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Norton Secure VPN Review

Rated 1.2 out of 5

Updated Sep 4, 2023

Simon Migliano is a recognized world expert in VPNs. He's tested hundreds of VPN services and his research has featured on the BBC, The New York Times and more.

Fact-checked by JP JonesAdditional Testing by Luke Williams

Our Verdict

Overall Rating:

5.045.0/10

Norton Secure VPN is not recommended as a tool for privacy or security. While it has fixed some previous security issues, it offers hardly any features, has limited device compatibility, and its logging policy is still one of the worst on the market. It’s fast enough, and it’s very cheap, but Norton Secure VPN is not a good enough product overall.

Ranked #40 out of 55 VPNs

Norton Secure VPN Pros & Cons

Works with US Netflix, HBO Max & more
Fast download speeds on nearby servers
Simple and easy-to-use apps
60-day money-back guarantee
Works in China

Logs IP addresses
Won't prevent your ISP from seeing your web activity
Unhelpful customer support
No Firestick app and can't be installed on routers
Not many servers in Asia, Africa & South America
No browser extensions

Why Trust Our Review?

We’ve spent thousands of hours testing and reviewing 55 VPN services using our impartial review process to recommend you the best VPN software.

Here are some of our key VPN testing statistics:

Total Hours of Testing	30,000+
Weekly Speed Tests	3,000+
VPN Services Reviewed	55
Streaming Platforms Tested Daily	12
IP & DNS Leak Tests Performed	9,500+
How Much We've Spent On Testing	$25,000+

Norton Secure VPN is included with every Norton 360 subscription, which is the company’s all-in-one security software suite. You can use the VPN through this software, or via a dedicated standalone app. The VPN works exactly the same in both, there are just some minor visual differences.

We’ve tested Norton Secure VPN extensively on every available device to create this review. Our experts monitored speeds across its server network, attempted to unblock streaming services like Netflix from other countries, and used tools to test the security and anonymity of its encryption.

Read on to see the results of our review, plus how Norton Secure VPN compares with top competitors like ExpressVPN and CyberGhost.

EXPERT ADVICE: Our highest-rated VPN, ExpressVPN, is faster and more secure than Norton VPN. It doesn’t log your IP address, and it unblocks many more websites and applications from anywhere. Try ExpressVPN risk-free for 30 days.

Here’s a quick video demonstrating what Norton VPN looks like, and how it feels to use:

Who Should Get Norton SecureVPN?

Get Norton Secure VPN if:

You’re already a Norton 360 subscriber. The VPN comes bundled with a Norton subscription, so you don’t have to pay anything extra.
You’re new to VPNs. Norton Secure VPN has a simple and familiar interface. It’s a good way to try out a VPN for the first time.
You need to connect to the open internet from China and Russia. Norton VPN works reliably to bypass the Great Firewall and other forms of censorship, meaning you can access blocked websites, like Instagram and YouTube.

Avoid Norton Secure VPN if:

You need privacy or anonymity. Norton Secure VPN logs far too much personal data, including your real IP address. There is no need for this, and it’s a huge privacy risk.
You want lots of features. It just about gets the basics right, but Norton Secure VPN comes with almost no extra features or settings. It’s certainly not a good option for competent VPN users.
You need a VPN for torrenting. Norton Secure VPN only allows P2P downloads in one specific server location, plus its privacy policy is nowhere near good enough for private torrenting.

Norton Secure VPN Key Data

Add to compare

Data Cap	Unlimited
Download Speed	89Mbps
Logging Policy	Intrusive Logging
Data Leaks	Yes
Jurisdiction	US (Five Eyes Member)
Servers	2,000+
IP Addresses	2,000+
Countries With Servers	29
US Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Partially
Simultaneous Connections	5
Works In China	Yes
Support	Live Chat Support & Online Resources
Cheapest Price	$2.50/mo over 12 months
Free Trial	7 Days (No Payment Info Required)
Money-Back Guarantee	60-day Money-Back Guarantee
Official Website	Norton.com

Privacy & Logging Policy

Norton Secure VPN Logs Your IP Address

Privacy & Logging Policy Rating

0.10.1/10

Norton Secure VPN logs personally identifiable information, including your IP address and device type. Norton is also based in the US, which means it has to comply with Five Eyes surveillance and data collection laws. You cannot trust Norton Secure VPN to keep your data private.

