So you’ve decided you need a virtual private network to hide your browsing activity from your ISP, change your virtual location, stay safe on public Wi-Fi and have fun all other benefits. The inevitable next question is: “Should I pay for one? If so, how much?”

All that best VPNs costs money, but it can be difficult to tell an overpriced service apart from one that is priced according to its value. On this page, I’ll share the costs for the top VPN services, calculate the industry average and explain what makes VPNs cost the way they do. Finally, I’ll share some tips for creating a VPN that fits your budget.

How much is a VPN?

I want to start by introducing the complexity of the problem. If you want numbers, you can find those in the sections below.

The main thing that makes it difficult to budget for VPNs is that providers are not always honest about how much they charge. They rarely lie, but they often complicate their pricing structures and hide the increases in the fine print.

Let’s take CyberGhost as an example, since I’m just reviewing. A one-month subscription to CyberGhost costs $12.99 – simple. However, you can also get a six-month subscription by paying $41.94 up front, although the website specifically calls it “$6.99 per month.” Finally, you can pay $56.94 for a 28-month subscription, but only once; after that, it will be $56.94 a year.

As you can see in the image, the website heavily emphasizes the average monthly price, in the text that dwarfs the actual price you will pay at checkout. It’s even worse with services like NordVPN with multiple subscription levels as well as multiple durations. It is not uncommon to see 10 or more prices quoted for the exact same VPN.

The best way to cut through the confusion and shop on your own terms is to compare different VPNs of the same duration and subscription level. For example, you may find it costs a year on the most basic plan available, as most basic subscriptions still include full VPN service. In the next two sections, I will compare and average the benchmark levels of my top seven VPNs on a monthly and yearly basis.

Average monthly cost of a VPN

Here’s what the best VPNs cost each month. The numbers below are for subscribing one month at a time, excluding any discounts and special deals.

• Mullvad: $5.98 (depending on the dollar/euro exchange rate)

As you can see, $12.99 is a normal price for a month of a VPN – but the average price is a bit lower, because many providers sell monthly plans for less. In general, expect to pay in the range between $10 and $13. Companies like Surfshark sometimes raise their monthly prices in a bid to drive more traffic to higher plans.

Mullvad is also an outlier, as you can only subscribe to it on a monthly basis. There are other outliers, like Astrill, which costs $30 per month. But the above is true for all the most considered providers.

Average annual cost of a VPN

If you choose to sign up for a year at a time, you may save money but you will have to pay more up front. VPNs offer long-term deals to pump up their cash flow and active user numbers. The one-year cost for the top seven VPNs is written below as a lump sum, because many of them add extra months to the first subscription period so they can quote a lower monthly price. Since CyberGhost doesn’t have a one-year plan, I replaced it Windscribe.

• ExpressVPN: $52.39 for first subscription, $99.95 thereafter

• NordVPN: $59.88 for first subscription, $139.08 thereafter

• Mullvad: $71.82 (depending on the dollar/euro exchange rate)

For a year of VPN service, you can expect to pay somewhere between $45 and $70. Note that at least two services, ExpressVPN and NordVPN, will increase prices after the first year, so factor that into your budget if you want it.

Why are VPNs so expensive?

The length of the subscription is the biggest factor in determining how much you pay. Beyond that, everyone was a bit confused. Commercial VPNs are still a new industry, so there isn’t much standardization in pricing.

Most cost differences come from the competition: VPNs price themselves lower to offer a better deal than their rivals, or higher if they think they have a unique difference. Astrill gets away with charging $30 a month due to the widespread belief that it is the best VPN for China (in fact, no VPN can be guaranteed to work in China 100 percent of the time).

Another factor that can influence the price of a VPN is the cost of maintaining its infrastructure. For each new server location, the provider must rent space in an existing data center, build its own physical server farm or build a virtual server with an IP address from a particular location.

Once the locations are there, they need to be maintained, including regularly changing their IP address so that firewalls don’t recognize and block them. Loads across locations must be balanced between servers and technology must be upgraded as faster solutions become available.

Because VPNs can have hundreds of server locations, all maintenance is not cheap, and customers often eat the cost. Factor in the price of extra features outside of the VPN’s core functionality and you’ll understand why these companies are so desperate for liquidity that they’ll offer discounts of up to 80 percent – as long as you pay a lump sum today.

What about free VPNs?

VPNs can be expensive, especially if you want high quality. But some VPNs are free. Is there any reason not to go with free VPNs every time?

The answer is an unequivocal yes; Paying for a VPN is almost always a better idea. When we toured the best free VPNonly three earned our unqualified recommendation. All three are paid services with free plans, and all have strict limits on server locations, data usage and other privileges.

The unfortunate truth is that free VPNs have their drawbacks no matter what you use. Many of them are hacked-together apps with little value, thrown away to make a profit. Some make you a product by selling your data to advertisers or renting out your home IP address. Some drop any pretense and plant malware directly on your device.

These risks, which are often invisible to the end user, are the reason why I always advise going with a free VPN funded by a paid plan, such as Proton VPN, hide.me or Windscribe. Those plans may be restricted, but at least the provider’s motives are out in the open: they’re making money from the paid plan and they want you to switch to it.

How to save money with a VPN

If you’ve decided to pay for a VPN but want to stretch your budget as far as possible, the tips below can push your cybersecurity dollars even further. To begin with, general advice on choosing a VPN is always available: read expert opinions, check reviews and use the free trial to test its speed and security.

Have a long-term plan. If you’re confident that you’ll actually be able to use the VPN for the full duration, there’s no reason not to go for a 12-month or 24-month subscription. These are win-win deals that can actually save you a lot of money overall.

Canceling auto-renewal. VPN accounts are set to automatically renew by default. In some cases, this may inadvertently lock you into a higher-priced long-term plan. I recommend auto-renew cancellation after subscribing even if you are sure you want to continue. From there, you can create a new account to get the introductory rate again – or join a different VPN to get a better deal.

Look for resubscription deals. Another benefit of canceling immediately is that the VPN will often try to entice you with exclusive discounts. Stay strong until your subscription is a month or two from expiring, then look for emails that offer better prices.

Wait for seasonal discounts. If you can hold off until November, most VPNs offer huge discounts from the Black Friday period until the New Year. Also check other holidays, as VPNs will take any excuse for marketing; CyberGhost is offering a Valentine’s Day deal as I type this. We also track those best VPN deals you can get it any time of the year.

Use a VPN to save money on streaming. Most streaming services are more expensive than VPNs. If you use a VPN to access more content without adding a new streaming subscription, you’ll be ahead. For example, if you only have Netflix but want to watch Schitt’s Creek, you can pay $16.99 a month for Peacock without ads — or $9.99 a month for Proton VPN to unblock Netflix Canada, which shows that.

Shop for regional discounts. As with the previous point, this won’t save you money on the VPN itself, but it will save you enough money on other expenses that you can make a profit. Change your virtual location can give you discounts on purchases where prices vary by region, especially on travel costs.