NordVPN vs CyberGhost
VPNs have become quite significant to people’s online activities. Nowadays it’s virtually impossible to surf the internet without the protection of a VPN.
If we’re to be entirely honest, there are lots of VPNs out there, and choosing the best one can be a hassle. So if you were wondering which the best VPN is for you, you’re in the right place.
NordVPN is a better VPN than CyberGhost. It outperforms CyberGhost in terms of features and capabilities and offers a balance between privacy, security, and overall great user experience. For this reason, we recommend NordVPN for all your online activities.
In this article, we’re going to put these two VPNs in a head to head comparison and see which one tops the list for the most categories. In the end, we will see who the overall winner is.
This will be the best overall choice for all your VPN purposes. So read on and prepare to get enlightened!
NordVPN
You might not be a cybersecurity aficionado or a geek for VPNs but chances are you’ve come across NordVPN. Ever since it was founded in 2012 it has been providing internet users with reliable online security solutions.
It’s arguably one of the best VPN service providers out there. It has become quite popular owing to its affordability and the range of features it offers to users.
NordVPN has built quite the name for itself. Having maintained a huge degree of credibility up to date, it has become a trusted provider for most people.
It combines this affordability with a variety of security and privacy features that stand out from all other VPNs. It gives users overall awesome experience.
It’s quite effective and works well for a whole host of people all over the world.
NordVPN is one of the most highly encrypted networks. It boasts of a strong military-grade encryption technology that is virtually uncrackable, even by the very best of hackers.
In addition to this, it has other security protocols in place to ensure the safety of users’ data.
NordVPN has a strict no-logs policy. This means that it doesn’t track, collect, and store users’ data. This is one of the things that make this service stand out from others.
In addition to this, NordVPN is based in Panama. This is outside of the jurisdiction of the U.S. and the EU. Panama has no data retention laws and this, therefore, means that NordVPN isn’t legally required to keep logs.
So as you can see, with NordVPN, your privacy and security are always assured.
Some of its pros and cons are:
Pros of NordVPN
- It has one of the largest server coverage in the world- Over 5500 servers in over 60 countries in the world.
- It has excellent speeds that are stable at all times of the day and which support all manner of inline activities.
- It’s zero logs policy and Panama jurisdiction are a huge plus.
- It has strong security and encryption protocols to safeguard users’ information.
- It has great customer support through live chat, emails, text, etc.
Cons of NordVPN
- It’s a little pricey.
- Not all servers support torrents and P2P file sharing.
- The speeds in some servers may not be stable.
- Not all servers work well for all locations.
CyberGhost
Arguably, one of NordVPN’s great competitors is CyberGhost. It may not be as popular as NordVPN but it has surely earned its place among the top VPNs in the world.
It was created in 2011 in Romania, Bucharest, making it one of the earliest VPN services. For this reason, it has established itself among the top-tier VPN providers in the world.
It has a free and a paid version, although the free version doesn’t have so many features.
Whether you’re interested in fast speeds, security or privacy measures, or great user experience, CyberGhost has you covered. It’s extremely easy to use and has fast and reliable connections.
CyberGhost is good for a whole range of online activities such as browsing, torrenting, streaming, etc.
One thing that differentiates CyberGhost is the server count and distribution. It has more servers than NordVPN. With over 6000 servers in over 80 countries, CyberGhost is a behemoth in the VPN industry.
CyberGhost is competitively priced and offers a wide range of features for this price. The good news for all privacy enthusiasts is that its location in Romania is outside of the jurisdiction of the EU.
This means that CyberGhost isn’t legally required to keep user logs. So the security and privacy of users’ data are assured. They also have strong encryption protocols in place.
Some of its pros and cons include:
Pros of CyberGhost
- It has affordable plans.
- It has strong encryption protocols.
- It’s easy to use and user friendly.
- It doesn’t keep logs.
- It supports a whole range of online activities such as streaming and torrenting.
Cons of CyberGhost
- It has a questionable parent company.
- There have been security allegations about the service.
NordVPN vs CyberGhost: Which One Is Better?
Both of these VPNs are excellent services. Both of them are ahead of most others and they each offer a particular set of features and capabilities. For this reason, these two VPNs are bound to be different from each other.
They each claim to have the best privacy and security policies, speeds, and performance in the VPN business. But which one is the better option?
We will discuss both of their features and capabilities under some categories to see which one comes out on top. So stick around and read on to get enlightened.
1. Pricing
In terms of price, both NordVPN and CyberGhost are affordable. But the irrefutable winner, in this case, is CyberGhost. CyberGhost has great deals for a whole range of features.