Ranked #45 out of 55 VPNs for Privacy & Logging Policy

In the table below, you can see the data that Norton VPN does and does not log:

Data Type	Logged by Norton Secure VPN
Browsing Activity	No
Device Information	Yes
DNS Queries	No
Individual Bandwidth Usage	Yes
Individual Connection Timestamps	No
ISP	No
Number of Simultaneous Connections	No
Originating IP Address	Yes
Account Information	Yes
VPN Server IP	No
VPN Server Location	No
Date of Last Connection	No

You can read Norton Secure VPN’s full privacy policy on its website.

Norton Secure VPN claims that it does not keep logs — our research has found this to be untrue.

Most importantly, it logs your originating IP address. Your IP address is unique to your network and, as a result, is one of the worst things for a VPN to store.

After contacting Norton, we were told that the VPN logs this information so it can “gather your actual location to change it to a different place.”

This is false and very disappointing from Norton. A VPN doesn’t require your originating IP address to connect you to a VPN server. If any location information is required, it can be processed on-device and doesn’t need to be stored elsewhere. Mullvad, for example, doesn’t even link subscriber email addresses to their Mullvad VPN accounts.

One positive is that Norton Secure VPN doesn’t keep connection timestamps or the websites you visit. This at least makes it harder to link your activity to your stored IP address.

Based in the US

Norton Secure VPN is based in the United States, which is the worst location for user privacy. The US has very intrusive surveillance laws and is a member of the Five Eyes international intelligence-sharing alliance.

The US has troubling data retention laws, including the Stored Communications Act (SCA). In short, this means Norton has to hand over all the information it stores on a user if requested by the US government.

It can be acceptable to be based in the US if the privacy policy is minimal enough — Private Internet Access is a great example of this. Otherwise, you should look for a VPN based in a more private jurisdiction.

Security & Technical Features

Security Has Improved, but It’s Still Far Too Basic

Security & Technical Features Rating

55.0/10

Norton VPN is safe to use from an encryption and security standpoint. In fact, it has made huge technical improvements in recent years. It has overcome past issues with DNS and IP address leaks, and it now has a kill switch that functions properly. Although generally safe, the VPN does not allow you to choose your protocol or any other additional security features, which is why its security is rated just 5.0.

Ranked #38 out of 55 VPNs for Security & Technical Features

Protocols	Available in Norton Secure VPN
IKEv2/IPSec	Yes
OpenVPN (TCP/UDP)	No
WireGuard	Yes

Encryption	Available in Norton Secure VPN
AES-128	No
AES-192	No
AES-256	Yes
Blowfish	No
ChaCha20	Yes

Security	Available in Norton Secure VPN
DNS Leak Blocking	No
First-party DNS	No
IPv6 Leak Blocking	No
Supports TCP Port 443	No
VPN Kill Switch	Yes
WebRTC Leak Blocking	No

Advanced Features	Available in Norton Secure VPN
Ad Blocker	Yes
Dedicated IP	No
Double VPN	No
Smart DNS	No
Static IP	No
SOCKS	No
Split Tunneling	Yes
Tor over VPN Server	No
Tracker Blocker	Yes

No DNS or IP Leaks Anymore

In our latest round of testing, we were pleased to discover that Norton Secure VPN no longer has any issues with leaking data.

Norton Secure VPN running next to the results of a successful VPN leak test

Better VPNs than Norton often struggle with IPv6 – this is a very pleasing result.

Using our VPN leak test tool, we confirmed it properly secured our IP address (both IPv4 and IPv6) as well as our DNS and geolocation.

New Kill Switch Works as Intended

Until recently, Norton Secure VPN didn’t have a kill switch — the most vital security feature for any VPN.
It now has a kill switch included in every application on all platforms. We put it to the test, and the results can be seen below:

Norton Secure VPN passing a VPN kill switch test

A non-functioning kill switch can expose your IP address as if you weren’t using a VPN at all.

Our kill switch testing tool confirmed that Norton Secure VPN did not leak our true IP address when changing servers or when disconnecting and reconnecting our PC from the internet.

