ExpressVPN review: One of the best

Price When Reviewed

$6.67 per 30 days

Best Prices Today: ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN briefly:

• P2P allowed: Yes
• Unlimited system connections: No, 8 simultaneous system connections
• Business location: British Virgin Islands
• Number of servers: 3,000+
• Number of nation places: 105
• Cost: $12.95 per 30 days, or $99.84 for a yr

When you consider VPNs, ExpressVPN is probably going one of many first names that pops into your head. That’s no shock as the corporate has blanketed the web with advertisements and it’s probably you’ve seen at the very least one someplace out within the wild at this level. And when you could disagree with its inescapable promotions, you’ll be able to’t deny that it offers an important service.

It is, and has been, one of the reliable and notable VPN suppliers in the marketplace for years now. Since its acquisition by Kape Technologies in 2021, it has gained the monetary backing to step up its sport even additional. Just since our final overview, ExpressVPN has undertaken dozens of impartial safety audits, launched an Apple TV app, and added its personal built-in password supervisor. It has change into a one-stop privateness and safety powerhouse.

Further studying: See our roundup of the best VPNs to find out about competing merchandise.

What are ExpressVPN’s options and providers?

Sam Singleton

When you first open ExpressVPN, It has a easy single-panel interface with a related/not related button within the middle, and the nation choice beneath it. Then beneath that it reveals the very best sensible location primarily based in your geo information. The interface seems to be about the identical because it has for a couple of iterations now and that’s as a result of it’s easy and efficient—if it ain’t broke don’t repair it.

When related, the display screen stays largely the identical besides that ExpressVPN will now present a choice of fast hyperlinks to web sites and internet-connected apps equivalent to Google, Wikipedia, and Gmail. You can edit these shortcuts to customise them to your makes use of. 

If you click on the drop-down menu within the upper-right nook, you’ll be able to entry further issues equivalent to VPN Locations, Options, and Help & Support. The Options menu is the place the meat of your settings are positioned. Here ExpressVPN gives an honest number of customizable options, the highlights being a kill swap, break up tunneling, and skill to change protocols. All of those are pretty normal throughout all VPN providers. 

Notably, nonetheless, ExpressVPN doesn’t supply a multi-hop characteristic to let you additional obfuscate your connection by sending it via a number of VPN servers reasonably than only one. This is unlucky as many opponents already supply multi-hop connections and it’s an more and more in style characteristic amongst customers. For a service equivalent to ExpressVPN to not have multi-hop, I’m left feeling a bit dissatisfied.

Sam Singleton

Additionally, beneath the Options menu, you’ll be able to allow ExpressVPN’s personal ad- and tracker-blocking service referred to as “Threat Manager.” There can also be the choice to activate parental controls to dam grownup websites in case your children are utilizing the service as properly. This addition of a full-security suite on high of the VPN is one thing that loads of the highest VPN suppliers equivalent to Surfshark and NordVPN are providing now, too. It’s actually good to have and also you gained’t discover me arguing towards it, however at this level there are probably higher stand-alone security suites that provide higher blocking and safety.

It’s additionally price mentioning that whereas I centered on the Windows app for the needs of this overview, ExpressVPN does supply extremely broad system and browser assist. Besides Windows, it’s accessible for MacOS, iOS, Android, Linux, ChromeOS, Fire Stick, Android TV, succesful routers, and most just lately Apple TV. Not to say that ExpressVPN’s browser extensions from Chrome and Firefox allow you to management the app from the browser as a substitute of performing as easy browser-only proxy connections.

At the time of this overview, ExpressVPN is being supplied for $12.95 per 30 days or $99.84 for a whole yr. That month-to-month worth is a bit steep. The yearly worth makes it just a little extra reasonably priced, nevertheless it nonetheless ranks amongst one of many dearer VPN providers. There isn’t any free choice to check out ExpressVPN, nevertheless it does supply a 30-day money-back assure when you resolve that it isn’t for you. Subscription funds could be performed through bank card, PayPal, or BitCoin. 

How is ExpressVPN’s efficiency?

