NordVPN Review A Strong Contender With Innovative Tools Building a reliable VPN is a difficult task a fact made obvious by the sheer number of low quality options on the market. While NordVPN may not be perfect it is easily among the top five services available today and excels in specific areas. First the drawbacks. NordVPNs applications across different platforms could benefit from more consistent design and quality control. The user interface can sometimes feel cluttered with elements competing for attention. We also encountered a contradictory FAQ page. During testing while all servers successfully accessed Netflix the server in Nigeria displayed US content instead of local titles suggesting a possible location leak in that specific instance. However these issues are balanced by significant strengths. NordVPN delivers fantastic connection speeds with no evidence of DNS WebRTC or IPv6 leaks across our security tests. Its server network is expansive covering 153 locations in 117 countries and is not overly reliant on virtual servers. Most servers are effective at accessing geo restricted websites. The real standout is NordVPNs suite of additional features. Meshnet is particularly innovative allowing you to create encrypted tunnels directly between your own devices or those of friends enabling secure file sharing and remote access. The Threat Protection feature goes beyond basic ad blocking with its Pro version offering antivirus like file scanning. Other features include specialty servers for double encryption or Tor access a kill switch dark web monitoring and forward looking post quantum encryption. Performance is a key strength. In our speed tests NordVPN showed an average download speed loss of only 6.4 percent which is among the best we have seen. Upload speeds remained strong and latency was reasonable especially on nearby servers. On privacy NordVPN maintains a verified no logs policy for user activity which has been confirmed by several independent audits including one from Deloitte. It is important to note that the apps do collect some anonymized device data by default for analytics but this can be disabled in the settings. The company is headquartered in Panama which places it outside intrusive surveillance alliances. Pricing is straightforward. The best value is the two year Basic plan which costs 81.36 upfront or 3.39 per month. This includes the full VPN and all its core features like Meshnet. Higher tier plans bundle in other Nord Security products like the NordPass password manager and NordLocker cloud storage. Be aware that multi year plans will auto renew at a higher standard rate unless you manually resubscribe with a new promotion. Customer support is accessible via live chat and email. Our experience with live chat was positive connecting to a knowledgeable agent in under a minute. The written FAQ library is extensive though occasionally poorly organized. In summary NordVPN is a powerful and fast VPN service. Its minor interface quirks and the odd server hiccup are outweighed by its top tier performance robust security and truly unique features like Meshnet. It may not be the absolute best in every single category but it is a compelling and highly capable choice for most users.