Properly Encrypts Traffic with a Variety of Protocols

Norton Secure VPN doesn’t let you choose which protocol to use on any device or platform. By default, desktop connections use WireGuard and mobile connections use IKEv2.

While this is an improvement from Norton, and is technically acceptable, we still feel strongly that there should be greater transparency from its apps – plus a choice of protocols on all platforms. WireGuard, in particular, should be available on mobile to match desktop. Most of our highest-ranked VPNs offer this (alongside a broader range of extra features, like first-party DNS and added obfuscation).

While we’d prefer it if we were offered a choice of protocols, our testing can confirm that Norton Secure VPN properly encrypts your traffic no matter what device you’re using.
Below you can see what web traffic looks like when protected by Norton Secure VPN — the Wireshark packet sniffing tool confirms that it’s all safely encrypted:

Analyzing our VPN traffic using Wireshark

Inspecting our Norton VPN traffic using Wireshark.

One of the Worst VPN Ad Blockers

All of Norton’s VPN apps include an ad and tracker blocker. This feature is designed to prevent websites from monitoring your activity and following you as you browse the web.
We tested Norton Secure VPN’s ‘Ad Tracker Blocking’ feature and found that it only blocks 48% of all ads and trackers:

Norton Secure VPN's ad blocker being tested. It scores 48% - a poor result.

The very best VPN ad blockers score over 90% on this test.

While certainly better than nothing, this makes it one of the least effective VPN ad blockers by far.

Security Features We’d Like to See

Although its recent additions are a big improvement, Norton VPN doesn’t include many of the additional security features we expect from a paid-for VPN..
You can see from its security settings menu how sparse the options are:

The settings menu within Norton Secure VPN's Windows app

The kill switch is not enabled by default – make sure you check it yourself.

Here are some features we’d like the VPN service to add:

VPN protocol selection so that users know what’s being used, at the very least.
Custom DNS servers for added privacy.
Double hop servers to reduce the chance of traffic correlation attacks.

Streaming

Works with Popular Streaming Sites

Streaming Rating

7.17.1/10

Norton Secure VPN worked with most of the streaming services we tested it with. It works to unblock geo-restricted content on US content platforms, including Netflix and Hulu, as well as UK services like BBC iPlayer. However, it doesn’t work with other international Netflix regions or less popular streaming sites.

Ranked #23 out of 55 VPNs for Streaming

In the table below, you can see all of the streaming services that Norton VPN works to access from overseas:

Streaming Platform	Works with Norton Secure VPN
Channel 4	No
Amazon Prime Video	Yes
BBC iPlayer	Yes
Disney+	No
HBO Max	Yes
Hotstar India	No
Hulu	Yes
ITVX	No
Netflix US	Yes
YouTube	Yes

Sometimes Streams US Netflix

We were able to unblock American Netflix using Norton’s US VPN server. However, it was far less reliable than the very best Netflix VPNs.

In our tests, Norton Secure VPN worked with US Netflix 60% of the time. Frustratingly, the VPN doesn’t offer city-level server locations, so you can’t cycle between servers if it’s not working. Instead, you’ll have to wait for Norton to restore functionality.

Streaming US Netflix with Norton VPN.

The VPN doesn’t work with any other Netflix region other than the US. We tested it with over 25 libraries, including the UK, Japan, and Australia. Norton VPN failed to stream a TV show or movie from any of these regions.

Reliably Accesses US Content Platforms

Norton Secure VPN is far more reliable at streaming other US-based video services. Using it, we could unblock Hulu, Prime Video, and HBO Max from overseas.

Unlike with Netflix, we were always able to access these streaming services with Norton. Norton Secure VPN’s US server speeds are fast, too, so you can expect high quality video streams.

Streaming HBO Max using Norton Secure VPN

Norton VPN always worked with HBO Max and other US content platforms.

Works Well with UK Streaming Services

We also tested Norton Secure VPN with UK streaming services. The VPN worked with all of them, including BBC iPlayer, All 4, and ITV Hub.

Norton’s VPN also doesn’t have any city-level servers in the UK. That means you won’t be able to get a new IP address if it stops working.

The VPN works reliably with UK-based streaming sites.

All the videos loaded quickly and streamed in the highest possible resolution. Using it, we watched Sherlock in HD without any buffering.

