PureVPN: $2.49 a month for 12 months
Billed $29.95 upfront
A VPN, or virtual private network, creates an encrypted connection between your device and the internet, keeping your data away from prying eyes as you surf the web. We’ve thoroughly tested some of the most trustworthy VPN services of 2024, and below, we’ve put together the best ways to get signed up at a discount.
A VPN can help protect you from such pervasive data-gathering practices. In addition to hiding your internet activity by providing a secure and private “tunnel” to your online destination, a VPN can let you virtually move your location to a different city or country — a nice bonus if you’re looking to get around local censorship laws or try out streaming media offerings in different locales.
An important thing to keep in mind is that free VPN services aren’t worth the risk. For the most part, they’re playing that same game of scooping up and selling your data. The good news is there are some great VPN deals available right now, with prices starting at what amounts to less than $2 a month if you prepay for a year or two of service. We’ve tested a bunch of the market leaders and pulled together our recommendations for the best VPN deals. Just keep a few things in mind:
VPN deals: tested and recommended
The VPNs in this first group are also among our current top six best VPN picks. We can broadly recommend them, with the caveats noted above. The fast-changing ownership landscape in the VPN market may continue to shake things up, but we’ll continue to update this list as we uncover more.
Devices: Up to 6
Refund policy: Fully refundable for 30 days
An industry heavyweight and still one of CNET’s top picks, NordVPN has some substantial savings on right now with up to 69% off their plans that support up to 10 devices.
You can grab the basic plan for $68.85 for a 15 months, which works out as $4.59 a month, or for $83.43 for two years and three months, which is $3.09 a month. If you want the upgraded Plus plan, with its added malware, ad-blocking and password management tools, you can get a one-year subscription (plus three months free) for $82.35, which works out as $5.49 for the 15 months, or get two years plus three extra months for $107.73, which is about $4 a month. Similar promos apply to Ultimate plans. Ultimate includes 1TB of cloud storage from NordLocker, cyber protection benefits for users in the US, along with all of the aforementioned benefits.
(Note that NordVPN and Surfshark have merged but have continued to operate autonomously so far.)
Devices: Up to 10
Refund policy: Fully refundable for 31 days
PureVPN presents another affordable option if you’re in the market for a simple VPN without a big price tag. With a solid server fleet numbering over 6,500 in 78 countries, PureVPN promises reliable service, although we haven’t had the chance to verify that. Another disclaimer: PureVPN was reported by our sister site ZDNet as having provided timestamp-only logs to the FBI in a cyberstalking case in 2018. PureVPN has since stopped the timestamp logging practice and undergone a third-party audit to ensure that it keeps to its no-log policy. Its one-year standard plan is currently discounted by 80%, which drops the price to $2.49 a month for the first 12 months ($29.95 upfront).
