What about a 2 year subscription?

[Tommie 7]

I've swayed several folks into subscribing to Air and will continue doing so. One thing I've had good success with is encouraging folks to take advantage of the free 3 day trial. I don't know of any other VPN that offers that (sans credit card). Brilliant!

 

While I consider Air a good value there are others who think it a bit on the expensive side, particularly when compared to a couple other VPNs I've subscribed to (who shall remain nameless). I'm not saying Air should attempt to compete with the bargain basement VPNs. Nevertheless, I could make a stronger case for Air if you offered a heavily discounted 2 year plan. Please consider it.

[LZ1 672]

Hello!

 

Thank you for your suggestion. Ideas are always welcome .

 

Good going getting more people unto the Air(ship). Remember to use your personal referral link .

.

There's sales around 3 times a year, where one can enjoy discounts approaching 40%. You can find the details in the first section of the FAQ in my signature. So I recommend spreading the word, around that time.

 

Otherwise there's not going to be such a 2 year plan most likely. Perhaps partly due to being unnecessary, partly due to being untenable income-wise and partly due to sales already being present, which discount all plans.

 

I'm quite sure that Air Staff, in prior posts, argue that Air is one of the cheaper options out there, when you take into account all the many features you get, which you often don't get at all with many competitors.

 

While I consider Air a good value there are others who think it a bit on the expensive side, particularly when compared to a couple other VPNs I've subscribed to

 

Perhaps your sales strategy should include more feature-by-feature comparisons, when making the case for Airs current price point?

 

For example:

• How many of those competitors supply a native FOSS Linux client; which also runs on many other operating systems and works out of the box?
• How many of those competitors can switch seamlessly between not just TCP, UDP, SSH and SSL, but also TOR?
• How many of those competitors employ just half of the security measures Air does, from tls-crypt to Perfect Forward Secrecy?  

[Staff 9973]

 

• How many of those competitors supply a native FOSS Linux client; which also runs on many other operating systems and works out of the box?
• How many of those competitors can switch seamlessly between not just TCP, UDP, SSH and SSL, but also TOR?
• How many of those competitors employ just half of the security measures Air does, from tls-crypt to Perfect Forward Secrecy?  

 

 

Just for additional (and probably useful) information, entry and exit-IP addresses in our service are different. Even nowadays, that's not true in many VPN services. Keeping different entry and exit-IP addresses prevents various correlation attacks which can even lead to the discovery of your real IP address, even when OpenVPN works perfectly (it's a method which exploits just how the Internet routing works).

 

For the casual reader, a clearer explanation. When you connect to an Air VPN server, you connect to some IP address (we call it the "entry-IP address" of that server). However, your packets reach the Internet from a different IP address (we call it "exit-IP address" of that VPN server).

 

The main reasons, though, for which AirVPN seems more expensive than other services in some cases are:

 

1) the guarantee of no overselling (unique feature as far as we know) - this is terribly expensive

2) the lack of fake IP addresses. Some big VPN services advertise something like 4000 servers but when you dig deeper you just see that each set of dozens or even hundreds IP addresses end up to the same server

3) the lack of virtual servers, we only own or rent physical, bare metal servers with certain hardware requirements

 

That said, nothing is immutable and two year plans as well as rates review are not in principle impossible, but we must keep everything compatible with our mission, in other words we are not going to cut rates by overselling or through fake machines, obviously.

 

Kind regards

[corrado 100]

I don't even find AirVPN particularly expensive - even the standard price (not even considering the discounted one) is less than a fiver a month, i.e. the equivalent of grabbing two coffees or a beer. Just look at other good providers (not the shady ones): most of them are even more expensive while offering considerably less.

[Tommie 7]

There's sales around 3 times a year, where one can enjoy discounts approaching 40%. You can find the details in the first section of the FAQ in my signature. So I recommend spreading the word, around that time.

 

I'll point out the Black Friday and other sales when they're going on. But in many cases a person is in a rush to make a VPN decision and can't wait for a sale. They may be jumping ship from another VPN, sometimes even in panic mode, because of some VPN debacle (e.g. PIA appointing Mark Karpeles as their CTO, IPVanish and PureVPN exposed for logging, etc.). Those are the sort of cases I'm thinking of: A plan that's heavily discounted and available any time of year as further incentive for them to jump ship. I recognize it may not be economically feasible for Air to even further discount a 2 year plan during Black Friday. It could just be excluded from those sales times.

