NordVPN is having a big sale on its two-year plans right now. The Complete tier, for example is 70 percent off, bringing the price of 24 months down to just $130.
NordVPN regularly appears on Engadget’s list of the best VPN services thanks to its wide server network, strong security tools and consistent performance across devices. NordVPN’s latest promotion puts one of its most comprehensive plans at a price that undercuts many competing premium VPN subscriptions.
NordVPN
Save on all NordVPN plans right now; the Complete plan includes a password manager and 1TB of cloud storage for 70 percent off.
The Complete tier includes full access to NordVPN’s core VPN service, which encrypts internet traffic and masks a user’s IP address to help protect online activity on public Wi-Fi networks and at home. Subscribers can use the service on multiple devices, including phones, tablets, laptops and smart TVs, with apps available for major operating systems. It also includes access to NordPass (more on that below), an ad blocker and 1TB of cloud storage. You’ll find similar discounts on all of NordVPN’s other plans: Basic, Plus and Prime.
Beyond the basics, NordVPN offers features like threat protection to help block malicious websites and trackers, as well as specialty servers designed for added privacy or faster performance in specific scenarios. In our NordVPN review, the service was praised for its evolving feature set and overall reliability, even as the VPN market becomes increasingly competitive.
Engadget regularly tracks VPN pricing trends and this offer compares favorably with other current promotions. It also appears alongside NordVPN deals featured in Engadget’s ongoing roundup of the best VPN discounts available right now, which compares offers from multiple major providers.
Those looking for additional security tools may also want to note that NordVPN’s Complete plan bundles in extra services beyond the VPN itself. One of those is NordPass, the company’s password management app. NordPass is also discounted as part of a separate promotion, if you’re primarily looking for a password manager rather than a VPN. The Premium tier is currently 50 percent off, bringing the price down to $36 for two years. NordPass Premium adds features such as cross-device password syncing, secure password sharing and breach monitoring, which alerts users if stored credentials appear in known data leaks.
Both offers are available for a limited time, though Nord has not specified an end date for the promotion. If you’re still unsure whether NordVPN is right for you, it offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can change your mind and get a full refund.
It’s the night before Christmas, and holiday VPN deals are going strong. It’s a great time to grab a last-minute subscription for yourself or a loved one. With access to a virtual private network (VPN), you can stream TV shows and events from all over the world, protect your information from hackers and thwart online trackers. It might be cute that Santa sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake, but Russian hacker collectives and the Amazon marketing department don’t really share St. Nick’s charm.
Although we strongly recommend using a VPN, jumping on the first deal that comes along might get you stuck with a substandard app. Beyond that, even otherwise respectable VPNs sometimes frame their prices in misleading ways, with advertised deals not always as available as they seem to be.
Even so, there are some great bargains on the table. For the holiday season, plenty of the best VPNs — including our top pick, Proton VPN — have end-of-year deals live that can save you anywhere from 67 to 88 percent on annual subscriptions. Most of these discounts only apply if you sign up for a year or more, but as long as you’re comfortable with a service before you take the plunge, committing actually makes sense. You pay more at the start, but if you divide the cost by the months of subscription, it’s much cheaper over time.
Best VPN deals
Proton
This Swiss VPN is Engadget’s top VPN of choice right now, for reasons I’ve laid out in a full Proton VPN review. It looks and feels good to use on every platform, which makes it fantastic for multiple-device households. It keeps your browsing speeds fast and latencies low, even over long distances. For those who need a VPN to stay anonymous, Proton VPN is the only service implementing full-disk encryption, which means it can manage all your traffic without any of it being visible to Proton itself.
ExpressVPN Basic — $97.72 for a two-year subscription with four months free (73 percent off): This is one of the best VPNs, especially for new users, who will find its apps and website headache-free on all platforms. In tests for my ExpressVPN review, it dropped my download speeds by less than 7 percent and successfully changed my virtual location 14 out of 15 times. In short, it’s an all-around excellent service that only suffers from being a little overpriced — which is why I’m so excited whenever I find it offering a decent deal. This discount, which gets you 28 months of ExpressVPN service, represents a 73 percent savings. Be aware, though, that it’ll renew at the $99.95 per year price.
NordVPN Basic — $80.73 for a two-year subscription with three months free (74 percent off): NordVPN gets the most important parts of a VPN right. It’s fast, it doesn’t leak any of your data and it’s great at changing your virtual location. I noted in my NordVPN review that it always connects quickly and includes a support page that makes it easy to get live help. NordVPN includes a lot of cool features, like servers that instantly connect you to Tor. This holiday deal gives you 74 percent off the two-year plan, which also comes with three extra months.
NordVPN Plus — $105.03 for a two-year subscription with three months free (74 percent off): In another holiday discount, NordVPN has also taken 74 percent off its Plus subscription. For only a little more, you get a powerful ad and tracker blocker that can also catch malware downloads, plus access to the NordPass password manager. A Plus plan also adds a data breach scanner that checks the dark web for your sensitive information.
Surfshark Starter — $53.73 for a two-year subscription with three months free (87 percent off): This is the “basic” level of Surfshark, but it includes the entire VPN; everything on Surfshark One is an extra perk. With this subscription, you’ll get some of the most envelope-pushing features in the VPN world right now. Surfshark can rotate your IP constantly to help you evade detection — it even lets you choose your own entry and exit nodes for a double-hop connection. That all comes with a near-invisible impact on download speeds. With this year-round deal, you can save 87 percent on 27 months of Surfshark.
Surfshark One — $61.83 for a two-year subscription with three months free (88 percent off): A VPN is great, but it’s not enough to protect your data all on its own. Surfshark One adds several apps that boost your security beyond just VPN service, including Surfshark Antivirus (scans devices and downloads for malware) and Surfshark Alert (alerts you whenever your sensitive information shows up in a data breach), plus Surfshark Search and Alternative ID from the tier below. This extra-low deal gives you 88 percent off all those features. If you bump up to Surfshark One+, you’ll also get data removal through Incogni, but the price jumps enough that it’s not quite worthwhile in my eyes.
