When it comes to virtual private networks (VPN), we’ve learned that a high price does not necessarily translate to a premium product, or that lower prices mean a product is inferior. Our picks for the best, less expensive VPNs offer strong privacy, user-friendly apps and serviceable streaming unblocking without breaking the bank.
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To that end, we recommend opting for a yearly versus a monthly subscription for the greatest savings and the least risk, given how quickly things change in the VPN space. While some VPN companies also offer two-year subscription packages, we prefer yearly plan, which may cost $40 to $100 for the first year.
Fair warning, many VPNs offer attractive introductory prices that often spike dramatically upon renewal, so be sure to read the fine print so you don’t get an unwelcome surprise when your subscription renews.
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What is the best cheap VPN of 2025?
Surfshark is CNET’s top pick for the best cheap VPN, thanks to its innovative feature set, outstanding speed performance, top-notch privacy protections and budget-friendly annual subscription plan. Granted, Surfshark’s monthly subscription is quite a bit more expensive than the competition, but if you sign up for an annual or two-year plan, you’ll pay considerably less than what you would for most other top VPNs’ long-term subscriptions. Surfshark isn’t only the top cheap VPN — it’s one of the best VPNs, period.
Proton VPN is an all-around solid VPN provider that delivers top-notch privacy and excels at unblocking geo-restricted streaming content from around the world. It’s also one of the fastest VPN’s we’ve tested and offers one of the largest network of servers in the industry, spanning 126 countries. In Proton VPN, you’ll get a premium service that works just as well for privacy purists as it does for casual users, and at a price that’s better than most of the competition.
Mullvad delivers fast speeds, easy-to-use apps and innovative privacy features all for a flat fee of 5 euros per month (about $6), which helps make this Swedish-based provider a great choice for privacy-conscious people on a budget. But Mullvad struggles with some streaming services and doesn’t offer full native app support for smart TVs or streaming devices, so it’s a tough sell for casual users who want to access geo-restricted content. It’s an otherwise well-rounded privacy-focused VPN.
Private Internet Access is another solid, budget-friendly VPN that has a strong reputation for privacy and transparency. PIA’s apps have many customization options and are simple to use. It’s also decent for streaming, but users with slow connections may struggle with PIA’s relatively sluggish speed performance. Nevertheless, PIA is just $40 for the first year (renewing at $50 annually).
Cheap VPN comparisons
Best cheap VPNs compared: value & features
Here’s how the best cheap VPNs stack up by price.
| VPN | Best for | Speed loss | Monthly Price | Annual Price | Long-term price | Connection limit | Servers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surfshark | Overall value | 21% | $15.45 | $48 for 15 months (then $79 per year) | $54 for 27 months (then $79 per year) | Unlimited | 4,500 in 100 countries |
| Proton VPN | Budget-friendly versatility | 16% | $10 | $48 for 1 year (then $80 per year) | $72 for 2 years (then $80 per year) | 10 | 15,900 in 126 countries |
| Mullvad | Affordable privacy | 24% | 5 euro (~$6) | N/A | N/A | 5 | 732 in 49 countries |
| PIA | Cheap customization | 48% | $11.95 | $40 ($50 renewal) | $79 every 3 years | Unlimited | 35,000 in 91 countries |
Pros
- Cheap one- and two-year plans
- Unlimited simultaneous connections
- Excellent for streaming
- Lots of unique privacy features
Cons
- 14-Eyes jurisdiction (Netherlands)
- Expensive monthly plan
Surfshark delivers innovative privacy features, a polished interface, unlimited simultaneous connections, fast speeds and an impressive global network of VPN servers in 100 countries — all while offering long-term subscription plans that are considerably cheaper than most of the competition. Following an introductory price of $48 for the first year, the annual plan renews at $79 per year. If you’re really committed, you can also opt for a two-year plan that costs $54 total for the first two years and then recurs annually at $79. While that’s not the cheapest VPN we tested, it’s pretty close, and Surfshark offers a generally more cohesive suite of features than other VPNs with similar costs. Just avoid the pricey monthly plan.
Why we like it
Surfshark offers ad and malware protection, camouflage mode and split tunneling. You’ll also get standard features like DNS leak protection, AES 256-bit encryption (with the OpenVPN and IKEv2 VPN protocols) or ChaCha20 with WireGuard and a kill switch. Surfshark’s Dynamic MultiHop runs your connection through two server locations of your choosing and its IP Rotator feature changes your IP address automatically every few minutes while keeping you connected to the VPN.
Additionally, Surfshark’s new EverLink self-healing server infrastructure can help ensure you remain connected to the VPN even if a server goes down or undergoes maintenance. Its Alternative ID feature lets you generate an entire fake persona complete with full name, birthdate, email address and physical address for online forms where you don’t want to use your actual personal information.
Surfshark is an excellent option for streaming and can help you unblock multiple Netflix libraries along with other streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus and Hulu.
In our 2025 speed tests, Surfshark averaged a 21% speed loss, which is fast enough for just about anything you’d want to do online, including data-heavy activities like streaming or gaming.
