NordVPN vs PIA (2026): price, no-logs record, port forwarding

NordVPN vs PIA comes down to this: Private Internet Access is cheaper, renews without a big price jump, allows unlimited devices and gives you port forwarding for free, while NordVPN has the longer run of independent no-logs checks and a jurisdiction outside the United States. Both are mainstream, paid, WireGuard-based services with no free plan.

The interesting part is how differently they back up the same promise not to keep logs. PIA’s claim has been tested where it hurts, in American criminal cases, and held. NordVPN’s has been tested by auditors six times, and it also has a server breach in its past. This guide goes through price, trust, jurisdiction, ownership, port forwarding and features, with a source for every number. We haven’t run speed tests, so you won’t find speed scores here.

Is PIA cheaper than NordVPN?

Yes. On every plan length we could compare, PIA costs less up front, and the gap widens at renewal, because PIA’s listed renewal prices match its introductory ones while NordVPN’s jump.

PIA’s own pricing page¹⁴, as listed on Nov 12, 2026, offered $2.03 a month on the 3-year plan with 4 extra months, billed $81.20 and auto-renewing at $81.20 every three years. The 1-year plan was $3.99 a month ($47.88 a year, renewing at $47.88), and month to month was $11.95.

NordVPN’s own pricing page blocked our checker, so its prices here are the US prices reported by Gizmodo on Oct 21, 2026¹, before tax. Basic, the cheapest tier, was $3.49 a month on the 2-year plan ($94.23 for the first 27 months), $5.49 a month for one year ($65.88), or $14.99 month to month. Gizmodo lists Basic’s renewal at $139.08 a year. The higher tiers add extras beyond the VPN and cost more: Gizmodo lists Complete, which adds antivirus, the NordPass password manager and cloud storage, at $4.49 a month on the 2-year plan, and Prime, which adds US-only identity protection, at $7.49.

Two caveats. First, promotions on both sites change often, and around Black Friday they change weekly, so treat these as a snapshot. Second, a cheap first term is only half the cost: if you don’t want to pay renewal prices, put a reminder in your calendar to cancel or renegotiate before the plan rolls over. Our cheapest VPN guide compares renewal prices across all the providers we cover.

Do NordVPN and PIA have free trials or refunds?

Both offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on a first purchase, with conditions. NordVPN has a 7-day free trial in some countries on its top tiers only; PIA’s iOS app advertises a 7-day free trial through the App Store.

NordVPN’s money-back guarantee² covers only your first purchase of a new subscription, not renewals, and purchases through the Apple App Store or Amazon Appstore are refunded by those stores. Its 7-day free trial³ runs in 15 countries, including the US, UK, Canada and Australia, but only on 1- and 2-year plans of the top tiers (Prime, Ultimate Max, Ultra or Complete Max).

PIA’s terms¹⁵ limit its 30-day guarantee to new subscribers, the request must come within 30 days of the first purchase, and you lose eligibility if you buy a new account within three months of a refund. Purchases through Apple, Google Play, gift cards or third-party deal sites are refunded by that seller. The App Store listing¹⁶ advertises a 7-day free trial.

Which has the better no-logs record, NordVPN or PIA?

PIA has the rarer kind of evidence: two US court cases in which it had nothing identifying to give. NordVPN has the more frequent kind: six independent assurance engagements, the latest published in February 2026. Both now have Deloitte reviews.

PIA in court

In 2016 the FBI was investigating a series of bomb hoaxes and traced them to Preston McWaters. According to TorrentFreak’s report on the criminal complaint²², a subpoena to London Trust Media, PIA’s owner at the time, yielded only that the IP addresses involved belonged to the US east coast. There was no account, no name and no session log.

In 2018, in the San Jose federal trial of Ross Colby on hacking charges, PIA’s general counsel testified that the company keeps no logs of customers’ internet activity, as TorrentFreak reported²³. Court testimony and subpoena responses carry legal consequences if they’re false, which is why many privacy advocates weigh them heavily.

PIA has a third data point. In July 2016 it said Russian authorities had seized some of its servers there; it shut its Russian gateways, rotated certificates and said no customer data was compromised because it logs none, The Register reported²⁴.

