NordVPN costs: Pricing and plans explained

NordVPN has been one of the best VPNs we’ve tested for some time now, but like ExpressVPN, it isn’t the cheapest around. As with most VPNs, Nord’s costs vary depending on the length of the plan you choose, and you’ll also find that NordVPN runs discounts quite frequently. NordVPN prices start at £12.47/mth for one month, dropping to £5.38/mth for the one-year plan (£64.62/yr) and £3.36/mth for the two-year plan (£80.68 for the full two years).

Nord picked up a perfect five stars and a Best Buy award in our full NordVPN review – our veteran VPN expert Darien Graham-Smith described it as “a superb all-round VPN for speed and security”, praising the VPN’s privacy policies, server count and straightforward app.

Below, we’ll explain NordVPN’s pricing and plans in more depth, including whether the VPN has a free trial and how to work out which price tier is right for you.

How much does it cost?

Like many VPNs, NordVPN offers its best rates to new subscribers. Annoyingly, Nord excludes the 20% VAT rate on its pricing page, so we’ve worked the figures below by including VAT off the bat.

The Standard package includes unlimited VPN use on up to six devices at once, plus built-in blocking of web trackers, intrusive adverts and malware. It costs £12.47/mth (on a monthly package), £5.38/mth for a one-year subscription and £3.36/mth for a two-year subscription. Both the yearly and two-yearly contracts include three extra months, so if choosing those you’re covered for 15 months at £64.62 and 27 months at £80.68.

Spend a little extra and you can move up to the Plus tier, which adds the NordPass password manager and a data breach scanner which alerts you when your sensitive information has leaked online. This cost £13.43/mth on a monthly package; £6.58/mth for a one-year subscription, or £79.02 for 15 months (12 + three extra); and £4.30/mth for a two-year subscription, or £103.36 for 27 months (24 months + three extra).

If you choose the top-tier option, the Ultimate package adds a total of 1TB of secure cloud storage, shared across all your devices, with end-to-end encryption to protect your data from unauthorised access. This will set you back £15.71/mth for a monthly subscription; £9.58/mth for a one-year subscription, or £115.02 for 15 months; and £7/mth for a two-year subscription, or £168.16 for 27 months.

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Which plan is best for me?

NordVPN Standard

This tier offers all the essential VPN features needed for online security and privacy as you’ll be getting a secure VPN service, with an ad and tracker blocker plus malware protection. It’s ideal as a basic package, but lacks more advanced features like data breach alerts, a cross-platform password manager and next-gen VPN encryption. If you need a basic VPN for location spoofing, accessing torrent networks and keeping your traffic hidden from your ISP, this could be for you.

NordVPN Plus

As well as all the features delivered in the Standard package, the Plus tier comes with a data breach scanner, an advanced security feature that can trawl the internet to check if your personal information – including email address, passwords or credit card details – have been exposed in a data breach. Also included is a cross-platform password management feature that allows you to synchronise and back up your passwords in an encrypted vault that’s easily accessible across all your devices. Security conscious and need a VPN for multiple devices you share passwords with? This package would make a fantastic option.

NordVPN Ultimate

This is the most comprehensive package which includes all the features available in the Standard and Plus tiers, as well as 1TB of cloud storage, advanced next-gen file encryption and £5,000 worth of cyber insurance to help protect you against losses from scams and online shopping fraud. If you do a lot of online shopping or regularly transfer large amounts of credit, this package would make an excellent choice.

Each package’s costs and features are summarised below (prices are rounded to the nearest whole number and exclude 20% VAT):

How secure is it?

NordVPN is one of our favourite VPNs for speed and security. Operating from Panama, the company has over 5,900 ultra-fast servers in 60 countries and there’s 24/7 customer support via live chat and email in case you need a hand installing the app or connecting to a specific server.

When you open the NordVPN app on Windows and Android, you’re presented with a stylised map of the world, allowing you to pick a server by clicking and dragging around. Once connected, you’re free to do what you want. NordVPN offers numerous servers specifically dedicated to BitTorrent (though violating copyright is strictly against its terms of service) and you can happily stream video from services worldwide.

As well as the privacy features mentioned earlier, NordVPN has a handy Split Tunneling feature, which helps to retain your real IP address on some sites or apps, and shields your internet traffic on others. There’s also a kill switch and double VPN for an added layer of security.

For encryption, NordVPN uses the widely recommended AES as its standard, also offering three different VPN protocols: IKeV2, OpenVPN and NordLynx (built around WireGuard) – the most secure you can find in the industry today.

Other features include a static IP address and auto-activation for specific networks, as well as compatibility with multiple devices and platforms including Amazon’s Fire TV, Chrome and Fire operating systems, Network Access Storage, Raspberry Pi and more.

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Is there a free trial?

NordVPN isn’t available as a free trial but there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee if you don’t like the service and want to cancel.