NordVPN vs Proton VPN (2026): Audits, Free Tier, Renewals

NordVPN and Proton VPN cost the same $3.49 a month on their long plans on 31 October 2026. But Proton VPN renews at $83.88 a year, against $139.08 for NordVPN. Proton VPN also gives away a free tier with no data cap and open-sources every app. NordVPN offers Meshnet, a dedicated IP, smart DNS for TVs, RAM-only servers and six no-logs engagements since 2018.

The two also made different engineering bets: RAM-only servers against full-disk encryption. Each has faced legal orders, with different outcomes. The table above is built from both providers’ data records. The sections below explain what the rows mean.

Pricing today

We loaded NordVPN’s pricing page on 31 October 2026, during its Black Friday promotion. It listed three tiers, Basic, Complete and Prime:

• 27-month plans: $3.49, $3.99 and $6.99 a month, or $94.23, $107.73 and $188.73 up front. They renew at $139.08, $219.48 and $296.28 a year.
• 15-month plans: $4.99, $5.99 and $8.99 a month.
• Monthly plans: $14.99, $19.99 and $29.99.

The 15-month and monthly plans renew at the price in force at the time.

Proton VPN’s pricing page showed three prices for VPN Plus the same day:

• $3.49 a month on the two-year plan, or $83.76 up front, labeled 65% off
• $4.49 a month on the one-year plan, or $53.88, labeled 55% off
• $9.99 month to month

Both discounted terms renew at $83.88 a year, and the page states this next to the price. The embedded plan data gives $83.88 a year and $119.76 for two years as the regular prices.

The Proton Unlimited bundle adds Proton’s other services. It costs $7.99 a month for two years, or $191.76, renewing at $119.88 a year. It costs $9.99 a month for one year, or $119.88, and $12.99 monthly.

The free plan costs nothing and has no data cap. It allows one device, assigns a server from 10 countries and runs at medium speed. It excludes streaming, NetShield, Secure Core and split tunneling.

The renewal difference decides the long-run cost. Say you buy the cheapest long plan once and renew once. NordVPN then costs $233.31 for 39 months, and Proton VPN costs $167.64 for 36 months. At renewal, NordVPN is $11.59 a month and Proton VPN $6.99. Proton VPN is also the only one with a cheap real monthly plan, at $9.99 against NordVPN’s $14.99.

Both can be paid without a card. NordVPN accepts cryptocurrency, bank transfer and prepaid cards bought with cash. Proton accepts cards, PayPal and Proton credits bought with cash, bank transfer or Bitcoin.

Both offer a 30-day money-back guarantee:

• NordVPN restricts it to the initial purchase. Apple refunds App Store purchases.
• Proton cannot refund bank-transfer or cash payments. It sends App Store buyers to Apple’s refund process.

NordVPN offers a seven-day trial on its 1- and 2-year Prime plans in listed countries. Proton VPN’s free plan is its trial. Every plan is listed on our NordVPN pricing page and Proton VPN pricing page.

Privacy and audits

NordVPN is operated by nordvpn S.A. in Panama and belongs to Nord Security. Proton AG runs Proton VPN from Geneva. It is a Swiss company, and its main owner is the non-profit Proton Foundation. It has no parent company and no venture-capital investors.

Both countries sit outside the 5, 9 and 14 Eyes alliances, which are groups of countries that share intelligence. Both companies publish transparency reports rather than warrant canaries. A transparency report lists the legal requests a company received. A warrant canary is a public notice that a company removes if it receives a secret order.

The server design is a real difference in approach. NordVPN runs every server in RAM, so nothing persists across a reboot. Proton VPN deliberately does not. Its servers use LUKS full-disk encryption with AES-256, and the keys are kept off the machine. Full-disk encryption scrambles everything stored on the drive.

