NordLayer review: score, privacy and prices
1.26
out of 10not in the main ranking (too little published data)
Business VPN / ZTNA median 2.5
- Business VPN / ZTNA
- Jurisdiction:USA, 5 Eyes
- Owner:Nord Security
- Data completeness73%
- Checked2026-10-15
In 10 seconds
Strongest against its segment
- Platforms and support5.2 vs 3.9
- Network and streaming2.6 vs 2.8
- Censorship bypass0.0 vs 0.5
Weakest against its segment
- Privacy and jurisdiction0.0 vs 2.3
- Price and fair terms1.8 vs 3.4
- Security and protocols1.1 vs 1.8
- Jurisdiction in the 5 Eyes alliance
- Stores session times
- Auto-renewal on by default
How the score adds up
Six sub-scores, each against the median of Business VPN / ZTNA services in the main ranking (None services). Open a line to see which published facts earned points and which were missing or not disclosed.
NordLayersegment median
-
Privacy and jurisdiction30% of the score · segment median 2.30.0
What earned points
- No-logs policy +2
- Independent no-logs audit +3
- No-logs confirmed in court +1
- Warrant canary +1
- Transparency report +1
- Sign-up without email +1.5
- Account number sign-up +0.5
- Stores connection IP (penalty) −3
- Public incident (penalty) −2
-
Security and protocols20% of the score · segment median 1.81.1
What earned points
- Kill switch +2
- DNS leak protection +1.5
- RAM-only servers +1
- Post-quantum encryption +1
- Perfect forward secrecy +0.5
- Security audit +2
- Open-source clients +1.5
- 2FA +1
- Multi-hop +1
- Bug bounty +1
- Only PPTP / L2TP (penalty) −2
-
Price and fair terms15% of the score · segment median 3.41.8
What earned points
- Free plan +1.5
- Free trial +1
- Trial without a card +1
- Crypto payments +1
- Cash payments +0.5
-
Censorship bypass15% of the score · segment median 0.50.0
What earned points
- Stealth / obfuscation +2
- VLESS / Reality +1.5
- Trojan +1
- Hysteria2 +1
- Shadowsocks +1
- AmneziaWG +1
- obfs4 +0.5
- TUIC +0.5
- NaiveProxy +0.5
- Mirrors or Telegram channel +0.5
- VoIP in the UAE (claimed) +0.5
- Manual configs +0.5
-
Network and streaming10% of the score · segment median 2.82.6
What earned points
- 10 Gbps servers +1
- Dedicated IP +0.5
- Port forwarding +0.5
- MENA locations +0.5
- Torrenting allowed +1
-
Platforms and support10% of the score · segment median 3.95.2
What earned points
- Routers +1
- Browser extensions +0.5
- Split tunneling +1
- Ad / tracker blocker +1
- 24/7 live chat +2
- live chat +0.5
- Support on Telegram +0.5
- Status page +0.5
NordLayer pricing
The cheapest way in is €5.16 a month, paid upfront for the longest term. After that term, NordLayer renews at its standard price. Market median across the main ranking: €3.13 a month.
All plans as published
| Plan | Term | Price for term | Per month | € / month | Renewal price | Renewal term |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lite | 12 mo | 8/user/mo x 12 (min 5 users) | $8.00 | €6.88 | then-current price | 12 mo |
| Core | 12 mo | 11/user/mo x 12 (min 5 users) + dedicated server $40/mo | $11.00 | €9.46 | then-current price | 12 mo |
| Premium | 12 mo | 14/user/mo x 12 (min 5 users) + dedicated server $40/mo | $14.00 | €12.04 | then-current price | 12 mo |
| Enterprise | custom | custom | — | — | custom | custom |
Refunds, trial and payment
- Refund window
- 14 days
- Refund conditions
- Within 14 days of first purchase, by email with reason; renewals/add-ons non-refundable; no refund for crypto/prepaid/gift-card payments, partner purchases, ToS violations, or prior refund
- Free trial
- Not stated
- Auto-renewal
- Yes
- How to cancel
- turn off auto-renewal in Control Panel; effective end of billing cycle
- Payment methods
- Visa; Mastercard; Amex; Discover (footer logos); crypto/prepaid/gift cards referenced in refund exceptions
- VAT
- No VAT/sales tax added on top
- Renewal note
- Auto-renews at then-current price for same period length (or shorter at NordLayer discretion), advance notice for price increases
Everything NordLayer publishes
Every fact we collected about NordLayer, as the provider and reviewers state it. Empty fields are left out; key fields we could not find say “Not stated”. “Partial”: only on some platforms, servers or plans.
