Norton VPN is a service offered by Norton, a US-based company owned by Gen Digital. It's a fairly straightforward service without a particularly comprehensive feature set, but it still has the basics like P2P (torrent) support, geolocation switching, and no data limits.
It's available as part of the Norton 360 security suite or as a standalone service. For more details, see the Differences Between Variants section.
Our Verdict
Norton VPN is okay for torrenting. It has bad security as it leaks DNS queries, meaning the URLs you connect to will be visible to your non-Norton DNS provider. Additionally, the kill switch doesn't function properly, as it allows you to reconnect to the internet outside the VPN tunnel after a system reboot or a loss of internet. It has no registration options that preserve your anonymity, as you must provide an email address and password to create an account and use a personally identifiable payment method. That said, it has no data limits and allows you to download torrents.
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Proper TLS implementation doesn't leave you vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.
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No registration options that preserve anonymity.
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Kill switch doesn't function reliably.
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DNS leaks.
Norton VPN has bad security. It leaks DNS queries, meaning that non-Norton DNS providers can see your personal IP address and the URLs you connect to. Additionally, the kill switch doesn't function properly, as it allows you to reconnect to the internet outside the VPN tunnel after a system reboot or a loss of internet. Thankfully, it doesn't leave you exposed to man-in-the-middle attacks.
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Proper TLS implementation doesn't leave you vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.
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Kill switch doesn't function reliably.
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DNS leaks.
Norton VPN has fast download and upload speeds, so you can download files quickly with ample bandwidth for activities like streaming content. That said, it has inconsistent and high latency, so it's not good for latency-sensitive tasks like online gaming, as the latency spikes may cause disruptions.
Changelog
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
Norton VPN offers three different plans that come bundled with additional features. We bought and tested the standard plan.
| Plan | Maximum Devices | Antivirus | Password Manager | Cloud Storage | Parental Controls | Dark Web Monitoring |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 5 | No | No | No | No | No |
| Plus | 5 | Yes | Yes | 10GB | No | Yes |
| Ultimate | 10 | Yes | Yes | 50GB | Yes | Yes |
Note that Norton Secure VPN also comes bundled in some tiers of the Norton 360 security suite.
Compared To Other VPNs
Norton VPN doesn't fare well in terms of security compared to other VPNs on the market. It leaks some of your DNS queries at the system level, and the kill switch doesn't work properly, so if you're concerned about your internet connection being completely protected while connected to it, it's not a great choice. Also, it doesn't have additional features like multi-hop and lacks feature parity across platforms, so your experience will differ significantly depending on which device you use. On top of that, Norton's privacy policy indicates they collect more data from you than many competing services, which may alarm you if you're concerned with privacy.
To see which services we recommend, check out our article on the best VPNs.
Test Results
Users online have occasionally reported payment processing issues. We also experienced an issue where Norton's site couldn't process our credit card payment. We had to call customer support and have our payment information processed manually by the agent. Overall, this process was long, cumbersome, and decidedly not private since we had to share de-anonymizing personal information.
You can pay with a credit card, PayPal, or Google Pay.
Norton VPN sometimes sends system DNS queries to the default DNS provider instead of going through the VPN tunnel, exposing those queries. This matters if you want to keep which websites and services you connect to hidden from your ISP or your third-party DNS provider.
The kill switch doesn't work as intended, as network traffic leaks outside the VPN tunnel after both a loss of internet connection and a system reboot. This is a concern if you need to keep all of your traffic encrypted at all times.
Like most VPN services, Norton VPN doesn't implement BGP properly on all its servers.
Norton VPN delivers relatively consistent speeds suitable for regular browsing and somewhat fast downloads.
This VPN has consistently quick upload speeds that are well-suited for file uploads, video conferencing, and anything else requiring upstream bandwidth.
This VPN has disappointing latency that's inconsistent and high. You'll likely experience latency spikes while gaming or during video calls.
This VPN has mobile apps available on iOS and Android.
Mimic is a proprietary, closed-source protocol that obfuscates traffic by masking itself as an HTTPS connection. Norton advertises that it doesn't require additional configuration, uses less power, resists quantum attacks, and establishes connections quickly. We didn't test this protocol, but other reviews online have found that it has security vulnerabilities.
Norton VPN's ultimate plan includes an advertised maximum of 10 devices.
This VPN has a setting that advertises the ability to access local devices while connected to it, but we weren't able to access anything on a different subnet on our local network, even while the setting was enabled.