Speed Tests of NordVPN’s Servers

NordVPN Speed Test
NordVPN is a provider that does everything right. It has a large number of lightning fast servers with great global coverage, it works well with streaming, doesn't log a thing, and offers a ton of privacy features. And it’s all wrapped up in a super friendly and intuitive client. Simply put, NordVPN is one service you can’t go wrong with.

Visit NordVPN >>
Pros
  • Excellent download and upload speeds
  • Large ever-expanding server network
  • Great privacy with independently verified no logging policy
  • Specialty servers (including double VPN, obfuscated, and Tor over VPN)
  • Clean, easy to use client
  • Works with Netflix and other streaming services
  • Allows torrenting and P2P
  • Offers dedicated IP addresses
Cons
  • No split tunneling feature
  • A bit pricey on shorter-term plans

Speed Tests

When you visit NordVPN’s website, you’re immediately greeted with the claim that it’s the “Fastest VPN on the planet.” Clearly, NordVPN believes it has performance well in hand.

And, as it turns out, that statement is right.

Not only is NordVPN fast, but, thanks to the recently introduced NordLynx protocol, they are indeed the fastest VPN in the market.

Before we get to the details, there’s one thing I would like to touch on. I test with internet speeds much higher than what any VPN can match (500 Mbps down, 150 Mbps up). This makes sure the results are not capped by my own connection’s performance.

Please keep in mind that if your regular internet is slower than NordVPN’s test result numbers, those slower speeds are the best you can ever expect. And, with that out of the way, back to the results!

NordVPN’s download speeds are blazing fast and consistently so across the boards.

There isn’t a single location I tested that significantly lagged behind the others. Every country saw speeds north of 150 Mbps, which is quite incredible for a consumer VPN service.

Upload speeds also are excellent and just as consistent.

The results put the top-notch performance of NordVPN’s NordLynx protocol on full display, and it is very impressive. Regardless of whether you care more about downloads or uploads, this is, without a doubt, a VPN provider that should be top of your list.

One thing I did notice is that the client software’s selection of my best server (which should, in theory, be my fastest server) is a little off. It does a reasonable job, but I found picking the lowest load server in my area usually gave slightly better speeds.

The difference wasn’t huge. But if you’re trying to squeeze every last bit of performance out of your VPN, manual server selection seems to be the better choice here. It’s a minor issue though.

If you’re curious about how NordVPN’s better than ever performance stacks up against other services, please head over to my fastest VPN comparison page. The difference is indeed striking, leaving the other providers with a lot of catching up to do.

Best Server
NordVPN best VPN server speed test results
With VPN
NordVPN best server baseline speed test results
No VPN
United States
NordVPN Unites States VPN server speed test results
With VPN
NordVPN Unites States baseline speed test results
No VPN
United Kingdom
NordVPN United Kingdom VPN server speed test results
With VPN
NordVPN United Kingdom baseline speed test results
No VPN
Canada
NordVPN Canada VPN server speed test results
With VPN
NordVPN Canada baseline speed test results
No VPN
Australia
NordVPN Australia VPN server speed test results
With VPN
NordVPN Australia baseline speed test results
No VPN
Netherlands
NordVPN Netherlands VPN server speed test results
With VPN
NordVPN Netherlands baseline speed test results
No VPN
Germany
NordVPN Germany VPN server speed test results
With VPN
NordVPN Germany baseline speed test results
No VPN
France
NordVPN France VPN server speed test results
With VPN
NordVPN France baseline speed test results
No VPN

Visit NordVPN >>

About NordVPN

NordVPN is based out of Panama.

The company was established in 2012, and while it’s fairly new, don’t let that fool you. NordVPN is doing everything right.

They provide an excellent, feature rich service while avoiding many of the mistakes some of its competitors are making.

According to their about page, NordVPN is inspired by ideals of innovative technology and customer freedom, trust and confidence. And it shows.

This is why, despite its relatively young age, the service has been recommended by the likes of PCMag, Wired, Yahoo! Tech, CNet, Forbes, and TechRadar.

Privacy and Security

When it comes to privacy, no one does it better than NordVPN.

For starters, they’re based in Panama, a country with no data retention laws, zero government surveillance and an entirely uncensored internet. Panama is well outside the reach of the American NSA and British GCHQ organizations.

NordVPN is also one of just a handful of providers who truly does no logging, as clearly stated in their Terms of Service:

Nord guarantees a strict no-logs policy for NordVPN Services, meaning that the NordVPN Service is provided by an automated process, and your activities while using it are not monitored, recorded, logged, stored or passed to any third party. We do not store connection timestamps, session information, used bandwidth, traffic logs, IP addresses or other data.

And that’s the way it should be.

Even though anonymous time stamps and used bandwidth seem like things that can’t be used to uniquely identify you, that’s unfortunately not the case. If you have the right resources (a la the government), you’d be surprised what you can do with that data.

By not keeping these stats, the best NordVPN can do when asked to turn them over is shrug their shoulders (ignoring the fact that getting to that point in Panama would be difficult, to begin with).

The only personal information NordVPN requires is an email address. Payment can be made completely anonymously using Bitcoin.

As far as security, NordVPN uses military grade encryption.

The default with the Windows, macOS and Android clients is the OpenVPN protocol over UDP with AES-256-CBC encryption and a 2048-bit Diffie-Hellmann key. The iOS client uses IKEv2/IPsec with the AES-256-GCM encryption algorithm and 3072-bit Diffie-Hellmann keys.

If these acronyms and numbers don’t mean much to you, all you need to know is that your data is perfectly safe.

For those concerned, you’ll also be glad to hear that my NordVPN testest revealed no IPv4, IPv6 or WebRTC leaks.

