NordVPN vs ProtonVPN

NordVPN's support page says its VPN service is based and operates under Panama jurisdiction. This is a provider statement; the page's data-retention and logging assertions are not independently assessed here.

Proton's Terms say its services are operated by Proton AG, a Swiss company in Geneva, under supervision of the non-profit Proton Foundation, based in Switzerland. This is a provider statement, not an independent assessment of applicable law or surveillance exposure.

NordVPN's privacy notice, updated July 20, 2026, says it does not store used bandwidth, traffic logs, IP addresses, or browsing information. It separately describes unspecified last-session information used to limit concurrent sessions and deleted within 15 minutes after a session ends, plus whether the service was used in the preceding 90 days for abuse prevention and chargeback disputes. The notice does not enumerate the last-session fields. These are provider policy disclosures, not measurements of implementation.

Proton's public no-logs audit summary, updated June 16, 2026, describes five consecutive annual Securitum audits through 2026 and quotes a conclusion about the examined Proton VPN server infrastructure. The linked 2026 report was not reviewed for this record, so this summary records Proton's account rather than an independent assessment of the full report.

NordVPN's support guide describes OpenVPN, NordLynx (WireGuard), and NordWhisper, and says NordLynx is the default in most apps. The guide describes NordWhisper for restrictive local networks but does not provide a complete protocol-by-platform matrix.

Proton's feature page names WireGuard and OpenVPN and describes Stealth as a custom obfuscation protocol based on WireGuard tunneled over TLS. This page does not provide a complete protocol-by-platform matrix or substantiate IKEv2 support.

NordVPN's encryption page says OpenVPN uses AES-256-GCM with a 4096-bit DH key and describes the NordLynx protocol. It says the post-quantum upgrade began on Linux in 2024 and was being rolled out to other apps; this page does not establish current app-by-app availability or NordLynx cipher details.

Proton's feature page says its VPN protocols use open-source encryption standards such as AES-256 and ChaCha20 at their strongest settings. It does not specify the ChaCha20-Poly1305 mapping or a protocol-specific cipher suite in this passage.

NordVPN's support guide lists DNS leak protection and an automatic kill switch. This provider description does not establish WebRTC or IPv6 leak-test results or protection against every split-tunneling configuration.

Proton's feature page says DNS leak protection is provided and that a kill switch is included in all its apps. It does not establish IPv6 leak-test results or platform-by-platform behavior.

NordVPN's trust center says a big chunk of its VPN servers are owned, maintained, and managed in-house, alongside partner-hosted servers. It does not state the proportion owned.

Mixed model; special Secure Core (CH/IS/SE) uses hardened, Proton-controlled servers.

NordVPN's trust center says its servers do not rely on traditional hard drives and that server data is stored in volatile RAM and wiped when a server powers off. This is the provider's infrastructure statement, not an independent inspection.

Proton's feature page says its servers are bare metal and use full-disk encryption. That passage does not state that servers are RAM-only or establish the absence of persistent storage.

Corporate structure disclosed (Nord Security group; ops split across entities).

Proton's ownership support page says Proton Foundation is Proton AG's primary shareholder and that employees own most of the remaining shares. It does not say the Foundation owns a majority of all shares.

NordVPN says it is a founding member of the VPN Trust Initiative and publishes incident updates. These are provider statements about membership and communications; they do not establish independent governance.

Open-source apps, recurring external audits; privacy-mission stance.

NordVPN's trust center describes a public bug bounty that invites researchers to report vulnerabilities in its network. The cited page does not specify the complete eligible scope or reward schedule.

Proton’s program page accepts reports by email, lists web, desktop, mobile, and server issue categories, and says awards are assessed case by case. It publishes standard reward ranges; actual payouts may vary. No VPN-only eligibility rule was identified.

NordVPN's October 2019 statement says a third-party data-center breach likely occurred in March 2018 on one Finnish server; the company says it learned of it in April 2019, terminated the provider relationship, and began audits. This is NordVPN's account, not independent incident forensics.

The linked TechRadar article was not retrieved in the current source batch. Its audit and SOC 2 references therefore do not support an incident-response maturity conclusion in this record.

Independent testing shows NordVPN consistently delivers high speeds with minimal impact on connection performance, often achieving over 1 Gbps speeds.

The linked TechRadar and Tom's Guide reviews were not retrieved in the current source batch, so the cited peak throughput and performance summary are not independently verified here.

