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.
No demand on the public record
Security
Usability
Rank 5 of 68 in the register
Malaysia · Commercial VPN
Exits in 57 countries
Recent changes
1 change logged, on 14 Sep 2026
Open questions
Still open on this record.
Ultimate beneficial owner. eVenture Ltd. is named and registered (Malaysia, LL09685) with a street address, but no individual owner or parent structure is disclosed anywhere in the provider's own documents; M09, M11 and the owner-jurisdiction channel stay unknown.
Seizure and court-record history. The transparency report states law-enforcement requests received nothing to hand over every year since 2013, which supports P02_disclosure_history, but no single dated seizure or court order is documented with its own record, so P01_seizure_event and P03_court_record stay unknown rather than the favourable none_known/unable_to_produce a P12 event would earn.
Mandate-country hosting. hide.me offers exit locations in three countries this catalogue's mandate table flags (AE, TR, VN); none of the three country pages state whether the hardware there is physical or virtual, so C09b_mandate_hosting is unknown.
Circumvention and streaming claims. The pricing page advertises undifferentiated "Streaming Support" and the site offers no measured circumvention evidence, so U06_censorship_circumvention, U12a_p2p_allowed and U12b_streaming_works stay unknown rather than resting on marketing copy.
Audit history before 2024. The provider's own pages assert an audit "back in 2015" and describe audits as routine, but only the 2024 Securitum PDF could be located and opened; V09_audit_regularity and V10_audit_count are scored on the one document actually read, not the claimed series.
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.
Pricing has no plain 12-month tier; the closest analogue to an annual plan is a 13-month term (12 months plus 1 bonus month) billed 54.99 USD, recorded in U04b with this note per the schema's first-term rule. A 26-month term (24+2 bonus months) also exists at 69.99 USD but is not the annual plan the field asks for. C05_payment_anonymous also lists Visa/Mastercard/Amex/PayPal on the same page; only the Coinpayments crypto option is anonymous-adjacent.
C07b_site_trackers is a self-hosted/proxied Plausible-style analytics script served from hide.me's own domain (data-api https://hide.me/api/event) rather than a third-party domain; coded as analytics since it is still a distinct analytics product, not a first-party log.
U07_protocols refresh (2026-09-14) found SoftEther added to the protocol list alongside WireGuard, IKEv2, SSTP and OpenVPN; SoftEther is third-party open-source software (not hide.me's own protocol) with a published, reviewable implementation, so it is coded vendor_open rather than proprietary.
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.
14 Sep 20261 changes
Protocols offeredU07_protocols
wireguard, ikev2, sstp, openvpn changed to wireguard, ikev2, sstp, openvpn, vendor_open
hide.me and Private Internet Access were assessed by the HushFleet team and both placed in the Insufficient band: hide.me scores 28/100 for security, Private Internet Access 25/100. They share an independent audit. The 3-point gap opens widest on Integrity — “Has it been caught saying one thing and doing another?” — taking 4% from hide.me and 46% from Private Internet Access.
Security
Usability
Rank 6 of 68 in the register
United States · Commercial VPN
Exits in 91 countries
By circumstance
| hide.me | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Torrenting | — not established | Allowed yes |
| Streaming | — not established | Reachable yes |
| Devices at once | 10 | unlimited |
| Under censorship | — not established | Claimed to work claimed |
| Exits in mandate countries | 3 United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Vietnam | 6 United Arab Emirates, China, India, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Vietnam |
| Hosting in those countries | — not established | Physical and virtual both mixed |
| Company under a mandate | No such mandate no | No such mandate no |
| Secret orders | — not established | National security letters or their equivalent nsl_equivalent |
| hide.me | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Security | 28 insufficient · rank 5 of 68 | 25 insufficient · rank 6 of 68 |
| Usability | 81 out of 100 | 73 out of 100 |
| Record completeness | 77% usability 75% | 89% usability 100% |
| hide.me | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Who operates the exit | Run by the provider itself provider_operated | Run by the provider itself provider_operated |
| Retention as declared | Session metadata session_metadataBhide.me · | Nothing that links traffic to a person none_linkableBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| RAM-only diskless servers | Yes, checked by someone independent yes_verified | Yes, checked by someone independent yes_verified |
| IP allocation model | Dedicated address offered as an option dedicated_option | Dedicated address offered as an option dedicated_option |
| 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_verifiedAhide.me · | Yes, on the provider's word yes_declaredAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| Worst third-party SDK category in the app | No third-party SDK noneBplay.google.com · 2 sources · | Analytics analyticsBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Worst third-party tracker category on the site | Analytics analytics | Analytics analytics |
| Who owns the hardware | Owned by the provider owned | Owned by the provider owned |
| Offered countries that sit under a logging mandate | 3 United Arab Emirates, Turkey, VietnamBhide.me · | 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 | No such mandate no | No such mandate no |
| Beneficial owner sits under a retention regime | — not establishedno source published | No such regime noBcains.com · |
| Persistent device identifier | None held noneBplay.google.com · 2 sources · | An identifier scoped to the app app_scoped_idBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Weakest protocol still offered | SSTP sstpBhide.me · | — the question does not ariseBhelpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| What the exit does to passing traffic | — not established | — not established |
| hide.me | 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 itselfAhide.me · | The no-logs claim itself · The infrastructureAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| Server fleet coverage | A sample of servers sample | A sample of servers sample |
| Auditor name | Securitum (Pawel Rozanski, Maciej Szymczak)Ahide.me · |
| hide.me | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Server seizure by law enforcement | — not establishedno source published | No seizure on record none_knownCprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Actual disclosure history | No disclosure on record none_known | No disclosure on record none_known |
