In selecting best budget VPNs, lots of people are ready to compromise either performance or privacy. Yet in the last few years, a few providers have been able to offer good security, decent speeds and helpful features – for high-end subscription prices. A strong VPN budget should have high level of encryption (AES-256, ChaCha20), no-logs, working kill switch and servers all across the globe.
Stay away from budget VPNs because most of these compromise quality as they suffer from DNS leaks, dubious privacy policies or poor performance. A reviewer’s mindset is the mindset of evaluating what will actually work out when put to the field-not marketing hype.
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Best Budget VPNs to Consider
Below are great VPNs that offer a good deal of value for money with a small budget. Those are based upon test and refresh test and tests another one and other tests.
Surfshark — Best balance of cost and features
Surfshark is at the top of budget VPN round-ups all the time. The two-year plan has taken as low as $1.89 a month (including bonus months). It supports the infinite simultaneous connection, ram only servers, addons like CleanWeb ad-blocked, multi-hop routers, etc.
Does well in streaming test, and is inter-regional. Other reviews have complained that its app interface is a little clumsy, but then that’s worth the cost.
NordVPN — Best price-to-feature ratio
NordVPN long term discounts are around $3.00/month. It remains as one of the empowering: No logs policy which is audited by security professionals, large number of servers fleet around the globe, advanced encryption & advanced functions such as Threat Protection. Performance tests regularly have it in the speed leaders. That being said, it is selling its commitments for higher prices for the short term (month by month) so the deal is in the longer term commitments.
Private Internet Access (PIA) — Best for privacy buffs
PIA often makes cheap VPN lists because of impressive position on privacy and numerous customizations. It does have a very reasonable long term strategy. It also includes features like MACE (ad/tracker blocking), obfuscation to outwit tight networks. While its US headquarters will raise jurisdictional eyebrows, good auditing of the no-log policy. Some benchmarks prove that PIA is fast in speed in some circumstances.
Proton VPN — Best monthly pricing & privacy features
Proton VPN is unique because, they are very strong in terms of privacy (Secure Core routing, open source apps, audits), but are also in the “budget” space when committing to a longer subscription. Although it’s more expensive than its cheaper tier it’s a good option if privacy is more of a priority than a streamer or raw speed. In speed tests, Proton VPN is less caved in to the distance as compared to many of its competitors.
CyberGhost & Others — Good options with caveats
CyberGhost is rather popular in the lists of cheapest VPN due to the big money-back offer and the streaming-optimized servers. Its app works well, the performance under the regions with less population is not respectable.
There is also Trust.Zone and PureVPN in some lists and also PrivadoVPN. They could be excellent for light users, or those that require less, however their infrastructure and assistance could not be as competitive as the top names.
How to Evaluate a Budget VPN: Key Criteria
1. Price vs. Term
Beware of “too good to be true” short-term rates. Many VPNs only offer rock-bottom pricing if you would enter into a 2-3 year commitment though. Plans on a monthly basis are usually much more expensive. And really the value is in long-term deals.
2. Speed & Latency
VPN is all about speed and no matter how cheap a VPN is, if it’s ruining your connection then it’s useless. Good VPN budget models try to lose minimum throughput and maintain near constant latency at least for streaming, gaming or even torrenting.
3. Server Coverage & Performance
Global server availability – this means you have more access to geo-locked content and a less crowded it is along more popular routes. Some budget VPN only get higher classes of “premium” servers so check out the VPN you are looking at and see if the servers you are looking for are used.
4. Security & Privacy Protections
Encryption, kill switch, no-logging auditing, DNS leak protection – these are not even up for discussion. A budget VPN has to provide the bare essential protection with none of the sexy extras.
5. Device Support & Simultaneous Connections
Good Budget VPN offers apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, possibly routers and multiple devices at the same time (Surfshark does unlimited, good budget VPN does 5 at the same time) thus aways dividing the cost among all your devices.
6. Refunds & Trial Policies
Since price is at-a-premium, there must be free trial for 30 days or money back guarantee. Software Architectural Simulation can deliver a method to test an application’s performance, before committing to any implementation. Many providers on this list have such guarantees available as the default.
Final thoughts
Surfshark tends to come out on top with high functionality and extremely low cost. The one thing that has going it, is its limitless device compatibility.
If you have the ability to invest on the long term then NordVPN is the choice when it’s people looking for excellent security and also a huge network. For those that require a high degree of privacy, both PIA and Proton VPN are also options.
CyberGhost VPN and less famous VPNs could be better for users with fewer demanding requirements or a particular region of interest in mind, but they’re not as safe in regards to support, reliability or strength of servers.
the “best” budget VPN is probably to be subjective, as very few provide just as much performance for the absolute least cost. Prioritize what matters (speed, privacy, streaming) and test with refund windows. There are low cost VPNs which can get you a lot of what the other, higher end ones do; without breaking the bank.