We were pleasantly surprised by this outcome – based on Norton Secure VPN’s poor performance in other main areas we had low expectations for using it with streaming. However, we rate it lower than the best streaming VPNs mostly due to its lack of supported Netflix libraries and its inability to unblock Disney+.

Speed

Fast Speeds Across All Server Locations

Speed Rating

7.87.8/10

Norton Secure VPN is a fast VPN. It’s especially quick on long-distance connections, even outperforming big names like NordVPN and ExpressVPN. It doesn’t do as well on short-distance connections, though — an average download speed of 93Mbps on our 100Mbps connection is still fast, but there are lots of other VPNs that are even faster.

Ranked #35 out of 55 VPNs for Speed

We connected to Norton Secure VPN servers on six different continents. We use a 100Mbps internet connection, similar to your baseline speed at home.

Here’s a table showing Norton Secure VPN’s speed test results from around the world:

Each VPN we review goes through our scientific speed testing process. We use Norton Secure VPN’s WireGuard protocol and report the results exactly as we find them.

Even at its slowest when connecting to a nearby server, Norton Secure VPN is still pretty fast. Our New York, US, server tests confirmed it Norton Secure VPN only slowed down our internet speeds by 11%. That’s not a number to rival the very fastest VPNs, but it’s impressive for a less popular service.

Norton Secure VPN’s speeds start to drop off when connecting overseas, though. We never knew what we were going to see next when testing it, as some locations were very fast while others were much slower, with no real indication as to why.

On a connection thousands of miles away to Brazil, for example, we actually recorded speed faster than when connected to our closest server.

This randomness and inconsistency makes Norton Secure VPN tough to recommend if you want dependable speeds, although it’s still fairly fast across all locations regardless.

A Solid Choice for Lag-Free Gaming

Norton Secure VPN is also a good VPN to use while gaming. When connected to a nearby server, we recorded a ping speed of 69ms. This is low enough for multiplayer games like CS:GO.

Norton VPN was even fast enough for cloud gaming services, like Xbox Cloud Gaming. Using it, Fortnite ran as if it was installed directly onto our PC. It took us just 20 seconds to find a match and we didn’t notice any input lag.

Playing Fortnite using Norton Secure VPN

Norton VPN’s ping is fast enough for online gaming.

However, we don’t recommend using the VPN to access gaming lobbies from other countries. When connected to a server in East Asia our ping increased to 145ms. The response time was too slow and we were removed from some lobbies.

Server Locations

What Countries Does Norton Secure VPN Have?

Server Locations Rating

7.17.1/10

Norton Secure VPN has servers in 29 countries, which is much lower than we’d like. There’s also no server choice within countries, so you can’t get an IP address from a specific city. We’re pleased that there’s a server in every continent, but the rest are too concentrated in Europe.

Ranked #36 out of 55 VPNs for Server Locations

29 Countries

29 Cities

2,000+ IP Addresses

Here are all the countries that Norton Secure VPN has servers in:

Continent	Number of Countries
Europe	19
Asia	3
South America	1
North America	3
Africa	1
Oceania	2

66% of Norton’s VPN servers are in Europe. We prefer VPN server networks that are dispersed over a wider area. That way, more users have access to nearby connections.
There’s only one country each for South America and Africa, and three for Asia. Some major regions are not available either. There are no servers in India, South Korea, or Indonesia. If you’re connecting from any of these regions, you can expect slow speeds and high latency.

Norton VPN's server list on its desktop app

Norton VPN doesn’t provide any information about server load or latency.

We are also disappointed that it doesn’t offer any city-level locations. This means we aren’t able to bypass US sports blackouts by connecting to a particular city or state.

Norton also wouldn’t tell us whether these servers are physically located in the region, or whether they are owned or rented by Norton.

If you live in a country that isn’t included in Norton Secure VPN’s network, it’s worth paying a little extra for a VPN that provides coverage to experience the best possible speeds.

Proton VPN has 2,970 servers in 68 countries, and 100% of them are physically based where they say they are.

Torrenting

Not Private Enough for Torrenting

Torrenting Rating

3.73.7/10

We don’t recommend Norton Secure VPN for torrenting. Although it has fast P2P download speeds and a kill switch, it has significant drawbacks. The VPN logs your IP address and is based in a Five Eyes jurisdiction. P2P traffic is also blocked on every server other than the Netherlands. Depending on where you are, this will slow down your downloads.

