NordVPN vs SurfShark - Security, compatibility, speed

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UnknownSouljer

[H]F Junkie
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Basically just want to know which VPN I should go with here.

Right now Surfshark basic is $1.99 a month (on sale right now for Cyberweek). Nord basic is $2.69 (through their retention guy trying to get me back, otherwise $2.99).
I'm thinking of going with Surfshark just to save the money, or is the nearly $1 a month extra worth it for Nord?

I care about
Security: Leaks, not being in the country, not giving info to the government, etc
Compatibility: Being able to stream without getting blocked and having to disable the VPN (ideally blocking ads, which they both do anyway)
Speed: yes, I know they both will drop max speeds, but which one does so less.

Or some third low cost option I haven't thought of. Looked at Mulvad and Firefox VPN (which are the same thing). They're both more expensive and I don't think they offer anything superior here. ExpressVPN is way more expensive and they've been bought by an ads company, so they're out for me.
 
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If you play online games, then NordVPN is worth it. It has a ton of servers and can provide lower latencies in online games than your ISP.
 
I'm using expressvpn, so what does it mean if they have been bought by an ads company. I'm sick of companies degrading in performance after being bought by larger companies.
Will be good if somebody can provide assessment for expressvpn. I have been using nordvpn before but they no longer work in my country.
 
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Surfshark sucks from my experience. Poor speeds compared to Mullvad or ProtonVPN. I have 2 years left on a Surfshark subscription but ended up using ProtonVPN instead because it's that much better (and has port forward capability).
 
Nord/Proton/Mul last Iast I checked are the 3 best, anything else they either do sell your info, are owned by questionable companies, or do not do as advertised.
 
Believe I read that it of the two OP mentioned, Nord had better speeds.
I've been using it for a few years and haven't had any real issues.
 
I've been using Nord for the past month and it can do my full internet speed, 2 Gbps, which impressed me.
I have only played MW2 and Overwatch with it and I can't tell if I am on the VPN or direct.
 
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Surfshark is great!
I'm using it .. I have a 1GiB/s symmetrical fiber and with 2oreguard in surfshark I get 700 to 800 down and the same up. Also I can game with SShark Wireguard. Ipenvpn is much slower well because it's openvpn.

Also Surfshark allows you to use wire guard on your router by downloading configs. I can't use it right now due to Unifi suck ass bugs right now. But PFsense works great with Surfshark.
 
I used to recommend NordVPN, but for the last two months I've been getting 50% of the speed that I used to. I've been talking with the tech support for as long as this has been happening and they can't seem to fix anything. I've been getting 850-900 Mbps consistently on my 1 Gb connection when connected to NordVPN and now it averages 350 Mbps and never goes higher than 400 Mbps. If this doesn't improve by the time my subscription is up, I'm going to jump ship. I've been with NordVPN for years, so this is incredibly annoying.
 
Shoganai said:
I used to recommend NordVPN, but for the last two months I've been getting 50% of the speed that I used to. I've been talking with the tech support for as long as this has been happening and they can't seem to fix anything. I've been getting 850-900 Mbps consistently on my 1 Gb connection when connected to NordVPN and now it averages 350 Mbps and never goes higher than 400 Mbps. If this doesn't improve by the time my subscription is up, I'm going to jump ship. I've been with NordVPN for years, so this is incredibly annoying.
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ISP could be capping the IP ranges of Nord.

How many different locations have you tried and speed tested on, and at what hours of the day / night? So many things the ISP could be doing, or even congestion in your area due to other users..
 
MrGuvernment said:
ISP could be capping the IP ranges of Nord.

How many different locations have you tried and speed tested on, and at what hours of the day / night? So many things the ISP could be doing, or even congestion in your area due to other users..
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It's not my ISP. I also have an AdGuard VPN subscription and I get 850-900 Mbps with it. I've tried every single server in my own state and several surrounding states at every time of day and none of them go over 400 Mbps. It doesn't matter what protocol I'm using either. They can't figure it out. They just gave me an extra month on my subscription for my troubles. But since they couldn't fix my troubles, I won't be renewing when my subscription ends. They gave me 10 brand new servers to try today and those servers also capped out at 400 Mbps.
 
