If you will not lock yourself into a two- or three-year contract, this page is for you — and the honest headline is that month-to-month VPNs are dear. The €1.99 and €2.99 prices you see everywhere are long-plan rates; pay monthly and the same VPN typically costs €10–€13 a month. Most providers do not really want your monthly money, so they price it punitively or bury it; only a few offer a sensible one.
The standout is Mullvad, at a flat €5.00/month — no contract, no intro-price-then-renewal games, cancel any month you like, and it even takes cash. It is the cleanest no-commitment VPN there is. After that the field thins fast: Private Internet Access (€10.49/mo) and CyberGhost (€11.99/mo) are the only other quality providers with a usable monthly plan.
One honest point before the table: if you only need a VPN for a few weeks, you may not need a monthly plan at all — taking a long plan and claiming the money-back guarantee often works out as a free month of a far better-value subscription. More on that below.
Why monthly VPN plans cost so much more
It is worth being blunt about why the monthly price stings. Those headline figures — €1.99, €2.99 a month — are the introductory rate on a two- or three-year plan, discounted heavily for the commitment. Pay month-to-month and the discount vanishes: a rolling plan runs €10–€13, five or six times the long-plan rate.
And VPNs make their economics work on long contracts, so most steer you away from monthly billing. With NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN and IPVanish, the month-to-month option is expensive (€12–€15) or buried so far down the page you almost miss it — which is why a good, fairly priced monthly VPN is rarer than it should be.
The one-line version: the cheap prices you see are long-plan intro rates. Pay monthly and most providers charge €10–€13 — the cost of keeping your freedom to cancel.
Mullvad: the flat-€5, no-commitment champ
If you want a VPN with genuinely no strings, Mullvad is the answer and it is not close. It charges a flat €5.00 a month, full stop — no annual plan to nudge you towards, no introductory price that doubles at renewal, no "save 84%" countdown timer. You pay a fiver, use it for the month, and cancel whenever you please. It goes further on principle, too: there is no email-and-password account — Mullvad issues a random account number you can top up with cash sent in an envelope to stay anonymous, and the audited no-logs apps are open-source.
The trade-offs are honest. Mullvad is not a streaming powerhouse — it makes no promises about Netflix or RTÉ Player, so if catch-up TV is your main use it is the wrong pick. But for anyone who wants a private, cancel-anytime connection at a price that never changes, nothing else comes close. Our full Mullvad review has the detail.
The money-back route to a risk-free month
Here is the move most monthly shoppers miss. If you only need a VPN for a short stint — a holiday, a sports season, one month of catch-up TV — you do not have to pay the dear monthly rate at all. Take a long plan and claim the money-back guarantee: buy a two- or three-year plan, use it for a few weeks, then cancel inside the guarantee period for a full refund. CyberGhost's 45-day guarantee is the longest going; most others offer a no-questions 30 days. For a single month that beats any rolling plan — you sample the premium service rather than paying extra for the right to cancel.
The honest caveats: you must cancel before the window closes, so diarise it, and it only works once per provider. If you genuinely need a VPN month after month, a real monthly plan (or Mullvad) is cleaner. To try first without paying, see our best VPN free trial guide.
How we ranked the monthly VPNs
This page is deliberately short on names: plenty of VPNs will sell you a monthly plan, but few offer one that is good value and free of pricing tricks. Our bar:
- Quality first — audited no-logs, strong encryption, a kill switch, reliable performance. A cheap monthly price on a weak VPN is not a recommendation.
- A genuine monthly plan — a true rolling option you can cancel anytime, not a punitively priced one designed to push you onto a contract.
- Then ranked by monthly price.
On those rules, exactly three providers qualify in our data: Mullvad (€5.00/mo), PIA (€10.49/mo) and CyberGhost (€11.99/mo). The other big names are excellent VPNs, but their monthly pricing is €12–€15 or buried, so they are better taken via the money-back route. If your real goal is the lowest price and you can stomach a longer term, our best cheap VPN guide is the one you want.
Our top picks for month-to-month
Mullvad — €5.00/mo, the no-commitment champ
The clear winner for anyone who refuses to sign a contract: a flat €5 a month, no tiers, no renewal hike, cancel whenever you like. It is a privacy tool rather than a streaming box — but for cancel-anytime cover at a price that never moves, nothing here beats it.
Private Internet Access — €10.49/mo, the cheapest mainstream monthly
The cheapest of the big names' monthly options at €10.49/mo, with unlimited devices, a court-tested no-logs record and a Dublin server, all cancellable month to month. Irish streaming is more hit-or-miss than CyberGhost's, but as a no-commitment mainstream VPN it is the value pick. See our PIA review.
CyberGhost — €11.99/mo, the streaming-friendly monthly
The priciest of our three at €11.99/mo, but the most beginner-friendly and best for streaming, with dedicated servers for Irish and UK catch-up. Its 45-day money-back guarantee also makes the long-plan route tempting — if you might keep it beyond a month, refund-test that instead.
The honest closing line: monthly almost always costs more per month than the long plan. If commitment-free is your priority, Mullvad is the answer; if it is short-term, use the money-back route. For the full picture, see our best VPN for Ireland ranking.