It’s always 😀necessary to know before you own it. In this way, you can know all of its features earlier & use them effectively for your purpose. Further without any time let’s dive in.
NordVPN Review Quick Summary
NordVPN deserves 🥇1st position in the best VPN list with its features and continuous effort towards improvement. NordVPN has servers in 59 countries counting 5400. There is no log policy, there is nothing to wonder about that NordVPN scored 4.6⭐ in the App store with 59k ratings and 4.5⭐ rating in Play Store with 1.3M ratings. To be honest, performance levels are very good and fast enough for streaming Netflix Content. While the app for the NordVPN Android, iOS, and Windows is pretty good without ending up in trouble. Also, NordVPN has dedicated servers for torrenting, which will help to download torrents safely and anonymously. It uses 256-bit military-grade encryption and has a kill switch feature to make sure there are No IP leaks. As a bonus feature, NordVPN offers the ▶SmartPlay feature which will make video streaming so easy while other VPNs struggle. This VPN is compatible and available for every device right from iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, TV, and even for routers. NordVPN CyberSec feature 🚫blocks malware and ads on websites that will help your device against any kind of malware attack. There is also 30 days money-back guarantee program. So, you can try NordVPN hassle-free without any worries. 📢Limited offer: Get NordVPN through this hidden link to claim a 69% instant discount. Get NordVPN Now! That’s it with the quick summary now let’s 🏊♂️dive into every feature in detail.
In-Depth Review- Every Feature Explained
VPN Background
NordVPN is from Panama (a privacy-friendly country) that falls outside surveillance groups. This is why the VPN owns🥇 reliability & trust from its customers. It never had a history of sharing users’ data with the government or any other authorities. Even if law enforcement requests NordVPN to share the data, it doesn’t show transparent reports to them. Also, NordVPN maintains a warranty canary showcasing that it hasn’t received any Security letters, gag orders, or government warrants. With all these 🤗good things (assurances), NordVPN strictly follows a No-Log policy.
Features
CyberSec Feature (NordVPN)
CyberSec is a NordVPNs dedicated feature that automatically blocks websites if they are known for hosting malware or scams, which keeps you safe from online threats. Also, it works as an ad blocker that will stop the annoying & flashy ads for a better-focused browsing experience. You can enable it in the ⚙Settings menu, read more here about the CyberSec feature.
Split Tunneling
Split Tunneling is another awaited feature (not offered by many other VPNs). This helps you to simultaneously use VPN & your regular internet, by routing some parts of your traffic through VPN and some through without encryption. This is a handy feature when you don’t want to use VPN while accessing your trusted applications like banking services or wireless printers. While other VPNs disable this feature due to security issues, NordVPN gives you a choice.
Obfuscated Servers
This is an open-source protocol that makes use of a VPN to establish a safe site-to-site connection. This Protocol uses TLS/SSL for key exchange and travels through the firewalls and NATs. This OpenVPN allows peers to authenticate each other using credentials or a shared key. When we use this with a multi-client server architecture, the server will send authority certificates to all the users.
🗼Servers
NordVPN maintains over 5500+ servers in over 59 countries (all over the world) making this one of the largest VPN services (today). It takes the advantage of maintaining city-level servers (multiple) for faster🔥speeds without any network congestion. While every server location is indicated with the “📌”. To make it easier NordVPN provides a “Quick connect” option which connects you to the fastest server available. NordVPN maintains a bulk of servers in the US & UK (very usual for premium VPNs), while a decent network of servers is available in Asia, South Africa, Middle East. But it neglects Africa (The southern part) which has only one server. While these are a handful to bypass geoblocks, NordVPN maintains servers in highly restricted countries like Hong Kong, Turkey, and Vietnam. Altogether NordVPN servers are fewer compared to CyberGhost (7500) but packed with⚡powerful features. More servers don’t mean better service. While most of them are diskless RAM Servers (provides 🛡additional security), there are some virtual servers that are software-defined. NordVPN is owing all of its servers eliminating the middle man, while the first cluster of co-located servers appeared in Finland. Of all the NordVPN available servers, they are classified as “Specialised servers” which are specifically used for a particular task.
