iPhone · iPad · Mac

A quiet VPN. One tap, then silence.

Nora VPN wraps every packet in AES-256, connects in under a second, and then gets out of your way. No pop-ups. No security score. No dashboards you never asked for.

AES-256 encryption No activity logs 40+ locations
ConnectionEncrypted
ServerReykjavík
ProtocolWireGuard
Latency14ms
AES-256
Bit encryption
Setup in under a minute

Three steps. Then it disappears into the background.

Nora is designed to be forgettable in the best sense of the word. Install it, tap it once, then never think about it again — the encryption keeps working while you get on with the rest of your day.

i.

Install

Grab Nora from the App Store. Free tier, no email required to try it. Runs on iPhone, iPad and Apple silicon Macs.

ii.

Tap once

Nora picks the closest fast server, negotiates a WireGuard tunnel and turns the indicator green. Usually under a second.

iii.

Forget it

Nora quietly re-establishes the tunnel after every screen wake and Wi-Fi hop. If it ever drops, the kill switch stops your traffic before you notice.

Killer feature

The calmest VPN app you’ve ever used.

Most VPNs open the app and start selling. Upsells, security scores, "your data may be compromised" pop-ups, five kinds of add-on. Nora shows one big tap to connect button and a status dot. That’s the whole home screen.

The philosophy under it: a security tool that nags you into using it is one you eventually turn off. A security tool that disappears stays on. Nora is engineered for the second kind of relationship.

Try Nora
Who Nora is for

For people who’d rather forget their VPN is even on.

Nora is a good fit if you’re already thoughtful about privacy but tired of apps that treat their own settings screen as a marketing surface. It’s a lousy fit if you want split-tunnelling, meshnet, dark-web monitoring and a customisable kill-switch matrix.

a.

Travellers

Hotel Wi-Fi, café networks in unfamiliar cities, airport lounges. Nora protects everything automatically the moment you leave your home network.

b.

Remote workers

Video calls that don’t stutter, an untraceable IP outside the corporate VPN, and DNS leak protection quietly running in the background.

c.

Streamers & expats

Reach the news, sport and library you actually pay for from wherever you happen to be. 40+ country picks, one-tap switching.

d.

Quiet enjoyers

You already turned off ad tracking and use a password manager. You want the next tool in the stack to be as invisible as the last two.

Under the hood

The essentials, executed carefully.

Nora ships six features properly, not sixty features half-heartedly. Everything below is on by default — you can leave the settings screen alone entirely.

Encrypted transport

AES-256 wrapped in WireGuard

WireGuard for speed, IKEv2 as an automatic fallback when a network blocks UDP. AES-256-GCM under the hood — the same primitive banks and government agencies trust.

Kill switch

Fail closed by default

If the tunnel drops, traffic stops. No unencrypted seconds during a Wi-Fi hop.

DNS leak protection

Private DNS end-to-end

DNS queries stay inside the tunnel. Your ISP does not see which sites you look up.

40+ locations

Real servers where you go

A curated fleet across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific — not a padded number of virtual locations.

No activity logs

Built without a trail

No browsing history, no DNS queries, no session timestamps that could tie sessions back to you.

Tuned throughput

Servers built for calls, not just downloads

Low-jitter routing keeps FaceTime, Zoom and Google Meet smooth even when you switch between Wi-Fi and cellular mid-sentence.

Honest comparison

Where Nora wins. And where the giants still lead.

Nora is a newer, smaller product with a specific philosophy. It beats the bigger names on simplicity and calm. It doesn’t win on every row — and the rows where it loses are honestly labelled.

Feature Nora VPN NordVPN ExpressVPN Proton VPN
Calm, one-screen appFeature-heavyFeature-heavy
One-tap connect
AES-256 + WireGuard✓ (NordLynx)✓ (Lightway)
Kill switch
Independently audited no-logsPlanned
Server locations40+110+105120+
Windows / Android / LinuxRoadmap
Free tier

Comparison compiled from public product pages as of 2026. Three rows above show where the older, larger providers still lead: server footprint, published audits, and cross-platform breadth.

Real reactions

Three reactions, not a wall of five stars.

Including one four-star review, because it’s more useful to see the honest trade-off than a curated highlight reel.

★★★★★

I installed it, tapped connect, and honestly forgot it was there for the first month. That’s the highest compliment I can pay a security app. Nothing crashed, nothing nagged, my speed didn’t noticeably change.

