The world is getting more digital day-by-day. Everything is online and internet-related, be it work, shopping, banking, and even watching movies and listening to music. The internet, while providing countless opportunities, also presents risks such as data breaches, censorship, and surveillance.
In today’s interconnected world, where privacy and security are increasingly important, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have emerged as a valuable tool for individuals and organizations alike. A VPN offers a solution by establishing a secure and encrypted connection that shields your online activities from prying eyes.
Whether you’re concerned about protecting your personal information, accessing blocked content, or ensuring secure remote access to networks, a VPN provides an essential layer of privacy and security.
There are several VPN Services and Providers in the market offering variety of features at fairly reasonable price. One such VPN Service is NordVPN. It is a popular and large VPN provider. While it supports standard protocols such as OpenVPN and IKEv2/IPSec, NordVPN also has its proprietary protocol in the form of NordLynx. NordVPN also claims a strict no activity log policy.
All these features and many others look good on paper. But how does NordVPN perform in real-life usage? This is the review of NordVPN. We are writing this review after using and testing this VPN service over a period of time. We tested the ease of use, connection speeds, and many other features and functionalities. Continue reading to find out more about our thoughts and impressions of the same.
As my personal rig is a Windows Machine, this review will feature installation steps, any settings, etc. associated with Windows OS. If you are a Mac or Linux user, some settings/steps might be different.
That said, installing the NordVPN on our computer is very simple. Just head to the official NordVPN website and download the appropriate app. Speaking of apps, NordVPN is available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, and iOS.
While Windows and Mac devices get applications that you can install, Linux users get commands. Installing, connecting, changing settings, etc. all must be done through commands.
Additionally, you can install browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. If you want VPN on other devices such as Android TV, Raspberry Pi, Amazon Fire TV Stick, XBOX, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, etc., you can download for them as well.
After installing the app and launching it, you have to link your account to the app. For this, the app will open the default browser and you have to login with your credential. If the login details are correct and you have an active VPN Plan, then the login will be successful and you can immediately start using the VPN Service.
In the next section, we will explore the app a little bit and also test the connection speed before and after using VPN (with different kinds of protocols).
Before performing a speed test, here is a brief look at the UI of the NordVPN App. The main screen shows all the available countries and servers. On the left, we have different menus for connection, threat protection, Meshnet, Dark Web Monitor, Settings, etc. Everything is laid out neatly and even if you don’t have any prior experience with VPN, you can easily navigate through the app.
The primary and major concern of using a VPN service is internet speed. So, the first thing we did after enabling the VPN was perform a speed test. Before looking at the results, here is an overview of our connection details.
Our internet connection has a speed of 300Mbps. We chose a server in Seattle as our main VPN location. Without activating the VPN, we first tried a speed test to our ISP’s server and the download speed was 283.34Mbps and the upload speed as 224.02Mbps.
Here are speed test results after turning the VPN on. The internet speeds vary based on the type of VPN Protocol you use, which in case of NordVPN are of three types (at least in our case). They are NordLynx, OpenVPN (TCP), and OpenVPN (UDP).
First, we left the VPN Protocol to “Auto”, which is the default after installing and activating your VPN service. The download speed was 198.39Mbps and the upload speed was 34.29Mbps.
Next, we manually set the protocol to NordLynx and this time, the speeds were similar to the “Auto” mode. We got 189.95Mbps download and 44.34Mbps upload speeds. This means, the “Auto” was likely using NordLynx protocol in our case.
After this, we set the VPN Protocol to OpenVPN (TCP). The download speed was 244.73Mbps and the upload speed was 74.18Mbps. A significant improvement over the previous mode.
Finally, we also tested the OpenVPN (UDP) protocol. Here, the download speed was 220.78Mbps while the upload speed was 72.57Mbps.
Protocol | Download Speed | Upload Speed |
Without VPN | 283.34Mbps | 224.02Mbps |
Auto | 198.39Mbps | 34.29Mbps |
NordLynx | 189.95Mbps | 34.29Mbps |
OpenVPN (TCP) | 244.73Mbps | 74.18Mbps |
OpenVPN (UDP) | 220.78Mbps | 72.57Mbps |
While we got higher speeds with OpenVPN Protocols (both TCP and UDP), your results might vary depending on your current location and the location of the server you are trying connect to. After the tests, we switched the VPN Protocol to “Auto”.
One of the main reasons why people use VPN services is to security of data from potential cyber-attacks. NordVPN uses 256-bit AES encryption system to transmit data over the internet. This will protect your data as it won’t be readable by data snatchers.
In addition to this, you can hide your IP address for online privacy. There is a special “Threat Protection” feature in NordVPN. This will provide both web protection as well as file protection. In Web Protection, NordVPN can protect you from Malware and Web Trackers. It also removes tracking information from web addresses. There is also an Ad Blocker feature. File Protection scans all your downloads for malware.
