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NordVPN is by far the shittiest VPN service I have ever used. They billed me twice, two months in a row, and getting them to fix it was like pulling teeth. This

NordVPN is by far the shittiest VPN service I have ever used. They billed me twice, two months in a row, and getting them to fix it was like pulling teeth. This is not to mention the hard time I had actually using the service, between random inability to connect and outages. They have ISP-level arrogance, without the lock-in. I have no idea how they're still in business. So I'd be very inclined towards believing this story.

wongarsu 7y ago
> I have no idea how they're still in business. I imagine it's good marketing. They sponsor a lot of Youtube videos.
- ivl 7y ago
  Pretty much every VPN service does. Every tech youtuber has one VPN service advertising with them. Along with cutting prices for viewers who use those links. I have to think it's a fairly solid sales model. The viewers would also line up with their best selling demographics.
vinnymac 7y ago
Interesting, I have had the exact opposite experience personally. I have used the customer service in the past to fix a problem I caused (payment related), and they were prompt and helpful. Not only that but I get the best speeds (300 Mbps) from them over any other VPN I have used, and my connection is rock solid. This story doesn't make me happy with NordVPN or TordGuard as a service however.
interfixus 7y ago
No idea what's up and down in the actual case, but I can, anecdotally, counter your experience with a wholly positive one from the other side of the fence: I have a TorGuard account, and I use the VPN an awful lot - it's the default connection on the machine I'm currently writing on. Been using for a couple of years, and never once have I seen trouble or even inconvenience, save the obstacles a few sites choose to set up based an ip address. Nor with billing. They mail me an invoice. I pay. Stuff just works.
Aromasin 7y ago
To provide a different perspective from that of kadoban, NordVPN is by far the best VPN I've used, and I've tried most of them (got to make use of those free trials). I had one issue with billing which was cleared up the same day, can't think of a time I've had a noticeable outage, and the UI is one of the best ones I've used. No, I don't work for them... Reading NordVPN's side of the story, I wouldn't be inclined to believe either story until the truth has been pulled apart in court. [1] [1] https://nordvpn.com/blog/torguard-lawsuit/ https://nordvpn.com/blog/torguard-lawsuit/
jimbokun 7y ago
Can anyone recommend another VPN provider, than Nord or Torguard? Main use case is for using public WiFi when travelling.
- rocky1138 7y ago
  Private Internet Access. Besides providing great service, they sponsor a lot of free and open source software and services, like Freenode IRC.
  - pnutjam 7y ago
    I've used PIA for years. The only other one that I've used is Air VPN. They seem pretty legit.
  - BanazirGalbasi 7y ago
    Note that this post was submitted to HN by a co-founder of PIA, and they've been known to stir the pot a bit in the past. Last year they put out a few accusations against NordVPN and ProtonVPN that were very weakly supported.
    - knd775 7y ago
      He's also (honestly) the crown prince of Korea , which is kind of crazy to think about.
- xoa 7y ago
  >Main use case is for using public WiFi when travelling Your own VPN is the correct answer. If you have a fast enough symmetric link at home then just run a small machine there (or your router/sec appliance may support it) or else get a ~$5 VPS from OVH/DigitalOcean/Scaleway/Amazon/Google/MS or whomever you like and run WireGuard on it. Or if you want something more turnkey with IKEv2 support (if you have devices that can't use WG) then check out Algo [1]. But there is likely no need for or reason to use a "VPN provider" if all you're looking to do is shift your virtual entry point to the internet from the edge, and lots of good reasons not to. The only real exception would be if latency is a major concern, you travel very widely and don't want to deal with any extra hassle setting up a solution to move between regions. In that case might be worth keeping an eye on CloudFlare's "Warp" solution [2], which will probably be about as good as it gets in that regard since they've got infrastructure worldwide and will be able to route well. But I'd definitely suggest checking out running WG (alone of via Algo) yourself. It really is straight forward. ---- 1: https://github.com/trailofbits/algo https://github.com/trailofbits/algo 2: https://blog.cloudflare.com/1111-warp-better-vpn/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/1111-warp-better-vpn/
SturmUndDrang 7y ago
> NordVPN is by far the shittiest VPN service I have ever used. NordVPN's poor trust pilot score agrees with you: https://trustpilot.com/review/nordvpn.com https://trustpilot.com/review/nordvpn.com
tobib 7y ago
That's interesting, I too, have had the exact opposite experience. After having tried multiple VPN providers I settled for NordVPN because it gave me the most consistent speed.

