Streaming Services And VPN: Where’s My Student Discount?

Streaming Services And VPN_ Where’s My Student Discount

Being a student is expensive, and anyone familiar with dorm life will tell you that anything you can do to live a little cheaper is worth the extra effort. Trying to study on a budget is important, what with textbooks costing the arm and leg that they do these days, and let’s not even get into the exorbitant price of tuition. That’s why it’s important when you’re attending college or university that you try and save money wherever you can, including on the monthly services you pay for that cover things like streaming and Internet privacy. 

College students rely heavily on streaming platforms for entertainment but often find many popular services blocked on campus networks. A virtual private network (VPN) allows students to bypass censorship restrictions and access content. Fortunately, top VPN providers like NordVPN, Surfshark, and CyberGhost offer exclusive student discounts, making privacy protection and unrestricted streaming more affordable. These leading services provide discounts through verification platforms like Student Beans, where students can create an account using their .edu emails and confirm their status with a student ID. 

The discounts, ranging from 68% off NordVPN to 79% off CyberGhost, apply to 2-year subscription plans. Once purchased, students can download the VPN app to any device, connect to a server to mask their location, and unblock geo-restricted platforms like Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and more, regardless of campus Wi-Fi limitations. With streaming-optimized servers and no data limits, subscribing to a discounted VPN grants students reliable access to all their favorite shows and movies.

So, which streaming services and VPNs offer the best student discounts in the business? Read on in our guide to find out!

What Is A Student Discount And How Does It Work?

What Is A Student Discount And How Does It Work

To start, it helps to know exactly what a student discount is and how you can use it to your advantage the next time you sign up for a service online.

Generally, student discounts work something like this: you go to a particular signup page made specifically for students, register using an email address that ends in “.edu” (and is recognized as an accredited university), and then you get to enjoy massive discounts only available to college students!

But which VPN providers and streaming services offer a student discount, and where are you out of luck in this department?

Streaming Services With A Student Discount

Ring is undoubtedly one of the best when you add up all the savings over a year.

Usually, an Amazon Prime subscription would set you back $99 annually if you buy the whole year upfront or $12.99 per month if you want to get billed every 30 days ($155.88 annually).

With a student discount, you can cut that price in half to just $6.49 per month or $59 per year.

Not only will you get major savings on the monthly plan, but those who sign up for Amazon Student through the company’s page will also get a whopping six-month free trial to see if you even like the product in the first place. This means that if you went with the monthly plan after the six-month trial ended, you would only pay $38.94 for an entire year of service!

When you consider that you also get all the benefits that come with an Amazon Prime subscription, like free shipping and access to the Prime Now same-day delivery service, it’s clear that Amazon offers one of the best deals for college students.

HBONow – No Student Discount

Although HBO now used to offer a student discount, which brought the monthly subscription price of the service down to $9.99 per month (from the standard $14.99/month), the company has stated that it will no longer allow new students to sign up for discounts on the service using their .edu emails. HBO hasn’t elaborated on why they ceased offering the program, but if you already have the discount applied to your account, you can keep that price as long as you continue to pay the bill on time and don’t let the subscription lapse.

Apple Music – Has A Student Discount

Apple Music offers a 50% student discount for anyone who signs up through their school-issued email address, bringing the monthly cost of $9.99 per month down to just $4.99.

Although this is by no means an expensive option, considering that the new Spotify/Hulu combo deal is the same price and offers the benefit of getting a whole library of TV/movies to watch each month, we’d recommend going that route instead. Plus, unlike Apple Music, which is locked to the Apple ecosystem of devices, Spotify and Hulu stream to just about any device you can think of.

Netflix – No Student Discount

Netflix is another streaming service that doesn’t care to participate in the whole “students stream cheap” thing and doesn’t offer any sort of discount for those with a .edu email address. Right now the cheapest plan the company offers is $7.99 a month, which gives you streaming access on one device but doesn’t even offer the option to stream in HD. In our opinion, this essentially makes that plan useless because who wants to watch gorgeously shot documentaries like Planet Earth in 480p?

If you want HD access you’ll have to go one more tier up to the $10.99 a month plan, and the company also offers another bump to the UHD/4K plan for $13.99 a month if you happen to have a TV that features that resolution.

Spotify/Hulu – The Best Student Discount

Earlier this year, the music streaming service Spotify teamed up with TV streaming service Hulu to offer one of the best deals of our era: Student Discount Free for 1 month, just $5.99/month after that.

Even though Spotify technically has a plan designed for students that grants you access for $4.99 a month, the company also offers a combo pack with unlimited access to Hulu’s commercial plan for $4.99. Previously, signing up for both services individually would set you back $18.99 per month.

