Should you choose Kaspersky VPN or NordVPN if you want the best outcome? To cut it short, we think NordVPN is a better option. Kaspersky VPN is, overall, a functional VPN, with lots of security features, a great streaming experience, and favorable subscription prices. While not bad by any means, NordVPN is way more reliable, although it costs more as a result.
Before you choose one, whichever it may be, we strongly recommend reading our full NordVPN vs Kaspersky VPN comparison for 2026. Our quick conclusion is insufficient to get a full picture about these providers and as you’ll see, there’s plenty of ground to cover.
Strap yourself, get psyched, and let this NordVPN vs Kaspersky VPN side-by-side analysis begin.
Kaspersky VPN vs NordVPN: Quick Comparison
| Kaspersky VPN | NordVPN | |
| Our Current Ranking 📋 | TBD | #1 |
| Prices 🤑 | Starts at $33.99 for the 1st year | Starting at $3.09/mo |
| Money-Back Guarantee 🪙 | 30 Days | 30 Days |
| Free Version/Free Trial 🆓 | No/7 Days | No/7 Days via Android |
| Logging/Jurisdiction 🕵️ | Slight logging/Russia | No/Panama |
| Protocols 🌐 | WireGuard, Catapult Hydra | OpenVPN, NordLynx, IKEv2 |
| Servers 🏠 | 2,000+ in 100+ locations | 7,400+ in 118 countries |
| Specialty Servers ✅ | Torrenting, Streaming, Gaming, Double VPN | Dedicated IP, Double VPN, Onion Over VPN, P2P, Obfuscated |
| RAM-Only Servers 🛡️ | No | Yes |
| Working With Netflix 📺 | Yes (10+ catalogs) | Yes (~30 catalogs) |
| P2P Allowance ↔️ | Yes | Yes |
| Concurrent Connections 📟 | 5 | 10 |
Applications, Compatibility, and Ease of Use
If you need a VPN for multiple devices (we all do!), you’ll want the best possible compatibility. Kaspersky VPN covers Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and routers. This “standard” proposition should provide all you need.
But what if you need a VPN for streaming devices?
In that case, you can say goodbye to Kaspersky. For example, it doesn’t support Fire TV Stick, there’s no Apple TV app, and installing it on an Android TV requires a bit of effort. That’s where NordVPN chimes in with support for all of them, plus a few vital Linux distros.
Kaspersky VPN also allows for 5 simultaneous connections, which is obsolete in 2026. Even ExpressVPN, which has stuck to 5 for years, increased the allowance to 8. NordVPN has a whopping 10, which has now become an industry standard. So far, NordVPN is better.
But what about ease of use? Well, let’s examine the two providers side by side:
Both look modern and sleek but NordVPN is more so, in our eyes. With its sprawling world map and snappy apps, it’s hard to be at this VPN giant. However, Kaspersky VPN is surprisingly functional on both desktop and mobile devices, with virtually no glitching.
Connection times are short in both cases — about 2-3 seconds each.
Plus, accessing Settings and using various VPN features is a walk in the park, which is essential when you want to enable a kill switch or, for example, choose between dark and light app themes.
NordVPN takes the first round mostly because it offers superior compatibility and two times more simultaneous connections (10 vs. 5 in Kaspersky VPN). Their ease of use is phenomenal and in this aspect, we can say they’re equal, with NordVPN looking a bit sleeker, which is less important.
Kaspersky VPN vs NordVPN Price Comparison
While looks and feels are less important, finances are very important for most people. We all want reliable VPNs that cost very little and in reality, that’s rarely found. However, as you’ll see these two manage to keep their costs quite nice and low, making them very interesting.
Flexible pricing isn’t Kaspersky’s game, so you get to choose from two plans:
- Annual at $33.99 for 5 devices
- Monthly at $6.99/mo for 5 devices
Kaspersky’s renewal price is shockingly low, at $42.99 per year, plus, you get a 30-day money-back guarantee and a 7-day free trial that only requires a credit card. To clarify, the renewal price is around $3.6/mo, and for an annual plan, that’s pretty much record-breaking.
Above is NordVPN’s current pricing structure, which is prone to change but not by much.
There, we can see that NordVPN promotes 2-year plans that start at $3.09/mo (at the time of writing) and go up to about $7-$8 a month, based on the current NordVPN promotion. NordVPN also has annual and monthly plans but we’ll tell you they’re way pricier.
To make it clear — NordVPN is far from expensive and is among the best options at this price. But in this NordVPN vs Kaspersky VPN comparison, the former’s prices are outstandingly low. The silver lining for NordVPN is a 30-day money-back guarantee.
