Best answer: No, ExpressVPN does not offer a lifetime subscription. In fact, the longest subscription you can purchase from ExpressVPN right now is an annual one, and the first time you sign up for it you get an extra three months free. Running the service the way ExpressVPN does requires ongoing costs, and offering a one-time payment is not a sustainable business model for the company.
- Secure your browsing: ExpressVPN ($6.67 per month at ExpressVPN)
You may have seen one of those "too good to be true" lifetime VPN license offers out there for $10 and wondered why some companies are doing that and others are charging $100 each year. Well, running a VPN company happens to be an expensive endeavor. The hardware (servers) costs money, the software costs money, the apps are expensive to develop, the chat agents need to be paid, and there are lots of other costs.
Unfortunately, ExpressVPN is not able to roll all of that into a single cost for each customer and does not allow people to purchase a lifetime license for its service. As of right now, you can sign up for the month-to-month plan, a six-month plan, or an annual plan. ExpressVPN prides itself on the level of service that it can deliver to each customer, and therefore believes that this business model is the one that works to meet those needs for everyone.
From ExpressVPN itself:
No. Providing a secure, fast, and reliable VPN service requires ongoing maintenance costs.Lifetime subscriptions mean providers must deal with a lack of sustained revenue. They usually cope with this by using cheaper and less-secure infrastructure, selling user logs and IP addresses for extra income, or limiting technology upgrades and customer support to cut costs.
The company is dedicated to ensuring that it can deliver the best overall experience for every single user and wants to make sure it can actually keep everyone using it safe. With a lifetime license, you rely even more heavily on new customers since there are no payments coming in from renewals and ExpressVPN even says that many people who have signed up for lifetime subscriptions often feel unsatisfied with the service in the end and look for another one to replace it.
What plans does ExpressVPN offer?
While you can't opt for a lifetime license from ExpressVPN that doesn't mean you should overlook the service. There are a few different plan options that you can sign up for right now, those include:
Should you sign up for a different lifetime license?
If you firmly believe that a "lifetime license" is the only purchase that's worth making for yourself, we can't stop you. There are, however, a few things that you should strongly consider before sinking any money into an offer that may be just a little too good to be true.
How long has the company been around?
We've seen a surge in VPN providers over the past few years, and that means that not all of these companies have been in existence for a long time. Buying a lifetime license from them puts you at risk should they declare bankruptcy or sell out to another company that decides to not honor it.
How often will the company behind the service continue to support it?
Once you buy a lifetime license and pay once, you are using the service for free after that and the company is receiving no money from you. Unless said company can continue to bring on loads of new customers, it's hard to pay to develop new features, support apps, and all of that fun stuff.
What's the true cost associated with using the service?
Sometimes when companies aren't generating enough revenue they begin to sell off user information. While VPN providers generally collect very little from customers, companies in need of additional cash resources can get creative by selling logs, IP addresses, and more. All of this defeats the whole purpose of using a VPN in the first place, so give some serious thought to that before making a one-time payment for a lifetime of access.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:
1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).
2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.
We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
