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If you’re looking into getting a VPN, you’ll almost certainly have come across NordVPN. One of the most reputable names on the market, NordVPN has long had a reputation for delivering strong security and fast speeds for an affordable price.
But more than that. NordVPN stands out from the crowd with its additional offering of specialty servers and its impressive fleet of 5,710 servers in 60 countries. This makes it an ideal choice if you want to stream region-restricted TV shows.
On top of this, it also provides users with 24/7 customer support, six simultaneous connections, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. For all this, plans start from a very reasonable $2.99 a month. right now as a part of an ongoing Black Friday promotion that saves you a massive 63%.
But, while NordVPN looks good on paper, is it the right choice for you? We’ve put this VPN through its paces by testing everything from its download and upload speeds, to its installation and setup process and its security features in our in-depth NordVPN review to see if we can class it one of the best VPN services. Let’s get started.
Installation and setup
Getting up and running with NordVPN is fast and efficient. Once you’ve signed up for a subscription, you’ll be given the option to download the app. On the desktop, it downloaded and installed in under a minute. Handily, it also gives you a QR code for the mobile app, so you can set it up on your phone without having to search through your app store.
It took a few seconds to download on my mobile. Then, all you need to do is log into your NordVPN account, and you’re all set.
As soon as you launch the app on any device or platform, you’re immediately greeted with NordVPN’s impressive array of server locations. Once you select the location you want to connect to, it gets you set up in seconds. It makes it easy to switch between servers, and you’ll find additional security settings available in the sidebar.
Features
NordVPN has all the features you’d expect from a VPN, plus a few extras. First off, it has industry-standard AES-256 encryption to keep your data completely private. And it has a customizable kill switch, along with sophisticated DNS leak protection to ensure your data remains hidden at all times. It also offers support for split tunneling, so you can choose which apps you want to be routed through your VPN server and which ones you don’t.
But NordVPN goes beyond the features you’d generally find at this price point by giving users a range of specialty servers. These include obfuscated servers, a P2P server for torrenting, and its very own unique double-VPN servers that route your traffic through two VPN servers to give you an additional layer of protection.
And speaking of features unique to NordVPN, it has its very own NordLynx protocol, which delivers fast and reliable speeds that allow for buffer-free streaming and gaming.
Perhaps even more impressively, though, NordVPN’s Meshnet essentially lets you route your traffic through another one of your devices. This means activating Meshnet can allow you to route traffic to and from other NordVPN users if you invite them.
Server locations
When it comes to both quality and quantity, NordVPN has one of the strongest server fleets around. It boasts a robust collection of 5,700 servers across 60 countries, including 1,970+ in the US and over 2,100 in Europe. This means that it’s a great choice if you want to unblock region-restricted content, such as the latest Hollywood blockbusters, must-watch TV shows, or national sports tournaments.
It also has a reasonable supply of servers in Asia. But its offering in Africa is slightly lacking. So if you want a VPN to unblock content that is restricted to an African nation, this may not be the best solution for you.
Like many VPN providers, NordVPN shut down its servers in India In June 2022 after a new law was established that would force VPN services to collect data and hand data over to India’s governing bodies if requested. While this is a reassuring standpoint as far as security goes, NordVPN won’t be the best choice for you if you want to access Indian services, such as Disney+ Hotstar, SonyLIV, or ALT Balaji.
The servers themselves run on RAM, meaning all your data will be wiped with every reboot, thereby making it even more secure. And in practice, connecting to servers is quick and painless. Each one we tested performed well and could unblock the content we wanted without any issues.
Performance and speed
If you want a VPN that won’t slow you down or negatively impact your performance, you can’t go far wrong with NordVPN. It uses its own NordLynx protocol to deliver fast and reliable speeds, so you can stream and game without having to deal with buffering.
I ran a speed test during peak time (about 8 pm) and found that there wasn’t much of a change in speed when I was connected to a NordVPN server. Before connecting to a server, my download speed came in at 273 Mbps. And when I connected to a server in another country, my download speed dropped slightly to 259 Mbps. On a slower connection that usually runs at around 37 Mbps, our testing saw only a 1.5 Mbps drop. It made a similarly negligible difference to my upload speeds of just 5.3 Mbps.
This slight dip made absolutely no difference to the performance. In fact, I forgot to disconnect the server and continued to work from home and take part in video calls the following day without noticing any lag.
I also performed an extended DNS leak test, which NordVPN passed with flying colors. It didn’t leak any true information and instead showed information about the IP address provided by NordVPN.
In practice, this meant I could unblock region-restricted content on sites that are set up to identify and block VPN traffic, such as Netflix. And I could also stream shows completely buffer-free.
Pricing and plans
When it comes to pricing, this is an ideal time to buy as you’re getting the lowest prices of the year across all tiers thanks to Nord’s Black Friday promotion which is running until November 29.