If the default levels of protection just won’t cut it for you, NordVPN also offers two additional features in which you may be interested.

The first is called double VPN. NordVPN is one of only a few providers I know of that supports it.

In a nutshell, double VPN allows you to chain two VPN servers. Data leaves your device encrypted as per usual and travels to the first VPN server. Once there, instead of going to the internet, your data is encrypted a second time and forwarded to a second VPN server. Only once at the second server will it accesses the internet.

The second feature, Onion over VPN – also commonly called Tor over VPN – is similar, but instead of chaining on a second VPN server, it sends your data through the Tor network. All your communication ends up accessing the internet from a Tor relay.

Please note that using either double VPN or Onion over VPN will slow down your connection. But, if security and privacy are of utmost importance, using either of these features may be worth it.

One last security feature worth mentioning supported by NordVPN is kill switch functionality. If for whatever reason, your VPN connection was to drop suddenly, the kill switch will shut down any site or software you pre-configure with it ahead of time.

This way you can be sure no sensitive data will ever be accidentally exposed.

Features

NordVPN’s is compatible with just about every platform under the sun. All the big names you expect like Windows, macOS, iOS and Android are there, but so is Windows Home, Chrome OS, Linux, RaspberryPi and a huge number of routers.

The client software is slick looking and intuitive to use.

You can connect from either a map of the world or a list servers. Connecting from the map will pick the best available server in the country, presumably based on load and distance to your location.

Connecting from the server list gives you a lot more control. The list will give you current server loads and their distances to you. From this menu, you can also pick a purpose specific server for, say, peer-to-peer or double VPN.

For those used to picking servers by city name, that is not something NordVPN’s client supports. Ultimately, this doesn’t matter at all since you can pick based on the true important metric, distance.

I think it just stood out and I found it a little weird at first because I’m so used to being able to connect this way.

I did notice a few differences between the Windows and macOS versions. The latter didn’t feel quite as complete, though still very much usable.

For example, being able to sort servers in the server list by load or distance was missing. Not a show stopper by any means, but a feature that would be nice to have. I imagine since it’s implemented in the Windows version, it will eventually make its way over to the other platforms as well.

Kill switch functionality, Onion over VPN and Double VPN are all available with NordVPN. Please review the Privacy and Security section above for more details on all three features.

Smart DNS, branded in this case as Smart Play, is also present and accounted for.

This feature works by resolving DNS requests at specific locations, allowing you to watch geo-blocked content. Indeed, NordVPN works with Netflix and the BBC’s iPlayer better than most other providers.

You don’t need to do anything on your end to get Smart DNS going. It automatically detects when it’s needed and routes your lookups accordingly.

For much more in-depth information on all these features, please head over to my review of NordVPN.

Restrictions

The one restriction every VPN provider has is the number of simultaneous connections. For NordVPN, it’s set at 6. That’s an industry high no other provider can match.

If you have a lot of devices (or many family members) that will be connected to the VPN at the same time, definitely keep NordVPN on your radar.

There are no other restrictions you need to worry about with NordVPN.

Customer Support

24/7 Support at NordVPN comes in the form of live chat (my preferred method), a ticketing system or email. Facebook and Twitter are also viable options for less sensitive questions.

The response is fast and seems knowledgeable.

The two times I contacted support over chat to test their quickness and knowledge, I was talking to someone in under two minutes. The people I spoke to seem to know what they were talking about and I didn’t get the feeling I was being read to from a script.

For self-serve support, NordVPN’s website also provides an extensive FAQ and setup tutorials for just about every operating system, device, and router imaginable.

Up until recently, NordVPN used to offer a 7-day free trial. That is no longer the case. They do, however, have a some great discounts which are backed by their generous 30-day refund policy in case you’re not fully satisfied with the service.

The one caveat is that if request a refund due to a technical issue (not that I ran into any), NordVPN will try to troubleshoot it first.

Server Locations

NordVPN has quite an impressive network of servers. The count currently stands at 6125 machines in 61 countries.

The sheer number of servers is second only to Private Internet Access. Though, with NordVPN, you can pick which server to connect to. You can’t with PIA.

The number of countries isn’t the highest either (that honor belongs to HideMyAss! and PureVPN), but I would be good money it will be more than enough for 99% of users. I couldn’t think of a single country I may want to connect to that is not on NordVPN’s server list.

Visit NordVPN >>

About Tim Tremblay

Tim is the founder of Fastest VPN Guide. He comes from a world of corporate IT security and network management and knows a thing or two about what makes VPNs tick. Cybersecurity expert by day, writer on all things VPN by night, that’s Tim. You can also follow him on Twitter and Quora.

7 thoughts on “Speed Tests of NordVPN’s Servers”

  1. Hello Tim

    Great review
    Did you actually find a VPN to handle gigabit speeds (or even 500Mbps , what you had at that time)

    Thanks and looking forward to your reply

    Reply
    • Hi Alex,

      Thanks! No, so far I have not found a VPN that comes even close to 500Mbps. One day in the not too distant future hopefully 🙂

      Reply
  2. Hi, how much ping and download speed can I get if i use VPN in Perth? My current latency/ping is 66ms, download speed around 50mbps

    Reply
    • Hi Elvin. Typically, the further the VPN server you connect to, the worse your latency and download speed will be. That said, assuming you connect to your closest server (NordVPN has servers in Sydney and I’m pretty sure in Perth too), I would expect your ping to be in the 75 to 85 ms range and your download speed in the 40 to 45 mbps range (those are just guesses though – unfortunately there’s no way to know for sure until you try).

      Reply
    • Hi Kelly. I’m sorry, but I’m not sure what you mean. Are you talking about the iPlayer? And if so, at which point in the process do you get the incorrect postal code message?

      Reply

Leave a Comment