The VPN price that is not a month: how this category quotes, and what to compare instead
VPN pricing has a convention the rest of software does not: the headline figure is a per-month rate for a multi-year prepayment, and the same page often prints an annual total that does not divide into it. Add first-term introductory pricing that renews at several times the rate, providers that sell no month at all, and one that publishes no renewal price anywhere, and the category becomes almost impossible to compare at face value. This guide sets out what each figure means and what to normalise before choosing.
Most software categories quote a monthly price you can pay monthly. This one usually does not. The figure in the largest type on a VPN page is typically a per-month rate available only if you prepay for two or three years, and the same card frequently carries a second figure for a single year that does not divide into it. Neither number is wrong; they answer different questions, and the layout invites you to read the smaller one as the price.
ExpressVPN is the clearest worked example because both figures are on its page. Its entry plan is advertised at £2.19 a month. Its own annual price for the same plan is £69.95. That annual price works out at £5.83 a month, which is between two and a half and three times the advertised figure depending on the market you buy in. Nothing is concealed here — both numbers are printed, and the larger one is the honest answer to what a year costs — but a comparison that takes the headline at face value has understated the yearly commitment by a factor approaching three.
NordVPN takes the convention further, and unusually publishes the consequence. Its entry plan is £2.59 a month on the term rate, and our reading of its plan selector found no month-to-month option at all: every price is a term price. The introductory rate applies to the first term only, and the page prints the renewal beside each plan, describing its own saving as intro against renewal. Our record notes the entry plan renews at more than three times the introductory rate per month. That is the single most decision-relevant fact on the page and it is stated there, in the same typeface as the money-back guarantee.
Surfshark, in the same category and with the same shape of offer, is the counter-case. Its entry plan is £1.79 a month, and its pricing page nowhere states what any plan renews at after the introductory term. Nothing improper is happening: a vendor is not obliged to publish a renewal price, and we record only what is printed. But the difference between a page that prints its renewal and a page that does not is a real difference between two products that otherwise look interchangeable, and it is invisible in any table sorted by price.
Proton VPN sits differently again, with a paid tier at £7.99 a month and a genuinely free plan beneath it. IPVanish is different in the other direction: it publishes a plain month-to-month rate several times the advertised long-term figures of the providers above, with no annual total on the plans we read. Set those two numbers side by side and the second looks extravagant, which is the trap. One is a monthly price and the others are prepaid term rates, and the gap between them is mostly a difference in what is being quoted rather than in what the product costs.
There is a second layer worth knowing about, which is how long these discounts last. Our discount tracker counts, per vendor and per market, how many dated readings carried a given badge. NordVPN's headline saving was present on every reading we have taken in the United States, in Britain and in Germany, without a gap — the same offer running in three countries at once for as long as we have been looking, which at the time of writing is a week. That is a short window and it proves less than it appears, but it is evidence rather than nothing, and the instrument does register change elsewhere when a badge or a figure moves.
So the comparison procedure for this category is more involved than for most, and it is worth the five minutes. Decide the term you will actually commit to, which for most people is a year rather than three. Find each provider's price for that term rather than its headline. Where a provider publishes a renewal, use the renewal for every year after the first. Where a provider does not publish one, treat that as a known unknown rather than as an absence of a rise. Only then compare, and expect the ranking to differ from the one the pricing pages produce.
One last practical note. Every figure above is a first-term or term-committed price, and the amount that leaves your account is the term total rather than the per-month rate. A three-year prepayment at an attractive monthly figure is a single large payment and a three-year bet on a provider you may want to change, in a category where the reason for changing is often something you cannot foresee when you sign up.
The headline is a term rate, not a month
The large figure on a VPN card is usually the per-month equivalent of a two or three year prepayment. Where the same page also prints an annual price, dividing it by twelve gives a materially different number — nearly three times larger in one case in our record.
Some providers sell no month at all
Our reading of one major provider's plan selector found no month-to-month option on any tier: every price offered was a term price. Where that is so, the question is not which monthly plan to take but how long a commitment to make.
The introductory rate covers the first term only
Term pricing and introductory pricing stack in this category. One provider's entry plan renews at more than three times its introductory rate per month, which its own page states beside the price. The renewal is the figure to budget on for every year after the first.
Publishing the renewal is a real differentiator
One provider prints its renewal price beside each plan and describes its own saving as intro against renewal. Another, with the same shape of offer, publishes no renewal anywhere. Both are within their rights and the difference matters more than a small gap in headline price.
A plain monthly rate looks expensive and may not be
A provider quoting a straightforward month-to-month price sits several times above competitors quoting prepaid term rates. Most of that gap is the quoting convention rather than the product, and it disappears once both are normalised to the same commitment.
The headline discount has not moved while we have watched
One provider's saving badge appeared on every dated reading in three markets simultaneously across a week. That window is short and the claim is correspondingly modest, but the measure does register change when other vendors' badges and figures move.
Questions people actually search
Which term should I actually buy?
Whichever you would be content to be locked into, which for most people is one year rather than three. The per-month figure falls with the term, and so does your ability to leave, in a category where the reason to leave is often a change in the provider's ownership, jurisdiction or policies rather than in its speed. Price the year, then decide separately whether a longer commitment is worth the discount.
Why do your VPN pages sometimes show a different figure from the vendor's headline?
Because we record what each figure is rather than which is largest. Where a page prints a term rate and an annual total, both go into the record under their own names, and a page of ours may quote either depending on what it is comparing. Our method is on the method page.
Is a provider that hides its renewal price untrustworthy?
No, and we would not put it that way. Not publishing a renewal is common across software and entirely lawful. It does mean you are choosing without one of the two numbers that determine what the product costs you over time, and the sensible response is to find that number before committing rather than to assume the introductory rate persists.
How do I compare a monthly provider with a three-year one?
Multiply both out to a total for the same period, and use renewal rates for every year past the first wherever they are published. A provider quoting month-to-month will usually still be dearer, but by far less than the headline comparison suggests, and it carries no commitment, which is worth something in this category.
Do you earn a commission from any VPN named here?
No. We hold no affiliate relationship with ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN or IPVanish, and this page carries no affiliate links. Three further VPN records in our base hold no captured pricing at all, so those providers are not discussed here rather than being discussed without figures.
Every price on this page resolves from a dated vendor record at build time and appears in each edition's own currency; the records cited were read on 2026-09-03, except NordVPN's, read 2026-08-28. The per-month equivalent of an annual price is computed by the build from the vendor's own printed annual total, not typed. Renewal figures are described in words rather than quoted, because our record holds them only as prose taken from the vendor's page and there is no renewal field to resolve. Badge-persistence counts come from dated readings between 2026-08-28 and 2026-09-03. This page carries no affiliate links. Related: why a renewal is not the sticker price, is that discount real? and how to read a price record. The method →
Found a price that no longer matches the vendor’s page? Tell us — corrections are dated and stay on the page.