NordVPN releases open-source VPN speed test tool for public review
2 min read
Connection speed is one of the most important factors that affect user experience when using a VPN. People want to secure their internet traffic without having to sacrifice speed or other factors. That means that when they choose a VPN service, they want the fastest.
The best way to do that is to compare VPN speeds. However, this is easier said than done. Countless factors can impact VPN speed, making it difficult to compare meaningfully. The problem becomes obvious when you look for info on the fastest VPN providers. Different researchers and comparison tables show different competing providers on top, list them in different orders, and display different results.
This is bad for VPN users and providers alike. For users, the confusion can make it difficult to make informed decisions. For VPN providers, it can be hard to tell how their performance will measure up when working on improvements to their service and infrastructure.
A unified, standard speed testing methodology that accounts for these variables would go a long way towards solving the problem for all of us. And that’s what we’re trying to achieve.
Introducing a new speed test and comparison tool
We’ve developed a tool and methodology that we hope will eliminate the most significant issues when it comes to performing speed tests. The tool accounts for a broad array of testing use cases, allows users to add and compare different VPN services, and provides detailed reporting.
We’d like to invite other VPN service providers, researchers, journalists and tech enthusiasts to participate in the ongoing development and refinement of this tool and methodology. Trust is crucial to achieve these goals, so we’ve written a detailed whitepaper to describe the methodology and provided the open-source code on GitHub. Neither of these have been publicly reviewed yet, so any constructive criticism, remarks and suggestions are very welcome.
We believe that, when polished, it will provide an equal ground for everyone to measure and compare one of the most important VPN features and solve a problem that the entire industry is currently facing.