PIA’s audits and transparency reports

Deloitte Audit Romania has reviewed PIA three times under the ISAE 3000 (Revised) assurance standard. The first¹⁹ checked server configurations as of June 30, 2022, a point-in-time check that they matched PIA’s privacy policy and weren’t designed to identify users. A 2024 review²⁰ added incident management and the token-based dedicated IP system, and a third, completed December 19, 2025²¹, covered VPN and distribution servers, access control and change management. PIA gives the full reports to customers rather than publishing them openly.

PIA’s Q4 2025 transparency report²⁵ lists 30 legal requests (7 subpoenas, 1 warrant, 10 other government or civil requests and 12 foreign or informal ones) and says none produced user data.

NordVPN’s audits

NordVPN has had its no-logs policy checked six times. According to Wikipedia’s summary¹⁰, PwC did the first two, in 2018 and 2020. Deloitte did the fifth⁹, with access from November 18 to December 20, 2024, covering standard, P2P and other server types, and the sixth⁸, run over a month at the end of 2025 under ISAE 3000 (Revised) and published in February 2026. The sixth covered standard VPN, Double VPN, Onion Over VPN and obfuscated servers. Separately, Cure53 ran a security audit of NordVPN’s systems in May, June and October 2025 and, TechRadar reports⁸, found no critical flaws.

NordVPN’s 2018 breach

In March 2018 an attacker got into one NordVPN server at a Finnish data center through an insecure remote-management system the provider had left, and an expired internal private key leaked. NordVPN said the server held no user activity logs. The breach only became public in October 2019, TechCrunch reported¹¹, which drew more criticism than the breach itself. More recently, in October 2026, Nord Security patched a Windows app flaw¹² (CVE-2026-106030) that let a local, low-privileged attacker stop unprotected Windows services; version 8.12.0.0 and later are not affected.

Does it matter that PIA is based in the US?

It matters less than the court record suggests it might. PIA operates under US law, so it does receive US subpoenas and warrants, but what it can hand over depends on what it stores, and twice that was nothing useful.

PIA’s terms of service¹⁵ say the service is provided by PIA Private Internet Access, Inc., are governed by Colorado law, and send disputes to Denver County courts. That means American legal process applies directly, which the transparency report above makes concrete: a warrant, seven subpoenas and more in a single quarter.

NordVPN says⁴ it is based in and operates under the jurisdiction of Panama, and that its parent, Nord Security, is headquartered in the Netherlands. A company outside the US still gets foreign requests and can still be pressured through its data centers, which are spread across many countries. Jurisdiction sets which court can make the demand. Whether any data exists to hand over depends on how the service is built, and that’s what the audits and court cases speak to.

Who owns PIA, and does Kape ownership matter?

PIA belongs to Kape Technologies, which also owns CyberGhost and ExpressVPN. NordVPN belongs to Nord Security, which merged with Surfshark in 2022. So both of these are part of larger VPN groups.

PIA was founded in 2010 under London Trust Media by Andrew Lee, according to Wikipedia¹⁷. Kape announced its purchase of PIA in November 2019, in a deal reported by TechRadar at $95.5 million¹⁸. The deal worried some users because Kape used to be called Crossrider, a company whose browser-extension software was associated with bundled, potentially unwanted programs; Wikipedia’s PIA article summarises that controversy. It also notes that Mark Karpelès, the former CEO of the collapsed Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange, was made CTO of PIA’s parent in 2018.

On the Nord side, Surfshark’s about page¹³ says Nord Security and Surfshark merged under one holding company in 2022 and that the two operate independently. If you’re choosing partly to avoid one group, it helps to know who sits in each: our NordVPN vs Surfshark and Surfshark vs CyberGhost comparisons cover the rest.

Does NordVPN or PIA support port forwarding?

PIA does, on selected servers, as part of the normal subscription. NordVPN only offers it with its paid Dedicated Server add-on, not on its standard servers or with a Dedicated IP.

Port forwarding lets incoming connections reach your device through the VPN. Most people never need it. It matters if you seed torrents and want other peers to be able to connect to you, host a game server, or reach a home service from outside.

