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Lifetime subscriptions are tantalizing. With devices being quickly cycled out or intentionally made obsolete, it's unsurprising that people want goods and services that will stand the test of time.
Virtual private network (VPN) subscriptions sound great in theory, but real-world events have shown that these subscriptions aren’t worth it. That's why in all our VPN reviews we suggest you sign up for a short stint to see if you're comfortable with a service before you commit. For example, earlier this week VPNSecure fell under scrutiny after a transfer of ownership led to the accounts of all lifetime subscribers being terminated without notice. In practice, oftentimes a supposed deal is nothing more than a siren song leading you to disappointment at best or at worst, a blatant scam. We'll review how these subscriptions work, why they’re a risk, and what to look out for.
How Does a Lifetime VPN Subscription Work?
Ideally, a lifetime subscription would set you up with a quality VPN for the rest of your days. The reality is more complicated. When services change hands, users are often left in the lurch.
Every VPN will have different terms for what it considers a "lifetime" subscription, but the common notion is that a purchase should net you access to the VPN for as long as it exists. We’re already off to a rocky start. VPNs have changed immensely over the last few years, let alone the last decade. It’s misleading for VPNs to offer lifetime access when the nature of the industry is so dynamic. Operating costs, such as maintaining a server network, can stack up if a VPN wants to maintain a competitive edge, and the nature of that server network must also be ever-changing if the VPN wants to stay effective. If a VPN falls behind the demands of the industry, then its users are going to suffer, especially if said users paid a hefty sum for a lifetime membership to the service.
It’s often smaller VPNs that offer this incentive, mostly to secure new users. You won’t see larger providers offering this service because they know what's actually involved in keeping this promise. The providers that do offer a lifetime subscription tend to take a creative approach. PureVPN, for example, doesn’t offer its lifetime deal directly on its website. Instead, it goes through an intermediary like StackSocial. On PureVPN’s pricing page, the longest subscription you can get is the five-year plan. (Disclosure: PCMag has partnered with StackSocial.)
VPNs Don’t Want You to Be a Lifetime Subscriber
While the deal on StackSocial is legitimate, there’s often a catch. With PureVPN, you’re forced to renew that "lifetime" subscription every five years. You’ll notice nothing but glowing reviews on StackSocial, but forums like Reddit tell an entirely different story. One Reddit user, GMW57, responded to a post in r/PureVPNcom and described the process for PureVPN's renewal as follows:
It's a process thing. First your Pure-VPN "lifetime" subscription will terminate at its 5 year anniversary. You will contact P-VPN and say WTF. They won't tell you all about the process (like I am now) or the reason. They will just create a ticket. => To refer the problem to "the right group" for resolution. Nothing further will happen. Then. . . You will lookup your original purchase from StackSocial. You will see there that it says it's a 5 year subscription. . . WITH UNLIMITED RENEWALS. You will contact P-VPN again and then they will tell you that your problem is between you and StackCommerce. You will contact SS/SC and they will offer you VPN Unlimited instead. You will realize that P-VPN is merely a co-conspirator...
GMW57 goes on to detail how they were subject to additional delays, escalations with customer support, and lackluster credit offers from the VPN. The user reports that the process took weeks and threats of legal action until they ultimately received a five-year renewal. Others in the thread corroborated the story, and similar posts are common across the VPN community. It goes to show that these VPNs bank on you forgetting and make it almost impossible to renew when you do try to.
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Even if you forget to renew at an arbitrary time, you should still retain access to the VPN service as long as it is still around. That, too, has allegedly not been the case with some services like KeepSolidVPN. One Reddit user reported that their subscription was terminated due to inactivity. Frankly, that is a ridiculous reason to cancel a subscription. If someone pays for an item or service, then it shouldn’t be taken away simply because it isn’t being used. Imagine if that happened to your Netflix account because you hadn’t used it for a month. It’s not a trustworthy business practice.
These lifetime VPN offers aren’t sustainable for these providers, so they resort to customer-unfriendly tactics to thin out their pool of lifetime subscribers whenever possible. Aside from giving users the runaround, some of these providers simply do not offer a good service. Subscribers to FastestVPN’s lifetime membership often report issues with connections, poor speeds, and downtime. These VPNs don’t want you to keep using the lifetime subscription and will often forgo updates or improvements to get rid of users.
Changing Brands, Changing Hands
What does it mean for a VPN to exist? Not in a philosophical sense. What we mean is that most of these lifetime subscriptions state that you’ll have access as long as the service is operating and exists. But "exists" can be complicated when the name, service, and customers are acquired by another company, renamed, or rebranded. Does that mean the service still "exists" and your lifetime subscription should be honored?
The answer isn’t completely clear. What we do know is that VPNs are often bought and sold. In 2022, NordVPN's parent company acquired Surfshark VPN. Both services operate independently, but they are under the same corporate umbrella. These sorts of mergers and acquisitions happen frequently in the VPN space, especially with larger entities buying up small VPNs to expand their networks, features, and services. The hope is that the merger benefits subscribers of both platforms or at least doesn’t change things too much.
The same cannot be said for VPNSecure. The platform offered lifetime subscriptions, but users reported issues logging into their accounts in March. The team behind the VPN responded on Reddit with a poorly received message that said the VPN had been acquired in 2023:
(Reddit/VPNSecure)The VPNSecure team said that they weren’t informed of the lifetime memberships sold through StackSocial and that they had been terminating any lifetime subscriber’s accounts that had been dormant for more than six months. These cancellations were done without any prior warning to inactive users. In that same message, VPNSecure said that every single lifetime subscription had been terminated.
Are There Any Good Lifetime VPN Subscriptions?
Probably not. The one promising lifetime deal Reddit users pointed to was Windscribe’s. In our testing, Windscribe is a great privacy-first VPN, but it discontinued the $50 lifetime membership in 2020. The company has continued to honor the service, but it’s unclear how long those deals will last. Some subscribers have reported a projected 10-year date of termination for their lifetime subscriptions. One Reddit user called jusepal summed up the dilemma well:
..."Lifetime" doesn't make sense for something that needs continuous maintenance on their end. Servers, employee, support cost money and the miniscule $50 back then doesn't cover it for long. Plus its vague, like lifetime of whom? Lifetime of a fruit fly, Putin, you, your neighbour, the company etc.
Ultimately, a lifetime VPN membership is more trouble than it's worth. We recommend getting a reliable VPN on a monthly basis. That way, you can stop your subscription if the VPN changes its network, gets acquired, or no longer keeps up with your expectations. We’ve put the top VPNs through a rigorous testing process, so our best VPN roundup is a good place to start if you’re looking for a new option.