A virtual private network (VPN) is useful in many ways every day, whether you’re streaming foreign TV shows or keeping yourself anonymous online so advertisers can’t track you. But while we highly recommend using a VPN, it pays to do some research before investing in one – prices can be opaque for these services, and you can’t always be sure how providers present their best deals. However, there are some seriously good deals to be had.
VPN providers like to offer deep discounts to anyone willing to sign up for a year or more at a time. This means you have to pay more, but if you divide the cost by months of service, you actually pay less per month in the long run. With deals like this, VPN providers increase their subscriber numbers, and you get a heavy cut of some of our favorite services.
Most of the deals we highlight below follow that pattern, so make sure you’re comfortable with making a long-term commitment before picking up a necklace. If you’ve been thinking about signing up for a VPN service, read on for the best VPN deals we can find right now.
Best VPN deals
A divisive person
This vpn for Switzerland is Engadget’s top VPN for Engadget right now, for the reasons I have laid out in the full review of VPN Protoon. It looks and feels great to use on every platform, making it great for multi-device families. It keeps your browsing fast browsing and low attack, even over long distances. For those who need a VPN to stay anonymous, Proton VPN is the only service that uses full disk encryption, which means it can handle all of your traffic without the appearance of a hack.
24 months (50% off) Proton VPN
Basic Nordvpn – $80.73 for a two-year subscription with three months free (74% off): NordvPN gets the most important parts of a VPN right. It’s fast, doesn’t leak any of your data and is great for changing your virtual environment. I noted in my review of NordvPN that it always connects quickly and includes a support page that makes it easy to get live help. Although I’m sad to see it shut down Meshnet, Nordvpn still includes a lot of cool features, like fast-connect servers for fast connections. This first Black Friday deal gives you 74 percent off the two-year plan, and it comes with three extra months.
Nordvpn Plus – $105.03 for a two-year subscription with three months free (74% off): In another early Black Friday sale, Nordvpn also took 74 percent off its bundle subscription. What’s more, you get a powerful ad blocker and tracker that can also block malware downloads, as well as access to Nordpass Manager. The integration program also adds a DATA Breach scanner that scans the dark web for your sensitive information.
ExpressVPN Basic – $97.72 for a two-year subscription with four months free (73 percent off): This is one of the best VPNs, especially for new users, who will find its applications and Headen Heade-free on all platforms. In my ExpressVPN review test, it reduced my download speed by less than 7 percent and effectively changed my virtual environment 14 out of 15 times. In short, it’s an all-around great service that only suffers from being worther little – that’s why I’m so happy whenever I find it offers a good deal. This deal, which gets you 28 months of ExpressVPN Service, represents a savings of 73 percent.
ExpressVPN Advanced – $125.72 for a two-year subscription with four months free (67 percent off): ExpressVPN recently split its pricing into multiple tiers, but they all still come with the same discounts for long-term travel. In addition to the top TIER VPN service, advanced users get two additional connections (for a total of 12), ExpressVPN Keys Pass Manager, advanced ad and tracker block, ID protection features and a 50 percent discount on the arcove router.
Surfshark Starter – $53.73 for a two-year subscription with three months free (87 percent off): This is the “basic” level of Surfshark, but it includes all the VPN; Everything in Surfshark One is extra. With this article, you will discover some of the most envelope-pushing features in the VPN world right now. Surfshark’s server network is more connected than most VPNs, so it can rotate your IP regularly to help you avoid detection – it chooses your entry and exit nodes for double connection. That all comes with an almost invisible impact on download speed. With this year-round deal, you can save 87 percent on 27 months of Surfshark.
Surfshark One – $59.13 for a two-year subscription with three months free (88 percent off): A VPN is great, but it’s not enough to protect your data all by itself. Surfshark One adds several applications that strengthen your security more than just a VPN service, including SurfShark Antivirus (warns you whenever your sensitive information is exposed to Malware), Plus Surfshark Search and another previous TIER ID. This unusual deal gives you 88 percent off all those features. If you blast Surfshark One +, you’ll also get data removal with Incogni, but the price jumps enough that it’s worthless in my eyes.
Cyberghost – $56.94 for a two-year subscription with two months free (83 percent off): Cyberghost has some of the best features you will see on any VPN. With its Smart Custom program, you can decide how its applications respond to different types of Wi-Fi networks, except for specific networks you know by name. Usually, you can set it to automatically connect, disconnect or send you a message asking you what to do. Another good thing about cyberghost is its streaming server – while it doesn’t seem like it’s completely optimized, I’ve found both better video quality and more consistent consistency when using it in streaming houses. Right now, you can get 26 months of cyberghost for 83 percent off the regular price.
Private Internet access – $79 for a three-year subscription with three months free (83 percent closed): It’s hard to find (the link at the beginning of this section includes a coupon), but Private Internet Access (PIA) offers the best price available now on a VPN that I would recommend using. With this deal, you can get 39 months of PIA for just over $2 a month – an 83 percent discount on its monthly price. Besides being very cheap, PIA has many features, it comes with its own DNS servers, a built-in blocker and automatic capabilities against cyberghost competitors. However, the internet speed may fluctuate while you are connected.
Fihla.me – $69.95 two-year subscription with two months free (73 percent off): Fihla.me The best free VPN – In fact, it’s my favorite on the market, even with EVITEMENTVPN and the free version of Proton VPN as competition. However, if you want to upgrade to its paid plan, the two-year subscription offers great savings. Fihla.me works well as a No-Frills Staring VPN, whose apps and server network should definitely charge.
What makes a good VPN deal
As I mentioned in the intro, almost every VPN has a long term discount for a whole year. The only exception mentioned is mullvad, the hot dog of VPNs (that’s a recommendation, to be clear). When there’s always a big discount going on, it can be hard to tell when you’re actually getting a good deal. The best way to squeeze in more savings is to look for seasonal deals, student discounts or special sales like Proton VPN’s Coupon for Engadget readers.
One Trick VPN is often used to add extra months to a deal of aund, which pushes the average monthly price down. When it comes time to renew, you usually can’t get these extra months back. You usually can’t renew for the same time base – for example, you can only renew a two-year subscription for one year. If you plan to keep the VPN permanently, check the fine print to see how much it will cost per month after the first renewal, and make sure it fits your budget.
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