PIA’s features page²⁶ says port forwarding is available on selected servers, and its port-forwarding guide²⁸ covers the Windows, macOS, Linux and Android apps. Its list of which servers support it sits on a help page we couldn’t open, so check in the app. PIA also says P2P traffic is allowed on every server.

NordVPN’s help center⁶ is explicit that port forwarding works only with the Dedicated Server add-on, not on standard servers or with a Dedicated IP, and not in the macOS App Store build of its app. Several privacy-focused providers, including Mullvad (May 2023³⁰) and IVPN (June 2023³¹), dropped port forwarding entirely, citing abuse, so PIA’s free version has become uncommon.

A VPN doesn’t make downloading copyrighted material legal, and port forwarding doesn’t change that. This is not legal advice. Our VPNs for torrenting guide explains what a VPN does and doesn’t hide from other peers.

How do NordVPN and PIA compare on features?

Both use a WireGuard-based protocol by default, both have obfuscation for networks that block VPNs, and both offer extras such as dedicated IPs. The practical differences are device limits, open-source apps and port forwarding.

Sources: Gizmodo¹, NordVPN device limit⁵, NordVPN protocols⁷, PIA pricing¹⁴ and PIA features²⁶, all checked Nov 12, 2026, except Gizmodo’s Oct 21, 2026 prices.

• Devices. NordVPN’s help center⁵ allows up to 10 devices at once. PIA’s features page²⁶ allows unlimited simultaneous connections, which matters for a large household.
• Protocols. NordVPN runs NordLynx, its WireGuard-based protocol, by default, plus OpenVPN over UDP or TCP and NordWhisper for restrictive networks⁷. PIA offers WireGuard, OpenVPN, an obfuscation option and multi-hop through an extra proxy. Our WireGuard vs OpenVPN guide explains when to switch.
• Open source. PIA’s homepage²⁷ says its apps are 100% open source, so anyone can read the client code.
• Extras. PIA has a kill switch, split tunneling and its MACE ad and tracker blocker²⁶, and sells a dedicated IP for $5 a month²⁹ that it says is token-based so it can’t link the address to your subscription. NordVPN sells a Dedicated IP add-on⁶, and its higher tiers bundle extras such as the NordPass password manager, according to Gizmodo¹.
• Network size. PIA says it has 180 locations in 113 countries²⁶, with servers in all 50 US states. We couldn’t confirm a current figure for NordVPN from its own pages, so we haven’t quoted one.

Is NordVPN faster than PIA?

We can’t give you a fair number: we haven’t run speed tests, and published results vary by date, location and method. Both use WireGuard-based protocols, which are fast by design, so distance to the server and how busy it is will usually matter more than the brand.

If speed is your main concern, use the money-back windows above. Test both from your own connection, at the times you normally use the internet, on servers near you and in the countries you care about, and keep the one that works better for you.

Which is better for streaming?

Neither provider can promise access to another country’s streaming catalog, and we don’t either. Using a VPN to reach a different country’s library usually breaks the streaming service’s terms, and “works with Netflix” claims change often.

Netflix’s terms of use, for instance, say you may watch primarily within the country in which you have established your account³². Streaming services block VPN IP addresses regularly, and a server that works this week may not next week. For a VPN’s legitimate uses, such as protecting yourself on hotel or café Wi-Fi, the FTC’s public Wi-Fi advice³³ is a good plain-language read, and our streaming guide covers the rest.

NordVPN or PIA: which should you pick?

Pick PIA if price over several years matters, you need port forwarding without paying for an add-on, you want to cover more than ten devices, or you put the most weight on a no-logs claim that has held up in court. Accept in exchange that it’s a US company owned by Kape.

Pick NordVPN if you want a provider outside US jurisdiction with a long run of no-logs audits, you’ll use the bundled extras in its higher tiers, and you don’t need port forwarding. Budget for the renewal price, which according to Gizmodo is far higher than the first term.

Either way, read the full NordVPN review and Private Internet Access review before you buy, and compare them with the alternatives in NordVPN vs ExpressVPN and the best no-logs VPNs.