Best Cheap VPN in 2026
What the lowest long-term prices in our rankings actually buy, and what each one gives up
Eight of the ten providers we rank sit within about a dollar and a half a month of each other on their longest plans, a spread small enough that price alone should not decide this. What price correlates with is what gets left out, and not always as you would guess: the cheapest provider in our rankings holds the only no-logs policy we record as proven in court, while the one provider offering no long-term discount scores lowest of anything we rank on features. This guide works through the low end of our pricing and says what each figure costs you elsewhere.
Surfshark
Surfshark is our pick on value: the highest value score we award at 9.9, $2.49 a month on the 27 month plan for unlimited simultaneous connections, and a 9.4 overall that is the second highest we rank, so almost nothing is traded away for the price. Private Internet Access is cheaper still at $2.03, and NordVPN at $3.09 is as cheap as the highest overall score we rank gets.
Where the Money Actually Goes
The long-term prices we record cluster tightly. Private Internet Access is lowest at $2.03 a month on a three year plan, then CyberGhost and IPVanish at $2.19, Surfshark and Hide.me at $2.49, Proton VPN at $2.99, NordVPN at $3.09 and ExpressVPN at $3.49. Two providers sit well outside that band: Mullvad VPN charges a flat €5.00 with no long-term discount, and Windscribe is $5.75 on its annual plan. Across the eight in the cluster the spread is about a dollar and a half.
That spread is small enough that value scores tell you more than prices do. Surfshark holds the highest value score we award at 9.9 and Private Internet Access the second at 9.5; Private Internet Access is also the cheapest we list and Surfshark fourth, so at the low end price and value point the same way. Higher up they diverge: ExpressVPN is the most expensive of that cluster and scores 8.2 on value, while NordVPN at $3.09 scores 9.0 because it carries the highest overall score we rank.
Unlimited simultaneous connections are the biggest lever on effective cost, and they do not correlate with price at all. Four providers offer them: Surfshark, Private Internet Access, IPVanish and Windscribe. Two are among the cheapest we list and one is the most expensive dollar price we list. If several people are sharing, an unlimited plan at $2.49 works out very differently from a 5 device plan at a similar figure, and that matters more than the headline rate.
The refund window varies far more than the price, from Windscribe's 7 days, the shortest we rank, to CyberGhost's 45, the longest. Seven of the ten providers we rank offer 30 days. Read it before the price: a long window is what lets you find out whether a provider suits your connection. Every provider we score is compared on the main VPN rankings.
What to Look For
The figure our catalog records for each provider's longest plan, quoted with the plan length it requires, because a low monthly rate on a 27 month commitment differs from one on a year.
Our value category scores what a provider delivers against what it charges, on the same scale as everything else. It is the fastest way to separate cheap from good value.
Unlimited simultaneous connections turn one subscription into household coverage, changing the effective price per person more than any discount does.
The window is how long you get to find out whether it suits you. It runs from 7 days to 45 across the providers we rank, a wider spread than the prices.
Our Top Picks
Pricing and specs verified August 2026. Every price here is the long-term plan figure our catalog records, stated with the plan length it belongs to. We hold no monthly or annual rates, so none are quoted, and introductory rates usually differ from renewal rates. Confirm current pricing with the provider.
VPNs to Avoid
Buying at the Low End Without Regretting It
The mistakes here are predictable and mostly happen at checkout rather than in the comparison. These are the ones worth heading off.
- 01Work out the household device count before comparing prices. Unlimited connections from Surfshark, Private Internet Access, IPVanish or Windscribe change the per-person figure far more than the difference between $2.03 and $2.49.
- 02Read the plan length attached to each price, not just the monthly figure. Our catalog records $2.03 on a three year plan and $2.49 on 27 months, genuinely different commitments even though both display as a monthly rate.
- 03Check what the price becomes after the first term. Introductory rates and renewal rates commonly differ, and the renewal figure is the one you pay for longer. Providers state it in the plan terms.
- 04Check the refund window before paying, not after. It runs from 7 days to 45 across our rankings, and it is your only mechanism for finding out whether a provider works on your own connection.
- 05Test what you bought it for inside that window, on the devices you will really use. Speed on your own line and the services you care about vary most from any published figure, including ours.
- 06If price is the whole constraint, read the free VPN guide before settling, so the tradeoff is a decision rather than a surprise.