“Yes, we made a mistake” – I asked NordVPN everything you’ve always wanted to, and their answers may surprise you
It is not necessary to be a confidentiality or a VPN guru for having heard of NordVPN. After officially entered the market in 2012, the supplier is undoubtedly the most famous VPN name.
Test after test, Techradar criticisms remain convinced that this popularity is not only a good marketing. Our experts are currently classifying NordVPN as the best VPN on the market for most people, in fact, thanks to strong confidentiality, security and performance.
However, there is a considerable part of the web which really does not like NordVPN – and it is quite vocal. So when I was lucky to sit with the team, I put some of the most recurrent complaints directly to the people behind the product. Here is what they answered.
Why is NordVPN marketing so aggressive?
If there is a key reason why NordVPN is the most popular supplier on the web, it is the aggressive marketing of the company. Most of which are transmitted by the most followed Youtubers and Twitch influencers.
Although it is absolutely a legitimate form of advertising that many competitors also use, NordVPN’s activities on this front are not well with all commentators, who often mention it as the main reason to avoid service. The NordVPN team, however, does not agree with this conclusion.
According to the CTO of NordVPN, Marijus Briedis, large products cannot be alive without marketing. “We have an excellent product, we know, but the competition is so fierce that we also need a very good marketing strategy,” he added.
As Briedis explains, marketing has been a crucial element to allow the team to continue to grow over the years. Something that allows the company to develop even more products, such as its password management tool, Nordpass.
The head of online reputation at North Security, Zilvinas Abarius also thinks that the marketing of their product via influencers has been advantageous to increase cybersecurity awareness among the general public. However, some researchers have previously warned that youtubers selling VPNs can rather present a security risk.
Overall, Abarius said: “Critics might believe that if you are marketing, you cannot be an appropriate product. But we want to break this myth. We want to show that we can create interesting things, while having strong marketing.”
What about the north breach in 2018?
Another very controversial – and recurrent comment – against NordVPN surrounds an event dating from 2018: the NordVPN security violation.
On this occasion, one of the supplier’s VPN servers was hacked due to a bug of the data center system. The supplier would have associated himself with a cybersecurity expert to correct the vulnerability the next day, while closing all servers to ensure that user data has been protected.
“No data has been disclosed at the end,” said the Nord Security public relations manager Laura Tyrylyte, because the pirates have managed to obtain any information or identification information.
No data has been disclosed
Laura Tyrylyte, Professor of North Security
However, criticisms of NordVPN are more concerned with the way the company treated the incident. NordVPN would wait more than a year before cleaning up and explaining to its users what happened. The web never forgets, and such behavior has colored the reputation of NordVPN to date.
Tyrylyte admits that the team made a mistake while waiting for all this time. She said: “We were a different business at the time, and yes, we made a mistake. But it was also a very good learning opportunity for us.”
The team also explains that, since then, the company has not only introduced various cybersecurity processes to ensure that similar incidents cannot occur, but they have also taken many measures to stimulate transparency on the way.
Why is NordVPN a misleading of automatic renewal?
The most expressed concern of all may concern the way in which NordVPN deals with its users’ subscriptions. NordVPN is indeed among the many suppliers who work as part of an automatic payment system.
On paper, Auto-Renewal allows users to decide to unsubscribe if they wish. However, a mixture of difficulties in doing so and incidents where users deplored that suppliers would not have respected their choice have helped to consolidate the idea among angry customers that NordVPN is “shady” or “scam”.
The alleged “deceived” automotive prices are the reason behind The legal complaints that the supplier is also confronted in the United States. Similar lawsuits have also been advanced against ExpressVPN and Surfhark.
While the judge will have to decide whether the conduct of NordVPN can be considered as legal or not, such a payment model certainly scares many VPN enthusiasts.
So, does the company notify and plans to repair its most boring disadvantage? Not exactly.
“This is common on the whole market. We call this a subscription because it is a subscription by the very meaning, and as with Spotify, Netflix or any other online service, you never have any reproductive plans,” said Abarius, arguing that users can cancel subscriptions in a few clicks.
Indeed, automatic renewal subscriptions are certainly widespread in the VPN industry, but they are far from the only option.
Abarius also guarantees that the company is “very flexible with reimbursements”, despite the individually analysis of each case. This may be the reason why some disappointed ex-users flocked to the NordVPN Trustpilot page to leave a negative exam after the refusal of their request.
Why did NordVPN remove Meshnet?
About three years after its launch, NordVPN was to kill its Meshnet functionality from December 1, 2025. The reason? Lack of use, said the supplier.
The team built Meshnet to offer users a simple way to connect up to 60 different devices both on encrypted private tunnels. A unique tool in the VPN industry that developers hoped would transform how users use NordVPN forever.
The decision to delete Meshnet sparked a wave of disappointment on the online forums among the little but vocal part of the users who benefited from the added value of Meshnet.
Some have suggested that this could simply be a “bait and switching tactics” to bring more users, while others considered a call to the supplier to maintain Meshnet alive.
Call in NordVPN for maintaining Meshnet alive? from R / NordVPN
Public pressure has borne fruit and the team has now announced that no, Meshnet is going nowhere.
“During the last month, many of you have talked about the quantity you enjoy Meshnet, whether to tinker with private networks, share files safely or simply play with friends. Your passion made us examine our decision carefully,” the supplier wrote in a blog article.
The NordVPN product director, Domininkas Virbickas, guarantees, however, that the lack of use (less than 1% of NordVPN subscribers) was the only reason for the decision to delete Meshnet, a functionality that requires a lot of maintenance.
Meshnet apparently makes it more difficult to maintain the basic functionality of the VPN customer and slows down the team, making the development process of other features (such as the provider’s distinctive threat tool) much slower.
Although these problems persist, All meshnet features will remain live and supported. The team is now busy looking for means of reducing development friction and obtaining a wider audience on board. So stay listening for more news on this front!
End
That these answers make you change your mind on NordVPN, it is difficult to say, nor intention. Each of us should draw our own conclusions and choose the company that aligns the most with our personal values.
That said, if the reason you are moving away from NordVPN is the removal of Meshnet, you can now be sure that the company has a plan to record functionality. So, no need to examine alternatives.
If automatic renewal practices are what bothers you most of the supplier, keep in mind that among the best services, only Mullvadvpn currently offers no recurring plans. Proton VPN, however, is one of providers without active pursuit against its own automatic renewal practices.
However, on the Privacy and Security Front, Techradar experts assess NordVPN among the best, and you can see why by reading the Complete Nordvpn Review yourself. The supplier regularly undergoes independent audits as well.
What is undeniable is that NordVPN offers all the basic protection that you expect from a good VPN, as well as additional features like Double VPN as well as malicious software and protection against scams via its pro protection. If you are enough for you to try, you can do it without risk for 30 days with the NordVPN refund guarantee. So why not try?
