The Best Cheap VPNs of 2023

Although free VPNs do exist, it’s often the ones with a paid subscription that provide the best features and protection. However, a VPN doesn’t need to be expensive to be effective. There are VPNs out there that won’t break the bank but also won’t compromise your digital security and privacy. These VPNs go for as low as $2 per month, which is a great deal considering that most VPNs we’ve tested were somewhere within the $8 to $15 per month range. So if you’re looking for the best VPN subscription your money can buy, these are the best cheap VPNs of 2023.

How We Decided The Best Cheap VPNs: Methodology

We created this review of the best cheap VPNs of 2020 so you don’t have to do the work yourself. But in case you want to do your own research, look into different VPNs, and compare their pricing, here’s an insider’s look at our methodology. What factors did we consider? How did we test VPNs? How did we decide which ones to recommend? Read on to find out.

Cost

First, we decided what is considered expensive, reasonably priced, and inexpensive for a VPN. Those that cost $13 to $15 per month can be considered expensive. The norm is $8 to $12 per month. Anything below that can be considered cheap, but not in a bad way. That’s because most of the VPNs that cost less than $8 per month are the same VPNs that cost $8 to $12 per month. How so? Well, the price difference usually hinges on the length of the subscription. Springing for a longer subscription usually means getting a bigger discount, while getting a monthly plan often yields a higher rate.

For this review, we selected VPNs with regular monthly rates somewhere in the mid-range, but with special discounts for annual, two-year, or three-year subscriptions. We also pointed out which VPNs have a money-back guarantee. We figured that if a VPN company offers long-term subscriptions, we as customers should have the option to cancel it and get our money back if we thought it didn’t live up to its promises. A 30-day money-back guarantee is ideal, although CyberGhost went above and beyond with their 45-day guarantee for long-term subscriptions.

What about free VPNs? While there are good free VPNs out there, we still recommend paid ones because free VPNs typically have limitations whether it’s in terms of data usage, speed, or server locations. However, signing up for a free trial when available is a good way to test things out before paying for the service.

Privacy and Digital Security

Just because a VPN is cheap doesn’t mean it can skimp on privacy and digital security features, especially now that privacy concerns are on the rise in the U.S.3 First, we tested each VPN for DNS and WebRTC Leaks to make sure they weren’t leaking our IP address while in use. We used the DNS Leak Test tool and ExpressVPN’s WebRTC leak test to search for leaks, and fortunately, we didn’t find any from the cheap VPNs we recommended above.

Next, we looked into each VPN’s privacy policy to make sure they weren’t logging and storing any more data than necessary. Ideally, a VPN company has a strict no-logging policy, but we’ve found that even those with such a policy sometimes still gather other types of data. Typically, they record the user’s account, email, or payment information. There are also other VPNs that log a timestamp of the latest VPN connections. However, as long as they aren’t logging identifying information— like browsing activities and IP addresses— and as long as they don’t share those data with third parties, we have no qualms. But as much as possible, we prefer VPN companies that don’t log any data at all aside from the information necessary to uphold our accounts.

We also checked each company’s profile to see which ones were under the jurisdiction of the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes alliances. These countries have laws that would allow them to force any VPN and ISP companies to share user data. It’s not ideal if a company is based in a member country, but we won’t go as far as to say they aren’t good enough; to make that judgment, we need to consider the company’s logging policy, as well.

We also gave extra credit to VPN companies that undertook independent audits by third-party auditing firms. NordVPN and CyberGhost were known to have gone through such audits and both passed with flying colors. These audits give users assurance that what the company stated in their privacy policy is accurate and enforced.

Speed

Needless to say, speed was one of the factors we considered. Almost all VPNs impacted our Internet speed, but we tried to look for VPNs that didn’t slow down our connection by a lot. To test VPNs, we used a Windows laptop and Macbook Air or Pro.

First, we ran a speed test on both computers to find out our baseline Internet speed without a VPN. We recorded the upload speed, download speed, and ping. We then ran a second speed test, but with the VPN connected. Next, we computed the speed difference in terms of percentage to see which VPNs affected our Internet speed the least, ideally no more than 40 percent in any of the three-speed categories. You can find the speed test results in our longer individual reviews for each VPN.

Features

Features also matter to us, specifically split tunneling, multi-hop, kill switch, access to Netflix and torrenting, and the number of simultaneous connections allowed. Split tunneling was particularly important, as it would allow us to connect simultaneously to the VPN and to a public network, creating faster speeds for online activities that don’t need as much protection from a VPN. A kill switch was also vital as it would stop all online activities in case of a VPN failure. It ensures that when we disconnect the VPN, our current IP address and other browsing data won’t be revealed to our ISP. Lastly, we gave special credit to VPNs with multi-hop. Multi-hop routes Internet traffic through multiple VPN tunnels instead of just one, making our data encrypted multiple times.

Apps

We also checked which apps are available for each VPN. Ideally, a VPN offers apps for all major operating systems: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux. We gave additional credit to those that supported smart TVs and gaming consoles as well.

Our methodology also included our assessment of each VPN’s app. Are the apps easy to use? Are they reliable? What are other users saying about them? These are some of the things that we try to find out when comparing VPNs.

Customer Support

The last but not the least criterion we considered was the quality of each company’s customer support. Did they have phone support or live chat support? Were they responsive? How well did they handle our concerns and questions? It’s uncommon for VPN companies to have great customer support, so we made sure to highlight the companies that did well in this area.