NordVPN has 1-month, 6-month, and 2-year plans. Its long-term plans are cheaper than the short-term. CyberGhost has a 1-month, 6-month, and 18-months plan. The long-term deals are also cheaper in this case.
But like we’ve already mentioned CyberGhost is cheaper than NordVPN (see the table below). So in terms of pricing, NordVPN wins.
| Plans | NordVPN | CyberGhost |
| 1-month | $12.99 | $11.95 |
| 6-month | $7.99 | $9 |
| 18-month | – | $2.75 |
| 2-year | $3,71 | – |
2. Speeds
Naturally, speed is one of the foremost important things for internet users. Most people would like to have fast and stable speeds at any time of the day and from anywhere in the world.
If we’re to be honest, most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) throttle the speeds of users. This leads to a slow connection that renders most online activities impossible.
So this is where VPNs come in handy. When you use a VPN, all your online traffic is routed through a secure tunnel making it impossible for your ISP to throttle your speeds.
No matter where you are in the world, a good VPN will always provide you with fast and stable speeds. Inferior VPNs are incapable of doing this.
So it’s only natural that different VPNs will have different speeds. So this is one factor that will enable us to determine which the better VPN is.
Both NordVPN and CyberGhost have excellent speeds. This can be attributed to the large server count and coverage they both have.
First of all, we conducted a base speed test that averaged 160Mbps.
The first server location we tried was the US (Seattle). NordVPN speeds were around 140Mbps. CyberGhost recorded speeds of about 95Mbps.
The next server location was LA. NordVPN clocked speeds of 132Mbps. CyberGhost recorded 87Mbps.
In New York, NordVPN had speeds of about 137Mbps. CyberGhost recorded 84Mbps in the same location.
So in the U.S., NordVPN is the clear winner.
In the UK, NordVPN recorded speeds of about 142Mbps while CyberGhost clocked in at 30Mbps.
So again NordVPN is quite ahead.
One of the main reasons why NordVPN is so fast is that unlike CyberGhost, it supports WireGuard protocol which offers the fastest speeds possible.
Another reason is that CyberGhost’s servers were often crowded during our test.
So in terms of speed NordVPN wins hands down.
| Location | NordVPN | CyberGhost |
| Seattle | 140Mbps | 95Mbps |
| LA | 132Mbps | 87Mbps |
| New York | 137Mbps | 84Mbps |
| UK | 142Mbps | 30Mbps |
3.Servers
This is one of the most important parameters to consider when choosing a VPN. The number of servers and their global distribution plays a major role in the performance of a VPN.
A VPN that has a lot of servers in a lot of locations is less likely to be crowded. A crowded VPN usually leads to reduced and unstable speeds.
A good VPN will therefore have uncrowded servers to ensure maximum speeds.
A good distribution of servers all over the world is also essential because it makes it possible for users all over the world to find servers that are suitable for them.
This offers a variety of choices thus ensuring fast speeds. This also means that you can also effectively hide your IP address and spoof your location.
Both NordVPN and CyberGhost have great server coverage. Compared to most other VPNs, they have a larger number of servers all around the world. But in this case, there’s a clear winner between the two.
NordVPN boasts over 5500 servers in over 60 countries. This is quite a great server coverage and for this reason, NordVPN has some of the best performance ratings.
CyberGhost on the other hand has over 5900 servers in over 90 countries. This is quite impressive and makes CyberGhost one of the best VPNs in the business.
So as you can see above, CyberGhost is the clear winner. Though not by much, it has more servers and coverage than NordVPN, making it a highly effective VPN.
| NordVPN | CyberGhost | |
| Number of servers | Over 5500 | Over 5900 |
| Number of countries | Over 60 | Over 90 |
4. Security
One of the major reasons why people use VPNs is to ensure they are safe and secure whenever they are online. VPNs do this by encrypting all your online traffic and making sure no one can gain access to your data.
Both NordVPN and CyberGhost are exceptionally great VPNs with top-level encryption technology. They are virtually uncrackable and as such users of both VPNs are assured of their security.
The only thing is that each one of them has its own security protocols which they utilize. Some of these protocols are similar in both VPNs but one has more security features.
Both NordVPN and CyberGhost use OpenVPN paired with AES-256 encryption. This combination offers excellent security and optimum performance.
Both of them also have an IKEv2 protocol which provides additional security. They also have DNS/IP leak protection as well as Killswitch features.
NordVPN however has additional features to the above. It has DoubleVPN, Obfuscated servers, Onion over VPN, and Cybersec which provide extra protection.