| Court record of compelled production | — not establishedno source published | Told a court it had nothing to produce unable_to_produceBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Response to a national logging mandate | Pulled its servers out rather than comply withdrew_physical | Pulled its servers out rather than comply withdrew_physical |
| Transparency report | Current, with request numbers fresh_with_numbers | Current, with request numbers fresh_with_numbers |
| hide.me | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Documented gap between claim and behaviour | — not established | — not established |
| Marketing against audit findings | No gap on record noneBhide.me · 2 sources · | — not establishedno source published |
| Ownership structure transparency | Ownership is stated and checkable clearBhide.me · | 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 |
| hide.me | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | eVenture Ltd. (eVenture Limited), registered in Malaysia under registration number LL09685Bhide.me · | PIA Private Internet Access, Inc., 5555 DTC Parkway, Suite 360, Greenwood Village, CO 80111, USAAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| Where the company sits | Malaysia MYBhide.me · | United States USAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Year the service launched | 2012Bhide.me · | 2010 |
| hide.me | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms with a client | 10 Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Apple TV, Android TV, Fire TV, Browser extension, RoutersBhide.me · | 9 Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Routers, Android TV, Apple TV, Browser extensionBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Countries with an exit | 57 countriesBhide.me · | 91 countriesBserverlist.piaservers.net · 2 sources · |
| Paying monthly | $11.99 per monthBhide.me · | $11.95 per month |
| ChannelPressure taken from what was left | hide.meDominant channel: Retention0 to 0.9, longer is worse | Private Internet AccessDominant channel: Integrity0 to 0.9, longer is worse |
|---|---|---|
| RetentionDoes a record exist that links traffic to a person, and who checked? | 0.518 | 0.188 |
| IntegrityHas it been caught saying one thing and doing another? | 0.040 | 0.459 |
| JurisdictionCan someone compel what exists, without the provider getting a say? | 0.125 | 0.272 |
| IgnoranceHow much of this did nobody establish? | 0.149 | 0.071 |
| HygieneWhat identifying material is collected in passing, and can the client be checked at all? | 0.146 | 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 |
| SilenceTen years, millions of users and nothing on record? | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| What is left of 100The channels multiply: each one takes a share of what the one before it left standing | 28 | 25 |
| Auditor category | A security specialist security_specialistAhide.me · | One of the Big Four big4Aassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Assurance standard | Another standard otherAhide.me · | ISAE 3000 isae3000Aassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Date of latest report | 2024-06-07Ahide.me · | 2025-12-19Aassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Audit cadence | One-off one_offAhide.me · 2 sources · | Repeated, at no fixed interval repeated_irregularBprivateinternetaccess.com · 3 sources · |
|---|
| Total published audits | 1Ahide.me · 2 sources · | 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 | Some clients partialBgithub.com · | Every client allBgithub.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| 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 · |
|---|
| 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 | 9Ahide.me · | 19Bprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Requests that produced data | 0 | 0 |
|---|
| Secret-order regime | — not establishedno source published | National security letters or their equivalent nsl_equivalentCeff.org · |
|---|
| Chronology of documented enforcement events | 0 No demand on the public recordAhide.me · 2 sources · | 1 documented demandBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| How the service is paid for | A free tier funded by the paid one freemium_fundedBhide.me · | Paid subscriptions only paid_onlyBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| 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 | — not establishedno source published | 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 high payout high_payoutBhide.me · | A standard payout standardBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Owner-run review media discloses the tie | — not establishedno source published | — the question does not ariseno source published |
|---|
| App store declaration | The store form matches the published policy matches_policy | The store form matches the published policy matches_policy |
|---|
| User base scale (mass >=10M, mid >=1M, niche <1M) | Mass: 10 million users or more massBhide.me · | Mid: a million users or more midBinvestegate.co.uk · |
|---|
| Ultimate beneficial owner as written | — not establishedno source published | 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 disclosedBhide.me · 3 sources · | 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 | independentBhide.me · 2 sources · | kapeBkape.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Date the current owner took control | 2012Bhide.me · 2 sources · | 2019-12Bkape.com · |
|---|
| Role of this brand inside the group | The group's principal brand principalBhide.me · | A secondary brand secondary_brandCkape.com · |
|---|
| Infrastructure shared with cluster siblings | Separate infrastructure separateBhide.me · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| Paying yearly | $54.99 a year at renewal, billed onceBhide.me · | $47.88 a year at renewal, billed onceBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Usable free tier | A free tier with limits limited_freeBhide.me · | No free tier noneBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Works under active censorship | — not establishedno source published | Claimed to work claimedBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Protocols offered | 5 WireGuard, IKEv2, SSTP, OpenVPN, A vendor protocol with published sourceBhide.me · | 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 | 10Bhide.me · | unlimitedBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Friction to start using it | An email address only email_only | An email address only email_only |
|---|
| P2P allowed | — not establishedno source published | Allowed yesBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Major streaming services reachable | — not establishedno source published | Reachable yesBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
1 documented demand, none of which produced data
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
