6 Best Lifetime VPNs & Reasons to Avoid Them

The world we live in today is a highly information-driven one. Corporations, organizations, governments spend millions of dollars to acquire that information. They then go on to use those pieces of information to make critical decisions for their benefit. However, a lot of corporations and even individuals go too far with it. To cut the process short, they acquire your information illegally and use it in ways that could affect you negatively.

This, right here, is where a Virtual Private Network comes into play. Put simply, it is a network that helps you protect your information, and yourself. In addition, it helps to guarantee your freedom on the internet.

With all that a VPN offers, you might feel the temptation to have it as a keepsake. It is not exactly the best idea. However, considering how tempting the offers can be, we really cannot blame you.

What are the best lifetime VPN services?

Before going into which VPNs offer the best lifetime VPN services, it is very important to note one thing. Lifetime, in this context, does not necessarily mean you would pay one time, and then you would never have to pay again. In this context, a lifetime is anything upwards of five years.

We understand if this feels a bit misleading. Usually, when you are told you’ll have something throughout your lifetime, what you think is that it is yours until you die. However, in the software industry, a lifetime is five years.

Now, the lifetime option is not a very widely practiced or included feature in most VPNs. Most VPNs only offer about three years maximum.

Below we will show you the VPNs we think give you the best deals on long-term subscriptions, and why we personally would never go for a lifetime subscription. It is important to note that all these VPNs have money-back guarantees. They allow you to test their services for a period of thirty days, completely risk-free.

What To Look Out For in a Lifetime VPN

If you do decide to go with a lifetime VPN, you should be looking out for a couple of features. These features include:

Length

Typically, lifetime VPNs offers last between 3 to 5 years. The longer it is for, the better value you get for your money. However, that can be problematic because it also means that you’ll have to wait for a long time before the VPN subscription expires. In any case, you may want to strike a balance between a lengthy VPN and not-so-lengthy VPNs.

Cost

The attraction for lifetime VPNs is how affordable their pricing usually is. Thus, you have to make sure you are getting the best value at any point. So, before you go along with any provider, make sure you have compared prices and selected the best for you.

Performance

Here, you will be considering features such as speed, server count, reliability, and so on. This feature is important because it hardly makes sense to pay a pittance for a VPN and have a less-than-ideal user experience. Read VPN reviews from other users and also consider the features the provider promises you. That will tell you what to expect.

Why is lifetime VPN subscription not a good idea for you?

A lifetime subscription is not an extremely popular thing in the Internet Privacy Industry. As such, not every VPN, paid or unpaid, offers that option in their subscription menu. However, those who do, offer it at jaw-dropping prices which can go as low as about 39USD. Now, upon first glance, this seems like a swell opportunity. It is so cheap that you can almost literally close your eyes, pay a few bucks and have internet safety forever. However, here is why we think you should not go for lifetime subscriptions:

1. You are not likely to get the value for your money:

First off, paying for lifetime services for as low as the prices seen online is, for lack of a better word, quite ludicrous. It makes little to no business sense because, in the end, the company would not be able to make much profit. If it keeps churning out its services as much as it does with those prices, it might as well be offering its virtual umbrella to people for free. This is so because several people would ditch the regular plans and go ahead and purchase the lifetime plan, which is way cheaper. This would significantly reduce the profit margin of the business. The cost of operation would then become higher than the profit received.

The alternative to losing money like that would be to reduce the amount or quality of services that come with it. The summary of this is that you would not be getting your money’s worth. Quite frankly, getting such excellent services at such a low cost is far too good to be true. If something seems too good to be true, the chances are that it indeed is too good to be true.

2. You don’t control all the factors:

To best explain this particular point, we would be taking you through a train of thought. It is a hypothetical scenario, but it is still realistic, especially in this age.

The world today is a digital one where we create information virtually every minute of every day. Some people believe that we might have managed to create and store more information in the last couple of years than every other generation combined. Now, imagine that in this digital age we live in, you are a content creator. Your niche/area of specialization is anime, which is essentially Japanese animated movies or shows. Your chosen means of dispersion is YouTube. Every week, you put out reviews of newly released anime. You’ve been doing it for quite a while, and it is turning out to be really productive for you. Companies are coming to you to advertise to your viewers, you’re signing partnerships, and you’re paying the bills.

It is no new information that most animes come out on Netflix Japan before anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately, Netflix Japan is geo-restricted. So, to stay on top of things, you make a lifetime subscription to a VPN that can give you access to the streaming service because you’re not in Japan.

A few months go by, and the next thing you know, the VPN gets into a lawsuit that forces it to take out all its servers from Japan. You are now unable to watch anime on the streaming service anymore. At this point, your money spent would have been a waste. This is so because the sole purpose of subscription to the hypothetical VPN is no longer possible, and you can’t access Netflix Japan on the VPN you subscribed to if their servers are no longer in Japan.

