Written by: VPNRatings.com Editorial Team – Updated: Apr 7, 2022
In order to help you find the Best and Cheapest VPN, we looked at every VPN on the market and put together this list to help you narrow down your options and choose the best affordable VPN.
To rate the Best and Cheapest VPN services, we analyzed every single VPN service on the market rated them based on 24 different variables to pick the Best and Cheapest VPN Service.
Great user reviews, testimonials, and recognition from other reputable outlets.
Uses the highest available level of encryption and the most up-to-date-security features.
Vast networks of servers in multiple countries and the fastest connections.
Commitment to not collect your data to sell to advertisers or share with law enforcement.
CyberGhost costs as little as $2.75 per month if you subscribe to a 3-year plan. With 6,200+ servers in over 80 countries, and support for a large range of operating systems, they offer a good deal for the price. You can connect up to 7 devices at once, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android devices.
CyberGhost is based in Romania, which has strong data protection laws. They’ve also been releasing transparency reports since 2011, which detail all police requests, Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaints, and malware activity flags that they’ve received. They have a strict no-logging policy and encrypt your traffic with 256-bit AES.
If you want to try out CyberGhost, they offer a 1-day free trial, and a 45-day money-back guarantee. Their month-to-month plan costs $12.99 per month, so you’ll save money if you subscribe to a 1, 2, or 3-year once you’ve tested it out.
Read our full CyberGhost review.
Features | |
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Price | —One-month plan:
$12.99 —18 months: $2.75/month —6 months: $7.99/month |
Servers (#) in Countries (#) | 6,100+ fast servers in 80+ countries |
Number of Devices | 7 |
Compatible with | Chrome, Firefox |
More Features | —Free trial: 1 day
- Customer Support: 24/7 live chat —Streaming Services supported: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc. —256-bit AES encryption |
ExpressVPN’s minimum cost is $6.67 per month on a 15-month subscription. They don’t offer a free trial, but you can make use of their 30-day money-back guarantee if you end up having second thoughts about your subscription. You can also pay via Bitcoin, to add some degree of anonymity to your transactions.
This company has over 3,000 servers in 94 countries, and supports all major operating systems. They’re based in the British Virgin Islands, which has good privacy laws from an Internet security standpoint compared to many other jurisdictions. They also have a strict no-logging policy and use 256-bit AES encryption.
Extra features include a Network Lock to ensure that you don’t accidentally send traffic over an unprotected connection, and split tunneling, in case you do want to send some traffic outside of your VPN, such as to access a local streaming service.
Read our full ExpressVPN review.
Features | |
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Price | One-month plan:
$12.95 Six months: $9.99/month 12 months: $8.32/month |
Servers (#) in Countries (#) | 160 locations in 94 countries |
Number of Devices | 5 |
Compatible with | Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, and Vivaldi browsers |
More Features | —Customer Support: 24/7 live chat —Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc. —Encryption: 256-bit AES |
Hotspot Shield is one of the VPNs on our list that offers a free tier, but this tier is pretty limited, so you’ll probably want to spend some money to get a more usable service. For their premium service, they charge $7.99/month, which is even more reasonable when you consider that it comes with several additional offerings. These include access to 1Password (a password manager), Robo Shield (a spam call blocker), and Identity Guard (an identity theft prevention tool).
You can connect up to 5 devices at once to over 3,200 servers in 80+ different countries. Hotspot Shield also offers a proprietary “no-compromise” VPN protocol called Catapult Hydra, which “is verified by experts as the #1 for speed, security, and ease of use.” If you’re not satisfied with their service, they offer a 45-day money-back guarantee.
Read our full Hotspot Shield review.
Features | |
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Price | Free version available Premium: $7.99/month |
Servers (#) in Countries (#) | 3,200+ servers in 80+ countries |
Number of Devices | 5 |
Compatible with | Chrome, Firefox |
More Features | —Customer Support: 24/7 live chat —Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc. |
IPVanish lets you connect an unlimited number of devices to their 1,500+ servers in 75 countries for as little as $6.49 per month. This is a good option if you’ll be sharing your plan with multiple housemates or family members who all want to access a different streaming service at once. All of your traffic will be encrypted with 256-bit AES.
IPVanish also offers 250 GB of encrypted storage and backup from SugarSync®, which ordinarily costs $9.99 per month, helping you meet two needs with one subscription. If you have any issues with their service, they offer 24/7 support by chat or email, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Read our full IPVanish review.