Peer to Peer (P2P) Servers
Torrent lovers💕 will know P2P at the first glimpse, well if you are a newbie. P2P is file sharing across the network directly without any third-party interactions. You will find these servers are very reliable and helpful for downloading torrents when you are connected to VPN. These dedicated P2P servers do your job (download films, series, music, and other software files) at top 🔥speeds without compromising your privacy. So, always make sure that you are connected to P2P servers while torrenting. You can find these servers on the left menu panel if you wish to know what additional features P2P servers offer check that here.
Onion Over VPN Servers
NordVPN’s greatest feature (only seen in a few top VPNs), is Onion Over VPN. This VPN combines Tor🧅 with VPN and offers ultimate privacy routing your traffic VPN encrypted traffic through Tor Nodes. Though it makes your speed a little bit slower, having the option to choose from is always grateful. Also, you can access Tor directly with any one of the NordVPN servers. But there are several benefits & reasons to use Onion over VPN.
Simplicity: Route your VPN traffic through Onion Network or directly use the Tor browser. Privacy: NordVPN shields you from all third parties. surf the internet with absolute privacy. Encryption: Adding another layer of encryption while tunneling.
Dedicated IP Servers
NordVPN will give you a dedicated IP that no one else can use. Dedicated IPs will be very 🤗useful to access static services like banks & websites. Which 🚫blocks you immediately if they found that your IP address is varying. Dedicated IP will keep your business up and running. Where you can give an IP to your employee and whitelist them to know who is accessing it without being on the list. Even though some of your IP Addresses might be blocked, having a dedicated IP will help you to unblock websites.
🔐Security and Privacy
NordVPN uses best-in-class security featured with AES 256-bit encryption which is used by governments & cybersecurity experts. It’s very hard to crack, even a supercomputer will take at least 10 years to find the key. In addition to this, NordVPN uses Perfect Forward Secrecy which means that the encryption key changes every time. When we dig in with the technical features, you will get more than expected including support for strong encryption and high performance along with a Kill Switch, DNS leak protection, and support for OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols. There is a special feature that allows you to disconnect from the VPN for a specific amount of time and then you can reconnect to it again automatically. Which is a handy feature. Thanks to its tough security technology that hides all your browser activities from your ISP.
DNS/ IP Leak Test
NordVPN has DNS & IP leak protection in all of its applications. When we put it to the test, there were no DNS/IP leaks found. This will make sure that your IP won’t get leaked while transferring data packets. So no one will know your real identity. Here are some of the VPN leaks, that reveal your information.
DNS Leak: This leak occurs when your DNS request runs through regular traffic instead of a VPN. This will be bad since your ISP will know what you are doing online. WebRTC: This is a technology that allows you to take a call without using plugins. Seems awesome right but there are flaws. This will reveal your identity to that site and to your ISP. IP Address Leak: This type of leak is considered as occurring when your real IP is known to your ISP.
NordVPN didn’t 🤗leak any of these types of leaks in a test. Since NordVPN runs its DNS servers so there will be no DNS leaks and when you connect to a server it will show your location from there which means that there is no IP leak. Check your IP before & after connecting to VPN.
Privacy & Independent Audits
NordVPN Privacy Policy 🤝promises that it doesn’t store any of the user information like time stamps, session information, bandwidth, etc. But it retains the username and time of the last session for 15 minutes after you disconnect from the VPN. With NordVPN you can rest assured about your privacy 😎(8 million people using it). Also, to enhance their security and show their credibility towards users’ privacy they ran several independent audits. Those reports show it doesn’t store anything about the user. Unlike other VPNs like PureVPN which claim “No Log” on their website and log users’ data behind. NordVPN is the truly 💪best No-log VPN.
