ExpressVPN vs. NordVPN: Clash of the heavyweight titans

It’s a heavyweight matchup between the 2 VPN giants: ExpressVPN vs. NordVPN. They are the Godzilla and King Kong, Gates and Jobs, or Packers and Bears of the VPN world. Both supply a few of the quickest, most safe, feature-rich companies available on the market. So which one must you select? 

NordVPN may be cheaper within the long-term and it provides extra servers, however ExpressVPN has a greater privateness report and extra constant entry to streaming companies. While each are neck and neck, I like to recommend ExpressVPN for most folk. It’s our choose for finest VPN general as a consequence of its ease-of-use, unequalled transparency, and wonderful streaming assist. That’s to not take something away from NordVPN, which can also be an exemplary alternative. The variations are nuanced so let’s break all of it down in additional element beneath that can assist you select one of the best VPN in your personal wants.

If you’re eager about all of our high picks for VPN head over to out best VPNs article for extra nice choices.

ExpressVPN vs. NordVPN: Features in contrast

Best for pace: NordVPN (by a hair)

In my testing each NordVPN and ExpressVPN ranked with stellar pace scores. Along with Hotspot Shield they’re the quickest VPNs out there. While all VPNs will decelerate your web speeds to a point, these two sluggish it down the least. 

In my newest exams, ExpressVPN resulted in a mean of 71 p.c of the bottom web pace for downloads and 80 p.c of the bottom for uploads. NordVPN nosed it out, although, with 72 p.c of the bottom obtain speeds and 80 p.c of the bottom add speeds. Those are razor-thin margins and the one p.c distinction is probably going unnoticeable in every day use. 

Whichever you select, you’ll be able to count on it to deal with bandwidth-heavy duties, similar to gaming and 4K streaming, with ease. However, the winner for pace — by the slimmest of margins — is NordVPN.

Best for price: NordVPN

ExpressVPN solely has one subscription tier, which is able to set you again $12.95 month-to-month, $59.94 for six months, or $99.84 for one 12 months. NordVPN, however, provides three subscription tiers: Basic, Plus, and Ultimate. To make an equal comparability for companies offered I’ll deal with NordVPN’s Plus plan, which runs $12.99 month-to-month, $82.35 for the primary 12 months, or $126.63 for the primary two years. It’s price noting, although, that each NordVPN’s 1-year and 2-year plans rise to $99.48 yearly after their respective renewal durations.

While ultimately, each companies cost you virtually the identical costs for his or her annual subscriptions, NordVPN provides significantly better upfront low cost incentives. These introductory costs imply you could initially save a bit if you happen to select NordVPN over ExpressVPN. It just about equals out in the long run, however NordVPN’s upfront financial savings give it the nod by way of prices.

Best for privateness and safety: ExpressVPN

Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN are the trend-setters within the trade in relation to complete and revolutionary security measures. Taking VPNs past simply anonymizing your web connection, these two firms have expanded to offer customers with a complete suite of safety add-ons similar to ad- and tracker-blocking, password managers, and extra.

If it got here down to simply complete options, NordVPN wins. It provides multi-hop, and Onion Over VPN — each of that are presently missing in ExpressVPN. In addition, NordVPN additionally provides its Plus subscription customers entry to cloud storage and strong malware safety.

However, many would argue that the primary level of a VPN is to maximise privateness and engender belief amongst customers — one thing I wholeheartedly agree with. And ExpressVPN merely has a greater observe report of privateness and transparency. While NordVPN has undergone 4 unbiased audits in its historical past, ExpressVPN went by way of 12 audits in 2022 alone.

Both companies use AES-256 encryption and RAM-only servers to wipe information after every server reboot, thereby growing information privateness. But ExpressVPN goes even additional by utilizing its personal signature TrustedServer expertise. This system reloads the newest software program stack, OS and all, with every reboot, eliminating the possibility for bugs and inconsistencies throughout servers which may result in VPN vulnerabilities.

Despite the slight numerical characteristic benefit of NordVPN, the unparalleled transparency and privateness options of ExpressVPN give it the sting right here — it’s second solely to Mullvad in our privateness rankings.

Best for streaming: ExpressVPN

VPNs are primarily used for privateness and safety, however they will also be used for leisure functions, unblocking geo-restricted content material. Whether you’re touring or simply wish to entry region-locked content material — taking a look at you, Netflix England’s whole collection of Ghibli films — utilizing a VPN to spoof your location is a good way to look at all the content material you need regardless of your bodily location.

In my testing, each ExpressVPN and NordVPN got here by way of with flying colours when trying to entry streaming companies in several places. They efficiently unblocked Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, and a handful of different companies as nicely. 

The variations in streaming efficiency lie principally within the totally different app interfaces. I personally discovered that ExpressVPN’s apps (Windows, AppleTV, Fire TV, and many others.) had been a bit extra intuitive and simpler to make use of than NordVPN’s apps. It may be a private desire right here, however I’m going to provide the win in streaming to ExpressVPN — however, once more, solely by the narrowest of margins.

Bottom line

You can’t actually go mistaken with both of those VPNs. I gave each ExpressVPN and NordVPN 4.5 out of 5 stars of their respective evaluations and each garnered Editors’ Choice awards for his or her excellent VPN companies. That being mentioned, ExpressVPN is our choose for finest VPN general and for good motive. It supplies wonderful security measures, top-notch speeds, terrific geo-unblocking, a fantastic person interface, and incomparable transparency.

NordVPN is the quickest VPN available on the market and does present some nice-to-haves that ExpressVPN doesn’t. But the pace distinction is negligible and these additional options are actually solely helpful for energy customers. Still, every time somebody asks me for a VPN suggestion I normally flip to ExpressVPN first.