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NordVPN: Pricing and Plans
NordVPN isn’t the cheapest VPN, but it’s far from the most expensive. This is about £1 more per month than Surfshark, but cheaper than ExpressVPN – and for what you’re getting, I’d say it’s worth it. The features, security, and the fact that you can now connect up to 10 devices make it one of the best VPNs available. Plus, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if it’s not for you, you can cancel within a month for a full refund. no strings attached.
A word of advice: If you choose a two-year plan, set a reminder to cancel it before renewing. Once the initial two years are over, you will be charged a hefty fee for the next two years.
Prices fluctuate due to various promotions. NordVPN offers three subscription tiers – Basic, Plus, and Ultimate – so you can choose the plan that suits your needs (and budget). It also has the option to add a dedicated IP address, which is ideal for corporate users. This costs extra £3.19 per month, but like other subscriptions, the price can vary.
nordvpn basic
This is the most affordable option, giving you access to all the main VPN features. At the time of writing, the cheapest plan is a two-year subscription at £62.16 upfront (about £2.59 per month).
The one-year plan costs £45.48 (about £3.79 per month), while the monthly plan is £10.09 per month.
nordvpn plus
If you want something more than the basics, the Plus tier adds useful extras like Threat Protection Pro (which blocks malware, trackers, and ads) and a password manager.
The one-month plan is £10.79 per month; The one-year plan costs £55.08 (about £4.59 per month), and the two-year plan costs £81.36 (about £3.39 per month).
nordvpn ultimate
It is a complete VPN and cyber security suite. Along with the VPN, Threat Protection Pro, and password manager, you also get 1TB of encrypted cloud storage and cyber insurance. If you have been scammed or scammed online, you could be covered up to £5,000.
Right now, the monthly plan is £12.79; A one-year subscription costs £77.87 (£6.49 per month); And a two-year subscription is £126.96 (£5.29 per month).
NordVPN: Privacy and Features
NordVPN has all the security features you would expect from a good VPN provider. It uses RAM-based servers, which means data is not stored on the hard drive, and information is wiped with each server reboot, leading me to believe that data cannot be saved or recovered. It also uses AES-256-bit encryption, a gold-standard encryption method used by militaries and banks.
It supports connections over NordLynx (NordVPN’s WireGuard-based protocol) and OpenVPN. These are basically high-security protocols that create an encrypted tunnel between the VPN client and server. By default, NordVPN uses NordLynx – it’s very fast, so I didn’t see much need to change it. But if you want, you can switch it in the settings. You can also install a VPN on your router.
In January 2025, NordVPN launched a new protocol called NordWhisper, which is specifically designed to help users bypass VPN blocks and Internet censorship. It works by disguising VPN traffic to look like regular HTTPS web traffic, especially useful in places like China or Iran.
It also has a built-in kill switch that is on by default. If your VPN connection goes down, it cuts off internet access completely, so your data doesn’t get leaked. There’s also a split tunneling feature, which lets you exclude certain websites, which is useful for things like online banking.
Although these are all pretty standard these days, NordVPN also offers more advanced features that help it stand out. I really like the Double VPN setting, it routes your traffic through two VPN servers instead of one, encrypting your data twice. This makes it more difficult for someone to trace your activity. This is especially useful for journalists or people from heavily monitored countries.
If you want to take things even further, NordVPN lets you route your traffic through the Onion network, without downloading the Tor browser. If you’ve heard of Onion, it’s probably in reference to the dark web, but the Tor browser was also the same one used by Edward Snowden to leak NSA documents. He recommended it for anyone trying to remain anonymous online.
There are servers dedicated to P2P torrenting, not all VPNs offer. When I tested them, the download speeds were about the same as regular servers.
One underrated feature (that ExpressVPN and others still don’t have) is the pause button. If you’re as forgetful as I am, you’ve probably accidentally left your VPN on and been seeing strange Google results or ended up on Amazon’s German site. With NordVPN, you can pause your connection for up to an hour and have it turn back on automatically.
NordVPN also introduced Meshnet in 2023, which lets you create a private network over the internet. This is great for securely sharing files with specific people or for gamers who want to play together over a private connection.
Those are the main features, but if you choose the Plus or Ultimate plan, you get some additional cybersecurity tools. Not all of them are necessary – you can replicate many of them with free browser extensions – but it’s nice to have the option.
Threat Protection Pro blocks malicious websites and trackers, scans files for malware, and checks your apps for vulnerabilities. Yes, free antivirus software can do this too, but it’s convenient to have it all in one place. There is also a dark web monitor that scans for leaked login credentials and tells you if your data has been exposed.
