Norton VPN review: serious upgrades but not without its limits

Norton has long been a household name for antivirus software but, despite launching its first VPN, Norton WiFi Privacy, back in 2017, it's never achieved the same pedigree in this space. Enter Norton VPN, with its Standard, Plus and Ultimate tiers, now back on the scene, revamped, and on a mission to impress.

This is our second full test of what has been the most improved VPN in the space over the last 12 months. It's fast, very user friendly and has the kind of array of features you’d expect from a top VPN service.

Styled as the VPN that everyone can use, we've put it through its paces, once again, both in day-to-day scenarios and more rigorous, lab tests to see how far its come since last time.

Features

Norton VPN’s revamp has seen the arrival of a host of features across several platforms, and it continues to improve its fundamentals – even if some areas still require work.

As far as VPN protocols go, Norton offers OpenVPN, WireGuard, IPSec, and Mimic, its proprietary protocol designed for obfuscation.

iOS and Mac users had previously been limited to only IPSec and Mimic, which was disappointing given OpenVPN and WireGuard’s improved capabilities. Luckily, Norton announced that WireGuard is available across all Apple platforms in March, 2026. This is a huge win for iOS users, since although IPSec can be fast, WireGuard offers a faster, less device-intensive experience.

As for extra features, we like Wi-Fi detection which allows you to auto-connect to the VPN when connecting to public Wi-Fi. On macOS, it also auto-connects on “compromised networks” but it’s unclear how Norton decides if a network is compromised. All wireless networks are considered public by default.

Norton also offers ad and tracker blocking. Tracking is blocked at a DNS level to reduce the risk of your data being used for targeted ads while you browse online, and can be turned on by simply toggling the option.

Although the tracker appeared to work, its ‘Trackers Blocked’ counter seems to run on a delay, rather than in real time, so while we know 50 trackers were blocked across a period of our testing time, we don’t have any indication of when each was blocked.

Ad blocking is undertaken by a browser extension. Although this means another download and sign-in process, it's well worth. This ad blocker is excellent! In our latest test it scored a staggering 96% of adverts blocked which puts it ahead of dedicated ad-blocker uBlock Origin (91%).

A key area of improvement has been in Norton VPN’s security-focused features. Firstly, Norton VPN offers a simple-to-use kill switch, ensuring your internet traffic stops immediately when you lose connection to the VPN, preventing you from broadcasting unencrypted traffic over public Wi-Fi networks.

If you’d prefer, you can choose whether you’d like to keep your access to local devices over a LAN even when the kill switch is active. The kill switch isn’t enabled by default and requires you to dig through a few menus to set it up, but if you’re on macOS, Norton gives you an easy set of guidelines to follow so you can quickly set it up.

It is also worth noting that, despite the addition of WireGuard to the iOS app, it won't work with a kill switch in that mode on iPhone just now.

Norton VPN has added features at a rate of knots since 2025. In April 2025 alone, Norton VPN gained Double VPN, IP Rotation, Pause VPN capabilities, and the ad-blocking browser extension mentioned above.

Double VPN is available across 8 servers. While your connection options are fixed, for example, USA via Canada, they are bi-directional, and give you access to Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. While it’s not completely customizable, like Surfshark’s Nexus technology allows, its 8 locations put it only two behind NordVPN, which offers 10.

Norton VPN has IP rotation, something not even NordVPN does. Only Surfshark also offers IP rotation among the best VPNs.

While Norton’s version isn’t quite as expansive, it does work in the US, Japan, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, and Germany. What’s more, it's much simpler to access and connects in almost no time at all, no matter the server you pick. In our testing, our IP seemed to change every few seconds, meaning it should be good enough to give you a new IP for every website you visit.

Pause VPN is the final feature worth mentioning. Overlooked by the likes of PIA and ExpressVPN, pause VPN gives you the choice to temporarily end your VPN connection for a set time. The VPN reactivates once the time ends.

This is a great tool if you just quickly want to search for something or use an app outside of the connection without risking forgetting to turn your VPN back on.

