NordVPN Review 2023 - Fast & feature-packed, but is it secure?

NordVPN first launched in 2012 and is well-known by consumers worldwide. The good news for privacy advocates is that it is also one of the most secure VPNs on the market.

---

Bleeping Computer Rating: 9.6

---

What impressed us:

• Secure apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and Firestick. NordVPN packs its apps with useful features that you don't get with many competitors
• Based in Panama. This is a country that lacks mandatory data retention directives or overreaching surveillance agencies
• Keeps minimal logs. NordVPN only keeps basic customer information, such as your email address, device info, payment info, and customer service interactions. It never logs your IP address, the servers you use, or what you do while connected
• Diskless infrastructure so any data is wiped on power down
• Fully audited infrastructure and apps by respected third-party
• Shared IPs in 59+ countries. NordVPN's entire network consists of shared IPs to help protect your privacy by mixing your web habits with those of many other users each session
• Excellent customer service. You can get help at any time of day thanks to its email and live chat support
• Connection speeds are impressive. Fast speeds make it very good for gaming

What it could improve:

• Servers take quite a long time to connect. Once NordVPN's servers connect, they are stable and fast. However, they do take around 20 seconds to connect initially, which is quite slow
• Not all NordVPN servers work with popular torrent clients like qBittorrent, uTorrent, BitTorrent, and Deluge. Finding a reliable server for torrenting can require experimentation
• No port forwarding feature

---

Editor's opinion

When it comes to getting a fully functional VPN at a good price, it is almost impossible to beat NordVPN. Its base in Panama is excellent for privacy, and the service never tracks your VPN usage.

NordVPN is consistently excellent for streaming, playing games, and making VoIP calls, thanks to its fast servers. I enjoyed using the service and found it extremely versatile thanks to its advanced features like split tunneling, obfuscated servers, and Double VPN.

It even includes ad blocking, tracker blocking, and malware protection to keep you safe as you browse, which made us feel extra secure and helped us to save on mobile data! 

---

NordVPN – Overview

Finding the perfect VPN can be subjective. Everybody uses the internet differently and has different requirements. NordVPN has removed this subjectivity by concentrating its efforts on perfecting every aspect of its service. The result is a VPN that is ideal for almost everybody's needs.

Being based in the jurisdiction of Panama puts it well out of reach of invasive surveillance treaties like FIVE EYES. It also means that NordVPN never has to comply with mandatory data retention directives. This pairs excellently with its no-logging policy, which ensures that NordVPN has no records that could connect you to your browsing habits.

Servers in 59+ countries allow you to get an IP address on every continent, and this VPN consistently works to access popular regional services. It is also fast, which makes it perfect for downloading torrents and playing online games.

NordVPN is one of the most fully-featured and highest-quality VPNs we have ever used. Admittedly, not everybody will need its most advanced features, and competitors are available that provide a similar feature set for a slightly lower cost. 

---

NordVPN – Highlights

• Works with Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and HBO Max
• AES-256 encryption
• RAM-only servers
• Fully audited
• Types of IP: Shared IPs, Static IPs, and Dedicated IPs
• Average global download speeds of 196 Mbps
• Starts at just $3.49 per month. Students can get 15% off the two-year plan
• Has a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee to test its service

---

NordVPN Review

Below, you can see the results of our in-depth VPN review. We used the VPN for two weeks on three different devices and checked each feature to ensure it all works properly. Below you can see the results of our findings across seven important categories: Features, Pricing, Streaming, Speeds, Privacy, Security, and Customer Service.

Features

NordVPN is one of the most versatile VPNs available on the market. This is primarily because of its multifaceted feature set. Below, we will walk you through each of these features and explain why NordVPN is so useful.

Global server network

NordVPN has more than 5,200 servers in 59+ countries. That is a number that has been increasing steadily over the last few years, with additional servers being added in each country fairly regularly. This means that by the time you read this review, the VPN will probably have additional servers to help prevent congestion and provide even more IP addresses for its users.

