NordVPN vs. CyberGhost: Which VPN Is the Better Choice?

A VPN is one of the most useful tools for your computer, laptop, or smartphone. Not only does it let you surf the web anonymously, but it also keeps you safe on public WiFi and helps bypass pesky geo-blocking. NordVPN and CyberGhost are two popular VPN services that make all this and more possible. But which service is best?

In our comprehensive EXPERTE.com VPN review, we thoroughly assessed 27 providers, comparing them across several categories. We took several factors into account: user-friendliness, features, server networks, performance, security, privacy, support, pricing, and customer ratings.

This article is a side-by-side comparison of NordVPN and CyberGhost. In it, we'll go through each of the categories we evaluated to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of both programs.

Think of a VPN as a trusty companion that's never more than a click away. It should be as easy to use as possible, and this is certainly the case with NordVPN and CyberGhost. Both providers offer intuitive desktop and smartphone apps, and their features and settings are easy to find.

CyberGhost has a classic VPN user interface with a connect button and server location selection. Additional features and settings can be found in the expanded view. NordVPN shines with an elegant app that includes a world map on which server locations are visualized. You can also use the menu on the left to scroll through server locations or specific categories.

Both providers make the most important features of a VPN available. These include a kill switch, to ensure that your connection is automatically severed if the VPN tunnel encounters problems. Split tunneling is also offered with both services. This enables users to restrict the VPN connection to selected applications. Dedicated IP addresses can also be purchased with both NordVPN and CyberGhost.

NordVPN and CyberGhost have comparably good features, but we like the world map layout and server categories on NordVPN's app a bit better. Therefore, the first round goes to NordVPN.

Winner: NordVPN

In the second round, we compare our two providers numerically. First off, the number of servers (as of January 2022): NordVPN has around 5,250, while CyberGhost can boast 7,600. CyberGhost's country coverage (91) is also more expansive than that of NordVPN (59). It is worth noting, however, that almost half of CyberGhost's servers are virtual, with NordVPN besting it both in terms of physical servers and server locations.

While NordVPN offers more physical server locations, CyberGhost has a higher number of servers in more countries overall. Therefore, CyberGhost squeaks out a narrow victory in this round.

Winner: CyberGhost

We use a server in Frankfurt, Germany with a 1 GB/s connection to measure the performance of all VPNs from our sample, including NordVPN and CyberGhost. To determine an average, we connect with each provider to a random server in the US and Germany several times per day.

The results are listed in our performance ranking:

NordVPN doesn't just beat CyberGhost; it easily takes first place over every other provider in our performance ranking, with high download (206.0 MB/s) and upload speeds (42.1 MB/s). To find CyberGhost, you'll need to skip past 13 other providers and head down to 15th place, since its download (117.0 MB/s) and upload speeds (17.8 MB/s) are considerably lower. Unfortunately, we also experienced occasional connection problems with CyberGhost, with no such issues while using NordVPN.

So far, a clear victory for NordVPN. However, speed alone isn't the only facet of this category. It's also important, for example, whether the providers are suitable for streaming content from abroad. When attempting to access the four streaming services used in our evaluation (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and BBC iPlayer) we didn't encounter any problems with NordVPN. When connecting with CyberGhost, foreign Disney+ content was not accessible.

While CyberGhost is a few steps ahead of many other VPNs, NordVPN demonstrates superior performance over all other services from our sample. As such, it emerges as the clear winner of this round.

Winner: NordVPN

We graded the security of all VPN providers from our sample according to several factors. First, we considered their encryption and supported VPN protocols. Both providers use AES 256 standard encryption. They are also compatible with the major protocols OpenVPN and WireGuard. NordVPN uses its own protocol (NordLynx), which is built around the WireGuard protocol.

The two providers passed our VPN leak tests without any issues (we checked for DNS, WebRTC, and IPv6 leaks).

Skepticism about CyberGhost's parent company

Both NordVPN and CyberGhost promise not to log any personal data. However, while NordVPN regularly underlines its commitment to this with external security audits, CyberGhost's security audits are a decade old, with the last one taking place in 2012.

Since then, CyberGhost has been acquired by Kape Technologies, a controversial company. They not only have a conflict of interest (through their ownership of several VPN services and VPN review websites) but also made negative headlines in the past for spreading malware.

That doesn't necessarily mean that CyberGhost is compromised, but belonging to a company with a shady past certainly raises eyebrows amongst those interested in using a VPN to enhance their privacy.

As a result, this round does to NordVPN.

Winner: NordVPN

We focus on two aspects when it comes to support: a comprehensive help center and reliable direct/live assistance. Support centers should cover all important topics via articles, FAQs, and guides. This is the case with both NordVPN and CyberGhost.

Both providers offer direct support via live chat and support tickets/emails. After a short wait, we reached staffers via live chat who were able to answer simple questions; however, they didn't always have the right answers to more specific inquiries.

Nevertheless, both services offer solid support, so there is no clear winner in this category.

Winner: Draw

How much you pay for NordVPN or CyberGhost depends on the duration of the subscription you choose. CyberGhost offers four subscription options: monthly, annual, 2-year, or 3-year. The longest option is the cheapest with a monthly subscription cost of around $2.50, which is more affordable than the cheapest NordVPN subscription.

NordVPN doesn't offer a 3-year package. Their least expensive subscription, which runs for 2 years, is $3.50 per month.

A detailed price list for both providers can be found here:

When comparing subscriptions of the same length, NordVPN is slightly cheaper than CyberGhost. However, CyberGhost offers the least expensive plan overall with their 3-year package.

As such, CyberGhost narrowly wins this round.

Winner: CyberGhost

Among the review aggregators we consulted, both programs received an average rating of "good." CyberGhost users praise the app's various features and usability, whereas many NordVPN subscribers describe it as reliable. There is, of course, some criticism: Several people complained about NordVPNs failure to honor their money-back guarantee, while CyberGhost users gripe about occasional instability.

Winner: Draw

NordVPN managed to win three of our seven rounds. We're slightly more impressed with their user interface and next-level performance, and the service doesn't have the security issues CyberGhost does.

On the other hand, CyberGhost scores by virtue of its cheapest subscription overall (3-year package) and slightly larger server infrastructure. There's no clear winner in the two remaining categories: support and customer reviews.

Because NordVPN has the upper hand in the most important categories and is also quite affordable (even a few cents cheaper than CyberGhost in the monthly, annual, and 2-year plans) this VPN duel goes to NordVPN.

Overall winner: NordVPN

Detailed assessments of all 27 VPN services can be found in our comprehensive EXPERTE.com VPN review.