One of my favorite new additions isn’t on the desktop app, though. NordVPN recently introduced scam call protection on Android, with an iOS version planned for the future. I’ve been using it for months, and it has easily flagged more than a hundred spam calls to my phone. It works a treat, even if it’s not one of NordVPN’s big advertised features.
Almost the Fastest VPN
NordVPN is fast. It’s not the fastest VPN I’ve tested—that’s Proton VPN—but that’s more of a rounding error than a notable difference in speed. Across five US locations, NordVPN dropped 15.32 percent of my unprotected speed on average. For context, Proton dropped 15.23 percent. Surfshark, which is also owned by Nord Security, dropped 18.84 percent, while Mullvad closed in on 24 percent.
So, NordVPN is fast, but more importantly, it’s consistent. Across the locations I tested, it never posted a slowdown of more than 20 percent, and in one location (Chicago), it only dropped a meager 6.6 percent of my unprotected speed. Overall, though, that 15 percent drop is a good representation of the speeds you can expect, at least in the US.
Speed testing with any VPN is tricky. There are a ton of factors that influence speeds beyond the server you’re connecting to. My speed testing—and any VPN speed testing, for that matter—is a snapshot in time. It provides insight into the kind of speeds you can expect on average, not a concrete number you should expect from every server at every time of day. To get the most accurate snapshot possible, I tested across five US locations at three different times of day over the course of a week. Before each test, I ran three passes of my unprotected speed to get an accurate comparison, and I threw out any results with a greater than 10 percent deviation between passes.
The best way to get around speed hurdles is to change servers, and NordVPN is solid on that front. It has around 7,400 servers, but the exact number is constantly changing. It maintains a database of its servers and locations, complete with details on the features those servers support and whether they’re virtual or physical servers.
NordVPN lives up to its monumental name. It still has a massive network, fast speeds, and a ton of features, and despite its infamous data breach, it has continued to double down on security measures. The main issue with Nord is the price. You can score a good deal on a two-year discount, but that price jumps up significantly when it comes time to renew. This is why I rank it slightly below Proton VPN, despite the two services going toe-to-toe on features and speeds. Proton Unlimited clocks in at the same monthly price as NordVPN Basic, and it comes with Proton Pass, Proton Mail, and a handful of other apps.