NordVPN has servers in five major global regions: North America, Latin America, the Middle East & Africa, Europe, and Asia Pacific. This allows subscribers to get an IP address on any continent to bypass local censorship or access regional services.

Nowadays, VPN users demand access servers on both the West and East coast of the United States. This allows users to bypass state-level blocks to watch blackout NHL, NFL, or MLB games or to access regional bookies, online casinos, or TV networks. To cater to this need, NordVPN has servers in 15+ US cities. 

As always, we recommend connecting to a VPN server that is physically closer to get the best speeds. If you are in the EU and need a US IP address, try connecting to Nord's New York server. If you are in Japan, try a server in San Francisco or Seattle. 

To make things even easier, NordVPN lets you pick from VPN servers on a map. This lets you find servers in nearby countries, no matter where you are (and teaches you some geography along the way). 

All things considered, we found NordVPN's server network to be very impressive. However, there are a couple of VPNs with servers in even more countries, like Surfshark (with servers in 100+ countries) and ExpressVPN (with servers in 94+ countries).

---

Kill switch

A kill switch is one of the most important features a VPN can have. It prevents you from accidentally exposing your web browsing habits and online activities to your local network, ISP, or government agencies. It also cuts your internet to stop you from revealing your real IP address to the websites and services you use or the peers you connect to directly.

We tested NordVPN's kill switch on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. The kill switch for Windows is system-wide, and when we crashed the VPN, it worked to cut our PC's access to the internet completely. You can also set the VPN to cut the internet for specific apps if you prefer. 

On macOS, things get a little confusing. The Mac app available on NordVPN's website only provides a per-app kill switch. The Mac app you get on the App Store has a system-wide kill switch. You should download the version with the kill switch you prefer (we recommend the App Store version with the system-wide kill switch). 

We have no idea why NordVPN is currently making two different versions of its application for macOS. We asked the customer support team whether it was a mistake, but they told us that it was a decision made by the developers (it's been like this for several years now).

On Android and iOS, NordVPN provides a full system-wide kill switch that will cut the internet for every application on your smartphone or tablet without needing to stop any app processes or shut down any apps. The iOS version will also attempt to reconnect the VPN to re-establish the tunnel to the VPN server as quickly as possible. 

As you can see (despite the confusion surrounding NordVPN for macOS), you can actually get a full, system-wide kill switch on every platform. This is fantastic news and means that you can employ the VPN for critical uses in any country.

---

Bandwidth allowance and data use

Whether you pick a monthly, yearly, or two-year account, you can use NordVPN on an unlimited basis. The VPN has no download limits, which means you can leave the VPN on at all times. 

During our tests, the VPN never throttled our bandwidth, which means that it always remained super-fast no matter which server we connected to. This allowed us to watch videos in HD on all our streaming accounts, including on Netflix US.

Unlimited data and bandwidth also made this VPN ideal for torrenting. It surprised us with just how quickly our downloads finished even while connected to the VPN for added privacy and security.

---

Split tunneling

In its native state, NordVPN will route all of your internet traffic through an encrypted VPN tunnel. Most of the time, this is going to be the safest way to use the VPN. 

There may be times, however, when you want to use the VPN with some applications while also requiring the use of your home IP address or native speeds on others (to use internet banking or local TV streaming services, for example). On these occasions, you will be happy to find NordVPN has a split tunneling feature. 

During our tests, we found the split tunneling feature to be extremely useful when we wanted to torrent with the VPN, while also browsing the web using our home IP address. This allowed us to torrent privately while simultaneously watching local broadcasts of the World Cup!

Best of all, we found the split tunneling feature to be one of the easiest we have ever encountered. We could easily select which apps we wanted to include or exclude from the VPN tunnel, giving us complete control over how our device was connecting to the VPN.

---

Double VPN

Double VPN is NordVPN’s version of MultiHop. This is a feature that allows you to bounce your data through more than one VPN server in a process called "VPN chaining".

Double VPN is useful if you are particularly worried about your online privacy. It routes your traffic through two of Nord's servers, encrypting it twice in the process to give you additional security, as the second VPN server isn't aware of your native IP address. 

