CyberGhost vs. NordVPN

We’ve tested over 50 VPNs through the years. When it comes to budget-friendly options, CyberGhost and NordVPN consistently rank at or near the top. Both offer competitive pricing with plans under $3 per month. That’s why we spent three months testing each of them to figure out which one offers better value.

While CyberGhost certainly holds its own in several areas, NordVPN consistently delivered superior performance, especially when it came to privacy features and connection reliability. Let’s walk through exactly what we discovered.

The Similarities and Differences

When you first compare NordVPN and CyberGhost side by side, you’ll spot plenty of common ground. Both use military-grade encryption, maintain strict no-logs policies, and support all the major platforms. Dig a little deeper, and some crucial distinctions emerge that could make or break your decision.

CyberGhost vs. NordVPN In A Nutshell

If you’re in a hurry, here’s an overview of the key points of comparison between CyberGhost and NordVPN. This should give you a general idea of which VPN would work better for you, but as always, we encourage you to read our CyberGhost review and NordVPN review before pulling the trigger.

Their Key Similarities

After spending weeks testing both VPNs across different devices and use cases, here are the core features they share:

• Jurisdiction: Both companies strategically positioned themselves outside surveillance alliances. CyberGhost operates from Romania, while NordVPN calls Panama home. This matters because neither country participates in the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, or 14 Eyes intelligence-sharing agreements. That means they can’t be legally compelled to share your data with foreign governments.
• Kill Switch: If your internet has a habit of dropping out, a kill switch can protect you by disabling all internet activity to stop anything from leaking out. NordVPN and CyberGhost include kill switches in all their plans.

• Netflix and Torrenting: Both VPNs reliably unblock streaming services and support P2P file sharing. According to a 2024 Global Web Index study, 51 percent of VPN usage is motivated by access to geo-restricted content.1 We found NordVPN could more consistently access Netflix libraries. It also worked better with qBittorrent as CyberGhost required some server hopping to find optimal P2P connections.
• Encryption: Both services employ AES-256 encryption, which is the same encryption that the U.S. government uses to safeguard top secret files.2 It would take the world’s fastest supercomputer billions of years to crack this encryption through brute force. NordVPN also offers ChaCha20 through its NordLynx protocol, providing a speed boost without compromising security.
• Split Tunneling: Split tunneling lets you run some connections through the VPN and the rest via your existing network. CyberGhost and NordVPN allow you to use this feature, but only on Windows and Android devices.
• DNS and WebRTC Leaks: We tested both VPNs for DNS and WebRTC leaks that could compromise our privacy. Both showed no signs of leaks.

• Customer Support: Both providers offer round-the-clock support through live chat and email. During testing, NordVPN’s chat agents typically responded within 30 seconds, while CyberGhost averaged about a minute. Neither offers phone support, which would be helpful for less tech-savvy users.

Their Key Differences

Now let’s dive into where these VPNs diverge—these differences could be deal-breakers depending on your needs.

• Monthly Rates: Both VPNs made our list of the best cheap VPNs, but the length of our subscriptions ultimately decided which cost less. CyberGhost’s two-year plan offers the lowest monthly rate, though NordVPN’s annual plan provides better value than CyberGhost’s six-month option.

• Speed: In our latest round of testing, NordVPN’s proprietary NordLynx protocol delivered impressive results. The minimal speed impact meant we could stream 4K content and participate in video calls without noticeable quality degradation. We noticed buffering a few times when doing either of those tasks with CyberGhost.

• Servers: CyberGhost has 11,000 servers in 100 countries, while NordVPN has over 8,000 servers in 127 countries. CyberGhost has a larger network – much larger than NordVPN – but if changing your device’s IP address to different locations is a priority, NordVPN has servers in more countries.

• Multi-hop: NordVPN can also offer more privacy using double VPN a.k.a. multi-hop. We had the option to encrypt our web traffic twice through two different VPN tunnels, a luxury CyberGhost didn’t give us.
• Simultaneous Connections: NordVPN recently increased their device limit to 10 simultaneous connections, while CyberGhost allows seven. For most households, both limits are generous, but larger families or small businesses might appreciate NordVPN’s extra headroom.

• Logging Policy: Although many VPNs claim to have a “no-logging” policy, only a handful can live up to their claims. We found that CyberGhost and NordVPN in fact collected some of our data. While connected to the VPN, NordVPN also logged crash reports, in-app events, statistical data, and non-identifying device information. As for CyberGhost, they collected our VPN usage data like the version of the VPN we were running and the number of connection requests and successful connections. What matters, however, is that neither of them logged visited websites, downloaded files, and our IP addresses.

Who Won, CyberGhost or NordVPN?

CyberGhost and NordVPN both performed well in our tests, but all things considered, our final recommendation goes to NordVPN. It provided better privacy thanks to features like the double VPN and kill switch. Plus, it was more stable and reliable when we conducted our tests.

We should also mention that NordVPN offers additional features, either as freebies or add-on services. For free, NordVPN scanned our downloads for malware and blocked malicious websites. And as add-ons, we had the option to buy access to the NordPass password manager, NordLocker encrypted cloud drive, and NordProtect identity theft protection for a few dollars more per month.

That’s not to say that CyberGhost isn’t good. It’s a great VPN that’s listed in our 2025 list of the best VPNs. It’s secure and fast, and the apps were user-friendly. But since you’re here to find out which is better, our answer is NordVPN.