NordVPN Review 2025: Still the Best VPN?
NordVPN is still the best all-round VPN in 2025. Fast, reliable, genuinely private, and the Canadian servers are solid. The 2-year plan is the only one worth buying — the monthly price is a rip-off. If you want one VPN and you're done, this is it.
What Is NordVPN?
NordVPN is a Panama-based VPN provider with over 6,000 servers in 111 countries. It's consistently one of the top-rated VPNs in independent audits and has been the market leader for several years. We've been testing it extensively in Canada — specifically for streaming, privacy, and everyday browsing.
Speed Testing
We ran speed tests from Toronto connecting to servers in Canada, the US, UK, and the Netherlands. Results were consistently strong — we saw minimal speed loss on Canadian and US servers, which is what most people actually care about. NordLynx (their WireGuard implementation) is noticeably faster than OpenVPN and should be your default protocol.
Connecting to Montreal and Toronto servers from within Canada showed near-zero speed impact. Connecting to US servers dropped speeds by around 10–15% — barely noticeable in practice.
Privacy & Logging
NordVPN has a verified no-logs policy, audited independently by Deloitte in 2023. They're based in Panama, outside the 5/9/14 Eyes intelligence-sharing agreements. In 2018, one of their servers was compromised — but no user data was exposed because of the no-logs policy. That's actually the best possible proof that the no-logs claim is real.
Streaming
Unblocked Netflix US, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, and Hulu without issues. Canadian Netflix works without a VPN of course, but if you want access to US or UK libraries, NordVPN handles it reliably. This is one area where cheaper VPNs frequently fail — NordVPN doesn't.
Pricing
The monthly plan at full price is genuinely not worth it. The 2-year plan brings the cost down to around $3–4/month depending on the promotion — that's where the value is. NordVPN runs frequent sales, particularly around Black Friday and early in the year.
Pros
- Consistently fast speeds
- Verified no-logs policy
- Reliable streaming unblocking
- 6 simultaneous connections
- Threat Protection built in
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Monthly price is too expensive
- App UI could be simpler
- 2018 server breach (no data leaked)
- Some servers slower than others
Who Should Buy NordVPN?
Anyone who wants a reliable, fast, privacy-respecting VPN without having to think too hard about it. It's not the cheapest option — Surfshark undercuts it significantly — but it's the most consistent performer we've tested over time.
If you're on a tight budget, check out our Surfshark review — it's a legitimate alternative at a lower price point.