Norton VPN's feature drive makes it a serious VPN option – and the ex-ExpressVPN Head of Product has now joined its ranks
But is this about to change? We could be seeing Norton upset the VPN status quo and establish itself as one of the leading VPN providers.
The team at Norton VPN have been focusing on overhauling the product and it has seen a huge array of feature updates over the last year.
We've explored these in detail in our Norton VPN review – where it gets an impressive 4 stars out of 5 – but wanted to delve further.
Norton VPN Plus: a new VPN challengerSave 72%: Norton VPN has improved over the last year, and it's now excellent value. Our exclusive deal means you can get a one-year plan for $2.50 per month ($29.99 up front). You'll get protection for up to 5 devices, threat protection, fast speeds, and strong streaming unblocking. Plus, there's a free trial and a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Back in August 2024, we wrote how Norton was getting serious about its VPN. Updates included the launch of its Mimic protocol (more on this later), a no-logs audit, and threat protection features.
Support for Apple platforms was noticeably absent, but this is no longer the case as Norton VPN has taken things up a notch.
Himmat Bains is now leading Norton VPN's feature output. Bains was previously Head of Product at ExpressVPN and also worked at Private Internet Access (PIA).
"This year marks a significant step forward in our mission to build the most trusted and user-centric VPN on the market," Bains said.
"Many of the enhancements we've delivered are a direct result of customer feedback which continues to shape our roadmap and priorities to ensure we stay ahead of what people expect from a modern VPN."
"And we're just getting started. More updates and a new independent no-log audit are on the horizon as part of our ongoing commitment to privacy, transparency, and performance."
To be considered one of the most secure VPNs and a leading provider, a kill switch is a must-have. It cuts your internet connection should your VPN fail, ensuring none of your traffic goes unprotected.
This has been present on Norton VPN Android and Windows VPN apps for a while but wasn't available for Mac and iOS.
Norton VPN resolved this issue and released a kill switch for its Mac VPN app back in December 2024. In June 2025, a kill switch finally came to its iOS VPN app.
Although we'd have preferred this to happen sooner, the fact a kill switch is present across all Norton VPN apps is a real positive and a big plus point for the provider.
Norton VPN now has over 100 server locations worldwide, including 25 cities in 18 states in the US and 5 cities in the UK. This takes the providers total servers to over 3,000.
Since December 2024, it has added 40 new countries and 16 new city locations to its server network.
19 countries were added between December 2024 and January 2025. These included Argentina, Greece, Italy, Nigeria, and Thailand.
The cities added in this period were:
In Q1 of 2025, 20 countries were added. Azerbaijan, Iceland, Libya, Malaysia, South Korea, and Ukraine were some of these.
Norton VPN doesn't disclose its total number of servers, but it boasts decent global coverage and we would expect more locations to be added.
A few P2P-optimized servers are part of Norton VPN's server offering and new locations have been recently added. Again, this is a little behind more established rivals, but likely to improve soon.
Mimic is Norton VPN's unique VPN protocol. It's fast, and designed to obfuscate your VPN traffic – making it appear like you're not connected to a VPN at all. This is useful for bypassing firewalls and internet censorship, and many of the most private VPNs have their own obfuscating protocols.
Thanks to a June 2025 update, Mimic is available on iOS, having already been supported on Mac, Windows, and Android VPN apps.
Currently, WireGuard and OpenVPN are only supported on Windows and Android. However Norton VPN is aiming to bring WireGuard to Mac, iOS, and TV users soon.
Double VPN routes your traffic through two encrypted VPN servers instead of the usual one, with improved levels of privacy and security its objective.
It's not designed for everyday browsing or streaming, and you may see a decrease in performance when using the feature.
Norton VPN has made Double VPN a full feature and it can be accessed on all platforms under the Advanced Servers tab on the Change VPN Location screen.
Privacy is also the focus with Norton VPN's IP Rotation. This feature changes your IP address every 30 seconds and makes it harder for you to be tracked online.
Like Double VPN, IP Rotation can be selected from the Advanced Servers tab. You may see an impact on performance and it's not optimized for streaming.
The Ad Blocker feature targets intrusive ads and trackers. It's available as part of the new Norton VPN desktop browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.
VPN protection goes beyond just your smartphone and laptop, you can protect your smart TV too. Norton VPN has launched apps for Google TV with Android TV OS and Apple TV with Apple tvOS.
This is great for streaming your favorite shows and with speeds of over 950 Mbps recorded in our testing, Norton VPN is one of the fastest VPNs out there.
Finally, Norton VPN has added widgets and a Pause VPN feature. Widgets allow you to control your VPN from your phone's home screen, without opening the Norton VPN app. You can connect, disconnect, or pause your VPN connection in one tap.
Pause VPN allows you to temporarily pause your VPN connection, without turning it off entirely. This can be done for 15, 30, or 60 minutes and is useful for accessing sites that may have trouble interacting with a VPN, such as online banking.
Norton VPN isn't done yet, and there's plenty more to come before the end of 2025.
The provider has been audited for a second time by VerSprite, with full results to be announced in the coming weeks. This follows a 2024 audit and goes a long way in reassuring users it's complying with its no-logs policy.
VerSprite has also audited Norton VPN's Mimic protocol. This is the first time Mimic has been examined and results will also be announced later this summer.
OpenVPN is a robust and trusted VPN protocol, but it's now seen as slow and can't quite match the speeds and performance capabilities of the newer, lighter WireGuard protocol.
Although some providers are moving away from OpenVPN, many still consider it a valuable protocol, and Norton VPN is one of them. It currently supports OpenVPN on Windows and Android and will be bringing OpenVPN Data Channel Offload (DCO) to these platforms later this year.
OpenVPN DCO revolutionizes OpenVPN connections and improves speeds and performance.
Norton VPN will also be adding more locations worldwide, further expanding its server network.
Norton VPN has three tiers – Norton VPN Standard, Norton VPN Plus, and Norton VPN Ultimate.
Tom's Guide currently has an exclusive deal which means you can get one-year of Norton VPN Plus for $2.50 per month ($29.99 up front).
With this plan you get protection for up to 5 devices, all the features mentioned above, threat protection, and up to 10GB of cloud storage.
Norton VPN Standard works out at $3.33 per month ($39.99 up front) and Norton VPN Ultimate is also $3.33 per month ($39.99 up front).
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
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