Nord Security and Surfshark take on ExpressVPN with huge VPN merger

Nord Security and Surfshark logos on a grey and blue background — (Image credit: Nord Security)

In the past year or so we’ve seen a number of VPN acquisitions and mergers, and this week has brought what could be the biggest yet – Nord Security and Surfshark joining forces to shore up their places as leading cybersecurity providers.

As outlined in NordVPN’s blog post, the merger is intended to "help both companies to align on a strategic level, better satisfy the needs of our customers, and prepare for future challenges." Both brands also explicitly state that NordVPN and Surfshark will remain separate entities, with independent teams, road maps, and customer bases.

It’s worth noting that this merger isn’t an total surprise. Just days ago TechRadar reported that NordVPN and Surfshark share links with business incubator Tesonet, and that both are moving bases of operations to the proposed Cyber City in Vilnius, Lithuania.

There’s a notable parallel between this merger and Kape Technology’s acquisition of ExpressVPN in late 2021, but while that deal closed sooner, discussions between Nord Security and Surfshark were underway before news of ExpressVPN and Kape's partnership was made public.

The biggest cybersecurity brand around?

This isn’t the first display of dominance from Nord Security in recent times. In October 2021, Nord acquired freemium provider Atlas VPN, and now the behemoth appears to have all the bases covered – a free VPN in Atlas, a quality cheap VPN in Surfshark, and a premium provider in NordVPN.

Due to the fact that none of the parties involved have been publicly floated on the stock market, it’s not currently possible to report on how much each merger or acquisition has been valued at – but an IPO far greater than ExpressVPN’s near-1 billion dollar valuation isn’t hard to imagine.

Compare the rivals: ExpressVPN vs NordVPN

What’s next?

While the aim of this merger isn’t explicitly to develop a wider suite of cybersecurity products under one provider, it’s clear that this is the direction the industry is headed.

Nord Security currently offers NordVPN, cloud storage service NordLocker, password manager NordPass, and business VPN NordLayer, while Surfshark One comprises the standard VPN, antivirus, a secure search engine, and a tool that alerts users of breaches of personal information.

However, the simplest demonstration of this intent is Nord’s move away from the NordVPN moniker, and the embracing of the overarching Nord Security brand.

We can only imagine that these technologies will be shared between the Nord Security brands, and as such it’s likely only to be a matter of time before your VPN is a one-stop shop for all your cybersecurity needs. How long that will take, though, is anybody's guess.

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Mo has been rigorously testing, reviewing, and analyzing VPN services at Tom’s Guide for more than five years. He heads up the three-person Tom's Guide VPN team, and is passionate about accessibility: he believes that online privacy should be an option that’s available to everyone. NordVPN and ExpressVPN are the products he uses most on a daily basis, but he experiments weekly with all the top services, evaluating their privacy features, connection speeds across various protocols, and server reliability – among other things – so that he can make confident VPN recommendations that are backed by data. To see his latest advice, head over to Tom’s Guide’s best VPN and best free VPN guides.