NordVPN Review Australia

Reviewed by Laurence Deer, founder and reviewer in Melbourne, testing VPNs since 2019

NordVPN

Price checked 22 OctTested 25 OctNumber 2 of 16 in our calculated order

BestVPN score 8.3 out of 10

• Speed7.7
• Streaming7.9
• Security9.0
• Value6.8
• Australia10.0

From our own tests and published figures, newest 25 Oct 2026. How we score

Our verdict

Good for a VPN you leave on all day

A strong first pick for Australians who want to leave a VPN on at home: in October 2026 its Melbourne server played SBS On Demand, 9Now, ABC iview and Prime Video, and never leaked our address. It bills in Australian dollars. The catches are a renewal price well above the first term and patchy overseas streaming: Netflix US played, but Netflix UK, Netflix Japan and some iPlayer servers blocked us.

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$1.58 to A$17.84.

Black Friday deal ends soonVisit NordVPNFrom A$4.79/mo · checked 22 Oct (Lowest monthly price, on the Basic plan paid upfront for 27 months; checked on 22 October 2026)

Price and plan details read from nordvpn.com.

Choose it if

• You want a VPN you can leave on all day at home
• You want Prime Video, SBS On Demand, 9Now and ABC iview with the VPN on (all played, October 2026)
• You want Netflix US, ITVX or Japan's ABEMA (all played, October 2026)
• You want a server in or near your own city
• You want to pay in Australian dollars
• You want a no-logs policy checked by outside auditors

Skip it if

• You want Netflix UK or Netflix Japan (both blocked, October 2026)
• You need BBC iPlayer to work every time
• You want the most speed from a Melbourne server (Surfshark kept a little more, October 2026)
• You want a low price that stays low after the first term
• You want a Mac kill switch that blocks all traffic

NordVPN: key facts

Money-back

30 daysVPNs we track: 7 to 45 days

Free trial

7 daysCompare VPN free trials

Devices at once

10VPNs we track: 2 to unlimited

Server countries

150VPNs we track: 30 to 150

Australian cities

5Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney

Audits, protocols and features

Audits

Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers AG Switzerland, 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 19 Oct 2026.

NordVPN test results

Speed, Australian server

88% keptOf our download speed with the VPN off. Tested 25 Oct 2026

DNS leaks

None foundTested 25 Oct 2026

Streaming

9 of 11 playedPluto TV✓ playedNetflix US✓ playedBBC iPlayer✓ playedITVX✓ playedABEMA✓ playedSBS On Demand✓ played9Now✓ playedABC iview✓ playedPrime Video✓ playedNetflix UK✕ blockedNetflix Japan✕ blocked7 more opened but we did not play them. Tested 14–25 Oct 2026

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 (14–25 Oct 2026).

NordVPN: what has changed

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

No price or plan changes seen between 13 Oct 2026 and 22 Oct 2026.

We check NordVPN's prices by hand every month (last checked 22 Oct 2026) and record every change we see.

What stood out

Prime Video is the clearest reason to pick NordVPN over Surfshark. I played the same episode of The Terminal List on both Melbourne servers, ten minutes apart. It played on NordVPN and refused on Surfshark.

Speed in Melbourne depended on the time of day. By day it barely slowed our NBN line; one evening it kept noticeably less.

Overseas, one server can pass one service and fail another. On London, Netflix UK refused us while ITVX played Downton Abbey. If you buy a VPN for one overseas service, test that service, not the brand.

From our tests in Melbourne, October 2026.

Who should buy NordVPN?

Buy it if you want one VPN you can leave on at home without losing Australian TV. Its Melbourne server played the ABC, SBS, Nine and Prime Video, and bank log-on pages opened as usual, in October 2026.

It also suits you if you want a server in your own city (it lists Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney), prices in Australian dollars and an audited no-logs policy.

Skip it if you want Netflix UK or Netflix Japan, need BBC iPlayer every night, or want every last megabit from a local server. Skip it too if you want a price that stays low, or a Mac kill switch that cuts all traffic. The VPNs under alternatives cover those.

