Surfshark Dynamic Multihop Surfshark Privacy – Good Have to set up kill switch manually on Windows.That said, it’s an easy to use VPN, so even novice and casual VPN users can benefit from NordVPN. With its feature-set, NordVPN is a powerful VPN for power users – those that need endless customizations and access to a rich catalog of features. You can get good speeds wherever you are thanks to it having over 6,000 servers in 60 countries around the globe. On top of all that, NordVPN’s performance is high-grade.
You don’t get those features from run-of-the-mill VPNs. Threat Protection blocks harmful sites and ads, Meshnet enables secure file-sharing, and Dark Web Monitor checks for personal information leaks on the dark web. It also provides additional safety features to further boost your online security. NordVPN is a good all-around VPN if you want to prioritize privacy and security. Check out our page on NordVPN deals to learn about any on-going deals and upcoming sales. Take a look at NordVPN’s pricing: Features and PriceĪccess to NordVPN and NordPass (password manager)Īccess to NordVPN, NordPass, and NordLocker (secure cloud backup)įYI: NordVPN occasionally includes free months with its one-year and two-year subscriptions. We’d happily pay the $1 per month extra cost to get access to those features. Some of those features are also quite rare, like Double VPN and Onion over VPN (VPN for Tor). It’s a little more expensive than others, but it offers more features as well. However, NordVPN has a good price-to-feature ratio. It costs about a dollar more per month than Surfshark (our #2 pick) if we compare their best prices. OpenVPn was still our top choice for privacy though, because it was more flexible and robust in terms of encryption.
Our average Android download speed was 225 Mbps with NordLynx and 216 Mbps with OpenVPN. NordVPN worked well with OpenVPN and NordLynx, but we found the latter more suitable for mobile devices because it’s lightweight, it adds less overhead data (useful for those in a data plan), and it’s faster. Here’s a quick comparison, and for a more in-depth look, here’s our comparison of the top VPN protocols. NordVPN offers two of the fastest, most reliable, and most secure VPN protocols: OpenVPN and WireGuard in the form of NordLynx. Having done our own tests, though, we can confirm that they work. Those NordVPN security features (encryption and private DNS) work in the background. A private DNS protects you from DNS leaks, a critical security flaw that could reveal your real IP address when using a VPN. We used a DNS checker tool to confirm this. NordVPN offers industry standard 256-bit AES like the rest of the VPNs on this list, but it also gives users access to a private DNS server. > See More: Download Torrent Privately with The Top VPNs NordVPN Security – Excellent Internet speed test results while connected to NordVPN Even distant servers gave us stable speeds, although the exact readings understandably dipped at times (see the screenshot below). Any of the nearby servers we connected to gave us good results. Just like the privacy features, we didn’t have to tinker with NordVPN’s settings to enjoy fast speeds. Thanks to its consistency, we consider NordVPN one of the fastest VPNs we tested. Our speed test readings averaged 225 Mbps and 218 Mbps for downloads and uploads, which was about 90-percent of our 250 Mbps fiber-optic internet network. NordVPN iOS app connected to Australia NordVPN Speed – Very Good That one requires some setup – we had to choose a server pair from a list – but it’s a breeze to use for a feature that greatly boosts your privacy. There were also optional privacy features like the Double VPN (multihop) feature that doubles the encryption of a connection. That happened twice throughout our testing period. It paused our internet connection when NordVPN disconnected unexpectedly. We liked the automatic kill switch feature in particular. Best of all, NordVPN didn’t log our IP addresses and usage data (visited sites, downloaded files, etc.) As soon as we clicked the ‘connect’ button, all the built-in privacy features kicked right in. NordVPN safeguarded our privacy without much setup required. NordVPN’s Mac app NordVPN Privacy – Excellent