Features | |
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Price | One-month: $10.00 3 months: $8.99/month 1 year: $6.49/month |
Servers (#) in Countries (#) | 1,500+ servers in 75 countries |
Number of Devices | Unlimited devices |
Compatible with | Chrome |
More Features | —Customer Support: Live chat, email, and phone —Streaming Services: YouTube, Netflix, Hulu —Encryption: 256-bit AES |
Ivacy is one of the cheapest VPNs on our list, at just $2.25/month for 2 years. You can try them out for seven days for $.99, which is almost as good as a free trial. With support for all major operating systems and a variety of browser extensions, including Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, they’ve got you covered on whatever platform you’re running. You can connect up to 5 devices at once.
When it comes to security features, they provide a kill switch, secure DNS, 256-bit AES encryption, and a strict no-log policy. Optional add-ons include a Dedicated IP and Port Forwarding. Ivacy is based in Singapore, and accepts all major credit cards, as well as Paypal, Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, and more.
Features | |
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Price | 7 days for $0.99 1 month for $9.95/month 2 years for $2.25/month |
Servers (#) in Countries (#) | 200 servers in 19 countries |
Number of Devices | 5 |
Compatible with | Chrome, Firefox |
More Features | —7 days for $0.99 —Customer Support: Email, Contact Form —Streaming Services: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, ESPN, HBO, etc. —Encryption: 256-bit AES |
NordVPN’s minimum cost is $3.49/month for three years. Based in Panama, they have strong privacy laws protecting their subscribers, as well as a strict no-log policy. Paired with AES-256 encryption, your data should be safe with them.
This company has been featured by several major news outlets, including Wired and The Huffington Post, making them one of the more well-known VPN services.
You can connect up to 6 devices at once, and access all major streaming services like Hulu, Disney, and Netflix. They don’t offer a free trial, but provide a 30-day money-back if you decide it isn’t the right VPN for you. If you have any issues, you can contact them via live chat for 24/7 customer support to help you with troubleshooting.
Features | |
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Price | One-month: $11.95 6 months: $9/month 1 year: $5.75/month |
Servers (#) in Countries (#) | 5,500+ servers in 59 countries |
Number of Devices | 6 |
Compatible with | Chrome, Firefox |
More Features | —30-day money-back guarantee —Customer Support: 24/7 live chat —Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc. |
At $2.69 per month on a 2-year plan, Private Internet Access is one of the cheapest VPNs on our list. Not only that, but they accept payment via gift card, so you can use your Target, The Home Depot, Starbucks, Walmart, Lowe’s, or Best Buy gift cards to pay for your subscription, a rarity among VPN providers.
This VPN lets you connect up to 10 devices at once, to 2,715+ servers in 47 countries, all protected by 256-bit AES encryption. You can access all of your favorite streaming services, including The BBC, Prime Video, Netflix, and Showtime.
Read our full Private Internet Access review.
Features | |
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Price | One-month: $9.95 6 months: $2.69/month 1 year: $3.33/month |
Servers (#) in Countries (#) | 3,341 VPN and Proxy servers in 52 locations across 32 countries |
Number of Devices | 10 |
Compatible with | Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari |
More Features | —30-day money-back guarantee —Customer Support: Email —Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc. |
PrivateVPN’s cheapest plan is $3.82 per month for a 13-month subscription, but even their month-to-month plan is relatively inexpensive, at $7.67. You can connect to over 150 servers in 60 countries, and use up to 6 devices at once.
This company promises they can have you up and running within 60 seconds with their 1-click setup, and they offer remote assistance if you get stuck. While they don’t offer a free trial, they do have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Security-wise, they use 256-bit AES encryption and have a no logging policy and a kill switch feature. They operate under Sweden’s fairly strong privacy laws, and allow for port forwarding and anonymous torrenting.
PrivateVPN Features | |
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Price | 1 month: $7.67 3 months: $4.88/month 13 months: $3.82/month |
Platforms/ Browsers Supported | Chrome, Firefox |
Servers(#) in Countries(#) | 150+ servers in 60 countries |
# of Devices | 6 |
More Features | —30-day money-back guarantee —Customer Support: 24/7 live chat —Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc. |
ProtonVPN costs as little as $4/month for a paid subscription and $0 for their free plan. Since it’s brought to you by the same company behind secure email service ProtonMail, you can be sure that using their free version won’t compromise your security. You’ll be protected by Swiss privacy laws, among the best in the world.
However, their free plan does have some limitations, such as access to servers in only 3 countries, with only one device connected at a time. If you think you’ll need a better plan than that, try out their premium plan on a 7-day free trial. On this plan, you can connect up to 10 devices at once to any of their 1011 servers in 51 countries.
ProtonVPN only allows you to connect using the strongest of VPN protocols, so you can count on their AES-256 encryption and strict no-logging policy to protect your data.
