There’s so much choice that picking a VPN service is very far from the easiest task.
Being a student, your first question is likely to be whether there are any good free VPN services. There are a couple, including Privado, but they all place heavy restrictions on the amount of data you can use each month and which servers you can connect to. Virtually none will unblock streaming services and – even if they do – you won’t have enough data to watch anything much.
This may be ok, in which case, you can get away without paying. For most people, that’s not an acceptable compromise but the good news is that there are some great deals around at the moment – including some Black Friday specials – which take the monthly cost down to less than the price of a (cheap) coffee.
We’ve done the hard work and have rounded up the best deals available right now: you’ll find them below.
These services can help to protect your online privacy as well as allow you to watch TV shows and movies that aren’t available in your country.
If VPNs are new to you and you want to know more about the benefits, you can read our beginner’s guide to using a vpn, and see which services we recommend as the best VPNs overall.
You’ll also find further buying advice for students on Tech Advisor, and we have step-by-step guide for watching BBC iPlayer and Max.
Best VPN deals for students
Surfshark two-year subscription student discount
1
From: Surfshark
Was: $336.70 / £308.57
Now:
$53.73 / £53.05
(80% off)
Students can get an extra four months thrown in on top of the two-year subscription using the code SharkStudent (which is applied automatically if you click the link above). After 28 months, you’ll be billed at the standard rate, so remember to turn off auto-renewal if you don’t want that to happen.
The monthly price shown on Surfshark’s website isn’t what you will actually pay, as it counts the free months as paid and displays the price excluding tax. We’ve included UK VAT in the price above.
For two years of VPN access this is a great deal. Surfshark doesn’t unblock quite as many streaming services as Nord, but it does virtually all of the popular ones.
NordVPN two-year subscription student discount
2
From: NordVPN
Now:
$68.62 / £68.58
(69% off)
Students can get a two-year NordVPN subscription via Student Beans. We consider NordVPN to be our best all-round VPN service, and this discount is exclusive to students. It isn’t the cheapest VPN out there, but it gives reliable performance.
You will need a Student Beans account to sign up, which is verified with a certified university email address. US readers can sign up here, while UK readers can grab the deal here.
As with Surfshark, we’ve added UK VAT to the price here so you see what you actually pay.
CyberGhost two-year subscription
3
From: CyberGhost
Was: $337.74 / £313.63
Now:
$56.94 / £59.92
(83% off)
CyberGhost is currently offering a two-year subscription with two extra months free at the end.
At this price, it’s a good deal for a VPN service that can unblock a lot of popular streaming services.
CyberGhost has apps for Fire TV and Android TV, too, and lets you connect up to seven devices at the same time. It also has thousands of servers around the world.
Note that we’ve included UK VAT in the price shown above.
PureVPN five-year subscription
4
From: PureVPN
Was: $747 ($12.45 per month)
Now:
$99.95 ($1.67 per month)
(87% off)
PureVPN’s five-year deal costs $99.95 (around £80).
It sounds a lot, but works out to $1.67 per month (£1.30), and you can use the subscription on 10 devices at the same time, so it’s actually very cheap compared to some. It’s just a matter of whether you want to commit to five years or not.
As with all the deals here (and with all VPN subscriptions longer than a month), you pay for the full subscription up front – not per month.
Atlas VPN Premium two-year subscription
5
From: Atlas VPN
Was: $329.70 / £235.92
Now:
$49.21 / £40.34
(83% off)
Atlas VPN is owned by Nord Security and is effectively the company’s low-cost alternative to NordVPN.
Its current offer gives you an extra six months on top of a two-year subscription, but they’re not really free if you go by the monthly cost that AtlasVPN advertises.
Nevertheless, this is a decent overall price for a 30-month VPN subscription.
Atlas VPN doesn’t tick as many boxes as NordVPN or Surfshark, but if you’re just looking for the low monthly price, then this deal should be tempting, especially as Atlas VPN doesn’t put any restrictions on the number of devices you can use with the service at the same time.