Ranked #40 out of 55 VPNs for Torrenting

In the table below, you can see all of the key data from our Norton VPN torrenting tests:

Average Download Bitrate	9.2MiB/s
No. of P2P Servers	1
Logging Policy	Intrusive Logging
Kill Switch	Yes
Port Forwarding	No

Other VPN review websites claim that Norton Secure VPN doesn’t support torrenting. But we found that it allows you to download P2P files on its server in the Netherlands.

If you try torrenting while connected to a different server location, the VPN app will block the download and show an error message. To connect to the Netherlands, choose the Torrent-Optimized Region option at the top of the server list.

Norton Secure VPN blocks torrenting outside of the Netherlands.

There’s no good reason for Norton to restrict P2P downloads to the Netherlands. Although it was previously legal to download copyrighted material there, this was stopped in 2014.

We’d like to see Norton expand its P2P server network to at least include an option for North American users.

P2P Speeds Depend On Your Location

Norton Secure VPN performed very well in our P2P speed tests. On our 10MiB/s test connection, we recorded a bitrate of 9.2MiB/s. This meant our torrent files downloaded almost as quickly as our regular internet connection.

Downloading a torrent file using Norton Secure VPN

Norton VPN downloaded our torrent files quickly.

Here’s how quickly we were able to download a 20GB torrent file compared to when the VPN was disconnected:

VPN Server	Download Bitrate	Time To Download 20GB Torrent File
No VPN	10MiB/s	32 minutes
Norton P2P Server	9.2MiB/s	35 minutes

The closer you are to Norton’s P2P server in the Netherlands, the better your torrenting speeds will be. You’ll experience less impressive speeds if you’re connecting from further away.

If you’re not located in the US, TorGuard is a good alternative as it has fast P2P speeds and supports port forwarding.

Price & Value

Cheap on Every Plan

Price & Value Rating

66.0/10

Norton Secure VPN comes free with every Norton 360 subscription. It can also be purchased separately for cheap. You can pay annually or monthly, and you can save money by choosing fewer devices to register on your account. If you only want to cover one device, you can use Norton VPN for $2.50 a month, which is a good deal.

Ranked #30 out of 55 VPNs for Price & Value

Here are the payment plans available for Norton Secure VPN:

There are plans available to use Norton Secure VPN on 10 devices. However, these are almost twice the price of other plans, making it as expensive as the most premium VPN services. You shouldn’t even consider them.

If you plan to pay one month at a time, Norton has some of the lowest prices we’ve seen. However, its price jumps up to $4.17 per month once the first year of your subscription ends — more than double the original price.

If you’re set on using Norton, we instead recommend checking the prices for Norton 360 before purchasing a standalone Norton Secure VPN subscription. It can be purchased for just $10.00 extra and includes additional features, including cloud storage and antivirus protection.

NOTE: Norton Secure VPN’s monthly plans are not available in the UK. Instead, you’ll have to pay annually. Prices range from £19.99 to £69.99, depending on how many devices you want to use the VPN on.

Payment & Refund Options

Here’s a full list of the few payment options that Norton Secure VPN accepts:

American Express
Mastercard
PayPal
Visa

Norton Secure VPN offers a generous 60-day money-back guarantee for annual plans, and a 14-day refund period for monthly plans.

The refund process is one of the best of any VPN we’ve encountered. There’s no need to talk to anyone – so long as you’re within your money-back guarantee period a cancellation only takes a couple of clicks within your online account menu.

You can pay for Norton Secure VPN with debit and credit cards or PayPal only.

If you sign up from within the Android or iOS app, you can also take advantage of a seven-day free trial.

While the choice of payment methods is poor, these refund periods offered are excellent. Most VPNs only offer a week or maybe two for you to get your refund – 60 days is one of the longest on the market. It’s also nice to see a free trial, even if it is just on mobile, as more and more VPNs are moving away from offering them.

Bypassing Web Censorship

Norton VPN Works in China

Bypassing Censorship Rating

99.0/10

In our most recent tests, Norton VPN worked in China almost 100% of the time. Using it, we could access blocked sites like YouTube from within China. However, the VPN lacks any obfuscation technology, so it’s unclear how long it will continue to work for.