CyberGhost — $56.94 for a two-year subscription with two months free (83 percent off): CyberGhost has some of the best automation you’ll see on any VPN. With its Smart Rules system, you can determine how its apps respond to different types of Wi-Fi networks, with exceptions for specific networks you know by name. Typically, you can set it to auto-connect, disconnect or send you a message asking what to do. CyberGhost’s other best feature is its streaming servers — I’ve found both better video quality and more consistent unblocking when I use them on streaming sites. Currently, you can get 26 months of CyberGhost for 83 percent off the usual price.
hide.me — $69.95 for a two-year subscription with four months free (75 percent off): Hide.me is an excellent free VPN — in fact, it’s my favorite on the market, even with EventVPN and the free version of Proton VPN as competition. If you do want to upgrade to its paid plan, though, the two-year subscription offers great savings. Hide.me works well as a no-frills beginner VPN, with apps and a server network it should frankly be charging more for.
Practically every VPN heavily discounts its long-term subscriptions year-round, with even sharper discounts around occasions like the holidays. The only noteworthy exception is Mullvad, the Costco hot dog of VPNs (that’s a compliment, to be clear). When there’s constantly a huge discount going on, it can be hard to tell when you’re actually getting a good deal. The best way to squeeze out more savings is to look for seasonal deals, student discounts or exclusive sales like Proton VPN’s coupon for Engadget readers.
One trick VPNs often use is to add extra months onto an introductory deal, pushing the average monthly price even lower. When it comes time to renew, you usually can’t get these extra months again. You often can’t even renew for the same basic period of time — for example, you may only be able to renew a two-year subscription for one year. If you’re planning to hold onto a VPN indefinitely, check the fine print to see how much it will cost per month after the first renewal, and ensure that fits into your budget.
Now is arguably the best time of year to sign up for a VPN, or gift a subscription to someone. Black Friday VPN deals are already available, with one of the best being on our favorite VPN overall. Proton VPN is offering two years of access to its VPN Plus tier for $59.76, which works out to $2.49 per month.
That’s a discount of 75 percent compared with the regular price of $10 per month. Overall, you’d save $180.
Proton
Two years of protection with the Proton VPN Plus plan can be yours for under $60.
Proton VPN is our pick for the best VPN overall because it checks all of the boxes it needs to. There is a free plan with unlimited data, but with that you can only connect to servers in a few countries and the connection might not be fast enough for you to watch anything from your preferred streaming service’s library in that locale. The VPN Plus tier unlocks a lot more options, such as the ability to connect to 15,000 servers across more than 120 countries and simultaneous protection for up to 15 devices.
The apps are well-designed — Proton has clients for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android — and it’s easy to find a feature or setting you’re looking for. In our testing, Proton VPN Plus had a relatively small impact on browsing speeds. Our download speeds dropped by 12 percent and uploads by 4 percent, while the global average ping remained below 300 ms (which is especially impressive if you’re connecting to a server on the other side of the planet).
Perhaps, most importantly, though, it’s Proton’s commitment to privacy that helps make its VPN an easy recommendation. There’s a no-logs policy, meaning it does not log user activity or any identifiable characteristics of devices that connect to the VPN. Proton’s servers use full-disk encryption to bolster privacy as well.
Proton VPN is not the only service to offer a Black Friday VPN deal this year, of course. There are plenty of others available on services we like. Here are the best of the bunch if you’re looking for an alternative to Proton VPN.
Surfshark One (24 months + 3 free months) for $59.13 (88 percent off): A VPN is great, but it’s not enough to protect your data all on its own. Surfshark One adds several apps that boost your security beyond just VPN service, including Surfshark Antivirus (scans devices and downloads for malware) and Surfshark Alert (alerts you whenever your sensitive information shows up in a data breach), plus Surfshark Search and Alternative ID from the tier below. This extra-low deal gives you 88 percent off all those features.
NordVPN Plus (24 months + 3 free months) for $105.03 (74 percent off): NordVPN has taken 74 percent off its Plus subscription for Black Friday. For only a little more, you get a powerful ad and tracker blocker that can also catch malware downloads, plus access to the NordPass password manager. A Plus plan also adds a data breach scanner that checks the dark web for your sensitive information.
CyberGhost (24 months + 4 free months) for $56.94 (84 percent off): CyberGhost has some of the best automation you’ll see on any VPN. With its Smart Rules system, you can determine how its apps respond to different types of Wi-Fi networks, with exceptions for specific networks you know by name. Typically, you can set it to auto-connect, disconnect or send you a message asking what to do. CyberGhost’s other best feature is its streaming servers — I’ve found both better video quality and more consistent unblocking when I use them on streaming sites.
Private Internet Access (36 months + 4 free months) for $79.20 (83 percent off): Private Internet Access (PIA) is giving out the best available price right now on a VPN I’d recommend using. With this deal, you can get 40 months of PIA for just under $2 per month — an 83 percent discount on its monthly price. Despite being so cheap, PIA has plenty of features, coming with its own DNS servers, a built-in ad blocker and automation powers to rival CyberGhost. However, internet speeds can fluctuate while you’re connected.
ExpressVPN Basic (15 months) for $74.85 (61 percent off): ExpressVPN may be the most user-friendly VPN for sale right now, with fast download speeds (only 7 percent losses in our last test), quick connections and apps designed to stay out of your way. It’s not the most feature-rich, but it excels at any bread-and-butter VPN task, staying leak-free and unblocking Netflix everywhere. You also get access to server locations in 105 countries.
Now is arguably the best time of year to sign up for a VPN, or gift a subscription to someone. Black Friday VPN deals are already available, with one of the best being on our favorite VPN overall. Proton VPN is offering two years of access to its VPN Plus tier for $59.76, which works out to $2.49 per month.
That’s a discount of 75 percent compared with the regular price of $10 per month. Overall, you’d save $180.
Proton
Two years of protection with the Proton VPN Plus plan can be yours for under $60.
Proton VPN is our pick for the best VPN overall because it checks all of the boxes it needs to. There is a free plan with unlimited data, but with that you can only connect to servers in a few countries and the connection might not be fast enough for you to watch anything from your preferred streaming service’s library in that locale. The VPN Plus tier unlocks a lot more options, such as the ability to connect to 15,000 servers across more than 120 countries and simultaneous protection for up to 15 devices.