Double VPN
Only a few premium VPNs offer this feature, and NordVPN is one. Double VPN is an advanced feature that provides double VPN security routing your traffic through two VPN servers and encrypting them twice. Though this works more like using two VPNs, you actually don’t need to. NordPVN can do this alone for double privacy (enhanced security). While some VPNs call this “Multi-Hop” mode. But keep in mind that using double encryption will slow your speeds.
Kill Switch
A Kill Switch is an essential security feature, and NordVPN provides it. This helps you lock your internet connection when your VPN server connection goes down. So, that your IP & sensitive information will remain secure till your VPN connection is back again. Even if you believe that VPN servers are consistent and reliable, enabling a kill switch will add an additional line of defense (which works like a fuse in your home). Kill Switch is of two types, NordVPN offer’s them both.
System-Wide: System-wide network locks if there is an accidental VPN connection drop occurs. App Level: You can specify which application should be blocked if the connection of NordVPN drops. This App Level Kill Switch is recommended for advanced users, who have a full grasp of every running app.
Threat Protection
NordVPN latest version brings Threat Protection that can 🛡defend you from the real damage that occurs through Cyber Attacks. You can quickly understand that NordVPN is more a just a VPN (care about user). Threat Protection🚫 prevents your accessing malware-contained sites and blocks all invasive ads (harmful). When you enable this feature, it will protect you (even when you are not connected to VPN). Incognito Mode doesn’t block all your cookies & browser tracking, but this does without leaving any trace. As a whole, this improves your browsing experience by blocking all 🦠malicious files entering your device.
Protocols
NordVPN has almost all industry-leading VPN protocols and the best customer-built protocol called “NordLynx“. No other VPN can match this protocol🔥speeds, this is what NordVPN is well known for. Also, it offers other protocols to choose your choice. Here are they
NordLynx: ultimate speeds with security combining NordVPN double NAT to WireGuard implementation. OpenVPN: This is an Open-Source protocol that offers standard security, that comes with UDP and TCP. Choose TCP for reliability and UDP for better speeds. IKEv2/IPSec: Delivers better speeds on mobile platforms, but is available on the iOS platform. L2TP/IPSec and PPTP: These protocols are there but they are no longer usable since they are weaker protocols.
You can simply tweak to any protocol you want through the ⚙settings option. NordLynx protocol is available on every device platform. 🎯Tip: Choose NordLynx as the default protocol for optimal speeds and security.
Speed & Performance
This is where NordVPN ✨shines compared to other top VPNs with its NordLynx protocol. NordPVN recently added 10Gbps servers replacing old 1Gbps servers. They are one step ahead to be ready with 5G speeds. NordVPN is the ⚡fastest VPN available in the VPN market. It’s very usual that you feel slightly slow speeds when connected to VPN (due to encryption & routing). But it also depends on server location if you’re connecting with a server in a country that is far away from your then you may notice a significant drop in speed. To know the NordVPN speeds in real-time, we tested its server speed & got 😲shocked. See yourself, I have considered Download, Upload Speeds along with PING during my test. As you can see that there is only a slight difference of about ~6% even when I connected to the VPN. What do you call these speeds? they are a mouthful for me to stream anything in Ultra HD or to download torrents. While we conducted the speed test on Ookla’s site connecting to different servers, starting with the US. Here are the results On connecting to US server speeds my speeds are very consistent around 180+ Mbps maintaining a low PING of 9 ms, this is very 🔥incredible for gaming. Though VPN users don’t bother about upload speeds, they are quite low on US servers. But this isn’t the case with the UK server. On connecting to the London Server speeds are almost the same with a minor difference of about 3 Mbps in download speed & a huge improvement in upload speeds. Also, I am getting a great PING. So, we decided to take the test even further testing some well-known server locations. Here are the speed test results Most likely every server strives to quickly decrypt the information to maintain decent speeds. I can assure you that you won’t get 🤗disappointed with NordVPN speeds. Using a VPN might slow your internet speeds a bit, well this is the case every time. It also put an end to your ISP throttling & brings all your speeds back.
