Proton VPN and NordVPN are two of the more recognizable names in the VPN space – and for good reason. Between their impressive connection speeds, widespread server networks, highly reliable unblocking, and impressive security setups, there’s a lot to like.
It’s little wonder, then, that both Proton VPN and NordVPN rank among the best VPN services we’ve reviewed.
On the one hand, you have NordVPN, our top-rated VPN for its all-around performance and protection. Then there’s Proton VPN, a privacy-first provider that’s made huge strides in areas that matter most to streamers, such as speed and server locations.
Pricing and plans
Like most major VPN providers, Proton VPN and NordVPN offer one-month, one-year, and two-year subscriptions. The longer the subscription, the more money you’ll have to commit upfront, but the bigger the savings you can make.
One of the key differences, however, is that NordVPN has four different subscription tiers for you to choose from: Basic, Plus, Complete, and Prime. The higher the tier, the more you’ll pay, but the greater the number of features you’ll have access to. It’s worth noting that these tiers vary by region and consequently not all regions get the same features per plan. For the moment, we’ll focus on the US market.
For example, only the tiers above Basic have access to Threat Protection Pro for advanced blocking of ads, trackers, and malicious URLs. Likewise, Plus, Complete, and Prime subscribers get NordPass, NordVPN’s password manager, and access to a data breach scanner. The top two tiers benefit from NordLocker cloud storage. Only the top-tier Prime plan has NordProtect. Available only to US residents, it includes dark web monitoring and identity theft insurance.
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Proton VPN has two paid tiers on offer: VPN Plus and VPN Unlimited. The key difference here is that VPN Unlimited includes Proton VPN’s other paid products: Proton Pass, Proton Mail, Proton Calendar, and Proton Drive. It’s also the only one of the two to have a free tier, Proton VPN Free, which just so happens to be one of the best free VPNs around.
There are no discounts with either Proton VPN or NordVPN’s one-month plans. A one-month Proton VPN subscription costs $9.99 (VPN Plus) or $12.99 (Proton Unlimited). NordVPN’s one-month subscription prices are higher, ranging from $12.99 to $17.99.
It’s with the one-year subscriptions that we start to see some savings with Proton VPN Plus at $2.99 a month, Proton Unlimited at $6.49, and NordVPN again generally more expensive with prices between $4.59 and $8.49 a month. Note that although we’ve listed the monthly cost for the sake of comparison, the full amount of one-year and two-year subscription plans is charged upfront.
What’s interesting about Proton VPN compared to other popular providers, NordVPN included, is that its two-year subscription plans don’t actually work out cheaper per month. Indeed, its VPN Plus plan for over two years is $2.99 a month – the same price as the one-year plan. As for VPN Unlimited, it’s $7.99 a month over the course of the two-year subscription. That’s $1.50 a month more than its one-year counterpart.
It’s with NordVPN’s two-year subscription plans that you can get the best possible price, with prices from $2.99 a month to $6.89 a month. Just remember that NordVPN’s prices are advertised before tax is added to the total cost, so they’ll be a touch higher than what’s mentioned above, and this will vary by region.
NordVPN offers a couple of add-ons, too. A dedicated IP address costs from $3.69 to $8.99 a month, depending on the duration of your subscription. Likewise, access to Incogni data removal service costs from $4.49 to $10.99 monthly.
It’s hard to argue the value of Proton VPN’s one-month and one-year plans, particularly those of Proton Unlimited, which generally works out cheaper than NordVPN, despite the many impressive extras included. Yet the fact that you can get NordVPN for as little as $2.99 a month with its two-year subscription, or even get all the benefits of NordProtect (if you’re a US resident) under the NordVPN Prime plan for just $6.89 a month, is hard to beat.
Features
Although both Proton VPN and NordVPN each have a good selection of features on offer, it’s NordVPN that comes out on top in this area.