This is useful if you are in a restrictive country that blocks access to important news or educational resources and you want to bypass those restrictions as safely as possible.

---

Obfuscated servers

Obfuscation is a useful VPN feature that helps to increase your privacy and online freedom. It works by concealing your VPN use from your ISP by causing your VPN traffic to appear to be regular HTTPS traffic bound for a website.

The benefit of connecting to an obfuscated server is that you can bypass firewalls set up to prevent you from using the VPN. This lets you use the VPN in countries like Iran and China, where VPN traffic is blocked on behalf of the government and can help with bypassing local censorship to access restricted websites or services such as VoIP.

---

Simultaneous connections

You can use NordVPN on up to six devices at the same time. We used it on an Android tablet, an iPad, an Android smartphone, a Windows laptop, and our test server – all at the same time. This should make NordVPN versatile enough for most power users and families. 

It is also worth noting that NordVPN is compatible with various routers (DD-WRT, Tomato, AsusWRT, Netgear, TP-Link, pfSense, Sabai, and others). This means you can protect every device in your home while only using one of your six connections. 

Alternatively, you can set up any Mac or Windows computer as a virtual VPN-protected WiFi hotspot. This will allow you to share a single connection with multiple devices, which again saves on connections allowing you to use the VPN on even more devices simultaneously.

---

Additional features

NordVPN also provides a variety of useful features in its settings menu. You can opt to Auto-connect the VPN whenever you access a new WiFi, mobile, or ethernet network.

For additional ease of use, you can set the auto-connect to work in conjunction with the Trusted Wi-Fi network feature. This lets you choose specific networks where you don't want the auto-connect feature to kick in. 

During testing, we set our home network to "trusted" and connected to the VPN manually. However, we ticked all the boxes on auto-connect to ensure the VPN would protect us whenever we joined a new network. This is the best option, as it will protect you against evil twin attacks and unprotected networks.

The Use custom DNS feature lets you set a specific DNS resolution service like OpenDNS, Google DNS, DNS Watch, or OpenNIC. If you do not have a specific preference, we would generally recommend letting NordVPN proxy your DNS requests to its own servers. 

The Stay invisible on LAN feature hides your device from all other devices on the network. This gives you an additional layer of security if you're using the internet in shared accommodation, school dorms, or a hotel, for example. Just remember to turn it off if you are wondering why you can't connect to your printer!

You can also set the VPN to allow remote access. This is useful if you want to connect to your computer using applications like TeamViewer, AnyDesk, or Microsoft RDP while also leaving your machine connected to the VPN. Plus, this VPN has a unique Meshnet feature that lets you create a private connection between multiple VPN clients for secure remote file access or long-distance LAN parties.

Finally, you can set the VPN to launch automatically when you start up your computer.

---

Subscriptions & Pricing 

Cost is always an important consideration when picking a VPN. Unfortunately, it is getting harder to use price as an indicator of a VPN's quality. Paying more for a VPN doesn't necessarily get you a better service.

The opposite is also true because we are increasingly seeing high-quality VPNs that offer a reliable, secure service at a reasonable cost. So, how does NordVPN fit into the picture?

NordVPN has three unique plans to pick from; Standard, Plus, and Complete. The Standard plan is for VPN use alone. The other two plans bolt on additional Nord Security services, including NordPass (password manager) and NordLocker (secure cloud storage). 

Whether you want these extras is up to you. In this VPN review, we will concentrate on NordVPN Standard (which gives you full access to the VPN and all of its features). However, we have included all the prices in the table below so that you can compare them.

Subscription Plan	Standard	Plus	Complete
Monthly	$11.99	$12.99	$14.49
Annual	$4.99 per month	$5.99 per month	$7.49 per month
Two-year	$3.49 per month	$4.49 per month	$5.99 per month

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the two-year plan provides an impressive 57% discount on the Standard plan. This means that the VPN will cost you just $83.76 for two years. In fact, as you can see below, this plan currently comes with an extra three months for free. So you will actually be able to use the VPN for 27 months.