Proton explained its choice in a July 2024 blog post. It argues that RAM-only protection applies only when a server is powered off, since “RAM can be just as easily accessed as hard disks if the computer is on”. Proton says disks let it keep local diagnostics and ship updates without rebooting. Both approaches are defensible. What matters more is whether anything is logged in the first place.

For logging, NordVPN has six no-logs assurance engagements. A no-logs audit checks that a VPN keeps no records of what its users do. PwC did two, in 2018 and 2020. Deloitte has done one every year from 2022 to 2025, the latest completed on 12 December 2025. Logged-in customers can read the reports.

Securitum has audited Proton VPN’s server infrastructure for logs every year since 2022. The fifth report was published in June 2026. The auditor found no evidence that the examined infrastructure logs browsing activity, DNS queries, destinations or user-identifiable connection metadata.

NordVPN also cites Cure53 assessments of its apps and infrastructure in 2022, 2024 and 2025. Proton’s open-source page says it hired independent researcher Ruben Santamarta to audit its apps. The page was updated in December 2025 with links to the latest reports.

Both companies have received legal orders, with different outcomes. NordVPN’s transparency report records one binding warrant from the Panamanian prosecutor’s office, in October 2024. NordVPN handed over the user data it held. Under its policy, that is account data rather than activity. Its other incident is the 2018 intrusion into a rented Finnish datacenter server, disclosed in October 2019.

Proton’s transparency report says a Swiss court approved a foreign request for Proton VPN data in January 2019. Proton could not provide it, because it holds no customer IP information. The same report lists 59 legal orders concerning Proton VPN in 2025, and none of them produced data.

Proton’s two other incidents concern Proton Mail, not the VPN:

• In September 2021, a Swiss order forced Proton to log and disclose a climate activist’s IP address.
• In May 2024, a recovery email address handed to Spanish police via Swiss authorities helped identify a Catalan activist.

Proton says Swiss law does not oblige Proton VPN to keep activity logs, unlike email. The distinction matters if you use both products.

Security and protocols

A protocol is the set of rules a VPN uses to build its encrypted tunnel. NordVPN’s default is NordLynx, which is based on WireGuard. It also offers OpenVPN over UDP and TCP, IKEv2 and NordWhisper for networks that block VPNs. Its post-quantum key exchange is an opt-in toggle that works only with NordLynx. Post-quantum encryption is designed to resist attacks from future quantum computers.

Proton VPN offers WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2, plus Stealth. Stealth wraps WireGuard in TLS to defeat blocking. Proton has no post-quantum option yet. It is listed as future work on Proton’s 2026 roadmap.

A kill switch blocks your internet if the VPN connection drops. Both have one on desktop and mobile. NordVPN’s varies by platform:

• Windows: an internet kill switch and an app kill switch
• Linux and Android: system-wide
• App Store builds for macOS and iOS: VPN bypass prevention
• Fire TV Stick: nothing

Proton’s kill switch is documented on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android.

Split tunneling lets you choose which apps or sites skip the VPN. Neither offers it on iOS. NordVPN has it on Windows, Android and Android TV. Proton VPN has it on Windows, Linux, Android, Android TV and the browser extension. It also has an experimental app-exclusion mode on macOS.

Multi-hop sends your traffic through two servers instead of one. Both have it, but they build it differently. NordVPN’s Double VPN chains two of its servers. Proton’s Secure Core routes traffic first through servers Proton owns and operates in Switzerland, Iceland and Sweden.

Both offer obfuscation, which disguises VPN traffic so it is harder to block. Both also have an ad and tracker blocker: Threat Protection Pro at NordVPN and NetShield at Proton.

From there the feature lists diverge:

• NordVPN adds Onion over VPN, Meshnet for linking your own devices and a dedicated IP add-on. Proton VPN offers dedicated servers only on its business plans.
• Proton VPN supports port forwarding, which NordVPN provides only through its separate Dedicated Server add-on. Port forwarding lets other devices reach a program on your computer, which some torrent apps need.
• Proton VPN handles IPv6, the newer format for internet addresses. It tunnels IPv6 on Windows, Linux, Android and the extension. It disables IPv6 with leak protection on macOS and iOS. Proton says about 80 percent of its servers support it.

