Every listicle answering this query has a table of three website prices and a buy button. The prices are usually months out of date and the ordering usually tracks commission. Here is the version that stays true regardless of what the countdown timer says: rank the term first, then the storefront, then the brand.
We date App Store in-app prices ourselves. For the vendors’ own websites we checked each checkout in August 2026 and report what it charged, including the number none of them feature: the renewal rate.
Rank the terms, not the logos
A VPN deal has four variables that decide what you actually spend.
- Term length. Longer terms drop the advertised monthly-equivalent and raise what you pay upfront and forfeit if you leave.
- Renewal rate. The single most important number and the one never featured in the offer. Every major website plan renews above the promotional rate. App Store monthly does not play that trick; it rebills the catalog price.
- Device cap. Free to ignore until five people share a household. Surfshark markets unlimited devices. NordVPN and ExpressVPN cap.
- Refund window. All three advertise 30 days on their websites (checked August 2026). App Store purchases follow Apple’s rules, not the vendor’s.
Optimise those in that order and the brand question mostly answers itself.
Dated App Store monthly, 29 Aug 2026
Same product across three apps: the monthly in-app plan. USD converts at the ECB rate on the verification date; local currency is what Apple charges.
| App | Cheapest country | Local / month | USD | US monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ExpressVPN | Egypt | E£249.99 | $4.96 | $12.99 |
| NordVPN | Turkey | ₺399.99 | $8.34 | $13.99 |
| Surfshark | Turkey | ₺449.99 | $9.39 | $10.99 |
ExpressVPN’s cheapest monthly undercuts both rivals by a wide margin — 62% below its own US row. NordVPN’s best is Turkey at 40% below US. Surfshark is the odd one out: its cheapest gap is only 15%, and it is the only one of the three whose US monthly ($10.99) is competitive on its own terms.
India is not a winner this month. A June-to-August price move pushed NordVPN’s India monthly to ₹1,159 / $12.10, just 14% below its US row, and Surfshark India (₹1,089 / $11.37) now costs more than the US sheet. Roundups still ranking India for these two apps are running stale data.
Euro storefronts often cost more in dollars than the US even when the digit string looks identical: NordVPN monthly in Germany is €13.99 / $16.24 against $13.99 stateside; Surfshark Germany is €10.99 / $12.75 against $10.99.
Dated App Store 12-month, same day
Year totals. Do not put these next to monthly cells.
| App | Cheapest year row | USD for the year | US year IAP |
|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | Turkey ₺459.99 | $9.60 | $83.99 |
| Surfshark | Indonesia Rp635,000 | $35.61 | $47.99 |
| ExpressVPN | Egypt E£3,949.99 | $78.38 | $99.99 |
Two things worth staring at.
NordVPN’s Turkey 12-month at $9.60 for the year is an extreme outlier — 89% below the US row. Its Turkish monthly is $8.34, so the year costs barely more than one month. That is the verified file, not a monthly-equivalent we divided out. Treat it as fragile: lira pricing this far below every neighbour tends to get corrected.
And ExpressVPN flipped. Twelve Egypt monthlies cost 12 × $4.96 = $59.52, while the Egypt 12-month IAP is $78.38. The monthly is now genuinely cheaper than the year plan there. In August’s rates, committing upfront would have cost you extra — a good reminder that “longer term always wins” is marketing, not arithmetic.
Fair cash math using only dated rows:
- Twelve ExpressVPN Egypt monthlies: $59.52, vs its Egypt year at $78.38.
- Twelve NordVPN Turkey monthlies: $100.08, vs its Turkey year at $9.60.
- Twelve Surfshark Indonesia monthlies: 12 × $11.16 = $133.92, vs its Indonesia year at $35.61.
- Twelve US NordVPN monthlies: $167.88, vs the US year at $83.99.
The website long-term deals, intro versus renewal
Here is what each vendor’s own site was charging when we checked in August 2026, including the renewal number they bury:
| Vendor, base plan (website) | Intro term | Up front | Effective intro monthly | Renews at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN Basic | 2 years | about $94 | about $3.90 | $139.08 / year |
| Surfshark Starter | 27 months | €2.49 / month billed together | €2.49 | about $79 / year |
| ExpressVPN Basic | 28 months | $83.72 | about $2.99 | $99.95 / year |
Read the last column twice. NordVPN’s renewal is roughly a 48% jump over its intro annualised cost. Surfshark and ExpressVPN renew lower in absolute dollars, but all three first-term prices exist to be replaced by a bigger number you agreed to once and forgot.
One quirk worth knowing: at ExpressVPN the higher tiers (Advanced, Pro) renew cheaper than their intro-equivalents, reversing the usual pattern. If you want those tiers, the renewal math flips the usual advice.
Escape hatches, since you are signing a multi-year auto-renewal:
- Every one of these web checkouts carries a 30-day money-back guarantee (vendor policy, August 2026). Set a calendar reminder for day 25, not the renewal date.
- A virtual card with a low limit or an expiry inside the intro term contains a renewal you do not intend to keep: best virtual card for foreign subscriptions.
- Cancelling usually downgrades you to expire-at-term-end rather than refunding; the guarantee window is the only clean exit.
- Per-vendor mechanics: NordVPN, Surfshark, ExpressVPN.
Payment on vendor websites is card-based, so card country matters far less than it does inside the App Store. Crypto availability differs by vendor (see the FAQ) and keeps changing.
What a cheap VPN deal cannot buy
Cheaper YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, or ChatGPT Plus. The VPN moves your IP address; the price you are charged on those services follows the payment method’s country. YouTube Premium Individual is verified (Nigeria $1.63 vs US $20.99, 29 Aug 2026) — but getting it requires a Nigerian payment method, not a Nigerian server. How far that logic stretches, and where it breaks: is using a VPN to get cheaper subscriptions legal.
Free VPNs are not a deal in this niche. They monetise traffic, and the rate-limited honest ones fail at exactly the checkout pages you would use them for.
Seasonal structure, still without invented sale prices: Black Friday VPN deals 2026. Full tables: /service/nordvpn/, /service/surfshark/, /service/expressvpn/. Head-to-head: NordVPN vs Surfshark vs ExpressVPN. How we date rows: methodology.