At £1.99 per month - roughly 6p a day - ExpressVPN is currently offering its steepest price reduction since the company launched, undercutting both NordVPN and ProtonVPN for the first time in memory. The deal, available until 11.59pm on 5 May 2026, applies to a two-year Basic subscription and includes four additional months of access at no extra cost, extending coverage through to August 2028. For anyone weighing up the cost of personal online privacy, the timing is difficult to ignore.
What Has Changed - and Why It Matters Now
ExpressVPN's pricing overhaul - its first in 16 years - dismantled a single-tier model in favour of three distinct plans: Basic, Advanced, and Pro. The restructuring allows the company to compete more directly on price at the entry level without stripping out the features that built its reputation. The Basic plan retains the core VPN service, including access to more than 3,000 servers worldwide, its proprietary Lightway protocol for fast connections, and post-quantum encryption - a forward-looking security measure that most competitors have not yet implemented.
That last feature deserves attention. Standard encryption algorithms, including widely used RSA-2048 bit keys, are considered secure against current computing hardware. Quantum computers, however, operate on fundamentally different principles and are expected - within years rather than decades - to render those same algorithms vulnerable. ExpressVPN has moved to encryption standards designed to withstand that future threat. At £1.99 per month, subscribers are getting that capability alongside the standard privacy protections.
The Basic plan does not include every feature available at higher tiers. Absent are the ExpressVPN Keys password manager, eSIM data for international travel, and a discounted Aircove Wi-Fi router. For users whose primary need is secure, private internet access across multiple devices, those omissions are unlikely to be decisive.
How the Price Compares Across the Market
VPN pricing is competitive and promotional cycles are frequent, but the current positioning is notable. At £1.99 per month, ExpressVPN Basic is now cheaper than NordVPN's entry-level plan at £2.29 per month, and cheaper than ProtonVPN's two-year rate of £2.39 per month. Both rivals offer comparable multi-device support and 30-day refund guarantees, and both are bundling extra months with long-term subscriptions - though NordVPN adds three months to its deal compared to ExpressVPN's four.
ExpressVPN supports up to 10 simultaneous devices across its apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Fire TV, and compatible Wi-Fi routers. The total cost at checkout for the two-year plan is £55.78. For those reluctant to commit that sum upfront, the company accepts Klarna and other instalment payment options - a practical concession that effectively replicates the flexibility of a monthly plan without sacrificing the savings tied to a longer contract.
The Broader Case for a VPN in 2025 and Beyond
Privacy tools like VPNs have shifted from niche security products to mainstream utilities as digital surveillance has expanded on multiple fronts. Internet service providers in the UK retain the legal right to log and, under certain conditions, share browsing data. Advertisers use increasingly granular behavioural tracking. The Online Safety Act has renewed scrutiny over what users can access and whether platforms must report certain activity. A VPN addresses several of these concerns simultaneously by encrypting all outgoing and incoming traffic before it touches the open internet, making browsing history opaque to ISPs, advertisers, and external monitoring.
Beyond privacy, VPNs provide practical utility: connecting through a server in another country can make streaming services and content libraries available that would otherwise be geo-restricted. That alone is a reason many households maintain a subscription regardless of security concerns.
ExpressVPN is also in the middle of an app overhaul across its desktop platforms. Updated versions for Linux are already available, with Mac and Windows updates in beta. The timing of a price cut alongside a product refresh is deliberate - the company is clearly pursuing broader adoption at a moment when the competitive and regulatory environment has made personal privacy tools more relevant than they have been at any point in the consumer internet era.
- Price: £1.99 per month on a two-year plan (80% off)
- Total at checkout: £55.78 for 24 months
- Bonus access: Four extra months free - coverage runs to August 2028
- Devices: Up to 10 simultaneously, including mobile, desktop, and router
- Refund policy: 30-day money-back guarantee, no conditions stated
- Offer deadline: 11.59pm, 5 May 2026