When NordVPN renews-which it does automatically-you’ll be paying $143.40 per year, or $322.65 per two years. Look at the small print and you’ll see that this is only for the first year or two years. However, the devil is in the details, and NordVPN is no different. As of November 2021, these aren’t the VPNs for Netflix. We tried several servers and each time, regardless of whether it was NordVPN or IPVanish, we got goose egg. Though we’ve received reports that either VPN can get through to the popular streaming service despite Netflix’s 2021 crackdown on VPNs, we weren’t able to replicate it. Lastly, there’s Netflix, where neither service takes a prize. If you’re looking for particularly exotic locales, though, you may want to check out what’s available before signing up for either VPN service. The server numbers and locations cover the globe fairly well, though they are, as usual, slanted toward Europe and North America.
That said, NordVPN offers more than 5,000 in 60 countries and still occasionally has issues with speeds, so maybe it’s about quality more than quantity. We have a feeling some of IPVanish speed issues could be fixed by simply having more servers: it seems the 1,900 on offer in 75 locations may simply be overloaded. Either way, if you want speed, IPVanish is where not to be. If forced to guess, we’d imagine IPVanish is skimping on servers compared to NordVPN. This was quite shocking, especially considering IPVanish used to be known to be pretty fast and we were using WireGuard. Further distances of about 1500 miles saw such dips in speed and ping that we didn’t even bother checking out trans-Atlantic connections. Even at short distances of 150 miles or so-a hop, skip, and a jump away in VPN terms-we saw slowdowns of nearly 75 percent, which is unacceptable. However, IPVanish is ridiculously slow in our testing. Although NordVPN’s speed is generally more good than bad, when compared to many competitors, it could be better. At other times, it’s the digital equivalent of watching paint dry. Sometimes you get amazing, fast-as-lightning speeds. SpeedĪs we explained when we compared ExpressVPN and NordVPN, speed is not NordVPN’s strong point. Speaking of speed, though, that’s another weakness of IPVanish’s. We like WireGuard because it offers good security and decent speed, though both services allow you to change protocols in the settings screen. Both default to a solid new VPN protocol, WireGuard, though NordVPN uses a proprietary version called NordLynx.
Other than that, though, both services are more or less comparable. It’s sloppy, especially considering not everybody knows how VPNs work and will not know the kill switch should always be on. Sure, there’s an option in the settings menu that switches it to automatic, but we’re not sure why such an important security feature is set as off to default. Also, when compared to our own speed tests run with, it wasn’t too accurate, either. We doubt anybody needs a second-by-second record of their VPN’s performance. NordVPN’s map has a clear purpose, as another way to select servers, but this graph is just decoration, really. Granted, it looks really cool, like something out of Neuromancer, but we’re not sure what it’s supposed to do. NordVPN’s gimmick is the map, while IPVanish instead opts for a live graph showing your speeds. (There’s a map, too, but it’s not interactive.) IPVanish also goes for a more visually impressive approach than other VPNs but doesn’t pull it off quite as well as NordVPN does. It lets you tweak all manner of options, and it clearly marks what each entry does. Other than the map, though, NordVPN’s interface is actually very simple: It has a list of servers and a settings menu. If you zoom in a little closer, you can even pick individual locations within a country, which is pretty neat. Just click the marker and you’ll be connected to a server in that country. NordVPN’s interface is an interactive map of the world, with a marker for every country it has a server in.