Norton VPN’s Pause VPN system is extremely simple, and easily accessed, though it’d be good to see a minimum pause time shorter than 15 minutes. Most times when we’ve needed it, we’ve been finished in five minutes pretty comfortably.

Again, the only complication with Pause VPN is on the iOS app where you can't activate the feature if you choose the IPSec protocol.

Features score: 8/10

Server Network

Norton VPN’s server network isn’t up there with the very best VPNs quite yet but it's getting there. It's up to 116 worldwide locations, compared to 104 when we last tested. That puts it on a par with the likes of Windscribe (126 locations), CyberGhost (124), PureVPN (120), and Hotspot Shield (116). NordVPN expanded to 211 server locations in April 2026.

In terms of actual nations covered, Norton VPN has servers in 74 different countries. Again, that's up from last time (66) and comparable with Le VPN (80), Windscribe (71) and NymVPN (70). The latest additions to Norton's network are Brunei, Canada (Toronto), Germany (Berlin), India, Indonesia, Laos, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Spain (Zaragoza).

We're pleased to see a number of these new countries are in Asia. Norton VPN's network, like many VPNs, is very much skewed towards the US and Europe which account for 69% of its 116 locations.

Its 21 Asian locations still leave it a fair bit behind market leaders Proton VPN (48 Asian locations), NordVPN (41) and ExpressVPN (36).

Of course, not all of these locations are physical servers. Many, as is the case with most VPNs, are virtual servers located in different countries. That's absolutely fine. You'll still get an IP address of the right country when you connect to them.

Norton VPN's online server locations list is pretty faithful to what we found in our tests. The only slight oddities are when the actual locations of the virtual servers are, in fact, a very long way from where you think you're connected to. That's a problem if you're looking to get the best speeds.

So, for example, the new virtual Brunei location is, in fact, a server in London, which is on the other side of the world. Why not put it in Singapore instead where Norton VPN already has some servers? That would make for a far better performing connection to Brunei from, say, neighbouring Malaysia, or even Brunei itself.

Other than that, we really have few complaints. Norton VPN has done, and is continuing to do, an excellent job of expanding its server network, and we look forward to it catching up with the market leaders in the future.

Server network score: 8/10

Apps

Norton’s VPN app is available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. It’s also available on Apple TV and Android-based smart TVs. For Android TVs, you need version 10 or later, whereas Apple tvOS requires version 17 or later.

Notably, there’s no Linux support, so if you need to cover your Ubuntu or Linux Mint install, Norton won’t cut it quite yet – there’s not even support for a command-line VPN. Norton does not offer configuration files for OpenVPN or WireGuard either, so there’s no way to use Norton with an unsupported device.

Thankfully, Norton VPN announced support for Fire TV devices (running FireOS 8 or later) in March 2026.

It’s worth mentioning that Norton VPN’s apps have several instances of feature disparity. As highlighted already, iOS and macOS users already lack OpenVPN, but these platforms also don't have split tunneling and some auto-connect functionality. And, as we said earlier, there's no Pause VPN for iOS either.

Otherwise, there’s nothing really to dislike about Norton VPN’s apps on any platform. They’re simple to use, easy to navigate, and are so unapologetically Norton-like that anyone new to VPNs who’s familiar with its antivirus tools will feel right at home.

Apps score: 8/10

Ease of use

Norton VPN is a breeze to install. You can put that down to the years of experience the company has with its other products in making complex systems simple to introduce.

Once you’re in, the experience is simple, though at the expense of a couple of handy extra tools. The menus aren’t overcomplicated with features, settings, and data.

The option to set favorites or see the best servers at any time would be nice.

All the settings are all explained in simple enough terms for beginners, and there’s easy access to any extra tools you might have in your plan. There are also plenty of guides to help set up your VPN connection according to your needs.

In true Norton fashion, the experience you have is as close to identical as possible across any device you might have, too. This makes Norton VPN a superb choice should you be new to VPNs.