Company
- Legal entity
- Nord Security Inc.
- Registered in
- US
- Address
- Americas Tower, 1177 6th Avenue, 5th Fl, New York, NY 10036, USA; EEA rep: nordsec B.V., Amsterdam
- Parent company
- Nord Security
- Related brands
- NordVPN
- NordPass
- NordLocker
- Incogni
- Saily
- Surveillance alliance (5/9/14 Eyes)
- 5
- Website languages
- EN (no switcher found)
- Right-to-left languages
- No
- Currencies on the site
- USD
Plans, prices and add-ons
- Plans
- Lite
- Core
- Premium
- Enterprise
- Billing terms
- yearly (shown with ~20% saving); monthly
- Cheapest price a month
- 6 per user (Enterprise, 200+ users); 8 per user (Lite)
- Monthly plan
- Not stated
- 1-year plan, total
- 96 per user (Lite)
- 1-year plan, a month
- 8 per user (Lite)
- 2-year plan, total
- No
- Lifetime plan
- No
- Renewal
- Auto-renews at then-current price for same period length (or shorter at NordLayer discretion), advance notice for price increases
- VAT included
- No VAT/sales tax added on top
- Family plan
- Not stated
- Business price per user
- Lite $8
- Core $11
- Premium $14 /user/mo (yearly)
- Enterprise from $6
- Business minimum seats
- 5 (Enterprise offer 200)
- Dedicated IP add-on
- Yes +40 USD/mo (dedicated server, required for Core/Premium)
- Double VPN add-on
- No
- Antivirus
- Yes CrowdStrike Falcon Go +2 USD/device/mo; Falcon Enterprise +9 USD/device/mo
- Password manager
- Yes separate (talk to sales)
- eSIM
- No
- Identity protection
- dark web monitoring separate (talk to sales)
- Cloud storage
- No
- Other add-ons
- SCIM add-on on Lite; Device Posture add-on on Lite
Discounts and programmes
- Discount shown
- 20-22% (yearly vs monthly)
- Discount compared with
- vs monthly billing
- Student discount
- Not stated
- Discount for crypto payment
- No
- Bonus months
- No
- Affiliate programme
- Yes nordlayer.com/affiliates/; partner program for MSPs/resellers
Limits and restrictions
- Devices at once
- 6 simultaneous connections per end-user account
- Data limit
- No but excessive data transfer flagged as abuse indicator
- Speed limit
- up to 1 Gbps (claimed)
- Country restrictions
- sanctioned countries banned: Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, restricted UA regions
- Features locked to higher plans
- Device Posture, DNS filtering, Cloud Firewall, dedicated IP, SCIM included from Core; Lite has them as add-ons/not included
- Prohibited by the terms
- reselling
- reverse engineering
- competing services
- illegal/unethical use
- heavy scraping
- pen-testing/port scanning without approval
- account sharing
- >6 connections
Free plan
- Free plan
- No free Control Panel exploration
- Free data
- Not stated
- Ads in the free plan
- Not stated
Payment and subscription
- Payment methods
- Visa
- Mastercard
- Amex
- Discover (footer logos)
- crypto/prepaid/gift cards referenced in refund exceptions
- Bank card
- Yes
- PayPal
- Not stated
- Cryptocurrency
- Not stated
- Cash
- No
- Gift cards
- Not stated
- Mobile carrier billing
- No
- Auto-renewal by default
- Yes
- How to cancel
- turn off auto-renewal in Control Panel; effective end of billing cycle
- Email needed to sign up
- Yes
- Account-number login
- No
- Identity check (KYC)
- Yes business info (name, professional info)
- Money-back guarantee, days
- 14
- Refund conditions
- Within 14 days of first purchase, by email with reason; renewals/add-ons non-refundable; no refund for crypto/prepaid/gift-card payments, partner purchases, ToS violations, or prior refund
Free trial terms
- Trial length
- Not stated
- Where the trial is offered
- at NordLayer discretion
- Trial limits
- limited period, may be withdrawn anytime
- Instead of a trial
- free Control Panel exploration; 14-day refund
- Card needed for the trial
- Not stated
Server locations
- Countries
- 44 (counted on locations page)
- Servers
- Not stated
- Cities
- ~60 (counted)
44 countries listed. A link opens our ranking of VPNs with servers there.
