NordVPN Review Australia

Reviewed by Laurence Deer, founder and reviewer in Melbourne, testing VPNs since 2019 · How we test · How we earn money

NordVPN

Number 2 of 14 in our calculated order

From A$4.79 a month

Basic plan, paying for 27 months, A$129.33 upfront. Renews at A$187.08 every year. Lowest plan of each VPN we track: A$2.87 to A$17.96.

Visit NordVPN

Checked 15 Oct 2026 Price and plan details read from nordvpn.com.

NordVPN: key facts

Money-back

30 daysVPNs we track: 14 to 45 days

Devices at once

10VPNs we track: 5 to unlimited

Server countries

150VPNs we track: 30 to 150

Australian cities

5Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney

Audits, protocols and features

Audits

Deloitte, says NordVPN

Protocols

IKEv2, NordLynx, OpenVPN, WireGuard

Features

Ad and tracker blocker, Dedicated IP, Kill switch, Multi-hop (two servers), Obfuscation, Port forwarding, Split tunnelling

As NordVPN's own site lists them, read 13 Oct 2026.

NordVPN: our tests

Speed, Australian server

97% keptOf our download speed with the VPN off. Tested 14 Oct 2026

DNS leaks

None foundTested 14 Oct 2026

Streaming

2 of 3 playedPluto TV✓ playedBBC iPlayer✓ playedABEMA✕ blocked8 more opened but we did not play them. Tested 14–17 Oct 2026

Streaming in our August 2021 round: played both services we tried to play (Netflix US and BBC iPlayer).

Speed kept by the VPNs we have tested (2021 to 2026 rounds): 44% to 100% or more.

Tested on an account NordVPN gave us free of charge (14–17 Oct 2026). How we earn money

See our results in full

NordVPN: what has changed

• 17 Oct 2026 Our latest test round: local speed, overseas speed, streaming, leaks, kill switch settings (drop test not run) and torrenting
• 17 Oct 2026 Review text last edited

No price or plan changes seen between 13 Oct 2026 and 15 Oct 2026.

Prices are read from NordVPN's website every morning (last read 15 Oct 2026) and its feature pages weekly; we record every change we see.

The short version

NordVPN is the VPN most Australians should start with. It bills in Australian dollars, has servers in five Australian cities and runs one of the largest networks we track.

We tested it from a Melbourne home NBN line on 14 and 17 October 2026. On a Melbourne server on 14 October it kept 97% of our download speed, close enough that you would barely notice it was on. We found no DNS leaks on the servers we checked, and on 17 October a torrent ran as fast as it did with the VPN off.

Tested on an account NordVPN gave us free of charge (14–17 Oct 2026).

The main catch is the renewal price, well above the first-term deal. BBC iPlayer is a gamble: it turned us away on five UK servers on 14 October, then let us through on a London server on 17 October, where the player started. On a Mac, its kill switch only closes the apps you choose.

Who should buy NordVPN, and who should skip it

Buy it if you want:

• one VPN to leave on all day: it cost us almost no speed on a Melbourne server (14 October 2026)
• a server in or near your own city, from Perth to Brisbane
• torrents on an ordinary Australian server: ours ran as fast as with the VPN off (17 October 2026)
• a price in Australian dollars, with no conversion fee from your bank
• a long record of outside audits of its no-logs policy

Skip it if you want:

• BBC iPlayer you can rely on: it blocked us on five UK servers on 14 October 2026 and let us through on one London server on 17 October
• more than 10 devices on one account (Surfshark and IPVanish have no limit)
• a low price that stays low: the best rate needs about two years upfront, then renews higher
• a Mac kill switch that blocks all traffic when the VPN drops

Our October 2026 tests from Melbourne

We ran NordVPN’s macOS app (version 10.12.0) on a Mac mini connected to a Melbourne home NBN line, with default settings and the Auto protocol. We ran two sessions on 14 October 2026, morning and evening, and a shorter one on the morning of 17 October for torrenting and a second go at iPlayer. Each began with the line measured with the VPN off.

Tested on an account NordVPN gave us free of charge (14–17 Oct 2026).

Speed: unnoticeable at home, comfortable overseas

On an Australian server on 14 October 2026, NordVPN connected us through Melbourne and kept 97% of our download speed, with ping at 14 ms. On that result, browsing, streaming and video calls through a nearby server should feel no different.

Overseas servers cost more, as distance always does: the US kept 75%, the UK 62% and Japan 81% of our speed. Each result is the average of three 50 MB downloads and two 20 MB uploads from Cloudflare’s speed test, against the line with the VPN off just before.

Uploads fell further than downloads, so big photo backups will crawl, and London’s ping of 280 to 322 ms rules out fast-paced online games. The US server exited in San Jose in the morning and Santa Clara in the evening.

Leaks: none found

We found no leaks on any server we checked on 14 October 2026.