📺Streaming
NordVPN does a brilliant job of bypassing geoblocks. It has the capability to unblock any streaming service that comes along in its way. They claim it all with a simple statement “Get access to your favorite content and forget about censorship” 😋sounds pleasing.
Netflix
Many VPNs struggle to unblock Netflix because of its strict VPN detection. Not for NordVPN, it unblocks Netflix slicing a piece of cake. NordVPN is the top🥇Netflix VPN. It unblocks 32+ different libraries including popular ones like the US, UK, Germany, Canada, Japan, etc. With NordVPN you can enjoy the regional library’s content better than others. ▶SmartPlay feature that detects you are streaming and adjusts the settings to bypass streaming services censorship, even when you got connected to some standard server. Here I am able to unblock Netflix US & all other regional libraries during my test. You don’t need rocket configuration to change your Netflix library. It’s very simple, connect to a server and open Netflix (As simple as that). I didn’t face any sort of buffering or loading while streaming my favorite content in the US. Neither you will, thanks to the consistent 🔥speeds & reliable connectivity. Well, here are some Netflix Pro Tips that enhance your streaming experience.
Hulu
NordVPN is one of the best Hulu VPNs, which means it can easily unblock Hulu by snapping a finger. Like in other streaming services, the SmartPlay feature is perfectly working for every other streaming service without a hassle. As you can see, I am able to watch Little Fires Everywhere US Show by unblocking Hulu. There is no quality drop even when I switch to full-screen mode, streaming speeds are impressive. Like me, you can 🥤watch On-demand TV Shows or movies & any comedian shows readily available on Hulu.
Disney+
Even Disney+ (digital entertainment) started detecting VPNs (VPN blocks). But NordVPN is able to bypass Disney+ geo-blocks as well. As the US library has the latest shows with more titles, here I got connected to US Server. So, it’s showing the Disney+ bundle. It’s very easy to watch Disney+ from anywhere in the world with NordVPN. Quickly search for the server you want to connect on the search 🔎 option and click on the connect button on the right bottom. You will get connected to the server instantly.
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer doesn’t really require an account to stream most free shows. While NordVPN doesn’t take much time to unblock it. But BBC iPlayer services are very limited to specific regions like the UK, so you don’t have a choice except to connect the UK server to unblock BBC iPlayer. With NordVPN you can watch BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world without any buffering.
HBO Max
We were able to unblock HBO Max on almost all the US servers. Here I am able to watch the “Eyes on the prize” show which is available in the US. HBO Max is another popular streaming service that has some great content you shouldn’t miss. Not only the above-listed streaming services, but NordVPN can also unblock many more. Here are some other services that are unblocked by this VPN.
📂Torrenting
Torrenting is most favorite for adults or teens. But being safe is more important while torrenting (most people spy on these sites). Not every server supports torrenting, NordVPN mentioned their dedicated torrenting sites (P2P optimized) for better⚡speeds. Again it doesn’t compromise your security, you are 24/7 protected under Threat-protection, Kill Switch combined with encryption. Make sure that you are NordLynx protocol, NordVPN is compatible with any torrent clients like uTorrent, and BitTorrent, without any issue. NordVPN neither allows others to spy on you nor log your activity, thanks to its privacy policy & privacy-friendly headquarters. Though there is no port-forwarding (better speeds while torrenting) support for NordVPN, confirmed by their customer team. It’s not required for NordVPN, all its security & speeds are way better than that feature. Well, here are some of 😉best torrenting sites.
Will NordVPN work in China?
NordVPN works perfectly fine even in China. It can pass through the highly restricted country firewall systems easily. Thanks to its clever 😉obfuscated servers which make VPNs traffic like regular internet traffic. So, no one knows that you are actually connected to a VPN. With the kill switch, your trace will be never revealed. Even if your connection fails there is nothing to do with the Chinese government. But there are servers available nearby like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam. 📝Note: You should have installed NordVPN already on your device before boarding to China.
