By: Mitch | Last updated December 5, 2022 
Whether torrenting your favorite movies or watching your favorite Netflix series, using ProtonVPN assures you that the web traffic you’re in is 100% encrypted. ProtonVPN is a company that has more than 560 servers scattered across forty countries. They are based in Switzerland, and if the name might ring a bell to you, this VPN service company is actually the sister company of ProtonMail, a very popular encrypted email service. The goal of ProtonVPN is to create private and secure browsing readily available to everybody.
NordVPN, on the other hand, offers you a bit of everything. It has a massive collection of servers, solid security and privacy practices, and an amazing arsenal of security tools you seldom see. The company has continuously worked to further boost its infrastructure security, making sure that they are in a good position for the future.
So let's get this comparison between NordVPN and ProtonVPN started by looking at Proton first.
Proton Technologies AG created ProtonVPN after its founding members met the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The initial goal upon its inception was to further protect journalists and activists around the world. Today, it has exponentially grown, with more than 560 servers across 43 countries. In VPNs, the more servers they have, the better. After all, how close (or far) you are to a server can greatly influence the speed of your internet.
When you use ProtonVPN, the company assures you that it will not log your content or traffic of any communication. They will not also discriminate against applications, devices, or protocols, neither do they meddle with your internet connection.
However, they record your most recent data session to keep your passwords from getting brute force attacks. They also record personal data like your email address, bug reports or support requests, and payment information. But all this data is automatically deleted once you delete your VPN account.
The kill switch is basically a network lock feature that activates and protects you if the VPN connection is lost by shutting down all network traffic. For example, torrenting massive files can take hours to download completely. If the VPN has no kill switch and your VPN momentarily disconnects, your ISP can see what you’re doing, which might cause you trouble. With ProtonVPN, your browsing activities are protected, thanks to its Kill Switch feature that covers both Mac and Windows OS.
VPNs create an encrypted tunnel through which all your data pass through. As its name implies, split tunneling is when two tunnels are created: one directly goes to your ISP when you’re not using a VPN, and the other one goes straight to your internet traffic via an encrypted VPN tunnel. ProtonVPN has this feature and is available on Android and Windows.
When it comes to securing information and activities online, NordVPN remains one of the better-known VPNs to date. This is a good option because it comes with several features thus making them one of the most popular providers in this software space to date. They have one of the most robust VPN networks and operate out of Panama. They started as a smaller company that focused on optimizing speed and security and have continued to grow to the size they are today with one of the largest user bases of VPN providers in the world.
NordVPN has more than 5,000 servers strategically located in 59 countries. This means fewer worries looking for a server to use, especially when you are traveling. Since the internet speed generally relies on a server, it’s good to note that slow internet speeds will no longer be a problem. After all, dedicated servers will readily be available regardless of location. Another advantage of having servers worldwide is that you can access content that might be locked to people in that specific geographic area.
When you aren’t using a VPN, your online traffic goes straight to your internet service provider. They can then gain access to your activity, and can even provide your information to government agencies, advertisers, and other types of third parties. But when you browse online using a VPN, your ISP can no longer check your online activities.
NordVPN doesn’t log the sites you have visited, the software you used, your IP address, the files you’ve downloaded, the amount of data used, and the time you spent on the VPN. While other data such as your email add, customer service information or payment data are logged, this is normal because these are used in maintaining your account.
When data is encrypted, this means that your data is changed. They become unrecognizable to anybody except for authorized users. NordVPN has impressive standards in encryption. They use IKEv2 and IPSec to ensure that your VPN connection remains in case your internet is lost. This is helpful when switching from mobile hotspots to a network WiFI or vice versa. One of the main reasons that people use VPN products is to secure and encrypt their data, which NordVPN does very well.
ProtonVPN and NordVPN are two of the most reliable VPN providers to date. Apart from the solid no-log policy and military-grade data security using AES-256 encryption, both VPNs are desktop-computer or mobile compatible. They also have dedicated apps for macOS, Windows, Android, and other iOS-based devices.
While both have striking similarities, they also are very different. For example, NordVPN has over 5,000 servers in almost 60 countries, while ProtonVPN has only 560 servers in 40 countries. As with pricing, NordVPN has better price structuring and provides more promotional offers than ProtonVPN. It also has faster connection speeds (thanks to its thousands of servers worldwide) and is very consistent regarding its server availability.
In terms of features, pricing, ease of use, reliability, customer support, and availability of servers, NordVPN, by far, is a better VPN service than ProtonVPN. It provides thousands of servers, and they have the best 24/7 customer support that includes a live chat channel. When it comes to bypassing restrictions from video streaming services like Netflix or BBC iPlayer, ProtonVPN is a far cry from what NordVPN offers. If you are looking for the best and most reliable VPN service that has the strongest encryption and has the capacity to bypass even the toughest geo-block, without a doubt, go for NordVPN.
We aren't saying that ProtonVPN isn't a good service by any means, to be clear, but in this head-to-head comparison, we just think that NordVPN is probably the best choice for the majority of users. But, if you try them out and find ProtonVPN is better, make sure you send us a message, and we would love to look into the features that you think make it stand out and above, its competition.
