*See the section "What Happened to Kaspersky?" above. Webroot Wi-Fi Security, $59.99 per year.Bitdefender Premium VPN, $49.99 per year.Private Internet Access VPN, $39.95 per year.Kaspersky Secure Connection, $29.99 per year*.For anyone keen on thinking long-term, here's a breakdown of the 12 cheapest VPNs based on their annual subscription prices that have earned three-star reviews or better in the last two years. Generally, we recommend that new customers start with the shortest, cheapest plan a VPN offers and upgrade only after they're sure they're satisfied. This article focuses on the flat monthly price because that's the smallest amount you'll have to pay upfront. One more note about pricing: Most VPN services give you a discount for buying longer-term subscriptions, so you'll pay more upfront (on average, $65.95 among the services we track) but less than if you paid the monthly price for a year. We don't see this too often, but if the service has a pricing tier that meets our requirements, it's eligible for consideration. Some VPNs have tiered plans, offering different features at different price points. To qualify for this list, a VPN service needs to have earned at least three out of five stars within the last two years. We also looked to our previous reviews to inform our choices. We figured that about two dollars per month cheaper would qualify as "cheap," and set the cut-off for this list at $8.00 per month. How We Choose the Best Cheap VPN ServiceĪmong all the VPN services we've tested, the average monthly price is $9.84 per month. We stand by our analysis of Kaspersky products, but we feel that these recent events demand a different response. Most importantly, on March 27, 2022, the FCC declared that Kasperksy was a national security risk. This changed with the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, which prompted governments and organizations to cut ties with Kasperksy. Since we focus on our hands-on analysis of products, we noted the controversies but continued to give the products the praise they deserved based on our testing results. Although Kaspersky has faced numerous accusations of somehow being connected to the Russian government, we at PCMag were never presented with clear evidence of wrongdoing to back up these claims. Kaspersky Secure Connection VPN was on this list of the best cheap VPNs, but recent events have forced us to reconsider our position on this product. But with more sites and services securing themselves appropriately, VPNs have become more of a privacy product, adding another layer of protection.or a tool for watching Netflix in another country. Back in the day when HTTPS was a rarity and public Wi-Fi was the wild west, this protection was essential for security. There's an argument to be made, however, that VPNs are simply overkill for most people. VPNs can also be used to bypass state-sponsored censorship, letting people freely access the web. For anyone living under the threat of oppression or surveillance, a VPN makes it much harder for observers to see what you're doing online. We strongly encourage readers to use standalone antivirus software.įor some people, VPNs are an essential tool. Account takeovers are devastating, so protect your accounts with unique passwords from a password manager and enable multi-factor authentication wherever possible. Advertisers have numerous tricks for gathering data, so use an ad blocker as well as the privacy features of your browser. In addition to a cheap VPN, you should also make sure you protect yourself in other ways. With enough time and effort, a determined adversary is likely to win out. VPNs also make it harder for advertisers, and anyone else watching, from monitoring your movements across the web. A VPN hides your true IP address, concealing your true geographic location.
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