Norton Secure VPN [2020]: In-Depth Review

In this review, we look at Norton Secure VPN and provide a complete rundown of the service, including its features, pricing, and performance.

Norton is a very popular anti-virus brand name, and like some other anti-virus companies, it also has it’s own vpn service, called Norton secure vpn.

I generally do not like VPN’s which come from large multi-national corporations, in which the vpn is only a small part of their business. Because it means they need to keep logs, don’t allow torrenting and generally are more expensive.

This is no exception, if your an individual user looking for a good vpn, i would recommend checking out our best vpn guide instead. If your are still interested, read on!

Norton Secure VPN Review
Norton Secure VPN Review

During our research, we attempted to break down every little detail about this VPN to help you make an informed decision on whether or not you want to use the service.

When you’re shopping for a VPN, it’s crucial to keep a few things in mind:

  • Safety
  • Security
  • Privacy
  • Features

Let’s see how things go for Norton.

What is Norton Secure VPN?

Formerly known as Norton Wifi Privacy, Norton Secure VPN is a service that focuses on online security and privacy. It disguises your real IP address with one from a different location. When we browse the web without a VPN, our history and online activitites can be tracked easily by your ISP, the government, and hackers.

What is Norton Secure VPN?
What is Norton Secure VPN?

To prevent tracking, you can use a VPN to hide your true online identity. When you hide your real IP address and encrypt your traffic, it makes it much more difficult for various entities to find out who you really are.

Norton Secure VPN needs to hide your IP while also preventing any DNS leaks and logging. We look for VPNs to also offer features like the ability to bypass Netflix’s geo-restrictions and being able to download torrents.

Here’s a quick rundown on the benefits of Norton Secure VPN

  • No DNS Leaks
  • Simple to use
  • Surprisingly fast speeds
  • Netflix compatible

Norton Secure VPN Pricing

Norton provides a unique payment package with two different primary options. The first choice you have is its secure VPN. The price fluctuates based on how many devices you want to use. Here’s a breakdown of that pricing:

Pricing of Norton Secure VPN
Pricing of Norton Secure VPN
  • One device (monthly) $4.99
  • One device (yearly) $39.99
  • Five devices (monthly) $7.99
  • Five devices (yearly) $39.99
  • Ten devices (monthly) $9.99
  • Ten devices (yearly) $59.99

As you can see, its pricing is highly affordable, and if you pay for a year ahead of time, you get quite a reduction in price. For the standard pricing, you get the following features:

  • Bank-grade encryption
  • Anonymous browsing
  • Access on the go
  • Block ad tracking
For the standard pricing, you get the following features for Norton Secure VPN
For the standard pricing, you get the following features for Norton Secure VPN

The next package it offers is called Norton 360 Deluxe. You can get this offering for $9.99 per month or $59.99 per year. With this choice, you get the following benefits:

  • Connectivity for five devices
  • Secure VPN
  • Real-time threat protection
  • Dark web monitoring
  • Password manager
  • 50GB secure cloud backup
  • Parental controls
  • Smart firewall
  • SafeCam
For the Norton 360 Deluxe pricing, you get the following features:
Norton 360 Deluxe features

Norton likes to upsell its customers by offering an assortment of tools you’ll probably never use. For the 360 Deluxe, it is adding a lot of its standard virus protection features on top of its VPN service.

What We Like About Norton Secure VPN

So far, things look good for Norton. It has a strong reputation in this industry so you would expect big things. Here are the things we like most about this service.

No DNS Leaks

During our research, we always look for DNS leak tests. With Norton, we found a test that came back entirely positive. Across six different experiments, Norton did not leak a users IP address a single time. The test results also show that no viruses or malware were found on any files. So far, so good.

Fully Functional App

We realize that a VPN is not the easiest thing to understand, which is why they need to be user-friendly, both when setting up and for day-to-day use. The best VPNs will only require you to tap a button to connect and tap it again to disconnect, as simple as that.

The Norton Secure VPN mobile app only requires one click to connect you to a server. The app looks great, and it’s simple to set up.

What We Like About Norton Secure VPN
What We Like About Norton Secure VPN

Finally, Decent Speeds

So many VPNs we review have horrible speed test results, so it’s nice to see a service paying attention to this area. During our research, we discovered a few tests of Norton, and the user experienced speed drops of around 10-20%. This is nothing compared to some of the slower VPNs we’ve reviewed that experienced 90-95% drops in speed.

Netflix it Up!

If you’re looking towards a VPN to gain access to geo-restricted content, then it’s your lucky day. During our research, we found a test of four different Norton servers, and Netflix worked on three out of four. Since Norton is such a large company, we did not expect to see it travel down this road, good for them.

What We Dislike About Norton Secure VPN

Now it’s time to mention the cons. Norton might check out in a lot of areas, but we do have some bad news, let’s look.

What We Dislike About Norton Secure VPN
What We Dislike About Norton Secure VPN

US Jurisdiction

Norton Secure VPN is US-based, and the US is part of the Five Eyes surveillance alliance. The countries in this alliance engage in a huge amount of secretive data collection and sharing, with these countries often considered to be some of the worst abusers of online privacy.

A VPN typically aims to sell you increased privacy as a service, which is why most users consider it to be a negative feature if a VPN locates itself within a country that is part of the various ‘Eyes’ surveillance alliances.

Limited Features

If you decide to get the 360 Deluxe you get a ton of features, but not a lot of them have anything to do with a VPN service. Norton Secure VPN uses AES 256-bit encryption and OpenVPN. These protect you. But outside of that, you don’t get much else. No torrenting, no Tor, and limited device compatibility.

Our Verdict

What do we think about Norton Secure VPN?  It uses 256-bit encryption and the OpenVPN protocol for strong security. It also enables Netflix streaming and has no DNS leaks. We believe that it’s a decent VPN service, but it isn’t good for privacy (US based) and there are better alternatives.

Our Verdict for Norton Secure VPN - Source: Shutterstock.com
Our Verdict for Norton Secure VPN – Source: Shutterstock.com

If you like your privacy we don’t recommend this US based VPN. Check out something like expressvpn instead. Or read our best vpn guide.

References

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