The apps are well-designed — Proton has clients for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android — and it’s easy to find a feature or setting you’re looking for. In our testing, Proton VPN Plus had a relatively small impact on browsing speeds. Our download speeds dropped by 12 percent and uploads by 4 percent, while the global average ping remained below 300 ms (which is especially impressive if you’re connecting to a server on the other side of the planet).
Perhaps, most importantly, though, it’s Proton’s commitment to privacy that helps make its VPN an easy recommendation. There’s a no-logs policy, meaning it does not log user activity or any identifiable characteristics of devices that connect to the VPN. Proton’s servers use full-disk encryption to bolster privacy as well.
Proton VPN is not the only service to offer a Black Friday VPN deal this year, of course. There are plenty of others available on services we like. Here are the best of the bunch if you’re looking for an alternative to Proton VPN.
Surfshark One (24 months + 3 free months) for $59.13 (88 percent off): A VPN is great, but it’s not enough to protect your data all on its own. Surfshark One adds several apps that boost your security beyond just VPN service, including Surfshark Antivirus (scans devices and downloads for malware) and Surfshark Alert (alerts you whenever your sensitive information shows up in a data breach), plus Surfshark Search and Alternative ID from the tier below. This extra-low deal gives you 88 percent off all those features.
NordVPN Plus (24 months + 3 free months) for $105.03 (74 percent off): NordVPN has taken 74 percent off its Plus subscription for Black Friday. For only a little more, you get a powerful ad and tracker blocker that can also catch malware downloads, plus access to the NordPass password manager. A Plus plan also adds a data breach scanner that checks the dark web for your sensitive information.
CyberGhost (24 months + 4 free months) for $56.94 (84 percent off): CyberGhost has some of the best automation you’ll see on any VPN. With its Smart Rules system, you can determine how its apps respond to different types of Wi-Fi networks, with exceptions for specific networks you know by name. Typically, you can set it to auto-connect, disconnect or send you a message asking what to do. CyberGhost’s other best feature is its streaming servers — I’ve found both better video quality and more consistent unblocking when I use them on streaming sites.
Private Internet Access (36 months + 4 free months) for $79.20 (83 percent off): Private Internet Access (PIA) is giving out the best available price right now on a VPN I’d recommend using. With this deal, you can get 40 months of PIA for just under $2 per month — an 83 percent discount on its monthly price. Despite being so cheap, PIA has plenty of features, coming with its own DNS servers, a built-in ad blocker and automation powers to rival CyberGhost. However, internet speeds can fluctuate while you’re connected.
Now is arguably the best time of year to sign up for a VPN, or gift a subscription to someone. Black Friday VPN deals are already available, with one of the best being on our favorite VPN overall. Proton VPN is offering two years of access to its VPN Plus tier for $59.76, which works out to $2.49 per month.
That’s a discount of 75 percent compared with the regular price of $10 per month. Overall, you’d save $180.
Proton
Two years of protection with the Proton VPN Plus plan can be yours for under $60.
Proton VPN is our pick for the best VPN overall because it checks all of the boxes it needs to. There is a free plan with unlimited data, but with that you can only connect to servers in a few countries and the connection might not be fast enough for you to watch anything from your preferred streaming service’s library in that locale. The VPN Plus tier unlocks a lot more options, such as the ability to connect to 15,000 servers across more than 120 countries and simultaneous protection for up to 15 devices.
The apps are well-designed — Proton has clients for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android — and it’s easy to find a feature or setting you’re looking for. In our testing, Proton VPN Plus had a relatively small impact on browsing speeds. Our download speeds dropped by 12 percent and uploads by 4 percent, while the global average ping remained below 300 ms (which is especially impressive if you’re connecting to a server on the other side of the planet).
Perhaps, most importantly, though, it’s Proton’s commitment to privacy that helps make its VPN an easy recommendation. There’s a no-logs policy, meaning it does not log user activity or any identifiable characteristics of devices that connect to the VPN. Proton’s servers use full-disk encryption to bolster privacy as well.
Proton VPN is not the only service to offer a Black Friday VPN deal this year, of course. There are plenty of others available on services we like. Here are the best of the bunch if you’re looking for an alternative to Proton VPN.
Surfshark One (24 months + 3 free months) for $59.13 (88 percent off): A VPN is great, but it’s not enough to protect your data all on its own. Surfshark One adds several apps that boost your security beyond just VPN service, including Surfshark Antivirus (scans devices and downloads for malware) and Surfshark Alert (alerts you whenever your sensitive information shows up in a data breach), plus Surfshark Search and Alternative ID from the tier below. This extra-low deal gives you 88 percent off all those features.
NordVPN Plus (24 months + 3 free months) for $105.03 (74 percent off): NordVPN has taken 74 percent off its Plus subscription for Black Friday. For only a little more, you get a powerful ad and tracker blocker that can also catch malware downloads, plus access to the NordPass password manager. A Plus plan also adds a data breach scanner that checks the dark web for your sensitive information.
CyberGhost (24 months + 4 free months) for $56.94 (84 percent off): CyberGhost has some of the best automation you’ll see on any VPN. With its Smart Rules system, you can determine how its apps respond to different types of Wi-Fi networks, with exceptions for specific networks you know by name. Typically, you can set it to auto-connect, disconnect or send you a message asking what to do. CyberGhost’s other best feature is its streaming servers — I’ve found both better video quality and more consistent unblocking when I use them on streaming sites.
Private Internet Access (36 months + 4 free months) for $79.20 (83 percent off): Private Internet Access (PIA) is giving out the best available price right now on a VPN I’d recommend using. With this deal, you can get 40 months of PIA for just under $2 per month — an 83 percent discount on its monthly price. Despite being so cheap, PIA has plenty of features, coming with its own DNS servers, a built-in ad blocker and automation powers to rival CyberGhost. However, internet speeds can fluctuate while you’re connected.
A VPN subscription can make for a good holiday gift. Everyone could do with having a VPN to help protect their online activity from prying eyes (and, perhaps, access more things to watch from their favorite streaming services). It’s something useful that a gift recipient may have never realized they needed. Of course, you may be looking for a great deal on a VPN yourself, and the Black Friday discount for Proton VPN is nothing to sniff at. You can get two years of access to the VPN Plus tier of the service for $59.76, which works out to $2.49 per month.