If you want, you can also apply for a 7-day trial by signing up on Android. But overall, in both the long and short term, Kaspersky VPN will be a far more affordable option and is more likely to fit the bill.
In the end, Kaspersky VPN beats NordVPN in our pricing round. You don’t have to do complex mathematics to figure out that the Russian VPN is one of the cheapest providers on the market.
Features Analysis
The pricing round alone doesn’t tell a full story. If a VPN is cheaper but offers less, it doesn’t mean it offers better value for money — quite the opposite is true. In our NordVPN vs Kaspersky VPN duel, we found that the former offers more features which we analyzed below.
Shared Features
We’ll first see which features they share and then discuss their differences.
- 256-bit AES encryption
- Kill Switch
- Split Tunneling
- WireGuard protocol (NordLynx in NordVPN)
As you can see, all standard features are available in both VPNs. We immediately tested their kill switches, only to find they work without flaws. However, NordVPN has this advanced kill switch, which blocks your internet connection until you connect to a VPN server — Kaspersky lacks this option.
When it comes to split tunneling, things function the same. The feature can be applied only to apps but not websites, as is the case with CyberGhost and its “Exceptions” feature.
We finally have WireGuard, which you can use in both Kaspersky VPN and NordVPN. The latter, however, offers NordLynx, which is essentially WireGuard but with a double NAT system, which solidifies WireGuard’s privacy by not allowing storage of data on VPN servers.
After evaluating both VPNs, we discovered that their features work as intended.
Unique Features
Now, they do have some unique features we’d love to discuss.
Kaspersky VPN
Kaspersky VPN offers:
- Catapult Hydra protocol
- Private Browsing
- Smart Protection
- Double VPN
The first protocol is used by Hotspot Shield, whose at-the-time parent company pioneered this OpenVPN TLS-based protocol. It’s mostly built for overcoming censorship and bypassing network blocks. Private Browsing blocks data-collection attempts from websites.
Enabling it doesn’t seem to do much but we can’t say for sure because no report indicates which websites and attempts have been blocked. There’s also Smart Protection, which automatically enables the VPN on insecure WiFi networks at restaurants, cafes, airports, etc.
You can even manage it by assigning known WiFi networks. On top of that, you can even “define” what an insecure WiFi network means so that Kaspersky VPN can act accordingly and offer protection when it’s truly needed. We found this feature handy on our numerous business trips.
While both VPNs offer a Double VPN, we think Kaspersky’s version is slightly more customizable. A Double VPN adds an encryption layer and changes your VPN location twice to prevent tracking. Here, you can select which two locations you’ll use — not in NordVPN.
NordVPN
We touched on a Double VPN — it works well in NordVPN but with less flexibility. In our testing, it achieved slightly faster speeds but either way, this feature isn’t for speed but only for additional security and privacy.
NordVPN offers a few more aces, such as:
- Threat Protection Pro
- Meshnet
- Obfuscated servers
- NordWhisper
The first feature is optional and availability starts from the Plus plan. It blocks ads, trackers, malicious sites, and malware, providing 24/7 real-time protection on all devices. It’s far better and more reliable than Private Browsing in Kaspersky VPN in our experience.
Then, there’s Meshnet, which people often use to bypass password-sharing restrictions on Netflix. It lets you connect 60 devices and share files with them or access them remotely in an encrypted environment with no security flaws. Obfuscated servers are for censorship.
For bypassing it — to be 100% precise. They mask your VPN traffic and make it look like it’s “normal” so that you can use the VPN in China and other “restricted” environments. NordWhisper is the newest addition, which alleviates network filtering quite efficiently.
If you pay more for other plans, you’ll also be able to get NordPass, NordLocker, and NordProtect, all of which enrich the experience and go beyond what your run-of-the-mill VPN has to offer.
NordVPN has more features outlined in our review. For this duel, we focused on the most important ones.
Kaspersky VPN features some impressive specs for the price, with a Double VPN being the most surprising one. Still, it can’t compete with NordVPN’s innovations like NordWhisper, Threat Protection Pro, and Meshnet, all of which ultimately put NordVPN at the winning spot in this round.
Do NordVPN and Kaspersky VPN Retain Logs?
When it comes to storing or not storing logs, things are getting a speck more interesting. We’ll try our best to be short and explain the issues with Kaspersky VPN.
Why Is Kaspersky Problematic?
Kaspersky is a Russian company and while Russia is outside the 5/9/14 Eyes alliance, you know it’s often accused of spying and surveillance. Indeed, this is a censored country, which requires all VPN services that operate within the country to hand out user-related data.
