CyberGhost vs NordVPN Comparison

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81.82% of users selected NordVPN, 18.18% selected CyberGhostVPN. Every month we analyze your answers and change our rating.

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The better is each of the programs we observe and compare, the more difficult to define an ultimate leader. In such cases the differences are rather not in the reviewer’s words, but is at your fingertips. If you read about a program and found it attractive for you due to its features and characteristics, the only real way to be sure you made the right choice is to try each of them on your own tasks. As for us, reviewers, we just try to help you to make a huge circle of propositions more or less narrow.

There are two pretenders on our test bench: CyberGhost (https://www.cyberghostvpn.com) and NordVPN (https://nordvpn.com). Both are well-known, both are highly-awarded, both have all you need for safe internet browsing and transfers. Good starting positions for both. And we begin.

Speed

Talking about speed it’s necessary to clearly understand: you should prepare for a slowdown of your transfer, regardless of the exact brand of VPN you choose. Sending your traffic through the chain of servers that are often placed in the opposite hemisphere, makes your way from a point A to a point B much longer and you irrevocably lose Mbps on the walls of this tunnel. Of course, sometimes, especially, if your provider artificially decreases your speed, you may even win some megabits per second, but it is rather an exclusion that proves the common rule. The rule is: looking for security in a VPN tunnel, be ready to sacrifice the speed of your connection.

So, the matter of choice is just how much we lose with one or another VPN service, and whether the level of anonymity provided by such service compensates these losses.

Let’s compare.

CyberGhost

To be correct and objective, I took the same 300 Mbps line for both services. That’s important: the line guarantees the same speed for downloading and uploading. It was hard to find but we succeeded to make our experiment as pure as possible. The first in line is CyberGhost.

Here you are:

• Download speed: 96 Mbps
• Upload speed: 112 Mbps
• Slowdown percentage: 67% (average)

CyberGhost uses WireGuard protocol. I can’t be sure that such a result Is caused exactly by it, but this is the explanation that jumps in mind the first.

NordVPN

There are the results of NordVPN on the same 150 Mbps line:

• Download speed: 259 Mbps
• Upload speed: 137 Mbps
• Slowdown percentage: 36% (average).

NordVPN provides your security with the protocol that developers of the program consider the specific feature of their application: NordLynx.

What is interesting, NordLynx is positioned by Nord’s programmers as a logical continuation of WireGuard. For years and years, the speed loss was the most critical narrow place of NordVPN, causing zillions of users reclamations. Trying to make this bottleneck wider the parents of the program replaced WireGuard with NordLynx (or, maybe upgraded the first up to the second one). The result, whatever it depends on invariably brings NordVPN the high scores in Tops now.

But wait! What if we just play with settings, look for another protocol that provides us with the same security but shows better results. Who knows… Both programs also use OpenVPN UDP and IKEv2, which are also considered safe and reliable. So, run!

OpenVPN UDP

CyberGhost

• Download speed: 43.6 Mbps
• Upload speed: 132.2 Mbps
• Slowdown percentage: 85%

NordVPN

• Download speed: 197.2 Mbps
• Upload speed: 68.4 Mbps
• Slowdown percentage: 34% (average)

IKEv2

CyberGhost

• Download speed: 149.9 Mbps
• Upload speed: 25.8 Mbps
• Slowdown percentage: 50% (average)

NordVPN

• Download speed: 215 Mbps
• Upload speed: 50.6 Mbps
• Slowdown percentage: 28% (average)

The tendency is obvious. Of course, we could begin a long discussion regarding thin specifications of different protocols, but even just confined to a dry statement of the fact, we see: in the speed test, NordVPN beat CyberGhost second by one and a half hulls.

CyberGhost: 4 of 5

NordVPN: 5 of 5

Features

I should say in the very beginning: both programs have a quite impressive set of features that seem sufficient for any purposes, at least for a first glance. It doesn’t make sense to list them all here – if you need full specifications, you may find them on the official sites. I will stop on some brightest ones and try to focus on particularities that differ one program from another.

