CyberGhost’s pricing page contains one sentence that I think is the most quietly effective piece of copywriting in the whole VPN industry. It says the plan is billed $51.74 for the first 2 years, then autorenews at $51.74 annually.
Nothing in that sentence is false. The dollar figure really does stay the same. What changes is the length of time it buys, which drops from 26 months to 12. Your monthly cost goes from $1.99 to $4.31, an increase of 117 percent, and the number on your statement never moves.
I run Ecommerce Paradise from overseas, so a VPN is working infrastructure for me rather than a privacy preference. I have also written a pricing comparison before that lined up one service’s intro rate against another’s renewal rate, which is exactly the error this article exists to prevent. Every figure below came off CyberGhost’s own pages in September 2026, and I have kept first-term and renewal prices in separate columns throughout.
$51.74 Twice Is Not the Same Price Twice
The first $51.74 buys 26 months. The second buys 12. That is a 117 percent rate increase with no change to the invoice.
Every Plan, Both Prices
These three plans are what CyberGhost’s buy page shows a US visitor. The renewal language in the last column is quoted from the cards themselves, not paraphrased.
| Plan | Advertised rate | You pay today | Term | Then renews at | Refund window |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Years + 2 Months | $1.99/mo | $51.74 | 26 months | $51.74 annually | 45 days |
| 6 Months | $6.99/mo | $41.94 | 6 months | $41.94 every 6 months | 45 days |
| 1 Month | $12.99/mo | $12.99 | 1 month | $12.99 monthly | 14 days |
Two of those three renew at exactly what you paid, which is unusual and genuinely good. The 6-month plan bills $41.94 and renews at $41.94 for another six months. The monthly plan bills $12.99 and renews at $12.99. Neither has a cliff.
The long plan is the only one where the renewal is a different animal from the first bill, and it is also the plan the entire page is designed to sell you.
What the Renewal Does to the Rate
Put all three plans in the same unit and the structure becomes visible.
| Plan | First term, per month | Renewal, per month | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Years + 2 Months | $1.99 | $4.31 | Up 117 percent |
| 6 Months | $6.99 | $6.99 | No change |
| 1 Month | $12.99 | $12.99 | No change |
The renewed long plan at $4.31 a month still costs less than the 6-month plan at $6.99 and far less than monthly at $12.99. So even after the increase, the long plan remains the cheapest way to hold a CyberGhost subscription. That is worth saying clearly before I spend another thousand words on the presentation, because the underlying deal is not bad.
The criticism is narrower than “this is expensive.” It is that a price rise of 117 percent is communicated through a sentence in which the price does not appear to change, and I do not believe most people parse that line correctly on a first read.
What It Actually Costs Over Time
The right way to judge a two-price plan is to model the years you will actually hold it, not the first bill.
| How long you keep it | Total paid | Average per month |
|---|---|---|
| 26 months, then cancel | $51.74 | $1.99 |
| 38 months, one renewal | $103.48 | $2.72 |
| 50 months, two renewals | $155.22 | $3.10 |
| 62 months, three renewals | $206.96 | $3.34 |
Just over five years of CyberGhost costs roughly $207 and averages $3.34 a month. That is a real number you can compare against other services, and it is still cheap. It is simply not $1.99.
Notice the shape of that curve. The average climbs steeply for the first renewal and then flattens, because the renewal rate is fixed rather than escalating. CyberGhost raises your rate once and then leaves it alone. Plenty of software does worse.
How This Compares to the Other Two
I pulled the same data from the two services most people cross-shop against CyberGhost, on the same day. The ExpressVPN figures came from its own order page, which prints the renewal price in the same block as the offer.
| Service | Entry offer | Paid today | Renewal | Renewal per month | Refund |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CyberGhost | $1.99/mo, 26 months | $51.74 | $51.74 a year | $4.31 | 45 days |
| ExpressVPN | $2.99/mo, 28 months | $83.72 | $99.95 a year | $8.33 | 30 days |
| Surfshark Starter | $2.49/mo, 27 months | $67.23 | Not published | Unknown | 30 days |
On the headline rate the three sit within a dollar of each other, which is why comparison articles usually call it a tie. On the renewal rate CyberGhost costs about half what ExpressVPN costs, which is not a tie at all.
The Surfshark pricing page answers its own FAQ question about cost after two years by saying you will be charged the applicable renewal price. That sentence has the grammatical shape of an answer with the number taken out of it.