Even Norton VPN’s Advanced Servers, meaning its P2P-optimized, double VPN, and IP rotation optimized servers, are easily accessed. With dropdown menus giving you the information you need to understand where you’re connecting to, and any additional routing your connection might take.

The piece of usability that feels very buggy, though, is that the VPN disconnects when you enter the settings menu on the iOS app. That's unusual. It would be easy to take a look at the settings, not change anything, and then not notice that your iPhone or iPad doesn't actually have a VPN connection anymore. That feels more than a little insecure and it's surely an easy fix?

Ease of use score: 8/10

Speed and performance

Norton’s speeds have shown steady improvement since our last re-test, and we've got no problem with that at all given they were already very good.

We recorded an average speed of 1010 Mbps over WireGuard from our East USA set-up to the nearest Norton VPN server.

There were six VPNs with higher peak speeds in this round of testing – PrivadoVPN (2334 Mbps), Proton VPN (1475 Mbps), NordVPN (1249 Mbps), ExpressVPN (1177 Mbps), and Surfshark (1021 Mbps) – and only the first few were significantly faster.

Norton VPN's long distance speeds have also improved since last time. We recorded an average of 782 Mbps when connecting to a UK location from our US East base. That's a lot better than the 463 Mbps from the previous test.

Norton VPN came out fourth overall when using the slower but more secure OpenVPN protocol. With scores of 514 Mbps (local) and 307 Mbps (long distance) it's around double what we saw at the last Norton VPN test, so that's great.

It was ExpressVPN (1038 Mbps / 703 Mbps) that topped the OpenVPN charts, and Surfshark (825 Mbps / 821 Mbps) that wasn't too far behind. But Norton can be rightly proud of its results, here.

It will be interesting to see if it can push its way into the top tier next time.

Speed and performance score: 8/10

Unblocking

Norton VPN is pretty consistent at unblocking your favorite streaming services. As far as the majors go, it's got your covered. So, whether that's unblocking Netflix libraries for US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan; or picking up Disney Plus, US YouTube or Amazon Prime video, you can watch what you want, when you want it, and from anywhere in the world with Norton.

It wasn't quite as comprehensive as in our last test when it came to unblocking free regional streaming services this time, however. Norton VPN successfully streamed British services BBC iPlayer, Channel 4 and ITV from outside the UK but we had to try a few different servers when we went to watch Australian services 7Plus and 9Now.

Norton VPN was able to unblock them eventually but it wasn't the first-time experience that we were hoping for. It was better news for 10Play (Aus) and TVNZ+ (NZ) which it unlocked those straight away, though.

These results are certainly good but still behind NordVPN which we rate as the best streaming VPN. NordVPN did fail when it came to US YouTube in our most recent tests, though, so do bear Norton in mind if accessing specifically US YouTube videos is important for your needs.

Norton VPN is also good for torrenting. It has five P2P-optimized servers – three more than when we last tested but it doesn't support port forwarding – something that many might demand of the best VPNs for torrenting. (That's a title that currently belongs to ExpressVPN.)

It’s a fair bit short of the full P2P connectivity of a VPN provider like PIA, but even Avast’s competing SecureLine VPN offers eight P2P servers.

On the plus side, Norton does allow you to connect automatically when you boot up a supported P2P app, but you’ll have to enable this option from the settings menu first.

Unblocking score: 8/10

Privacy and security

Norton has taken the necessary steps to ensure its VPN is secure and private. Its no-logs policy is extensive but clear. It outlines the data collected by the VPN app at any instance.

Your browsing data is never stored on their servers. That includes DNS requests, which are instead served by a private DNS server run by Norton, which prevents ISP spying. Norton has had its no-logs policy audited by a third party to ensure that all of this is up to standard.

In August 2024, VerSprite audited Norton’s policy, noting two issues that could result in sensitive user information being disclosed. Norton addressed these issues, and once remedied, VerSprite agreed that the no-logs policy was both accurate and implemented correctly.

However, Norton does collect some anonymized information from the VPN client. This includes timestamps (connection dates from the past 12 months), platform details such as OS and timezone, and crash logs. It keeps other general application events for 18 months. These include installs, uninstalls, updates and ‘interaction’, and errors.