Kaspersky rents its servers from Hotspot Shield but even this VPN isn’t perfectly safe. Making things worse is Kaspersky’s alleged heavy data logging and connections to the Russian government. While these issues aren’t officially confirmed, they ruin the VPN’s reputation.
The VPN’s transparency is “okay” because it does its best in outlining that it doesn’t store any logs and is perfectly safe to use. However, with no external audits under its belt, we just have to take its words for granted and pretend it’s among the most secure VPNs in 2026.
Is NordVPN Any Better?
Yes, it’s way better. First, it’s based in Panama, so we have an off-shore location with more favorable privacy laws. Second, it’s not been accused or associated with any form of data logging, so its reputation is pristine. Its privacy policy is also clean as a whistle.
The VPN clearly states that no sensitive logs are kept, except for a few mandatory bits of data needed for service operation. NordVPN also uses RAM-based servers — Kaspersky doesn’t. Plus, there are multiple third-party audits from Deloitte and PwC. A huge plus!
Nord Security, NordVPN’s father company, has multiple security-oriented tools like NordPass, NordLocker, and NordProtect. We tested all of these tools and never had a single security/privacy issue, nor we have heard anything negative in this aspect about them.
With everything said, Kaspersky VPN is shady and until proven “innocent”, it’s hard to recommend it for privacy protection. NordVPN is better for privacy, thanks to an audited no-logging policy, RAM-only servers, and a well-established reputation worldwide.
Which VPN Is Faster: Kaspersky VPN or NordVPN?
It’ll be interesting to see which VPN is faster because we’re essentially testing Hotspot Shield’s servers. We have compared Hotspot Shield to NordVPN and the latter was faster. However, let’s see if Kaspersky’s skin can change the result or even perhaps beat NordVPN.
To get started, we’ll display our native internet speed in Belgrade, Serbia, where we were located at the time of testing Kaspersky VPN vs NordVPN. Roughly said, our download speed was 340 Mbps and our upload speed was 20 Mbps.
From this point, we tested both providers as we always do. For 3 days in a row, 3 times a day, using 3 server locations. We opted for the UK, the US, and Japan. You’ll notice all three are very far from Belgrade but we wanted to see how efficient they were in speed retention.
The lower the speed losses, the better. The table below displays the average download and upload speed losses based on the performed tests across all three VPN locations.
| Average Download Speed Loss 🔽 | Average Upload Speed Loss 🔼 | |
| Kaspersky VPN | 26% | 15% |
| NordVPN | 18% | 7% |
Going back to our comparison with Hotspot Shield, Kaspersky VPN performs about on par with its American brother. This means it’s considerably slower than NordVPN, with lower percentages of speed retention.
Interested in average speed test results from all three locations? Then let’s see them:
| UK (Download/Upload) | US (Download/Upload) | Japan (Download/Upload) | |
| Kaspersky VPN | 291.20/18.47 Mbps | 246.66/19.25 Mbps | 222.71/18.27 Mbps |
| NordVPN | 324.25/18.68 Mbps | 292.75/18.31 Mbps | 223.54/17.85 Mbps |
You can notice that as we increase the server distance, Kaspersky VPN fares progressively worse. NordVPN shows the same but less pronounced trend, as its speed retention is far superior. This means NordVPN takes the win and is definitely a more reliable performer.
Streaming & Torrenting Comparison
While Kaspersky VPN performs slower, its speeds are mostly sufficient for streaming and torrenting. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to test it properly. That’s great news because in our Kaspersky VPN vs NordVPN side-by-side comparison, we had a few great surprises.
Let us explain.
Streaming — A Battle of Equality
Kaspersky VPN has powerful streaming servers aimed at unblocking different streaming services outside of their respective regions. Open the server list, click Streaming, and voila! You’ll find dozens of them. For example, the VPN works with Amazon Prime USA thanks to dedicated servers for this platform.
It also contains servers for Apple TV, BBC iPlayer, Crunchyroll, Disney+, ESPN+, Netflix, Hulu, and even Spotify. All of these services work impressively well with Kaspersky VPN and that’s an enormous advantage over other “antivirus” VPNs. We appreciate its ease of use.
Let’s say you want to access SRF to stream MotoGP races abroad for free. Simply open the Streaming server list, click “SRF Switzerland” and boom — you’re ready to roll.
