Summary Review

 

I present you with one of the most reliable, fast, reputable, and functional VPN services - NordVPN - one of the best VPNs today! Its headquarters are located in one of the most favorable countries for data protection and anonymity, Panama, which is managed by the corporate enterprise Tefincom S. A. NordVPN offers its users impenetrable military-grade encryption used by governments around the world an amazing compromise between speed and security, a zero-logging policy verified by independent experts. Fairly clear applications complete with features like Double VPN, Onion over VPN, Kill Switch, CyberSec, WifiSec, and others make NordVPN a great choice for both experienced surfers and newcomers to the new world of anonymity.

But let's go a little deeper and explore in detail what makes NordVPN one of the best services on the market and what sets it apart from others.

Cheapest price	Logging policy	Torrenting policy	Servers count	Customer support	Money back guarantee	Local speed (Avg.)
3,30$	No logs	Permitted	83	24/7 Live chat	30 day	95 Mbps

Privacy & Security

 

In today's digital world, in our thoughts, we constantly assume that we are secretly watched by the government, ISPs, hackers, who can use our unprotected data for their benefit. NordVPN will help us in preserving the anonymity of your online identity.
The VPN service you choose must apply all the security protocols necessary to protect your information.

NordVPN uses NordLynx and offers many powerful security protocols such as OpenVPN, IKEv2, IPSec. As for other VPN protocols, NordVPN recently stopped supporting PPTP, SSTP, and L2TP/IPSec. Also worth mentioning is WireGuard, it's becoming the gold standard for VPNs, and it's easy to see why: it's open-source, uses newer encryption methods, and provides better speed.

NordVPN uses AES with 256-bit keys - the encryption key changes for each session.

Double VPN - creates a kind of triangle between the country you connect from and other countries before connecting to the Internet, thereby greatly increasing security, especially for those who live in a country where censorship is strictly limited (for example Turkey, China, UAE), but at the same time, you lose a lot in connection speed and decide whether to use this additional feature and whether you need a double IP address or double tunneling, given that NordVPN is already a reliable and secure service.

Logging policy & Jurisdiction

 

Zero logging policy, the service registers almost nothing, skips DNS addresses, masks our IP address, thus allowing us to conduct Internet activities in complete anonymity, NordVPN does not keep records of customer activity on its servers, your activity is provided by an automated technical process, is not tracked, recorded, logged, stored and transmitted to third parties.

The provider is located in Panama, which is a distinct jurisdiction, controlled by the Zurich branch of the PWC and strengthened by the Panama Data Protection Act.

 

Performance (speed & reliability)

 

This criterion is usually of great interest to users, it all depends on the location of the VPN server, the server itself, and the connection speed of your device. A general recommendation, choose a server that is close to your actual location, as the connection speed depends on the distance to the server, the closer the server, the lower the ping, respectively higher speed.

What does NordVPN offer us? Today NordVPN has the largest number of servers (5336) and is represented in 60 countries around the world, the consequence of this is that no server will be overloaded with too many simultaneous connections. It is important to note that NordVPN only uses physical servers, as opposed to virtual servers which only mimic a location.

Also, an important feature in the matter of speed is the use of the NodrLynx protocol - it is characterized by fast speed and reliable encryption, on average, when using this protocol, the performance improves by 2-3 times. By choosing NordLynx, specialized servers will disappear, but in return, you get higher speeds. NordVPN also offers its customers SOCKS5-proxy - it sends your online traffic through a proxy which changes your IP address and uses UDP protocols, making it faster, but SOCKS5-proxy does not provide complete protection, but it still gives users additional protection, quite enough for confidential work with torrents on the Internet. NordVPN is one of the most reliable and fastest services at the same time.

For the speed test, I used the Speedtest Application. First I used the Quick Connect function and I was automatically directed to the most suitable server for my needs, then for comparison, I enabled first the P2P function for torrenting, measured the speed and the server recommended by the app for accessing Netflix, and also measured the speed, you can see the results in the pictures.

 

Features & Usability

 

It is easy enough to use, beginners will easily navigate, but there is enough information for experienced users. The map design helps you navigate geographically faster. if you don't want to use the map format, you can just scroll up and down and look at everything. You can also click on the options here and choose which server you want to join, which can also be very helpful. Also worth noting is the presence of a dark mode.

But yes, that would prevent me from giving a plus for usability, everything is very clear here. And there's nothing particularly complicated about the options.

Kill Switch feature - If you ever use NordVPN and your connection goes down, you can set the application to terminate the data flow from your device, This is necessary to prevent leakage of your identity as it is no longer protected by the VPN server.
It's worth noting the CyberSec feature - it blocks malicious sites and lets you enjoy ad-free access. CyberSec not only protects you from unwanted ads and prevents you from going to malicious sites but also provides protection against phishing attacks.

