NordVPN Vs. Surfshark: VPN Speed Security And Price Compared
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Surfshark is relatively new to the scene, but its feature-rich applications and unlimited simultaneous connections make it a tempting offer against its more well-known competitors. Should industry titan NordVPN be worried?
Here's how the up-and-comer stacks up against one of the biggest VPN brands out there.
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Surfshark
It won't be long until big-name VPNs realize what kind of threat Surfshark really is: It's faster than a VPN of its size should be, has stronger security than you'd expect, a suite of impressive features and cutthroat prices to go with its unlimited simultaneous connection allowance. During our 2020 testing, Surfshark has given even our most highly recommended VPNs a run for their money on speed, security and cost.
You want to watch Netflix from any country? Surfshark's watertight DNS features make that possible. You want to torrent quickly and privately? Surfshark routes you to its own P2P-configured servers out of the US. You want to block fingerprinting trackers, use a private search engine and camouflage your traffic so it looks completely normal with the assurance of a kill switch? Surfshark's CleanWeb ad-blocker, Blindsearch search engine and on-board obfuscation covers you.
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With more than 3,200 servers in 65 countries, we lost less than 17% of average internet speeds during our . That's faster than the 27% speed loss we saw in previous tests, and piratebay pushes it ahead of both NordVPN and ExpressVPN to be the current front-runner in our speed comparisons.
Surfshark is currently living up to its name with an aggressive pricing scheme. Right now, it's offering an 83% discount, bringing costs down to ($48, billed every two years). That offer stands up easily to NordVPN's two-year plan at $5 a month ($120, billed every two years), and offers unlimited simultaneous connections compared to Nord's six-device limit. Surfshark is also available for Linux, Windows, Android, MacOS, iOS, Android TV and Amazon Fire TV. Nord, on the other hand, works with MacOS, Windows, Android, iOS and Linux.
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NordVPN
This heavy-hitter stays on our list of for many reasons, including its status as the reigning value champion. Hands-down, you aren't going to get a VPN anywhere else that can do more than NordVPN does, as cheap as NordVPN does it. Despite a reported last year, you'll be hard pressed to find another VPN that can do at all.
Sure, could offer a little more privacy if it boosted the number of servers it owns, but we're talking about 5,000-plus servers in 62 countries, a strict zero-log policy and jurisdiction in Panama. It's an encryption powerhouse that recently switched to RAM-disk mode, and has a feature that allows you to . It's available for not only and , but also Windows Phone and even BlackBerry.
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In our , NordVPN's performance was on par with many of its competitors, reducing our speeds by 53% on average (which is slower than the 32% loss measured in previous speed tests). We found NordVPN's speeds were reliably fast. There were never any sudden dips or service interruptions, and where we expected the VPN to underperform, it proved itself up to the task.
For all that, how much are you paying? The company's . While that yearly price is lower than most other contenders, the month-to-month price of is at the high end of the spectrum. As of September 2019, the company's other pricing tiers have crept up a bit: It's now more than (or $126 billed every three years), up from $3/$108 total. And the two-year plan is now $5 a month ($120 billed every two years), up from $4/$96. And yes, NordVPN also has a full 30-day refund policy if you aren't happy with the service.
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