NordVPN tested from Melbourne: October 2026 results

NordVPN kept our address private and played Australian TV, but overseas streaming was hit and miss. Every result below is from our tests in October 2026.

We ran the Mac app on our test Mac mini in Melbourne, on our NBN line and default settings, measuring the line with the VPN off before each sitting.

Speed: close to our line by day, slower one evening

NordVPN barely slows a Melbourne NBN line by day. On its Melbourne server in October 2026 it kept 88% of our download speed, the fifth-highest of the seven VPNs in our current round. Surfshark kept a little more that afternoon.

That left 46.7 Mbps, far more than Netflix recommends for a 4K stream, with room for a big download alongside. Ping was 13 ms, about the same as with the VPN off.

Evening was the slow time. On 24 October the Melbourne server kept noticeably less, enough to make a big game download or cloud backup take longer.

Speed kept

Melbourne home connection · October 2026

Australian server	88%
Japan	83%
United States	78%
United Kingdom	62%
Brazil	54%
India virtual location, server in Singapore	42%
South Africa	39%

Download, upload and ping in Mbps, and how we measured

From our test bench Melbourne, October 2026

Australian server, tested from Melbourne, October 2026

Connection	Download	Upload	Ping
No VPN	53 Mbps	17.9 Mbps	11.7 ms
NordVPN, Australian server	46.7 Mbps −11.8%	17.6 Mbps −1.7%	13 ms

Overseas servers, tested from Melbourne, October 2026

Server in	Download	Upload
United States	41.2 Mbps −22.2%	8.60 Mbps −51.7%
United Kingdom	32.9 Mbps −37.9%	5.90 Mbps −67.0%
Japan	43.8 Mbps −17.3%	8.40 Mbps −53.4%
India virtual location, server in Singapore	22.1 Mbps −58.4%	6.60 Mbps −58.8%
Brazil	28.8 Mbps −45.7%	6.10 Mbps −62.2%
South Africa	20.8 Mbps −60.9%	9.80 Mbps −39.1%

A virtual location is a server the app lists under one country that actually sits in another; its speed is the speed to that other place.

Our own measurements on a Melbourne home connection of about 53 Mbps at the time, October 2026. Changes are against the speed of the same line with the VPN off, measured the same day.

Share of our download speed kept with NordVPN on, against the same line with the VPN off, measured the same day.

Overseas servers keep less, as distance always costs. Los Angeles kept 78%, London 62% and Tokyo 83%, enough in each for the streaming you would pick them for.

Uploads fell further than downloads overseas, which matters little for streaming. Where in the US you land depends on the server: the app’s San Francisco choice exited in San Jose and Santa Clara.

India is not in India. The app’s India server exited in Singapore, so a site that checks your address sees Singapore; it kept 42%.

Brazil (São Paulo) and South Africa (Johannesburg) are real local servers, and kept 54% and 39%.

Leaks: none found

NordVPN kept our real address hidden on every server and every switch we tried in October 2026.

• DNS: no leak on the Melbourne, US, London or Tokyo servers. Every lookup went to a resolver on NordVPN’s own network, never to our internet provider.
• WebRTC: browserleaks.com saw only the VPN’s address on Melbourne, so a video-call page in your browser could not see your real one.
• IPv6: our line has no IPv6 connection, so we could not test for IPv6 leaks.
• Switching servers: our real address never showed while we switched from Tokyo to London, on two days. The switch took us offline for about 2 seconds, then about 4.

Australian TV and banking

NordVPN’s Melbourne server played everything Australian we tried in October 2026: SBS On Demand, 9Now, ABC iview and Prime Video. Prime Video refused Surfshark’s Melbourne server ten minutes later.

