You could try a free VPN service, but these are invariably limited in features, which devices you can use them on, and there’s almost always a cap on how long you can use it each month. A much better option is to pay for a monthly subscription to see if a premium VPN client works for you. If it does, you can choose to upgrade to a longer plan down the line. Here, we’ve balanced cheap monthly VPN deals with good privacy and security features to recommend the best monthly VPN plans. Not only have we tested each of these services hands-on, but they’ve all also been included in our guide to the best services available today.
The best cheap monthly VPN plans today
In our Hide.me review we were seriously impressed by the Malaysia-based VPN’s performance, and for those that like to tinker with their software, it’s an absolute goldmine. With more customization options than just about any other VPN on the market, it’s clearly geared toward an audience that knows what it’s doing. However, although the apps take some getting used to, it’s still a fine choice if you want to simply plug and play. Don’t think that you’ll have to set anything up from scratch to get a good experience. In terms of connection speeds, Hide.me is up there with the very fastest. Peaking at 880Mbps, it outstrips most other VPNs. it’s also great for streaming, unblocking Netflix, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, and more in our rigorous testing. So, if you’re in the market for a fast, effective cheap monthly VPN, Hide.me is your best bet. Ivacy is one of the most recent VPN services to rank on our guide, and offers both good privacy protection and malware detection. Your online activity won’t be tracked because of the secure VPN, but also viruses and other online threats won’t have an easy time infecting your device. This VPN client has the important security features you need, like an automatic kill switch and split tunneling. Ivacy is also decently fast. Our in-house tests showed top speeds of around 630Mbps, so you shouldn’t have to worry about slowdown while connected – although there are plenty of providers that offer higher peak speeds. Ivacy hasn’t undergone any third-party audits of its services, which is becoming the norm for most high-end VPN providers, but in our Ivacy review we saw decent results in how secure it is. Plus it doesn’t keep any records of your personal information, so there isn’t a way to trace online activity back to you at all. While there are a fair few providers we’d choose over Ivacy, its one-month plan is excellent value, and if you like the service it offers an incredibly cheap (but very long) five-year plan for around $1 a month. Sign up on the Ivacy VPN website (opens in new tab) Bitdefender is a market leader when it comes to antivirus software, but it has also had Bitdefender Premium VPN hanging around for a while – and for the right person, it’s not a bad option. Built around Hotspot Shield’s Catapult Hydra protocol, Bitdefender VPN offers decent speeds, similar to what Hotspot Shield can make. However, that reliance on Hotspot Shield does mean Bitdefender suffers some of Hotspot Shield’s limitations – although it does operate separately and follows its own logging policy. It’s on this list, though, thanks to the fact that it’s super cheap no matter what length contract you go for. One month comes in at just $6.99, but commit for a year and that drops to just $2.49. No, it’s not the most fully featured service, but if you’re not looking for a VPN to streaming extra Netflix content and just want the extra online privacy they can provide, Bitdefender’s a decent choice. Sign up now on the Bitdefender website (opens in new tab) Of the providers on this list, we rank Proton VPN the highest in terms of features and performance alone. It has top-notch security, is very good at keeping your online identity private, and works well no matter which device you’re logging in on, and is even great for streaming. The same features and ease of use will be there on both the mobile app and the desktop version. One perk of Proton VPN is that you’re not limited to a specific amount of time or data use each month. All users of all plans have unlimited bandwidth – even Proton VPN Free. And, on paid plans, you can connect up to 10 different devices at one time, so everything and everyone in your home can be protected. Proton is a little slower than average for a VPN with a top speed of 510Mbps. That’s 370Mbps slower than our top pick, Hide.me, but even at these speeds, you can get a lot done – and your base connection is almost certainly slower than what Proton can achieve in ideal circumstances anyway. Sign up on the Proton VPN website (opens in new tab) Mullvad is the cheapest VPN in our guide. Its monthly VPN price is €5/mo ($4.91/mo). And if you decide to go with a 1-year plan, it’s still the same monthly price. Even Mullvad’s decade plan works out to €5/mo. It’s a killer deal no matter how long you use it. This VPN is very serious about privacy. It doesn’t log anything you do online, doesn’t keep your personal information, and even accepts cash payments through the mail to ensure your financial information can’t be leaked. Our tests proved Mullvad’s overall security while connected to the VPN. Mullvad is one of the fastest VPNs out there. It tops out with impressive speeds of 770Mbps. This is just a smidgen slower than Hide.me, but also is much quicker than the average VPN. The biggest drawback of Mullvad is that it’s no good as a streaming VPN. This means if you travel you’ll need to make sure your favorite shows are set to record so you don’t miss them – and you won’t be able to tap into global content from the comfort of your home. Sign up now on the Mullvad VPN website (opens in new tab) If we’re honest, it’s unusual for ExpressVPN not to top one of our guides, and when you read our ExpressVPN review you’ll know why. However, when it comes to cheap monthly VPN plans it’s simply not a class-leader. However, we had to fit it in somewhere, because firstly it’s still competitively priced, and secondly it’s hands-down the best on the market today. At $12.95 it’s just slightly cheaper than other premium rivals such as CyberGhost and Surfshark (both of which incidentally go from very expensive to very cheap as you commit for longer). However, absolutely on merit, ExpressVPN is still worth considering even if you only want to pay month-by-month. You’ll get over 3,000 servers worldwide, almost all of which deliver searing speeds, and you’ll also get unrivalled streaming power, P2P support on every server and proven, audited security features. You really do get what you pay for. Express is also super simple to use, but provides a ton of configuration for even the most seasoned VPN user. So, if you can afford the price (or are willing to commit after testing) and want the very best, we recommend it over all others. Sign up now on the ExpressVPN website (opens in new tab) Currently, the best cheap monthly VPN is Hide.me (opens in new tab). Its current offer is seriously attractive on one-month plans, plus it’s one of the top VPNs around. We’ve also included our #1-rated VPN ExpressVPN (opens in new tab) here – while it’s not the cheapest month-to-month, it’s not the most expensive either, and it’s quite simply the best service on the market. Therefore, long-term plans are made incredibly appealing, and short-term plans are expensive. It could also be argued that having an expensive short plan makes a cheaper long-term plan look more appealing – but that’s a different story… The long and short of it is that cheap monthly VPN plans are hard to find, but some providers like Hide.me (opens in new tab) deliver genuinely good-value plans that you don’t have to commit to for years to get. However, be aware that you’ll be getting a restricted version, possibly with bandwidth or data limits, or you might be blocked from streaming sites. If you want to test those elements of a VPN, you’ll want to sign up for a month to get used to the service. If you don’t like it, most providers offer at least a 30-day money-back guarantee, and if you do like it, you can then sign up for longer and save a whole load of money.