That’s a discount of 75 percent compared with the regular price of $10 per month. Overall, you’d save $180.
Proton
Two years of protection with the Proton VPN Plus plan can be yours for under $60.
Proton VPN is our pick for the best VPN overall because it checks all of the boxes it needs to. There is a free plan with unlimited data, but with that you can only connect to servers in a few countries and the connection might not be fast enough for you to watch anything from your preferred streaming service’s library in that locale. The VPN Plus tier unlocks a lot more options, such as the ability to connect to 15,000 servers across more than 120 countries and simultaneous protection for up to 15 devices.
The apps are well-designed — Proton has clients for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android — and it’s easy to find a feature or setting you’re looking for. In our testing, Proton VPN Plus had a relatively small impact on browsing speeds. Our download speeds dropped by 12 percent and uploads by 4 percent, while the global average ping remained below 300 ms (which is especially impressive if you’re connecting to a server on the other side of the planet).
Perhaps, most importantly, though, it’s Proton’s commitment to privacy that helps make its VPN an easy recommendation. There’s a no-logs policy, meaning it does not log user activity or any identifiable characteristics of devices that connect to the VPN. Proton’s servers use full-disk encryption to bolster privacy as well.
Proton VPN is not the only service to offer a Black Friday VPN deal this year, of course. There are plenty of others available on services we like. Here are the best of the bunch if you’re looking for an alternative to Proton VPN.
Surfshark One (24 months + 3 free months) for $59.13 (88 percent off): A VPN is great, but it’s not enough to protect your data all on its own. Surfshark One adds several apps that boost your security beyond just VPN service, including Surfshark Antivirus (scans devices and downloads for malware) and Surfshark Alert (alerts you whenever your sensitive information shows up in a data breach), plus Surfshark Search and Alternative ID from the tier below. This extra-low deal gives you 88 percent off all those features.
NordVPN Plus (24 months + 3 free months) for $105.03 (74 percent off): NordVPN has taken 74 percent off its Plus subscription for Black Friday. For only a little more, you get a powerful ad and tracker blocker that can also catch malware downloads, plus access to the NordPass password manager. A Plus plan also adds a data breach scanner that checks the dark web for your sensitive information.
CyberGhost (24 months + 4 free months) for $56.94 (84 percent off): CyberGhost has some of the best automation you’ll see on any VPN. With its Smart Rules system, you can determine how its apps respond to different types of Wi-Fi networks, with exceptions for specific networks you know by name. Typically, you can set it to auto-connect, disconnect or send you a message asking what to do. CyberGhost’s other best feature is its streaming servers — I’ve found both better video quality and more consistent unblocking when I use them on streaming sites.
Private Internet Access (36 months + 4 free months) for $79.20 (83 percent off): Private Internet Access (PIA) is giving out the best available price right now on a VPN I’d recommend using. With this deal, you can get 40 months of PIA for just under $2 per month — an 83 percent discount on its monthly price. Despite being so cheap, PIA has plenty of features, coming with its own DNS servers, a built-in ad blocker and automation powers to rival CyberGhost. However, internet speeds can fluctuate while you’re connected.
Now is arguably the best time of year to sign up for a VPN, or gift a subscription to someone. Black Friday VPN deals are already available, with one of the best being on our favorite VPN overall. Proton VPN is offering two years of access to its VPN Plus tier for $59.76, which works out to $2.49 per month.
That’s a discount of 75 percent compared with the regular price of $10 per month. Overall, you’d save $180.
Proton
Two years of protection with the Proton VPN Plus plan can be yours for under $60.
Proton VPN is our pick for the best VPN overall because it checks all of the boxes it needs to. There is a free plan with unlimited data, but with that you can only connect to servers in a few countries and the connection might not be fast enough for you to watch anything from your preferred streaming service’s library in that locale. The VPN Plus tier unlocks a lot more options, such as the ability to connect to 15,000 servers across more than 120 countries and simultaneous protection for up to 15 devices.
The apps are well-designed — Proton has clients for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android — and it’s easy to find a feature or setting you’re looking for. In our testing, Proton VPN Plus had a relatively small impact on browsing speeds. Our download speeds dropped by 12 percent and uploads by 4 percent, while the global average ping remained below 300 ms (which is especially impressive if you’re connecting to a server on the other side of the planet).
Perhaps, most importantly, though, it’s Proton’s commitment to privacy that helps make its VPN an easy recommendation. There’s a no-logs policy, meaning it does not log user activity or any identifiable characteristics of devices that connect to the VPN. Proton’s servers use full-disk encryption to bolster privacy as well.
Proton VPN is not the only service to offer a Black Friday VPN deal this year, of course. There are plenty of others available on services we like. Here are the best of the bunch if you’re looking for an alternative to Proton VPN.
Surfshark One (24 months + 3 free months) for $59.13 (88 percent off): A VPN is great, but it’s not enough to protect your data all on its own. Surfshark One adds several apps that boost your security beyond just VPN service, including Surfshark Antivirus (scans devices and downloads for malware) and Surfshark Alert (alerts you whenever your sensitive information shows up in a data breach), plus Surfshark Search and Alternative ID from the tier below. This extra-low deal gives you 88 percent off all those features.
NordVPN Plus (24 months + 3 free months) for $105.03 (74 percent off): NordVPN has taken 74 percent off its Plus subscription for Black Friday. For only a little more, you get a powerful ad and tracker blocker that can also catch malware downloads, plus access to the NordPass password manager. A Plus plan also adds a data breach scanner that checks the dark web for your sensitive information.
CyberGhost (24 months + 4 free months) for $56.94 (84 percent off): CyberGhost has some of the best automation you’ll see on any VPN. With its Smart Rules system, you can determine how its apps respond to different types of Wi-Fi networks, with exceptions for specific networks you know by name. Typically, you can set it to auto-connect, disconnect or send you a message asking what to do. CyberGhost’s other best feature is its streaming servers — I’ve found both better video quality and more consistent unblocking when I use them on streaming sites.
