Here is the short version, up front, because you deserve it before you read anything else on this site: VPN Expert makes money through affiliate links. When you buy a VPN after clicking a link here, the provider pays me a commission. You pay the same price you would have paid going to them directly, and often a little less, because some of those links carry a deal. That is the entire arrangement, and the rest of this page is just me explaining exactly how it works.
What an affiliate link is
An affiliate link is a tracked link. When you click one and then sign up, the VPN company can see that you came from VPN Expert, and they pay me a referral fee for sending a customer their way. It costs you nothing extra. The price at checkout is the price the provider sets, whether you arrive through my link or type the address in yourself.
Most of the outbound buttons and provider links on this site are affiliate links. You should assume that any link pointing to a VPN’s signup or pricing page is one. I would rather you assume it everywhere than guess wrong.
What the commissions do not buy
This is the part that matters, so I will be plain about it. The commission a provider pays does not buy a better review, a higher spot on a list, or a softer verdict. A company cannot pay me to recommend it. If a VPN is slow, or its app is a mess, or a “limited-time discount” has been the same price for two years, I say so, and the affiliate relationship does not change a word of it.
I do feature a set of providers I have an affiliate relationship with, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. But the rankings among them reflect what I actually think after using them. Where I genuinely cannot separate two good options, business considerations can break the tie, the same way they do on every honest review site that keeps the lights on this way. What does not happen is a weak product getting placed above a strong one because the commission was better. That trade is not worth your trust, and your trust is the only thing this site really has.
Why I tell you this
Partly because the US Federal Trade Commission requires sites like this one to disclose material connections clearly, and I have no interest in burying that in tiny gray text at the bottom of a page. Mostly, though, because you cannot judge a recommendation fairly without knowing how the person making it gets paid. Now you know. Read everything here with that in mind, and hold my opinions to a higher standard because of it.
If you want the fuller picture of how I test and what rules I hold myself to, that is all on the about page. And if buying through one of my links sits badly with you for any reason, go straight to the provider instead. The recommendation is the same either way; the link is just how the work gets paid for.