This is just one of the numerous scenarios that can occur. With business and technology, you do not control all the factors. That’s why you should reconsider going for a lifetime VPN service.

3. Technology is never static:

There was a time when people thought landlines were the best thing ever to hit the communication industry. However, that idea was quickly swept off by the advent of mobile phones. When that came, people thought it was also one of the best things as well. Again, it was swept out of the waters by smartphones. Day after day, year after year, we develop new technology to better the lives of people all over the world. These pieces of technology offer new solutions to old problems and more effective ways of handling them.

It could be today, and it could be tomorrow, it could be the day after. Regardless of when it could come, there is still the strong possibility that one day, a piece of tech would be released and would make VPNs obsolete. If, or when, that happens, what would happen to your lifetime VPN subscription? The answer is obvious. Your money would be a waste.

4. The “lifetime” might not necessarily be yours:

Companies today go in and out of business at will. They come in with the love of their customers. However, due to factors that can really only be best explained by them, they leave. When you see the lifetime subscription plan, the first thing that pops into your head might be that you would use the VPN service from the moment you subscribe until you die. This, however, might not be the case.

There have been VPNs that came in and out of the Internet Privacy industry without too much noise. Some of them offered lifetime services. Imagine a scenario where you pay for a Virtual Private Network’s lifetime services, and it shuts down service. Half the time, when a company has to close service abruptly as such, it does not refund the money it got from its customers. If that happens, just like in the previous point, you would have lost valuable money, however small.

5. Unreliable Customer Service

Challenges are inevitable when you use any service, including VPN services. Of course, you will not set out looking for them, but they always crop up. In such situations, you will have to reach out to the service provider’s customer care agents to help you solve the problem. Hence, it is important to go with a VPN service whose customer service you can trust.

The quality of customer service the ideal provider offers should go up with the years. More communication channels ought to be added from time to time, and the response time should keep reducing. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with most lifetime VPNs. Good customer service depends on good staffing, available tech infrastructure, and so on. Lifetime VPNs do not often have these. 

This might not seem like a big deal until you are stuck while setting up the account and cannot reach your VPN provider’s customer care personnel. However, considering that the relationship is ‘for life’, a responsive customer care system is not something you want to joke with.

Lifetime VPN FAQs

How long is a ‘lifetime’ in VPN parlance?

Ordinarily, you would expect that a lifetime VPN ought to last you your lifetime, or at least the lifetime of the typical person. However, that is not the case. On average, a lifetime VPN will last between 4 to 5 years. This might seem like deceptive marketing, but it really is not so. Most Lifetime VPN providers are upfront with the length of their offers. However, others are not so ethical and will promise you that the VPN service will be available for life while, in reality, it wouldn’t. Therefore, you may want to check out the fine print for any lifetime VPN offer you want to take up.

How is the service on Lifetime VPNs?

There are certain expectations you have when you use a VPN service. The basic one is improved security. Others include access to geo-restricted content, evading ISP throttling, and so on. Lifetime VPNs cannot be trusted to deliver these services. They usually have weak security features. Hence, you could be compromising your details when you use a lifetime VPN. Similarly, you could experience lags, slow speeds, and buffering when you use lifetime VPNs. These lapses are because lifetime VPNs do not typically have enough money to upgrade their systems continuously. So the services they provide sometimes fall short. 

Are Lifetime VPNs worth it?

There is no straightforward answer to this question. Basically, it comes down to whether the pros outweigh the cons for you. The pros include the fact that you would not have to pay VPN fees for a while. On the other hand, you’ll be exposed to security threats, poor infrastructure, etc. If on the comparative that works for you, then you can go ahead. 

Are there alternatives for lifetime VPNs?

Yes, there are alternatives you can use for lifetime VPNs. There are VPN providers that offer lengthy plans. Lengthy VPNs and lifetime VPNs share the similarity of reduced costs. However, lengthy VPNs trump the other in several key areas.  The first is that the duration of lengthy VPNs is definite. You know exactly what you are getting. Furthermore, you will find better tech and security features on lengthy VPNs. Thus, you will be better secured and have access to more features using such services. This is because these providers have other paid plans and subscribers and so will always have the means to upgrade and update their services from time to time. 

Are all Lifetime VPN providers unreliable?

No. Some providers offer passable VPN services. However, in most cases, the quality of the services will not match those of regular paid VPN services. Furthermore, unreliable lifetime VPN services are way more than those you can trust. It might be difficult picking out the good ones from the horde of bad providers out there. Hence, you may want to go along with a VPN with lengthy subscription offers. 

In conclusion

Choosing a lifetime VPN is a bit tricky if you consider all that we have told you in this article. However, in determining which VPN is best for you, be sure to read our vpn provider reviews.