Why People Say to Avoid NordVPN

The claim

NordVPN does not offer port forwarding on any server, which slows down torrenting on poorly seeded files and blocks remote access to a home network.

Our read

True, and it matters if you seed. NordVPN presents it as a deliberate security decision — open ports are an attack surface — which is a defensible position, but it does not change the outcome for you. Proton VPN and Private Internet Access do offer it.

The claim

The advertised price applies to the first subscription period only. After that it renews at a considerably higher rate, and complaints about automatic renewal are common.

Our read

This is normal across the industry, but that does not make it harmless: the price you compare on any review site — ours included — is the introductory one. Check what the second term costs before you commit, and set a reminder before it renews.

The claim

NordVPN markets its Panama incorporation as being outside intelligence-sharing alliances, while the team largely works from Lithuania and the Netherlands — the latter a 9 Eyes member.

Our read

Both halves are true, and PCWorld calls the concern fair. Whether it matters depends on your threat model: incorporation determines which courts can compel data, staff location does not. If your threat model includes a state actor, this is a reason to look at Mullvad or Proton instead.

The claim

An unauthorised party reached a single rented server in Finland in March 2018. NordVPN did not disclose it publicly until late 2019.

Our read

The breach itself was limited — one rented server, no user credentials taken, and it led to the move to RAM-only servers. The delay is the real problem: a company whose product is trust took over a year to tell its users. That is a fact about its behaviour, not about its encryption.

The claim

Privacy-focused communities do not recommend NordVPN because its clients are proprietary, so the code cannot be independently inspected.

Our read

Correct as a fact. Whether it disqualifies NordVPN depends on what you want: audits by a third party are a weaker guarantee than open code, but they are not nothing. Mullvad and Proton VPN publish their clients; if that is your bar, they are the shortlist.

The claim

NordVPN's founders are also listed as founders of Tesonet, which owns the web-scraping company Oxylabs. The claim is that user traffic feeds a data-harvesting business.

Our read

The shared founders are real; the data-sharing is not. PCWorld examined the claim and found that no link has been demonstrated. We list it because you will run into it, not because it holds up.