Norton also aggregates overall data transmission for network planning, which, on its own, is fairly standard.

But, if you are extremely concerned about your privacy, Norton might collect a little too much information for comfort.

Norton is certainly private enough for day-to-day browsing, but you might consider Proton VPN instead if you need even deeper privacy guarantees.

Something that may ease some privacy concerns would be if Norton VPN implemented RAM-only servers. These servers wipe when rebooted, meaning you cannot store any data on them.

This solves any issues of data requests from the authorities. They can demand all they like but, if it's RAM-only severs, then there's simply is no data to hand over. Many of the best VPNs have a RAM-only infrastructure.

Given its privacy focus, we wanted to know more about Norton VPN’s proprietary Mimic protocol. In addition to offering obfuscation, Mimic is powered by TLS 1.3 ciphers (AES-256 and ChaCha20), as well as CRYSTAL-Kyber-512 for post-quantum cryptography. It’s good to hear that Norton is already thinking ahead when it comes to quantum security, which puts them significantly in front of most of the VPN industry.

Meanwhile, Norton's standard VPN protocols, OpenVPN and WireGuard, use AES-256-GCM and ChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption, respectively. These are considered the top encryption methods used by all of the best VPNs, a strong demonstration, therefore, of Norton’s intent to found its service on strong privacy staples.

Privacy and security score: 8/10

Track record

Gen Digital, Norton’s parent company, is headquartered in the USA and the Czech Republic. It’s the result of a merger between Avast and Norton in 2022, and it now owns other big-name brands, including Avira, AVG, and CCleaner.

Despite the merger, Norton continues to be run as a separate company with its own range of products. Norton has decades of experience in providing digital security products, but until 2024, the VPN offering has lagged behind the industry standard. That's not the case anymore.

The merger with Avast seems to have been a kickstarter. Norton claims the merger has prompted progress that “combines our ‘best of breed’ technologies to provide safer, faster, and more reliable performance for the customer,” with Norton VPN being the first product to benefit from this work.

In the past, Norton VPN had suffered from DNS leaks and a nearly non-existent feature set, both of which have been fixed since. The current iteration of Norton VPN is a substantial upgrade from versions we’ve seen in the past.

It should be noted that the service has now also undergone a no-logs audit, and users can read the in-depth executive summary report at their leisure.

Plus, if you’re concerned about the kinds of requests no-logs policies help protect against, Norton now publishes transparency reports. These reports, updated twice a year, outline all the requests Norton receives from authorities for user data, and explain why Norton is unable to comply with them since its no-logs policy means there’s nothing to provide.

Track record score: 9/10

Customer Support

Norton’s customer support staff are very helpful. There’s a community forum where you can post issues you’re having with Norton VPN, where other members and support staff can pitch in with their own advice. It's a little quiet, though, and responses are slow.

The Norton VPN Android and iOS forum had only five questions posted in the past month when we checked. The Windows forum was even slower with four posts. Two of those hadn't received a single reply.

The dedicated on-site support materials, however, are a different matter. When you search for help topics on Norton’s website, you’re immediately given an AI prompt for your search, which looks like it’s powered by Gemini.

It’s not totally useful when you’re trying to find specific help on a topic, and you have to scroll past it to get to the actual results.

We asked it, "Does Norton VPN support obfuscation?"

The AI could only say, "Norton VPN does not explicitly support obfuscation as a named feature," before going on to talk about IP rotation and Double VPN, instead.

But, then we asked, "What is the best Norton VPN protocol to use in China?" It delivered.

"When using Norton VPN in China, the Mimic protocol is generally recommended as it is designed to bypass VPN restrictions."

So, there's definitely something in there, just not quite a feature to rely all the time.

As for the knowledge base, it’s not particularly in-depth – most of the articles consist of bullet point lists and some are thinly-disguised marketing material.

If you want help with Norton, we’d stick to contacting their customer support directly through the forum or over the phone. There’s also a 24/7 helpdesk upgrade if you need around-the-clock customer service.