VPN	DNS	IPv6	WebRTC	Kill switch	Switching servers
NordVPN	No leak tested 14 Oct 2026	Could not test tested 14 Oct 2026	Not recorded	Chosen apps only, off by default; drop test not run tested 14 Oct 2026	No leak (2 s with no connection) tested 14 Oct 2026

"Could not test" means our line had no IPv6 to leak. "Not recorded" means we tested the VPN but did not record that check; "Not tested" means we have not tested the VPN yet. Neither means it failed.

Tested on an account NordVPN gave us free of charge (14–17 Oct 2026). How we earn money

How we tested: 14 Oct 2026, with NordVPN's macOS app (version 10.12.0), on our Melbourne home NBN connection. Servers: Melbourne, San Jose, London, Tokyo and Santa Clara. We checked DNS leaks, IPv6 leaks, the kill switch and switching servers. Our method

• DNS: no leak on the Melbourne, US, London or Tokyo servers. On the overseas servers we recorded every lookup going to a resolver on the VPN server’s own network, never to our internet provider.
• IPv6: our line has no IPv6 connection, so we could not test for IPv6 leaks.
• Switching servers: we checked our public IP address about every 1.5 seconds while switching from Tokyo to London. Our real Melbourne address never showed. We were offline for about two seconds, then in London.

Streaming: iPlayer blocked us, then let us through three days later

VPN	Netflix US	Pluto TV	BBC iPlayer	ABEMA
NordVPN	Site loaded; playback not tested tested 14 Oct 2026 last played (Ozark), August 2021	Played tested 14 Oct 2026	Played tested 17 Oct 2026	Blocked tested 14 Oct 2026

Our own results from Melbourne, with the date we tried. "Site loaded" means the service's local site opened through the VPN but we did not play anything (usually no account). Results from different years come from different test rounds.

Tested on an account NordVPN gave us free of charge (14–17 Oct 2026). How we earn money

How we tested: 14–17 Oct 2026, with NordVPN's macOS app (version 10.12.0), on our Melbourne home NBN connection. Servers we tried: San Jose, London, Tokyo, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Our method

BBC iPlayer gave us two different answers three days apart. On 14 October, Pluto TV played and ABEMA did not.

• United States (14 October): a Pluto TV live channel played. Tubi and Hulu’s US sites loaded, and Netflix showed the US catalogue in US dollars. We had no Hulu or Netflix account, so we could not test their playback.
• United Kingdom, 14 October: BBC iPlayer told us it was not available in our region on London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and an obfuscated London server. We were signed in to a UK-registered BBC account on all but the first try. ITVX and Channel 4 loaded, but we did not test playback.
• United Kingdom, 17 October: iPlayer let us through, signed in, on the London server the app picked as the UK’s fastest. The player started with BBC’s trailer before a Panorama episode; we did not record the episode itself playing. That is the same city and network as our first refusal three days earlier.
• Japan (14 October): ABEMA was blocked. TVer’s site loaded, but we did not test playback.

In 2021, iPlayer let us straight in. Streaming services keep closing the doors VPNs open, and sometimes they reopen, so a result is only as good as the day it was tested. If iPlayer is why you are buying, try it inside the refund window and give it a second day before you give up.

Torrenting: works on a standard Melbourne server

Torrenting worked on 17 October 2026, and the VPN did not slow it down: the download ran as fast as the same torrent with the VPN off a few minutes earlier. The macOS app shows no P2P server category, so we used an ordinary Melbourne server.

We downloaded the official Debian 13.7.0 DVD torrent, a legal file, with the aria2c command-line client for 120 seconds, uploads capped and no seeding. On a run that short, the number of people sharing the file sets the pace more than the VPN does, so read the rate as “no slower than without it”, not as a ranking against other VPNs.

VPN	Our torrent speed	P2P policy	Kill switch	Port forwarding	Audited by
NordVPN	4.44 MiB/s tested October 2026	Not checked	✓ Listed	✓ Listed	Deloitte

Torrent speed is the average download rate we measured on an Australian server, with its date. Features and auditors are as each provider lists them; "Not checked" means we have not recorded it yet.

Tested on an account NordVPN gave us free of charge (14–17 Oct 2026). How we earn money

Kill switch: on a Mac, it only closes apps

NordVPN advertises a kill switch, but the macOS app we checked on 14 October 2026 offers an Apps Kill Switch. It closes the apps you pick if the VPN drops, and it was switched off by default. We found no setting that blocks all internet traffic when the connection fails. Turn it on and add your browser if that matters to you. We did not run a drop test.

Getting your money back

We went through NordVPN’s refund process without sending a request. NordVPN’s refund policy (read 14 October 2026) covers your first purchase from its website within 30 days, not renewals. Apple handles App Store refunds, and resellers handle their own.

To claim, turn off auto-renewal in your Nord Account, ask live chat for a refund, then confirm through the link support sends. NordVPN says the money can take up to 10 business days to reach your card. Do not delete your account first, or the refund cannot go through.

Still to test

We have not yet tried the other Australian cities, or forced a connection drop with the Apps Kill Switch on. We will add each one here, dated, when we do.