Spotify technically does have an ad-supported free version that students can use if they want to, but Hulu no longer offers a free option. The bonus of the combo subscription Hullu, Disny+ means that for just five bucks a month, you get access to unlimited music and TV/movies, which easily makes it the best student discount for those who study hard but also like to take a break once in a while to catch up on their stories.

Amazon Prime Video – Has A Student Discount

Amazon Prime Video – Has A Student Discount

Of all the great deals on this list, Amazon offers great student discounts. These discounts can be availed at any moment you want to subscribe. You just have to go to their website and select your favorite bundle that suits your exact requirements. They offer a very budget-friendly bundle the their offers start from 6.49$ per month or 69$ per year.

VPNs With A Student Discount

VPNs With A Student Discount

Now that you’re signed up for your favorite streaming services with your student discount, it’s time to add a VPN. It was pretty difficult to find a good number of VPNs that offer a student discount and to be honest, the ones we did find weren’t anywhere near as impressive as the kind of money you would save on something like the Spotify/Hulu combo.

There are barely any services out there that can match that sort of value, so I guess the VPNs can be forgiven a bit on this front.

Regardless, here’s a list of VPN student discounts we found along with how much you can expect to save on each service.

Hotspot Shield

According to a relatively old blog post that surfaced back in 2013, supposedly, both students and teachers can get a full year of free access to the Hotspot Shield VPN service as long as they sign up for an account using their .edu email address.

We could not verify the veracity of these claims or whether or not the program is still active (since we don’t have a .edu address to sign up with), but there hasn’t been any news of the plan ending. So the only way to find out is to head over to Hotspot Shield’s subscription page and see for yourself!

SlickVPN

SlickVPN is another VPN company that was suspiciously vague as to what the actual student discount upto 60% off is because the only way to see how much you save is to go through the checkout process and register with a .edu address along the way.

That being said, the company does still offer some discounts, so head on over to the signup page to see how much you can save today!

HideMyAss!

HMA! offers a whopping student discount of 75% off 36 month subscription sales at HMA VPN, which may not sound like a lot, but that’s probably because it isn’t, when applied to the annual plan, you’re only saving about 0.70 cents a month, which is enough for a few extra packets of ramen, but nothing worth writing home about if we’re being blunt.

Kaspersky Secure Connection

Kaspersky is another service that offers a student discount on its VPN services. Still, like HMA!, the 10% discount is underwhelming when you consider it’ll only save you $2.90 over an entire year.

Conclusion

When setting out to research this article, I assumed there would be a lot more discounts available to students on VPN plans than there were. Given how keen the industry is to constantly refresh their discounts, it was surprising to see that so few recognized the struggle that students go through when it comes to their monthly bills. The discounts we did find were minimal at best.

That said, streaming services like Spotify and Hulu seem to understand that students need to keep their budgets as tight as possible, and the Spotify/Hulu Student combo plan is one of the best around when it comes to streaming music and TV shows online.

As we know, leading VPN providers such as NordVPN, Surfshark, and CyberGhost provide exclusive student discounts, making privacy protection and unrestricted streaming more affordable for college students. These discounts, verified through Student Beans using a .edu email and student ID, offer savings of up to 79% off multi-year plans. Once purchased, students can download the VPN app on any device to securely access restricted platforms, bypass campus network blocks, and stream content worldwide.

The encryption also safeguards students’ privacy when using public Wi-Fi. With servers optimized specifically for streaming sites like Netflix and Disney+, subscribing to a discounted VPN gives students the ability to seamlessly access all their favorite shows and movies, regardless of geographic restrictions or university network limitations.

Customer Reviews for NordVPN: In-Depth Review, Tests, and Stats

IR Irina

Streaming Services And VPN: Where’s My Student Discount?
Verified
Connection issues with MLB.TV
So I had some connection issues on my iOS device (iPad) with MLB.TV streaming, and representative named Garfield SOLVED my unique problem that I had spent hours researching and tackling with no luck before today! Garfield was extremely patient, personable, and very knowledgeable. Through multiple approaches and problem-solving steps, he created a solutuon that worked. Way to go, and definitely a returning NordVPN customer here. Thank you, Garfield.
Date of Experience:
May, 2 2023
CH Christina

Streaming Services And VPN: Where’s My Student Discount?
Verified
Prompt customer service
My subscription automatically renewed and a payment was taken, which I didn’t want as I haven’t been using the service. I contacted the company and received a prompt and efficient response where my subscription was reversed and the payment was returned. If only every company was so easy to contact and communicate with!
Date of Experience:
May, 6 2023
MW Michael White

Streaming Services And VPN: Where’s My Student Discount?
Verified
I would highly recommend
Excellent service and easy to use to protect your privacy. I have NVPN on my laptop, iPhone and fire stick, great value for money.
Date of Experience:
December, 15 2023
Copy link