Private Internet Access (36 months + 4 free months) for $79.20 (83 percent off): Private Internet Access (PIA) is giving out the best available price right now on a VPN I’d recommend using. With this deal, you can get 40 months of PIA for just under $2 per month — an 83 percent discount on its monthly price. Despite being so cheap, PIA has plenty of features, coming with its own DNS servers, a built-in ad blocker and automation powers to rival CyberGhost. However, internet speeds can fluctuate while you’re connected.
Private Internet Access (PIA) comes with some of the best pricing of any VPN, and often doesn’t feel like a budget service. I say “often” because, sadly, it does sometimes feel like you get what you pay for with PIA. While I’m working on seeing what settings iron out the kinks, the fact is that PIA doesn’t always leave you with the internet speeds you need for everyday use.
If you’ve found PIA unreliable, you may want to know how to end your subscription, get a refund and trade up to a more stable VPN service. Here, I’ll explain how to stop your subscription from renewing, get your money back and delete your account (if you want to go that far).
How to turn off auto-renewal for PIA
Like with most VPNs, the standard way to cancel PIA is to stop your subscription from renewing at the end of the current payment period. Whether you’ve signed up for one month, one year or three years, you’ll get to keep using the VPN until that time expires. Here’s the process to follow.
In a desktop or mobile web browser, go to privateinternetaccess.com. Click Login at the top of the screen.
Enter your account username and password. You’ll be taken to your client control panel. It should automatically load on the Subscription Overview tab, but check the left-hand column to make sure.
Under the username for the subscription you want to cancel, find the “next billing” heading, then click the Turn off auto-renewal link.
You’ll get a message trying to convince you not to cancel. Click Turn off auto-renewal again, this time at the bottom-left of the window.
Give a cancellation reason. Feel free to click “I have another reason,” then enter one letter and click Continue with cancellation.
Finally, the site will offer to connect you with tech support instead of cancelling. Hold the line and click Turn off auto-renewal once more.
Sam Chapman for Engadget
After fighting through all that, you should get confirmation that your account won’t renew when the billing period expires. You’ve now got the rest of the term to look for a new VPN.
Note that if you first download PIA from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, you may have purchased your subscription directly through the app. In this case, your subscription will be managed by the app store you bought it through, and you’ll need to go there to cancel. Just open your profile, tab the subscriptions heading and scroll down to find PIA.
How to delete your PIA account
If you’re certain that you’re done with PIA, you may want to go the extra mile and delete your account altogether. You can do this by submitting a support ticket. Go to helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Contact Us under the Resources heading (near the middle of the page).
Sam Chapman for Engadget
Write a clear, direct message. Feel free to use the above screenshot as an example. To get help faster, you can also use live chat — just go to the main PIA website, then click the button at the bottom-right that reads Need Help? Chat with us! This will get attention on your case right away, but you’ll have to defeat an AI assistant first.
How to get a refund from PIA
PIA only gives refunds within the first 30 days after purchase. If you’re within that window and want your money back, start by cancelling auto-renewal, then send a support ticket or contact live chat as described in the previous section. Say you are requesting a full refund under the money-back guarantee. Stick to your guns, as they’ll probably try to convince you not to go.
PIA alternatives
If you still need a VPN after cancelling PIA — and you almost certainly do if you ever go online — Engadget has a list of the best VPNs to help you with comparison shopping. As a quick summary, Proton VPN is the all-around best service. ExpressVPN is pricey, but gives you great speeds and excellent app design. If you need consistently fast speeds every time, go with Surfshark.
A virtual private network (VPN) is useful in several ways — a good one can stream foreign TV shows and events, save you from giving up information to hackers and keep you anonymous to protect against online tracking. Although we strongly recommend using a VPN, a bit of comparison shopping goes a long way in this market. VPN pricing can be opaque, and providers don’t always portray their best deals accurately.
Even so, there are genuinely great bargains on the table. VPN providers give out deep discounts to customers who sign up for a year or more at a time. This lets them boost their subscriber numbers, but it’s a win for you as well — while you pay out more upfront, if you divide the cost by the months of service, it’s significantly cheaper over time.
Most of the deals we highlight below follow that pattern, so make sure you’re comfortable with a longer commitment before you take the plunge. If you’ve been thinking about subscribing to a VPN service, read on for the best VPN deals we could find right now.
Best VPN deals
Proton
This Swiss VPN is Engadget’s top VPN of choice right now, for reasons I’ve laid out in a full Proton VPN review. It looks and feels good to use on every platform, which makes it fantastic for multiple-device households. It keeps your browsing speeds fast and latencies low, even over long distances. For those who need a VPN to stay anonymous, Proton VPN is the only service implementing full-disk encryption, which means it can manage all your traffic without any of it being visible to Proton itself.
NordVPN Basic — $80.73 for a two-year subscription with three months free (74 percent off): NordVPN gets the most important parts of a VPN right. It’s fast, it doesn’t leak any of your data and it’s great at changing your virtual location. I noted in my NordVPN review that it always connects quickly and includes a support page that makes it easy to get live help. Although I’m sad to see it shutting down Meshnet, NordVPN still includes a lot of cool features, like servers that instantly connect you to Tor. This early Black Friday deal gives you 74 percent off the two-year plan, which also comes with three extra months.
NordVPN Plus — $105.03 for a two-year subscription with three months free (74 percent off): In another early Black Friday discount, NordVPN has also taken 74 percent off its Plus subscription. For only a little more, you get a powerful ad and tracker blocker that can also catch malware downloads, plus access to the NordPass password manager. A Plus plan also adds a data breach scanner that checks the dark web for your sensitive information.
ExpressVPN Basic — $97.72 for a two-year subscription with four months free (73 percent off): This is one of the best VPNs, especially for new users, who will find its apps and website headache-free on all platforms. In tests for my ExpressVPN review, it dropped my download speeds by less than 7 percent and successfully changed my virtual location 14 out of 15 times. In short, it’s an all-around excellent service that only suffers from being a little overpriced — which is why I’m so excited whenever I find it offering a decent deal. This deal, which gets you 28 months of ExpressVPN service, represents a 73 percent savings.
