- West Coast Labs (WCL) reviewed NordVPN along with four rivals
- NordVPN achieved a near-perfect score in all six categories
- NordVPN has already lowered its prices for Black Friday
NordVPN has just passed another independent audit, this time by West Coast Labs (WCL), a well-established security testing organization.
The review agrees with our own review of NordVPN, naming it the best VPN available right now.
The VPN provider was matched against Mullvad VPN, Norton VPN, Proton VPN and ExpressVPN. The five VPNs were tested across six categories and over a course of 500+ tests.
According to the report, NordVPN leads the pack by a significant margin. With a near-perfect score, the VPN service proved to be both the fastest and the most secure.
Considering that NordVPN just dropped to its lowest price of the year with an early Black Friday VPN deal, this report comes at a good time and gives users more insight into what makes each VPN provider trustworthy.
NordVPN: the winner in every category
As shared by both NordVPN and WCL, the VPN service performed strongly in this latest round of independent testing.
WCL performed several tests on both Windows 11 Pro and macOS Sonoma apps using a 1 Gbps fiber uplink connection. WCL followed the testing frameworks developed by the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) for this audit.
NordVPN scored an impressive 58 out of a possible 60 total points. In second place was ExpressVPN with 52/60, followed by ProtonVPN with 49/60, Mullvad VPN with 44/60 and Norton VPN with 40/60.
Speed was one of the most decisive victories. NordVPN delivered an average download speed of 817 Mbps, making it between 29 Mbps and 92 Mbps faster than the next best competitors across seven global test routes.
The security test was just as strong. Across 455 network transitions, including 62 forced network switches, NordVPN recorded zero DNS, IP, WebRTC, or IPv6 leaks or errors.
NordVPN was able to reach all 100 tested sites without blocks, while only triggering two CAPTCHA prompts. It was remarkably fast to connect with an average time of 0.66 seconds. Its best result was 0.57 seconds, which was 2.4x faster than second place.
NordVPN didn’t win in the system impact category, but it still scored an A+, losing only to ExpressVPN in CPU and memory impact.
These results are consistent with our own extensive tests. NordVPN remains the best VPN we’ve tested so far, and our reviewers praise it for its extensive network with coverage of 144 locations, fast speeds, and strong security.
NordVPN is now cheaper for a limited time
This time of year means Black Friday VPN deals abound, and NordVPN has its own exciting promotion going on right now.
NordVPN has slashed prices across all of its plans, with savings of up to 77% on some of the best deals. The cheapest plan is NordVPN Basic, which is now just $2.99/month with three months free on a two-year commitment.
NordVPN Plus, which is the plan we usually recommend for most people, is also heavily discounted. It adds access to Threat Protection Pro and NordPass on top of the VPN, and it’s now just $3.89/month or $105.03 for 27 months of coverage.
NordVPN also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you won’t lose anything by trying it now that it’s much cheaper. You get premium protection at a huge discount, and as the independent audit proves, you won’t find better security and speed.
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