Every "from $1.99/month" banner hides a renewal price three to four times higher. We ran the real multi-year math on the major VPNs — and found that the "expensive" honest one is often the cheapest of all.
VPN pricing is built around a single trick: quote a deep first-term discount, bury the renewal. The teaser gets you in the door at $1.99 or $2.99 a month; the price you actually live with shows up 24 months later when the plan silently renews at the real rate. Deal season — Black Friday, New Year, "anniversary" sales — just turns the dial up on the teaser while the renewal stays exactly where it is. Here's what the headline hides.
This is the number no banner shows you: the jump from the advertised intro rate to the price you pay when it renews.
| VPN | Intro /mo | Renews at /mo | The hike |
|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | $3.39 | $11.59 | +242% |
| IPVanish | $2.19 | $7.49 | +242% |
| ExpressVPN | $3.49 | $9.99 | +186% |
| Surfshark | $1.99 | $5.49 | +176% |
| Proton VPN | $2.99 | $6.99 | +134% |
| CyberGhost | $2.19 | $4.75 | +117% |
| Private Internet Access | $2.03 | $3.33 | +64% |
| TunnelBear | $3.33 | $4.99 | +50% |
| Mullvad | $5.50 | $5.50 | 0% — flat forever |
Representative plans, June 2026. Some renewal figures are estimates pending a second source — flagged as such in the calculator, where every number carries its source and last-verified date. VPN pricing changes constantly; we re-verify monthly, not in real time.
Discounts are quoted per month to look tiny. Decisions get made per year. Here's the true three-year cost — intro term first, then the renewal rate for the remaining months — next to the advertised "if it stayed at the intro rate" fantasy.
| VPN | Advertised 3-yr | Real 3-yr cost | Renewal surcharge |
|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | $122.04 | $220.44 | +$98 |
| ExpressVPN | $125.64 | $203.64 | +$78 |
| Mullvad | $198.00 | $198.00 | $0 |
| IPVanish | $78.84 | $142.44 | +$64 |
| TunnelBear | $119.88 | $119.88 | $0 (3-yr intro) |
| Surfshark | $71.64 | $113.64 | +$42 |
| CyberGhost | $78.84 | $109.56 | +$31 |
| Proton VPN | $107.64 | $155.64 | +$48 |
| Private Internet Access | $73.08 | $73.08 | $0 (3-yr intro) |
Look at the top three rows together. Mullvad charges a flat $5.50/month and never runs a sale — which makes it look like the "expensive" option that deal-hunters skip. Yet over three years Mullvad costs $198, while NordVPN costs $220 and ExpressVPN costs $204. The two brands that lured you with a $3.39 banner end up more expensive than the one that never pretended. The discount didn't save you money; it just delayed the bill and dressed it up as a deal.
A VPN that advertises $3.39 and renews at $11.59 isn't cheaper than one that charges a flat $5.50 — it's more expensive, with extra steps designed so you don't notice.
Those renewal rates aren't arbitrary. High renewals fund the generous affiliate commissions that buy a brand its #1 spot on review sites — the same brands with the steepest hikes (Nord, Express) are the ones paying the biggest payouts. The teaser gets the signup, the affiliate site gets its cut, and the renewal quietly pays for both. It's why we keep pricing and rankings structurally walled off from any commission data: the renewal trap and the bought ranking are the same business model viewed from two angles.
You don't need to avoid discounts — you need to price the renewal, not the teaser. Three rules cover almost everything:
Buy the longest term you're confident about. The intro discount only applies to the first term, so a 2- or 3-year plan locks the low rate for longer before the hike lands. If you're sure you'll keep it, longer is genuinely cheaper.
Put the renewal date on your calendar. The hike is automatic and quiet. Set a reminder a week before renewal to cancel, switch plans, or re-up at whatever the current deal is — providers almost always offer returning customers another discount if you ask or churn.
Compare on year-three cost, never the monthly banner. Use the calculator and read the renewal column. If a brand won't make its renewal price easy to find, treat that as the answer.
"From $1.99/month" is a marketing number, not a price. The honest way to compare VPNs is the total you'll have paid by the time you've actually used one for a few years — and on that measure the loud discounts routinely lose to the quiet flat rate. We default every price on this site to the renewal, because that's the one you'll actually pay.
VPNInsider.org · Pricing Analysis · prices updated monthly · June 2026.