It may seem surreal, but the holiday season is almost here — which means it’s also the start of shopping season. Black Friday and Cyber Monday will bring big sales from retailers like 2023 the amazongood shopping, WalmartAnd more, with substantial discounts on laptops, TVs, headphones and more — including software subscriptions.
If you’re hoping to get a discount on a decent VPN, ZDNET has you covered. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are a great way to bolster your online security, and with Black Friday on the horizon, you won’t be short of opportunities to find a great deal on short or long-term subscriptions.
ZDNET has found the best Black Friday VPN deals you can buy right now. This list will be updated frequently, so check back often to find the latest deals before the holidays. To browse the best deals in all categories, including TVs, monitors, laptops and more, check out our roundup of the best early deals. When the event starts, we’ll provide you with a live blog monitoring the best deals hitting the market.
Best Early Black Friday 2023 VPN Deals
PureVPN is offering one of the best deals on the market ahead of Black Friday. A VPN with 10 simultaneous connections, a solid server network consisting of over 6,500 servers in over 71 countries, and strong data protection features, PureVPN is a great choice before the holidays if you want a long-term VPN solution.
There are two deals on offer: a one-year plan for $3.21/month, or our favorite: a five-year contract for just $1.83 per month.
Surfshark is consistently featured as one of ZDNET’s favorite affordable VPNs, and while we expect prices to drop further as Black Friday approaches, deals are already available on its VPN subscription plans.
Surfshark offers excellent value for money and right now you can sign up for a two-year subscription for $1.99/month. As a bonus, you get three months of free access added to your plan term.
Protected by Swiss privacy laws — always a bonus when you’re looking for a new VPN provider — Privado VPN is offering a deal ahead of the holiday season.
Set at an 82% discount (though, remember that many VPN providers often offer year-round discounts) the firm’s two-year plan is still a bargain at $1.99 per month.
IPVanish is a solid VPN for desktop and mobile, with an excellent server range and fast connections. It’s not often that IPVanish offers significant discounts, but ahead of Black Friday, the VPN provider is selling one- and two-year plans.
12-month subscriptions start at $3.49/month, while two-year plans are set at the best price available: $2.99/month.
Private Internet Access (PIA) is one of ZDNET’s favorite mobile and travel VPNs, and before Black Friday, you can sign up for a plan that’s good value for money.
PIA is offering a two-year subscription for $2.11/month, a price cut of 82%. Three months of free access will be added to your plan term.
Faster Black Friday 2023 VPN Deals
In the United States, the popular shopping day known as Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving.
This year, in 2023, Black Friday falls on November 24. And if you can’t keep an eye out for digital sales events or can’t make it to a store in person, don’t worry: Many retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart extend sales and deals events over the weekend and into the Monday or even the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. .
ZDNET only writes about deals we want to buy — devices and products we want, need or recommend. Our experts looked at deals that were at least 20% off (or rarely sold), used established price comparison tools and trackers to see if the deal was actually on sale and how often it dropped.
We also looked at customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the deals we offer Our recommendations may also be based on our own testing — in addition to extensive research and comparison shopping. The goal is to provide the most accurate advice to help you make smarter purchases.
VPN is an acronym for Virtual Private Network. These services allow users to browse the Internet privately and connect securely to open or public Wi-Fi networks. VPNs allow users to change their virtual location by redirecting connections through one of the servers located around the world. A VPN will also encrypt all your traffic, so you stay hidden from hackers, your internet service provider and the government.
However, if your online activities are monitored at the ISP level — say, a government — they can recognize the signature of the VPN at play, even if what you’re doing is hidden.
VPNs are effective at unblocking geo-restricted content and can be an important tool for accessing information in countries with repressive governments. These are important services for those who want to maintain a high level of security and privacy online. However, since they are anonymous (or at least should be) they can also be used to hide illegal online activities such as pirating content.
If you’re traveling or using the Internet in a public place like a coffee shop, that data encryption is important, since most public Wi-Fi hotspots are open and unencrypted — meaning anyone on the network can see and be what you send. Be able to hide your activities and steal passwords.
If it’s your data and you want to keep it safe, yes. The same choices are valid regardless of the type of device you use to send and receive data over the Internet.
Yes, in most countries including the US, UK and most of Europe. Some countries, however, have outlawed VPN use, or they have severely discouraged it and limited it to state-sanctioned software.
At the moment, countries including North Korea, Iraq and Belarus are reported to have banned the use of VPNs altogether. As mentioned NordVPN’s Country GuideOthers — such as China, Russia and Egypt — try to discourage new adoption by discouraging VPN use and demonizing VPNs as software widely used for criminal activity.
Workarounds to be presentBut they can come with risks.