Ranked #5 out of 55 VPNs for Bypassing Web Censorship

After contacting Norton support, we were told that “Norton Secure VPN will not work in China.” Despite this, we were able to bypass the Great Firewall on every VPN server we tested from our server in Shanghai.

We connected to a server within 10 seconds each time, too, which is much faster than some other VPNs we tested.

In the video below, view our tests examining how well Norton VPN worked in China:

There are also VPN servers available in nearby locations, like Hong Kong, so you can connect with fast speeds and low latency.

The one downside is that the VPN doesn’t include any obfuscation or anti-censorship technology. We’d like to see Norton add an option to connect via Shadowsocks or Obfsproxy.

Device & OS Compatibility

Can Be Installed on Most Major Platforms

Device Compatibility

Norton Secure VPN is only available on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. The iOS and macOS apps miss out on some key features, like split tunneling. There are no apps for other platforms, including Fire TV or Linux. It also can’t be installed on a router.

Apps

You can download Norton VPN on these operating systems:

Windows
Mac
iOS
Android

Here are a few differences between Norton’s VPN apps:

We’re glad that Norton is edging closer to feature parity with its VPN but, with so few apps on offer, there’s little reason why there should be any difference at all at this point.

Depending on which pricing plan you choose, Norton allows you to install its VPN app on one, five, or 10 devices at once. A device will count towards this even if it’s not connected to the VPN, which can be frustrating.

This is an approach that Norton uses with its other products as well, not just its VPN. It’s confusing and unnecessary when compared to almost any other VPN, and we wish it would update its practices and simplify its device plans.

Not Available on Many Platforms

There’s no way to use the VPN on any other devices, including Fire TV and Linux. There’s not a manual workaround for routers either.

Norton doesn’t offer Smart DNS functionality. That means you won’t be able to stream geo-blocked content on devices that don’t support VPNs, like Smart TVs.

Norton Secure VPN doesn’t come with any browser extensions for Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox either.

With the amount of resources the company behind it has, we strongly believe that Norton Secure VPN should follow the lead of superior competitors like NordVPN and at the very least introduce apps for streaming devices and Linux. Given that Norton has completely ignored Linux for its flagship antivirus product, though, we aren’t feeling too hopeful.

It’s also a great shame that there’s no way to use Norton Secure VPN with your Smart TV or streaming devices, given that unblocking streaming sites is one of its few strengths.

Ease of Use

Basic Apps Are Easy to Use

Ease of Use Rating

8.58.5/10

Norton Secure VPN is easy to use on all platforms. The apps are basic and familiar, making them intuitive and simple to navigate regardless of your experience level. However, we would like to see more customization options for advanced users.

Ranked #17 out of 55 VPNs for Ease of Use

Norton’s VPN service might be easy to use, but we did discover some differences between the interface on different devices, which can be confusing.

Here are some opinions on our experience using the VPN on each different platform:

Desktop & Laptop (Windows & Mac)

Norton Secure VPN’s Windows app has more features than any other platform. It includes a kill switch, split tunneling, and a tracker blocker.

As the VPN can be used in the Norton 360 app, there’s no learning curve for existing Norton users. It can be enabled and configured similarly to all of the app’s other features, like device scanning.

Norton Secure VPN compared side-by-side on Windows and macOS

We like the consistency between Norton Secure VPN’s designs, as it makes it easier to use when moving between platforms.

The VPN section of the Windows app differs slightly from the Mac version. You can still connect using the simple Turn On button, but the Windows app uses a basic pop-up window when changing servers or configuring settings.

By contrast, the Mac app behaves like a more traditional VPN app. In all, Norton’s Windows app is better than all of its other versions. It includes all of its features and additional security protection.

Norton’s macOS application doesn’t include any security features, although it did recently add a kill switch (enabled automatically — you can’t actually find a toggle for it in the app).

It doesn’t have split tunneling, but we do think it at least looks slightly nicer than the Windows version overall.

Mobile (iPhone & Android)

Although Windows and macOS allow you to use the VPN in Norton 360, you’ll have to use the standalone Norton Secure VPN app on mobile devices.

