Black Friday is here and shoppers around the world are simply spoiled for choice when it comes to bargains – and the deals extend into the world of cybersecurity, too.
Plenty of today’s best VPNs have joined in the fun and launched deals of their own, which is great news for anyone who has been on the fence about trying one, but some services aren’t quite as generous. You might’ve noticed that the list of Black Friday VPN deals isn’t exhaustive, and there are reasons for that.
Keep reading, and I’ll get into why some VPNs prefer to avoid the Black Friday sales, and how you can bag a bargain anyway.
Why do some VPNs avoid Black Friday?
If you’re doing some smart shopping and comparing VPN providers, you’ll notice that not all of them offer Black Friday deals or, if they do, the discounts vary massively from service to service.
The reality is that a lot of these VPNs offer discounts all year round – so it might not seem as though they’re doing anything special to mark the start of the holiday season.
Surfshark, for example, is our favorite cheap VPN, and that’s partly because it routinely offers serious bargains. This is awesome, as it means you’ll be able to save money all year round, but can take the edge off the Black Friday excitement.
A lot of these VPNs offer massive discounts all year round
Then, you have services like ExpressVPN that have previously shunned the sales entirely. Of course, ExpressVPN did discount its prices for the first time this year and introduced a shiny new 2-year plan, too – but in years past, this service has notably been absent from the Black Friday deals.
Why? Well, with so much discounting going on, ExpressVPN might’ve wanted to make a statement that yes, you’ll be paying more for a subscription, but you’ll be getting undeniable quality in exchange, and that quality is exactly what makes it stand out in a field of slashed prices.
There are a swathe of smaller services out there that just can’t compete with the massive discounts being offered by today’s VPN titans. The big companies that rake in subscriptions all year round can afford to serve up juicy savings to ring in Black Friday, but newly established companies still making a name for themselves have a lot of overhead to cover, and are therefore less likely to take the axe to their prices.
How to bag a Black Friday bargain
Whether you’re looking through our list of the best Black Friday VPN deals or doing your own research, there are a few key considerations to keep in mind before hitting that buy button:
- Measure the value: some services offer rock bottom prices for rock bottom functionality – so yes, you’ll pay less, but won’t actually be getting a lot of features that’ll boost your privacy. Sometimes it’s worth paying a little more for a subscription stuffed with tools.
- Don’t sacrifice security: when we’re talking about VPNs, your digital security should be your number one priority – even during the sales season. Plenty of free VPNs are little more than scams, for example, designed to harvest your data, and some super low-cost VPNs follow the same credo. Make sure the VPN you’re considering is worthy of a place in our secure VPN rankings.
- Go incognito: if you’re weighing up your options, remember to open links in an Incognito tab. This will ensure you avoid getting lumped with annoying dynamic pricing that can ramp up the prices if you visited the same site weeks or months ago.