I am not accusing Surfshark of lying. The FAQ does acknowledge that renewal pricing exists and differs from the intro rate, which is more than some vendors manage. But you cannot line up $2.49 against $1.99 and call it a comparison when only one of those two services will tell you the year-three price.
Building the Store, Not Just the Stack?
A VPN is one line item. Suppliers, entity, store and launch are the other four. We build all of it with you.
The Plans CyberGhost Does Not Show You
Here is something I found by reading the page’s underlying markup rather than the three cards on the screen.
The pricing page carries configuration data for six distinct CyberGhost products, not three. Alongside the 26-month, 6-month and 1-month plans on display, the same page defines a 12-month plan at $4.15 a month, a 12-month plan with NoSpy server access at $4.99 a month, and a 7-day trial product at $5.25 a month.
None of those three appeared in the US layout I was served. They are labelled in the data as global and trial variants, so the most likely explanation is regional targeting or an ongoing test rather than anything hidden on purpose.
Still, it is useful to know a 12-month plan exists in the catalogue at $4.15. That figure sits within 16 cents of the renewal rate of $4.31, which tells you something about where CyberGhost thinks a fair annual price actually is once no promotion is running.
I also found a second version of the long plan on the same page, sold as 2 years plus 3 months rather than 2 years plus 2 months, at the identical $1.99 rate. If you see 27 months offered where I saw 26, you are in a different test group and you are getting the better end of it.
The Guarantee Is Backwards, and It Matters
CyberGhost gives 45 days to change your mind on the long and 6-month plans, and 14 days on the monthly plan. That 45-day window is the longest in the mainstream VPN market and it is the single strongest thing about this purchase.
But look at the structure. The plan where you commit $51.74 and 26 months gets six and a half weeks of protection. The plan where you commit $12.99 and can walk away next month gets two weeks. The protection is generous exactly where the commitment is largest, and thin where the commitment is trivial.
Read cynically, that is a device for moving buyers onto the long plan. Read plainly, it is still the right way round for you as a buyer, because the long plan is where your money is actually at risk.
What I would do with 45 days is test the things a VPN can quietly fail at. Log into your business bank. Open your supplier portals. Try the specific streaming service or regional site that made you want a VPN. A connection that works everywhere except your bank is worthless to you at $1.99 or at $12.99.
The setup side of that testing is covered step by step in my CyberGhost setup guide, which is worth having open on day one rather than day forty.
The Add-Ons and What They Do to the Bill
The pricing page offers extras at checkout, and they change the arithmetic enough to mention.
| Add-on | Price | Worth it? |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated IP | $5.00/mo | Only if a service you use blocks shared VPN addresses |
| Password Manager | Included free | Free is free, though it competes with tools you may already pay for |
| Security Suite for Windows | Varies by term | Windows only, and antivirus is a separate buying decision |
The dedicated IP at $5.00 a month deserves a moment, because it costs two and a half times the VPN itself on the long plan. Adding it takes your effective rate from $1.99 to $6.99 a month, which puts you well above ExpressVPN’s advertised price.
The add-on is also tied to your subscription term rather than billed separately. CyberGhost’s own note says that if you buy the 1-month plan you pay for the dedicated IP monthly, and if you buy the 2-year or 3-year plan you are billed the corresponding amount for the whole period up front.
For most high-ticket dropshipping operators, a dedicated IP is not needed. It becomes relevant when a supplier portal, a payment processor or an ad platform starts blocking the shared addresses everyone else on the server is also using. If that has never happened to you, do not pre-buy the fix.
Where CyberGhost Sits on Value
Being specific about who this is and is not for, because $51.74 a year is genuinely low and low prices attract the wrong buyers as often as the right ones.
Good fit if cost is the deciding variable. At $4.31 a month on renewal this is close to the floor for a mainstream audited VPN with a real app on every platform. Nothing meaningfully cheaper is also meaningfully trustworthy.
Good fit if you want a long test window. Forty-five days is enough to run a full business cycle through it, including a month-end and whatever your suppliers throw at you.
Good fit for households and small teams. Seven simultaneous connections on one subscription covers a solo operator, a partner and a virtual assistant without buying seats.
Poor fit if uptime is load-bearing and irreplaceable. If your entire revenue depends on reaching a US-only supplier system every single day, the premium services buy you a slightly different reliability profile, and a few dollars a month is the wrong thing to optimise.
Poor fit if you will never review it. This is the trap that applies to every service in the category. A subscription you set up once and stop thinking about will renew at $51.74 a year forever, and the whole reason that number is tolerable is that you checked whether you still use it.
