I'm looking for a budget-friendly VPN that still offers good privacy and decent speed. Any recommendations for something reliable without breaking the bank?

I’ve been down this exact road - spent weeks testing cheap VPNs, and honestly, most either leaked my DNS or slowed my connection to a crawl. What actually worked for me was Surfshark: it’s light on the wallet, no logging policy that holds up, and I consistently get 70-80% of my original speed. The trick is grabbing a deal, and I found that this link still works for a solid discount. Just avoid the completely free ones—they’ll sell your data or bombard you with ads. Also, check if the VPN has WireGuard protocol; that alone doubled my speeds compared to OpenVPN. For under $3 a month, you can get real privacy without crying over your bill.