Everyday use in Australia

Melbourne home connection · dated per row

ABC iview	✓ Played24 Oct 2026
SBS On Demand	✓ Played24 Oct 2026
9Now	✓ PlayedIt served the VIC feed: 9Now placed the server in VIC.24 Oct 2026
Prime Video	✓ Played24 Oct 2026
Stan	Site opened, not playedNo account, so we could not press play.24 Oct 2026
Binge	Site opened, not playedNo account, so we could not press play.24 Oct 2026
Kayo	Site opened, not playedNo account, so we could not press play.24 Oct 2026
Banking and myGov	✓ Opened normallyCommBank NetBank, NAB Internet Banking, myGov: log-on pages only; we did not sign in25 Oct 2026
Connection to Sydney (games)	14 ms with the VPN, 26 ms withouttime to connect to an AWS Sydney server, one sitting; not an in-game ping25 Oct 2026

"Site opened, not played" means the service's site loaded through the VPN but we had no account to play anything.

That means you can leave the VPN on at home or on hotel Wi-Fi and still catch the news or a series. 9Now asked “Not in VIC?” and served the Melbourne feed.

Stan, Kayo and Binge only loaded their home pages, because we have no accounts to press Play. 7plus shows an HDCP error on our test Mac with or without a VPN, so we could not test it.

CommBank NetBank, NAB Internet Banking and myGov opened their log-on pages normally with the VPN on, on two days in October 2026. We did not sign in, so we cannot say whether a bank asks for extra checks after that.

Gaming: no added delay to Sydney, too far for UK games

NordVPN’s Melbourne server will not add lag to games hosted in Sydney. In October 2026 a connection to Amazon’s Sydney data centre took 14 ms through it, against 26 ms with the VPN off.

That is a stand-in for a game server, not a ping measured inside a game.

London’s ping of 280 to 322 ms and Tokyo’s 136 ms rule out fast online games hosted there, but neither matters for streaming. Our VPN for gaming guide compares ping across every VPN we have tested.

Overseas streaming: Netflix US played, Netflix UK and Japan did not

Signed in, Netflix played in the US and blocked us in the UK and Japan, in October 2026. Breaking Bad played on Los Angeles; two London servers and a Tokyo one got “You seem to be using a VPN or proxy”.

What played

Melbourne · our own tries, dated per service

Netflix US	✓ Played25 Oct 2026
Netflix UK	✕ Blocked25 Oct 2026
Netflix Japan	✕ Blocked25 Oct 2026
Pluto TV	✓ Played14 Oct 2026
BBC iPlayer	✓ Played17 Oct 2026
ITVX	✓ Played25 Oct 2026
ABEMA	✓ Played25 Oct 2026

"Site opened, not played" means the service's site loaded through the VPN but we did not play anything.

• United States: Netflix US played the first episode of Breaking Bad on Los Angeles with no proxy error. A Pluto TV live channel played, and Tubi and Hulu’s US sites loaded.
• United Kingdom, iPlayer: on 14 October iPlayer said it was not available in our region on five UK servers, including an obfuscated one. Three days later it played Panorama on the London server the app picked.
• United Kingdom, Netflix and ITVX: Netflix UK showed its VPN or proxy message on two London servers. ITVX played Downton Abbey on the first of them, after a run of UK adverts.
• Japan: Netflix Japan showed the proxy message on Tokyo, but ABEMA’s live news played on it, after ABEMA had blocked us 11 days earlier. TVer’s site loaded.

NordVPN is the second VPN ABEMA has played on for us, after Intego VPN.

Streaming services block VPN servers and sometimes let them back in, so a result holds only for the day we tested. If Netflix UK or iPlayer is why you are buying, try more than one server and more than one day inside the refund window.

Torrenting: works on a standard Melbourne server

Torrenting ran at full speed in October 2026, as fast as the same torrent with the VPN off. The Mac app shows no P2P server category, and you do not need one: we used an ordinary Melbourne server.

We downloaded the official Debian DVD torrent, a legal file, for 2 minutes with uploads capped and no seeding. On a run that short, the people sharing the file set the pace, so read it as “no slower than without the VPN”.

