I have been using Cloudflare WARP+ for a while, mostly to protect myself when using public Wi-Fi. Today I thought I should give products like NordVPN and Surfshark a fresh try to see if they could surpass WARP’s performance.
During my test, I found that mysteriously both VPNs, when using WireGuard, achieved about 50% slower download speed with my ISP. Switching to OpenVPN (UDP) fixed this. However, if buying a modern VPN service only to end up using OVPN, I might as well build the server myself. (Note: NordVPN also had a much higher success rate when connecting with OVPN (UDP) compared to Surfshark, for some reason.)
In comparison to WARP, people should note that WARP was never designed to be a full-featured VPN. I mainly used it to ensure my traffic is securely sent out to the Internet. And WARP really shines in two things:
- One click and it’s connected. No hassle. (However, server connection speed is slower than NordVPN.)
- Really fast speeds when connecting to local websites, though not so much when multiple hops to other countries are involved.
In light of the findings above, I decided to make use of the 30-day money-back guarantee they both offer. With Surfshark, I simply told the bot I wanted a refund, got redirected to a form, filled it in, and voilà — it was done.
Now, that was a totally different story with NordVPN, despite their similar refund form. With NordVPN:
- First, I had to provide proof via speedtest.net showing slower performance when using NordVPN.
- Then I was asked to change protocols — which is when I discovered OVPN (UDP) actually runs faster. But again, I bought NordVPN specifically for the NordLynx protocol.
- Finally, the live chat (Zendesk Sunshine) was a pain to use. I was asked to upload screenshots, but sending images kept failing. In the end, I managed to upload them as files.
In summary, compared to the straightforward refund from Surfshark, NordVPN really runs through their whole playbook to stop you from getting one. However, NordVPN does at least show a clear “refund request is processing” notice on their billing page, while Surfshark does not (though Surfshark will send you a confirmation email within 24 hours, according to their bot).