This wasn’t the case when testing between NordVPN and Hotspot Shield. Certain servers will effectively stop you from being able to connect to particular websites – for instance, our sister site WhistleOut – which is unnecessarily limiting. There are some quirks to using NordVPN, too. NordVPN offered over 5,500 servers in 60 countries, and though NordVPN is very much in the top five for best VPN services, that server count is behind CyberGhost and PureVPN, while it has the lowest number of countries to connect to out of all five.

To put it into context, in my months of testing NordVPN, I didn’t ever use any of the pause options. Given how quickly NordVPN connects, this additional disconnection step feels more like an inconvenience than anything else. For NordVPN, hitting ‘Disconnect’ brings up four options: pause for five minutes, pause for 15 minutes, pause for an hour, or fully disconnect. NordVPN is so fast to connect that real-time online tasks like music streaming with minimal buffers don’t skip a beat, which can’t be said of Hotspot Shield.ĭisconnecting is ever-so-slightly more painful in comparison to other VPNs that simply disconnect as soon as you click or tap on the ‘Disconnect’ button. From here, NordVPN offers a user-friendly ‘Quick Connect’ button that will find the VPN server closest to your location and connect really, really fast.

Like any VPN, sign up for an account, download the software onto your PC (or app on a supported device), then use your NordVPN login details to connect. Of all the VPNs I’ve tested, NordVPN is the fastest to connect. This is one of the highlights of using NordVPN.

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