Why VPN App Updates Matter: NordVPN vs ProtonVPN vs TorGuard Update Frequency Compared
When most people evaluate a VPN, they look at speed, server count, and price. Almost nobody checks how often the app gets updated. That is a mistake. A VPN that has stopped updating its software is a VPN that has stopped patching security vulnerabilities, stopped fixing bugs, and stopped adapting to changes in the operating systems you run it on. It is, in practice, a VPN that has stopped protecting you — even if the servers are still technically running.
We tracked every publicly documented Windows desktop release from three VPN providers — NordVPN, ProtonVPN, and TorGuard — between August 2024 and February 2026. The results paint a stark picture of which providers are actively investing in their product and which have gone quiet.
S-Tier VPN: ProtonVPN
Swiss-based, open-source, independently audited. 34 documented Windows releases with features like Connect & Go and FIDO2 security-key support. No-logs policy verified in court. ProtonVPN is our S-Tier pick at VPNTierLists.com.
Get ProtonVPN →Why Update Frequency Actually Matters
VPN software sits between your device and the internet. It handles encryption, manages network connections, implements kill switches, and routes your traffic through secure tunnels. Every layer of that stack depends on code that needs to keep up with a moving target.
Operating systems change constantly. Windows pushes major updates multiple times a year. Networking stacks get modified. Security APIs evolve. A VPN app built for Windows in early 2024 was not built for the Windows you are running in February 2026. Without updates, things break — sometimes visibly, sometimes silently.
VPN protocols need patching. WireGuard and OpenVPN are actively developed open-source protocols. When the upstream projects fix vulnerabilities or improve performance, your VPN provider needs to integrate those changes into their apps. A provider that has not updated in two years is running protocol implementations that are two years behind on security patches.
New attack vectors emerge regularly. Security researchers discover new ways to fingerprint VPN traffic, leak DNS requests, or bypass kill switches. The only defense against these evolving threats is a development team that is paying attention and shipping fixes. An app that has not been updated since February 2024 has not responded to any vulnerability disclosed since then.
This is not theoretical. It is the difference between a VPN that adapts to the current threat landscape and one that is frozen in time.
NordVPN: 14 Windows Updates in 18 Months
According to publicly available version history data from Uptodown, NordVPN released 14 distinct Windows versions between August 30, 2024 and February 20, 2026. That averages to roughly one release per month — a cadence that indicates continuous, active development.
| Version | Release Date |
|---|---|
| 7.57.4.0 | Feb 20, 2026 |
| 7.57.3.0 | Feb 18, 2026 |
| 7.56.2.0 | Feb 4, 2026 |
| 7.55.3.0 | Jan 16, 2026 |
| 7.54.8.0 | Jan 10, 2026 |
| 7.54.4.0 | Jan 1, 2026 |
| 7.53.3.0 | Nov 22, 2025 |
| 7.52.4.0 | Nov 18, 2025 |
| 7.52.3.0 | Nov 11, 2025 |
| 7.51.3.0 | Oct 28, 2025 |
| 7.49 | Oct 8, 2025 |
| 7.42.1.0 | Jun 25, 2025 |
| 7.35.1.0 | Mar 11, 2025 |
| 7.27.5.0 | Aug 30, 2024 |
What stands out is the acceleration in late 2025 and early 2026. NordVPN shipped six updates in January and February 2026 alone — nearly one release per week. Going back to 2020, Uptodown lists at least 20 distinct PC releases, showing sustained long-term development.
Monthly updates are what you should expect from any VPN you are paying for. They indicate an engineering team that is actively responding to bugs, security disclosures, and OS-level changes. NordVPN delivers on that baseline.
ProtonVPN: 34 Releases and Counting
Proton VPN publishes its release notes through official support pages and open-source repositories. The release-notes feed aggregated by Releasebot currently indexes 34 distinct Windows releases with detailed changelogs for each. From August 2025 to February 2026 alone, Proton VPN shipped eight Windows updates.
| Version | Date | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| 4.3.12 | Feb 12, 2026 | Arabic language support, updated OpenVPN |
| 4.3.11 | Dec 18, 2025 | Stability improvements, crash fix |
| 4.3.9 | Dec 1, 2025 | Stability improvements |
| 4.3.7 | Nov 25, 2025 | Split-tunnelling improvements, IPv6 fixes |
| 4.3.5 | Oct 24, 2025 | Fixed hidden sidebar, remote-desktop crash |
| 4.3.4 | Oct 1, 2025 | Connect & Go launcher, FIDO2 key support |
| 4.3.1 | Sep 10, 2025 | Bug fixes, IPv6 support, UI improvements |
| 4.2.2 | Aug 8, 2025 | Faster sign-ins, DNS-ordering, bug fixes |
The difference between ProtonVPN and a stagnant provider is not just the number of releases — it is what those releases contain. ProtonVPN is not just shipping bug fixes. They are adding genuinely new capabilities: a "Connect & Go" profile launcher for one-click connections, FIDO2 security-key support for hardware-based authentication, split-tunnelling improvements, and IPv6 reliability enhancements. These are features that reflect an engineering team thinking about the future of VPN usability and security, not just keeping the lights on.
The February 2026 release updated the underlying OpenVPN implementation — exactly the kind of protocol-level maintenance that keeps a VPN secure against newly discovered vulnerabilities. This is what active development looks like.
