Total VPN vs NordVPN: Which VPN is best in 2026?

Total VPN and NordVPN are two of the best VPNs we’ve reviewed. They tick many of the boxes you’d want from a quality VPN service from performance to protection. Although the two VPNs share a lot in common, there are just as many ways in which they differ. For example, only one of these VPNs comes bundled with a top-rated antivirus.

In this VPN comparison, we put Total VPN and NordVPN under the microscope, comparing and contrasting them in every key area. We’ll find out which VPN has more extra features, the fastest server speeds, and most respects your privacy. With all of this information in one place, this should help you find out which VPN, Total VPN or NordVPN, is the right choice for you.

Total VPN and NordVPN at a glance

Total VPN vs NordVPN Pricing

Total VPN keeps things nice and simple with a single subscription: Ultimate VPN. This usually costs USD $99 a year, but a 70% discount means you’ll pay just $29 – the equivalent of $2.41 a month – for the first year of subscription before it renews at $99.

NordVPN offers far more options as to how long you subscribe for, and the types of features you can access. That kind of flexibility is appreciated but it may also be overly complicated for some people. You can choose between one month, one year, and two year plans, and Basic, Plus, Complete, and Prime tiers.

The longer you commit, the more you can save on average each month, but you’ll have to pay more upfront. You’ll pay far less upfront (but more per month) under a one month subscription but you then have the flexibility to cancel on short notice.

A one month NordVPN subscription costs anything from $12.99 to $17.99 a month. That’s on the expensive side, particularly considering Mullvad is currently just $5.79 a month. At the time of writing, a one year NordVPN subscription starts at $4.59 a month, going up to $8.49 a month. That’s a significant saving compared to the one month plan. Plus, each plan includes an extra three months free.

It’s NordVPN’s two year subscription plans that offer the biggest discounts. Again, you’ll get three months free with all of them. Two year plans start from $2.99 a month. The Prime tier comes with a 77% discount, lowering the price to just $6.89/month ($186.03 upfront for the first 27 months).

Total VPN is priced at $29 for the first year, far more affordable than even the cheapest one year deal with NordVPN ($68.85). That’s a hugely impressive value when you consider Total VPN is bundled with TotalAV, the best antivirus on the market, and Total Adblock, one of the best ad blockers around. We also have to factor in that taxes still need to be added to NordVPN’s prices, which only serve to widen the gap in cost.

Still, when we consider renewal rates, Total VPN renews at $99, whereas NordVPN one year plans renew at $68.85 (Basic), $82.35 (Plus), $97.35 (Complete), and $127.35 (Prime), bringing its usual pricing much more in line with that of NordVPN.

Still, NordVPN offers far more features for the price. Although it doesn’t include a full antivirus like Total VPN, it provides Threat Protection Pro which is capable of blocking ads, trackers, and malicious websites. It also comes with impressive extras such as NordPass password manager and NordLocker cloud storage. It’s just that you’ll need to go with a plan above Basic if you want access to most extras.

Both Total VPN and NordVPN offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can fully test them out, risk-free. I’ve tested both of these myself and had no issue receiving a full refund. Just make sure you request this before the 30-day period ends.

Best Deal for Total VPN:Get 70% off a Total VPN one year subscription and pay just $29 – that’s just $2.41 a month.

Best Deal for NordVPN:Save 77% and get three months free with a NordVPN Prime two year subscription, paying just $6.89 a month.

Total VPN vs NordVPN features

If you’re looking for a VPN that offers a wide range of extra features, NordVPN is your best bet. Indeed, it outranks most VPNs on the market in this respect, with only Surfshark really coming close. For starters, all NordVPN plans let you connect up to 10 devices at the same time. That’s double the amount of simultaneous connections TotalVPN allows, making NordVPN more suitable if you have a lot of devices or simply want to share protection with people at home.