VPN	Our torrent speed	P2P policy	Kill switch	Port forwarding	Audited by
NordVPN	4.44 MiB/s tested October 2026	Allowed in our test tested October 2026	✓ Listed	✓ Listed	Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers AG Switzerland

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.

Kill switch: on a Mac, it only closes apps

NordVPN’s Mac app has no kill switch that blocks all traffic. It offers an Apps Kill Switch, which closes the apps you pick if the VPN drops.

It was off by default when we checked in October 2026, before and after an app update. Turn it on and add your browser and torrent client. We did not run a drop test.

Cancelling and refunds

You can get your first purchase refunded within 30 days, but not a renewal. We read through the process but did not send a request.

NordVPN’s refund policy covers purchases from its website. 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

Next is a morning sitting, to see whether the slower evening speed in Melbourne repeats.

Not tried yet: Netflix UK and Japan on more servers, iPlayer again, the iPhone and Android apps, and the other Australian cities. Nor a video call through London, a support chat, or a server switch with the Apps Kill Switch on. Each result will be added here, dated.

What other NordVPN reviews found

Top10VPN found NordVPN lost little speed nearby and held up on long-distance connections. That matches our daytime runs in October 2026, not our slower evening.

Its streaming verdict fits our Australian results better than our British ones: everything Australian played for us, but iPlayer was hit and miss and Netflix UK blocked us.

Security.org’s most useful finding is a warning: leave Double VPN off unless you need it, because it costs most of your speed.

Both reviews are summarised, with links, under NordVPN reviews on other sites at the end of this page. They test from outside Australia.

NordVPN deal in Australia (checked 28 Oct 2026)

NordVPN price in Australia

NordVPN’s lowest price is A$4.79 a month when you pay for 27 months upfront. After that first term it renews at A$187.08 every year.

It shows Australian visitors prices in Australian dollars, so there is no exchange rate or foreign transaction fee. Check at checkout whether GST is added.

GST may apply.

Checked 22 Oct 2026 Price and plan details read from nordvpn.com.

Black Friday deal ends soonVisit NordVPN

Basic is the VPN on its own; the dearer tiers add a password manager and encrypted cloud storage. If you only want a VPN, compare Basic with other providers.

The table is read from NordVPN’s pricing page and shows the date we last read it. Named offers, such as a Black Friday deal, go on our VPN deals in Australia page once we have checked them.

Is NordVPN safe? Privacy, audits and the 2018 breach

NordVPN kept our address private in our own tests: no DNS or WebRTC leak, and no sign of our home IP during a server switch. The leak results and kill switch check above have the detail.

NordVPN says it does not record what you do online. Security.org’s review (updated October 2026) says third-party auditors have verified that policy, and that its servers run on RAM, so nothing is stored once they restart.

We have not yet recorded which firms carried out the audits, so we do not name them here.

Its record is not spotless. In 2019 NordVPN disclosed that a server it rented from a Finnish data centre had been accessed without permission in 2018. That is why the outside audits count for more than the promise on its own website.

NordVPN is part of Nord Security. We have not yet checked where NordVPN says it is based, so we leave its home country out for now.

NordVPN apps, devices and Australian servers

One NordVPN account covers 10 devices at once, enough for most couples but tight for a busy family. Surfshark and IPVanish set no limit.

Its server list names Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. A server close to home means less delay, which helps 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.

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.

PrivadoVPN

Lowest advertised price we track: US$1.11 a month

Visit PrivadoVPN

Proton VPN

Servers in 149 countries, the most we track

Visit Proton VPN

Private Internet Access

No limit on devices per account

Visit Private Internet Access

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. Each test result carries the date it was measured, and every retest is added here with its own date.

Sources

• NordVPN’s own pages, read on 13 October 2026: pricing, servers and features.
• NordVPN’s refund policy, read on 14 October 2026.
• Our tests of the Mac app in Melbourne: 14 and 17 October 2026, then, after an app update, 24 October (8.51 to 8.59 pm) and 25 October (2.20 to 2.42 pm).