One of its standout features is its password manager, NordPass. Compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux, as well as popular browsers including Chrome and Firefox, it’s our best password manager overall.
Another feature unique to NordVPN is Meshnet, which allows you to create a secure, encrypted private network between your devices regardless of their location. This feature is popular with LAN gamers who want to play with friends in different locations. Also included with NordVPN is Threat Protection Pro, a security suite that not only keeps you safe from ads and trackers but also from malicious sites.
Proton VPN may not be quite as feature-heavy as NordVPN, but what is on offer is no less impressive. Like NordVPN, it has ad and tracker blocking via NetShield. One feature that sets Proton VPN apart from NordVPN is Profiles, which lets you save custom settings such as server type, location, and VPN protocol to create quick one-tap connections.
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Where Proton VPN really stands out, however, is with its Proton Unlimited plan. This opens up an impressive array of features, including Proton’s mail, calendar, password manager, and cloud storage, alongside the VPN.
These are quality extras that have the same privacy-first design at their core. Proton VPN is also the only one of the two to support port forwarding.
Proton VPN and NordVPN share several common features, too. This includes a kill switch, which cuts your internet traffic should the VPN connection drop, preventing any data leakage.
Split tunneling, which lets you choose which apps can bypass the VPN’s encryption, is available with both VPNs, though only Proton VPN offers it on MacOS. Yet split tunneling on Proton VPN’s Windows app doesn’t work if the kill switch is enabled, which is a shame, with the kill switch being such an important security feature.
Server network
These are two VPNs with sizable server networks, as evidenced by the fact that both VPNs have servers in 127 countries at the time of writing. This makes it that much easier for you to find a fast server close to your location, or one further afield that can help you bypass geographic restrictions.
NordVPN no longer publishes how many servers it has. Instead, it’s shifted its focus to the quality of its servers and their connections. This makes a direct comparison with Proton VPN’s network a little trickier. What we do know is that NordVPN has around 165 server locations in all. With over 17,000 servers in over 160 locations, Proton VPN has far more servers than most VPNs.
As for how their servers are distributed, NordVPN has the edge in North America, offering 39 server locations to Proton VPN’s 32. Likewise, NordVPN’s network across 53 countries in Europe is just ahead of the 49 locations covered by Proton VPN. Not to be outdone, Proton VPN’s server locations exceed those of NordVPN in Asia (44 locations to NordVPN’s 35). In fact, Proton VPN has servers in 26 locations in Africa – more than double the 11 of NordVPN.
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Both Proton VPN and NordVPN offer some virtual servers. That is, VPN servers that appear to be located in one country based on their IP address, but are actually physically hosted elsewhere. Proton VPN and NordVPN are transparent about their virtual locations. In both cases, servers in Africa and South America tend to be virtual more often than not.
Outside of these VPNs’ regular servers, you’ll have the option of connecting to Double VPN servers with NordVPN or, in the case of Proton VPN, Secure Core. This sees your traffic routed via two VPN server locations for an extra layer of encryption. Proton VPN offers 64 locations for this feature – far more than NordVPN’s 10.
Another option you have is NordVPN’s Onion Over VPN servers and Proton VPN’s VPN over Tor, both of which add extra protection via the Tor network. Again, with six locations, Proton VPN gives you more choice than NordVPN’s three. As for P2P, NordVPN supports it in all but four countries. Similarly, Proton VPN allows P2P in all but two countries.
Privacy and security
Proton VPN and NordVPN have strong reputations for the security and privacy protection they provide. That doesn’t mean they both approach this in the same way, however.
One difference is that NordVPN uses RAM-only servers, ensuring all data is completely erased each time a server is shut down or rebooted. Proton VPN explains this isn’t necessary in its case because it instead uses full disk encryption on all of its servers.
