- West Coast Labs (WCL) audited 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 just passed another independent audit, this time conducted by West Coast Labs (WCL), a long-established security testing organization.
The audit agrees with our own NordVPN review, naming it the best VPN available right now.
The VPN provider was compared to Mullvad VPN, Norton VPN, Proton VPN, and ExpressVPN. The five VPNs were tested in six categories and in more than 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 the fastest and most secure.
Considering 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 reliable.
NordVPN: the winner in all categories
As both NordVPN and WCL share, the VPN service has performed excellently in this latest round of independent testing.
WCL conducted extensive testing on Windows 11 Pro and macOS Sonoma applications, using a 1Gbps fiber uplink connection. WCL followed the testing framework established by the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) for this audit.
NordVPN scored an impressive 58 out of a possible 60 points overall. 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.
Safety testing was equally strong. Across 455 network transitions, including 62 forced network changes, NordVPN did not record any DNS, IP, WebRTC, or IPv6 leaks or failures.
NordVPN was able to reach all 100 tested websites without blocks and triggered only two CAPTCHA messages. It was remarkably fast to connect, with an average time of 0.66 seconds. Their best result was 0.57 seconds, 2.4 times faster than second place.
NordVPN didn’t win in the system impact category, but it still earned an A+, losing only to ExpressVPN in CPU and memory impact.
These findings are consistent with our own extensive testing. NordVPN remains the best VPN we’ve tested so far, and our reviewers praise it for its extensive network with coverage in 144 locations, fast speeds, and strong security.
NordVPN is now cheaper for a limited time
This time of year means there are plenty of Black Friday VPN deals, and NordVPN has its own interesting promotion going on right now.
NordVPN has slashed prices on 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 per month with three months free with a two-year commitment.
NordVPN Plus, which is the plan we typically recommend for most people, is also heavily discounted. Add access to Threat Protection Pro and NordPass on top of the VPN, and it’s now just $3.89 a month, or $105.03 for 27 months of coverage.
NordVPN also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose by trying it now that it’s much cheaper. You’ll get top-notch protection at a deep discount, and as the independent audit shows, you won’t find better security and speed.
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