NordVPN claims a strict no log policy. While it stores your basic login information, NordVPN doesn’t store the websites you visit or any other online activity. Deloitte audited the no log policy in 2022 and did not find any user activity information.
If you are worried about your personal data ending up in the dark web, NordVPN got you covered. It continuously monitors whether your email ID, passwords, or any contacts has leaked in the dark web and warns you.
One of the very useful features of NordVPN is split tunneling. You can decide what apps need VPN and what apps can use your regular internet connection. For apps that use VPN, the data goes through the NordVPN Servers with encryption while the apps without VPN gets faster speed through local servers.
As mentioned earlier, NordVPN supports multiple VPN tunnelling protocols such as NordLynx (WireGuard), OpenVPN, and IKEv2/IPSec. NordVPN recommends keeping the protocol in “Auto” mode as it decides the best one for you. You can manually set the protocol yourself.
If your connection to a VPN Server drops for any reason, NordVPN can disable the internet access entirely until the connection is restored. This feature is known as the Kill Switch. Additionally, you can shutoff particular applications when you are not connected to VPN.
NordVPN has more than 5700 servers in over 60 countries. While the number of servers is very large, the number of countries you can connect to is less compared to some other popular VPN Services.
If you install the NordVPN extension on your browser, you can get VPN only on your browser. If you install the NordVPN on your computer, you can get VPN for all the applications in your computer. Depending on the plan you choose, you can install the application on a limited number of devices. There is another way to access VPN services for all the devices in the network. It is through installing VPN on a router.
Many modern routers support this feature and we tested it on our ASUS “Merlin” based router. The setup procedure was very simple and it worked as expected.
So, how was our experience with NordVPN? Staring with installation to UI of the app, everything was simple and straightforward with NordVPN. You can Auto-Connect to the fastest server or if you want to connect to a particular location, then you can choose one from over 5700 servers in 60 countries.
In our case, OpenVPN protocol gave us superior internet speeds while some other users claimed NordLynx gave them the fastest connectivity over VPN. Although there is a certain drop in the speeds, it is expected when you use a VPN service.
One main concern with VPN services is DNS leaks. We are happy that our NordVPN connection doesn’t have any DNS leaks.
The Ad Blocker is a very useful feature. You don’t have to install browser plugins to block ads as the NordVPN will block them for you. Security wise, NordVPN uses AES-256 encryption while transferring data. It is one of the strongest encryption systems out there. This is very useful if you want to hide your IP and protect your data at the same time.
If you are worried about trackers and malware while browsing or downloading any files, then NordVPN has got you covered as it blocks trackers, removes tracking-related data from web addresses and constantly scans websites and files for malware.
We really liked the Split Tunnelling feature of NordVPN. Hulu is geo-restricted in our region. So, we set one browser to access Hulu over VPN and it worked great. For another browser, we disabled VPN and accessed YouTube and Netflix.
Another useful feature is Kill Switch, where the NordVPN app disables internet to the entire system if it fails to connect to a VPN Server. NordVPN has a strict no log policy. Apart from login information such as username/email, NordVPN doesn’t store your internet activity. Deloitte audited this in December, 2022 and supported the claims of NordVPN about not logging any user data.
Ther are three variants of NordVPN Plans: Standard, Plus, and Complete. All the three plans are available as monthly, 1-year, and 2-year subscriptions. If you look at the 1-year plans, the Standard variant will cost about $4.99 per month, the Plus variant costs about $5.99, and the Complete variant costs about $6.99.
While the three variants (Standard, Plus, and Complete) has the basic features such as Secure VPN, Malware Protection, and Tracker and Ad Blocker, the Plus variant has additionally a password manager and data breach scanner. The Complete variant has all the features of the Plus variant but adds 1TB encrypted cloud storage and advanced file encryption.
Overall, we really like the offerings of NordVPN. The installation process was very simple (at least in Windows and MacOS) and the setup was even simpler. The UI of app is very beginner friendly but if you are a Linux user, you have to make your fingers work as you need to do everything through commands.
Split Tunnelling and Kill Switch are some of our favorite features of NordVPN. The UI of the app on Windows is very simple. We also tried the App on an Android smartphone and the process was very easy. You can manually select the server or let NordVPN choose the fastest server for you.
It encrypts the data in AES-256 while hiding your IP Address. NordVPN has a built-in Ad Blocker, Tracker Blocker, and protects your system from Malware. The price of the NordVPN is relatively less than some of the other popular VPN providers. Like all subscription models, the longer you commit to it, the cheaper it becomes. We recommend opting for the 1-year NordVPN Standard plan, if secure VPNis your only requirement.
If you are looking for a relatively affordable, fast, and secure VPN Service, then you should definitely consider NordVPN. Its strict no log policy (audited by independent companies), advanced AES-256 encryption, split tunnelling, and a plethora of severs around the world to choose from are some of the interesting features that you can find in a VPN service.
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