ProtonVPN also publishes its apps as open source, which means anyone can verify that the updates match the changelog and that no unwanted code has been introduced. That level of transparency, combined with a high update cadence, is rare in the VPN industry.
TorGuard: Zero Updates Since February 2024
Then there is TorGuard. Between August 30, 2024 and February 20, 2026, TorGuard released zero Windows desktop updates. The last version of the TorGuard desktop client — version 4.8.29 — was released on February 26, 2024. That is two full years without a single update to the Windows app.
We covered TorGuard's situation in detail previously. The absence of updates is not an isolated data point. It sits alongside a broken WireGuard implementation that returns constant connection errors, speeds that independent reviewers found had collapsed from 200+ Mbps to 9–50 Mbps, unpaid affiliate commissions, and an official Twitter account silently handed off to an unrelated infosec personality.
But for the purposes of this comparison, the update frequency alone tells the story. While NordVPN shipped 14 versions and ProtonVPN shipped 34, TorGuard shipped none. Whatever is happening internally at TorGuard, the public evidence says the desktop app has been abandoned.
What the Numbers Tell Us
| Provider | Windows Updates (Aug 2024 – Feb 2026) | Total Documented Releases | Cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | 14 updates | 20+ (since 2020) | ~Monthly |
| ProtonVPN | 8 updates (Aug 2025–Feb 2026) | 34 total | ~Monthly |
| TorGuard | 0 updates | Last: Feb 2024 | Stalled |
Both NordVPN and ProtonVPN demonstrate the kind of update cadence you should expect from a VPN service you are paying for — roughly monthly releases that address bugs, patch vulnerabilities, and add features. This is baseline maintenance, not exceptional behavior. It is what competent software teams do.
TorGuard's two-year silence is not baseline anything. It is an anomaly that should concern any current subscriber.
How to Check Your VPN's Update History
You do not have to take our word for any of this. Here is how to verify update frequency for any VPN you use:
- Check the provider's official release notes. ProtonVPN publishes theirs openly. NordVPN's can be tracked through version history sites like Uptodown.
- Look at the app version number in your installed VPN client and compare it to the latest available version. If your installed version is months old and matches the latest, the app has not been updated.
- Check the provider's download page. If the latest version listed was released more than 3–6 months ago, that is a warning sign.
- Search for the provider's changelog or release notes. Active providers document what changed in each release. Silent providers do not.
A healthy VPN provider should be releasing updates at least every 1–2 months. Anything longer than 6 months without a desktop app update is a red flag. Anything longer than a year is a fire alarm.
What Stale Software Means for Your Security
Running a VPN app that has not been updated in two years is not like running an old version of a text editor. VPN software handles your encrypted traffic. It implements your kill switch. It manages DNS requests. Every one of those functions touches security-critical code.
Here is what you are exposed to with stale VPN software:
- Unpatched protocol vulnerabilities. If a flaw is found in the WireGuard or OpenVPN implementation your VPN uses, and your provider has not shipped an update, you are running vulnerable code.
- Kill switch failures. Operating system updates can change how network interfaces behave. A kill switch that worked perfectly on the Windows version from 2024 might not work correctly on the version you are running today.
- DNS leaks. Changes in how Windows handles DNS resolution can cause VPN apps to leak DNS requests outside the encrypted tunnel. This is one of the most common ways VPN protection silently fails.
- Broken protocol implementations. Independent reviewers have already documented that TorGuard's WireGuard is "inoperable." If nobody is maintaining the code, broken features stay broken.
You would not run antivirus software that had not been updated in two years. Your VPN deserves the same scrutiny.
Looking for an Actively Maintained VPN?
ProtonVPN has shipped 34 documented releases, adds real features like FIDO2 security-key support, publishes open-source apps anyone can audit, and operates under Swiss privacy law. Rated S-Tier on our transparent 93.5-point scoring system.
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Update frequency is not the only indicator, but it is the most concrete and verifiable one. When a VPN provider stops updating, other things tend to follow: customer support response times stretch, documentation goes stale, community engagement disappears, and infrastructure maintenance becomes minimal.
The providers that are actively updating their apps are also the ones investing in new features. ProtonVPN added Connect & Go, FIDO2 hardware key support, and IPv6 improvements. NordVPN is shipping weekly hotfixes. These are not cosmetic changes — they reflect engineering teams that are engaged with the product and its users.
If your VPN provider has not updated their desktop app in more than six months, it is worth asking: what else have they stopped doing that you cannot see?
Bottom Line
VPN app updates are not optional. They are how your provider patches security vulnerabilities, fixes bugs, maintains compatibility with your operating system, and improves the features you are paying for. Any VPN that has stopped updating has, in practice, stopped protecting you at the level you expect.
NordVPN and ProtonVPN both demonstrate healthy update cadences — roughly monthly releases with meaningful changelogs. TorGuard has not updated its Windows app in nearly two years, and the consequences are already visible in broken protocols and degraded performance.
When evaluating a VPN, check the update history before you check the price. A cheap VPN that never updates will cost you more in the long run than a maintained one that charges a few dollars more per month.
ProtonVPN remains our top recommendation — Swiss-based, open-source, independently audited, and actively shipping updates with real features. See how all VPNs rank on our transparent 93.5-point scoring system.
Sources: Uptodown NordVPN Version History, Releasebot ProtonVPN Release Notes, TorGuard Downloads Page, ProtonVPN Official Release Notes, CyberInsider TorGuard Review 2026, VPNTierLists: Is TorGuard in Maintenance Mode?.