As a standalone VPN, though, Norton Secure isn’t as impressive as the likes of NordVPN or ExpressVPN, and it’s not going to get a sniff at our best VPN services list. But as an optional bolt-on that’s part of a security suite, it’s easier to justify the price. For standalone Norton Secure, I’ve used the five-device plan as the basis of comparisons because five devices are the minimum standard number for other popular VPNs. The monthly costs in the table above are reflective of an annual breakdown because you can’t actually pay for Norton Secure VPN month-to-month. Using its regular annual price as a gauge, Norton Secure VPN earns a wooden spoon for the worst pricing in comparison to the other 12 VPN providers reviewed on this site. Even $29.99 a year for a single-device subscription isn’t the worst annual pricing compared to its peers, and they all offer protection for more than one device. In terms of pricing, Norton Secure VPN is best treated as something you’d use as part of the Norton 360 suite rather than a standalone purchase. There is a 14-day trial if you opt for Norton 360 and a 60-day money-back guarantee for the annual subscriptions if you want to test for longer, the latter of which is particularly generous as far as VPNs are concerned. For comparison, see how Norton Secure VPN compares to our current top five VPN providers in the pricing table below. Switching to one of the 31 supported countries is also just a few straightforward clicks away. Bringing up the VPN list tells you the region you’re currently connecting to and your current IP address. Locations are listed by country only, which means you’re reliant on Norton’s choices for what constitutes the best server. This is a user-friendly feature that simplifies the process of connecting to servers. That said, other VPN competitors provide this simplicity but then also let you manually search for cities or connect to a more comprehensive list of servers. This not only gives you more options, but it also lets you access better speeds or, potentially, more services (streaming or otherwise) from alternative servers. Outside of one instance where the web widgets on a page stopped working and refused to come back, I had no issues with regular browsing or using my usual computer software while Norton Secure VPN was connected. This means it does its job as a background web companion, and the fact it automatically blocks ad trackers makes it even better in this role. You can disable this feature if you have site issues or leave it on to see how many trackers it’s blocked in a week-long or over a 30-day period. While other VPN services restrict in terms of multiple simultaneous connections – meaning you can technically have them installed on stacks of devices as long as you’re not using them at the same time – Norton Secure locks it down to individual devices whose access has to be added then revoked if you want to use a device outside your license count. Considering licenses are sold to cover either one, five, or ten devices, this is a major pain if you hope to use Norton Secure on more devices than your limit supports. The table below uses my Superloop NBN 100/40Mbps Fibre-to-the-Curb home internet to compare the impact that Norton Secure has when connecting to a local US and Australian server around the middle of the day. Initially, the 7% variance for download speeds, 6% for upload, and 2ms jump for latency are all positive indicators of a speedy VPN. For context, these are perfectly acceptable slow-downs for using a VPN. Things get a whole lot slower when connecting to an international server, with a whopping 46% hit to downloads, an even bigger 56% sting to uploads, and the 212ms latency is noticeably higher than the sub-160ms speeds offered by other VPN competitors. The table below breaks down how well Norton Secure works with the popular US and Australian streaming services that typically do a good job of sniffing out VPNs and blocking a connection. Using an Australian server to connect to Kayo came up with a common VPN error that wouldn’t even let me browse content, which means Norton Secure shouldn’t be used by people hoping to access Kayo from around the world. That said, Stan had no issues playing content. Normally, this is where I’d use a table with popular US streaming services that offer 4K to give you an idea of how many simultaneous streams you could watch with Norton Secure, relative to the aggregated average typical evening download speeds for all NBN fixed-line speed tiers. The problem is, that one of those services is Hulu, which doesn’t work with Norton Secure, while the other two services – Netflix and HBO Max – both have 25Mbps speed recommendations, which would make for a very boring table. For context, though, Norton Secure is too slow to stream Netflix and HBO Max in 4K until you hit an NBN 100 connection, which can then only reliably offer one stream, instead of the two or three offered by competing VPN services on the same connection. Still, if you do get Norton 360, you get access to antivirus, anti-malware, anti-spyware, and ransomware protection. There’s also a PC cloud backup, a firewall, and a password manager, plus you can add Norton Secure to that list, too. First-year pricing is competitively priced and enticing for all versions of Norton 360, including the typically pricier Deluxe and Premium versions, but even these only allow for the protection of three devices. Even then, it’s five simultaneous connections, which means you can install the software on more devices or configure these VPNs at a router level to protect all devices in your home. On the other end of the scale, CyberGhost allows for seven simultaneous connections, while PureVPN lets you have 10. Norton Secure has, by far, the lowest country count at 31, with the next closest being NordVPN’s 59 and the best of our current top five being the 140+ on offer from PureVPN. At 3,000 servers, the server count is also the lowest, which pales in comparison to the 6,500+ from PureVPN and the 7,000+ from CyberGhost. As for speed, all of the VPNs in our current top five have Norton Secure beat, most notably Hotspot Shield, which is the VPN you want if you care more about speed than anything else. Not having the option to manually select options also keeps Norton Secure relegated as something that’s meant mainly for new users who appreciate that level of hand-holding. Ultimately, there are plenty of other VPN services that do what Norton Secure does better, at a cheaper price point and with faster speeds as well as greater versatility.
