6 comparisons · Updated August 13, 2026
Head to head
How does KotoVPN compare two VPNs?
KotoVPN compares two VPNs on seven weighted criteria: independent audit, jurisdiction, protocols, leak protection, transparency, price and platform coverage. Across the six possible pairings of the four providers we cover, Proton VPN wins every head-to-head it appears in and FastestVPN loses every one.
Every pairing, with the margin
| Comparison | Higher score | Margin | Where the loser still wins |
|---|---|---|---|
| FastestVPN vs NordVPN | NordVPN 84.0 | +29.0 | Price and refund terms |
| FastestVPN vs Proton VPN | Proton VPN 90.0 | +35.0 | Price and refund terms |
| FastestVPN vs PureVPN | PureVPN 70.0 | +15.0 | Jurisdiction and ownership |
| NordVPN vs Proton VPN | Proton VPN 90.0 | +6.0 | Price and refund terms, Platform coverage |
| NordVPN vs PureVPN | NordVPN 84.0 | +14.0 | Protocol and crypto stack, Price and refund terms |
| Proton VPN vs PureVPN | Proton VPN 90.0 | +20.0 | Price and refund terms |
By provider
Proton VPN 90.0/100 · from $4.49/mo
NordVPN 84.0/100 · from $3.39/mo
PureVPN 70.0/100 · from $2.15/mo
FastestVPN 55.0/100 · from $0.83/mo
How to read a head-to-head
The total is the least useful number on a comparison page. It is a weighted average, and an average hides the shape of what produced it. A provider can finish six points ahead while losing on the single criterion you actually care about, which is why the table above names what the lower-scoring one still wins rather than leaving you with the margin alone.
The margin is worth reading as a band rather than a rank. A gap under five points means the two are close enough that your own weighting decides it — shift the audit criterion up or the price criterion down and the order changes. A gap over twenty means something structural separates them, usually a missing audit or a jurisdiction problem, and no reweighting within reason closes it.
Where the two disagree on a criterion, the reason column on each review states the fact that produced the score. That is the level to argue at. If you think a comparison is wrong, the productive form of that is “this fact is out of date” rather than “this ranking feels wrong”, and the first kind gets logged on the corrections page.
What a comparison here does not settle
Speed is not compared, because we have not measured it. Streaming access is not compared, because it changes weekly and any published claim is stale before it is read. Support quality is not compared, because we have no way to test it that would not be an anecdote. Anything a comparison page cannot support with a sourced fact is left out rather than filled in with an impression.
Questions
- How does KotoVPN compare two VPNs?
- KotoVPN compares two VPNs on seven weighted criteria: independent audit, jurisdiction, protocols, leak protection, transparency, price and platform coverage. Across the six possible pairings of the four providers we cover, Proton VPN wins every head-to-head it appears in and FastestVPN loses every one.
- Why is there only one URL per pair?
- Publishing both "A vs B" and "B vs A" creates two pages with identical content, which is the duplication trap that sinks most programmatic comparison sections. Slugs here are alphabetised, so /vs/nordvpn-vs-protonvpn/ exists and the reverse never does.
- Can a comparison disagree with the main ranking?
- No. Comparisons are generated from the same dataset and the same rubric as the ranking, so the two are always consistent by construction rather than by editing.