So because NordVPN has more security features, it wins this round.
| Security feature | NordVPN | CyberGhost |
| AES-256 encryption | Yes | Yes |
| OpenVPN encryption | Yes | Yes |
| IKEv2 protocol | Yes | Yes |
| DNS/IP leak protection | Yes | Yes |
| Killswitch | Yes | Yes |
| Obfuscated servers | Yes | No |
| Onion over VPN | Yes | No |
| Cybersec | Yes | No |
| DoubleVPN | Yes | No |
5. Privacy and Logging policies
Online privacy and anonymity are a major concern. This is the reason why people have resorted to using VPNs whenever they are online.
Using the internet without a VPN will always open one up to privacy breaches by third parties such as hackers and government agencies.
The logging policies of a company are directly linked to the privacy of users. They determine whether a VPN will track, collect, and store users’ data.
Another thing that is linked to privacy is the jurisdiction under which the VPN falls. This is because some jurisdictions require VPNs to store user data while others don’t.
Ideally, the best VPN should have a proven no-logs policy and a suitable jurisdiction. So between NordVPN and CyberGhost, which is better in this regard?
NordVPN has a proven no-logs policy. It is frequently audited by third parties that have verified that it strictly adheres to its no-logs policy.
It is located in Panama which has zero-data retention laws, so the company cannot be forced to store logs.
CyberGhost too is great in terms of privacy. It is located in Romania which has no data retention laws and so it isn’t legally required to keep logs.
The only difference is that it doesn’t have a proven no-logs policy like NordVPN. This doesn’t mean it isn’t credible, however.
So NordVPN wins just because it has a proven no logs policy.
| NordVPN | CyberGhost | |
| Proven no-logs policy | Yes | No |
| Jurisdiction | Panama | Romania |
6. Streaming
Over recent years this has become quite a popular pastime among many internet users. The truth of the matter is that streaming can be quite a dangerous activity if you are not well protected.
There are risks of a security breach and leaking of private information that may be used by third parties like hackers to harm you. For this reason, a VPN is one of the most important things when streaming.
Most streaming services have libraries that are geo-restricted and therefore if you are abroad you cannot access them. VPNs come in handy in such a situation.
They work by masking your IP address and spoofing your real location, making it seem like you are in a different location. This allows you access to the blocked content.
A good VPN for streaming should have great speeds, exceptional security protocols, and an ability to unblock geo-restricted content.
The good news is that both NordVPN and CyberGhost are excellent VPNs for streaming purposes. They both have excellent speeds and security protocols.
NordVPN can unblock restrictions on streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, HBO, and many more.
CyberGhost on the other hand can unblock Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, HBO, and many more. The only problem with streaming with CyberGhost is that some servers are incapable of unblocking some streaming services.
The difference here is minimal. But the winner is NordVPN. This is because most of the servers worked well to remove these geo-restrictions, unlike CyberGhost. NordVPN also has better speeds and security protocols!
So in this instance, NordVPN is the winner.
| Streaming service | NordVPN | CyberGhost |
| Netflix | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon Prime | Yes | Yes |
| Disney+ | Yes | No |
| Hulu | Yes | Yes |
| BBC iPlayer | Yes | Yes |
| HBO | Yes | Yes |
7. Torrenting
File sharing and torrenting have become quite popular in this day and age. For this reason, they are quite risky since cybercriminals have identified weaknesses in the operations of torrenting services.
So VPNs have become quite essential in protecting oneself whenever they are sharing and downloading files.
For starters, when torrenting, your IP address is always visible to other connected devices. This is just how torrenting works and without it, torrenting would be impossible.
While torrenting without VPN protection, hackers too can see your IP and launch an attack against you.
So a VPN is quite essential to enable you to hide your real IP address whenever you are torrenting and therefore protect yourself.
Another thing worth noting is the issue of the jurisdiction of the VPN you’d like to use. Most countries have copyright infringement rules that sometimes render torrenting illegal.
So when choosing a VPN for torrenting you should therefore consider where they are based.
The speed of a VPN is also important since it affects the download times.
That said, it’s worth mentioning that NordVPN has dedicated P2P servers that support torrenting. It also has excellent speeds as we’ve already mentioned.
In the matter of its jurisdiction, it’s located in Panama which doesn’t have strict copyright laws. So it’s an exceptionally good VPN for torrenting.
CyberGhost on the other hand doesn’t have dedicated P2P servers for torrenting. Despite this, it also works well for torrenting and has great speeds too, though slower than NordVPN.
In the matter of jurisdiction, it’s located in Romania which doesn’t have strict copyright infringement laws.
So for torrenting purposes, NordVPN is the better choice.
| NordVPN | CyberGhost | |
| Dedicated P2P servers | Yes | No |
All in all, NordVPN is a better choice than NordVPN as you can see from all the comparisons above.
