NordVPN is a popular VPN service provider based in Panama. Below is a detailed review of NordVPN.
User experience
NordVPN is easy to use, to connect to the VPN you just open the app on your smartphone or PC, and tap or click a blue square button that reads “Quick connect”. By default the app will automatically choose a server near your location to connect, this is good for people who are not familiar with the use of VPN, you can also manually choose a server you want from a map that is shown in the app, just click or tap on a labeled location on the map. Compared with a menu of the names of cities and countries, this could be helpful for people who lack the knowledge of geographical locations of countries in the world, so they can find which servers are closer to their locations. But if you don’t like the map, you can also use the menu of countries or a search bar in the app to choose server location, too.
For other settings like encryption protocols, custom DNS, etc., there’s a Settings tab on the top bar of the app, click it will take you to a list of items for you to adjust on your needs, the settings are clearly labeled and self-explanatory and can usually be adjusted with a click.
Speed
NordVPN is one of the fastest VPNs on the market.
When you use a VPN to encrypt your private data or disguise your real IP, the VPN will have an impact on the internet performance on your device, this means the connection speed will always be reduced when VPN is turned on on your device, because the data will go through an additional server. The less your connection speed decreases, the faster your VPN is.
In my speed tests for NordVPN, the original connection speed reduced by 30% to 35%, making it one of the fastest VPNs I’ve tested, given that the most other VPNs reduce connection speeds by 50%-80%. The test was based in the United States and the connected servers for the test are all located in the United States. NordVPN also performs very well in China, in a speed test based in China, my original connection speed reduced by only 40%, that’s a very good speed for China, if your purpose of subscribing a VPN service is to bypass the censorship of China, then NordVPN is a good choice, it’s one of the fastest VPN for users living or traveling in China.
Platforms & Devices
NordVPN can be used on most devices and operating systems out there, and its website has installation instructions on most of these devices or systems, but tutorials on the website of NordVPN are only available in plain texts, with no images or videos. If you feel the instructions not helpful, you can contact the customer support for help.
Dedicated apps are offered for the devices with following operating systems: Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, and for smart TVs, but no app for routers, if you want to connect your router to VPN (in this way all of your devices will be automatically connected to the VPN once they are connected to your router), consider use ExpressVPN. Advanced users can manually configure NordVPN on routers, which requires some technical knowledge. For gaming consoles and streaming devices, you’ll need to install VPN at router level.
You can also configure your Linux machine to use NordVPN.
NordVPN allows 6 simultaneous connections, which means with a single NordVPN account you can connect up to six devices to VPN servers simultaneously, this can be very helpful if you have a lot of devices needed to be encrypted with VPN, or you have a lot of family members to share the VPN with. The number of allowed simultaneous connection of NordVPN is by far one of the highest on the market, given that ExpressVPN and VyprVPN allow only 5.
Server locations
NordVPN has more than 5,700 servers around world, this is much more than ExpressVPN’s 3,000+, these servers cover 60 countries, 90 cities, it’s not hard to find a server located near you. A large number of servers can only be selected by country level, only six countries among all the 60 countries offer city-level choices, but large countries like the US and UK are included. Many of NordVPN’s servers offer static IP address, which is helpful for banking and other purposes.
If you enable the Obfuscated Servers mode, which is a must for users in China, there is a few locations that have such dedicated servers can be chosen.
Pricing
The price of NordVPN varies based on the length of the subscription plan you choose, the longer you subscribe for, the lower the monthly cost will be, every plan offers the same features.
There are three different subscription plans to choose from:
– 3 years: $2.99/month (75% discount)
– 2 years: $3.99/month (66% discount)
– 1 year: $6.99/month (41% discount)
– 1 month: $11.95/month
NordVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, though their refund policy requires you to go through a troubleshooting process, in which a customer support agent will ask you about the problems you have with the VPN and will try to fix them, if you are not satisfied with the outcome, you can get the refund in a few days.
Customer support
NordVPN offers customer support via 24/7 online live chat or Email, whenever you encounter a issue on your VPN or have any questions related to the VPN, just contact their support team via online live chat, and you will get response from one of the support agents in a very short time. If you prefer you can also contact the support team by sending an Email to them, but their Email support is a little slow, typically it takes about a day to receive a response.
Another option to solve the problems of your VPN is by reading the FAQ and instructions on the website of NordVPN.
Security
NordVPN has many useful security features like DNS leak blocking, WebRTC leak blocking, Onion Over VPN, and VPN kill switch. The feature VPN kill switch ensures your online activities to stay protected when your device encounter an interruption on connection.
NordVPN doesn’t support split tunneling, a feature that allows you designate which websites or apps’ traffic to be sent through the VPN tunnel and which not to be, this feature is very useful for apps that require a more robust connection but don’t need additional security, such as online video games. Very few VPN providers offer split tunneling, ExpressVPN is one of them.
NordVPN uses two security protocols, OpenVPN (UDP and TCP) and IKEv2/IPSec, to keep its users’ browsing data anonymous and secure, it doesn’t support other protocols like L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, and SSTP, which it considered as outdated, if you are not familiar with these terms of protocol, don’t worry, OpenVPN and IKev2/IPSec are two best choices of security protocols and enough to keep your online data secure, though more alternative protocols can be better, if you do need other protocols, you can try to use other VPNs such as ExpressVPN.
NordVPN encrypts its users’ connection with AES 256-bit encryption, which is nearly uncrackble.
NordVPN is registered in Panama, which is outside the jurisdiction of the 14-eyes surveillance alliance, giving NordVPN the ability to deny third party data requests from authorities of the US and EU, and Panama doesn’t require companies to store or report any of their user data. That’s why NordVPN has a true zero-logs policy, it does not store users’ used bandwidth, traffic logs, or IP addresses, so you don’t need to worry about that your online activity to be traced back to you.
Streaming & Torrenting
Steaming sites like Netflix have geographical restriction, people in every region of the world are only allowed to access to the content specifically tailored for that region, and these sites are known for having strict detection measures to block VPN, which means many VPNs can’t be used to bypass the geographical restriction.
NordVPN is a few VPNs that can bypass that restriction without being detected, since it has a proprietary SmartPlay DNS feature. The feature is integrated into all NordVPN servers, you can connect to any server of NordVPN to stream your desired content on Netflix or similar sites, and the speeds are generally fast.
NordVPN allows torrenting, though it’s not permitted on every NordVPN server, users need to connect to one of the dedicated P2P servers to torrent, the good thing is that the number of such dedicated servers is more than enough, as more than 4,600 servers out of all 5700+ NordVPN servers can be used for torrenting. You can find servers for P2P from the side menu in the app.
Bypassing Censorship
NordVPN can be used to access blocked websites in some countries with internet censorship.
The most noted such country is China, which has a sophisticated internet filtering system (Great Firewall of China) that can defeat many top VPNs’ attempts of circumvention.
Most VPNs can’t bypass the censorship of China because the country’s filtering system is able to detect VPN traffic and block it, for this NordVPN provides a number of obfuscated servers that can mask VPN traffic so China’s filtering technology can’t detect it. So if you want to access blocked websites or web apps in China, you should turn on the “Obfuscated Servers” mode in the NordVPN app, and the app will help you connect to an obfuscated server to unblock websites for you. Without the mode turned on you may still be able to access those sites, but it’s likely the speed will be slower.
NordVPN’s connection speed in China is comparable to that of ExpressVPN, it is a reliable and fast VPN to access blocked websites and web apps in China.