Surfshark vs NordVPN

On connections near our physical location, both VPNs registered an impressive 4% speed loss.

However, NordVPN has the edge internationally — just. Its average international speed loss was 12% less than Surfshark. It’s not a big difference, but if you’re planning on connecting to far away servers often, it could add up over time.

As you might expect, this difference is greater over longer distances. Connecting from the US to Australia, we measured average download speeds of 16% with NordVPN and 21% with Surfshark, which are both impressively fast results.

Both VPNs also delivered ping speeds of under 100ms between the US East Coast and the US West Coast, Canada, Germany, and UK. With latency times like this, you can expect a smooth, responsive experience with either VPN.

Put simply: both VPNs are optimized for speed. They both use protocols based on WireGuard, which can be twice as fast as OpenVPN thanks to more efficient data transmission.

They’ve taken measures to avoid congested servers, too. Surfshark caps its server load at 40% to prevent slowdowns, while NordVPN automatically connects you to the least-congested server.

If speed is your priority, you won’t have any issues with either VPN.

Surfshark is fairly easy to use, but its apps can feel cluttered with button, widgets, and server lists. For instance, its PC app feature four different server lists, a side bar, and a status panel.

In comparison, while NordVPN may not have the most streamlined of interfaces, it’s far less ‘busy’ and easier to navigate.

In particular, we love that NordVPN doesn’t display a status panel when you connect to the VPN, and its fast connection times eliminates any unnecessary overhead.

However, NordVPN includes a feature that we cannot stand: a pause functionality. Instead of letting you disconnect with a single click — like every other VPN — NordVPN requires you to first pause, and then disconnect.

This is so unnecessary given there’s a rarely situation where you would need to pause your connection.

While we like using both VPNs, we’ve noticed a common pain point: both include a substantial amount of in-app promotion.

The desktop apps are the worst offenders for NordVPN, where roughly half the interface is taken up by Threat Protection and Dark Web Monitor — even if you haven’t purchased them. Similarly, Surfshark’s Android app is dominated by Alternative ID.

For us, NordVPN’s layout looks neater and feels more sensibly integrated, but we would prefer both VPNs to eliminate this practice.

In yet another area of overlap, both VPNs impressed us with their unique networking technologies: NordVPN’s Meshnet and Surfshark’s Nexus.

NordVPN’s Meshnet allows you to route traffic through your own devices (like a PC or smartphone) rather than a standard VPN server. This is a game-changer for secure file-sharing, LAN gaming, and accessing your home IP address to stream Netflix.

While most VPNs have no answer to Meshnet, Surfshark’s Nexus is a genuine contender. Every time you connect to the VPN your connection is routed through a network (nexus) of servers instead of just one. This allows Surfshark to improve classic features — like rotating IP — and invent new ones like ‘Multi IP’, which assigns you different IP addresses during a single VPN session.

Having reviewed both, we felt Nexus was the easier of the two to use since it’s enabled by default, whereas Meshnet requires a bit more manual setup to bridge your devices.

As highlighted above, both VPNs offer a similar selection of features. Where the two differ is that Surfshark includes most of its features in its cheapest pricing plan.

For instance, NordVPN’s ad and tracker blocker — Threat Protection Pro — and its password manager are both restricted to its Plus and Ultimate plans.

Surfshark includes all of the above in its base subscription, except for dedicated IP. This makes sense, however, since this type of IP address is tied to your account.