Being one of the best VPN services doesn't mean you can't also be one of the cheapest. There are plenty of VPN providers out there offering plans at a variety of different price points, and a few even have free VPN plans for you to test out. Normally, when it comes to services and subscriptions the best ones are on the more expensive side, but with VPNs that isn't necessarily the case.
You don't have to go broke each month or pay a huge upfront cost to get a great VPN – some of the best are actually pretty cheap. Read on to see our picks for the best cheap VPN.
Top 3 cheap VPNs
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You'll want to weigh out all your options here, but when it comes to cheap VPNs that are really affordable, we recommend Surfshark VPN for a number of reasons. Speed is as good as it gets, coupled with extensive security smarts and privacy features.
You'd be surprised just how many cheap VPN services there are. For less than the price of a cup of coffee per month, you can protect yourself online and keep yourself safe from hackers and other threats. To get the best deal on some of these you'll need to sign up for an annual subscription or prepay for a few years at once, but at the prices they are listed for, it's well worth it.
There are countless affordable VPN services, but we've rounded up all the best cheap VPNs in one place to make it easier for you. Here are our favorites, and the best you'll find right now.
The best cheap VPN in 2023
Bottom line: It's one of the most affordable options out there, but that doesn't mean you are making big sacrifices. There is no limit to the number of devices you can connect at once, and with servers all around the globe, it's easy to keep your account safe and still access everything you want to see.
Surfshark VPN is a British Virgin Islands-based VPN provider that offers AES-256 encryption, a kill switch, DNS leak protection, and Double Hop capability to keep security in its DNA. And it's also the fastest.
Don't let the cute name fool you, Surfshark is ready to compete with all the other providers head to head. With over 1,000 servers spread across 60 different locations, you can use its services for everything you'd normally think of. There are no limits in place as to how many devices you can have connected at the same time for each subscription, and the apps are super easy to use.
Surfshark stripped out the extra fluff in its apps to make them super easy to understand and navigate. The company doesn't keep any user logs or histories.
It's one of the best Android VPNs and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, allowing you enough time to try it out and see whether it's the VPN service for you or not.
Bottom line: PureVPN is one of our favorite cheap VPN services. It's easy to use, secure, quick to connect and stays connected without a problem. You can get it for a reasonable price, it allows five devices to connect at once, and has an impressive download speed average of 60Mbps. This is fast enough to support streaming services and devices, including Android TV. Plus, PureVPN is one of the few services that will give you a dedicated IP address. This is helpful when streaming some live TV services, like Hulu, that rely on a static IP address.
You can choose to connect to any of PureVPN's over 6,500 servers. And since it has more than 300,000 IP addresses, it will be tough for any website, cookies, trackers, etc., to monitor your online activity. Plus, it has an automatic kill switch that will block personal information, including your physical IP address, if your connection drops. The only reason PureVPN doesn't make it to the top is that it has fewer servers and locations than my number one choice. Its download speeds are also slower by 40Mbps. But PureVPN is still a solid choice for keeping your online identity safe and is excellent for tapping into TV streaming services.
Bottom line: PIA is a U.S.-based VPN provider that gives you an unlimited amount of data to use each month and up to 10 simultaneous connections.
PIA, previously called Private Internet Access, is a US-based VPN provider that helps secure your online identity. Before sending any data outbound from your session, it automatically assigns a brand-new IP address to you to keep you secure. It uses AES 256-bit encryption with a strict no-logging policy.
It offers more than 3,300 servers, which is more than many of the competitors, and spreads them across 50 different locations around the world. There are no data limits when using the service, which means you can keep your devices connected at all times without worrying that you'll use too much data daily.
The apps are super easy to use, and PIA has made them as easy as being able to click just a single button to get instantly connected to a server.
Bottom line: Back in 2018 one of the NordVPN servers was compromised, but the company has beefed up security measures to ensure it can't happen again. It is one of the best-known VPN brands that exist today and offers a bunch of key features that people love to use.
You get a 30-day money-back guarantee should you find it isn't quite the provider that works best for you or your devices.
It may not be the absolute cheapest option, but the deal that NordVPN is running right now makes it quite a compelling option. Pricing for the service starts at just $3.49 per month for the two-year plan.
