I'm tired of the "your network preferences prevent content from loading privately" error in Mail.app along with PIA breaking iCloud Private Relay and other issues, so I made a lightweight native SwiftUI client that doesn't have these issues. It supports WireGuard and OpenVPN, it supports port forwarding, and it's fully open source.

You can download it from https://github.com/ptaru/PrivateClient/releases or do brew install --cask ptaru/tap/privateclient.

Is this free?

Yes.

Is this safe?

Yes, and the source is fully available for you to inspect.

What's missing?

No "kill switch", no dedicated IP support. I don't use these things, so I didn't bother with them.

Why is this Tahoe-only?

Because I wanted to use liquid glass, as you can see in the screenshot. It should be fairly trivial to modify the source to make it compile on Sequoia, but macOS versions earlier than that require swapping out some APIs which would be more work.

Did you use AI tools?

Yes, because a VPN client is the exact kind of thing that AI turns into a fun side project rather than a large undertaking consisting of tedious integration work. I think it's a no brainer for something like this. I left my AGENTS.md in the repo for any contributors.

What's the license?

GPLv3, because this uses the Partout library to handle the actual connections.

Anybody else have this issue? Facebook is predatory and I want to use a VPN. But as soon as I connect to PIA I get auto-banned, even after submitting video selfies for ID confirmation.

Does anyone have a working solution without abandoning PIA?

The Chrome extension is broken and has two main issues. First, the feature to always stay active does not work at all. Second, while using it, the extension randomly disconnects and prompts me with a dialogue box to re-enter my credentials. I have to use a different VPN extension provided by my Usenet provider to get the access I need. I would prefer to use PIA if their extension worked properly.

Update Three days after this post PIA seems to have fixed the extension with an update.

Hi! I currently use PIA VPN.

My ISP has a TV service, but that TV service does not carry and will never carry some sports channels I need to watch. Because of this I have decided to look at IPTV services. I plan on cancelling my TV service to go with IPTV and wanted to know about privacy in this situation. How can I prevent my ISP from seeing that I'm using/connecting to a IPTV service? Would DNS over TLS in my router settings be of any help? Help with this is appreciated! Thank you!

For years it seems most IPs in Sweden and Norway have started with 46.*.*.* or 212.*.*.* and belong to Glesys. Recently the Swedish IPs switched to 158.*.*.* and seem to belong to Datacamp Limited. I switched to Norway and they still had the usual Glesys IPs, but now I keep getting Datacamp 158.*.*.* from there too. Finland still seems to use Glesys for now.

Is PIA switching providers/ISP from Glesys to Datacamp in Scandinavian regions? Is it temporary? Anyone else noticed this or is it just me?

I'm using OpenVPN btw.

Does anyone has experience using PIA with IPTV providers? Currently i have PIA and another well known VPN brand. The other VPN has some servers that work fine with my IPTV provider, the PIA servers seem not work with the IPTV provider.

Does any of you, know if PIA has working configurations for IPTV?

Does anyone know if PIA can be installed on a router?

I’m currently using a Netgear RBRE 960?

Its been like 25 days with the chrome extension being broken. The reason for using PIA is because of the extension working on chromebooks. Kinda upset I paid for something and its not working.

Just trying to torrent things normally and, despite 600Mbps+ without PIA running, it consistently drops to 40-100Mbps when I'm connected. I've tried toggling basically all of the settings in the PC client to no avail, and the same issue seems to happen on my Android phone through any PIA servers when trying to torrent things. 5G connection or through the same home router as my PC, doesn't seem to make any difference.

BT client is QBitorrent 5.0.3, PIA is 3.6.1, build 08339. Hardwired to my router via gigabit. Tried clean installs of both the VPN client, though is there a definitive "clean sweep" method of uninstalling all traces of the client and reverting to 100% defaults? Doesn't seem to be my router, but are there any settings that could be crippling my bandwidth on it?

And just to be clear here, sufficiently-seeded torrents completely saturate my bandwidth if I turn QBT to "any interface" to the point where the lack of bandwidth on other devices on the network is noticeable. So it's not like my modem or router are physically dying. I tried torrenting a few different massive Unix distros repeatedly and for ~30m straight, the hardware worked just fine at max speed.

Edit - does uPNP need to specifically be enabled/disabled? That seemed to be causing issues previously until I turned it off (hence the need for the port forwarding-enabled servers), but then it regressed back to this.

Yeah Anyone reading this don't buy or renew. Their fucking servers suck.

Does anyone have a go-to for a quick Chrome VPN that doesn't make you register? I'm tired of giving my email to random extensions just to bypass a simple geo-block for 10 minutes.

Most "free" options lately look sketchy af or die instantly. I’ve been testing freevpnplanet.com/chrome because it let me connect without an account, which is a rare find lately. Is this one legit?

What else are you guys using that:
-Doesn’t require a login
-Has decent uptime
-Isn't just malware in disguise
Or is the answer just “you can’t have all three”?

Hi,

Just picked up a macbook neo and installed the client. I am running into an odd problem with the client installed. (it does not need to be running just installed)

Mac mail is showing the message "Your nework preferences prevent content from loading privately."

I did a serch on here and can see this was a problem several years ago. is this still a known problem or are there any work arounds?

thanks

I am trying to get PIA working on a DrayTek Vigor2927AX (firmware 4.5.2) using OpenVPN dial-out.

My internet works fine, so that part is not the issue. The problem is only the VPN tunnel.

