Best online protection for South Africans — From R0 per month

South Africans don’t have to splurge big money to subscribe to one of the world’s top-rated virtual private network (VPN) services and enhance their online security.

VPNs are useful for improving online privacy as they can encrypt Internet traffic and mask IP addresses by routing Internet traffic through their own servers.

A reliable VPN will not only hide your browsing history and location but also help protect your identity from Internet service providers, cyberattackers, unscrupulous tracking, and authoritarian governments.

However, blindly trusting a VPN is also a mistake, as they could see all of your Internet traffic, which is powerful information in the wrong hands.

MyBroadband compared the prices of some of the most popular and well-reviewed VPNs in the world to see which was the most affordable for South Africans.

When it comes to choosing a reliable VPN provider, you should consider the following factors:

• Advanced encryption — Ensure that the VPN uses an advanced encryption algorithm like AES-256
• No-logs policies — Does the VPN service provider commit itself to not storing the Internet usage data of its customers? If a VPN falls prey to a cyberattack, hackers could gain access and exploit this information.
• Server locations — How many server locations does the VPN provider offer, and in which countries are they located? Does it offer servers in the countries relevant to you?
• Headquarters location — A VPN provider might be obligated to share certain personal information with authorities based on the laws of the country from which they operate.
• Number of devices — How many devices can simultaneously connect via a single account?
• Supported platforms — What devices can connect to the VPN? This is important if you want to use the service on smartphones, for example.

VPN subscriptions are typically offered on a month-to-month, annual, or two-year basis.

The longer the user is willing to subscribe, the lower the service’s effective monthly cost will be.

To benefit from the best prices, you must pay the full price of an annual or two-year subscription up front.

This might not be such a bad thing for South Africans, considering most reputable VPNs charge their fees in foreign currency, and the rand can be volatile.

For added peace of mind, most reputable VPNs will refund customers their full payment if they are unsatisfied with the service within one or two months.

Those who want the greatest flexibility can consider a month-to-month plan.

Several VPN providers also offer free plans, but these most frequently support only a limited amount of data traffic every month.

Maintaining the servers and paying staff to run a VPN service costs money, so consumers should be sceptical of VPNs offering unlimited free traffic, especially if this applies to their top-end plans.

Cybersecurity experts have warned that many dodgy VPN operators provide a free service but make their money off selling people’s data.

The free and the cheap

The only exception among reputable providers with unlimited data traffic on a free plan could be Proton, which is also well-known for its privacy-focused email service.

Proton is based in Zurich, Switzerland, a country with very strict privacy and data protection laws. The service also does not require users to provide any personally identifiable information.

The main downside to Proton Free is that it only allows users to connect to servers in five locations.

The cheapest month-to-month VPN subscription with a large number of server locations was Tunnelbear Unlimited, priced at $9.99 (R182) at the time of our analysis.

Proton VPN Plus was the second most affordable high-performance month-to-month VPN plan, priced at €9.99 (R205).

The most affordable option for those willing to commit over a year is Surfshark Starter. Its total annual price is $47.85 (R871), which works out to $3.19 (R58) per month.

The most committed users can get PureVPN Standard on a two-year plan for $57.95 (R1,054), with an effective monthly cost of $2.14, as it includes three extra months.

The table below summarises the prices of the most affordable plans from 10 reputable VPN services.

The cheapest monthly price for each of the three payment terms is highlighted in blue, while the most expensive is shown in red.