The password manager is a nice bonus if you don’t want to pay separately for something like 1Password. The final level is probably only suitable for business users. Additional features are cyber insurance and 1TB cloud storage.
NordVPN: Logging
If you’re worried about your Internet traffic being tracked, you shouldn’t be. NordVPN was the first major provider to undergo an independent no-logs audit. The first was in 2018, and four more have been completed since then.
In 2018, PricewaterhouseCoopers found that NordVPN does not keep logs of your connection data or browsing activity. This means that your IP address, VPN usage, websites visited and files downloaded were all kept private. The same thing was confirmed in the second audit in 2020.
After that, NordVPN switched to Deloitte for future audits. In 2022, Deloitte interviewed employees, checked server configurations, and examined technical logs. Again, no user activity data was stored. In late 2023, Deloitte re-audited its infrastructure, which included obfuscation, double VPN, Tor, and P2P servers, and found no evidence of logging.
Most recently, in early 2025, Deloitte Audit Lithuania conducted a fifth audit, which confirmed that NordVPN’s servers were still not storing any user data.
NordVPN: Performance and Speed
In mid-2025, NordVPN finally replaced its clunky map-based interface with a cleaner, dashboard-style layout on both Windows and Mac. While some people liked the map for selecting countries visually, I always found it a little crowded. The new layout is very easy to use.
You will now get a list of latest, exclusive and standard servers on the right, with pause and quick connect buttons at the top. The central section gives you access to the settings for threat protection, meshnet, and dark web monitor. Things like the kill switch are already enabled, so you don’t have to mess with advanced settings unless you want to. One downside: It now takes a few more clicks to reach specific city-level servers. You have to select a country, click on the options button, then select your city. It’s not as fast as before.
Split tunneling is still only available on Windows. Still, it is not flawless. I had some issues where streaming services didn’t recognize that they were whitelisted and thought I was still using the VPN. A bit of a disappointment considering how fantastic the rest of the experience was.
As far as speed goes? NordVPN is really fast. This is one of the fastest VPNs I’ve tested. Using the Quick Connect UK server, I saw only a 4% drop on my 67Mbps broadband. Connecting to a US server resulted in about a 9% slowdown. Still very fast.
NordVPN: iOS and Android apps
The dashboard view isn’t out on iOS and Android yet, but it’s less impressive on mobile, so I don’t mind too much. Like many VPNs, the Android app is more feature-rich than the iOS app, even though they look almost identical. Both have the same map-based interface, with a server list at the bottom for easy navigation. Although the design seems more suited for desktop devices than mobile, it still works quite well and offers most of the same features with equally fast speeds.
That said, there are some major advantages of Android apps. It supports split tunneling, letting you choose which apps use the VPN and which bypass it – something that iOS doesn’t offer, mainly due to Apple’s restrictions. The Android app also offers more detailed controls, such as the ability to set custom DNS servers and access obscure servers, features that are not available on iOS.
That said, they both offer really good levels of performance, speed, and reliability on both Android and iOS.
nordvpn for streaming
If you’re traveling abroad and want to stream your favorite shows or watch sports from your home in the UK, a VPN can make it possible. While it’s not technically illegal to use a VPN to stream geo-restricted content on platforms like Netflix or BBC iPlayer, it violates the terms of service of most streaming services, so proceed with caution.
That said, if you’re struggling to access content on BBC iPlayer, Sky Sports or even Netflix, NordVPN is a great option. Thanks to its obscure servers, NordVPN effectively hides your VPN usage, making it appear as if you’re browsing normally. In our tests, the streaming platform never detected that we were using a VPN, and we could watch all our favorite shows and live sports while remaining connected to a UK server without any interruptions.
I tried NordVPN on a few different devices and with different streaming services, and it performed admirably. I was able to watch ITVX, Channel 4, Sky Go and Prime Video on my iPhone, Mac and Windows laptop without any problems. Speeds were still fast, with no annoying buffering.
Overall, streaming works like a charm, and I don’t have to jump from server to server to find one that works with my streaming service of choice. Speeds were also good – I didn’t experience any issues with buffering on my various devices.
Help
NordVPN has 24-hour live chat support, which can be accessed through the provider’s website. There is no live chat in the mobile app, but I was able to send a message through the Contact Us button located inside the app settings.
NordVPN’s support staff was extremely responsive. It only took me 10 seconds to connect with a human agent, and you can ask to speak to a person at any time during your conversation with the chatbot. That said, I probably don’t even need the agent’s help – the chatbot is surprisingly thorough, answering almost every question I asked. Chances are, you’ll find out what you need just by talking to the bot.