 

And yes, I'm fully aware and agree that Air is the best value out there. No need to sell me on that. The idea is to offer some additional incentive to others who aren't technically astute.

[calafax 0]

For the casual reader, a clearer explanation. When you connect to an Air VPN server, you connect to some IP address (we call it the "entry-IP address" of that server). However, your packets reach the Internet from a different IP address (we call it "exit-IP address" of that VPN server).

And just to be sure: The exit-IP address is the one we see when we look at the list of servers and their addresses which are available to us, right? That's the address reported when we check an established AirVPN connection at ipleak.net.

[Staff 9973]

 

For the casual reader, a clearer explanation. When you connect to an Air VPN server, you connect to some IP address (we call it the "entry-IP address" of that server). However, your packets reach the Internet from a different IP address (we call it "exit-IP address" of that VPN server).

And just to be sure: The exit-IP address is the one we see when we look at the list of servers and their addresses which are available to us, right?

 

Hello!

 

Nope, that's the entry-IP address, if what you write is understood correctly. For example, let's take server Chamaeleon. It has the fully qualified name chamaeleon.airservers.org which resolves into the entry-IP address of Chamaeleon.

 

$ dig chamaeleon.airservers.org +short
199.249.230.41

 

See also here for further information about that:

https://airvpn.org/topic/14378-how-can-i-get-vpn-servers-entry-ip-addresses

 

Exit-IP address of Chamaeleon is different.

 

 

That's the address reported when we check an established AirVPN connection at ipleak.net.

 

Yes, that's the exit-IP address.

 

Kind regards

[calafax 0]

So taking the Rasalas server as an example, nslookup gives me this:

Name:    rasalas.airservers.org
Address:  64.120.44.138 <--entrance IP

 

ipleak.net reports this:

64.120.44.139 <--exit IP

 

Correct?

[go558a83nk 362]

So taking the Rasalas server as an example, nslookup gives me this:

Name:    rasalas.airservers.org

Address:  64.120.44.138 <--entrance IP

 

ipleak.net reports this:

64.120.44.139 <--exit IP

 

Correct?

 

 

yes.

 

That is entry IP 1.  You may note in Eddie or the config generator that servers have at least 2 entry IP.  Servers updated to the latest software have 4 entry IP.

 

But, always only the one exit IP.

[username27080 0]

I feel slightly uneasy with the recent 2 year and 3 year payment plans. You could argue that Air are trying to offer loyal customers better value, but I don't see it that way. I view the cheapest option as the standard price, and the price increase for the shorter term deals as a tactic to lock you in to a 3 year term. The one month plan (€7) is a whopping 154% price increase over the 3 year plan (€2.75). €2.75 seems almost too cheap, a lot can change in 3 years and I worry that the service could degrade. Another reputable VPN (mentioning no names) recently made a blog post titled 'One price to rule them all'. No holiday sales, no locked-in year-long subscriptions, just a reasonable 1 month price (€4.5). Trust is everything when it comes to choosing a VPN provider, I hope that Air follow their lead and scrap the long term plans. Don't get me wrong, I still trust Air a hell of a lot more than some others such as Nord, but the 2 and 3 year plans have a whiff of shady business practices about them and I think they are one step in the wrong direction.

[Staff 9973]

I feel slightly uneasy with the recent 2 year and 3 year payment plans. You could argue that Air are trying to offer loyal customers better value, but I don't see it that way. I view the cheapest option as the standard price, and the price increase for the shorter term deals as a tactic to lock you in to a 3 year term. The one month plan (€7) is a whopping 154% price increase over the 3 year plan (€2.75). €2.75 seems almost too cheap, a lot can change in 3 years and I worry that the service could degrade.

 

Hello!

 

You have even to consider that:

• the One Month plan still exists with the same price since 2011
• the Three Months plan still exists with the same price since 2011
• the Six Months plan still exists with a lower price (30 EUR in 2011, 29 EUR now)
• the One Year plan still exists with a lower price (54 EUR in 2011, 49 EUR now)

If we wanted to lock you in, we wouldn't have lowered prices of shorter term plans and/or we could have scratched some plan types.

 

About the longer term commitments, in a sense you bet that the quality of service will remain high and that the service will still exist, in exchange of a remarkable discount. That's a bet that at the end of the day you must decide on your own, but anyway we have left exactly the same freedom of choice you had in 2011, so you are free to just ignore the new 2 and 3 Years Plans.

 

Therefore we hardly see a truly rational explanation for your complaints, we are sorry...