L
Liesbeth H.
Product designer · Amsterdam
★★★★★

Coming from NordVPN, the difference is the app itself. Nora shows me one button and a status dot. Everything I need, nothing I don’t. My M2 MacBook reconnects instantly after sleep — that’s the killer detail for me.

M
Miren A.
iOS engineer · Bilbao
★★★★

Speeds are great and the app is a joy. But — no Android build yet, and I use my work Android as much as my iPhone. It’s on the roadmap I’m told, so I’ll be watching. For now it’s my iOS-only VPN.

T
Théo R.
Journalist · Lyon
Behind the name

Nora means light. That’s the whole idea.

Nora is a small independent team building the kind of privacy tool we ourselves wanted to keep on. Not a subscription bundle. Not a security "score." A tool that behaves like a good utility — you install it, forget it, and it does its job.

The name is the shortened form of an old northern name meaning light. We liked the metaphor: a quiet source of illumination that stays in the background rather than demanding attention. The aurora in the logo, and the single soft curve in this site, come from the same idea.

"A security tool that nags you is one you eventually turn off. A tool that disappears stays on."

To be transparent: Nora has not yet published an independent no-logs audit. It is on the roadmap and we’ll link it here when it lands. Our data-handling stance is written in plain English in the privacy policy — no dark patterns, no marketing gloss.

We’d also rather earn your trust the slow way than claim it with a headline. Which is why this page acknowledges the categories in the comparison table where NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Proton still have the edge — server footprint, cross-platform breadth, published audits. Nora will catch up in some of them, deliberately not in others.

Frequently asked

Answers, without marketing.

Is Nora VPN free to use?

Yes. Nora has a free tier that gives you access to a subset of servers with the same AES-256 encryption. The Pro subscription unlocks the full 40+ country list, priority streaming-optimized servers and priority support. There is no time-limited trial that suddenly stops working — the free tier remains usable indefinitely.

Which platforms does Nora support today?

Nora runs on iPhone (iOS 15+), iPad (iPadOS 15+) and Mac (macOS 12+ on Apple silicon). Windows, Android and Linux clients are on the roadmap but not yet available. If you need cross-platform coverage today, one of the larger providers in the comparison table is a better fit for you.

Does Nora keep logs of my activity?

No. Nora is built around a no-activity-logs policy: browsing history, DNS queries, IP addresses and session timestamps that could tie activity back to you are not stored. Anonymized crash and performance data is used only to keep the app stable. An independent audit is planned and will be published when complete.

Which VPN protocol does Nora use?

Nora uses WireGuard by default — the modern, formally reviewed protocol most serious VPNs now default to. When a network blocks WireGuard’s UDP traffic, Nora automatically falls back to IKEv2. Both are wrapped with AES-256-GCM encryption. You do not have to pick manually unless you want to.

Will Nora slow down my internet?

All VPNs add some overhead because your traffic takes a slightly longer path. Nora automatically picks the fastest nearby server and runs on WireGuard, which is dramatically faster than older protocols like OpenVPN. Most users see only a small speed hit on modern fibre and 5G — typically a few percentage points rather than a large drop.

Does the kill switch work during Wi-Fi and cellular handoffs?

Yes. The kill switch blocks all traffic the moment the tunnel drops — including during Wi-Fi ↔ cellular handoffs, screen wake and brief network flaps. Traffic only resumes once the encrypted tunnel is re-established. It is on by default because that is the safe default.

Can I use Nora for streaming?

Pro-tier streaming-optimized servers are tuned for smooth playback on major platforms. Streaming services actively fight VPNs, so availability of any specific title in any specific country is never guaranteed. If a server stops working with a service, IPs are typically rotated quickly — but no honest VPN can promise something outside its full control.

What is the refund policy on Nora Pro?

Nora Pro is sold through the App Store, so refunds are handled by Apple under their standard policy. You can request a refund via reportaproblem.apple.com within Apple’s standard window. Auto-renewal can be cancelled at any time from your Apple ID subscription settings and takes effect at the end of the current billing period.

How is Nora different from NordVPN or ExpressVPN?

Nord and Express are excellent, feature-rich products with much larger server networks, cross-platform apps and published independent audits. Nora is smaller, iOS-first and deliberately minimal — one screen, one button, one status dot. If you value calm and simplicity, Nora is likely a better fit. If you need meshnet, split-tunnelling, dark-web monitoring or Windows/Linux clients today, the larger providers are the honest recommendation.

Get started

One tap. Then silence.

Nora is free to install. Available now on iPhone, iPad and Apple silicon Mac.

Nora VPN
One tap, then silence
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