NordVPN vs Cyberghost in 2021

NordVPN and Cyberghost are two of the most popular VPN clients in the world today. No matter which publication you look at, online or offline, well-established magazines or indie websites, all of them will feature NordVPN and Cyberghost somewhere in their list of top VPNs.  

But which one of them is truly the best? Which one of them that you as a customer has to choose? This article will look deeper into, and compare, all features and benefits that NordVPN and Cyberghost have to offer. 

These are some of the features and benefits that a good VPN must have and it will be used as a basis of comparison between NordVPN and Cyberghost. 

• Country of origin. Not all countries have a strict law when it comes to personal data protection. Some countries and its government have a strong stand regarding privacy while others barely care about such a thing. When choosing a VPN, it is imperative to know that the company itself is based in a country that has a law in place about privacy. 
• Absolute privacy. After the country, the next step to ensure that the users have absolute privacy is through certain privacy-related features that the company provides. Other than that, we also need to look into their "terms of service" and "privacy policy" to find out what the company does with its customer's data.  
• Absolute security. The VPN providers must have the latest and highest encryption method in place so that the customers can browse the internet without having to worry about any outside threat. 
• Absolute protection. The VPN company also must have a protocol to protect and prevent any kinds of breach and data leaks from happening when the customers use their services. 
• High speed and unlimited bandwidth. When you use a VPN, your base speed will inevitably decrease because of the added security and privacy protocols. But a great VPN would be able to optimize their services so that the users could still enjoy a decent speed. Unlimited bandwidth is also a must.  
• Accessibility. In this feature, we are going to look into the number of servers, locations, and accessible countries. The more, the better. We also need to know about the supported platforms and how many devices could be connected at the same time with a single account. 
• Ease-of-use. This one is all about how easy it is for a first-time user to use all of the VPN client's functions and how easy it is to navigate through all of its menus and options. A client with a great design aesthetic that is pleasant to the eyes is also a plus point. 
• Affordable price. Numerous great features are useless if it's not affordable by average people. What we need to look for is a good balance between functionality and price.  
• P2P and streaming Geo-locked contents. More people use VPNs nowadays for the sake of torrenting and watching Netflix shows that are only available in a certain area. So, the VPN must support both activities through their services. 
• Excellent customer support. You might encounter problems when using their services, so the company must have excellent customer support teams that are not only easy to reach but also quick to respond. 
• Additional features. This is an optional thing that not many VPN companies have. So, VPN providers that have unique additional features for their customers certainly deserve a plus point.  

• Country of origin. NordVPN is a company based in Panama while Cyberghost is a company from Romania. Both countries respect privacy and have a law to protect it. That means you could use both VPN without having to worry that the local government would demand access to your personal data.  
• Absolute privacy. Both NordVPN and Cyberghost implement a strict zero-logs policy. This means that they don't have any records of your activities while you use their VPN network. So you're not only invisible to the outside party, but also invisible to both VPN providers. 
• Absolute security. NordVPN and Cyberghost use the AES 256-bit encryption method that is often used by the military around the world. To add another layer to that security, they also have a kill switch protocol in place so that your data would be saved even if you suddenly lose the connection to their VPN network.  
• Absolute protection. Both companies have multiple VPN protocols in place, but they use OpenVPN as a default protocol. OpenVPN is an SSL-based protocol and it's open-source, so it's credibility and capability is guaranteed by the VPN community. They also have several DNS leak prevention to add another layer of protection for your data. 
• Ease-of-use. The VPN client for both NordVPN and Cyberghost is straightforward and definitely easy to use. Their user interface is also nice to look at. While I prefer the design of NordVPN's client, I must admit that both companies have done a good job in this category. 
• P2P and streaming Geo-locked contents. Both NordVPN and Cyberghost support torrenting activities and you could certainly access geo-blocked contents from all major streaming platforms. Not only that, but they also have dedicated servers just for this particular purpose. The speed may vary but overall, they provide a decent experience for both streaming and P2P. 
• Excellent customer support. NordVPN and Cyberghost have an extensive FAQ section on their respective websites. If you can't find the solution for your problem there, you could send emails or even call their customer support teams and they would solve your issues as soon as possible.  

• Accessibility. NordVPN has 5518 servers in 59 countries while Cyberghost has 6000 servers that are spread in 88 countries. You could access their services through all major platforms, like Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, etc. Cyberghost allows you to use seven devices simultaneously while NordVPN only allows six devices at the same time.  
• High speed and unlimited bandwidth. While both VPN providers offer unlimited bandwidth, the speed is vastly different. On paper, Cyberghost with its slightly superior number of servers should provide a faster connection but in reality, NordVPN consistently outperforms Cyberghost when it comes to speed. Cyberghost has an above-average speed but NordVPN is just so much faster than that. I don't know whether it's because of my particular configuration or NordVPN simply has optimized their product to the point of being able to squeeze every bit of speed it can get from its connection. One thing for sure, NordVPN is way ahead of Cyberghost in terms of speed.  
• Affordable price. There's not much difference in price for the monthly plan between the two companies but when it comes to the longer plans, that's where the difference begins to emerge. When I write this article,  NordVPN offers a decent $4.92 per month for its yearly plan and $3.71 per month for its two years plan plus a three-month bonus. That is a very decent price and well around the average price within the industry. Cyberghost, on the other hand, offers $3.99 per month for its yearly plan and a mere $2.25 per month for its three-year plan plus three months bonus. Both companies offer a money-back policy, albeit with a different time frame. NordVPN offers a refund within 30-days time while Cyberghost allows a generous 45-days period. 
• Additional services. Both NordVPN and Cyberghost offers two additional services other than VPN. Cyberghost has a premium password manager that you could get for an additional $19.99 per year and a dedicated IP for $5 per month. NordVPN has a secured password manager called NordPass and secured cloud storage called NordLocker. You could get both of them for an additional fee of $1.49 per month. Keep in mind that these prices may change in the future.   

Based on the result of the comparison above, the difference between NordVPN vs Cyberghost is minuscule. There are some differences between them in several key areas, but overall, both of them offer something great to the customers. 

Cyberghost is leading when it comes to accessibility and price while NordVPN comes out on top when we talk about speed and additional services. At the end of the day, which one to get depends highly on your particular needs. 

If all you want is a VPN that has solid features at an affordable price, then Cyberghost is the one for you. But if you want a high-speed VPN with great complimentary features, then you should get NordVPN.  

Honestly, you can't go wrong with either one of them.