Your data receives the same level of encryption regardless of which VPN provider you’re with. NordVPN and Proton VPN each use strong 256-bit AES encryption over the OpenVPN protocol and ChaCha20 with NordLynx (NordVPN’s proprietary protocol) and WireGuard. Only NordVPN supports post-quantum encryption. Available across all applications, future-proofing against quantum computer threats.
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One way Proton VPN and NordVPN differ is that Proton VPN uses the WireGuard protocol, which has an excellent reputation for its speed and security. Indeed, this lightweight protocol consists of fewer lines of code, making it that much easier to audit. NordVPN’s proprietary NordLynx protocol is built on WireGuard but is closed source.
The two VPNs operate no-logs policies, which have each been verified in multiple independent audits. For its part, Proton VPN’s no-logs policy was most recently audited in August 2025, while NordVPN had its no-logs policy verified at the end of 2024. Though not quite as recent as Proton VPN, NordVPN has had an audit annually, so the next one likely isn’t far off.
Proton VPN and NordVPN apps offer a number of additional security features, including a kill switch, which, in both cases, successfully blocked internet access no matter how we tried to force shut the VPN connection.
Another extra security feature these two VPN services share is their respective ad, tracker, and malicious website blockers. NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro is the clear winner here when it comes to its ability to block malware sites, stopping 86% in testing. It also blocked 91% of phishing sites, which is a big reason why it has earned certified phishing protection from AV-Comparatives.
In comparison, Proton VPN’s NetShield stopped 88% of phishing sites. It also had the edge when it came to ad blocking, preventing 88% of ads to NordVPN’s 54%.
Performance
Fortunately, Proton VPN and NordVPN both rank among the fastest VPNs we’ve tested. In fact, there’s very little to separate these two VPN providers when it comes to speed. Both clocked in at over 950 Mbps when connecting to a nearby server over their respective WireGuard and NordLynx protocols.
One thing we would say is that Proton VPN’s speeds held better when we connected to a server further afield. Connecting to a US server from the UK, Proton VPN’s WireGuard speed still maxed out our testing line. However, NordVPN’s speeds dipped to 626 Mbps. This is still more than fast enough for most people’s needs, however.
As for OpenVPN, speeds were slower, as expected. Proton VPN’s speeds over OpenVPN were somewhat disappointing, reaching just 240 Mbps compared to the much more impressive 974 Mbps with NordVPN. Either way, you’ll want to stick with WireGuard (or NordLynx with NordVPN if you want the fastest possible speeds.
Based on our speed test results, you can use either VPN for bandwidth-heavy tasks such as streaming, gaming, and torrenting. Neither of these VPNs’ paid plans have any bandwidth limits or data caps. This was evident when streaming 4K content with absolutely no lag or buffering issues when doing so over WireGuard or NordLynx.
Unblocking
These are two outstanding content unblockers. We put them to the test against some of the most popular streaming platforms around.
Both Proton VPN and NordVPN were able to bypass the restrictions of global platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, and Hulu. They were also able to access a variety of Netflix libraries, including those of the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan.
We even had success with smaller single-country services such as BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Stan, 9Now, and 10. The only area in which NordVPN struggled this time around was in accessing US YouTube. However, Proton VPN also had its own difficulties, failing to unblock TVNZ+.
Where NordVPN did come out ahead is that it worked with the aforementioned streaming platforms on the first try. Proton VPN occasionally required changing servers to find an IP address that worked with certain services. For example, Disney+ was blocked via one of Proton VPN’s New York servers but worked with one located in New Jersey.
P2P and torrenting
The speed and consistency of Proton VPN and NordVPN connections allow you to use them for torrenting. Yet neither VPN allows you to torrent on all servers. Instead, you’ll need to connect to one of their P2P-optimized servers for the best possible results. Only Proton VPN supports port forwarding, which allows you to accept incoming connections from other peers and improve download and upload speeds.
As for P2P server locations, NordVPN offers them in all but five locations in four countries, with those exceptions being Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, and North Macedonia. The only two countries in which Proton VPN doesn’t support torrenting are Myanmar and North Macedonia. Again, both VPNs are more than fast enough to allow for seamless file-sharing.
