Editors’ Note: NordVPN Threat Protection no longer exists as a separate product but continues as a feature of NordVPN. We have removed our rating since the standalone antivirus is no longer available. You can read our most recent review of NordVPN Threat Protection from January 27, 2023, below.VPN technology is enjoying a rise in visibility and popularity, a fact that’s led many traditional antivirus companies to expand into the VPN realm. Avast, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, and others now offer their own VPN products, either building them from scratch or using licensed technology. Coming at the same marketplace from the other side, NordVPN started as a VPN-only company but now offers password management, secure online storage, and antivirus protection. What was previously the CyberSec component of NordVPN now stands on its own as NordVPN Threat Protection. In testing, though, we found NordVPN Threat Protection lacking in this early version. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is our top recommendation in the space, earning a rare five-star rating.
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How Much Does NordVPN Threat Protection Cost?Purchased as a standalone product, NordVPN Threat Protection costs $4.99 per month, discounted to $2.49 per month for the first year. It also comes as part of Standard Security, along with the VPN, for $8.29 per month, discounted to $4.99 for the first year. Finally, you can get NordVPN’s Complete Security for $16.59 per month, discounted to $7.49 for the first year. That gets you Threat Protection, VPN, NordPass password management, and NordLocker encrypted cloud storage, as well as data breach monitoring.
It’s Surprisingly Easy to Be More Secure Online
Penciled out to a full year, Threat Protection lists for $59.88, which sounds high until you learn that this price gets you protection for six devices. A five-license package is more common—Avira, Kaspersky, and Malwarebytes all cost more for five licenses than NordVPN’s six. Conversely, G Data Antivirus, K7, and Vipre cost less, with K7 Antivirus Premium coming in at just $34 per year. NordVPN’s price is squarely in the middle.
No Chance of Lab Test ResultsIn most antivirus reviews, I report on test results from four independent antivirus labs. The labs don’t have infinite resources, so they must carefully consider which products to test. When three or four of them include a given product, you know it’s significant. All the better, of course, if the product earns top scores from those labs.NordVPN Threat Protection is at a disadvantage here. Almost all of the tests involve detecting malware already present on a test system, either by simply recognizing the malware file or by detecting its malicious behavior. Some include an opportunity for blocking malware at the download stage, but go on to expect additional layers of protection. That being the case, we’re not likely to see any lab test scores for this product.Getting Started With NordVPN Threat ProtectionAs with most modern security products, you manage your protection through an online account. It doesn’t take long to set up your account, download the product, and log in. You do need to turn on Threat Protection; when you do so, make sure you check the Deep Scan box for maximum protection.
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The main window is spacious and simple, with a simple menu at left holding icons for Threat Protection and VPN at the top, and for error reporting and general settings at the bottom. Most of the page starts off empty, ready to list the product’s Web and File activities as they occur. You can click to adjust settings, but really, you should just leave all the toggle switches turned on. Now you just sit back and let Threat Protection do its job.
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Hey, There’s a VPN Here!I mentioned a VPN button in the left-rail menu. Feel free to click it and have a look, but be prepared for disappointment. The product reviewed here doesn’t include VPN protection. Clicking any of the choices, from selecting an obfuscated server to simply turning on the VPN, results in an invitation to upgrade to a more comprehensive plan.
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I thought I might get around this limitation by installing the NordVPN browser extension, a browser-centric VPN proxy for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. However, trying to connect using the extension got me a message saying that I had reached the session limit of six simultaneous connections. That messaging could be improved, but clearly my little trick failed.Download-Specific Malware Protection in NordVPN Threat ProtectionThe typical antivirus program offers to perform a quick or thorough on-demand scan of your PC, looking for any malware that may be present. Scanning files on access is also common, and most layer on some form of behavioral analysis to detect malware that gets past other types of detection.NordVPN Threat Protection does none of these things. It focuses strictly on downloads, checking every page you visit and analyzing every file as it arrives on your computer. That does mean it won’t detect files that come in through, say, an infected USB drive. If it doesn’t recognize a threat during download, there’s no second chance for it to block malicious behavior.My usual malware protection test starts when I open a folder of hand-curated malware samples. Many antivirus utilities start picking off the samples immediately, while others wait until just before each program launches. I had to modify my testing regimen to get any reaction from NordVPN. It wasn’t difficult; I simply copied the samples to cloud storage and then tried to download each one.
In every case, the results were clear. Either Threat Protection interrupted the download, labeling it as dangerous, or it did nothing at all. It detected and eliminated 81% of my samples, leaving the other 19% completely untouched. Fortunately, none of my ransomware samples slipped past the detection filter.Only a few products tested with this same malware collection have scored lower than NordVPN. Surfshark One, another antivirus spawned by a company that originated in the VPN realm, came in just a fraction below NordVPN. At the other end of the scale, Norton AntiVirus Plus scored a near-perfect 9.9 points, while ZoneAlarm and G Data vied for second place, with 9.8 points each.