You can get a seven-day free trial on Android, iOS and MacOS if you sign up through Google’s Play Store or Apple’s App Store. If you’ve purchased Surfshark and you’re not satisfied with the service for any reason, the company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Pros
- Top-notch privacy and transparency
- Budget-friendly prices
- Legitimate free tier
- Excellent for streaming
- Expansive global server network
Cons
- No 24/7 live chat
- Apps could be a little more user-friendly
Proton VPN has built a reputation for top-notch security and maximum transparency at a budget-friendly price. Its monthly plan costs $10, while the annual plan costs $48 for the first year before jumping to $80 annually. A two-year plan costs $72 for the first 24 months, then $80 annually after that period. Proton VPN also offers a legitimate free tier if you’d rather not pay for a subscription at all.
Why we like it
Proton VPN’s apps are fully open-source and regularly audited. On top of security features like a kill switch and DNS leak protection, Proton VPN offers extras like malware protection, Tor over VPN and a stealth protocol. If you connect to Proton VPN’s Secure Core servers, you’ll be able to route your traffic through secure data centers located in Switzerland, Sweden or Iceland before exiting through another location. This provides a critical extra layer of protection if you’re a user with heightened privacy needs. Aside from its robust privacy protections, Proton does well at unblocking content from various streaming providers, including Netflix.
Proton VPN is an excellent choice for budget-conscious VPN users looking for a free VPN. Proton VPN offers the only free VPN recommended by CNET because it delivers the same basic privacy protections as its paid tier and doesn’t put limits on speed, data or usage time like many free VPNs do. However, the free tier does not include torrenting support or access to its Secure Core servers.
Free users are allotted one connection at a time and access to servers in eight countries (Japan, The Netherlands, United States, Poland, Norway, Singapore, Canada and Romania). The only other downside is that you can’t specify the server you connect to on the free plan, although the company says that free users are automatically connected to the fastest available server at the time of connection.
Proton VPN’s premium plans allow up to 10 simultaneous connections and offer access to 15,800-plus servers across 126 countries. Ultimately, Proton VPN is one of the best cheap VPNs for privacy enthusiasts and casual users alike.
Pros
- Wallet-friendly
- Straightforward pricing
- Open-source and transparent
- No personal info needed at sign-up
Cons
- Issues with streaming content
- Only five simultaneous connections
- Relatively small server network
Mullvad is an open-source VPN provider that offers its services at a competitive rate, making it a quality, inexpensive VPN over short or longer terms. Mullvad’s simple pricing structure is vastly different than most others. The service costs a flat fee of 5 euros per month (about $6), whether you use it for a month, a year, 10 years or longer. That comes out to 60 euros for a year (about $70), but if you order from Amazon, you can get a year of Mullvad for $57 or six months for $29. It’s a top choice for anyone who wants the best privacy options, but it isn’t quite as good as other VPNs when it comes to streaming.
Why we like it
What sets Mullvad apart the competition is its commitment to bulletproof privacy above all else. There are positives and negatives to this approach, so you should be sure privacy is your priority. For example, Mullvad has done away with recurring subscriptions, even if you sign up through a third party like PayPal. That way, Mullvad is able to limit the amount of customer data in its systems to the bare minimum. You can even mail Mullvad an envelope with cash to pay for the service. Mullvad automatically generates a random 16-digit account number when you sign up, and you can prepay for one, two, three, six or 12 months at a time. The company is so focused on security and privacy that you don’t have to enter any personal data at signup — no email, username or password is required.Â
Mullvad is fast and offers excellent privacy, but it is not ideal for streaming enthusiasts because it doesn’t offer full native support for smart TVs or streaming devices, and sometimes struggles to stream certain content. I streamed content on Netflix and HBO Max without any issues during my latest tests, but Amazon Prime Video detected the VPN and blocked my access. It’s otherwise an excellent option for budget-conscious VPN users who value extra attention to privacy and appreciate straightforward simplicity. Mullvad offers a 14-day money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with the service.
Pros
- Super cheap prices
- Unlimited simultaneous connections
- Great for streaming
- Solid privacy and transparency
Cons
- US jurisdiction
- Middling connection speeds
Private Internet Access is one of the cheapest VPN providers around, at $12 per month, $40 for a year (renewing at $50 per year), or $79 every three years. While we don’t generally recommend multi-year VPN subscriptions, three years of PIA costs less than the renewal price of a single year of ExpressVPN or NordVPN. PIA’s apps are highly customizable and open source, which should appeal to the techie crowd and privacy-conscious users who appreciate transparency. However, PIA’s speed loss averaged considerably higher than competitors — double what we saw from Surfshark and Mullvad — which makes it a poor choice for anyone on slower connections like satellite.
Why we like it
PIA was independently audited in 2024, releases quarterly transparency reports and has had its no-logs claims tested in the wild on multiple occasions. Along with standard privacy features like AES 256-bit encryption with OpenVPN and IKEv2 or ChaCha20 on WireGuard, DNS leak protection and a kill switch, PIA also offers multihop connections, obfuscation and an ad and malware blocker.Â
Its large server network spanning 91 countries makes PIA a great VPN for travel, while its unlimited simultaneous connections mean it’s a good option for users with multiple devices. It’s one of the only VPN providers out there with servers in all 50 states, making it a great choice if you want a low-latency connection in the US. If you have fast baseline internet speeds, PIA is an excellent cheap VPN that provides top-notch privacy and is more than capable of handling almost anything you’d want to do online. Like Surfshark, PIA has a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Based on our experience testing, using and researching VPNs, these are the most important factors to consider when choosing the best cheap VPN for your needs.
