VPN Privacy & Pricing Index 2026: 30 Plans Compared

Snapshot date: August 29, 2026. Download the raw CSV or jump to the methodology.

The pricing pages in this index use two very different definitions of “monthly.” A month-to-month subscription is billed one month at a time and can usually be cancelled before the next monthly renewal. A long-term effective monthly rate divides a larger prepaid bill by the number of included months. Both numbers can be mathematically correct, but they represent different cash costs and different levels of commitment.

Among USD plans with an exposed month-to-month price, the median was $10.99. Across USD plans with a usable lowest advertised rate, the median was $3.62. For the 20 providers where both values were visible, the median advertised reduction was 69%. That is a meaningful discount, but it is not free: 15 of 25 measurable USD offers required at least 24 months.

Ten of the 30 captured offers did not expose an exact, stable renewal amount in the reviewed public HTML. That group includes pages where the renewal amount was absent, campaign-dependent, dynamically rendered or not separately stated. A missing public value does not mean a provider will renew without notice. It means a reader cannot calculate the second-term cost from the page we were able to archive.

Several providers were unusually clear. NordVPN, ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, PureVPN, Avast, Norton, PrivateVPN, AVG and Panda displayed a numeric post-introductory price or standard comparison price. Mullvad, IVPN, Mozilla VPN, Brave, AzireVPN and DuckDuckGo used straightforward standard monthly or annual rates without a separately advertised first-term discount in the captured offer.

PrivateVPN illustrates why cadence matters as much as price: its reviewed offer charged $72 for the first 36 months, then stated $72 every 12 months. The number on the renewal bill is the same, but the covered period is not. Comparing only the dollar amount would miss a threefold increase in the effective monthly cost.

Campaigns also move. ExpressVPN’s checkout can serve different bonus-month and effective-rate combinations. Hotspot Shield showed standard and introductory variants. We recorded the exact offer visible on the snapshot date and labeled it as a campaign, rather than presenting it as a permanent price.

We graded the availability and scope of evidence, not the overall privacy quality of each VPN. Grade A requires a public report or executive summary that directly assesses logging or technical privacy claims. Grade B covers evidence that is account-gated, provider-summary-only or materially limited in scope. Grade C means the provider publishes an independent security assessment, but the cited work is not a no-logs assurance. Grade D means we did not locate an official link to an independent VPN audit on the provider pages reviewed.

The strongest public examples let readers inspect the scope and limitations. Surfshark publishes its Deloitte ISAE 3000 report. Private Internet Access links its Deloitte no-logs assessment. hide.me publishes a Securitum executive summary, PureVPN publishes a KPMG technical privacy assessment letter, and DuckDuckGo links a 2026 no-logs policy audit.

Scope notes matter. Mullvad’s public relay assessment says no user-activity logging was found in the systems tested, but it also says the reviewers could not validate whether every production machine matched that setup. NordVPN reports repeated independent assurance engagements, but the full report requires a Nord Account. Those are useful signals; they are not equivalent to a fully public, production-wide guarantee.

* Calculated from the provider’s displayed effective monthly rate when the captured page did not expose a separate upfront total. EUR and GBP plans are excluded from USD aggregates. A dash means the value was not exposed or not comparable—not zero.

Compare all 30 providers — download CSV ↓

Flat pricing makes the trade-off easier to understand. Mullvad charged €5 for one month without a long-term discount. IVPN Standard was $6 monthly or $60 yearly, a modest 16.7% reduction. Brave VPN and DuckDuckGo Plus each showed $9.99 monthly or $99.99 yearly. These are not automatically better services, but their price presentation requires less interpretation.

Deep-discount plans can still be rational when you already know the product and the total bill fits your budget. The mistake is treating an effective monthly number as though it were a cancel-any-month subscription. Use the refund window for validation, then set a renewal reminder immediately.

For buying guides based on other needs, browse our VPN guides and VPN privacy guides. Our editorial methodology explains how we separate evidence from commercial relationships, and our affiliate disclosure explains how the site is funded.

A VPN can have a low price and still be the wrong purchase for your network, devices or threat model. Server proximity affects latency. Protocol support can decide whether a connection works on a restrictive school, office or hotel network. Kill-switch behavior matters when Wi-Fi drops. App accessibility and support quality matter when something breaks. None of those qualities can be inferred from a checkout page, so they are not folded into a synthetic score here.

Audit evidence also needs context beyond its grade. A provider may publish excellent application security work while offering no public no-logs assurance. Another may commission a privacy assessment that covers a sample of infrastructure at one point in time. Open-source apps, transparency reports, warrant canaries, legal cases, ownership and the personal data required at signup can add useful evidence, but each answers a different question. Combining them into one “privacy score” would create a precision the underlying evidence does not support.

Finally, the lowest plan may bundle something you do not need. DuckDuckGo Plus includes other privacy services; Brave VPN requires the Brave browser; Norton, AVG, Avast, F-Secure and Panda operate inside broader security-product ecosystems. Bundle value depends on whether you would otherwise buy those tools. This table normalizes the price mechanics as far as the public offer allows, but it does not pretend every product is functionally identical.

Use the index to remove surprises, then evaluate the remaining shortlist against your own requirements. Test the exact apps and nearby servers during the refund period. Confirm that the service supports every required device and protocol. If a feature is essential, verify it on the provider’s current documentation before committing to a multi-year term.

1. 1
   What is charged today?

   Ignore the monthly equivalent until you find the actual upfront amount.

2. 2
   How many paid months?

   Separate paid months from promotional bonus months so offers remain comparable.

3. 3
   What happens at renewal?

   Record both the next amount and the period it covers.

4. 4
   Can I inspect the audit?

   A badge is less useful than a dated report with a named auditor and scope.

5. 5
   Does the audit test no-logs?

   An app pentest can improve security without validating server logging practices.

6. 6
   Does the plan fit my devices?

   A lower price can disappear if you need another account for extra devices.

7. 7
   When does the refund window close?

   Test the apps, local servers and required features before that date.