VPN Subscription Cost Comparison

About This Tool

VPN cards often print an equivalent monthly teaser for a prepaid term. That figure is not the cash charged at purchase and is not a cancellable monthly price. This tool compares documented billed totals: what is charged upfront, how many months that payment covers, the effective monthly average, the documented renewal, and 12/24/36-month cash outlay.

Why This Matters for Australian Businesses

A 24-month prepaid billed in full is still a 24-month cash commitment inside a 12-month horizon. Treating A$4.79/mo as an ongoing monthly invoice understates the money that leaves the account on day one and hides the later renewal. Unknown renewal stays unknown rather than repeating the intro rate.

How to Use This Tool

1. Add one, two or three documented plans. Each card prefills billed totals, term, bonus months, renewal and the pricing check date.
2. Edit term, bonus months, billed totals or renewal status if you have a different invoice. Blank renewal is unknown, not a repeated intro rate.
3. Read upfront charge, covered months, effective monthly average and the 12/24/36-month cash-outlay table plus the charge timeline.
4. Do not rank totals in different native currencies. USD and EUR are not converted to AUD on this page.

Key Rules & Thresholds

• Cash outlay counts billed charges when they are taken. A prepaid term is not prorated as if refundable.
• Effective monthly is an average of the introductory billed total over covered months (term plus bonus).
• Unknown renewal returns a partial known-sum. The introductory rate is not assumed to repeat.
• Native AUD, USD and EUR stay in their own units. This page does not produce an Australian checkout total from an FX conversion.
• GST treatment is labelled from the stored basis. Australian GST, merchant FX markup and card fees are not added.
• The general software-cost calculator does not treat VPN equivalent-monthly teasers as ongoing monthly charges.

How Results Are Calculated

Each plan is sent to the subscription cash-outlay engine as integer cents. Covered months are term plus bonus. The introductory billed total is charged at month 0. A known renewal is charged at the end of the covered period and then every renewal interval. Horizons are 12, 24 and 36 months of cash charged, not prorated service. If renewal is unknown or none, later horizons stay partial or unknown and the intro rate is not repeated. Effective monthly is round(intro / covered months), nearest cent, 0.5 cents up. That average times 12 is not the 12-month cash outlay for a prepaid term.

Official Resources

• Personal VPN comparison — Australia
• Business remote-access comparison — Australia
• All software categories