 

Kind regards

[username27080 0]

 

I feel slightly uneasy with the recent 2 year and 3 year payment plans. You could argue that Air are trying to offer loyal customers better value, but I don't see it that way. I view the cheapest option as the standard price, and the price increase for the shorter term deals as a tactic to lock you in to a 3 year term. The one month plan (€7) is a whopping 154% price increase over the 3 year plan (€2.75). €2.75 seems almost too cheap, a lot can change in 3 years and I worry that the service could degrade.

 

Hello!

 

You have even to consider that:

• the One Month plan still exists with the same price since 2011
• the Three Months plan still exists with the same price since 2011
• the Six Months plan still exists with a lower price (30 EUR in 2011, 29 EUR now)
• the One Year plan still exists with a lower price (54 EUR in 2011, 49 EUR now)

If we wanted to lock you in, we wouldn't have lowered prices of shorter term plans and/or we could have scratched some plan types.

 

About the longer term commitments, in a sense you bet that the quality of service will remain high and that the service will still exist, in exchange of a remarkable discount. That's a bet that at the end of the day you must decide on your own, but anyway we have left exactly the same freedom of choice you had in 2011, so you are free to just ignore the new 2 and 3 Years Plans.

 

Therefore we hardly see a truly rational explanation for your complaints, we are sorry...

 

Kind regards

 

You are correct that people still have the same options as before, but the 2 and 3 year plan can't be ignored. I suppose that this is something that already existed before but was further highlighted by the 2 and 3 year plan. Such extreme price differences between the 1 month and 3 year plan for the same level of service are hard to rationalize. My complaint would be that luring people into longer term purchases with extreme price differences doesn't convey trust.

[Staff 9973]

You are correct that people still have the same options as before, but the 2 and 3 year plan can't be ignored. I suppose that this is something that already existed before but was further highlighted by the 2 and 3 year plan. Such extreme price differences between the 1 month and 3 year plan for the same level of service are hard to rationalize. My complaint would be that luring people into longer term purchases with extreme price differences doesn't convey trust.

 

 

Hello!

 

We don't share your point of view. Longer plans imply that we're here to stay. We are one of the oldest VPN services around (check: which VPNs were born before 2010?) so we are confident that the large majority of our customers will gain even more trust by the longer plans.

 

Of course such plans have nothing to do with "lifetime" subscriptions, which are actually impossible to sustain and are a symptom of fraudulent purposes.

 

Kind regards

[Guest]

I share the same concerns, I do not like the idea of taking a gamble and although the price is tempting and makes sense to get a longer plan, you really can't be sure where the industry is going one year to the next. Air is stable for now, but the political climate is always changing, just look at the recent Youtube drama, and how somebody raising a flag saying "AirVPN/$provider enables users to do awful things" and that gets traction on a site like Reddit or on tech news and maybe the provider finds themselves in the hot seat.

 

Point being, you need to use your own judgement, of course 3 years is cheaper because you're taking a gamble and they are rewarding you with a cheaper plan as a result. But you can still get the regular 1 year plan and for cheaper than it was, and as the staff says, ignore the 2/3 years.

 

I do not agree that it makes them look shady, but more allowing users to pledge their loyalty for a long term commitment. Options can't hurt, and if anything, it's detrimental to Air since if hardware/operational costs increase due to external affairs (new laws are always being considered, like article 13), then AirVPN won't be getting additional income from that user for those 3 years.

 

So if every user today purchased 3 years, AirVPN has those funds and needs to very carefully manage their business for the future whilst accounting for expenses they may not yet be aware of. For example, M247 which a LOT of VPN providers use may decide to increase their rates in a year or two, or may go out of business and Air needs the finances to manage that whilst knowing 3 year users are not generating profit for some time.

 

That concerns me more, about how it possibly makes sense from a business perspective. You can try predict the future, but I am wondering if since 2010 their operational costs have increased and how a 3 year plan would have impacted them vs today.

[Staff 9973]

While I consider Air a good value there are others who think it a bit on the expensive side, particularly when compared to a couple other VPNs I've subscribed to (who shall remain nameless). I'm not saying Air should attempt to compete with the bargain basement VPNs. Nevertheless, I could make a stronger case for Air if you offered a heavily discounted 2 year plan. Please consider it.

 

Hello!

 

We're glad to inform you that now you have the option of 2 and 3 years plans, which offer a remarkable lower price per month. We have also lowered the 1 Year Plan price. Check here: https://airvpn.org/plans

 

Kind regards