Surfshark Starter — $53.73 for a two-year subscription with three months free (87 percent off): This is the “basic” level of Surfshark, but it includes the entire VPN; everything on Surfshark One is an extra perk. With this subscription, you’ll get some of the most envelope-pushing features in the VPN world right now. Surfshark has a more closely connected server network than most VPNs, so it can rotate your IP constantly to help you evade detection — it even lets you choose your own entry and exit nodes for a double-hop connection. That all comes with a near-invisible impact on download speeds. With this year-round deal, you can save 87 percent on 27 months of Surfshark.
Surfshark One — $59.13 for a two-year subscription with three months free (88 percent off): A VPN is great, but it’s not enough to protect your data all on its own. Surfshark One adds several apps that boost your security beyond just VPN service, including Surfshark Antivirus (scans devices and downloads for malware) and Surfshark Alert (alerts you whenever your sensitive information shows up in a data breach), plus Surfshark Search and Alternative ID from the previous tier. This extra-low deal gives you 88 percent off all those features. If you bump up to Surfshark One+, you’ll also get data removal through Incogni, but the price jumps enough that it’s not quite worthwhile in my eyes.
CyberGhost — $56.94 for a two-year subscription with two months free (83 percent off): CyberGhost has some of the best automation you’ll see on any VPN. With its Smart Rules system, you can determine how its apps respond to different types of Wi-Fi networks, with exceptions for specific networks you know by name. Typically, you can set it to auto-connect, disconnect or send you a message asking what to do. CyberGhost’s other best feature is its streaming servers — while it’s not totally clear what it does to optimize them, I’ve found both better video quality and more consistent unblocking when I use them on streaming sites. Currently, you can get 26 months of CyberGhost for 83 percent off the usual price.
Private Internet Access — $79 for a three-year subscription with three months free (83 percent off): It’s a bit hard to find (the link at the start of this paragraph includes the coupon), but Private Internet Access (PIA) is giving out the best available price right now on a VPN I’d recommend using. With this deal, you can get 39 months of PIA for a little bit over $2 per month — an 83 percent discount on its monthly price. Despite being so cheap, PIA has plenty of features, coming with its own DNS servers, a built-in ad blocker and automation powers to rival CyberGhost. However, internet speeds can fluctuate while you’re connected.
hide.me — $69.95 for a two-year subscription with two months free (73 percent off): Hide.me is an excellent free VPN — in fact, it’s my favorite on the market, even with EventVPN and the free version of Proton VPN as competition. However, if you do want to upgrade to its paid plan, the two-year subscription offers great savings. Hide.me works well as a no-frills beginner VPN, with apps and a server network it should frankly be charging more for.
What makes a good VPN deal
Like I said in the intro, practically every VPN heavily discounts its long-term subscriptions the whole year round. The only noteworthy exception is Mullvad, the Costco hot dog of VPNs (that’s a compliment, to be clear). When there’s constantly a huge discount going on, it can be hard to tell when you’re actually getting a good deal. The best way to squeeze out more savings is to look for seasonal deals, student discounts or exclusive sales like Proton VPN’s coupon for Engadget readers.
One trick VPNs often use is to add extra months onto an introductory deal, pushing the average monthly price even lower. When it comes time to renew, you usually can’t get these extra months again. You often can’t even renew for the same basic period of time — for example, you may only be able to renew a two-year subscription for one year. If you’re planning to hold onto a VPN indefinitely, check the fine print to see how much it will cost per month after the first renewal, and ensure that fits into your budget.
Proton VPN currently tops my list of the best VPNs, and I gave it a glowing recommendation in my detailed Proton VPN review. It’s easy to use, fast, cheap and secure, with a large server network and one of the industry’s best scores at unblocking streaming sites. All that said, there’s no such thing as a perfect VPN, and you may find that Proton isn’t working for you. If that happens, here’s how to cancel your subscription.
How to cancel Proton VPN through a browser
If you initially signed up less than 30 days ago, you can cancel your subscription and request a refund by contacting tech support. See “How to get a refund from Proton VPN” below for details. If more than 30 days have passed, use the following steps to cancel your subscription.
Open your browser and go to protonvpn.com. At the top-right, click Sign in, then enter your username and password. You’ll be taken to your account dashboard.
At the left side of the dashboard, click the Subscription tab.
Scroll all the way down to the section labeled Cancel subscription. Click the “Continue” button.
A pop-up window will appear, asking if you’re sure. Click Cancel subscription.
Cancelling this way doesn’t immediately terminate service — it just means your subscription won’t auto-renew. You can still use Proton VPN’s paid features, including the entire server network, until the current period expires. After that, you’ll be automatically downgraded to the free plan. During this time, your account dashboard will still be active, so you can use it to turn renewal back on if you change your mind.
This method also works in mobile browser apps. Just follow the same steps on your mobile device and you’ll cancel in the same way, with service continuing until your subscription expires.
How to downgrade from Proton Unlimited to Proton VPN only
A Proton Unlimited subscription applies to all Proton products. Since it’s mainly founded on Proton Mail, though, downgrading to VPN service only is tricky and requires some extra steps.
First, downgrade Proton Unlimited to Proton Free from your main account dashboard. Log in at account.proton.me, then click Settings, All settings, Dashboard and Your plan. Under “Proton Unlimited,” click Explore other Proton plans. On the next page, select Proton Free. This will effectively cancel Proton Unlimited, though you can still use it until the end of the pay period.
Finally, go to the Proton VPN website (not the overall Proton site) and sign up for a Proton VPN Plus plan. Since you downgraded instead of deleting your account, you should be able to use the same account address.
How to delete your Proton account on mobile
You can also use the mobile app to delete your entire Proton account, instantly and irreversibly ending your subscriptions to Proton VPN, Proton Mail and any other products in the line. Taking this action permanently burns your Proton username, so you won’t be able to use it again if you decide to re-subscribe (in that case, you’ll just have to make a new one).
The process is the same on both Android and iOS — the apps have slight cosmetic differences, but everything is in the same place. Follow the steps below to nuke your Proton account from orbit.
Open the Proton VPN app on your Android phone.
Click Settings at the bottom of the window.