The home screen for Norton Secure VPN compared side-by-side on iOS and Android

iOS is on the left and Android is on the right – it’s refreshing to see two mobile apps so closely aligned in design.

Norton’s iOS client is as simple as it gets. The app appears as if it’s been quickly designed, with not much consideration for how it looks or works — the background is white regardless of whether or not your iPhone is in dark mode, for example.

We also didn’t like how you have to switch between tabs to perform common functions, like switching to a different VPN server. Most VPN apps allow you to connect, change servers, and change basic settings from a single home screen. We’d like Norton to do the same.

The app is nice and easy to use for beginners, though. Just press the Turn On VPN button from the app’s home screen. This will connect you to the nearest server location.
Norton VPN’s Android app is by far the most fully-featured mobile app. Unlike iOS, it includes split tunneling, while as of late 2022 both apps now have a kill switch.

As P2P traffic is supported on Android, you also have the option of connecting to its dedicated server for torrenting. As we found on Windows, though, this just redirects you to the Netherlands server location. P2P speeds were the same as on Windows, too.

Apart from that, the Android app looks and works the same as the iOS version. The color theme can’t be changed and its design is extremely basic.

Customer Support

24/7 Well-Trained Customer Support

Customer Support Rating

66.0/10

Norton’s customer support has shown recent signs of improvement, and now it at least gets the basics right. Norton makes it needlessly difficult to actually access live chat from its website but, once we were able to, our support agent was polite and friendly — even if they took a while to help us.

Ranked #37 out of 55 VPNs for Customer Support

Customer Support	Available in Norton Secure VPN
24/7 Live Chat Support	Yes
24/7 Email Support	No
Chatbot	No
Email	No
Email Support via Online Form	No
Tutorial Videos	No
Online Resources	Yes

If the Norton VPN app stops working or you require any other assistance, you can contact its 24/7 live chat support.

Norton hides this feature away behind several menus within your online account, constantly pushing alternative options before connecting you to a real human.

Once we were put in contact with a help agent they were very polite and just about managed to help us with our issue, although it took a while and their written English wasn’t great — there were definitely some issues with them understanding our query.

Using Norton Secure VPN web chat to solve an issue with the product

Using live support chat is normally the most convenient form of VPN cutomer service.

There is an online support section to help with common issues. However, these online resources are often misleading. They state incorrect information, like Norton Secure VPN not working with streaming sites.

Some of these support pages haven’t been updated in over a year, which tells us that Norton perhaps doesn’t view its VPN as a top priority.

While there’s no email contact, Norton does offer telephone support — something incredibly rare in the VPN industry. Once you fill out a quick form to create your case and brief Norton with your problem, you’ll be given a phone number to call where you can speak to a real agent around the clock.

It’s honestly impressive that Norton offers this — one of the few upsides to a VPN being owned by a huge software corporation.

FAQ

Does Norton Secure VPN Work with Netflix?

Norton VPN does work to unblock Netflix from overseas, but only the US Netflix library. Attempting to watch geo-restricted Netflix content from any other region using a different VPN server location simply won’t work.

Is Norton Secure VPN a True VPN?

Norton Secure VPN is a genuine VPN application that encrypts your web traffic and hides your public IP address. When you turn the app on, it will connect to a VPN server of your choosing and reroute all your device’s traffic through it. We tested its security ourselves and found there were no data leaks. However, the VPN does log your IP address.

What’s the Difference Between Norton Secure VPN and Norton 360?

Norton 360 is the company’s all-in-one cybersecurity solution. There are multiple tiers to it that vary depending on your region. All of them contain Norton Antivirus as well as Norton Secure VPN.

Norton Secure VPN is, as the name suggests, just the VPN product. You can subscribe to it either on its own (for a lower price) or get access to it as a part of Norton 360.

History of Major Updates to Norton Secure VPN

25 Jan 2023: Norton Secure VPN no longer leaks IP or DNS information.
19 July 2022: Norton Secure VPN adds split tunneling on Windows and Android.
2 July 2021: Norton lowers its free VPN trial from 14 days to seven days.
10 March 2021: Norton Secure VPN’s cheapest price is lowered to its current level.

References

Other VPNs We've Reviewed

User Reviews for Norton Secure VPN

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0%
(0)
3 star
0%
(0)
2 star
0%
(1)
1 star
0%
(4)