By: Mitch | Last updated January 20, 2022 
When you install a VPN, you are entrusting the provider with your vital personal data. For that reason, you need a trusted VPN provider to guarantee the safety of your data. Currently, there is a world of VPN providers, each claiming to be the best. That is why I have taken it upon myself to compare Proton VPN and NordVPN just to show you how one provider application differs from the other and what to consider when doing the comparison.
Proton VPN is a newly discovered service provider by the same Switzerland team that makes protonmail the world's largest encrypted email network. Given that they had created encrypted internet privacy in one space, VPN space is more of perfection. The provider is operated from Proton Technologies' headquarter in Geneva under the protection of the Swiss privacy law.
The Swiss company, Proton Technologies, back it with a 256-bits AES encryption in conjunction with SHA512 authentication and 2,048-bit RSA key with PFS. This is one of the best encryption you will come across. More to this, it utilizes OpenVPN and IKEv2 which are definitely the strongest encryption protocols we have known.
The company has a strict no-log policy for user connection data. In addition, it also prevents WebRTC and DNS leaks from exposing users to true Internet Providers (IP). Even more, the provider has Tor and kill switch to automatically shut the internet and secure the data when VPN connection drops.
In 2020, the company released its source cord on all platforms and conducted a security audit independently. That has built a lot of trust among the users and it is the only provider that has ever done that.
However, Proton VPN is still a small but steady growing provider. The company has improved its network a lot ever since it was established. Currently, it has 436 servers in more than 30 countries which is appealing given that it is a newly invented provider. Besides, the ratio of the servers to countries gives a glimpse of hope on speed and performance.
Nord is a bigger player in the industry, not because it is among the oldest VPN providers but because of the progress the company has made. It was established in 2012 but since then Nord has been hitting headlines every year. Four years after it was formed, it availed an Android app followed by an iOS app that very year.
Barely one year later, it launched a browser extension for Google Chrome. And in 2018, they unveiled an application for Android TV. That way, Nord VPN has been leading in many inventions as others follow.
But that is not their only pride, the company is based in Panama, a country with no mandatory data retention law and does not take part in Fourteen Eyes or Five Eyes alliance. This makes Nord one of the providers with a true zero log policy. They strictly don't keep logs of any sort, be it traffic or session.
The provider also has superb data encryption with OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols in its application for windows and mobile devices respectively. The internet traffic for all the users is routed through a remote company server thereby encrypting all your outgoing and incoming data and hiding your IP address. Build-in leak protection, kill switch, and double-hop are some of the security features that guarantee anonymity.
Putting security aside, Nord VPN has 5000+ servers in over 60 countries. Considering the ratio of servers to the countries, expect a great server performance in every region.
Speed and privacy are very key to a VPN provider because the other qualities that users sort after like torrenting relies on these two factors. With that being clarified, let see how the Proton VPN vs. Nord VPN comparison goes.
It sounds a bit crazy to compare Nord to Proton VPN since the latter is still a very junior player in the industry. The only feature that seems to be closely matched is data safety. Proton elite background and their actions such as security audits to ensure data safety make it trustworthy. On the other hand, Nord VPN has a long history of maintaining a true zero log policy. So in terms of data safety, they are closely matched but Nord still triumphs.
Their network connection, stability, and speed are too different as Nord has over 5000 servers in 60+ countries compared to a mere 436 servers in more than 30 countries. USA and Canada have 1904, 463 Nord VPN servers respectively which are more than the total proton can offer. Severs have varied performance and speed so sometimes you have to shift from one server to another till you connect to the one with the best speed. For instance, Nord supports P2P with all the servers but not all of them give the same performance and speed.
Given that NordVPN has thousands of servers with hundreds in some countries to connect, it proved to be the best to torrent and stream with. Proton performed very poorly in P2P torrenting and streaming. Netflix streaming was possible in almost 90% of Nord servers while Proton VPN struggled to unblock Netflix streaming in most regions based on my test results.
When it comes to cost, it is nearly impossible to beat Nord. $107.55 three year package price is nearly a one year price for most providers. On the other hand, Protons VPN have an affordable paid plan as well. The paid plan ranges from $4 to $8 per month. This can accumulate to $96 annually which is more than half the three-year package price for NordVPN.
To cut the long story short, NordVPN is a far much better provider compared to Proton VPN. In fact, it triumphs in every feature you may consider when selecting a VPN provider. Even much better is the cost that qualifies it as the cheapest provider despite the quality of its services.