A subscription cost of $3.49 per month is hard to beat, considering the quality of service that NordVPN provides.

On the other hand, the single-month subscription cost of $11.99 is a touch more expensive when compared to some leading competitors. If you only need a VPN for a short time, perhaps to go on vacation, note that there are cheaper options (although you can always take advantage of the money-back guarantee).

As with most decent VPNs nowadays, we enjoy NordVPN's 30-day money-back guarantee. As a result, you can try the VPN for streaming or to check how it performs on your own devices without worrying about risking your hard-earned cash. 

Payment options

You can pay for NordVPN via credit or debit card. It also accepts PayPal for added convenience. In addition, NordVPN accepts Bitcoin via BitPay.

You can pay for any subscription period using any of the payment methods listed above, and you will still be eligible for the 30-day money-back guarantee.

---

Speed tests

We tested NordVPN using a purposely set up test server with a 5 Gigabit internet connection. This allows us to see exactly how fast the VPN's servers are, which gives you an idea of its potential. We tested using the desktop version of Speedtest by Ookla. 

We acknowledge that your home internet will have slower speeds than our speed test server. That is why we also tested the VPN on a home connection to describe the average drop in speed that we experienced (displayed as a percentage).

We tested NordVPN servers in New York, London, and Hong Kong to get averages. We tested using the NordLynxy protocol, which is the fastest one available.

Below, you can see screenshots of the fastest result from each location. We tested each location using our test server three times at three-hour intervals to get the averages in the table. As you can see, the VPN's average download speed across all tests was 196 Mbps. 

Location	Test 1	Test 2	Test 3	Average
UK (London)	169 Mbps	179 Mbps	175 Mbps	174 Mbps
US (New York)	266 Mbps	262 Mbps	275 Mbps	267 Mbps
Hong Kong	120 Mbps	150 Mbps	172 Mbps	147 Mbps
Global				196 Mbps

To give you real-world information about how you can expect NordVPN to work on a home broadband setup, we also tested the VPN on an Asus Zenbook 14 laptop. My download speed without the VPN was 46 Mbps on the day of testing (Virgin Media broadband in the UK). 

Below, you can see the results of tests connected to the UK, US, and Hong Kong NordVPN servers:

• UK server #2256. Download speed of 33 Mbps. This is a 29% drop.
• US server #8401. Download speed of 38 Mbps. This is an 18% drop.
• Hong Kong #307. Download speed of 29 Mbps. This is a 37% drop.

As you can see, the VPN performed extremely well when connected to the US server. The UK server, which was physically closer to me, was not quite as good. However, it still provides speeds that are fast enough for streaming in HD and playing games.

The biggest drop was on the Hong Kong server. This is to be expected because it is on the other side of the world. The speeds we encountered while using the VPN were extremely impressive, all things considered. 

We used the VPN via a virtual WiFi hotspot we set up on Zenbook and connected a Meta Quest 2 headset to play the Battle Royale game Population One. We found it to work perfectly and did not perceive any difference when playing. 

We also tested it for streaming a few full shows and movies on BBC iPlayer and Netflix and found it to stream in full quality with no drawbacks.

---

Streaming

We tested NordVPN with a wide variety of popular streaming platforms and found it to be extremely capable. 

We successfully used it to access Netflix US and Netflix UK. Nord's agent also told us that it works to watch Netflix Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Finland, Poland, Austria, Lithuania, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore. This makes it one of the best VPNs for watching Netflix if you are traveling abroad and want to access your local content.

We connected to servers in Britain and could watch the UK's BBC iPlayer, Channel 4, and ITV Hub without issues. It also worked to access Sky Go and BT Sport. This makes it a great all-rounder for watching British TV services.

Next, we tested it with American services. It worked to access Prime Video, Peacock, HBO Max, ESPN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Hulu. Needless to say, this makes it one of the most consistent VPNs for streaming available on the market.

Security

In this section, we looked under NordVPN's hood to see exactly which VPN protocols are available and how encryption is being implemented on the platform. We also tested it for IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks to be sure that the VPN tunnel is free of any crippling problems that would make it unsafe to use for privacy purposes.

