Mullvad VPN, Is the monthly cost the same for one month or for a year? Maybe i dont understand something?

VPN
1

Hello,

I would like to hire the service of this VPN (Mullvad) , but something I do not understand is:

There is no advantage of paying for a full year?

On the website I see that the monthly cost is exactly the same, paying for a single month or a whole year. Am I right?

Thanks

2

Yes, it’s a flat rate, which is great.

Most VPNs have overpriced monthly rates and unsustainable (multiple) year plans. This is bad because:

  1. You shouldn’t be buying more than 3 months of service each time as you never know if they’ll get compromised or lose service quality. Should be ready to jump ship at any moment with minimal losses.
  2. Smart but borderline unethical pricing strategies forces users to ignore (1) and go for multiple year plans. It’s even more aggressive to have lifetime or free plans. When you purchase one of these plans, you didn’t get a good deal; they did.
  3. If (2) happens too much for too long, you end up like PIA with a massive crippling debt and have to sell out to Kape, or start to monetize in different ways (affiliate marketing, selling anonymized data, etc).

In short, flat rate is the best for users and for the company actually. But it’s not as marketable and the price cannot be as low as the 2-3 year plans of others.

3

You are correct…they don’t have discounts.

4

Yes, and this is the best way to do business. This flat rate is good for keeping the business ethical and sustainable. Not cheap grab for cash and then sell out. You’ll never get a better deal than this (both good for consumer and provider).

5

That’s one of the cons of the pricing model, as I’ve outlined in my video reviews.

There are several other vpns out there with better pricing for long term of short term. Check out TorGuard, CactusVPN, WeVPN, AirVPN and PrivateVPN–just to name a few.

6

Nope, there is no advantage to buying longer periods. No matter what, it will all equal $5 a month. I’d recommend purchasing your subscription through the mullvad app is it will default to your nations currency instead of euro’s.

7
  1. I would say a year max, not more than that. However, if you’ve tested and used a VPN longer than a year, it’s fine to get up to 2-3 more years especially if it’s a trusted VPN with a good reputation.
  2. Agreed. lifetime plans or 3 year plans with increase in price after term is as scummy as it gets.
  3. PIA didn’t have crippling debt due to good pricing. The owner was pretty crazy and spent tons of money on random pet projects. I’ve talked to the past owners and the cheap pricing was never what led to the debt. It was management issues. There are several good VPNs out there that have good long-term and monthly pricing options. Check out AirVPN for example. Spotless reputation, open-source client, no paid reviews, etc etc.
8

However, if you’ve tested and used a VPN longer than a year, it’s fine to get up to 2-3 more years especially if it’s a trusted VPN with a good reputation.

The sizeable amount of ExpressVPN users who felt betrayed by the recent Kape acquisition would disagree. Or WindScribe with the compromised servers. Or NordVPN with the hack. It’s always trustworthy… until it’s not.

PIA didn’t have crippling debt due to good pricing

We cannot verify the causation, but the correlation is there. At least it’s pretty apparent there’s a link between prices and reputation. Mullvad, OVPN, Perfect Privacy and IVPN which are the best VPN providers for torrenting (and thus privacy/security) have all above average pricing.

I think it’s fine to have better deals long-term and overprice monthly rates as pricing strategy, but I can’t help suspecting when they sink below what seems sustainable for me. For example OVPN.com costs $5 / month for 2-year plan, but $11 for 1 month. This is fine, it’s credible. Now <$2 / month like some providers do? :triangular_flag::triangular_flag: