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NordVPN vs Proton VPN vs Surfshark: the renewal price is the real price

VPN banners advertise a monthly price you never actually pay. I line up what each one charges on day one, what it charges at renewal, and what four years really costs.

Sahil · · 6 min readPrices checked Aug 11 – Oct 7, 2026.

Research-based. I haven’t used or tested these products myself. How I appraise

These prices were checked up to Aug 11, 2026 and may have changed. Check the retailer before you buy.

The short appraisal

  • Lowest long-run cost of the three: Surfshark, with unlimited devices. Its US figures ($67.23 upfront for 27 months, renewing at $79 a year) come from VPN Vertex and could not be re-verified on Oct 7, so check the checkout page.
  • Best if you want a free tier or Swiss jurisdiction: Proton VPN. Plus was $83.76 for 24 months and renews at $83.88 a year (Privacy Tools Hub, re-checked Oct 7); the free plan covers one device.
  • Biggest renewal jump: NordVPN Basic, at 3.3 times the intro rate in VPN Fin’s maths. $94.23 for the first 27 months, then $139.08 a year (Privacy Tools Hub, re-checked Oct 7).
  • All three offer a 30-day refund window on the first purchase. Use it as your trial.

Who should skip

  • Buying on the per-month figure. Read the day-one total and the renewal line.
  • NordVPN Basic if you’ll forget the renewal date. It renews at $139.08 a year.
  • Treating a VPN as anonymity or antivirus. It’s neither.

Where to buy

Buy at each provider’s own checkout and screenshot the day-one total and the renewal line. App-store purchases are often handled by the store, not the provider.

Every VPN ad shows a price like “$3.49/mo”. That’s real, in the sense that it’s what you pay divided by the number of months, but you pay it all upfront, and the price changes at renewal. The renewal price is what you’ll keep paying if you forget to cancel. So that’s where I start.

What you pay, then what you keep paying

Plan (US offer) Due on day one Term Renews at Monthly plan Source Re-checked Oct 7
Surfshark Starter $67.23 before tax 24 + 3 months $79 / 12 months $16.45 VPN Vertex No. VPN Vertex blocked my reader; Privacy Tools Hub showed Surfshark only in Hungarian forints
Proton VPN Plus $71.76 or $83.76 (sources differ; see below) 24 months $83.88 / 12 months $9.99 VPN Vertex; Privacy Tools Hub, Oct 2 $83.76 and $83.88 yes; $71.76 no
NordVPN Basic $94.23 before tax 24 + 3 months $139.08 / year $14.99 NordVPN pricing; Privacy Tools Hub Yes, via Privacy Tools Hub
NordVPN Complete $121.23 24 + 3 months $219.48 / year n/a NordVPN pricing No. NordVPN’s pricing page blocked my reader
NordVPN Prime $202.23 24 + 3 months not captured n/a NordVPN pricing No

About Proton’s price. VPN Vertex’s guide lists Proton VPN Plus at $71.76 for 24 months ($2.99/mo equivalent). Privacy Tools Hub’s check lists $83.76 for the first 24 months ($3.49/mo equivalent), and that figure held when I re-read the page on October 7. Both list the same $83.88 annual renewal. That looks like a promotion changing between checks. Treat the checkout page as the only number that counts.

About Surfshark’s price. The $67.23, $79 and $16.45 figures come from VPN Vertex, read before October 7. On October 7 that site blocked my reader and Privacy Tools Hub showed Surfshark’s prices only in Hungarian forints, so I could not confirm the US figures. They are shown as I first read them.

NordVPN’s own pricing page also listed a one-year Basic plan at $65.88 for the first 12 months, renewing at the same $139.08 (NordVPN). That page blocked my reader on October 7, so the Complete, Prime and one-year figures above are my first reading, not a re-check.

What four years actually costs

VPN Fin worked out a four-year cost for each provider: the longest promotional term, followed by standard renewal, over 48 months (VPN Fin):

Provider Approx. 4-year cost Renewal vs first-term multiple
Surfshark about $205 2.6×
Proton VPN about $240 2.3×
ExpressVPN about $267 2.3×
NordVPN about $335 3.3×

The same analysis notes that NordVPN has both the deepest first-term discount and the steepest renewal increase, “the same fact viewed from different ends”. That’s the clearest summary of how VPN pricing works.

Beyond price: devices, jurisdiction, free tier

VPNPickr’s comparison, with official figures verified August 11, 2026, covers the non-price differences (VPNPickr):

Proton VPN NordVPN Surfshark
Free plan Yes: unlimited data, 1 device, 10 countries (server assigned) No No
Simultaneous devices 1 free / 10 on Plus 10 Unlimited
Headquarters jurisdiction Switzerland Panama Netherlands
Refund window 30 days 30 days 30 days

VPNPickr also ran speed tests on July 3 from Goyang, South Korea, to US servers. They’re a single tester on a single connection, so treat them as a sanity check, not a ranking: Surfshark kept about 87% of baseline speed and NordVPN about 79%. Its Proton result was measured on the free plan, so it isn’t comparable.

Which one fits you

  • A household with lots of devices: Surfshark’s unlimited devices plus the lowest renewal price make the maths easy.
  • You want to try before paying, or care most about jurisdiction: Proton’s free tier is a genuine try-before-you-buy, and its headquarters are in Switzerland.
  • You want the extras bundle: NordVPN’s pricing page, when I first read it, showed Complete adding a cross-platform password manager, 1TB of encrypted cloud storage, an ad and tracker blocker, anti-malware, and Dark Web Monitor Pro (email, phone, credit card and SSN monitoring), with Prime adding credit monitoring and identity-theft insurance for US residents (NordVPN; not re-read on October 7). If you’d buy those separately anyway, the bundle can make sense. If not, Basic is the comparable plan, and its renewal is the highest here.

How to buy a VPN without the renewal surprise

  1. Read the “due today” total and the renewal line, not the per-month figure. Every provider’s checkout shows both. Screenshot them.
  2. Put the renewal date in your calendar a week before it hits. That’s when you decide whether to renew, switch, or ask for a better offer.
  3. Use the 30-day refund window as your trial. Test the services you actually use: streaming, banking apps, video calls, your router. Privacy Tools Hub notes exclusions for each provider. Surfshark’s renewals aren’t refundable, NordVPN’s guarantee covers the initial purchase, and Proton needs both the cancellation and the refund request inside the window (Privacy Tools Hub). App-store purchases are often handled by the store, not the provider.
  4. Decide what a VPN is for. It hides your traffic from your network operator and changes your apparent location. It doesn’t make you anonymous to the sites you log into, and it isn’t antivirus.

A note on VPN reviews in general

VPN providers run large affiliate programs, which helps explain why the internet is full of “best VPN” lists. Two of the sources above disclose this themselves: VPN Fin says it may earn commissions, and VPN Vertex says its page carries Surfshark affiliate links. This site may earn commissions too, as the disclosure at the top of this page explains, and it’s why I’ve built this appraisal on the number the affiliate banners don’t lead with: the renewal price.

The saraf’s verdict

On price alone, Surfshark was the one to beat in early October, both on day one and at renewal, by the figures I could read; its US prices are the ones I could not re-check, so confirm them at checkout. Proton VPN is the pick if you value its free tier and Swiss base, and its renewal is close to Surfshark’s. NordVPN is a strong product, but its Basic plan is the most expensive over four years in VPN Fin’s analysis. Buy it with the renewal date in your calendar, not as a surprise.

Sources