Shoganai said:
It's not my ISP. I also have an AdGuard VPN subscription and I get 850-900 Mbps with it. I've tried every single server in my own state and several surrounding states at every time of day and none of them go over 400 Mbps. It doesn't matter what protocol I'm using either. They can't figure it out. They just gave me an extra month on my subscription for my troubles. But since they couldn't fix my troubles, I won't be renewing when my subscription ends. They gave me 10 brand new servers to try today and those servers also capped out at 400 Mbps.
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If another provider works, but they do not, I do want to lean against your ISP doing something with the NordVPN ip ranges.....

Any chance your able to take your account and test it at someone else's place to see what speeds are like, or a friend with another ISP all together? I hate random issues like this, cause you just want to dig and figure it out! :D
 
MrGuvernment said:
If another provider works, but they do not, I do want to lean against your ISP doing something with the NordVPN ip ranges.....

Any chance your able to take your account and test it at someone else's place to see what speeds are like, or a friend with another ISP all together? I hate random issues like this, cause you just want to dig and figure it out! :D
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I've taken it to my grandparents' house and a friend's house who also have 1 gigabit internet and it's the same situation. It's infuriating. AdGuard VPN has been consistently fast at all the different locations as well, though. But I don't know how much I trust their privacy policies over NordVPN. I don't think AdGuard has ever been audited, whereas Nord has been audited 3 times now and have upheld their no logs policy. Mullvad is supposed to be the best, but I've heard the speeds aren't the greatest.
 
Shoganai said:
I've taken it to my grandparents' house and a friend's house who also have 1 gigabit internet and it's the same situation. It's infuriating. AdGuard VPN has been consistently fast at all the different locations as well, though. But I don't know how much I trust their privacy policies over NordVPN. I don't think AdGuard has ever been audited, whereas Nord has been audited 3 times now and have upheld their no logs policy. Mullvad is supposed to be the best, but I've heard the speeds aren't the greatest.
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Ya, so now I would safe def something on their end associated with your account..


My only next thought is to ask support if you can sign up with an entirely new account, let them give you a month free, and test that? (otherwise it would be you sign up yourself, new account, pay for a month, test....) that would tell you if it was directly account related...

Try Proton? Costs a bit more I think than the others......
 
MrGuvernment said:
Ya, so now I would safe def something on their end associated with your account..


My only next thought is to ask support if you can sign up with an entirely new account, let them give you a month free, and test that? (otherwise it would be you sign up yourself, new account, pay for a month, test....) that would tell you if it was directly account related...

Try Proton? Costs a bit more I think than the others......
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Proton is a garbage honeypot company operating under the guise of privacy.

Also, this IS a new account. I had to make a new one as they wouldn’t make changes to my account without having access to my original payment information, which I don’t have because I had the old card replaced because of stupid subscription services continuing to charge me after canceling.
 
From the things you listed as important, I would go for NordVPN, I think it's worth the extra money. I had both before, and made a switch to NordVPN only because they had more servers available to the countries that I needed, in Europe and North America. The speed was identical, but I noticed Nord to be a little faster. Both are secure, didn't hear about any leaks or anything like that about any of them. So Nord is a solid choice.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
Basically just want to know which VPN I should go with here.

Right now Surfshark basic is $1.99 a month (on sale right now for Cyberweek). Nord basic is $2.69 (through their retention guy trying to get me back, otherwise $2.99).
I'm thinking of going with Surfshark just to save the money, or is the nearly $1 a month extra worth it for Nord?

I care about
Security: Leaks, not being in the country, not giving info to the government, etc
Compatibility: Being able to stream without getting blocked and having to disable the VPN (ideally blocking ads, which they both do anyway)
Speed: yes, I know they both will drop max speeds, but which one does so less.

Or some third low cost option I haven't thought of. Looked at Mulvad and Firefox VPN (which are the same thing). They're both more expensive and I don't think they offer anything superior here NordVPN review. ExpressVPN is way more expensive and they've been bought by an ads company, so they're out for me.
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NordVPN is technically better than Surfshark. It's faster on average, better at unblocking streaming services, and has marginally stronger security. However, it's also more expensive. Although NordVPN wins overall, Surfshark isn't far behind and is absolutely worth getting if you're on a budget.
 
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