Protocols and encryption

Whereas many VPNs provide a bunch of confusing protocols, NordVPN keeps things simple.

Users get to pick from OpenVPN TCP, OpenVPN UDP, or its proprietary NordLynx protocol (which is a custom fork of WireGuard). 

These are secure VPN protocols that give you watertight online privacy whether you connect to a desktop computer, mobile device, or VPN-compatible router.

For the tech heads among you, we have provided information about how NordVPN implements the encryption in its OpenVPN protocol below:

• 256-bit AES channel encryption
• SHA384 authentication
• DHE-4096 key exchange provides Perfect Forward Secrecy

The only notable difference is on iOS, where the VPN provides IKEv2 instead. Nord implements that protocol using an AES-256-GCM cipher, HMAC SHA2-384 for data authentication, and DHE-3072 key exchange for Perfect Forward Secrecy. This is secure.

The macOS NordVPN app in the Apple App Store also provides IKEv2 (besides OpenVPN UDP, OpenVPN TCP, and NordLynx). If‌ you side-load the macOS app directly from Nord's website, it differs slightly from the one in the App Store. This version does not provide IKEv2. Instead, you can connect using OpenVPN or NordLynx. These protocols are all implemented securely, as described above.

It is worth noting, at this stage in the review, that NordVPN suffered one controversy in 2019 when news emerged that the VPN had misconfigured a third-party server a year before. The vulnerable server was attacked by an unknown hacker in March 2018. Following this, NordVPN rectified the issue.

One thing worth bearing in mind is that the misconfiguration only affected a single server in Finland (out of the many thousands of servers that Nord has). According to Nord, the attacker was not able to steal user credentials and could not determine what individuals were doing online while connected to the server. Instead, the misconfiguration allowed the hacker to monitor all traffic passing through the server. 

At the time, NordVPN was quick to point out that the secure HTTPS traffic, encrypted email, and any other encrypted data would have remained private. It has since moved to RAM-only infrastructure and undergone several third-party audits.

Leak tests

We tested the VPN using browserleaks.com because it is the most consistent and reliable leak test tool we have found. We tested the VPN in an incognito window to prevent any previous cache from affecting the results. 

As you can see below, the VPN did not leak our real IP address. It was also free of WebRTC leaks.

The test also came back with just a single result for DNS, which was at the same IP address as NordVPN's server. This demonstrates that the VPN proxies DNS requests to its own servers to resolve them privately. 

The results above give NordVPN a full clean bill of health. We experienced no leaks of any kind, which means that NordVPN provides watertight data privacy. As a result, your ISP cannot detect anything you do while connected.

---

Additional security features

To help keep you even safer, NordVPN has a few additional security features that impressed us. You can add multi-factor authentication to your account to prevent anybody from being able to access your account with the password alone.

The VPN also throws in a dark web monitor, which scans the dark web for your email address and will alert you if it's compromised so that you can update the passwords associated with the account.

You also get a Threat Protection feature that blocks malicious websites, prevents web tracking, blocks adverts, and protects your device against malware by filtering it out before it gets to your device. 

To use the feature, all we had to do was push the toggle to the right, and we were instantly able to browse the web without being tracked. 

We visited websites we know to contain a lot of ads and pop-ups and were happy to see that they were gone! However, we also noticed one limitation of NordVPN's ad block: it doesn't work with embedded adverts. So, if you are hoping to remove annoying ads on YouTube, it will not work. 

Despite this, it is an excellent feature that not only made our browsing experience better by allowing pages to load faster (and without annoying ads) but also saved data when using our mobile plan.

---

Privacy

Jurisdiction 

Where a VPN is based has a palpable effect on the kinds of logs the VPN keeps and what government legislation and warrants the VPN provider may have to comply with. 

NordVPN has servers located all over the world, and it is technically possible that local authorities could raid its servers in a specific country. Thanks to its no logging policy and diskless servers, however, there would be no historical data to confiscate.

The good news is that because NordVPN has its headquarters in Panama, the VPN is well out of reach of the US, the UK, the EU, and other countries that are part of the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes surveillance agreements. 