NordVPN doesn’t have dedicated streaming servers but works equally well. With 30 or so unblockable Netflix catalogs and easy access to other prevalent streaming platforms, NordVPN is no slouch. Note that unlike Kaspersky VPN, NordVPN allows you to enjoy Sky Sports programs while being in the United States or elsewhere. It even includes VPN browser extensions with location spoofing.
This, paired, with Smart DNS, which works on non-compatible devices, makes NordVPN streaming-ready at any moment, on any device. All in all, we’re looking at two incredibly capable competitors that are, more or less equal.
We’d give a slight edge to NordVPN because of Smart DNS and streaming-friendly VPN extensions.
Torrenting — Excellent Results on Both Sides
Both providers offer dedicated P2P servers, and because they’re in dozens of countries, it’ll be easy to find one close to you. Connect to the nearest server and you’ll notice stellar performance on both sides.
We used servers in Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and other European countries. When we switched to the US server, we noticed a bit of a drop in performance on Kaspersky’s side.
NordVPN has a few more tricks. For example, you can configure its SOCKS5 proxy directly in the torrent client, which allows for slightly faster downloads. It also offers Onion Over VPN servers, which are primarily for Tor users but can also provide more privacy for P2P file sharing.
Generally speaking, these are incremental differences that an average user won’t notice. If you use a VPN like most people, which is connecting to a server and doing your thing, both providers will be more than reliable.
This was the toughest-to-judge round in our Kaspersky VPN vs NordVPN duel. However, NordVPN has a tiny advantage because it’s just a notch above its rival in both streaming (due to Smart DNS) and torrenting (due to faster speeds). In any case, you won’t go wrong with either in this aspect.
Server Locations
Their server fleets are both large and diverse, which is a well-known recipe for success.
NordVPN offers a little over 7,400 servers in 118 countries, whilst Kaspersky VPN has 2,000 servers in 100+ locations. Both use 10 Gbps server ports and offer dedicated servers, as outlined earlier.
NordVPN comes with these types of servers:
- Obfuscated
- Onion Over VPN
- Double VPN
- P2P
- Dedicated IP (it’s one of the best VPNs offering dedicated IP addresses)
Kaspersky VPN, however, has these servers:
- Streaming
- Torrenting
- Gaming
- Double VPN
Kaspersky’s gaming servers are unique but NordVPN has bespoke Obfuscated and Onion Over VPN servers. Plus, it has a handful of dedicated IP addresses that you can buy on top, which Kaspersky VPN lacks. We don’t look at the server count that much — it’s irrelevant.
However, when we have a difference this large, it’s worth munching about. NordVPN has 5,400+ more servers than its rival, on top of which, it offers at least 18 locations on top.
Being both more diverse and ubiquitous, NordVPN’s server spread beats Kaspersky’s server fleet, which, while not small by any means, simply isn’t up to par. It’s also worth noting that NordVPN’s servers are less frequently congested, and as a result, faster and more stable.
Which VPN Is More Efficient at Bypassing Censorship?
NordVPN is better for this cause because it works in China thanks to obfuscated servers. Its reliability is debatable because it varies daily but in general, it’s a VPN that can be set up to be fully functional in China, Russia, the UAE, Qatar, and other censored countries and cities.
Kaspersky VPN has another issue here — it’s unavailable in some countries.
In China, for example, it’s not even downloadable but the same goes for Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Iran, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Qatar, etc. Our testers in the USA couldn’t download it either but ultimately found out that it was because Kaspersky was banned in this country.
We again circle back to its alleged connections with the Russian government, for which the VPN received the treatment it got — a ban.
That said, Kaspersky’s unavailability in more than a few global regions makes it quite unreliable for overcoming censorship. NordVPN works in 99% of countries, and thanks to dependable obfuscated servers, it’ll be a better companion for traveling and living in censored regions.
Conclusion: Choose NordVPN Over Kaspersky VPN
Kaspersky VPN managed to snatch the pricing round but everything else is on NordVPN’s side. NordVPN virtually obliterated Kaspersky VPN in an eight-round blitzkrieg, from which it escaped nearly unscathed.
We’ll be honest and commend Kaspersky VPN for its valiant efforts. It’s a good VPN overall, with a favorable price tag, above-average streaming prowess, and advanced security features for the price. NordVPN does everything Kaspersky can but with a jaw-dropping steroid dose.
It has better compatibility, more security features, faster speeds, and way more server locations. Not to mention privacy, which Kaspersky VPN struggles with and NordVPN shines in, accompanied by the ability to work in China, which Kaspersky VPN doesn’t have in 2026.
Despite costing more, NordVPN is a better investment in your online privacy and security. Save up some money and get it when you can. We promise you won’t regret it.