At the top of the settings page, click your account email address. This will take you to Account settings.
Click Delete account. A window will open in your web browser, showing your general Proton account page.
Scroll down to the bottom of this page and click the red Delete your account button.
Select a reason for deleting your account and leave feedback in the box provided. You have to pick an option from the menu and type at least 10 characters in the box, though feel free to keyboard mash if you don’t want to say anything.
Check the box on the next page beside “Yes, I want to permanently delete this account and all its data.” Finally, click the red Delete account button.
How to get a refund from Proton VPN
Proton VPN has a 30-day refund policy. As long as you paid for your VPN less than 30 days ago, you can get your money back. To request a refund, send a message through the contact form on the website. You can also email protonvpn@support.zendesk.com.
There’s a minimum of 100 characters in the “What happened?” box. Unlike when you’re simply deleting your account, I do recommend putting a brief real answer here, clearly stating that you would like to cancel your account and receive a refund.
According to its terms of service, Proton will only refund you for the portion of the service you didn’t use. If you spend $10 for a one-month subscription and cancel after 15 days, you’ll get $5 back. The terms do state that the company “may also provide you with a full refund upon request” — directly asking for such a refund in your contact form makes this more likely.
If you cancel after 30 days are up, you may still be able to get a prorated payment for your remaining time, either in cash or account credit. You’ll have to ask for this specifically, as the default option is that your account just stays active until it runs out.
What to do if you subscribed through an app store
If you bought your Proton VPN subscription through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, then Apple or Google processed your money and you’re subject to their refund policies.
If you subscribed through Apple, go to your Apple ID profile in iOS settings, click on Subscriptions, scroll to Proton VPN and click on Cancel subscription. You’ll then get the opportunity to request a refund.
On Android, log into the Google Play Store, click on your profile picture, then click Manage subscriptions. Find Proton VPN, click Cancel subscription and provide a reason. As with iOS, the steps will walk you through the refund process.
Proton VPN alternatives
Once you’ve fully cancelled Proton VPN, you may be in the market for an alternative. I recommend a few of my other favorites, depending on why Proton didn’t work for you. Surfshark is faster, ExpressVPN has some of the best app design and NordVPN has a wider range of interesting features.
Proton VPN, my favorite VPN service right now, has expanded its free plan in response to surging demand for free VPNs. As Proton’s general manager announced by tweeting in French and later in Norwegian, free users now have access to servers in Canada and Norway, joining the existing locations in the United States, the Netherlands, Japan, Poland, Romania and Singapore. Free servers in all eight countries are now visible on the Proton VPN app.
As I covered in my Proton VPN review, users of the free plan can’t select a location for themselves. Instead, the app picks the fastest available free location whenever you connect. So if you were looking forward to using Proton for free to unblock Netflix in Norway, temper your excitement.
Even so, more locations on the free plan still means good news for free users. When a VPN has limited free servers, they get crowded, slowing down speeds for everybody. Adding new locations anywhere should open up some much-needed breathing room. It also means that users living in Canada or northern Europe have access to more free servers nearby — and the closer a VPN server is to you physically, the faster its speeds tend to be.
I’m happy to see top-tier VPN providers stepping up to the plate as the world clamors for more free VPN access. ExpressVPN’s launch of EventVPN is another good sign. If you need a free VPN for any reason, whether privacy, entertainment or something else, it’s always best to go with the free version of a service supported by paid subscriptions — otherwise you risk becoming the product yourself.
VPN users are overwhelmed with choice, and there are as many bad options out there as there are good ones. Luckily, NordVPN sits in the latter category, and right now Nord is offering discounted plans across its various tiers. If you take out a two-year NordVPN Plus plan (the company’s most popular plan) it’ll cost you $108 for the duration of the contract, with Nord throwing in three extra months at no extra cost. That’s 73 percent off the usual rate.
As well as Nord’s VPN service, a Plus plan also includes the Threat Protection Pro anti-malware tool, password management and an ad- and tracker-blocker. A Prime plan additionally comes with encrypted cloud storage or NordProtect, which insures you against identity theft and monitors dark web activity. That’s also on sale — down to $189 on the same two-year commitment with those three additional months thrown in, which works out to a 77 percent savings on the regular price.
Nord
When Engadget’s Sam Chapman reviewed NordVPN earlier this year, he praised its excellent download speeds, exclusive features and extensive server network. Less impressive is its clunky interface and inconsistent design when jumping between different platforms running a NordVPN app. While it doesn’t quite make the cut in our guide to the best VPNs available right now, it generally performed well in speed tests and Threat Protection Pro is really worth having.
A virtual private network (VPN) can save you a lot of money if you use it right. By changing your virtual location, you can use one streaming service to see shows that might be scattered between three or four in your home country. You can also trawl the world for discounts that only show up in a few select regions. And of course, you can’t put a price on the joy of taking back your online business from intrusive ads and trackers.
VPN providers are all competing to boost their subscriber counts, so they frequently offer massive discounts to anyone willing to sign up for one or two years at a time. Most of the deals below fit into that category. Before you jump into the list, make sure you’re OK with a longer-term commitment.
Best VPN deals
Proton
This Swiss VPN is Engadget’s top VPN of choice right now, for reasons I’ve laid out in a full Proton VPN review. It looks and feels good to use on every platform, which makes it fantastic for multiple-device households. It keeps your browsing speeds fast and latencies low, even over long distances. For those who need a VPN to stay anonymous, Proton VPN is the only service implementing full-disk encryption, which means it can manage all your traffic without any of it being visible to Proton itself. The linked deal is hard to find, but it’s a 66 percent discount on an already affordable service — the cheapest Proton VPN has sold for since I started tracking it. Grab it soon, since I can’t be sure how long it will last.
NordVPN — $83.43 for a two-year subscription with three months free (77 percent off): NordVPN gets the most important parts of a VPN right. It’s fast, it doesn’t leak any of your data and it’s great at changing your virtual location. I noted in my NordVPN review that it always connects quickly and includes a support page that makes it easy to get live help. Although I’m sad to see it shutting down Meshnet, NordVPN still includes a lot of cool features, like servers that instantly connect you to Tor. This deal gives you 77 percent off the two-year plan, which also comes with three extra months — but there’s no expiration date, so you have a little time for comparison shopping.
