Record set · Terms
The clauses that decide
whether you get your
money back.
Refund windows, audit reports, and one documented case where a provider's own pages disagree with each other about a number everyone repeats.
01 — Refund windows
A refund window is the only real trial in this category. These are the published windows, before regional and channel exceptions.
| Provider | Published window | Applies to | Known exclusion |
|---|---|---|---|
| CyberGhost | 45 days | Direct subscriptions | Longest window we have recorded |
| NordVPN | 30 days | Direct subscriptions | App-store purchases sit outside the standard path |
| ExpressVPN | 30 days | Direct subscriptions | Channel-dependent |
| Surfshark | 30 days | Direct subscriptions | Channel-dependent |
| Proton VPN | 30 days | Paid plans | Free tier has no purchase to refund |
| PIA | Not confirmed | — | Pending this cycle |
| IPVanish | Not confirmed | — | Pending this cycle |
Windows are read from each provider's public refund policy. They can differ by country, by billing channel, and by whether the plan was bought during a promotion. The exclusion column is the one that matters — a 30-day guarantee that does not cover your purchase channel is not a guarantee you have.
02 — Audit index
"Independently audited" is a phrase, not a fact. What makes it a fact is a named firm, a date, and a published scope.
PwC and Deloitte,
2018 → 2025
Six independent no-logs assessments published between 2018 and December 2025. Each report covers a defined system scope — which is the part almost never quoted in marketing copy.
Four things
a report must state
Who audited. What systems were in scope. What period the assessment covers. Whether the firm expressed an opinion or only described procedures.
03 — Case note
One provider, four
different server counts.
Collected from the same company's public pages on the same day. None of these are lies; they are different pages, written at different times, about the same network.
| Where it appears | Servers claimed | Countries / locations | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homepage | 7,100+ | 225+ locations | 05 Nov 2026 |
| Regional landing page | 8,200+ | 224 locations | 05 Nov 2026 |
| Campaign landing page | 9,300+ | 211 locations | 05 Nov 2026 |
| Third-party review sites | 8,800+ | 165+ | Cited repeatedly |
A range of 7,100 to 9,300 is a difference of roughly 30%. If a number moves that much between pages, it is a marketing figure rather than a network inventory. That does not make it dishonest — it makes it unusable as a comparison metric, which is why we do not rank providers by server count.
How we treat a change in terms
Terms pages are versioned differently by every provider. Some keep a changelog; most silently overwrite. When we can retrieve an earlier version from a public archive, we record the difference and the date. When we cannot, we say so rather than describe a change we never saw.
A change of terms is not automatically a red flag. A logging policy that gains a clause about payment processors is usually housekeeping. A jurisdiction change is not. What matters is whether the change alters what you agreed to — and the only way to answer that is to keep both versions.
Current price · verified 05 Nov 2026
NordVPN Basic — $3.49 per month
Two-year term, $94.23 upfront · renews at $11.59/mo · affiliate link
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