Servers for Onion-VPN connections that provide additional protection while on Tor. NordVPN does not track your online activities, you can surf the Internet in complete anonymity. What are the benefits of this feature? If you are a journalist, blogger working in a country with a high level of censorship, your ISP will see that you are using Onion, but will not know why).

Specialized obfuscator servers now not only encrypt data but also hide the fact of VPN use, masking the traffic as regular HTTPS. In other words, it is impossible to detect that the VPN was used at all. This is an excellent solution for those countries where VPN services are prohibited, such as China. NordVPN has dedicated P2P servers that you can easily access from the app. P2P servers make it easy to distribute data and freeware, P2P servers are ideal for torrent downloads, you can find the best P2P server right in the VPN interface, but there is also a handy section for recommending servers.

Onion Over VPN - this is a special feature of NordVPN. It uses the super-secure Onion network, it's so-called because every piece of information you send or receive on the network has several layers of security.

 

 

Server Location

 

Today NordVPN has the biggest number of servers (5336) and is represented in 60 countries around the world, the consequence of this is that no server will be overloaded with too many simultaneous connections. It is important to note that NordVPN only uses physical servers, unlike virtual servers that only simulate location.

List of countries:

USA, Canada, UK, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Germany, Netherlands, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Ireland, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Finland, Serbia, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Portugal, Luxembourg, Ukraine, Greece, Estonia, Iceland, Albania, Cyprus, Croatia, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Northern Macedonia, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, South Africa, India, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Turkey.

Streaming &Torrenting

 

NordVPN has over 4,600 servers in 46 countries configured specifically for torrents. NordVPN allows P2P traffic, but it is limited to certain servers. You will need to make a selection in your NordVPN client to do this. It would be wise to open the "P2P Servers" section and let NordVPN choose the best one for you. You will also be able to use a combination of SOCKS5 proxy and torrent client. This method is faster, it even allows you to hide your IP address, but, alas, traffic encryption is not supposed here.

NordVPN is a decent provider for streaming. BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, Netflix, ABC, Hulu - very popular streaming platforms, but they have geographical restrictions on access to content, here comes to the aid of NordVPN, opening us free access to use, which is certainly a joy, but compared to the others is inferior in speed to download torrents and streaming.

Platforms & Devices

 

NordVPN positions itself as a service for ALL devices, offering applications for macOS, Windows (Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 version 1607 or later), Linux, Android, and iOS, also Blackberry firmware, platforms like Raspberry Pi and pfSense, if you only need to protect web traffic, download the NordVPN extension for your browser. The service works with Chrome and Firefox which fully confirms the bold statement.

Up to 6 devices can simultaneously connect to one account and this is important, because, in today's world of devices, most people are not limited to one device, and for maximum security, the secret weapon is a router with a built-in OpenVPN client from NordVPN.

 

 

Pricing

 

NordVPN has different price categories that you can choose from depending on how long you want your subscription to last. Generally, the longer the subscription period, the lower the price you have to pay per month.

NordVPN offers the following plans:

1-month plan - $11.95 per month
1-year plan - $4.92 per month
2-year plan - $3.30 per month

NordVPN does not have a free trial period, but you can take advantage of a 30-day money-back guarantee which allows you to check the quality of this service without any risk.
You can pay with Credit / Debit cards, Amazon pay, Union pay, Google pay, especially like the wide range of anonymous payment methods like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monera, Zcash, and Dash.
In some cases, you can pay for a VPN subscription through PayPal.

 

Support

 

NordVPN user support works via online chat, 24/7. There is a short section with frequently asked questions, a very informative knowledge base, a system of tickets and also offer chat support in non-English. More importantly, if you have a problem or a question of interest, you are provided with an instant solution (e.g. selecting a server to watch Netflix or unblocking Linkedln). You can ask for help through the app as well as through the website, which is not difficult at all. This demonstrates a responsible approach to customer service.

Also, there is a chatbot function that instantly answers general questions.

 

Pros & Cons

 

To summarize the testing of the NordVPN service is very impressive in its capabilities and efficiency. The service offers an impressive set of features for the most security-conscious users.

 

Pros

✓ Reasonable long-term plan prices
✓ Massive server network
✓ Highest security and anonymity
✓ Zero logging
✓ Uses WireGuard VPN technology
✓ Multihop, split-tunneling, and Tor connections
✓ Easy to use

Cons

✘ No way to open a torrent port
✘ P2P is limited to certain servers
✘ No Free Trial

Last edited on Aug 9, 2022