Customer support score: 7/10

Pricing and plans

Norton offers three tiers of pricing. The Standard VPN package starts at $39.99 for the first year, which works out at roughly $3.33 per month. After the introductory offer is over, it renews at $79.99 per year. Avoid the auto-renew and that's a good price for 12 months of VPN service.

However, there’s one major limitation: you’re only allowed five device installations. That's significantly under the 8-10 you’ll find from most other providers.

Surfshark and PIA both go even further, offering unlimited device connections on their cheapest subscription plans.

It should also be clarified that Norton’s device limit isn’t a traditional simultaneous connections limit. Instead, Norton’s five-device limit refers to the number of devices with the VPN installed. Should you wish to install on a sixth device, you’d instead be asked to remove one of the previous five devices, rather than simply disconnecting from the VPN.

The next price tier up is Norton VPN Plus. It costs an extra $10 per year, making your subscription $4.17 per month, initially, and $109.99 every year after that if you let auto-renew kick in.

Plus brings no meaningful change to the VPN, but you get extra features from Norton’s security suite, including virus protection, password management, dark-web scanning, 10GB encrypted cloud storage, and AI-powered scam detection.

The Ultimate subscription package will set you back an extra $20 per year, making it $5 per month initially and $129.99 per year after the first.

In addition to extra family-safety features for monitoring your child’s devices, the device count is bumped up to 10. That means you can take full advantage of Norton’s security features on most of your household’s devices, and you get 50GB of secure storage (or 150GB should you activate auto-renewal).

To its credit, Norton offers an above-average 60-day money-back guarantee and a true 7-day free trial when you sign up. We love 7-day free trials as an entry point into VPNs, as they offer a ‘try before you buy’ solution, without some of the hassles caused by a 30-day money-back guarantee. For us, that makes Norton one of the best VPNs for beginners.

Pricing and plans score: 7/10

Should you use Norton VPN?

Norton VPN is a rapidly improving VPN. Since its rebirth in 2024 it’s brought in a spread of features you’d expect to see in a top VPN, alongside some features some top VPNs don’t think to include. Its performance has risen to a point where it can rival top VPNs like Surfshark and NordVPN, it has apps simple enough for anyone to use, and it brings Norton-pedigree security and trust.

That said, there are areas it still needs to address. Sorting the device install limit will add to its already high-value package by reducing connection roadblocks for users. Outside of this, expanding the feature pool, adding Linux support, and eradicating the feature disparities for macOS and iOS users will quickly put Norton VPN among the best value VPNs available if done right. A shade more on speed and unblocking performance wouldn't hurt either.

For many, now might not be the right time to pick up Norton VPN due to any one of the limitations mentioned. That said, it’d be wise to keep an eye on Norton VPN over the coming year or so, as, from what we’ve seen already in 2025 and 2026, it looks as though the provider could quickly become a high-value, high-security VPN from a name well renowned.

Total score: 79/100

Norton VPN alternatives

1. NordVPN – The best VPN overall
NordVPN combines security, speed, and usability in a single VPN package that can’t be beat on value. In addition to lightning-fast servers, NordVPN offers some unique features like Threat Protection Pro, which integrates anti-virus, anti-phishing, and ad-blocking capabilities into a single product. Try it today with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

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2. Surfshark – get the 7-day free trial
When you buy a Surfshark subscription, you get unlimited simultaneous device connections, 100+ countries to connect to, and advanced IP rotation features powered by their own Nexus software-defined network. It's perfect if you need to cover a household full of devices. Try Surfshark risk free with a 30-day money-back guarantee or a 7-day free trial.

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3. ExpressVPN – The best secure VPN
ExpressVPN consistently ranks as our most secure VPN thanks to its forward-thinking security features, like quantum-resistant encryption. It's all thanks to its proprietary Lightway VPN protocol, designed from the ground up for mobile-first support. The ExpressVPN app is perfect for beginners with a simple interface across all platforms, plus 24/7 support on hand to walk you through setting it up. Express also comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

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