Apps and compatibility
You’ll find Proton VPN and NordVPN apps for every major platform: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux, the latter of which is a GUI for both VPNs. The two VPNs also have apps for Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV. If you only want to secure your browser traffic, and not that of your apps, you can find Chrome and Firefox browser extensions for each.
The only real difference in these providers’ app offerings is that NordVPN also offers a browser extension for Microsoft Edge. Proton VPN and NordVPN each have a respectable simultaneous connection limit of 10 devices, which should be more than enough for most people. Yet you can bypass this by manually configuring a connection with a compatible router.
When it comes to features, they’re quite consistent across Proton VPN’s and NordVPN’s apps, so you can generally expect a similar experience with each. Of course, there are some exceptions, such as the fact that Proton VPN’s macOS app doesn’t include OpenVPN or split tunneling. NordVPN’s app for Mac doesn’t have split tunneling either, and the kill switch implementation varies between platforms.
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It couldn’t be easier to get started with Proton VPN or NordVPN thanks to their handy setup wizards. Both have apps that are quite straightforward to navigate, albeit they’re not quite as beginner-friendly as ExpressVPN. You have the option of scrolling through a list of servers, using a search bar, or using the quick connect feature to connect to the best (fastest) available server.
The two VPNs’ respective settings pages are easily accessible, though there is an extra step to reach them via the profile button in NordVPN’s mobile app. You can switch up settings on the fly thanks to toggle buttons and dropdown lists, and it also helps that most features are explained in both cases, though neither provides descriptions for the respective VPN protocols on offer.
Overall, Proton VPN’s settings pages are a bit better organized, and Proton VPN’s recent revamp of its apps has made them a little sleeker. Where NordVPN stands out, however, is just how easy it makes it to find and connect to Double VPN, Onion Over VPN, and P2P servers. Proton VPN’s apps aren’t as intuitive and don’t offer a way to filter by P2P or Tor Over VPN servers, limiting you to just scrolling through the lengthy list.
Customer support
As with most paid VPN services, you can expect to have access to customer support as part of your Proton VPN or NordVPN subscription.
Live chat and email support are included with both VPNs, but the key difference is that only NordVPN’s live chat support is available 24/7. Proton VPN’s live chat is only offered between 9 AM and 5 PM Central European Time. You’ll also need a paid subscription to access it.
My experiences with Proton VPN and NordVPN support have been very positive. As you’d expect, sending a support ticket is usually a little slower than using the live chat feature. However, any issues I faced were rarely so urgent that I needed an immediate response.
You’ve also got the option of the support sections on their websites. These are packed with setup guides and troubleshooting articles, so you may find what you’re looking for. Many of these articles and guides feature step-by-step instructions and even annotated screenshots, making them even easier to follow.
Verdict
Proton VPN and NordVPN both have a lot going for them. For its part, Proton VPN is a VPN that stands out for its commitment to privacy, as evidenced by its no-logs policy, which has recently undergone another independent audit. Its performance is no less impressive, at least when connected to the lightweight, high-speed WireGuard protocol.
Where NordVPN ultimately wins out is the fact that not only does it offer a proven no-logs policy and among the fastest speeds of any VPN, it adds unrivaled extra features in the form of NordPass – the best password manager on the market – as well as leading malicious website and phishing blocking thanks to Threat Protection Pro. Unlike Proton VPN, it also offers 24-hour live chat support.
If you’re seeking a one-month or one-year subscription, Proton VPN offers particularly good value for money. Yet the best value is to be found in NordVPN’s two-year subscription plans, which work out far cheaper per month on average. Even if this VPN comparison has helped you make up your mind, you don’t need to commit fully just yet. It’s worth knowing that Proton VPN and NordVPN both offer 30-day money-back guarantees, so you can try them out risk-free.
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