NordVPN review: Fast and packed with features

In short

Expert Rating

Benefits

• Great feature set
• Excellent speeds
• No-logging policy
• Attractive and intuitive interface

Our opinion

NordVPN offers a lot. There are a ton of country connections available, all of which seem to work with Netflix, built-in antivirus and ad blocking, and some of the fastest server speeds. It also offers multi-hop connections, P2P file sharing, and split tunneling. It’s pricey, but you get what you pay for.

Price when reviewing

$4.92 per month

Best Prices Today: NordVPN

NordVPN in a nutshell:

• P2P allowed: Yes, on dedicated servers
• Simultaneous device connections: up to six
• Place of activity: Panama
• Number of servers: 5000+
• Number of countries: 60+
• Cost: $12.99 per month or $100.56 for two years

NordVPN is one of the best known VPNs with a massive user base. The trusted premium service stands out for its excellent speeds, a wide and generous server spread, and an impressive set of security features. And in its aim to be more than just a VPN, the service has expanded into a larger umbrella organization known as Nord Security, offering other services such as North Pass password manager, NordLocker for secure file storage and professional tools like NordLayer and NordWL.

Note: Check out our overview of best VPNs to learn more about competing products, what to look for in a VPN, and product recommendations.

NordVPN: Features and Services

Let’s get this right now, NordVPN is one of the largest and best-funded VPNs. It has a user base of over 14 million and is just a part of the larger conglomerate known as Nord Security. As expected, it has all the features that users expect from a top VPN service and more.

The VPN itself is supported by most major platforms such as Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux and more. It also allows six simultaneous device connections, which, while decent, isn’t great. It’s honestly a little disappointing that a VPN service as big as NordVPN doesn’t allow unlimited device connections like some of its competitors.

Its customer support services are available 24/7 via chat or email and it also has a comprehensive blog and FAQ section on its website if you run into any problems and want to solve the problem by yourself.

Sam Singleton

When you first open NordVPN on Windows, you are presented with a minimalistic and user-friendly interface. The left rail includes quick links for vpn, Threat Protection, Mesh net connectivity, and Dark web monitoring. At the bottom you also have interface options for contact usyour personalized security note, And Settings. The rest of the app window is filled with a world map that you can drag and select a specific country and server to connect to for VPN. There’s also a small box with quick connect options, allowing you to automatically connect to the fastest available server, and a history of the last five servers you connected to for reference.

Sam Singleton

Digging deeper into the Settings menu, you’ll find a ton of options for power users, including a Immobilizer And Application kill switch. The latter prevents any application from connecting to the Internet if an active VPN connection drops, while the former does so for the entire PC.

There are also options for Split Tunneling And Automatic connection. Split Tunneling lets you choose which apps you specifically want to run through a VPN connection and which you don’t. This is very useful if you want to surf the web while protected by a VPN, but also play games without the potential additional latency associated with an active VPN connection.

Auto-connect is a great feature that comes standard with most VPN services. However, what sets NordVPN’s auto-connect feature apart is the ability to customize the connection itself. You can, for example, automatically connect to a double VPN or a specific country. You can also choose to connect when the application starts or only on “unsecured networks”.

Sam Singleton

By returning to the main menu, you can discover the other features included in the NordVPN subscription. Under the Threat Protection In the menu, you’ll have options to enable Nord’s CyberSec, which offers real-time protection against malware and trackers, as well as ad blocking and file download protection.

NordVPN also recently updated its services to offer Meshnet. Powered through NordLynx (the NordVPN version of the WireGuard VPN protocol), Meshnet lets you connect to another device instead of a VPN server, routing online traffic through another machine. Device pairings must be authorized by all parties, and once connected, traffic between devices is always encrypted. This is a truly unique feature that allows users to collaborate with remote file sharing, or resurrect old-fashioned LAN parties, or even gives users the ability to connect to the Internet through a computer. staff from a different location.

NordVPN: Performance

NordVPN

During our tests, we evaluated connection speeds on NordVPN’s servers in five different countries around the world, then compared them to our baseline internet speed. NordVPN’s server speeds were met with flying colors. We noted an impressive average of 73% base download speed and an even more impressive 80% base download speed. This easily makes it the VPN with the fastest average connections we’ve ever tested.

With these speeds, users will have no problem being able to stream HD video or play games on almost any NordVPN server, depending of course on their own home internet speed. Please note, however, that this is a one-time experience on a limited number of machines and your own experience may vary.

NordVPN also advertises that it works with Netflix, and in testing we found this to be true for every server we tried. However, even with the best VPNs, it’s not uncommon to experience streaming service issues. Indeed, there’s a continual cat-and-mouse game between Netflix’s anti-VPN app and VPN service providers trying to circumvent blocks.

NordVPN: Security and Privacy

During our review, we found that NordVPN goes to great lengths to respect user privacy. Even when registering, it only requires an email address. Payment for the service can be made by credit card, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, or various cryptocurrencies, thus maintaining another level of anonymity.

Since the company is based in Panama, it is not subject to mandatory data retention laws or other internet surveillance rules. Additionally, NordVPN claims to have a “strict no-logs policy”, which means it does not store timestamps, browsing data, bandwidth used, traffic logs, IP addresses, or any other information. personally identifiable about users. This no-logs policy has been confirmed three times by independent auditors, once in 2018, again in 2020 and last in January 2023.

NordVPN uses standard AES encryption with 256-bit keys. A few years ago, it also jumped on the bandwagon of diskless production servers for added security. Diskless servers do not store any information on them. They are controlled and started from a remote server and therefore everything runs on RAM. This process makes it extremely difficult to extract user data from these servers.

Sam Singleton

The service offers three internet protocols: IKEv2/IPsec, OpenVPN, and NordLynx (the proprietary WireGuard VPN version of NordVPN). NordVPN recommends NordLynx as the go-to protocol due to its potential for improved speeds and security.

There has been a lot of effort to get users to trust NordVPN since it was hacked in 2018, and we are happy to see all the great progress it has made. Independent log-free audits, diskless servers, and increased transparency of its overall business structure have all been hugely positive in helping to promote privacy and rebuild trust among its user base.

Should you use NordVPN?

NordVPN continues to be a fantastic service that just keeps getting better with every new feature added. Admittedly, the price is high for a VPN. But with such a rich feature set, NordVPN users will undoubtedly get their money’s worth.

For all its value, there are other competitors with some individual features that are better than NordVPN’s. Bubble VPN does more to maximize anonymity, while services such as Surfshark VPN And IPVanish offer unlimited simultaneous device connections.

In an ultra-competitive market, what ultimately differentiates NordVPN from its competitors is its constant growth and optimization. It continuously improves its security features and integrates new technologies such as Meshnet and NordLynx. If you add this perpetual improvement to a service that already has solid speeds, admirable security features, and works with Netflix, then NordVPN deserves its place among the top picks.

Editor’s Note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and improving performance over time, this notice is subject to change to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to the text or our final verdict will be noted at the top of this article.