Proton VPN vs NordVPN: a standing price against an intro price, and the page tells you which
How to read this page: every number below was read from the vendor’s own public pricing page on the date shown, and the pages are re-checked daily. Currencies differ because that is what each vendor showed an EU visitor. Some links on this page are affiliate links — if you subscribe through one we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Per our method, that never changes a number or a verdict. Source links always point to the vendor’s plain page.
Prices as this vendor showed them to a visitor in the United States — USD. A reader elsewhere may be quoted a different figure — we publish what we were served, never a conversion.
Prices as this vendor showed them to a visitor in the United States — USD. A reader elsewhere may be quoted a different figure — we publish what we were served, never a conversion.
Plan
Price
What the page says
Basic
$3.49/mo
EU read 2026-09-07: 'Save 69% — €3.49 per month, + 3 EXTRA months. €312.93 → €94.23 for the first 27 months. VAT may apply. Renews at €139.08/year.' US read 2026-08-28: '$3.49'.
Complete
$4.49/mo
EU read 2026-09-07: 'Save 75% — €4.49 per month. €493.83 → €121.23 for the first 27 months. Renews at €219.48/year.' US read 2026-08-28: '$4.49'.
Prime
$7.49/mo
Source: https://nordvpn.com/pricing/ · read 2026-08-28 (UTC) · Prices as shown to an EU visitor. Intro prices apply to the first term only; every plan renews at the standard yearly rate, which the page states beside each price. No monthly-billing plan appeared in the term selector we drove. ⭐ THE DISCOUNT BASIS AND THE RENEWAL ARE NOW READ (2026-09-07, EU egress). Each card prints four numbers: a struck 27-month total, the discounted first-term total, the monthly equivalent and the yearly renewal — and the page names the trap itself, 'Savings: intro vs. renewal prices.'
What this vendor quotes in each market, as its own page printed it — not one price converted three ways.
Plan
United States USD · 2026-08-28
United Kingdom GBP · 2026-08-28
EU EUR · 2026-09-07
Basic
$3.49
£2.59
€3.49
Complete
$4.49
£3.39
€4.49
Prime
$7.49
—
—
Ultimate Max
—
£6.29
—
What the record says
VPN pricing is a category of games — banner rates that are multi-year intros, renewals hidden until checkout, tiers renamed between countries. These two vendors are the honest end of it, in two different ways: NordVPN plays the intro game but prints the renewal beside the intro, and Proton VPN mostly declines to play it at all.
The banners: NordVPN Basic at $3.49 and Complete at $4.49, against Proton VPN Plus at $9.99 and Proton Unlimited at $12.99. Read cold, NordVPN looks a fraction of the price. But NordVPN's figures are introductory rates for a committed term — its own page says so and states the standard yearly renewal beside each price — while Proton's figures carried no such asterisk in our read.
Proton VPN's other distinction is the free plan. It is a real plan — no time limit, no card — and it is the only genuinely free tier among the VPN vendors we track; NordVPN has none. As a way to evaluate a VPN before paying, or to run one indefinitely without paying, that row settles the comparison on its own.
Both vendors localise their prices: a UK reader is quoted pounds and a eurozone reader euros, as separate prices rather than conversions — this page shows the figures for the market you are reading it in. One more NordVPN wrinkle worth knowing: its top tier does not carry the same name everywhere, so a review written abroad may describe a tier your own page names differently.
Beyond the price tag
What the banner figure means
NordVPN Basic at $3.49 is an introductory rate for a committed term; the standard yearly renewal is printed beside it on NordVPN's own page. Proton VPN Plus at $9.99 carried no renewal asterisk in our read.
The free plan
Proton VPN's free tier is a real plan — no time limit, no card — and the only genuinely free one among the VPN vendors we track. NordVPN offers no free plan, only a refund window, which is a return policy rather than a tier.
The middle of the ladder
NordVPN Complete is $4.49; Proton Unlimited is $12.99. Both bundle extras beyond the tunnel — storage and a password manager in NordVPN's case, Proton's mail, drive and pass suite in Proton's.
Renewal candour
NordVPN prints its renewal price beside the intro on its own pricing page — rare in this category, and it means the two-year cost can be computed before purchase. Proton's page, in our read, simply is not running an intro-versus-renewal spread on these plans.
Prices move by country
Both vendors quote separate prices per market — pounds to a UK visitor, euros to a eurozone one — rather than converting. The figures on this page are the ones read from the market this edition covers, on the date shown.
Questions people actually search
Which is cheaper, Proton VPN or NordVPN?
For year one, NordVPN by a distance: $3.49 against $9.99 in this market. But NordVPN's figure is an introductory rate that renews at the standard yearly price printed beside it, while Proton's is a standing figure — so the multi-year gap is smaller than the banners suggest, and the honest comparison is the one you compute from NordVPN's own printed renewal.
Does either have a free plan?
Proton VPN does — a real free plan with no time limit, the only genuine one among the VPN vendors we track. NordVPN has none; its money-back window is a return policy, not a tier.
What does Proton VPN renew at?
We do not publish a renewal figure for Proton VPN — our read of its page did not capture one, and we do not print numbers we have not read. Check its pricing page at purchase; the figures here are what its page showed on the capture date.
Why do reviews name different NordVPN top tiers?
Because NordVPN's top tier is not named the same in every country — our same-day reads returned different names in different markets, while the Basic and Complete tiers below it stay consistent. Compare ladders by position, not by name.
THE VERDICT, ONE MORE TIME
Our pick: Proton VPN — the price on its page is closer to the price you will live with, and its free plan is the only genuine one we track in this category.
The two banners are different kinds of number. NordVPN's $3.49 is an introductory rate for a committed term that renews at the standard yearly rate its page prints beside it; Proton VPN's $9.99 is the plan's own figure with no struck-through renewal waiting behind it in our read. Add the genuinely free tier beneath Proton's paid plans — a real plan, not a trial — and Proton is the vendor whose page needs the least decoding.
Both ladders were read from Proton VPN's and NordVPN's own pricing pages in the market this edition covers, on the dates shown beside each table. NordVPN's figures are introductory rates for a committed term that renew at the standard yearly rate its page prints; we hold no renewal figure for Proton VPN and therefore do not print one. Nothing is converted. The method →
Found a price that no longer matches the vendor’s page? Tell us — corrections are dated and stay on the page.