NordVPN is an incredibly robust system made by Panama and has 5800 server locations in over 60 countries worldwide, including hard to reach places such as Egypt and South Africa, allowing you to connect to their strongly encrypted network from just about anywhere. NordVPN has decent connection speeds, a hefty double encrypted network, 24/7 customer support, supports multiple devices and doesn’t keep logs. As always, these will all be expanded on throughout the review.
**Official website: https://nordvpn.com
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Pricing and Packages
NordVPN has some decently priced plans that start cheap price of $2.99. Pricing and packages are very important when deciding to buy a VPN service as some can be very expensive, it is for this reason why price points become the main factor before deciding to purchase a VPN. An interesting note is that NordVPN does not discriminate between packages in terms of features like some VPN services do, reassuring you that no matter which plans you choose, you’ll still receive the same features as you would with any other plan. Also, just like every VPN we review, the more committed you are to their services, the better the price will be. NordVPN even states the discounts you will receive depending on the package and commitment you select. Before listing NordVPN’s prices, it should be mentioned that NordVPN is very good when it comes to special deals and promotes them regularly. Currently, they are advertising a 3-year deal only cost $2.99 per month, which popped on my screen offering an even bigger discount in return of a longer commitment. The service has 3 plans: monthly, annually, and a 2-year. As I’ve mentions the cheapest plan starts at $2.99 for the 3-year plan. Then this steadily increases to $3.99 for their 2-year plan, steeply rising to a pricy $6.99 for their annual plan, $11.95 for their monthly plan. As previously mentioned, NordVPN is not the cheapest VPN out there but is by far one the best as you will see throughout this review.
Payment Options
As with any good VPN service, NordVPN offers multiple ways to pay for their services, making you feel safe and secure when you are going through their payment gateway. A VPN has to make sure you are safe and private on the internet, so ensuring your safety when purchasing online should also be of high concern. With NordVPN there is no exception, and they accept standard credit/debit cards such as Visa, American Express and MasterCard, as well as one of the safer options on the web – PayPal. PayPal is a third-party application that allows you to make secure purchases on the internet and is a lot safer than using a credit/debit card alone.
NordVPN also gives you the option to use an even more private, secure and encrypted service, known as Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the safest and most private way of paying on the internet. It is completely untraceable and does not connect your identity to your purchase.
Setup and User-friendliness
Setup was dead easy and pretty much instant, taking under 10 minutes. Once you have paid for the software, you will be taken to an accounts page where you will be given the option to download the software to the client that you have. I downloaded the VPN to windows as that was the system I was running. From here you will have to accept the terms, choose the file destination and install the program on to your device. One benefit to note is that you do not have to restart your computer or device once the application has downloaded. Once everything is complete, you will be greeted with a login page. Enter your details and then you will be greeted with a map of server locations as seen just below.
The windows client is very well designed, easy-to-use and has a whole host of features making it very helpful and useful. The initial screen you’ll see will have a map and many server locations. If you slide the connect button you’ll be connected to the nearest and best connection. You can also click the ‘server’ tab and access all the servers around the world, and the screen will also tell you the uptime of servers and how far away they are. This tab will also contain the specialty servers dedicated to things such as P2P, anti-DDoS and double VPN connections.
The final tab which allows you to configure your settings has a lot of options. It allows you to select whether you want the app to auto-update, turn on with your computer and auto-connect to the best quality server. You can even have a kill switch that will shut down any application you have open if your VPN connection decides to drop. You can also control your account details and personal logs from this tab.
The client is clean and stylish. However, when I first started using the client, it did become quite sluggish when I was browsing through it and scrolling around the map. This did not disturb my experience with the software, however.
Server Locations
As previously mentioned, NordVPN has 5800 server locations in over 60 countries and is constantly growing on the request of its users. It even has some servers in remote locations such as South Africa and Egypt. The global reach of their network allows you connect to just about anywhere in the world and will ensure that you have a good connection that is nearby. That being said, there have been some issues with NordVPN’s server connections and speeds have been average to medium, so make sure that you are connecting to a network that’s close to you.
They also have servers that are dedicated to specific internet activities. For example, they offer servers that are specifically designed for fast P2P activity and have servers that are better for high-speed media streaming. They also have servers that allow anxious users to double encrypt their network through two VPN servers, kind of like a Tor. For an additional fee, you can even purchase your IP address if you would prefer to have something static. To do this, simply contact NordVPN directly and request a dedicated server.
Compatibility
As with the majority of VPN services, NordVPN allows you to use its software on multiple devices and lets you connect to a staggering 6 devices in one instance, including your smartphone, tablet, and router. We live in a digital age where we are using mobile devices more and more when surfing and connecting to the web, so having a VPN service that can secure your precious gadgets from hackers and ISP can be very useful.
The fact that you can actually go ahead and get the software directly on your router opens even more doors, as it will essentially allow you to secure all your devices at home and still leave you with the option to connect another 5 devices! All tutorials are offered on the NordVPN website.
Customer Support
Like all VPN services should, NordVPN offers 24/7 customer support and an extensive website that should answer any questions you may have. They also offer live chat which is very snappy and the team appears to be very knowledgeable about the product and should be able to offer you an answer to any question you may have about the VPN service. The direct customer service queries system is ticket-based so that may have a longer wait time. NordVPN also has a social media presence and take questions and customer queries from their dedicated pages.
Privacy and Security
Of course, the most important aspect, as well as location and speed, is security and privacy when it comes to a good VPN service. NordVPN is amazingly good when it comes to its security and privacy ensuring that you will always be safe and secure when surfing the web. NordVPN offers 256-bit military encryption, a SHA2-384 for data authentication and RSA 2048 for handshaking, with several great security protocols such as IKEv2/IPsec, OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP, and IPSec.
Combine this with some of their crazy extra protection, like double encryption which allows you to funnel your connection through two VPN servers and their Tor over VPN system which sends your connection through a VPN and then a Tor which makes your connection impossible to trace. NordVPN also has its DNS leak resolver which means none of your signals are being leaked outside of the VPN tunnel. All these features plus their super strict no logs policy make NordVPN’s security one of the best in the industry.
Free Trial and Refund Policy
You would be glad to hear that, even with all these great features, NordVPN still offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Therefore, you can use the service for up to 30 days and if you are not happy with it, you can get a complete refund. Moreover, they also offer a 3-day free trial. This is not advertised and you need to be sneaky to get it. You need to message the team and ask them for the free trial.
Other Features
Like many great VPN services, NordVPN also offers its users some free content. You can use their free proxy list if you are looking for some basic security and privacy when surfing the web, or you can even use their gimmicky YouTube proxy which lets you watch YouTube without Google harvesting your information. They even have an option for an encrypted chat, but I was unable to use this as it was not available at the time.
Conclusion
NordVPN is one of the best VPN services in the industry. It offers an incredible amount of server locations around the world and has a fairly reasonable price plan. The security of NordVPN’s software is where it excels, as not only does it have some hefty encryptions on its tunnels, but it also lets you layer your encryption with two VPN servers as well as a VPN-Tor combination. The only downside to this software (if any!) is that it isn’t the fastest network on the market and offers medium connection speeds. However, with a 3-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, I would highly recommend this VPN service.
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