What other testers found

CNET’s October 2026 review measured an average speed loss of about 3%, and Top10VPN recorded 4% on nearby servers, with speeds holding up on a connection to Australia. That matches our Melbourne result. Security.org found two settings worth avoiding unless you need them: Double VPN cut speeds by about 80%, and OpenVPN ran 5 to 10% slower than NordVPN’s own NordLynx protocol.

On streaming they were kinder than our tests. CNET reached several overseas Netflix libraries, including Australia’s, and Top10VPN found it worked well with UK services. Our own iPlayer results were mixed: five UK servers refused us on 14 October 2026, and a London one let us through on 17 October. PCWorld names NordVPN its best VPN overall for 2026, marking it down on price.

These reviewers tested from outside Australia. A server in your own Australian city should add even less delay than the long-distance connections they measured.

NordVPN price in Australia

NordVPN shows Australian visitors prices in Australian dollars, so there is no exchange rate or foreign transaction fee to worry about. The table below is read from its pricing page and updates automatically. Check at checkout whether GST is added.

GST may apply.

Checked 15 Oct 2026 Price and plan details read from nordvpn.com.

Visit NordVPN

The headline monthly price covers the first term only, paid upfront. After that the plan renews yearly at the higher renewal price. Basic is the VPN on its own; the dearer tiers add extras such as a password manager and encrypted cloud storage. If you only want a VPN, compare Basic with other providers.

Here is what the cheapest plan adds up to over three years, once the renewals kick in.

Is NordVPN safe? Privacy, audits and the 2018 breach

NordVPN says it keeps no logs of what you do online, and it has let outsiders check. Top10VPN counts six independent verifications of that policy, the most recent by Deloitte in February 2026. PCWorld notes that NordVPN runs RAM-only, diskless servers, which hold nothing once they restart.

Its record is not spotless. In October 2019 NordVPN disclosed that a server it rented from a Finnish data centre had been accessed without permission in March 2018. Weigh that against the audits that followed.

NordVPN is part of Nord Security. Its terms of service set out which country’s law governs your account.

Apps, devices and Australian servers

One NordVPN account covers 10 devices at once, enough for most couples but tight for a busy family.

Its server list names Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. A server close to home means less delay, which matters if you keep the VPN on all the time.

The extras that matter:

• Split tunnelling lets your banking app or Stan skip the VPN while everything else uses it.
• Ad and malware blocking stops ads, phishing sites and malware downloads before they load.
• Double VPN routes you through two servers for extra privacy, at a big speed cost.
• Obfuscated servers disguise VPN traffic on networks that block VPNs, such as some hotel and office Wi-Fi.
• Dedicated IP gives you an address of your own, as a paid add-on.

Our 2021 test, for the record

These are our original results from August 2021, on a different computer and a faster line. Some of it has changed since, iPlayer most of all, so read it alongside the October 2026 results.

Connected to Sydney, NordVPN gave up less than 5% of a 104 Mbps line. Uploads halved and ping tripled from 15 to 46 ms. Overseas, the US, UK and Brazil all stayed above 70 Mbps, while India lagged at 19 Mbps.

American Netflix opened on every US server we tried, first go. Other libraries took some server-hopping. BBC iPlayer let us straight in, and we spent longer than strictly necessary watching the Australian women’s hockey team.

A torrent over an Australian server averaged 12.5 MiB/s, close to the best of the ten services we tested that year. The app labelled its peer-to-peer servers, so there was no guessing which ones allowed file sharing.

The app let us pick a city, not just “Australia”. That helps if you want the closest server or need to appear in a particular state.

Support was better than most. The chatbot answered plain questions directly and handed us to a person as soon as we asked, and that person was quick and knew the product.

Using NordVPN in Australia

• Australian servers: Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, according to NordVPN's server list.
• Billing: priced in Australian dollars.
• Refund period: 30 days.

Australian law requires internet providers to keep customers' metadata for two years. A VPN encrypts the connection between your device and the VPN server, so your internet provider can see that you are using a VPN but not which sites you visit. It does not make you anonymous to the VPN provider itself, which is why the provider's logging policy and audits matter.

Alternatives to NordVPN

These are picked by a fact in our data, not by commission. For a closer look at the main rival, read NordVPN vs Surfshark, or see the cheapest VPNs in Australia.

PrivateVPN

Lowest advertised price we track: US$2.00 a month

Proton VPN

Servers in 149 countries, the most we track

Visit Proton VPN

IPVanish

No limit on devices per account

Visit IPVanish

NordVPN FAQ

How we keep this review current

Prices, plans and server details are read from NordVPN’s own website, with the date of the last check beside each figure. Our test results carry the date they were measured: October 2026 is the current round, and August 2021 stays as a dated record. Every 2026 figure comes from our test log, and the independent reviews we cite are linked so you can read them in full.

Sources

NordVPN’s own pages, read on 13 October 2026: pricing, servers and features. The refund process is from NordVPN’s refund policy, read on 14 October 2026. Our own results are from 14 and 17 October 2026 (NordVPN macOS app 10.12.0, Melbourne) and August 2021.