Norton Safe VPN vs NordVPN (2024): Which VPN Is the Finest? – Uplaza

Norton Safe VPN and NordVPN are mid-priced digital personal community companies that disguise your IP tackle and web looking exercise from exterior observers. Each merchandise goal people, households and small companies with 10 customers or fewer. Whereas they appear comparable, their differing capabilities and logging insurance policies make NordVPN the clear selection for any privacy-conscious person.

Beneath, I examine Norton Safe VPN and NordVPN based mostly on vital components like connection pace, server choices, privateness insurance policies and buyer assist. I additionally clarify why I belief NordVPN over Norton on the subject of web privateness.

• Norton Safe VPN: Finest for present Norton 360 customers who aren’t significantly involved about torrenting or privateness.
• NordVPN: Finest for any privacy-conscious customers who want a quick, safe connection for torrenting and streaming.

Norton Safe VPN vs NordVPN: Comparability desk

	Norton Safe VPN	NordVPN
Beginning worth	$29.99 per yr	$3.39 monthly
Server pool	Unknown variety of servers in 29 international locations (28 on cellular)	5,800 servers in your selection of 140 cities in 110+ international locations
Supported units	Home windows, Mac, Android and iOS	Home windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Android TV, tvOS, Fireplace Stick, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Swap, Raspberry Pi, Chromebook, Chromecast, Kindle Fireplace and Oculus Quest
Streaming companies	Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Max, Amazon	Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Amazon, ITVX, Channel 4, 9Now, 10 play
Simultaneous connections	As much as 10 units, relying on plan	10 units for all plans
VPN options	Cut up tunneling, kill change, P2P optimization	Cut up tunneling, kill change, double VPN, streaming optimization, personal DNS, Onion Over VPN
Extra security measures	As a part of Norton 360, consists of menace safety, password supervisor, darkish internet monitoring, privateness monitoring, encrypted cloud storage and parental controls	Meshnet Plus and Final plans, password supervisor, knowledge breach scanner, encrypted cloud storage and cyber safety insurance coverage
Privateness insurance policies	Unverified no-logs coverage contradicted by Norton’s torrenting coverage and international privateness coverage	Strict no-logs insurance policies verified by 4 unbiased audits
Buyer assist	Telephone, stay chat and social media assist, self-help portal	Electronic mail and stay chat assist, self-help portal

Norton Safe VPN vs NordVPN: Pricing

Norton Safe VPN pricing

Norton doesn’t supply a free trial of its standalone VPN product, however you may get a seven-day free trial of its Norton 360 safety platform that features the VPN service.

Pricing for Norton Safe VPN is damaged down into three plans relying on the variety of units you wish to defend. There isn’t a month-to-month subscription possibility — you need to decide to at the least one yr. If you would like further security measures, you should purchase one among two Norton 360 plans. Norton 360 Normal consists of menace safety, 2GB cloud backup storage (for Home windows solely), darkish internet monitoring and a password supervisor for as much as three units. Norton 360 Deluxe will increase the quantity of cloud backup storage to 50GB and provides parental controls (not obtainable for Mac) and privateness monitoring for as much as 5 units.

SEE: NordVPN vs ExpressVPN: Which VPN Is Finest? (TechRepublic)

Norton is at present providing promotional pricing for the primary yr of service, however then the value jumps considerably even for a standalone VPN plan.

• Norton Safe VPN (standalone) for 1 system: $29.99 for the primary yr, then $49.99 per yr.
• Norton Safe VPN (standalone) for five units: $39.99 for the primary yr, then $79.99 per yr.
• Norton Safe VPN (standalone) for 10 units: $59.99 for the primary yr, then $99.99 per yr.
• Norton 360 Normal + VPN for 3 units: $39.99 for the primary yr, then $94.99 per yr.
• Norton 360 Deluxe + VPN for five units: $49.99 for the primary yr, then $119.99 per yr.

NordVPN pricing

NordVPN provides a free trial (with a bank card) for those who join on an Android system. Its service is damaged down into three plans, with pricing reductions for those who decide to a yr or extra. The Fundamental plan consists of the complete VPN service. Plus consists of all the things within the Fundamental plan in addition to menace safety, a password supervisor and an information breach scanner. Final consists of all the things in Plus and 1 TB of encrypted cloud storage. The Plus plan provides the very best worth to your buck, particularly for those who’re going to decide to a two-year subscription.