The Monthly Plan Is a Trap, but Sometimes the Right One
CyberGhost’s monthly rate of $12.99 is 6.5 times its long-term rate of $1.99. That ratio is normal for the industry rather than predatory, and it exists to make the long commitment look like an obvious win.
The interesting case is short but recurring need. Say you travel for a month twice a year and want a VPN only while you are away. Two months of monthly billing costs $25.98 a year. A long plan left running costs $51.74 a year on renewal. The monthly plan wins on that pattern by a wide margin, and nobody advertises it that way because nobody makes money advertising it that way.
The version of this that costs people money is buying 26 months to save $11.00 a month on a need that will not last 26 months. Two expensive months still cost less than 26 cheap ones.
What I Would Actually Do
Buy the 26-month plan. Use the full 45 days to test it properly rather than just confirming it connects. Put a calendar reminder at month 24.
That reminder is the entire strategy. At month 24 you decide whether $51.74 a year is still worth it or whether you have stopped using the thing. Two years of a working VPN for $51.74 is excellent value by any measure, and the only way it turns into bad value is renewing on autopilot for a decade without ever asking the question.
Nobody in this market punishes you for leaving. They rely on you not looking.
Where a VPN Fits in the Build Order
Worth saying, because this is a tool people buy early for reasons that do not hold up.
A VPN solves an access problem, not a business problem. If you are outside the United States and need to reach supplier portals, payment processors or your own bank, it is required infrastructure and you should buy it before anything else. That is my situation and it is why I have paid for one continuously for years.
If you are in the US and simply read that VPNs are good practice, $51.74 a year buys you a habit that changes nothing about whether your store works. The attention is better spent on what you intend to sell, which the high-ticket niches list covers at no cost at all.
Supplier approval is the real constraint on this business and none of it turns on your VPN. The full process is in the supplier outreach guide.
Distributors will want to see a registered entity before they will talk terms, which the business formation guide walks through. If the model itself is still the open question, start with what high-ticket dropshipping actually is before buying any software at all.
Read the Review Before You Commit 26 Months
Speed, streaming access, the no-logs position and where the premium services actually pull ahead.
Common Questions
How much does CyberGhost cost in 2026?
The long plan is $1.99 a month, billed $51.74 for 26 months, then $51.74 a year. The 6-month plan is $6.99 a month, billed $41.94 every six months. The monthly plan is $12.99.
Does CyberGhost go up in price after the first term?
Yes, on the long plan. The charge stays at $51.74 but the period it covers drops from 26 months to 12, which takes the monthly rate from $1.99 to $4.31. That is a 117 percent increase. The 6-month and monthly plans renew at the same rate they started at.
What does “billed $51.74 for first 2 years, then autorenews at $51.74 annually” mean?
It means the amount does not change but the coverage does. Your first payment buys a little over two years of service. Every payment after that buys one year for the same money.
Is CyberGhost cheaper than ExpressVPN?
Yes, and the gap widens over time. On the entry offer CyberGhost is $51.74 against $83.72. On renewal it is $51.74 a year against $99.95, so CyberGhost costs 52 percent of what ExpressVPN costs once both are past their first term. The ExpressVPN pricing breakdown has that side in full.
How long is the CyberGhost money-back guarantee?
Forty-five days on the 26-month and 6-month plans, and 14 days on the monthly plan. The longest windows go with the longest commitments.
How many devices does one subscription cover?
Seven simultaneous connections, across servers in more than 100 countries with unlimited bandwidth. That is enough for one operator, a partner and an assistant without buying additional seats.
Is the dedicated IP add-on worth $5.00 a month?
Only if something you need is blocking shared VPN addresses. At $5.00 a month it costs two and a half times the VPN itself on the long plan, and it is billed across your whole subscription term rather than monthly.
Should I buy the monthly plan instead?
If your need is genuinely short, yes. Two months at $12.99 costs $25.98, which is roughly what six months of the renewed long plan costs at $25.87. Buy the long plan only if you expect to still want it in two years.
Related Reading
- CyberGhost Alternatives 2026: Ranked by Renewal Price, Not Headline
- CyberGhost vs Surfshark 2026: Seven Devices Is the Whole Decision
- CyberGhost vs ExpressVPN 2026: Is Reliability Worth $176 Over Five Years?
- CyberGhost VPN Review 2026: A Budget VPN With a Genuinely Long Money-Back Window
- How to Set Up CyberGhost VPN for Safer Business Browsing
Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.
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