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NordVPN has firmly established itself among the leaders in the VPN sector and in recent years you have seen them everywhere, from TV commercials and sponsorship of sports teams to quotes in the privacy news.
But is NordVPN good? They have been among our favorites in the last few years, but we checked them for 2019 to see if they still deserve the reputation for which they became famous.
Packages:
NordVPN follows the standard VPN offer with the choice of only one type of package that includes access to all its features.
This is offered on a subscription basis. NordVPN has expanded from the regular offer of 1 month, 6 months and 12 months and now allows you to subscribe for 2 or 3 years.
It is worth considering these longer subscription periods because you will make the biggest savings.
The current prices for these packages at the time of writing are as follows:
- 1 month$ 11.95 / month (~ £ 9.30)
- 1 years$ 6.99 / month (~ £ 5.44)
- 2 years$ 3.99 / month (~ £ 3.10)
- 3 year$ 2.99 / month (~ £ 2.32)
As you can see it is cheaper to sign up for longer periods. In fact, with their 3-year package, you will receive 4 months for the price of 1 payment on a monthly basis.
Our recommendation for the best combination of price and risk aversion is to take the 2 year package. It does not stop you for too long, but offers you a higher discount than your monthly payment.
It is worth noting that if you are in an EU country you will have to pay VAT, but you could be sneaky and choose "United States" which has a 0% VAT rate: do not say it to anyone I told you, shhh.
Payment is accepted by credit or debit card, a wide range of crypto-currencies using CoinPayments such as Bitcoin, Ether and Ripple.
They also accept other types of payment, including AliPay, WebMoney, UnionPay, Yandex, GiroPay, SoFort Banking and iDeal.
Service:
protocols
NordVPN currently supports both the OpenVPN is IKEv2 / IPSec protocols.
They also recently experienced the The WireGuard protocol that at the time of writing is not publicly available to all customers but once stable and tested it should be released in the near future.
If after logging in to protocols like PPTP, L2TP and SSTP, then you are not lucky as these are no longer supported in the service. While the last two are not recommended for security reasons, you may not see them if you need them for a specific purpose.
registration
NordVPN claims not to archive any records of what is done while it was connected to its service and until the end of last year, like most VPN services, there was no evidence of whether this was true or not.
After a slightly rocky 2018, fueled by rumors about connections to a data production company revealed through a legal case, NordVPN has taken the brave step of fully testing its service and claims.
Towards the end of 2018, NordVPN published the results of this audit on the basis of current customers. Although it has not been publicly shared, it is available to all current and future customers and we ourselves and other security experts have taken a look at it.
The consensus is that, although the audit does not go into detail, one should, in theory, be able to trust NordVPN's no-log claims.
Server locations
One of the reasons for the success of NordVPN in the last three years is their ability to expand and do it quickly.
At present, NordVPN offers VPN servers in some 62 countries with an eye that water 5.245 individual servers.
When you analyze it and compare it to the statistics of last year, while they have not expanded massively in the individual countries, adding only 3 new positions. They have almost doubled the amount of servers overall which is nothing short of a miracle.
NordVPN covers most locations around the world and apart from Africa, which has minimal coverage in the North and South, there are not many gaps in their network.
There are also a number of "special servers" that include options such as "Double-Hop" that allow you to send the connection through two different locations. Although these options are limited to specific areas.
Simultaneous connections
NordVPN allows you to use the first service up to 6 devices at the same time.
This is a decent amount of devices and, although not the highest number available in the industry, it is at the top of the scale in terms of competition.
There are no limits on the number of devices on which the wide range of apps can be installed, but only on how many can be used at the same time. The average user is unlikely to use 6 devices at the same time in such a way that you are definitely future proof.
Other features worthy of note
NordVPN has a number of additional features available on their service that allows them to stand out from the competition.
One of the main advantages is theirs CyberSec function that has been a part of the service in the last two years. Integrated into its range of apps, it helps you get malware protection and block other threats like phishing.
Although it should not replace a dedicated anti-virus app, it offers an added level of protection. It can also be disabled if you do not want to use it.
Another distinguishing feature of the service is the way they work to unlock TV content from around the world.
Services like BBC iPlayer, Sky, ITV and others all work well, allowing you to watch them from anywhere in the world.
Likewise, US Netflix is unlocked over the full range of servers. This allows you to connect to a local server and still get access to the US catalog of movies and TV shows, which is itself an essential feature.
applications:
Mobile app
NordVPN offers apps for everyone Android and Apple iOS devices and over the last year have been redesigned.
They still present the easy-to-navigate interface we saw last year but the use of space has been improved allowing for a faster connection. The layout is now more intuitive and allows you to connect to the servers you want with ease.
NordVPN Android app
The top of the app allows you to select a server on a map view while the lower section allows you to connect to your favorite servers, specialized servers or by expanding a list of individual countries that can be searched for quick use.
It is really nice that even individual servers can be connected and added to favorites for later use.
Behind the scenes, the & # 39; CyberSec & # 39; NordVPN can be enabled allowing protection from malware and other hassles on your mobile device as well as some additional options such as the use of Server Obfuscated or the use of TCP rather than UDP for OpenVPN.
