This article has been just updated:
NordVPN is a popular virtual private network (VPN) service that promises bullet-proof online security and privacy at an affordable cost. The service has been around since 2012, and it has convinced countless people around the world that it’s the right choice for anyone who wants to enjoy complete internet freedom.
Instead of providing you just another NordVPN review, we want to know how NordVPN works across different platforms.
With a single NordVPN subscription, which you can have for as little as $2.99 a month, you can secure up to 6 devices at the same time, and NordVPN has apps for all popular operating systems.
• But do they all work the same?
• Or does NordVPN offer a superior experience on certain platforms and inferior on others?
Let’s find out!
NordVPN Windows
Windows is the most popular operating system in the world, so it makes sense to start with NordVPN’s Windows app. When you launch the app and log in, the first thing you’ll see is a map with all NordVPN server locations. At the moment, NordVPN has over 5,200 servers in 62 countries, giving you plenty of options to choose from.
To connect to one of NordVPN’s servers, all you have to do is choose a country on the map and wait for a short status message to confirm that you’re connected. Unfortunately, NordVPN doesn’t let you select a specific city, and it doesn’t even specify which city you are connected. While not a huge issue, it would be great if NordVPN could add this feature in the future.
Right in the center of the top part of the app is a large switch that lets you quickly connect and disconnect from a VPN server. To the left of the switch are three buttons: Map, Countries, and Settings. You already know what the first button does, but what about the other two buttons? By clicking on countries, you can scroll through an alphabetical list of all server locations and connect to any of them with the press of a button.
Here’s a list of all locations that you can connect to through the app:
- Africa: South Africa, Egypt
- Asia Pacific: Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia
- Europe: United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Norway, Austria, Romania, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Poland, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Russia, Iceland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Portugal, Albania, Ireland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Serbia, Slovenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia
- India: India
- Middle East: Turkey, Israel, United Arab Emirates
- North America: United States, Canada, Mexico
- South America: Brazil, Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile
Essentially, the list is an alternative to the world map, and it comes in handy when you’re not sure where exactly is a certain country located. It also lets you add countries to favorites and browse specialty servers, which include DoubleVPN servers, P2P servers, dedicated IP servers, and others.
Last but not least, there’s the settings tab, where you can customize how NordVPN works and activate or deactivate some of its features, such as CyberSec, which helps you avoid ads and protects your security from malware, phishing, and other online threats.
What About NordVPN Mac?
Apart from minor design differences, the NordVPN Mac app is virtually identical to the NordVPN Windows app. You can download it directly from the Mac App Store, and its high average rating score and mostly positive reviews should tell you that it does everything it’s supposed to do.
Some reviewers have mentioned sudden crashes, but we were unable to replicate them during our testing. With the latest version of macOS, the NordVPN Mac app runs wonderfully, providing seamless access to one of the largest VPN networks in the world.
NordVPN for Linux
The situation is very different when it comes to the NordVPN Linux app. NordVPN offers only a .deb package for Debian-based Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint, so the users of other Linux distributions are left to their own devices.
This is how you connect NordVPN on Linux:
- Download the .deb package to your computer.
- Open the terminal and run the following command:
sudo apt-get install {/path/to/}nordvpn-release 1.0.0_all.deb - Update the apt-get package list:
sudo apt-get update - Install NordVPN:
sudo apt-get install nordvpn
As you can see, Linux users must go through a few extra steps to hide their online activity using NordVPN, but it could definitely be worse. The good news is that the Linux app itself runs great and does what it’s supposed to do.
NordVPN Android + iOS
Besides desktop operating systems, NordVPN also has apps for Android and iOS. Mobile users can sign up for a with a 30-days money-back guarantee to test the service without spending any money on it. Both the Android and iOS apps work great even on older devices, and they allow you to purchase a NordVPN subscription as an in-app purchase.
At the time of writing this article, the iOS has a slightly better average rating than the Android app (4.5 stars versus 4.4 stars), but that’s probably caused by the highly fragmented nature of the Android ecosystem.
NordVPN Chrome Extension
If you’re a Chrome user, you don’t have to install a full-blown desktop app just to connect to NordVPN and hide your online traffic from unauthorized third parties. Instead, you can simply head over to the Chrome Web Store and download the NordVPN Proxy Extension for Google Chrome.
The extension is basically a simplified version of the NordVPN app, allowing you to easily change your IP address, block ads and trackers, and circumvent geo-restrictions and other forms of content blocking.
The extension is updated very frequently, but you shouldn’t see it as a complete replacement for the NordVPN app, which contains many features that the extension doesn’t have.
Conclusion
One of the best things about NordVPN, besides its excellent global coverage, affordable price, and reliability, is the fact that it works on all popular operating systems. In this article, we’ve tested NordVPN apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and Google Chrome, and were pleasantly surprised by how well they run.
