It would be nice to see this automation feature extend to be a little more robust, such as adding the option to choose a specific location.

It also has an automation feature where you can set up rules such as automatically connecting to the VPN if you’re on an open Wi-Fi server. PIA has added quite a few extra features since we last looked, including split tunneling, multi-hop options, and dedicated IP addresses. You can add or remove any of these options as you see fit. Click the bookmark icon on any of these and they join the compact view-making it less compact.

There are also tiles for bandwidth usage, a performance graph, data encryption and handshake settings being used, and basic settings control. If you click the downward-facing arrow at the bottom you see a ton of extra modules including a quick-connect area with country options such as France, Germany, the U.S., and the UK.

Once you’re connected, the app’s last panel displays your actual IP address and the VPN address you’re using. Last time around the app only organized results by latency, which resulted in some bonkers navigation when looking for a specific country. That makes it much easier for people who are only interested in speed versus those who want a specific country. Overall, this is a nice design, and PIA organizes this list in two different ways: latency or name. Each country location has its ping time right next to it in milliseconds and there’s a heart icon for marking specific locations as favorites.

Private internet access vpn free review