About the pricing desk

TollTunnel is an independent pricing desk for VPN deals. We do one thing: work out what a cheap VPN actually costs — the intro rate, the renewal, and the total over the years you will really keep it — so you can judge a deal on its full price rather than its discount banner.

How we price VPNs

We record every price with the date we read it and treat it as a snapshot of the pricing structure, not a live quote, because VPN prices change constantly and depend on region, plan tier and promotion. We never run a countdown timer, and we never present a permanent "discount" as a limited-time sale. Where a renewal figure isn't published, we say so and use clearly labelled third-party estimates, noting that the provider shows the exact figure at checkout.

We do not run speed tests and do not claim measured results we didn't produce. Where we assess a provider, we do it from published specifications, its own audit reports with dates, and reputable dated sources — and we say where each number comes from.

How we make money

Some outbound links to providers are affiliate links: if you buy after clicking one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes a price we quote or where a provider lands in our maths. To keep ourselves honest, we recommend Mullvad and Windscribe where they are the right answer even though neither runs an affiliate program and neither pays us anything. Full detail is on our affiliate disclosure page.

What a VPN can and can't do

A VPN encrypts your traffic and hides it from your internet provider and local network, and it changes the apparent location of your connection. It does not make you anonymous or untraceable — it moves your trust to the VPN company, which is why an audited no-logs policy and a sane jurisdiction matter as much as the monthly price. We say this plainly because the opposite claim is how a lot of VPNs are sold.

Start with what cheap VPNs really cost over time, or read how VPN pricing works.