• NordVPN Fundamental: $3.39 monthly for two years, $4.99 monthly for 1 yr, $12.99 monthly for month-to-month.
• NordVPN Plus: $4.39 monthly for two years, $5.99 monthly for 1 yr, $13.99 monthly for month-to-month.
• NordVPN Final: $6.39 monthly for two years, $7.99 monthly for 1 yr, $15.99 monthly for month-to-month.

Norton Safe VPN vs NordVPN: Characteristic comparability

Velocity

Winner: Tie

Regardless of a smaller server pool, Norton Safe VPN supplied a surprisingly seamless looking and streaming expertise with none noticeable drops in pace or efficiency in comparison with my baseline web connection. NordVPN is thought for having a few of the greatest VPN speeds in its worth vary, so I wasn’t anticipating Norton to be a critical contender on this class.

With that stated, I stay close to a significant regional hub with an optimum server close by. Since Norton’s international unfold is restricted in comparison with NordVPN, I might anticipate customers in some areas may not have the identical expertise.

SEE: Is a VPN Actually Price It in 2024? (TechRepublic)

I’ve used NordVPN a number of occasions in recent times, and irrespective of the place I’m, I’ve discovered an optimum server that delivers speeds similar to my baseline web connection.

Server pool

Winner: NordVPN

Norton Safe VPN provides servers in 29 international locations (28 on cellular). Norton doesn’t disclose the precise variety of servers in its server pool, and you’ll’t see a full listing of servers — or select a selected metropolis to hook up with — from throughout the VPN app. Norton’s lack of disclosure makes it troublesome to make sure you’ll have a close-by server to hook up with before you purchase or that you simply’ll have entry to servers in a selected area to unlock streaming content material.

SEE: Surfshark vs NordVPN: Which VPN Is Higher in 2024? (TechRepublic)

NordVPN proudly advertises a big pool of over 5,800 in additional than 110 international locations. There are devoted P2P servers optimized for torrenting and file sharing, double VPN servers that route your visitors via two areas, and “obfuscated” servers to assist bypass content material filters and community firewalls. It’s also possible to select particular cities to hook up with and examine an entire listing of servers on NordVPN’s web site earlier than signing up.

Determine A

Supported units

Winner: NordVPN

Norton Safe VPN has apps for Home windows, Mac, Android and iOS. Nonetheless, it’s value noting that not all options are supported on all platforms — the VPN kill change and P2P optimization aren’t obtainable on iOS, and break up tunneling isn’t obtainable on iOS or Mac.

SEE: Surfshark vs Norton Safe VPN (2024): Which VPN Is Higher? (TechRepublic)

NordVPN helps mainly any sort of system, together with gaming methods, media streaming sticks, Raspberry Pi and Oculus Quest. So far as I might inform, each NordVPN characteristic is obtainable in each model of the app.

Privateness insurance policies

Winner: NordVPN

Norton claims to have a no-logs coverage for its VPN service, however that appears solely to use to looking historical past, particular visitors data and IP addresses. Digging into Norton’s International Privateness Assertion for Safe VPN, I discovered the corporate collects and shops details about customers’ units, bandwidth utilization and connection occasions. Much more crucially, Norton screens and shops visitors knowledge to detect and block torrenting, which it considers an abuse of service. These insurance policies make me significantly query how personal my web exercise actually is whereas utilizing Norton Safe VPN.

Determine B

In the meantime, NordVPN has a strict no-logs coverage that’s been verified by 4 unbiased audits. The corporate is clear about its authorized obligations to show over knowledge in a legal investigation, but it surely’s by no means been required to take action earlier than. I really feel very assured that each one my community visitors is totally personal whereas linked to NordVPN, even when I have been torrenting information or looking from a rustic with heavy censorship.

Buyer assist

Winner: Norton Safe VPN

Norton’s assist middle supplies a sturdy collection of assist choices, together with guided self-troubleshooting, group boards and data base articles. Clients can even attain Norton’s assist workforce via social media, a stay chat or over the telephone. General, connecting to an actual human for assist was a lot simpler with Norton than with different equally priced VPN distributors.

Determine C

NordVPN’s buyer assist expertise is kind of normal within the trade, providing on-line tutorials, an e-mail ticketing system and a chatbot.