Europe 26
- Austria
- Belgium
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
Americas 6
Asia and Oceania 9
Middle East and Africa 3
- Server countries, as published
- Americas: AR BR CA CO MX US; Europe: AT BE CZ DK EE FI FR DE GR HU IS IE IT LV LT NL NO PL PT RO ES SE CH UK UA; APAC: AU HK ID JP MY NZ SG KR TW; AME: IL ZA TR AE
- Middle East and North Africa
- AE (Dubai)
- IL (Tel Aviv)
- TR (Istanbul)
- physical/virtual not stated
- Virtual locations
- Not stated
- Port speed
- up to 1 Gbps
- P2P servers
- No
- Streaming servers
- No
- Obfuscated servers
- Not stated
Network features
- RAM-only servers
- Not stated
- IPv6
- Not stated
- Dedicated IP
- Yes dedicated server +$40/mo
- Static IP
- Yes dedicated IP servers
- Residential IP
- No
- Double VPN / multi-hop
- Not stated
- Tor over VPN
- No
- SOCKS5 proxy
- Not stated
- Smart DNS
- No
Protocols and encryption
- WireGuardNordLynx✓ Yes
- OpenVPNNot stated
- IKEv2Not stated
- L2TP/IPsecNot stated
- SSTPNot stated
- SoftEther✕ No
- Own protocolNordLynx (WireGuard-based)✓ Yes
- VLESS / Reality✕ No
- VMess✕ No
- Trojan✕ No
- Shadowsocks✕ No
- Hysteria2✕ No
- TUIC✕ No
- NaiveProxy✕ No
- obfs4✕ No
- AmneziaWG✕ No
- Perfect forward secrecy
- Not stated
- Post-quantum encryption
- Not stated
- Manual configuration files
- Not stated
- Open-source apps
- No
Censorship and blocking
- Obfuscation (stealth mode)
- Not stated
- Countries it claims to work in
- Not stated
- Mirror sites or Telegram channel
- No
- Calls in the UAE
- Not stated
Security
- Kill switch
- Not stated
- DNS leak protection
- Not stated
- Split tunnelling
- Not stated
- Ad and malware blocker
- Yes DNS filtering by category; Download Protection; Application Blocker
- Two-factor sign-in
- Not stated
- Security audits
- Not stated
- Bug bounty
- Not stated
- Certifications
- ISO 27001
- SOC 2
- HIPAA
- PCI-DSS
Privacy
- No-logs policy
- No
- Independent no-logs audit
- Not stated
- Data retention
- no fixed periods; end-user data per Customer instructions
- Shared with third parties
- service providers
- partners/MSPs/resellers
- add-on providers
- advertising partners
- group companies
- Trackers on the website
- Google Analytics
- Hotjar
- Appcues
- Transparency report
- No
- Warrant canary
- No
- Law enforcement requests
- only via official legal process (MLAT, letters rogatory); each request reviewed
- Anonymous sign-up
- No
- GDPR / data protection officer
- no DPO named; EEA rep nordsec B.V.
- Privacy policy updated
- 2026-02-13
What the privacy policy says is collected
Yes: collected. No: not collected. Partial: kept briefly or only in part. Not stated: the policy does not say.