NordVPN offers some really compelling features that would make you want to use it. There are more than 5,600 servers available that are spread around over 60 different countries and Nord makes use of 2048-bit encryption, which exceeds what others are doing.
The company also offers a kill switch, apps for all the popular platforms, DNS leak protection, and more. You can use it to easily circumvent geo-restrictions with a built-in feature that makes it easy to connect to the right server location.
You can sign up and pay monthly, but the way to get the best deal is to just go all-in on the two-year plan, which saves you a massive 67%.
Bottom line: Real-world testing has proven that IPVanish is a fast and reliable service. The apps are available on a variety of different platforms, and they are all easy to use. As an added bonus, IPVanish includes 250 GB of SugarSync Cloud Storage with all of its plans, giving you a safe place to store your data to access from anywhere.
When it comes to IPVanish, it falls in line feature-wise with many of the other providers, but comes in a little bit cheaper than some of the others. There are more than 1,600 servers spread across 50 different countries, and it offers unlimited simultaneous connections on a single account.
IPVanish recently changed its policy so that it now allows you to connect as many devices simultaneously as needed. There is no longer a limit of 5 devices.
It is a U.S.-based provider, which some people may not like, but IPVanish does not keep logs or any other information on its users. There are apps for all major platforms and it's straightforward to use.
Bottom line: While it's one of our favorite free VPNs as well, Hotspot Shield is also a great contender in the paid space. This is an option you won't want to sleep on.
We had a few complaints when looking at Hotspot Shield as the best free VPN service, but almost every one of them gets solved when you pony up a few dollars each month and pay to use it. It comes in as one of the best cheap VPN providers for a few reasons, from unlimited bandwidth and devices to the 24/7 customer support.
There are over 2,500 servers in more than 70 locations across the world. You can connect up to five devices at the same time, and it's completely ad-free. There is no data logging with Hotspot Shield, and the only major lacking things are OpenVPN support and Bitcoin for payments.
Bottom line: CyberGhost offers all the standard features that you'd expect to see in a VPN, and also offers some of the easiest server matching out of everyone. The company makes it insanely easy to find the best server so that you can unblock Netflix, Hulu, and more.
Romania & Germany-based CyberGhost is one of the top VPN providers out there, with more than 6,200 servers that span over 110 different locations. Compared to much of the competition, this is a huge number.
One of the biggest standout features about CyberGhost is just how easy it makes for unblocking geo-restricted content while you are on the go. There is a one-click server matching option that pairs you with the best server from CyberGhost to allow you access to Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and more. Once connected, the app even opens up your browser for you so you can start streaming. It's the most convenient thing, ever.
Thanks to the ease of use, speeds, and reliability it offers, CyberGhost has been able to bring over 10 million users to its service. The pricing is quite competitive, and by signing up for longer-term plans, you can help reduce the per-month cost of the service as well. Will you be the company's next subscriber?
But what's the best overall VPN?
ExpressVPN offers the perfect balance of speed, reliability, customer service, and ease of use. It has features to protect everyone, and whether you are experienced with VPNs or this will be your first, you'll have no problem getting started with it.
ExpressVPN is so sure you'll like the service that it offers a 30-day full money-back guarantee should you want to cancel it.
The service is easy to use, and the mobile apps are super friendly. ExpressVPN offers 24/7 customer support, so should you run into any issues, you can get them resolved pretty easily.
What should I look for in a cheap VPN?
The whole "you get what you pay for" thing isn't strictly true for VPNs, especially with the services on this list, as one of the cheapest options – Surfshark – is actually one of the best VPN providers out there regardless of price.
When looking at the various best cheap VPN options, there are a few things to consider as well as price to determine the best offering for you. As well as being affordable, you'll want something that offers fast, consistent speeds and has great customer service in case you need it.
You also want to make sure that there are servers in plenty of locations so that you can connect to the ones you need. Otherwise, give them a look, try some of them out, and see which one works out best for you. Most have a money-back guarantee so you can't really go wrong.
When should you upgrade your VPN?
Moving from a free VPN to a cheap VPN is a great option for many people, since paid VPNs tend to offer improved features and the trade-offs of free VPN plans won't suit everyone. You may notice that the plans don't offer enough data for you each month, or that you need the ability to connect more devices at the same time as the plan offers. That's a good indicator that it's time to upgrade to something else.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:
1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).
2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.
We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
