed yes | Allowed yes |
|---|
| Major streaming services reachable | Reachable yes | Reachable yes |
|---|
