What a VPN costs a year, and what it costs after the first term
Two of the five biggest names in this category will not tell you what you pay in year three. One has charged the same €5 a month since 2009. Here is the ledger, dated.
VPNs
The category with the widest gap between the first-term price and the renewal price. We print both.
What these cost
5 on the ledger
| Service | What you pay | Also available | Renews at | Free tier | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surfshark | $67.23 once | — | Not published | None. A 30-day money-back guarantee, which is a refund window rather than a plan. | |
| Mullvad VPN | $5.78/mo | — | Same — $5.78/mo | None, and the page says so plainly — no free plan, no trial, one rate. | |
| Proton VPN | $83.88/yr | $9.99/mo — $119.88 a year | Same — $83.88/yr | Yes — Proton Free: one device at a time, servers in ten countries, no card required. | |
| ExpressVPN | $99.95/yr | — | Same — $99.95/yr | None. A 30-day money-back guarantee for new users, which is a refund window rather than a plan. | |
| NordVPN | $99.99/yr | — | Not published | Not verified — we could not read NordVPN's own site on the date we checked. |
“Not published” means we did not find a renewal price stated by the vendor on the date we checked. It is not a claim that the price changes on renewal, and it is not a claim that it doesn’t.
Checks filed here
1 piece