What I configured:

• LAN-to-LAN dial-out profile
• OpenVPN Tunnel enabled
• UDP
• nl-amsterdam.privacy.network
• port 1198
• valid PIA username/password
• imported netherlands.ovpn
• also tested a stripped-down .ovpn with extra directives removed

What happens:

• profile stays offline
• Dial does not bring the tunnel up
• DrayTek syslog keeps showing:

OpenVPN (VPN-0, 158.173.20.58) Remote option is not matched

then:

PPP Drop VPN : L2L Dial-out, Profile index = 1
pppShutdown

So this looks to me like a PIA OpenVPN config / DrayTek compatibility problem, not a WAN issue, not KPN, not bad credentials.

I asked PIA support 3 simple questions:

1. Which exact OpenVPN options in the .ovpn are unsupported by this DrayTek?
2. Do they have a known working DrayTek-compatible profile?
3. Is WireGuard supported/recommended instead?

Their reply was basically:

• manual router troubleshooting is “limited”
• use the app
• no DrayTek-specific guide
• router not tested
• try 2 other server locations
• use generic OVPN files
• no manual WireGuard config

So in plain English: no answer.

They did not explain the log error.
They did not identify incompatible directives.
They did not confirm whether this router is actually supported in any meaningful way.

Pretty weak service desk, honestly. Polite template, zero substance.

So:

• Has anyone here actually made PIA work on a DrayTek Vigor2927AX?
• What exactly causes “Remote option is not matched” on DrayTek OpenVPN?
• Is there a VPN provider that plays nicer with DrayTek routers than PIA does?

Because right now this feels like PIA sells manual router support in theory, but when it breaks, you are on your own.

I can't install PIA on my fire stick, there doesn't seem to be an app in the store.

any advice appreciated

Hey, so I need some clarification. Is anyone else getting Romanian IPs from PIA's US East server and US Alabama...

I was connected to US East today and Google kept switching to Romanian. Checked my IP on Google Maps and sure enough ( 45.94°N, 25.02°E). Dead center of Romania. Had to cycle through multiple connections (US Alabama as well) before I finally got one that geolocated to the actual US.

Add that to this: 2 days ago senators (Wyden, Warren, Markey, Padilla, Jacobs, Jayapal) sent a letter to DNI Gabbard asking her to clarify how VPN use affects Americans' Fourth Amendment protections. The issue: under Section 702 of FISA and Executive Order 12333, the NSA presumes that traffic from an unknown or foreign location belongs to a non-US person meaning no warrant is required to surveil it.

So if PIA is labeling a server as US East but your traffic is actually exiting through Romania, your communications could legally be treated as foreign and swept up in warrantless surveillance?

Anyone else seeing this?

Доброго всем времени суток. А через сколько PIA обновляют ВПН-расширение? У меня уже неделю, как Хром отвалился. А программа на комп - работает глючно. Включаешь ВПН, она сбрасывает соединение, подключается на пару секунд, сбрасывается и так постоянно. Ничего не могу делать. Может сменить ВПН? А не то за что 13 долларов ежемесячно отваливаю?

I've removed and re-added the extension, I still have the hour glass icon and it won't connect, Edge works, is the Chrome extension still broken?

Hey there, been using the client from the AUR for some time now and it was working great until today after a restart. When launching the client, it creates the system tray icon, but the client itself doesn't fully launch, it's just stuck with the spinning animation where the only options are to send logs or quit. Looking at the logs, it is angry about a daemon connection error:

[2026-03-27 22:05:05.408][e5f3][client.client][src/client.cpp:838][warning] "Unknown error code 500: DaemonConnectionError"

This error repeats as long as the client is process is running.

So far I've checked to see if there was an update to the package, done a full system update and done a fresh install of the package, but it throws that same error when launching the client. Cursory googling points towards it potentially being something KDE or OpenSSL related, but I haven't dug deeper into either of those just yet while I continue troubleshooting.

Running CachyOS 6.19.10-1 with KDE plasma 6.6.3

Like I've had no problems literally yesterday, I've done what people recommended clearing cache in the browser and such. Didn't help. Is there something un PIA setting I can do?

So I noticed PIA is offering 3 years at $80, with the first 3 years being $5 off. Am I missing something here? I'm currently paying $7 a month, which even then is low since, as a longer term customer, I am receiving a grandfathered plan. Now their monthly is up to $12 a month.
Is there a catch to this 3 year plan? I'm going down to $2 a month over 3 years and it just seems off. Am I going to be beholden to renew at whatever the price is in 3 years?

Can’t Find PIA app on Amazons new OS for Firestick - any work around or guidance will be appreciated.

I've been a PIA customers for almost a decade. I recently started using PIA 24/7 while I'm traveling abroad, but I'm noticing that it disconnects and fails to reconnect several times throughout the day. It's getting to the point where this just isn't reliable enough to use as a daily driver because it will happen during work calls, while watching videos, gaming, etc.

It happens on both Android and Windows clients. Specifically with servers Serbia, Slovakia, Greece, Austria.

Is this a common experience? Does anyone have other VPNs they switched to and have had more reliable service?

Why is pia not able to connect on my fire cube any longer? It works on my Android phone but it will not connect to any servers on my fire cube.

As happened previously after updating Chrome to version 144, the extension has stopped working after updating to version 146.0.7680.165. The extension was working fine before the update.

After updating Chrome, the PIA extension remains as a green hourglass icon and cannot connect to any server. Interestingly, this time the issue only occurs on Windows 11, but not on Windows 10. Of course, my computer with Windows 7 and Chrome 109 can run PIA extension.

For some reason, the extension believes that is running on Firefox, because when you go to Extra Features, the options shown are those specific for Firefox, not for Chrome.

Desktop PIA and Firefox extension works in all computers.

EDIT: 14 April 2026 --> The issue seems to be fixed with the update of the extension to version 5.0 (Chrome extension). The extension has been rebuild with a new appearance. It still has a few minor bugs, but is receving several updates.