CyberGhost

The main feature of CyberGhost has considered its AdBlock. Sounds great, BUT it works just on HTTP sites. As regards the ones, which address has one more letter: HTTPS, we have an epic fail instead of ads-free pages. You judge: nowadays when Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is standard de-facto all over the World Wide Web, would you rate such kind of Ad blocker as a reliable tool?

Another distinctive feature of CyberGhost is the wide variety of presets for all possible purposes: surfing, torrenting, streaming, and so on. We saw it in other VPNs, so, I wouldn’t dare to call this particularity unique, but, without a doubt, it can make a user’s life easier, especially if he isn’t an advanced IT pro.

4 of 5

NordVPN

Whatever review where NordVPN is presented you read, you, I believe, will come across a mention of CyberSec: the ads killer that works flawlessly on any site. Besides cutting off all kinds of advertisements, it also leaves off-board any malware and numerous trackers.

Another great feature is obfuscation. What does it mean? Some resources have anti-VPN protection and if they find out that you are trying to get there through the secure tunnel, just throw you away. Moreover, in some countries (China, for instance) anonymity and personal security are strictly prohibited up to the criminal penalty. NordVPN knows what to do with it: it directs your traffic through the chain of specially configured servers that disguise your security measures, making an appearance that you have nothing more but trivial HTTPS protection.

5 of 5

Connections

CyberGhost

CyberGhost proudly declares possession of 2 606 servers in 90 countries. Just in numbers, this is one of the best indicators all over the Web, at least as regards locations. Meanwhile, it offers 1 300 IP addresses vs Nord VPN’s 5 201 addresses. That’s important to say that according to the information on the official site of Nord VPN, its 5 460 servers are spread only in 60+ countries. And we already talked about the result of the speed race performed by these two competitors.

4 of 5

NordVPN

As it mentioned above, NordVPN has 5 460 servers located in 60-with-something countries. Equally to CyberGhost, Nord’s servers are configured for all possible purposes. Despite the automatic connection is far not always guarantees you the fastest chain, in general, any transfer’s speed multiplied for strict security from NordVPN leaves a user entirely satisfied.

5 of 5

Security

CyberGhost

The first thing first: there is no independent audit that found any leaks in CyberGhost protection. Along with this, the program doesn’t disguise your protective measures. In cases when using of VPN is prohibited, such sincerity may cost you problems and even your freedom. Although if you aren’t in China (and several countries of a kind) the worst trouble you face is a refusal to cooperate on the part of some picky sites. Anyway, I have to warn you.

4.8 of 5

NordVPN

Multilevel security is the commonly affirmed strongest point of NordVPN. A bunch of features, such as (beyond already mentioned) multi-hop connections, split tunneling, Onion over VPN make it one of the most reliable and hack-proof protective solutions for your privacy.

And – yes, of course! – both these programs provide the strong encryption of all users’ data with the AES-256-CBC algorithm. The difference in length of the key (Nord VPN uses SHA-512, and CyberGhost — SHA-256) lays in the field of theory of cryptography and doesn’t affect in any way the security of data sent through any of these two VPN tunnels.

5 of 5

Logging Policies

There is everything is so easy that even boring. Neither CyberChost nor NordVPN doesn’t save any tracks of your surfing, initial or given IPs, etc. No one of these programs saves any kind of your activity.

5 of 5 – for both CyberGhost and NordVPN

Company & Jurisdiction

Despite the location in two parts of the world, CyberGhost and NordVPN have a lot of common in the final gist.

CyberGhost

The program is registered in Romania. Regardless of staying for a long time in the so-called “socialist camp”, this country today is famous as the state where personal privacy is highly respected. Romania isn’t a part of any intelligence alliance, like “Five Eyes (FVEY)”, “9 Eyes”, “14 Eyes” or any else, and its laws don’t require that developers like CyberGhost should disclose any data of their users.

5 of 5

NordVPN

Panama, where NordVPN is registered, is also widely known as a country the legislation of which doesn’t oblige any firms working in the area of security, to open access to their users’ data for special services or anybody else. We may surely claim that due to the laws of these programs’ place of jurisdiction, users are absolutely secured, using CyberGhost or NordVPN either.