One area in which both VPNs are well equipped is in their ability to block ads. For its part, Total VPN comes bundled with Total Adblock, one of the best ad blockers we’ve tested. NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro also blocks ads and, like Total Adblock, stops trackers.

This is about where all of the similarities between these two VPNs’ feature offerings ends. Total VPN and NordVPN have far more differences for us to explore.

Total VPN is the only one of the two VPNs to include an antivirus. In fact, TotalAV is the best antivirus we’ve tested. However, it’s NordVPN that offers far more features overall. Unlike Total VPN, it offers specialty Double VPN and Onion Over VPN servers, both of which give your internet traffic an extra layer of protection.

Depending on the NordVPN plan you choose, you can gain access to NordPass – one of the best password managers – and secure file storage with NordLocker. With so many extra features on offer, NordVPN is more of a security suite than VPN, though the fact that you get TotalAV with Total VPN is also very appealing.

Total VPN and NordVPN both include split tunneling, letting you choose which traffic is routed via the VPN connection and which can bypass it. For example, you may want a streaming app to avoid the VPN for the fastest possible speeds. Split tunneling is available on Windows and Android in both cases but NordVPN also includes the feature in its Linux app.

Neither VPN offers port forwarding, which is a feature sometimes sought by torrenters to boost file seeding.

Apps and ease of use

You’ll be able to install Total VPN and NordVPN on most devices thanks to their multiple simultaneous connection allowances and apps for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Apple TV. NordVPN offers a little more flexibility in this respect however, thanks to its apps for Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Linux.

When VPNs don’t provide apps for certain platforms, the hope is that you can at least secure them by manually configuring a connection with a compatible router. Unfortunately, Total VPN offers no router support, so you’d need to install apps on each device individually. It also only lets you secure up to five devices at the same time, compared to the 10 of NordVPN. Some VPNs, like Private Internet Access, boast unlimited simultaneous connections.

NordVPN is the best VPN for routers and you can even purchase a router pre-flashed with NordVPN software if you want to avoid manual setup. It has browser extensions available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. These are useful when you only want a quick and convenient way to secure your browser traffic and don’t need to protect the traffic of any apps.

When it comes to getting set up, Total VPN and NordVPN make things nice and easy. Once signed up, you’ll be able to download the app that’s compatible with your device. An automatic setup wizard makes installing these VPNs’ apps very straightforward. It takes only a minute or two for both VPNs.

The desktop apps of Total VPN and NordVPN are similar in that their home views each feature a server list that runs down the left hand side of the window. Although NordVPN has a handy shortlist of recent locations as well as filters for specialty servers including P2P and Double VPN, it doesn’t give you the option to add specific server locations to a favorites list like Total VPN. You can scroll through their server locations or use a search bar to save scrolling.

Total VPN’s quick-connect button is prominent and changes color from red to green as you connect to a server, making it clear that you’re protected. Other than this, there’s not much more to Total VPN’s home view which is very uncluttered and minimalist, although there’s a handy “Fastest Connection” button. There’s a little more to NordVPN’s home view with the right hand section dedicated to features such as Threat Protection Pro and a dark web monitor.

Both VPNs’ desktop apps feature a left-hand menu where you can access their various features as well as their settings. With Total VPN, there’s really not much configuration to do, save from activating split tunneling. You can use radio buttons to switch between VPN protocols, all of which have descriptions to make choosing easier. NordVPN has far more to play around with, allowing you to toggle post-quantum encryption and specify which apps should close if the VPN connection drops.

As for mobile apps, Total VPN again keeps things simple. Like its desktop counterpart, the home view features a large quick-connect button, and a shortcut to the fastest server. Clicking on the “Select a Location” box brings up the full list of server locations and, as with the desktop app, it’s possible to search via a search bar and favorite specific locations.

