Norton Secure VPN review: Basic, no-fuss protection

Norton has joined in on the trend of security giants offering VPNs as part of their catalog of apps. Norton Secure VPN is included with every Norton 360 subscription, but you can also purchase a plan for just the VPN as well. While most of these services seem to be afterthought add ons, Norton’s Secure VPN comes across as better than most. 

The company’s security software has always been some of the best on the market, and you may be wondering if the VPN is just as good. Will it keep your browsing safe and secure, or should you look elsewhere for further protection? I’m taking it for a spin to find out.

Norton VPN in brief:

• P2P allowed: No
• Simultaneous device connections: 5
• Business location: United States
• Number of servers: 2,000+
• Number of country locations: 29
• Cost: $39.99 for one year

What are Norton Secure VPN’s features and services?

Before I dig any deeper, Norton Secure VPN is not going to have the same feature set as top VPN providers such as NordVPN or ExpressVPN. It was originally built to be an add-on feature to the Norton 360 security suite and is now being offered as a standalone app.

Further reading: See our roundup of the best VPN services to learn about competing products.

That doesn’t take away from it being a perfectly capable VPN in its own right, however. Norton Secure VPN offers five simultaneous device connections and a decent-sized server network — estimated to be around 2,000 plus servers across 29 country locations. Although frustratingly, you can’t select specific cities or areas within these country locations.

When you first open the app, you’ll notice how bare the homescreen is. It has a connection status icon, a button to Change location, and three navigation tabs across the top for Connection, Settings, and Ad Tracker Blocking.

When connected, you’ll also have a zoomed-in map displayed of the location of the server you’re currently connected to on the right.

Under the Settings tab you’ll find some basic options to tweak connection settings, enable split tunneling, turn on the kill switch, and change your protocols. Honestly, I’m pleasantly surprised that split tunneling is offered here. 

Split tunneling allows you to control which apps or URLs you wish to run through the VPN and which to keep separate, adding a useful layer of customization to any VPN connection. More robust standalone VPN services don’t even offer split tunneling, so it’s nice to see Norton offering the feature.

As you’d expect from a security company such as Norton, you do get some security services. Here it takes the form of an ad- and tracker-blocker. Unfortunately, they weren’t perfect. I did find that a few ads seemed to slip through, but it’s still a useful feature to have regardless. Unless you already have a dedicated ad- and tracker-blocker, I’d still recommend having the Norton Secure VPN version turned on just to be safe.

That’s about it as far as features go. Norton Secure VPN currently doesn’t come with any multi-hop connections, no dynamic IP address switching, nor access to any other security features — for those you’ll need to opt for a Norton 360 plan instead.

The best way that I’d describe Norton Secure VPN is simple. It’s a barebones VPN that is set up to get you connected and anonymize your traffic. That’s about it. It isn’t here to offer any boutique privacy functions or allow users to fully customize anything. Just the basics will do.

More robust standalone VPN services don’t even offer split tunneling, so it’s nice to see Norton offering the feature.

How much does Norton Secure VPN cost?

Unlike other VPN services, Norton Secure VPN only offers a yearly subscription plan for the service. There is no monthly plan available nor are there longer-term plans such as two or three years. This is a bit of an odd choice if the company wants to offer the VPN as a standalone product. It feels like another way that it’s just further incentivizing people to subscribe to its full Norton 360 suite.

If you do opt for just the Norton Secure VPN, the first year will set you back $39.99 or $3.33 per month. After the first year, though, the price will renew at the standard rate of $79.99 per year. That is a big jump and honestly hard to justify for a VPN so basic. 

Alternatively, you could just subscribe to the full Norton 360 Standard suite, which comes with the VPN included, for the same $39.99 for the first year and get all of the additional antivirus and security software as well. You do drop from a five device limit to three by taking this route, but you gain so much more.

Norton Secure VPN can be paid for either by credit card, PayPal, or Google Pay.

How is Norton Secure VPN’s performance?

In my testing I measured connection speeds multiple times across Norton Secure VPN’s servers in six different countries all around the world and then compared them to my baseline internet speed. Norton’s speeds were quite impressive. Across all locations tested, the average download speed was 65 percent of the base and the average upload speed was 70 percent of the base.

Those averages are enough to put it within striking distance of the fastest VPNs I’ve ever tested. I did notice a marked drop-off for server locations that were a further physical distance away from me. This is to be expected, but the differences were more than I usually notice with other VPNs. Since Norton Secure VPN provides no information about server load, it’s difficult to diagnose the issue.

When it comes to Norton’s ability to unblock geo-restricted content on streaming services, it handled itself admirably. I was able to access all U.S.- and UK-based streaming content including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, and BBC iPlayer. Unfortunately, I did encounter some issues in other countries such as Japan and Australia. 

As Norton Secure VPN does not allow me to pick and choose different servers within a country, I wasn’t able to try and connect to other locations within these blocked countries to see if they would work instead. This issue of one country, one server kept coming up throughout my testing and it’s a puzzling design decision that I hope Norton changes in the future.

Overall though, Norton is plenty fast enough and its ability to unblock streaming services in the U.S. and UK make it a perfectly good choice if that is your main priority with a VPN.

How is Norton Secure VPN’s security and privacy?

Norton Secure VPN’s Windows app offers a choice between WireGuard, OpenVPN, and its own proprietary Mimic protocol. Unfortunately, Android and Apple users are not able to change the protocol options on their mobile devices and are stuck with only WireGuard.

Norton’s Mimic protocol is designed to be ultra-effective at getting around geo-blocked content such as streaming services. And while in my testing it did just that, it unfortunately came with too much latency to recommend for watching any HD streaming content. Sticking with WireGuard instead should give you the best mixture of speed and security.

The website claims that the VPN abides by a no-logs policy, but the details are rather vague. In a blog post, Norton further states, “Norton Secure VPN does not log information about where you browse on the Internet.” However, it does collect, “other limited data in accordance with the NortonLifeLock Global Privacy Statement and the Product Privacy Notice.”   

Under the company’s Product Privacy Notice, I did find that the VPN collects data about your device name, type, and mobile OS version. It also logs individual total bandwidth usage, and originating IP address — a particularly concerning datapoint.

Norton Secure VPN does not log the websites you visit nor does it keep any connection timestamp logs. In theory, this helps to keep individual users’ data from being traced back to their logged IP address. Still, some of the data it collects is troubling and I wouldn’t recommend the service if privacy is your main concern.

Also, the VPN service and parent company Norton are all based in the U.S. which is an active member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance. The U.S. is notorious for having overbearing data retention laws and as a result, Norton would be required to hand over user data if the U.S. government were to provide the proper warrant for them. 

This wouldn’t be an issue if the company truly had a no-logs policy, but the fact that Norton does store some user data means that it could potentially be turned over to the authorities.

Is Norton Secure VPN worth it?

Norton Secure VPN doesn’t seem to be intended as a standalone service. As an add-on to a more substantive security suite, the VPN makes more sense. On one hand, it provides basic protection with very little maintenance. But on the other, it offers very few advanced features and next to no customization options.

The bottom line is that while Norton Secure VPN does the basics right, currently it isn’t robust enough to justify subscribing to just the VPN. Opting for a more powerful standalone VPN service with more features will likely serve you better. Alternatively, go for the full-fledged Norton 360 suite and use the same Secure VPN included with that plan instead.

Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article.