When testing how briskly a VPN is, I price the service’s speeds throughout servers in 5 totally different international locations all world wide over the course of some days after which evaluate them to my baseline web pace throughout that point. In my testing, ExpressVPN server speeds have been glorious. Across all places examined, the common obtain pace was 71 % in comparison with the bottom pace and the common add pace was an equally spectacular 80 % in comparison with the bottom. That firmly places it into our high 5 quickest VPNs, and locations as one of many pace kings—the Hamilton to NordVPN’s Verstappen if you’ll.

With these speeds you aren’t prone to discover a lot, if any, buffering points whereas streaming, or lag whereas gaming. Admittedly, the speeds are a tiny bit slower than the final time we reviewed it, however not in any noticeable means. It’s nonetheless quite a bit quicker than most providers we’ve evaluated and is greater than adequate to accommodate a house consumer’s on-line actions.

ExpressVPN has lengthy promised that it’s going to unblock Netflix and that also holds true. In reality, it not solely unblocked Netflix, but additionally every other main streaming service that I examined together with Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney Plus, and AppleTV. 

How is ExpressVPN’s safety and privateness?

Sam Singleton

ExpressVPN focuses primarily on two totally different VPN protocols: OpenVPN and its proprietary Lightway protocol. It makes use of this homegrown Lightway protocol to attach by default—this may be modified beneath the Options menu if you want. The firm created the brand new protocol to serve its wants as a public VPN supplier.

The Lightway protocol is open supply, and you’ll find it on GitHub. It’s additionally undergone a safety audit by the penetration testing agency Treatment53. One factor the corporate didn’t create from the bottom up, fortunately, is the encryption. For that, Lightway makes use of wolfSSL, an open supply SSL/TLS library.

If you don’t need to use Lightway, you’ll be able to specify OpenVPN as a substitute. IKEv2 and L2TP/IPSec protocols can be found as properly relying in your working system. The best factor to do is let ExpressVPN select the protocol mechanically, which I like to recommend for many customers. 

The latest replace to Lightway got here in October 2023 with upgrades to “post-quantum” encryption assist to assist fight cyber assaults by quantum computer systems. As myself, and I’d suspect most PCWorld customers should not prone to have entry to a quantum laptop for the time being, I’d most likely file this beneath superfluous, however good to have.

ExpressVPN

As far as consumer privateness is worried, there aren’t many higher VPNs on the market than ExpressVPN. It claims to not log any of your looking historical past, or different private information equivalent to DNS queries, IP addresses, connection timestamps, or session length. It does hold diagnostic and crash stories, however one factor that I actually like is that ExpressVPN’s app on Windows asks you up entrance if you wish to contribute this information. More of those choices sooner or later, please.

The service is remarkably upfront about what it does and doesn’t monitor and it backs up its claims too, with quite a few impartial audits. In 2022 alone, ExpressVPN underwent 12 audits on varied components of its service. The most up-to-date audit was performed by Treatment53 in November of 2022 and confirmed ExpressVPN’s no-log coverage. Surely, the sheer variety of impartial audits makes ExpressVPN unmatched amongst all VPN suppliers. It’s a stage of transparency that may solely be applauded.

Furthermore, ExpressVPN is positioned within the British Virgin Islands which isn’t topic to any worldwide alerts intelligence-sharing alliance or information retention necessities. Meaning it’s rather more troublesome for any authorities to drive ExpressVPN to share any information about customers or servers. Turkey even forcefully seized ExpressVPN servers in 2017 and nonetheless got here up with nothing—I name that the last word impartial audit.

Is ExpressVPN price it?

Frankly, sure. In reality I don’t suppose that there are a lot of VPN providers in the marketplace in the present day that rival ExpressVPN. Its mixture of fantastic speeds, potential to unblock each streaming service, and dedication to consumer privateness hits the entire proper notes. Add to that an interface that’s dead-simple to make use of and broad system assist and also you get a VPN that ticks (virtually) each field. It may lack some tweakable power-user safety features, however most of us gained’t even discover these items.

ExpressVPN isn’t the most cost effective possibility accessible, however for all the pieces that it gives, the upper worth is greater than price it. Practically all the pieces about this service is top-tier and as a complete, ExpressVPN is kind of merely among the best VPNs proper now.

Editor’s be aware: Because on-line providers are sometimes iterative, gaining new options and efficiency enhancements over time, this overview is topic to alter with a purpose to precisely replicate the present state of the service. Any adjustments to textual content or our remaining overview verdict will likely be famous on the high of this text.