- Email✕ Yes
- IP at sign-up✕ Yes
- Connection IPNot stated
- Session timesconnection timestamps, server✕ Yes
- Device infodevice name, OS, ad ID; serial/file paths with Device Posture/Download Protection✕ Yes
- App analyticsGoogle Analytics, Hotjar, Appcues✕ Yes
- Crash reportsthird-party provider✕ Yes
Apps and devices
- Windows✓ Yes
- macOS✓ Yes
- Linux✓ Yes
- iOS✓ Yes
- Android✓ Yes
- Android TVNot stated
- Fire TVNot stated
- Apple TVNot stated
- ChromebookNot stated
- Smart TV✕ No
- RoutersNot stated
- NASNot stated
- Raspberry PiNot stated
- Game consoles✕ No
- Browser extensions
- Yes
Speed, streaming and gaming
- Claimed speed
- up to 1 Gbps
- 10 Gbps servers
- No
- Fastest protocol (claimed)
- NordLynx (WireGuard level speed)
- Netflix
- Not stated
- BBC iPlayer
- Not stated
- Disney+
- Not stated
- Prime Video
- Not stated
- Gaming features
- Not stated
- Torrenting
- Not stated
Support
- Live chat
- Yes live chat referenced in privacy policy
- Live chat 24/7
- Not stated
- Email / tickets
- Yes
- Phone
- Not stated
- Telegram
- No
- No
- Discord or forum
- No
- Help articles
- Yes help.nordlayer.com
- Server status page
- Yes status.nordlayer.com
- Uptime guarantee (SLA)
- No ToS disclaims uninterrupted service
For teams and business
- SSO / SAML
- Yes Okta, Entra ID, OneLogin, Google, JumpCloud
- SCIM provisioning
- Yes Core included; Lite add-on; Entra ID, Okta
- Admin panel
- Yes Control Panel, dashboards
- Dedicated gateway
- Yes +$40/mo dedicated server
- Zero-trust access (ZTNA)
- Yes Access Control & Zero Trust; SASE/SSE positioning; Device Posture; Cloud Firewall
- Identity providers
- Microsoft Entra ID
- Okta
- OneLogin
- JumpCloud
- Google Workspace
- plus SentinelOne, Jamf, ConnectWise, CrowdStrike
What users say
Reviews never change our score. Ratings are smoothed: a source’s average across all VPNs counts as 50 extra reviews, so a few five-star reviews cannot outrank thousands.
-
App Store
3.14 of 5, smoothed
From 15 collected reviews (raw average 1.80; all VPNs 3.54).
-
Google Play
3.13 of 5, smoothed
From 76 collected reviews (raw average 2.62; all VPNs 3.90).
The company replied to 11 of 43 negative reviews (1–2 stars).
Ratings shown on the platforms themselves: App Store (US) 2.70 (27 ratings); Google Play 3.7 (459 ratings).
Reviews per month, last 12 months
38 Reddit and forum threads mention NordLayer (titles and search snippets only).
Latest reviews and related rankings
Latest reviews
Short excerpts with a link to the original. We do not reproduce reviews in full.
App Store · 2★ · 23 Mar 2026 · US
The bare minimum, under invested in
App Store · 1★ · 17 Sep 2025 · US
Horrible product that flat out does not work. Save your money
App Store · 2★ · 20 May 2025 · US
Poor performance is their standard
Google Play · 3★ · 07 Apr 2026
Rating: 3 stars for good features and benefits.
Google Play · 1★ · 14 Mar 2026
Can't login with Google. "Please enable your browser", or something alike. Then choose between cancel and no-op setup button...
Google Play · 5★ · 19 Dec 2025
Best
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Show all 13
Questions about NordLayer
Answers built from what NordLayer publishes. Open a question to read the details.
NordLayer alternatives: similar VPNs ranked by our score
9 alternatives to NordLayer (1.26) from the same segment, by features, price and owner. Highest: NordVPN (5.58).
Alternatives to NordLayer
| # | Service | Score | Why it is here | From | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NordVPN | 5.58 | same owner | same owner | €3.00per month |
| 2 | OpenVPN (Access Server / CloudConnexa) | 2.46 | higher score, same price | higher score, same price | €6.02per month |
| 3 | Connectasec | 1.90 | higher score, same price | higher score, same price | €5.00per month |
| 4 | Accops | 1.19 | similar features | similar features | — |
| 5 | MicroZAccess (COSGrid) | 0.93 | similar features | similar features | €4.30per month |
| 6 | Zscaler Private Access | 0.80 | similar features | similar features | — |
| 7 | Array Networks SSL VPN | 0.76 | similar features | similar features | — |
| 8 | Array Networks AG Series SSL VPN | 0.64 | similar features | similar features | — |
| 9 | Hillstone Networks | 0.50 | similar features | similar features | — |
NordLayer compared side by side
Alternatives of similar VPNs
In our rankings
NordLayer appears on 4 topic pages. Its place on each:
Cheaper with the same features
Higher score for the same money
- Connectasec1.90
Same owner
- NordVPN5.58
NordLayer compared
Owner and jurisdiction
Sources and changes
Collected 2026-10-15. No changes recorded since the first import.
- Website
- https://nordlayer.com
- Pages checked
- https://nordlayer.com/pricing/; https://nordlayer.com/; https://nordlayer.com/privacy-policy/; https://nordlayer.com/terms-of-service/; https://nordlayer.com/vpn-server-locations/ (webfetch + browser region tabs)
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