How much should you pay for a VPN?

The prices for VPNs nowadays can vary widely from absolutely free to more expensive than a Netflix subscription. It’s easy to think that the more you pay, the better privacy and security you’ll get from a VPN provider, but that isn’t often the case. You don’t need to pay an arm and a leg to get top-quality protection.

Most of the best VPNs are likely cheaper than you might think—especially with long term plans. But how much should you actually pay for a VPN? Here I’ll look at VPN costs, what influences the subscription price, and if cheap or free options are worthy alternatives.

How much should you pay for a VPN?

Determining how much a VPN should cost is a difficult question as prices can vary widely between providers. That being said, as a person who reviews VPNs for a living, I believe a VPN shouldn’t cost more than $13.99 per month.

The reason? Out of all of the best VPNs I’ve tested, the most expensive services that I recommend are ExpressVPN and NordVPN’s Plus plan—both of which currently run for $13.99 per month.

Now that may sound expensive for most people, and quite honestly, it is. But thankfully the prices for nearly every service drop precipitously if you opt for longer-term contracts. Take for example those two VPNs I mentioned above: ExpressVPN offers a 2-year contract for only $4.49 per month and NordVPN does the same for $4.39 per month.

Committing to a long-term contract may seem a bit daunting, but many VPNs offer 30-day money-back guarantees, meaning you can get a refund if you try out a service and decide you don’t like it.

It’s worth noting, too, that many premium VPNs often discount long-term contracts even further during sales events that run throughout the year. Black Friday and New Year’s are particularly good times to find deals. You can always find the latest discounts and special offers on our VPN deals page.

What influences the cost of a VPN?

There are a ton of factors that influence the price of a VPN subscription. When comparing service-to-service you’ll likely find that more expensive VPNs come with a larger server network, faster connection speeds, and more simultaneous connections. 

Many of the more expensive VPN services offer thousands of servers to choose from compared to cheaper competitors that might offer a network that is a fraction of that size. While not fool-proof, larger server networks are usually one of the best signs of a good VPN.

VPN speeds are more difficult to nail down as there are numerous outside factors that can contribute to your own individual speeds on any given day. However, VPN services might have more lightweight coding for their apps or have advanced software architecture that optimizes server load balancing to provide more consistently high speeds. Cheaper VPNs typically don’t have the resources available to provide these kinds of advantages.

Many VPNs nowadays also advertise that they work with streaming sites, by bypassing geo-restricted content. However, in the constant game of cat-and-mouse that streaming services play with VPNs, only the VPNs with considerable resources can continually keep ahead. And those services that employ more resources typically charge more.

While all of the above aspects of a VPN can lead to slight fluctuations in subscription prices, it was only with the recent advent of extra security features that you saw some premium VPNs’ prices skyrocket. Now, providers such as NordVPN offer an entire suite of additional features such as anti-malware, ad- and tracker-blocking, a password manager, dark web monitoring, and more. 

Quite a few VPNs now offer multiple plan tiers from the very basic VPN to an entire personal security ecosystem. Of course, the more security features you want, the more expensive the price will become.

Are cheap VPNs worth it?

Answering this question requires a bit of nuance. There are cheap month-to-month VPNs and then there are more expensive VPNs that become ‘cheap’ when you subscribe to a long-term plan.

As for the value of expensive VPNs that become cheaper with long-term subscriptions, these will largely depend upon what you need as the user. Services that don’t offer many extra features, but offer cheaper 1- or 2-year contracts are just doing it in order to tempt users to commit.

Other services such as Surfshark’s One plan, which goes for a steep $17.95 month-to-month or drops to $2.49 per month for a 2-year plan, are where the true value lies. Not only are you getting an 86 percent discount by opting for the long-term option, but it comes loaded with features such as antivirus, data leak alerts, and ad-blocking software.

So what about cheap month-to-month VPNs? Well, here you need to tread lightly. Some services, such as Mullvad are trustworthy and offer excellent privacy and good speeds for a low monthly price. 

Others at this price point are going to promise big but underdeliver. It’s always best to do some research about each individual VPN before committing. You can also check out comprehensive reviews such as those on our PCWorld website to learn more about the pros and cons of each service.

Should you use a free VPN?

The simple answer is that free VPNs should generally be avoided unless you know that you can completely trust the VPN provider and you’re aware of the limitations while using the free service.

Many free VPNs are able to continue operating because they serve annoying ads, and some even collect and sell personal data on users—thereby defeating the purpose of using a VPN to remain private.

Also, all free VPNs come with limitations. Even the most generous free services such as Proton VPN still place strict limits on device connections, available servers, and users are restricted from P2P file sharing.

If you’re looking for a trustworthy free service then check out our list of the best free VPNs to see those we’ve personally vetted and recommend.