NordVPN Review (2025): It lives up to its name

However, one of my favorite new additions isn’t on the desktop app. NordVPN recently introduced fraudulent call protection on Android, with an iOS version planned for the future. I’ve been using it for months, and it has easily reported over a hundred unwanted calls on my phone. It works great, 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 noticeable speed difference. Across five US locations, NordVPN’s average speed dropped 15.32 percent from my unprotected speed. In this context, Proton shares fell by 15.23 percent. Surfshark, also owned by Nord Security, fell 18.84 percent, while Mullvad closed at 24 percent.

So, NordVPN is fast, but more importantly, consistent. Across the sites I tested, it never recorded a slowdown of more than 20 percent, and at one site (Chicago), it only dropped a meager 6.6 percent of my unprotected speed. Overall, this 15 percent drop is a good representation of the speeds you can expect, at least in the United States.

Testing speed with any VPN is difficult. There are a lot of factors that affect speeds outside of the server you’re connected to. My speed test, and any VPN speed test, for that matter, is a snapshot in time. It provides insight into what kind of speeds you can expect on average, not a specific number you should expect from each server at every time of day. To get the most accurate snapshot possible, I ran the test at five U.S. locations at three different times of day throughout the week. Before each test, I made three passes of my unprotected speed to get an accurate comparison, and I discarded any results that had a greater than 10 percent deviation between passes.

The best way to overcome speed hurdles is to change servers, and NordVPN is strong on this front. It has about 7,400 servers, but the exact number is constantly changing. It maintains a database Its servers and locations, with details about what features those servers support and whether they are virtual or physical servers.

NordVPN lives up to its huge name. It still has a huge network, fast speeds, tons of features, and despite the infamous data breach, it has continued to double down on security measures. The main problem with the Nord is the price. You can score a good deal on a two-year discount, but that price jumps significantly when it’s time to renew. That’s why I ranked it slightly lower than Proton VPN, even though the two services compete in terms of features and speeds. Proton Unlimited runs at the same monthly price as NordVPN Basic, and comes with Proton Pass, Proton Mail, and a number of other apps.