ExpressVPN — $85.42 for a two-year subscription with four months free (61 percent off): This is one of the best VPNs, especially for new users, who will find its apps and website headache-free on all platforms. In tests for my ExpressVPN review, it dropped my download speeds by less than 7 percent and successfully changed my virtual location 14 out of 15 times. In short, it’s an all-around excellent service that only suffers from being a little overpriced — which is why I’m so excited whenever I find it offering a decent deal. This deal, which gets you 28 months of ExpressVPN service, represents a 61 percent savings. It’s the lowest I’ve seen ExpressVPN go in some time, though like NordVPN, it’s not on a ticking clock.
Surfshark Starter — $53.73 for a two-year subscription with three months free (87 percent off): This is the “basic” level of Surfshark, but it includes the entire VPN; everything on Surfshark One is an extra perk. With this subscription, you’ll get some of the most envelope-pushing features in the VPN world right now. Surfshark has a more closely connected server network than most VPNs, so it can rotate your IP constantly to help you evade detection — it even lets you choose your own entry and exit nodes for a double-hop connection. That all comes with a near-invisible impact on download speeds. With this year-round deal, you can save 87 percent on 27 months of Surfshark.
Surfshark One — $61.83 for a two-year subscription with three months free (87 percent off): A VPN is great, but it’s not enough to protect your data all on its own. Surfshark One adds several apps that boost your security beyond just VPN service, including Surfshark Antivirus (scans devices and downloads for malware), Surfshark Alert (alerts you whenever your sensitive information shows up in a data breach) and Surfshark Search (a private search engine with no ads or activity tracking). This evergreen deal gives you 87 percent off all those features. If you bump up to Surfshark One+, you’ll also get data removal through Incogni, but the price jumps enough that it’s not quite worthwhile in my eyes.
CyberGhost — $56.94 for a two-year subscription with two months free (83 percent off): CyberGhost has some of the best automation you’ll see on any VPN. With its Smart Rules system, you can determine how its apps respond to different types of Wi-Fi networks, with exceptions for specific networks you know by name. Typically, you can set it to auto-connect, disconnect or send you a message asking what to do. CyberGhost’s other best feature is its streaming servers — while it’s not totally clear what it does to optimize them, I’ve found both better video quality and more consistent unblocking when I use them on streaming sites. Currently, you can get 26 months of CyberGhost for 83 percent off the usual price.
Private Internet Access — $79 for a three-year subscription with three months free (83 percent off): It’s a bit hard to find (the link at the start of this paragraph includes the coupon), but Private Internet Access (PIA) is giving out the best available price right now on a VPN I’d recommend using. With this deal, you can get 39 months of PIA for a little bit over $2 per month — an 83 percent discount on its monthly price. Despite being so cheap, PIA almost never comes off as a budget VPN, coming with its own DNS servers, a built-in ad blocker and automation powers to rival CyberGhost. However, internet speeds can fluctuate while you’re connected.
What makes a good VPN deal
Like I said in the intro, practically every VPN heavily discounts its long-term subscriptions the whole year round. The only noteworthy exception is Mullvad, the Costco hot dog of VPNs (that’s a compliment, to be clear). When there’s constantly a huge discount going on, it can be hard to tell when you’re actually getting a good deal. The best way to squeeze out more savings is to look for seasonal deals, student discounts or exclusive sales like Proton VPN’s coupon for Engadget readers.
One trick VPNs often use is to add extra months onto an introductory deal, pushing the average monthly price even lower. When it comes time to renew, you usually can’t get these extra months again. You often can’t even renew for the same basic period of time — for example, you may only be able to renew a two-year subscription for one year. If you’re planning to hold onto a VPN indefinitely, check the fine print to see how much it will cost per month after the first renewal, and ensure that fits into your budget.
VPN users are overwhelmed with choice, and there are as many bad options out there as there are good ones. Luckily, NordVPN sits in the latter category, and right now Nord is offering discounted plans across its various tiers. If you take out a two-year NordVPN Plus plan (the company’s most popular plan) it’ll cost you $108 for the duration of the contract, with Nord throwing in three extra months at no extra cost. That’s 73 percent off the usual rate.
As well as Nord’s VPN service, a Plus plan also includes the Threat Protection Pro anti-malware tool, password management and an ad- and tracker-blocker. A Prime plan additionally comes with encrypted cloud storage or NordProtect, which insures you against identity theft and monitors dark web activity. That’s also on sale — down to $189 on the same two-year commitment with those three additional months thrown in, which works out to a 77 percent savings on the regular price.
Nord
When Engadget’s Sam Chapman reviewed NordVPN earlier this year, he praised its excellent download speeds, exclusive features and extensive server network. Less impressive is its clunky interface and inconsistent design when jumping between different platforms running a NordVPN app. While it doesn’t quite make the cut in our guide to the best VPNs available right now, it generally performed well in speed tests and Threat Protection Pro is really worth having.
VPN users are overwhelmed with choice, and there are as many bad options out there as there are good ones. Luckily, NordVPN sits in the latter category, and right now Nord is offering discounted plans across its various tiers. If you take out a two-year NordVPN Plus plan (the company’s most popular plan) it’ll cost you $108 for the duration of the contract, with Nord throwing in three extra months at no extra cost. That’s 73 percent off the usual rate.
As well as Nord’s VPN service, a Plus plan also includes the Threat Protection Pro anti-malware tool, password management and an ad- and tracker-blocker. A Prime plan additionally comes with encrypted cloud storage or NordProtect, which insures you against identity theft and monitors dark web activity. That’s also on sale — down to $189 on the same two-year commitment with those three additional months thrown in, which works out to a 77 percent savings on the regular price.
Nord
When Engadget’s Sam Chapman reviewed NordVPN earlier this year, he praised its excellent download speeds, exclusive features and extensive server network. Less impressive is its clunky interface and inconsistent design when jumping between different platforms running a NordVPN app. While it doesn’t quite make the cut in our guide to the best VPNs available right now, it generally performed well in speed tests and Threat Protection Pro is really worth having.