5 of 5

Netflix & Streaming

You probably will be a little surprised, revealed that approximately one-third of users who use VPN (in global, the fourth of internet users surf through VPNs) need it to improve their online entertainment experience. Frankly, I’ve been sure that the main purpose of such high measures of security first of all primarily in demand by spies, social activists, and so on. But, in the end, one does not exclude the other: firstly, we still have two-thirds of users besides this “entertaining one-third”, and secondly, who said that spies do not watch Netflix?

CyberGhost

CyberGhost officially states that it supports all streaming services: Netflix, Hulu, and whatever else you need. During my own tests, I easily connected to a dozen of such channels. Yes, some speed issues sometimes made a picture not so stable as I would prefer to have, but in general I have no reasons for serious reclamations.

Although I met some comments of other users who claim that their attempts to watch Netflix through CyberGhost failed because the server that the program uses for the purpose was blocked. It looks quite credible, but I think this is a special case. A streaming service, without a doubt, can disclose a server that provides such VPN’s functionality, but all the providers need – is just to replace a server and to reestablish stable streaming.

I already mentioned that CyberGhost has a huge number of presets, including the ones for streaming, and servers oriented exactly for these purposes. And all this complex of measures works very well.

5 of 5

NordVPN

NordVPN is a kind of synonym for a program that has no idea what means “No” when we are talking about streaming services. It supports literally everything: Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Disney … There is an unsolvable quest – to find a channel that can make NordVPN fail.

As in the case with CyberGhost, I should mention some users’ stories about their experience with attempts to watch Netflix with NordVPN. They tell that when they were rejected when tried to connect through a desktop application, they just used a browser extension for the application and the problem was solved. I don’t know how often such things happen as I haven’t faced anything like that, but, anyway, I believe it is a good lifehack for NordVPN users, anyway.

But let me add a teaspoon of salt to this barrel of syrup. If CyberGhost thanks to its presets shows the detailed list of servers and you can meaningfully balance between the fastest one and the less busy at the moment, NordVPN offers you two options: either you blindly trust the program and delegate it the right to choose a server for you, or you rely just upon yourself and maintain your connection manually. Everything would be OK with such a scheme, BUT… Automatic choice quite often turns out not the fastest one, but if you want to do it better, you wouldn’t be provided with such a clearly detailed list of servers as in the case with CyberGhost. But so what! It is good training for your intuition and ability to read technical documentation.

4.8 of 5

Torrenting

CyberGhost

Do you remember the repeatedly mentioned endless list of presets – the remarkable feature of CyberGhost? So, any operations with torrents are also there. As much as servers configured right up to these tasks. You can leave the choice of the optimal chain at the discretion of the program, just as no one prohibits you from choosing a particular server for your purposes from those provided by CyberGhost to its users.

An important remark: when you are going to use CyberGhost for torrenting, you see the list of servers available for this task. Next to each server is shown conveniently sorted information: the distance from your whereabouts to the exact server and the loading level, so you may choose the best variant. Also, you may add a server the most efficient for your purposes to favorites. As for me, it looks very user-friendly.

5 of 5

NordVPN

Right like CyberGhost, NordVPN has a widespread net of servers specially sharpened for P2P transfers. The system works smoothly and seamlessly: you trust the program to choose the best chain of servers for downloading torrents and other operations, for example, with Bitcoins, or choose the configuration that you consider optimal. After this, when NordVPN detects that your activity is related to torrenting, it automatically fixes the settings for the highest and the most reliable speed.

5 of 5

Android TV and DD-WRT Support

Frankly, I feel quite uncomfortable: I have to say again: in this position, CyberGhost and NordVPN stay very close to each other. But remember the disclaimer on the top of this review: when you compare two excellent applications, it’s impossible to avoid practical testing. So, all, written here, is just an attempt to help you to make a decision which one you are going to put on your test bench first.