NordVPN's official app directory lists apps or extensions for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Android TV, and Apple TV. This list does not establish a native router app or feature parity across platforms.

Proton's feature page lists apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, Android TV, Apple TV, iOS/iPadOS, and Chromebook, plus Chrome and Firefox extensions. This platform list does not assess router configuration or feature parity across clients.

NordVPN reliably unblocks Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney Plus, and other streaming services according to independent testing.

Proton's streaming guide lists supported services including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and BBC iPlayer, and says streaming is available on paid plans. This is a provider statement and guide, not an independent reliability or pass-rate test.

NordVPN's support page states that customer support is available 24/7. It does not verify channel availability, response times, or support quality.

Proton's dedicated support article advertises 24/7 Live Chat for paid plans, while its general features page says paid-plan Live Chat is available most hours. Actual availability was not tested; these pages do not establish free-plan chat access.

NordVPN offers competitive pricing with 30-day money-back guarantee and various subscription lengths.

ProtonVPN offers competitive pricing with 30-day money-back guarantee and free tier available.

Cards, PayPal, crypto supported.

Proton's payment article lists cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Bitcoin, cash, and bank transfer. It notes that Bitcoin requires an existing account and that some methods vary by platform or are handled through account credits.

VTI membership; transparency reports/articles; some historical baggage acknowledged.

Non-profit backing; repeated independent audits.

NordVPN's support guide describes file checks and harmful-site blocking as real-time protection, alongside DNS filtering. The page does not establish that every protection is DNS-level or available without a VPN connection across all platforms.

Proton's feature page describes NetShield as DNS filtering that blocks ads, trackers, and malicious scripts. This page does not establish plan eligibility or independently measured blocking efficacy.

NordVPN offers Meshnet, Double VPN, Onion Over VPN, and Dark Web Monitor for advanced privacy protection.

Proton’s feature page lists Secure Core, Tor over VPN, port forwarding, split tunneling on specified platforms, and custom connection profiles.

NordVPN recommends NordWhisper for restrictive local networks and describes obfuscated servers as hiding VPN traffic. These provider descriptions do not guarantee access in a particular country or network.

Proton's feature page describes alternative routing through third-party networks when access to Proton servers is blocked and says Stealth is designed to defeat many forms of advanced censorship. It does not establish a universal DPI bypass or a measured success rate.

NordVPN's trust center says its Linux command-line app has been open source for several years and that Linux GUI source code is available to view, build, and customize. It does not state that Meshnet tooling or all other apps are open source.

All apps open-source; regular audits.

NordVPN's current support guide says post-quantum protection is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, tvOS, and Android TV, but only with NordLynx. It says the feature is unavailable with OpenVPN, dedicated IP, obfuscated servers, and Meshnet.

The reviewed Proton feature page does not state a post-quantum rollout or compatible platforms. This page alone cannot establish that Proton has not launched PQC tunnels.

NordVPN describes Dedicated IP as a personal IP address that is not shared with other users. The cited current provider page does not establish the country count or service compatibility stated in the older summary.

The linked Proton VPN plans article does not describe a consumer dedicated-IP offering. Its silence does not establish that one is unavailable, and business-service options were not reviewed here.

NordVPN describes Meshnet as a private network connecting users' devices. That description does not establish whether the service participates in third-party decentralized VPN networks.

Proton's Secure Core page describes a multi-server VPN route. It does not assess whether Proton participates in decentralized VPN networks.

NordVPN's next-generation antivirus whitepaper describes machine-learning models for phishing URLs, scam e-commerce pages, malware file behavior, and social-engineering patterns. It says processing may be on-device, in a browser extension, or in the backend; this is a provider description, not a detection-performance test.

The reviewed Proton feature page does not describe AI- or machine-learning-based VPN threat detection. Its silence does not establish that no such feature exists.

NordVPN's trust center says both its Linux command-line app and GUI source code are available. It does not establish feature parity, update cadence, or Meshnet support in the Linux client.

Proton's feature page lists Linux among its open-source apps and names Linux among the platforms with split tunneling. This does not establish a command-line interface or feature parity with other clients.

NordVPN's next-generation antivirus whitepaper says that, with user consent, it tracks feature use, blocked-threat volume, and direct survey scores for product improvement. This disclosure is scoped to that protection product and does not provide an app-wide telemetry or third-party tracker inventory.

The linked Proton audit article discusses open-source apps and external security audits but does not provide a client-telemetry inventory or tracker measurement. Open-source availability alone does not establish minimal telemetry.