wongarsu 7y ago

> I have no idea how they're still in business. I imagine it's good marketing. They sponsor a lot of Youtube videos.

ivl 7y ago
Pretty much every VPN service does. Every tech youtuber has one VPN service advertising with them. Along with cutting prices for viewers who use those links. I have to think it's a fairly solid sales model. The viewers would also line up with their best selling demographics.

vinnymac 7y ago

Interesting, I have had the exact opposite experience personally. I have used the customer service in the past to fix a problem I caused (payment related), and they were prompt and helpful. Not only that but I get the best speeds (300 Mbps) from them over any other VPN I have used, and my connection is rock solid. This story doesn't make me happy with NordVPN or TordGuard as a service however.

interfixus 7y ago

No idea what's up and down in the actual case, but I can, anecdotally, counter your experience with a wholly positive one from the other side of the fence: I have a TorGuard account, and I use the VPN an awful lot - it's the default connection on the machine I'm currently writing on. Been using for a couple of years, and never once have I seen trouble or even inconvenience, save the obstacles a few sites choose to set up based an ip address. Nor with billing. They mail me an invoice. I pay. Stuff just works.

Aromasin 7y ago

To provide a different perspective from that of kadoban, NordVPN is by far the best VPN I've used, and I've tried most of them (got to make use of those free trials). I had one issue with billing which was cleared up the same day, can't think of a time I've had a noticeable outage, and the UI is one of the best ones I've used. No, I don't work for them... Reading NordVPN's side of the story, I wouldn't be inclined to believe either story until the truth has been pulled apart in court. [1] [1] https://nordvpn.com/blog/torguard-lawsuit/ https://nordvpn.com/blog/torguard-lawsuit/

jimbokun 7y ago

Can anyone recommend another VPN provider, than Nord or Torguard? Main use case is for using public WiFi when travelling.

rocky1138 7y ago
Private Internet Access. Besides providing great service, they sponsor a lot of free and open source software and services, like Freenode IRC.
- pnutjam 7y ago
  I've used PIA for years. The only other one that I've used is Air VPN. They seem pretty legit.
- BanazirGalbasi 7y ago
  Note that this post was submitted to HN by a co-founder of PIA, and they've been known to stir the pot a bit in the past. Last year they put out a few accusations against NordVPN and ProtonVPN that were very weakly supported.
  - knd775 7y ago
    He's also (honestly) the crown prince of Korea , which is kind of crazy to think about.
xoa 7y ago
>Main use case is for using public WiFi when travelling Your own VPN is the correct answer. If you have a fast enough symmetric link at home then just run a small machine there (or your router/sec appliance may support it) or else get a ~$5 VPS from OVH/DigitalOcean/Scaleway/Amazon/Google/MS or whomever you like and run WireGuard on it. Or if you want something more turnkey with IKEv2 support (if you have devices that can't use WG) then check out Algo [1]. But there is likely no need for or reason to use a "VPN provider" if all you're looking to do is shift your virtual entry point to the internet from the edge, and lots of good reasons not to. The only real exception would be if latency is a major concern, you travel very widely and don't want to deal with any extra hassle setting up a solution to move between regions. In that case might be worth keeping an eye on CloudFlare's "Warp" solution [2], which will probably be about as good as it gets in that regard since they've got infrastructure worldwide and will be able to route well. But I'd definitely suggest checking out running WG (alone of via Algo) yourself. It really is straight forward. ---- 1: https://github.com/trailofbits/algo https://github.com/trailofbits/algo 2: https://blog.cloudflare.com/1111-warp-better-vpn/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/1111-warp-better-vpn/

SturmUndDrang 7y ago

> NordVPN is by far the shittiest VPN service I have ever used. NordVPN's poor trust pilot score agrees with you: https://trustpilot.com/review/nordvpn.com https://trustpilot.com/review/nordvpn.com

tobib 7y ago

That's interesting, I too, have had the exact opposite experience. After having tried multiple VPN providers I settled for NordVPN because it gave me the most consistent speed.