NordVPN’s mobile app has a little more information in the home view, but it’s not cluttered. Aside from a quick-connect button, you can filter by Dedicated IP and specialty servers. Although a search bar is included, you can also sort servers by popularity, which puts locations including the US, UK, and Canada at the top of the list. Swiping this menu down brings up an interactive map of server locations, providing another way for you to connect to a server. One particularly convenient feature is the option to pause your connection for a set period of time, useful if you often forget to reconnect again afterwards.

The mobile apps of Total VPN and NordVPN both feature a footer menu for accessing their extra features and settings. Again, NordVPN allows for slightly more customization and tweaking, although still less than a VPN such as Private Internet Access which would be a more suitable option for power users.

Overall, Total VPN and NordVPN have apps that are easy to use for beginners. The desktop and mobile apps alike are simple to navigate as well as responsive. Perhaps Total VPN is a little simpler but NordVPN does have more extra features and slightly more configuration options on offer.

Nord vs Total VPN performance

The speeds you get with any VPN – Total VPN and NordVPN included – very much depend on your base connection. Unless you’re suffering from ISP throttling, a VPN is unlikely to improve your speeds. A couple of other influencing factors are a server’s load and the distance between the VPN server and your location.

I tested Total VPN and NordVPN’s speeds on a 1 Gbps home wifi connection. I ran the tests at three different times of day: morning, afternoon, and evening. That way, I could generate a more reliable average that covers both peak and offpeak conditions for the network.

Before I ran each test with the respective VPNs’ servers, I measured my base connection speed. That way, I could better see just how much drop-off there was, if any, when connected to the VPNs.

My average base connection was 316 Mbps. A VPN’s encryption overhead and data routing is expected to be a few percent slower. This percentage generally increases the further a server is from a user’s physical location.

It’s therefore all the more impressive that NordVPN’s speeds were faster than my base connection when connecting to its Barcelona, Spain and New York, USA servers. The Barcelona servers are those closest to my physical location and were 23% faster, likely due to more efficient routing. Still, it’s surprising that even with data being routed as far as New York – a distance of nearly 4,000 miles – speeds were 24% faster.

Total VPN’s speeds were slower no matter which server location I connected to. The dropoff wasn’t terrible for Barcelona (-16%) or New York (-23%) and it helped that my base connection was solid enough so that I still had good speeds. At 50%, the slowdown with Total VPN’s Tokyo, Japan servers was more significant but again, speeds were fast enough for browsing and streaming.

Overall, I was very impressed with NordVPN’s speeds. Although Total VPN is no slouch, averaging 186 Mbps, it’s not at the same level. NordVPN’s average speed of 353 Mbps was 90% faster (and some 12% higher than my average base connection). Both VPNs allow you to carry out bandwidth-heavy tasks like streaming, torrenting, gaming, and video calling.

NordVPN’s strong performance lets you stream in 4K resolution, download larger files, and play online games that require the lowest possible latency.

Server locations

Neither Total VPN nor NordVPN state how many servers they offer in total. This is increasingly common for VPNs whose networks fluctuate on an almost daily basis. Many VPN providers now prefer to concentrate on the quality of their networks, rather than quantity.

When NordVPN did publish figures, its network exceeded 6,000 servers. As one of the most popular VPNs available today, it’s unlikely this has changed too much. With servers in 129 countries in all – far more than most VPNs – it clearly still operates one of the largest VPN server networks. Total VPN has servers in 84 countries in comparison, which is still a respectable number.

You can find servers in all of the most popular locations in both cases, be it the US, Canada, Australia, UK, or Germany. Where Total VPN does have NordVPN beat is in its number of US locations, providing servers in 24 cities compared to Nord’s 21. Both have servers in three cities in Canada and five cities in Australia. However, NordVPN covers more cities in the UK.

Both VPNs have servers spread across enough locations that you should always be able to find a server close by for the fastest possible connection. Global server networks help you bypass geographic restrictions and internet censorship.