Unfortunately there is no selection of the VPN protocol, but this is perfectly suited to the whole service. Normal automatic connection options are also available.
Mobile apps are among the best we've seen from a VPN provider and will allow you to easily use them even if you're a beginner.
Desktop app
Just like mobile apps, even desktop apps available for Windows and Mac OS have made some changes to their design in the last year.
Replacing the simple design of the map was added a side panel to allow faster selection of individual countries, servers and specialized servers. These include P2P specific servers, Onion over VPN servers, Double VPN and dedicated IP servers.
This is really a nice addition to the app and makes selecting a server in any way you prefer much easier and without having to search through multiple screens. The connection is now a quick and effortless affair.
App for Windows NordVPN.
In the Settings area you will find some complete features. NordVPN's CyberSec available in all apps is available in addition to a kill switch. There's also a single smart app switch app if you want some apps to block the connection.
The advanced features allow you to switch between a TCP and UDP protocol, specific dedicated DNS servers, use Obsfucated servers and run a diagnostic tool.
Also in this case the usual selection of automatic connections on boot options is available.
Just like the mobile app, the desktop app is one of the best we've seen. It has been well designed for a number of years, but the small interface changes that have been made in the last year have made the user experience a little more enjoyable. .
Other apps
In addition to the mobile and desktop apps, NordVPN also offers apps for Linux, browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox, and an Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick app.
Once again, their Amazon app is well structured and easy to use on the big screen. It also has the advantage of unlocking many of Amazon's apps like Netflix, BBC iPlayer and others really extending the use of Fire TV / Stick / Cube no matter where you are in the world.
The NordVPN Fire TV app
speed:
NordVPN has consistently been one of the fastest VPN providers in the last few years and we have praised their continuous improvements in this field last year.
Over the last few weeks we have used their service for a variety of purposes. Everything from general web browsing and streaming video on sites like YouTube to play and stream in Ultra HD on our Fire TV Stick via Netflix.
All this was done via a Wi-Fi connection and we did not encounter any problems during the execution of one of these types of activities. You should not have problems for your daily use.
You're probably wondering how it translates into actual speed. So for this, we did some tests for you.
We took a residential Internet connection in the UK and downloaded an uncompressed test file. The speed reached without using a VPN was: 63.28 Mbps.
By choosing a random selection of servers we have reached the following speeds:
- UK – 58.63 Mbps
- France – 58.24 Mbps
- Holland – 58.36 Mbps
- Switzerland – 60.56 Mbps
- Sweden – 60.30 Mbps
- New York, United States – 60.44 Mbps
- Australia – 57.17 Mbps
As the results show, even at a distance, decent speeds can be obtained. This would be more than fast enough to stream high quality video content from around the world without problems.
Encryption and criteria:
cryptography
Throughout most platforms, NordVPN makes use of OpenVPN using 256-bit AES encryption.
Authentication is managed with a 2048-bit RSA key. While this is not at the top of the scale, it is the industry standard and an acceptable level.
Some apps use or allow the use of IKEv2 / IPsec protocol. Since this is known to be unbreakable right now, it means your connection is secure.
Policies
NordVPN has updated its privacy policies last year when the GDPR regulations entered into force in the European Union.
However, they have been updated only to comply with these regulations and nothing in terms of what memorises (or does not store) has changed due to this.
NordVPN claims to be a completely free VPN service that refers to what you do while connected to their service and what is known as "metadata".
Metadata includes things like the times you've connected, which server you've connected to, and other important but unidentifiable information.
The service keeps small details based on the payment that includes your email address and your payment details. This is a standard practice throughout the industry.
At first glance, the policies seem valid and recently the NordVPN has verified its service to confirm that it is as good as the one that will be obtained.
Verdict:
NordVPN has undoubtedly been one of the best VPN services in recent years and with the additions they have made this year, they certainly keep their place at the top.
The service has a lot to offer in terms of servers, connection points, apps and speeds, making them one of our favorite suppliers of the year.
At the end of last year, NordVPN published an audit of their service and related registration policy. This was accomplished by one of the world's largest audit firms and does everything to reassure users that the NordVPN non-registration policy is sound.
We've enjoyed the improvements to their apps this year, making them easier to use and more intuitive for features that need quick access. Their recently released Amazon Fire TV app is a huge advantage for the service that lets you unlock content and protect your privacy on your big screen.
Prices have gone up a little this year but not enough to be perceptible and if you are in an EU country you will have to calculate the VAT based on price. However, taxes are a fact of life and not a choice of NordVPN and even with this modest increase they are still competitive on price.
The encryption is valid for the NordVPN service and we like to enjoy it with WireGuard. Likewise, unlock multimedia content from Netflix to BBC iPlayer and many more work better than most services.
Overall, NordVPN is one of our main VPN choices for 2019 and if you're thinking about signing up you can not really go wrong. Do not forget that they also have a 30-day money back guarantee to give you plenty of time to test their service.
30-day refund guaranteed
