Why there won’t be an ExpressVPN lifetime subscription

At ExpressVPN, service excellence is paramount. We’ve made a commitment: No marketing gimmicks and no skimping on the quality of service. Ever.

You get the VPN quality you pay for

A discounted rate means a discounted service. ExpressVPN will continue to invest in your privacy and security with a host of initiatives that lesser providers simply cannot compete with. Private browsing, self-run DNS on every server, best-in-class app and certificate encryption, and 24/7 live chat support, just to name a few.

A lifetime subscription means a lack of sustained revenue; it’s an unarguable fact. Providers running this model must cut somewhere—expect inferior security features and unprofessional (or non-existent) customer service.

If a company isn’t generating income from paying customers, they must find other revenue streams. Fly-by-night VPN operators might gather extra income by selling user logs and IP addresses to third parties, which completely defeats the point of having a VPN.

Read more: Free VPN vs. paid VPN

Lifetime subscriptions create overhead for the entire (and possibly short) existence of the company offering it. The only way an existing account can be maintained is to sign up a new customer on a lifetime subscription. This business model is completely unsustainable, as has been shown many times in the past.

The initial influx of cash may help to generate revenue fast for the seller, but it’s almost never a good long-term deal for the customer.

Lifetime subscriptions aren’t always forever

Would you be happy to shell out for a “lifetime” subscription that only lasted a couple of years?

What happens if the company offering the subscription goes bankrupt? Even worse, what if the company is bought out? Not only will your data be in the hands of a third party, but transfers of ownership may not provide for the continuation of “lifetime” services.

Every time you log in to a lifetime VPN subscription, you are using a service for which the provider receives no more income. You become a strain on resources, a dead weight, and, frankly, they would rather you stop using it.

ExpressVPN values its customers and works hard to keep them, which is why we constantly invest in new apps, better UI, and stronger security.

There is no ExpressVPN lifetime subscription, and there never will be.

Ever had issues with a lifetime subscription? Let us know your experience in the comments.