NordVPN vs PIA (2026): Port Forwarding, Prices and Privacy

NordVPN and Private Internet Access (PIA) split cleanly on verified data:

• PIA has port forwarding, open-source apps, unlimited devices and a plan that renews at the price you paid.
• NordVPN has more countries, more protocols, Meshnet, a Panamanian jurisdiction and the longer run of no-logs assurance engagements.

Their scores, shown above, are close. Which one leads for you depends on whether you torrent, how many devices you own and how much the renewal price matters. The table above is built from both providers’ data records. The sections below explain the rows.

Pricing today

PIA sells one tier in three terms. On 5 November 2026 its buy page carried an “EARLY ACCESS: 83% Off” label. It replaced the Halloween sale we saw on 31 October. It listed these plans:

• 3-year plan with 4 extra months: $2.03 a month, billed $81.20 up front for the first 40 months. It renews at $81.20 every three years, which keeps the ongoing cost at about $2.26 a month.
• 1-year plan: $3.99 a month, or $47.88, renewing at $47.88 a year.
• Monthly plan: $11.95.

A dedicated IP and an antivirus add-on are offered at checkout, without prices on the page.

PIA accepts cards, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay, plus Amazon Pay in selected locations. For one-time purchases, it also takes gift cards, prepaid Visa and Mastercard, iDEAL and Qiwi. Its help desk no longer lists a cryptocurrency option. So anonymous payment at PIA means a gift card rather than Bitcoin.

We loaded NordVPN’s pricing page the same day, during its Black Friday promotion. It showed three tiers, Basic, Complete and Prime:

• 27-month plans: $3.49, $3.99 and $6.99 a month, or $94.23, $107.73 and $188.73. They renew at $139.08, $219.48 and $296.28 a year.
• 15-month plans: $4.99, $5.99 and $8.99 a month, or $74.85, $89.85 and $134.85. They renew at the same yearly prices as the 27-month plans.
• Monthly plans: $14.99, $19.99 and $29.99.

NordVPN takes cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, cryptocurrency and bank transfer. It also takes prepaid cards bought with cash in selected retail stores.

The difference is large over any period longer than the promotional term. Buy PIA’s long plan and renew once, and you have paid $162.40 for 76 months. Buy NordVPN Basic and renew once, and you have paid $233.31 for 39 months.

Both offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on a first direct purchase. PIA adds two conditions. Purchases through app stores, gift cards and third-party deals are refunded only by the payment processor. A repeat purchase within three months of a refund is not refundable. Neither has a free tier. NordVPN offers new users in some countries a 7-day trial on its 1- and 2-year Prime plans. PIA offers a free trial to first-time users of its iOS and Android apps. Our best VPN free trials page compares the terms.

Privacy and audits

NordVPN wins the jurisdiction row without argument. Jurisdiction means the country whose laws apply to the company. NordVPN is operated by nordvpn S.A. in Panama. Panama is outside the 5, 9 and 14 Eyes alliances, the groups of countries that share intelligence. NordVPN is also under no mandatory data-retention law. Its parent company, Nord Security, is in the Netherlands.

PIA is PIA Private Internet Access, Inc. of Denver, Colorado, so it sits in a Five Eyes country. Its terms are governed by Colorado law. PIA belongs to Kape Technologies, which also owns ExpressVPN and CyberGhost. Our methodology scores a Five Eyes jurisdiction at the bottom of the scale. That is why PIA’s privacy row trails, despite everything that follows.

What follows is a strong record. PIA’s privacy policy, dated 3 November 2025, states that it collects and keeps zero user logs. That means no browsing history, user IPs, connection timestamps, bandwidth logs or DNS queries. The claim has been tested in public twice:

• In a 2016 Florida bomb-threat case, an FBI subpoena sought PIA user logs. PIA could only say that the IP addresses belonged to its US East Coast cluster.
• In a 2018 federal trial in San Jose, PIA’s general counsel testified that the company keeps no activity logs. The counsel also testified that PIA could not link the defendant to the PIA addresses used.

A third entry is less flattering. In July 2016, Russian authorities seized several PIA servers without notice. PIA then withdrew from Russia entirely.

Deloitte Audit Romania has reviewed PIA’s server network and no-logs configuration three times. The first review was as of 30 June 2022. The next two were announced on 25 April 2024 and 8 December 2025. The 2025 report is published on PIA’s site. PIA publishes a transparency report and explains on its blog why it does not fly a warrant canary. A warrant canary is a public notice that a company removes if it receives a secret order.

NordVPN’s record is longer on assurance. It has six no-logs engagements. PricewaterhouseCoopers did two, in 2018 and 2020, and Deloitte has done one every year from 2022 to 2025. The latest ran between 10 November and 12 December 2025. Cure53 also assessed its apps and infrastructure in 2022, 2024 and 2025. Only logged-in customers can read the reports.

NordVPN has two incidents:

• In March 2018, an intruder got into a rented server in a Finnish datacenter. The way in was a remote-management account the host had added. NordVPN disclosed the breach in October 2019.
• In October 2024, NordVPN received a Panamanian warrant and provided the user data it held. Its transparency report records this as one order that resulted in disclosure.

Both providers run every server in RAM, so nothing is kept on a hard drive. PIA’s servers are wiped on every scheduled reboot. NordVPN keeps an email, a username and the order ID. PIA’s gift-card option lets you buy without a linked account.