Cost
If your objective is to find the least expensive VPN, then price will likely be your primary consideration. Some VPNs cost up to $100 or more per year, but the cheapest VPNs can give you many of the same privacy protections for $40 to $80 per year. Keep in mind that some VPN providers offer an introductory rate that will increase when your subscription renews. Generally, you can find the renewal price when you click through to the payment window, but some VPNs make you go digging through the terms of service pages to find the true yearly subscription cost.
Privacy
Privacy is a major consideration for any VPN, regardless of what kind of VPN you want. The best VPNs all have privacy protections like a kill switch and DNS leak protection, along with a no-logs policy and AES 256-bit encryption (over OpenVPN and IKEv2) or ChaCha20 with WireGuard. Depending on the level of privacy you need, you can get a cheap VPN that offers additional features like Tor over VPN, obfuscation and multihop connections. Â
Speed
A VPN will slow down your connection speeds, sometimes by 50% or more. So, you’ll want to look for a VPN that will cut your speeds by as little as possible — ideally less than about 25% so that you’ll barely even notice a difference. Fast VPN speeds are essential for data-heavy activities like streaming, gaming, downloading and video conferencing. A fast VPN will easily handle all those activities, while slow VPN speeds may be suitable only for basic internet browsing. The fastest VPNs we tested include NordVPN, Proton VPN and ExpressVPN, all of which delivered fast, reliable connections during our tests.
Usability
Getting a cheap VPN doesn’t necessarily have to mean that you have to sacrifice usability. Many of the more budget-friendly VPN options are miles ahead of their pricier peers in terms of user-friendliness. Look for a VPN that works well across all the devices you want to use. Your VPN should be as easy to use as any other app you may download and should require little to no learning curve. Â
We tested VPNs several times throughout the course of the year, putting each VPN through a battery of tests to see how it stacks up to our expectations and the rest of the competition. We rated each service on connection speed, features, privacy, usability and overall value.
Value assessment
Value is our biggest consideration when naming the best cheap VPNs. Some services offer advanced features at advanced prices, and while those might be good options for some users, they’re not always the best choice for people looking for a cheap VPN. We assess the quality of service and features against each VPN’s introductory and renewal prices, as well as how transparently the company communicates its renewal prices. For this list, we prioritized services that deliver quality features and performance at a cheaper price than other competitors.
Connection speed testing
We run 250 speed tests for each VPN, measuring the average amount of speed lost across a variety of servers and platforms. This gives us a general sense of how much the service will affect your baseline internet speeds, and we look for VPNs that keep the speed loss to about 25% or less. Surfshark managed this with a respectable 21% speed loss in our 2025 tests, which is part of what made it our best cheap VPN.
Feature testing
Our feature evaluations look at the breadth of what a VPN can do, plus how effectively it works. A good cheap VPN should still offer a reasonable range of features that work reliably, including things like split tunneling and advanced privacy options.
Privacy evaluation
A good cheap VPN shouldn’t sacrifice your privacy. When we test VPNs, we look for details like no-logs policies — preferably backed up by third-party audits — as well as strong encryption, reasonable (and readable) privacy policies and transparency reports. We also test the VPN’s kill switch and run DNS leak tests to make sure the VPN is performing the basics correctly.
Usability assessment
We evaluate how well the VPN performs when streaming and unblocking content from different regions worldwide, and generally how easy the apps are to use across platforms. The best cheap VPNs work as expected regardless of platform and are easy enough for beginners to use.
PrivadoVPN
PrivadoVPN is a wallet-friendly VPN provider that costs $11 monthly, $20 for the first year (then $60 annually) or $30 total for the first two years (then $96 every two years). This is an exceptionally cheap introductory offer that even other budget providers like Surfshark and PIA don’t match. Aside from its paid plans, PrivadoVPN offers a free VPN tier giving you access to 13 different international servers, including spots in the US, UK, Canada, France, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Switzerland, Germany and The Netherlands. The free tier lets you pick any server you like, but you’re limited to 10GB of usage per month, which is okay for general browsing but insufficient for data-heavy activities like streaming or gaming.
With a paid plan, PrivadoVPN offers hundreds of servers in 49 different countries. That could work for some users, but is well below the thousands of servers in 100-plus countries that competitors like ProtonVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN offer. In our testing, Privado was decent for casual users, providing largely user-friendly apps, solid streaming capabilities and a privacy-friendly jurisdiction.
However, its small server network, fickle speed performance and lack of third-party audits make it tough to recommend. Users looking for blazing-fast speeds for streaming, international travelers or people with critical privacy needs (like political activists, whistleblowers or asylum-seekers) should look elsewhere. But if you need basic privacy for web browsing or streaming on a budget, Privado may fit the bill.
Read our PrivadoVPN review.
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