The ability to buy a NordVPN subscription online or boxed subscription codes in-store at brick-and-mortar retailers such as Best Buy or Walmart makes it one of the most accessible VPNs on the market. Paying with crypto delivers pseudo-anonymity, making it more difficult to trace that transaction back to you, a nice bonus for privacy-focused consumers. Aside from the usual suspects (credit or debit cards, PayPal, AmazonPay and Google Pay), Nord includes cryptocurrency and retail purchases.
You’ve got plenty of payment options, as well.
If you’re unsatisfied with your service, Nord offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Eventually, it’s less value-packed because of the bottom line - you do get a lot of features, but many of those are overkill for the average person. Ultimately, NordVPN’s starting costs are great, but increases for subsequent subscriptions aren’t ideal. The value-packed Surfshark sets you back $48 for your first year, then $60 annually, while offering servers in more countries than Nord and a less restrictive unlimited device policy. Private Internet Access follows suit with its $40 per year pricing. To be fair, Nord includes fine print on its checkout page informing you about renewal prices and promises to email you before your new subscription starts.ĭespite its higher upfront cost, I prefer ExpressVPN’s price transparency - you renew at the same rate as you signed up at. While I understand price hikes, they’re disappointing for users who then need to babysit their subscriptions. Price hikes are the industry standard, with many VPN companies renewing at higher rates after your introductory period. Your initially fast VPN that’s great for unblocking Netflix might be slower, suffer a data breach or get acquired by a disreputable company over a year. That attractively-priced $60 plan is just the introductory cost Nord renews after your first 12 months at $100 for the next year, which is in line with ExpressVPN’s annual pricing.Īlthough its two-year tier (which sets you back $96 total) offers the cheapest annual cost, we don’t recommend signing up for more than a year at a time because of how quickly things change in the VPN space. Its $60 annual plan starts cheaper than many other VPN providers, including its neck-and-neck rival, ExpressVPN.