Security and protocols

A protocol is the set of rules a VPN uses to build its encrypted tunnel. NordVPN offers four:

• NordLynx, its WireGuard implementation and the default in most apps
• OpenVPN over UDP and TCP
• IKEv2/IPsec
• NordWhisper, for restrictive networks

NordVPN also has an opt-in post-quantum key exchange that works only with NordLynx. Post-quantum encryption is designed to resist attacks from future quantum computers.

PIA offers WireGuard and OpenVPN. Its OpenVPN default is AES-128-GCM, with AES-256 as an option. PIA documents no post-quantum option.

Both share several features:

• Kill switches on desktop and mobile. A kill switch blocks your internet if the VPN connection drops.
• Obfuscation, which disguises VPN traffic. NordVPN uses obfuscated servers on NordWhisper. PIA uses an SSL layer that makes traffic look like ordinary web traffic.
• Multi-hop, which sends traffic through more than one server. NordVPN calls it Double VPN. PIA’s Multi-Hop goes through an additional proxy.
• Ad and tracker blocking, called Threat Protection Pro at NordVPN and MACE at PIA.
• A paid dedicated IP.

They differ in three practical ways:

• Port forwarding: PIA offers it on selected servers. NordVPN offers it only through its separate Dedicated Server add-on. Port forwarding lets other devices reach a program on your computer, which some torrent apps need.
• Split tunneling: this lets you choose which apps skip the VPN. PIA has it on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. NordVPN has it on Windows, Android and Android TV only. So Mac users get it only from PIA.
• IPv6: this is the newer format for internet addresses. PIA blocks IPv6 traffic while connected and says so. NordVPN’s help center says it does not support IPv6 yet. No official page we loaded states whether its apps block it.

NordVPN’s extras, Meshnet and Onion over VPN, have no PIA equivalent. PIA has one documentation gap. Its encryption page still mentions IPsec for iOS, while the iOS download page lists WireGuard and OpenVPN only.

Streaming claims

PIA’s streaming page lists Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, Prime Video and HBO Max. It has streaming-optimized servers in select locations. NordVPN’s VPN pages make no per-service claims. Its SmartDNS help article lists Netflix Originals, US Prime Video, US Disney+, US MAX, Paramount+ and Peacock.

That makes six claims each, with one difference for TV owners. Smart DNS is a streaming setting for devices that cannot run a VPN app. NordVPN’s SmartPlay smart DNS is a working feature. PIA’s help center says its Smart DNS is no longer compatible with streaming services.

We have not yet tested streaming access for either provider. Treat the lists as claims and use the 30-day refund as your test window.

Apps and devices

PIA publishes apps for:

• Windows, macOS and Linux
• iOS and iPadOS
• Android, Android TV, Apple TV and Fire TV
• smart TVs and routers

It also has extensions for Chrome, Edge and Firefox. PIA allows unlimited devices at the same time. Every app and client is open source on GitHub, so anyone can read the code.

NordVPN covers Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Android TV, Apple TV and Fire TV. Its Linux app comes in command-line and graphical versions. The Fire TV app does not support first- and second-generation sticks. NordVPN has the same three extensions and manual router setups. It allows ten devices at the same time on every tier. Only its Linux client is open source.

PIA’s network lists 180 locations in 113 countries, including all 50 US states. It publishes no server count. NordVPN lists 7,229 servers in 150 countries and 225 locations. For a large household, PIA’s unlimited devices settle the apps rows. If you travel to countries that NordVPN covers and PIA does not, the network rows matter more.

Support and refunds

Both run 24/7 live chat, email and a help center. Both give 30 days to ask for a refund on a first direct purchase. PIA’s terms add two conditions:

• Purchases through app stores, gift cards or third-party deals can only be refunded by the payment processor.
• A repeat purchase within three months of a refund is not refundable.

NordVPN excludes app-store purchases, which Apple refunds under its own rules. We have not yet measured response times for either.

Alternatives

If PIA’s pricing model appeals but the US jurisdiction does not, read NordVPN vs CyberGhost. It covers PIA’s Romanian sibling, which also renews at the price you paid.

If unlimited devices matter but port forwarding does not, NordVPN vs Surfshark compares NordVPN with its own corporate sibling. PIA vs Surfshark puts the two unlimited-device services head to head.

For port forwarding outside the Five Eyes, Proton VPN offers it from Switzerland. Our best VPN for torrenting page ranks the field for that use. The comparison hub lists every pair.

Which should you buy?

Buy PIA if any of these apply:

• you torrent with a client that needs an open port
• you run more than ten devices
• you want to read the source of the app you install
• you want a renewal bill no bigger than your first one

At $81.20 every three years, about $2.26 a month, PIA’s stated renewal is among the lowest we track. In return, you accept a US company inside the Five Eyes, no cryptocurrency payment, an unpublished server count and a smart DNS that no longer streams.

Buy NordVPN if you want a jurisdiction outside the alliances and features PIA does not have. These are NordWhisper obfuscation, Meshnet, Onion over VPN, a post-quantum toggle, 150 countries and a working smart DNS.

NordVPN’s drawbacks are:

• the $139.08 annual renewal on Basic
• no port forwarding without a paid add-on
• no split tunneling on macOS
• the two incidents on its record
• audit reports you cannot read before buying

How we compared them

Every row in the table comes from the two providers’ data records. We checked them against their official pricing, feature, server, policy and audit pages on 5 November 2026. Scores come from our published methodology, with speed left out until our lab measures it. Both providers have affiliate programs. Neither fact changes a row. Read the full NordVPN review and Private Internet Access review for the detail behind each row. The NordVPN pricing page and PIA pricing page show every plan and its price history.