NordVPN’s prices right now start from just $2.99 a month. It has a simple pricing structure of three plans: Standard, Plus, and Complete. Naturally, the price you pay will vary depending on whether you sign up for a one-year or two-year subscription or a one-month rolling contract. All one and two-year plans come with three extra months free.
The cheapest plan is the Standard subscription, which starts at $2.99 for a two-year subscription. If you don’t want to commit for that long, you can pay $4.49 a month for a one-year plan, or $12.99 a month for a one-month plan. For this, you’ll get access to pretty much all of NordVPN’s best features, including its 5,710 international servers, impressive security features, and six simultaneous connections.
If you want a more secure offering, NordVPN’s Plus plan also includes a data breach scanner and a cross-platform password manager. The Plus plan starts from $3.99 a month for a two-year subscription, going up to $5.49 a month for a one-year plan, and $13.99 for a one-month plan.
And finally, if you’d also like some secure storage for your files and photos, the Complete plan comes with 1TB of encrypted cloud storage. Plans start from $4.99 a month for a two-year subscription, $6.49 a month for a one-year plan, or $14.99 for a one-month plan.
All plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it out before committing. And it also has a free seven-day trial available (but only for Android users downloading the app from the Play store), allowing you to get to grips with its features and usability without paying a cent. Better still, you can pay for NordVPN using Bitcoin, as well as PayPal or a credit card.
Privacy and security
NordVPN is one of the most secure VPNs on the market. First off, it uses military-grade AES-256 encryption that will prevent anyone from being able to see your data. It also has a customizable kill switch, DNS leak protection, OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPsec, and NordLynx tunneling protocols.
So far, so familiar. But NordVPN stands out against its competitors because of its additional security features, such as its dark web monitor, ad blocker, and threat protection, which guards you against malicious websites, trackers, and dangerous files.
It also uses the SHA-512 hash function, which scrambles your credentials into 512 binary digits, making it impossible for anyone to decipher your data in the highly unlikely event they could access it.
NordVPN is based in Panama, a privacy-friendly country, as it’s not a member of the Five Eyes Alliance and doesn’t have any data retention laws. If any government wanted to access your usage logs, they would have to go through a Panamanian court. And even then, NordVPN operates a strict zero-logs policy, meaning that it doesn’t store any data from its users.
PwC has independently audited this no-logs policy in 2018 and 2020, and both times, it was found that NordVPN wasn’t storing any customer data.
In the interests of fairness, it’s worth noting that NordVPN did suffer a breach of one of its rented servers in October 2019. But crucially, no information was stolen, corroborating the claim that NordVPN doesn’t keep any logs of its users’ activities. And since the breach, NordVPN has undergone several security audits and is investing heavily in its server security.
All in all, NordVPN is one of the safest VPNs on the market.
Customer support
As you might expect from a premium provider, NordVPN has several customer support options. Firstly, it has a surprisingly helpful support section on its website that’s stuffed with FAQs, guides, and tutorials to help you get the most out of your subscription and to assist with resolving a wide range of issues. There’s also a Chatbot to point you in the right direction if you’re having difficulties finding the answer you need.
If this doesn’t work, NordVPN has a 24/7 live chat and email service that delivers excellent customer support. When testing this out, I only had to wait a couple of minutes for a response on live chat, and the customer support agent I liaised with was helpful and knowledgeable. General problems can often be resolved this way. But for more complex issues, they may reply via email instead, which should still see you getting a detailed response within a couple of hours.
Unfortunately, NordVPN doesn’t have a customer phone line. But its 24/7 live chat and email services are available to all customers, no matter which plan they’re on. Overall, I was pretty impressed with NordVPN’s customer support offering.
Conclusion
NordVPN is one of the safest VPNs on the market. It offers unbreakable security and plenty of strong features to keep your data completely hidden, including a customizable kill switch, strong DNS leak protection, and military-grade encryption. Better still, it’s based in Panama, a privacy-friendly country. And it operates an independently audited no-logs policy. So you can rest assured that your data will never be stored anywhere.
But NordVPN offers an impressive range of high-quality servers beyond its security features. It has 5,700 servers in 60 countries, leaving you with no end of options if you want to access geo-blocked content or if you’re traveling and want to use sites and services from back home.
Better still, NordVPN delivers fast speeds that won’t slow you down at all. And it offers 24/7 customer support to help you resolve any issues you might come up against.
With prices starting from $3.49 a month, NordVPN isn’t the cheapest provider on the market. But it’s definitely not the most expensive, either. And given that you get unbeatable security features, fast speeds, and six simultaneous connections, it represents excellent value for money.
Pros
- Market-leading security
- Impressive speed and performance
- Excellent quality and quantity of servers
Cons
- No freemium version
- There are cheaper options out there
- There’s no router app
4.5/5
NordVPN Plan
NordVPN is one of the top VPN services you can sign up for. And the various pricing plans offer some big discounts to make it an affordable service with a strong selection of servers and security features.
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