Read our full ProtonVPN review.
Features | |
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Price | Free version available Basic: $4/month Plus: $8/month Visionary: $24/month |
Servers (#) in Countries (#) | 1,000+ servers 50+ countries |
Number of Devices | 5 |
Compatible with | Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Edge, Opera |
More Features | —Free trial: 7 days —Customer Support: Email, Ticket —Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc. |
PureVPN’s cheapest deal is $8.33/month, and they offer a first week at $0.99 instead of a free trial. Payment is available via Visa, PayPal, and American Express, and if you’re a business, they offer enterprise options as well.
The company is currently headquartered in Hong Kong, but no longer has any servers or operations there, and is considering moving their jurisdiction in the future.
They offer 256-bit encryption and an internet kill switch. Up to 10 devices are supported, on a variety of operating systems including Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Fire TV.
PureVPN Features | |
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Price | 1 month: $10.95 6 months: $8.33/month |
Platforms/ Browsers Supported | Chrome, Firefox |
Servers(#) in Countries(#) | 2000+ VPN servers in 140+ countries |
# of Devices | 5 |
More Features | —7-day trial: $0.99 —Customer Support: Email, Contact Form —Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc. —Encryption: 256-bit AES |
SaferVPN is on the cheapest end of the spectrum at $2.50/month, if you commit to a 3-year subscription. They offer a 1-day free trial, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you’ve got any issues, you can contact them 24/7 via their live chat system.
You can use SaferVPN’s service on up to 5 devices, including Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, and more. Each device can be protected by an Internet kill switch, and unsecured WiFi protection, which turns on your VPN if it detects you’re on an unsafe WiFi hotspot. They guarantee zero traffic logs, and offer 1,300+ servers in over 50 countries.
PureVPN Features | |
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Price | One-month plan: $12.95 3-year plan: $2.50/month 2-year plan: $3.29/month 1-year plan: $5.49/month |
Platforms/ Browsers Supported | Chrome, Firefox |
Servers(#) in Countries(#) | 2000+ VPN servers in 140+ countries |
# of Devices | 5 |
More Features | —Free Trial: 1 day —Customer Support: 24/7 Live Chat —Streaming Services: Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, BBC, and ITV —Encryption: 256-bit AES |
Surfshark is the cheapest offering on our list, coming in at only $1.99/month on a 2-year subscription. They’re headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, which has strong data protection laws, allowing them to guarantee they don’t log your traffic.
You can try out Surfshark for up to 30 days with a free trial, and they also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’ve subscribed and change your mind. You can connect an unlimited number of devices, all encrypted with 256-bit AES, and with access to 1,700+ servers in 63 countries.
Some of Surfshark’s features include Camouflage Mode, which makes it harder for your ISP to detect that you’re using a VPN, and Multi-Hop, which allows you to connect to up to two Surfshark servers at once for added security. SurfShark offers 24/7 support via email and chat, as well as lots of tutorials on their website.
Read our full Surfshark review.
Features | |
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Price | 1-month $12.95 6 months: $6.49/month 24 months: $2.49/month |
Servers (#) in Countries (#) | 1,700 servers in 63+ countries |
Number of Devices | Unlimited |
Compatible with | Chrome, Firefox |
More Features | —30-day money-back guarantee —Customer Support: Email —Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc. |
Trust.Zone is one of the cheapest offerings on our list, at $2.33/month, but their service is less robust than some of their competitors. They only provide apps for Windows and Android at the moment, although you can configure another operating system using OpenVPN or L2TP/IPsec by following the instructions on their website.
They offer a 3-day trial, and have 186 servers in 91 countries. With AES-256 encryption and a no-log policy, your data should be well-protected. You’ll get a 10% discount if you pay with Bitcoin, helping you maintain a more anonymous profile.
Features | |
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Price | $8.88/month $2.33/month for 2 years $3.33/month for 1 year |
Servers (#) in Countries (#) | 186 fast servers in 91 zones |
Number of Devices | 5 |
Compatible with | Chrome, Firefox |
More Features | —Free Trial: 3 days —Customer Support: Ticket —Streaming Services: Netflix, iPlayer, Amazon, Disney+ —Encryption: AES-256 bit |
TunnelBear offers a free 500 MB plan, which may be enough for occasional use and is the closest that they offer to a free trial. If you plan to use your VPN regularly, though, you can subscribe to their premium plan for $3.33 a month for individuals, or $5.75 per user per month for teams and businesses.
TunnelBear supports iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows, as well as browser extensions for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera. You can connect up to five devices at once to servers in 23 countries, with AES 256-bit encryption, a no-log policy, and a kill switch to keep your data secure and private.