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That basic malware protection test confirms each antivirus product’s ability to recognize and defend against a collection of malware samples that I’ve thoroughly analyzed. However, malware in the real world is always changing and evolving, so I run a separate test using a feed of very recent malware-hosting URLs supplied by London-based lab MRG-Effitas. The goal in this test is to prevent downloading malware, either by diverting the browser away from the source or by recognizing and eliminating the malware payload. It seems like a perfect test for NordVPN, given its focus.Unfortunately, NordVPN didn’t manage a perfect score in this “perfect test”. It did block access to 30% of the malware-hosting URLs, rerouting the browser to an explanatory page. And it eliminated another 58% by aborting the download. Its overall score of 88% protection is squarely in the middle of current products, with as many scoring higher as lower. In their own latest runs of this test, McAfee AntiVirus Plus, Norton, Sophos, Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security, and ZoneAlarm all reached 100% protection.Mediocre Phishing DetectionThe description of this product on the NordVPN website promises that it will “keep phishing, ransomware attacks, and other dangers at bay.” That’s an excellent goal. Phishing websites make their play against the weakest link in security—the user. If a counterfeit PayPal site tricks you into entering your login credentials, the fraudsters own your PayPal account. Banking and financial sites are prime targets, but you’ll find all kinds of fakes, from webmail to dating sites to game pages.
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To prepare for my antiphishing test, I scrape reported frauds from websites that track such things. I make sure to include items too new to have hit antiphishing blacklists, along with ones that have been verified as fakes. Next, I set up four browsers, one protected by the antivirus under test and the other three by the protection built into Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. I launch each sample simultaneously in the four browsers and record how each handles it. If any of the four throws an error message, I discard the item. I also discard any that aren’t clearly attempting to steal login credentials. When I’m done grinding through several hundred samples, I check the stats.
As in the test using malware-hosting URLs, NordVPN turned in a thoroughly mediocre result. It detected just 79% of the verified fraudulent pages. That’s better than Edge alone managed, but both Chrome and Firefox scored six percentage points higher than NordVPN.More than half of recent products outperformed NordVPN, some by a wide margin. Avast One Essential, Trend Micro, and ZoneAlarm all scored 100% in their latest tests, while Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, Kaspersky, and Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus managed 99%.Blocking Ads and Trackers With NordVPN Threat ProtectionEvery time you visit a web page, your browser sends along a surprising amount of information, with the aim of helping the site provide you with the best experience. That information also goes to every third-party advertisement and tracker present on that page. By aggregating information from third-party elements on multiple websites, trackers can build up a detailed profile of your interests, a profile they can use to shape your experience. Even ads that aren’t involved in tracking can be annoying. NordVPN aims to prevent this kind of tracking and protect you from irksome ads.
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Tracker and ad blocking is a common feature in security suites and antivirus products. Bitdefender and Avira Free Security are among the many that handle this task using a browser extension. Typically, the extension’s toolbar button displays the number of trackers on the current page, with an option to click for more detailed information and control.NordVPN doesn’t use a browser extension for tracker and ad blocking. I verified that it does block ads by visiting the same site on my test machine and on a machine without NordVPN. Ads present on the unprotected browser were visibly absent with NordVPN’s protection.
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You can also view the main Threat Protection page to see a list of sites where it blocked ads or trackers. From the list, you can globally allow ads and trackers for any item, or dig in for a detailed list of the product’s findings. The detail list is a bit awkward, as it displays the full URL for each ad or tracker rather than identifying it by name. For those into micromanagement, there’s an option to individually allow any of the detail items.Verdict: Not Ready to Stand AloneWhen we last reviewed NordVPN itself, Threat Protection was a beta component, one that didn’t fare well in testing. While Threat Protection is now fully out of beta, it still can’t stand alone as an antivirus tool. Its focus on detecting malicious websites and downloads could be a strength, but it didn’t hold up in testing with dangerous and fraudulent pages. And if malware gets past that single layer of protection, or gets onto your system through a tainted USB drive or other non-download means, you’re hosed. There’s no real-time or behavior-based protection.Looking at it another way, if what you’re after is a powerful, flexible VPN, NordVPN is an Editors’ Choice, and Threat Protection is a nice bonus. But for the best protection, you want to back your VPN with an antivirus that’s also top-notch. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus gets phenomenal scores from independent labs and packs a cornucopia of features, including a VPN (though you’ll pay extra for full VPN power). Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus is the tiniest antivirus around, with an unusual journal-and-rollback feature that can undo malware damage, even from ransomware. And with McAfee AntiVirus Plus, one subscription lets you install protection on every device in your household, running Android, ChromeOS, iOS, macOS, or Windows. These three are our top antivirus picks depending on your needs.
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