NordVPN’s help center says “we do not support IPv6 yet”, and no page states whether its apps block it. You can check either with our IPv6 leak test.

Streaming claims

Proton VPN’s streaming guide lists twelve services for paid plans, with regions:

• Netflix in 26 countries
• Prime Video and Disney+ in 22 countries each
• HBO Max in 21
• Paramount+ in 16
• DAZN in 8
• BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Peacock, Crunchyroll, YouTube TV and ESPN+ in their home markets

The free plan excludes streaming. NordVPN’s VPN pages make no per-service claim. Its SmartDNS help article lists Netflix Originals, US Prime Video, US Disney+, US MAX, Paramount+ and Peacock.

Smart DNS is a streaming setting for devices that cannot run a VPN app. NordVPN includes a smart DNS service, SmartPlay, for TVs and consoles that cannot run an app. Proton VPN offers no smart DNS, so those devices need a router.

We have not tested streaming on either provider. Both lists are documented claims, and the 30-day refund is your test window. Our Netflix VPN picks track the current state.

Apps and devices

Both publish apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Android TV, Apple TV and Fire TV. Both have extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge, and Proton’s Chrome extension also runs in Brave and Opera. Both support router setups, and Proton adds a Chromebook app. Paid plans on both sides allow 10 devices at the same time. Proton’s free plan allows one.

The open-source gap is total. Open-source code can be read and checked by anyone. Every Proton VPN app is open source, with the Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and extension code on GitHub. NordVPN publishes only its Linux client.

Proton’s network is the larger on paper. Its live counters show 21,722 servers in 149 countries, against NordVPN’s 7,242 in 150. Both use virtual locations, which appear to be in one country while the server sits in another. Neither figure says anything about speed, which is not yet tested in our lab.

Support and refunds

Both offer 24/7 live chat, email and a help center. Proton’s live chat is for paid plans only. It starts with an AI assistant before a person takes over. Free users get ticket support. Response times are not yet measured for either. Refunds are 30 days on both sides, with the conditions above. Our NordVPN cancellation guide walks through the steps for ending a NordVPN plan.

Which should you buy?

Buy Proton VPN if any of these apply:

• you want to pay less over time
• you want a free plan to fall back on
• you care about open-source apps
• you need port forwarding or IPv6
• you already use Proton Mail

Its gaps are the missing post-quantum option, no smart DNS, no dedicated IP for consumers and no split tunneling on iOS.

Buy NordVPN if you want Meshnet, a dedicated IP, smart DNS for a TV, RAM-only servers and the longest audit history. It suits you if you will either cancel before the $139.08 renewal or accept it.

We have no streaming or speed test results for either yet. For those, the 30-day refund is the real test.

Alternatives

Mullvad goes further than Proton on anonymity, with no email account and a flat €5 a month. See Mullvad vs Proton VPN and Mullvad vs NordVPN.

Surfshark shares NordVPN’s owner and allows unlimited devices. It costs $2.49 a month for the first 27 months, and its renewal price is not stated. See NordVPN vs Surfshark and Proton VPN vs Surfshark.

ExpressVPN has post-quantum protection by default and a $99.95 renewal. See ExpressVPN vs NordVPN and ExpressVPN vs Proton VPN.

Windscribe is the other free-tier option. See Proton VPN vs Windscribe.

Every provider we track is on the comparison hub.

How we compared them

Every row in the table comes from the two providers’ data records. We checked them against their official pricing, feature, server, policy, audit and transparency pages on 31 October 2026. The sources are listed below. Scores follow our published methodology, with speed left out until our lab measures it. The figures shown above change whenever the data does. Read the full NordVPN review and Proton VPN review for the detail behind each row. The NordVPN deals and Proton VPN deals pages show today’s verified prices.