With NordVPN providing servers in more countries and locations overall, you’re more likely to find a server in more obscure locations such as Andorra, Guam, and Tajikistan. Having said that, all of those aforementioned locations are virtual servers. That is, servers whose IP is registered to one country but are physically located in another. Overall, NordVPN has virtual servers in 70 countries – that’s over half of its network.

Unfortunately, Total VPN isn’t quite as transparent about whether it uses virtual servers and, if so, just how many of these make up its server network.

Total VPN vs NordVPN server country list

Streaming and torrenting

Speed isn’t the only thing that separates streaming VPNs. Their ability to bypass the geographic restrictions of popular streaming platforms dictates whether you can continue watching your favorite TV shows when traveling abroad. Again, Total VPN and NordVPN excel in this area, successfully accessing the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+, as well as smaller, single-country services like BBC iPlayer and Stan.

The only major struggle we had was accessing DAZN. This is one of the toughest streaming services to access, with Total VPN failing to unblock any version of it. NordVPN is one of the best VPNs for DAZN, however, successfully working with DAZN US, Canada, UK, Japan, and more.

As for torrenting, you can torrent on any of these VPNs’ servers. NordVPN’s P2P-optimized servers are your best bet for optimal performance. Both VPNs make our list of the best VPNs for torrenting, in big part thanks to their fast speeds which let you download files quicker.

Split tunneling in Windows and Android (as well as Linux with NordVPN) means you can secure your torrents while letting other programs, such as streaming apps, bypass the VPN connection.

Total VPN and NordVPN both lack port forwarding, a feature that allows external peers to establish direct connections with you, leading to better upload performance.

Both VPNs have a kill switch feature that prevents your torrenting from being exposed to your ISP if the VPN connection fails.

Total VPN vs Nord security and privacy

You’ll have no shortage of protocols to choose from with Total VPN and NordVPN. One key difference is that Total VPN offers WireGuard, an open source and lightweight protocol that’s known to provide fast speeds and a high level of security. In contrast, NordVPN’s has NordLynx, a proprietary protocol. This is built on WireGuard but isn’t open-source and so lacks the same level of transparency.

Both VPNs offer OpenVPN, a more established VPN protocol which, like WireGuard, is open-source so anyone can freely inspect its code. OpenVPN boasts excellent compatibility and security.

Total VPN and NordVPN are each capable of obfuscating VPN traffic for bypassing blocks and firewalls. NordVPN has two ways to do this: obfuscated servers and its proprietary NordWhisper protocol. Total VPN achieves obfuscation through the Hydra protocol.

Both VPNs encrypt your data using ChaCha20 encryption, a secure encryption algorithm used by a growing number of reputable VPN providers. If you’d prefer to have your traffic secured with 256-bit AES encryption, you can do so by connecting to the OpenVPN protocol.

You’ll benefit from a kill switch as well as DNS and IPv6 leak protection when connected to these VPNs’ servers. We force-closed our internet connection and the kill switch stepped in to cut our internet traffic in both cases. Likewise, we ran leak tests while connected to Total VPN and NordVPN servers and didn’t see our real IP address or any DNS servers from our ISP, which means both work exactly as advertised for truly private browsing.

Total VPN falls behind NordVPN when it comes to logging. According to Total VPN’s privacy policy, it collects IP addresses and other unique device identifiers. This is concerning because if those records were leaked, stolen, or otherwise shared, they can identify you as a user and compromise your privacy. Total VPN has separate privacy policy documents for its Total VPN and TotalAV products but they fall under the same parent company with content overlapping.

In contrast, NordVPN operates a strict no-logs policy that’s been independently audited on multiple occasions, most recently by Deloitte at the end of 2024. It should also be pointed out that NordVPN is headquartered in Panama, a country known for its strong privacy laws and lack of mandatory data retention. Unfortunately, Total VPN operates out of the UK, a member of the Five Eyes alliance.