CyberGhost

The list of operating systems and devices the program works with is long like a winter road. You may see details on the official site, as for this review, I will write about the main ones without deep specifications. There are Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Smart TVs with Smart DNS from Samsung and LG, routers (not just DD-WRT, but also Tomato USB and Tomato USB Merlin build), streaming and gaming consoles with Smart DNS (Apple TV, Roku TV, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo), Synology NAS via OpenVPN and even Raspberry! You want to know whether CyberGhost works with Kodi and how good is the VPN in this bundle? Yes, it works and works impeccably!

You remember, I told, that It’s almost impossible to find a streaming service that is too tough for CyberGhost or NordVPN. Here is the same. I spent two days feeding CyberGhost with all programs and devices I could get. CyberGhost won. Oh, probably I should install BeOS and try to run the VPN on it? Who knows, it could bring me at least a score…

But stop! I nearly forgot about one lack of CyberGhost. If your computer works in LAN and you turned on the VPN, you will disappear for everybody, including your neighbors by the local network. And you wouldn’t see them too. Did you look for total anonymity? Here you are! Remember the German proverb: “What two know, the pig knows”. So get the absolute secrecy and prepare for the space solitude. Not forever, just until CyberGhost is off.

4.8 of 5

NordVPN

As medieval alchemists used to say: “As above, so below”. Each word, written about CyberGhost’s friendship with various operating systems and devices, is entirely applicable for NordVPN. Yes, NordVPN supports Android TV and DD-WRT. Not a word anymore – it’s impossible to add something to pure perfection and not to spoil it.

5 of 5

Multi-Platform Support

The same old story: both programs work with all known operating systems, platforms, and devices and do it very well. Return to your childhood and meet two Santa Clauses at the same time!

CyberGhost: 5 of 5

NordVPN: 5 of 5

Plans and Pricing

It’s the time to talk about the differences, and they are significant!

CyberGhost

A monthly price can astonish you: $12.99! What? You’ve been told that this is one of the most affordable programs. If this is cheap, I’d like to see what you call expensive! But wait, we are just at the beginning of an amazing trip. If you decided to get friends with CyberGhost for a year, the monthly price immediately falls to $3.99, and further, it continues its rapid decline: two years – $3.49 per month, three years – $2.25 plus two months for free. The money return is guaranteed already from the first month – if you didn’t like the program you may declare this during the first 14 days. Or during 45 days if you choose any of the annual subscriptions.

5 of 5

NordVPN

The initial cost looks more attractive here: $11.95 per month. Then, as it supposedly should be, the price begins to decrease: subscription for six months is $9 monthly, a year – $4.92 per month, two years – $2.71 per month. Add here the 30 days’ warranty term for refunding, beginning from the 1-year subscription.

4.5 of 5

Free Trial

CyberGhost

CyberGhost doesn’t call it a trial, but you may get the money you paid for a month back, if you ask for them in the first 13 days.

5 of 5

NordVPN

NordVPN doesn’t offer any trials.

2 of 5

Payments & Refunds

Just read chapters 11 and 12

Customer Support

Both programs have very competent and friendly 24/7 customer support service

CyberGhost: 5 of 5

NordVPN: 5 of 5

Value

Each of these two programs without a doubt costs each cent you’ve paid for it.

CyberGhost: 5 of 5

NordVPN: 5 of 5

Useful Video: NordVPN vs Cyberghost Speed Test – Which One is The Fastest VPN?

Conclusions

Both the programs, despite some differences, in general, are rightfully undoubted leaders of the most stringent and demanding ratings.

CyberGhost because of the absence of obfuscation technology can’t work in China. If it matters for you, this lack excludes this VPN from your personal “To check and decide” list. But if this fact is not so important, you will appreciate the reliability, the comfort of numerous presets, high level of security, and the user-friendly interface.

NordVPN – is a great program, full of tons of versatile functions. If you are OK with its pricing and the absence of a trial period, it could be the best purchase. Finally, you may consider your advance annual payment as a security deposit, check the program within 29 days, and, if you are not satisfied with it, demand your money back. Of course, it’s a bit troublesome, but believe me, the brilliant advantages of NordVPN deserve to be run and estimated on practice.

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