Privacy policy

We checked NordVPN's privacy policy to get an idea of exactly how it treats user data. The good news is that it never keeps persistent records of the servers you connect to, and it never records your home IP address next to any connection logs. This means that there is no way for anybody to figure out which VPN server you used or what you did online while connected.

That said, the policy admits to collecting some information from its users. We have listed these below:

• Device identifiers. NordVPN collects information about the device you use, including the advertising ID. It uses this information to understand people's use of its service for analytical purposes and for marketing its own products to its users.
• Timestamp of the last session. NordVPN records the time of your connection with your name. It does this to understand how much you are using the service and to track the number of simultaneous connections you are using (this lets it limit you to six concurrent sessions). NordVPN also keeps a record of whether you used the VPN in the last 30 days.
• Username and email. This is never stored next to your home IP address or details of the servers you used.
• App telemetry. This allows the VPN to understand how you are using the VPN and helps it to identify issues to keep the service running smoothly. You can opt out of providing this data to gain additional privacy.

While we would prefer NordVPN to keep no logs whatsoever, we understand that there are legitimate business interests in keeping the VPN running smoothly for its users. That said, we firmly believe it could still do this without collecting device-level identifiers. This leaves some room for improvement.

With that criticism made, we would like to point out that NordVPN has undergone a full audit of its policies and infrastructure on two separate occasions. PWC Switzerland audited the VPN thoroughly, and the company verified the validity of its no-logs policy. This means that NordVPN is providing you with watertight online privacy, as advertised.

---

Customer support

For customer support, NordVPN impressed us. The VPN offers various options for contacting its help desk, including email support and 24/7 live chat. Plus, the website has a detailed knowledge base packed with FAQs, privacy blogs, setup guides, and even video guides.

During our time mystery shopping NordVPN's live chat support agents, we put them through what is best described as a grueling interrogation. We asked multiple questions about various important VPN features and security implementations. On one occasion, we asked for additional information for around ten minutes. 

The good news is that we found the agents to be extremely polite and patient. The agents always took the time to check the answers to complicated requests and could double down with additional information (or links to guides, FAQs, and other useful resources) when pressed.

It is also worth noting that I had no trouble communicating with NordVPN's live chat agents at different times of day and found them to always respond to the live chat window in under two minutes (and usually just a few seconds).

---

Is NordVPN easy to use?

Yes. Despite being feature-packed, we found NordVPN to be very easy to use. The applications are extremely well-designed. They look good and were uniform across each of the different devices we tested. As a result, we did not have any issues using the VPN cross-platform.

The settings menu is easy to navigate and has been divided into clearly labeled subsections. This allows you quickly to access the feature you need, whether you want to change the protocol, use the kill switch, or enable split tunneling. 

A quick connect button allows you to get the fastest connection available without needing to think. And the VPN stores the last five servers you used under the quick connect button so that you can use them again. 

It lists servers alphabetically to let you find the one you need, and if you are better at spotting a server location on a map, you can use this option instead. All things considered, we think this VPN is easy enough for any beginner to use, so it gets a big thumbs up from us.

---

Our verdict

NordVPN is fast, and it has apps for all devices, including support for routers. It works to access a wide cross-section of international streaming platforms, and it has servers in 59+ countries to let you easily bypass online censorship and regional restrictions. The VPN represents fantastic value for money and was great for torrenting and video-conferencing during our time testing it. 

A no-logs policy ensures that NordVPN never monitors or keeps records of what you do while connected, and the VPN implements its security without caveats. We discovered no leaks and found the VPN to be great for gaining privacy, whether at home, at work, or on public WiFi. This makes it an ideal VPN for using the VPN without restrictions or fear of surveillance anywhere in the world.

The biggest drawback? NordVPN can take more than a few seconds to connect. This is most noticeable when you try to connect to a server on the other side of the world. We experienced initial hook-up times of 20 seconds on average and even experienced a timeout on some servers, meaning that we had to try again. Once connected, the VPN works like a charm.