Like most VPN services, Total VPN and NordVPN require you to provide an email address during signup. You can always use a throwaway email if you want to sign up anonymously but the payment method used also matters. Total VPN doesn’t offer any anonymous payment options but NordVPN stands out for offering physical subscription boxes in certain countries. Provided you pay for a subscription box in cash, you can sign up with NordVPN anonymously.

Customer service

Total VPN and NordVPN both provide live chat and email support, making it easy to get help should you need it. Live chat is convenient for less complex issues, allowing you to get help in a matter of minutes. Email tends to take at least a few hours but may be more suitable for technical matters that require extensive troubleshooting from customer support.

Total VPN is one of very few VPNs to offer phone support, which is a useful option if you’re having trouble with your internet connection. You can search for the information you need in these VPNs’ respective support centers. Total VPN’s help center is on the slim side, covering only the basics through setup guides. NordVPN offers these along with plenty of troubleshooting articles.

Both VPNs offer step-by-step instructions and annotated screenshots, making guides that much easier to follow. NordVPN also offers video guides in some cases. If you do have any trouble with NordVPN’s help resources, links to live chat and email support are very visible at the bottom of each guide.

Total VPN makes its support much more difficult to find, making you log in first (NordVPN’s live chat is available regardless of whether you already have an active subscription). Even then, I was often unable to find a live chat window, instead having to settle for a contact form. Support for Total VPN is combined with that of TotalAV, falling under the same umbrella company Total Security Limited.

Which is better overall: Total VPN or NordVPN?

Total VPN and NordVPN both make our list of the best VPNs, but it’s NordVPN that comes out on top. The main benefit of Total VPN is that it’s bundled with TotalAV, the best antivirus overall. Its apps are arguably marginally easier to use and it’s by far the more affordable choice, at least for the first year of subscription.

Yet NordVPN packs far more features including a password manager and cloud storage. Of the two, it has a far bigger server network, faster speeds, and an edge when it comes to unblocking popular streaming platforms. NordVPN’s no-logs policy has been independently audited and its live chat support is more accessible.

You won’t go wrong with either VPN. Both offer proven 30-day money-back guarantees, giving you a risk-free way to compare them yourself.

VPN testing methodology

It’s not always easy to separate two high-quality VPNs. Doing so requires putting them under the microscope through a series of tests designed to measure speed, security features, privacy practices, usability, and more. The following methodology outlines our process and efforts to generate accurate, comparable results between Total VPN and NordVPN.

• Connection speed: Knowing that so many people use VPNs for streaming, torrenting, and gaming, speed becomes an important part of the testing process. We run each VPN through speed tests across three server locations and at three different times of day, generating a more reliable average so you can have an idea of what you can expect.
• Server network: Some VPNs offer thousands of servers. Yet quantity is relative to the number of users served. More relevant still is the number of server locations. We look for expansive server networks which help with accessing geo-blocked content and for times when you just want to connect to the nearest server for the fastest connection.
• Security features: We won’t recommend a VPN if it doesn’t offer robust 256-bit AES or ChaCha20 encryption, a kill switch, and protection from DNS and IP leaks. We run leak tests to make sure all of this is properly implemented and compare extras, putting a VPN’s ad blocker or password manager to the test.
• Privacy policy: Many VPNs claim not to keep logs but, on closer inspection, their privacy policies say otherwise. For this reason, we read VPN privacy policies in their entirety. Privacy-respecting VPNs don’t keep logs by which you can be identified. There are bonus points for VPNs that have had their no-logs claims independently verified.
• Unblocking ability: VPNs vary wildly in their ability to bypass geo-blocking, particularly as it pertains to streaming services. Many VPN users want to be able to continue to watch TV shows and live sports when traveling abroad which is why we attempt to access a wide range of platforms from overseas while connected to VPN servers.

Want to know more? Our VPN testing methodology explains our testing process in greater detail.

Frequently asked questions

Other comparisons:

• Express vs Nord
• NordVPN vs Surfshark
• TotalVPN vs CyberGhost