Six Device Connections – One Account
With a single subscription to NordVPN, you can connect up to 6 devices simultaneously. Even if you connect with all the devices at once there won’t be any speed drops or issues. You might feel low after knowing that some VPNs offer unlimited devices connection like IPVanish. But you can think 🧠smartly, to enjoy NordVPN speeds on every of your device by installing it on your router. So, you can connect any number of devices you want. But make sure that your router supports VPN since all of them won’t support it.
Compatibility
NordVPN is undoubtedly compatible with any device platform or operating system. We installed this VPN on our Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, FireStick, FireTV, Smart TV, and other platforms. The app will have a similar interface on almost all of these platforms which is 🤗convenient. Another interesting this is that NordVPN has an app for Linux systems. But most VPNs don’t have Linux Client Support. This is very easy to use on Linux without any commands. Also, it’s very easy to install this NordVPN on devices like Smart TVs, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation.
Browser Extensions
NordVPN simplifies everything without the need of opening the app every time by providing a browser extension. So you can quickly access everything on your browser. NordVPN is offering chrome and Firefox extensions which will simplify the process allowing you to choose a location and connect to it directly. You can install the NordVPN chrome extension and add it to your address bar. Though you won’t get overwhelming features like in the app, the extension is quick and easy to use with most of the features that a NordVPN will offer. But still, you are like No VPN user for other applications, having both are handy.
📞Customer Support
You can navigate through their customer support page for different options. Though there is no direct call support except live chat with a human agent (quite sufficient). Their customer team is well aware of all the issues to answer all your queries.
💸Pricing
NordVPN is available in three different subscription plans. I know that pricing is an important factor in choosing a VPN. Pricing is very straightforward with NordVPN, the price will be lower on long contracts. As you can see the plans varies from 1 month to 2 years. While the lowest plan starts with a monthly subscription of $11.99 and you need to pay some amount upfront on choosing 2 years plan which benefits you an additional 3 months for free. They will accept all kinds of payments (Cards, PayPal, etc), and for additional privacy, they will accept crypto as well. Considering the NordVPN competitors like ExpressVPN is a bit costlier ($12.95/month). You can know more in our NordVPN vs ExpressVPN compression guide. So, it’s reasonable and we’ll recommend using this VPN (keeping its features in mind). if you are not convinced about their features to pricing performance, then you can give it a try on their 30 days money-back guarantee program. You will get a full refund (if you don’t like the service). Check out, the NordVPN deal page for attractive deals & discount coupons (helps you to save a few bucks).
New Improvements in NordVPN
NordVPN always 🤗welcomes new enhancements, while their focus is on the infrastructure improvements which will make high security a standard and ensure that everything is working fine or not. Apps on all platforms are getting automated to connect when you access an unsecured Wifi network. Enhancements over switching servers and all apps across all platforms are choosing the fastest servers available quickly. While there are some platform-specific improvements as well. For iOS dark mode enhancement and reduced 🔋battery consumption for Mac Users. Optimized split tunneling for Android TV and Smart kill switch feature for Windows. Recently they brought a threat protection feature that adds another layer of security from ads, viruses, and malicious sites.
Checkout our video Review on NordVPN
Wrapping Up!
That’s it🙌 NordVPN is one of the best VPNs available in the market and is trusted by more than 8 million people. It’s one of the most Reddit-recommended VPNs in 2023 that offers complete privacy & 🛡️security with some additional features. While its SmartPlay features bypass every streaming service & the NordLynx protocol delivers premium⚡speeds. Additionally, NordVPN comes with a built-in 🚫ad-blocker, Threat Protection, and maintains dedicated servers for different activities like Torrenting, Tor, Double VPN, etc (Which no other VPNs have). Also, they are offering a 30-day money-back guarantee program to try out their services for free.
Like:
Don’t Like:
✔️ No Logging with privacy-friendly headquarters (Panama). ✔️ Built-in Ad-blocker and Threat protection. ✔️ Unblock every streaming site, website, and torrenting site. ✔️ Best in-class server speeds with NordLynx protocol and dedicated servers. ✔️ Work in China ❌Slow internet speed on a few servers like Malaysia (rarely).
