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Surfshark VPN Vs PIA Private Internet Access Comparison 2020

Last updated: April 13, 2020

Muhammad Hamza Shahid

Trying to determine the best choice between Surfshark and PIA? Look no further and read this in-depth comparison of both providers!

Where Surfshark represents a new breed of VPN services, Private Internet Access (PIA) has got some miles on it and stands as a popular choice for many.

Are you trying to determine the better choice between the two? If so, then you are in the right place. Check out this in-depth Surfshark Vs PIA VPN comparison analysis.

Surfshark wins this head-to-head fight against Private Internet Access (PIA). Unlike PIA, it has its headquarters in a safe jurisdiction (British Virgin Islands), offers incentives to Chinese residents through obfuscated servers, and has static IPs in 6+ locations for maximum security! Affordable option at Just: $1.99/mo for 2-Years (83% OFF).

Highlights

Pricing and Discounts

PIA and Surfshark are both budget-friendly VPN services that offer good value for lesser money. To start off, you have three tiers in subscriptions.

Get This Best Deal for Surfshark: Save 83% on the 2-year special

Get This Best Deal for PIA: Get 67% Off on a 1-Year Plan

Features

Unblocking Capabilities

China

Chinese netizens are always looking for services that allow users to unblock within the country or access local content from China elsewhere in the world.

“The Great Firewall” adopts various technologies like blackholing VPN services, DNS poisoning, DNS hijacking, and IP filtering, which makes the task difficult.

Where PIA failed at providing any incentives for either audience, Surfshark tends to be quite impressive; particularly for those residing in the country.

It offers a Chinese mirror website that allows individuals to download/install their apps. At the same time, it offers a “NoBorders” mode.

This mode activates Sursfhark’s obfuscated servers that transforms VPN traffic into regular HTTPs traffic to bypass geo-restrictions in China.

However, there is no support for those looking to buy a VPN to China, like PureVPN that offers 12 dedicated Chinese servers for accessing local content.

Users in China can download Surfshark from their dedicated Chinese page here: https://shark-cn.com/

Setup and Interface

In terms of interface, Surfshark’s apps are amazingly user-friendly and intuitive. The desktop apps boast a compact design that is incredibly easy-to-understand.

You have a location selection menu and connect button visible right after opening the app. This allows users to leverage instant connectivity to a VPN server.

For configurations, simply click on the “gear” icon. It will give you options for altering the protocols and encryption, along with other app functions.

Mobile apps are just as user-friendly and boast the same design and appearance but optimized for a smaller screen. Dedicated IPs are also directly accessible from within the app.

PIA’s apps, on the other hand, boast a broader appearance and design that does require some work in the overall UI, as it gets quite complicated.

On the desktop, the app hides itself the second you hit the minimize button. This means, you have to constantly reopen the app every time you want to do something.

This can become quite infuriating for those trying to follow the steps in a configuration/setup guide. Of course, tech-y individuals will have no problem with the task.

Mobile apps are nicely designed though and tend to be clutter-free. All options are listed neatly and connecting takes barely a few seconds, which is quite remarkable.

Severs and Performance

Both Surfshark and PIA offer a good network infrastructure. The former boasts 1,040+ servers in 61 countries, whereas PIA supports 3,300 servers in 30 countries.

Though the server count of Surfshark is lesser than PIA. It makes up for it by adding more in the way of countries supported, which is quite helpful.

This is because most users want diversity in the selection of servers available. Although PIA supports 30 countries, the number is too less.

Similarly, Surfshark needs to upgrade on its number of servers to avoid speed/performance issues, as more users subscribe to their product.

Speed

Security

Privacy

Based in the British Virgin Islands, Surfshark gains an edge over other providers. BVI imposes no mandatory mass surveillance or data retention laws.

Despite being part of the British Monarch, BVI is an independent jurisdiction, which follows its own laws that favor user privacy and security.

PIA, on the other hand, has its headquarters in the United States, which is a founding member of the Five/Nine/Fourteen Eyes Alliances.

Therefore, it indulges in intelligence sharing and imposes mandatory data retention laws that must be followed by telecom, internet, and VPN providers as well.

At any time, the government can issue a gag order accompanied by a subpoena that makes it necessary to cooperate to any log requests.

Configuration

Customer Service

With either provider, you have multiple options for support. These include ticket support, email, and live chat, along with a searchable knowledgebase and FAQs section.

All options work quite well and the response times on either VPNs live chat is quite impressive. It took only a few seconds to get answers to technical queries.

I even conducted a test on the response times from each provider on email support. The process included sending both providers four questions via email. See the statics for each VPN below:

Surfshark

PIA