Extra options

Winner: NordVPN

Each Norton and NordVPN supply quite a lot of additional security measures for those who select an upgraded plan, however for the needs of this comparability, I solely regarded on the capabilities included in Norton’s standalone Safe VPN product and NordVPN’s Fundamental subscription.

SEE: 4 Finest Free VPNs for 2024 (TechRepublic)

Norton Safe VPN consists of break up tunneling for Home windows and Android units, so you possibly can enable sure secure apps to bypass the VPN connection. It additionally features a kill change (for Home windows, Android and Mac) that robotically disconnects your system from the web if the VPN connection drops, so that you by no means unintentionally browse unprotected. One other characteristic obtainable to everybody besides iOS customers is one-click P2P entry, although, as I discussed above, Norton doesn’t enable any torrenting visitors. General, Norton provides a reasonably fundamental VPN characteristic set, and it’s restricted primarily to Home windows and Android customers.

SEE: Easy methods to Begin a Profession in Cybersecurity (TechRepublic Premium)

NordVPN provides each kill change and break up tunneling for all app variations, in addition to double VPN and personal DNS. An extra safety functionality included in all plans is Meshnet, which lets you create an encrypted native space community with as much as 60 units.

Determine D

NordVPN additionally has an Onion Over VPN characteristic, which lets you browse .onion web sites with out utilizing a Tor browser.

Norton Safe VPN execs and cons

Execs of Norton Safe VPN

• Extremely aggressive VPN speeds and efficiency.
• Quite a few stay assist choices.
• Consists of VPN service free with Norton 360 plans.

Cons of Norton Safe VPN

• Displays connection visitors for torrenting exercise and blocks it.
• Unverified no-logs coverage that contradicts its International Privateness Assertion.
• Excessive yearly value after the promotional interval ends.
• Undisclosed quantity and placement of servers.
• Comparatively fundamental set of VPN options.
• Most options are solely obtainable on Home windows and Android.

NordVPN execs and cons

Execs of NordVPN

• Persistently excessive speeds and efficiency.
• Giant server pool with a formidable geographic unfold.
• Works on almost any system with out characteristic limitations.
• Strict no-logs coverage has been independently verified 4 occasions.
• Consists of additional options like Meshnet and Onion Over VPN.

Cons of NordVPN

• Solely provides a 7-day free trial for Android customers.
• Could be troublesome to succeed in a human for assist.

Norton Safe VPN vs NordVPN on Reddit

The overall opinion of Norton merchandise on Reddit (and elsewhere) is overwhelmingly detrimental because of components like how notoriously troublesome it’s to take away its software program out of your pc and the controversy over together with cryptominers in its antivirus. Its torrenting coverage, particularly, had a few Reddit customers particularly suggest NordVPN as a substitute.

Within the r/Roms subreddit, person TheIronRed requested, “Is Norton VPN going to keep my ISP from knowing I torrent and sending me a letter?”

Whole_Temperature104 replied, “You won’t be caught by your ISP, but Norton will definitely cancel your subscription if they get a notice.”

SonofaSlumlord stated, “My former ISP ‘grounded’ me for 24 hours when they were notified I was torrenting movies. I switched providers and got a deal for 3 years of NordVPN for $100 from microcenter and haven’t had any issues since.”

Salava91 summed it up with “NordVPN is top notch. Use that one.”

Ought to your small business use Norton Safe VPN or NordVPN?

Select Norton Safe VPN if:

• You might be solely barely involved about privateness and don’t intend on torrenting or conducting some other doubtlessly unlawful (or surveilled) actions.
• You have already got Norton 360 and wish to check out a VPN with out paying additional.

Select NordVPN if:

• You wish to torrent with out risking service termination.
• You’re a political activist, journalist or in any other case want full privateness.
• You wish to go to .onion web sites on the Tor community with no separate browser.
• You want to hook up with servers in a selected location the place you reside, journey or wish to unblock localized streaming content material.

Methodology

I used a pal’s account to attempt Norton Safe VPN on a Home windows laptop computer and signed up for a free trial copy of NordVPN on my Android telephone. I evaluated each merchandise based mostly on their pricing, core options, usability, pace and buyer assist. I additionally completely reviewed the characteristic descriptions and privateness insurance policies revealed on the supplier web sites and in contrast these with actual buyer experiences as described on Reddit and public evaluate websites.

Be taught extra about TechRepublic’s evaluate methodology for VPNs.