PIA is now on F-Droid. Here what’s that means (and how to get it)
Being open source is in our DNA. For PIA, it’s the foundation of how we build and the community we strive to create. We pride ourselves on being a VPN where anyone can read the code we actually ship — Android, iOS, desktop, you name it. You don’t have to trust a description of what the app does. You can inspect the code and see for yourself.
Landing on F-Droid is a natural extension of that commitment.
If you haven’t come across it before, F-Droid is a community-run catalog of free and open-source Android apps. The rules it runs on are refreshingly strict: no accounts, no install tracking, no ads, and nothing gets published unless its source code is available for anyone to inspect.
It’s maintained by volunteers, and the catalog stays deliberately small because its reviewers care more about quality than quantity, vetting every app before publishing. Put simply, apps don’t get listed on F-Droid if they’re not up to scratch.
Why this matters to our core mission
As a result, we’re proud to have earned the PIA Android app a place on F-Droid.
Privacy software should invite scrutiny, not avoid it. That’s one of the reasons F-Droid appealed to us. It builds the apps it lists directly from the publicly available source code, rather than just distributing binaries supplied by developers. That also means anyone can verify that the app available through F-Droid matches the code we have published.
For us, this is the ideal model for privacy software. You don’t have to simply trust what an app claims to do—you have the power to inspect the code, verify it for yourself, and share your notes with the wider privacy community.
Closing the sideloading gap
There’s a practical side to this, too.
Up to now, if you wanted PIA on Android without going through a mainstream app store like Google Play, sideloading the APK was your only option. It works, and plenty of people go that route. But a sideloaded APK won’t update itself, and it doesn’t come with any of F-Droid’s vetting. You’re trusting a file you downloaded, and hoping you remember to grab the next version by hand. For a good chunk of our users, that was a genuine gap.
It’s an especially obvious one if you run a de-Googled phone, or you’ve made a point of keeping Google Play Services off your device entirely. As skepticism of Big Tech grows, that group of users grows, too. And it overlaps almost perfectly with the kind of person who picks PIA in the first place. Nobody should have to choose between avoiding Google and keeping their VPN current.
Supporting F-Droid wasn’t about adding another download button. It was about meeting privacy-conscious users where they are. If you’ve chosen to move away from proprietary app stores, your VPN shouldn’t force you back into one.
So, the short version: you can install PIA straight from F-Droid, get your updates through F-Droid, and never touch the Play Store if that’s what you’d rather do.
How to install PIA from F-Droid
Already using F-Droid? Just search for Private Internet Access and install it. You’re done.
If you’re new to F-Droid, here’s the whole process from scratch. It takes a few minutes:
- Get the F-Droid app. F-Droid isn’t on Google Play, so head to f-droid.org in your browser and download the F-Droid APK.
- Install it. Open the downloaded file. Your phone will likely ask you to allow installs from your browser — approve it, then finish installing F-Droid. You can switch that permission back off afterward if you prefer.
- Open F-Droid and let it sync. On first launch it downloads its catalog of apps. Give it a moment to finish updating.
- Download Private Internet Access. Tap the search icon and type “PIA” or “Private Internet Access.” Alternatively, head straight to the PIA on F-Droid listing.
- Install PIA. Open the listing and tap Install. You may get one more prompt to let F-Droid install apps — approve it, and the download will start.
- Open the app and sign in. Launch PIA, log in with your account, connect, and you’re protected.
From here on, any updates show up right inside F-Droid alongside your other apps—no manual APK juggling.
That’s it. But whether you install PIA through Google Play, or now through F-Droid, one thing hasn’t changed: you can inspect the code, line by line, for yourself.
It’s just how privacy software should work.