Read our full TunnelBear review.
Features | |
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Price | Free version available Unlimited: $3.33/month Teams: $5.75/user/month |
Servers (#) in Countries (#) | 1,800+ servers in 22+ countries |
Number of Devices | 5 |
Compatible with | Chrome, Firefox and Opera |
More Features | —Customer Support: Email —Streaming Services: Netflix —Encryption: 256-bit AES |
VyprVPN has a 2-year subscription for $2.50 per month, with no limit on the number of devices you can connect. They also offer a 30-day free trial if you want to give them a test drive first. They encrypt your traffic via AES-256, and support all major operating systems, as well as most major streaming platforms.
Their proprietary Chameleon™ feature helps you combat Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), which could be used by your ISP to detect that you’re using a VPN. VyberVPN has over 700 servers in 70 locations around the world to help you stay connected
VyperVPN Features | |
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Price | 1 month: $12.95 1 year: $3.75/month 2 years: $2.50/month |
Platforms/ Browsers Supported | Chrome |
Servers(#) in Countries(#) | 700+ servers in 64 countries |
# of Devices | 5 |
More Features | —Free Trial: 30 days —Customer Support: Email, Contact Form —Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc. —Encryption: 256-bit AES |
Because this is a list of the cheapest VPN services, one of the criteria that we took into consideration is cost. It’s worth noting that many VPNs offer subscriptions at a range of price points, so you may get a better deal if you’re willing to pay more up front.
Some of these services even offer free plans, although these usually come with some restrictions, such as a monthly data limit. If you only need to use a VPN occasionally, then this may be the way to go. That said, we don’t recommend using a VPN just because it’s cheap. That’s why we’ve only chosen reputable companies that offer low-cost VPNs without compromising your security.
Here are some of the other factors we took into account:
The main purpose of a VPN is to help you maintain privacy and security online. A big part of this comes down to the encryption that your VPN uses. The most secure VPNs use 256-bit AES ciphers with PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA512 hashing and key generation.
Another key security feature is a kill switch, a setting that prevents your computer from sending unsecured traffic when your VPN is disconnected.
Most VPNs offer servers in multiple countries. This is how your VPN makes it appear as though you’re accessing the internet from one of these locations, and hides your actual IP address from the websites that you’re accessing. The more countries a VPN service supports (and the more servers each country has), the more countries you can appear to be based in. This is important when trying to access content that’s only available in certain countries. We’ve focused on VPNs with a large number of server locations.
All the VPNs reviewed here have no-log policies, which means they don’t keep records of what their customers are doing with their service. Some VPNs go further by allowing you to pay with Bitcoin and other less traceable payment methods.
These details are important, because it determines much data (or metadata) they have to hand over to authorities if they’re required to do so.
Finally, we’ve focused on VPNs that offer a free trial or a money-back guarantee. A free trial is a great way to try to determine whether a particular service will meet your needs. Most of the companies we’ve reviewed here have free trials, and those that don’t either have a free tier you can use, or a money-back guarantee within the first month or so of your subscription if you’re not satisfied with the service.
VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, are used to hide your personal IP (Internet Protocol) address from websites and other online services. This can help protect you from identity theft, hacking, and surveillance, as well as data collection by your own ISP.
They also let you access content that is only available in certain countries, by letting you appear to be accessing the internet from one of those countries.
Using a VPN usually makes you more secure than accessing the internet without one. This is primarily the result of strong encryption, which makes it hard, if not impossible, for your ISP and others to see what you’re doing on the internet.
That said, some types of tracking, such as cookies, can’t be circumvented by using a VPN. And in some cases, your VPN itself may not live up to the security standards it advertises, which is why it’s important to choose a reputable service.
Most VPN services support all major operating systems, including macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS. Some also support web browsers using browser extensions, as well as smart TVs and other smart devices.
If your device isn’t supported by your VPN service, you may be able to configure your home router to connect to the VPN directly, protecting your entire household at once. Many VPN companies provide instructions on how to do this.
VPNs work by tunneling your internet traffic to a server elsewhere in the world, before sending it on to its intended destination. Depending on the server you connect to, this could mean that services you’re accessing will take longer to respond because of the extra distance your data has to travel. In most cases, that won’t be more than a few milliseconds, thanks to the speed of today’s internet connections.
If you choose your servers carefully, you may actually notice an increase in speed, due to the way that some ISPs prioritize VPN traffic over other connections.
In addition to your regular internet traffic, a VPN also needs to send some traffic of its own to keep itself connected. This may be around 5%-15% of your total Internet data, but it isn’t usually enough to worry about unless you’re on a very limited plan.