At a Glance

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• Excellent speeds
• Easy-to-use interface
• Unblocks all streaming companies
• Great safety and privateness practices

Cons

• More costly than many rivals
• Light on some options for a high VPN

Our Verdict

ExpressVPN gives an distinctive service with improbable speeds, an easy-to-use Windows desktop app, clear privateness, and stable security measures. Very few different VPNs proper now can match it. It’s dearer than many different companies, however you positive do get a number of VPN on your cash.

Price When Reviewed

$6.67 per 30 days

Best Prices Today: ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN in short:

• P2P allowed: Yes
• Unlimited gadget connections: No, 8 simultaneous gadget connections
• Business location: British Virgin Islands
• Number of servers: 3,000+
• Number of nation areas: 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 adverts and it’s seemingly you’ve seen a minimum of one someplace out within the wild at this level. And when you might disagree with its inescapable promotions, you’ll be able to’t deny that it gives an ideal service.

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

Further studying: See our roundup of the best VPNs to study competing merchandise.

What are ExpressVPN’s options and companies?

Sam Singleton

When you first open ExpressVPN, It has a easy single-panel interface with a linked/not linked button within the middle, and the nation choice beneath it. Then beneath that it reveals the most effective good location based mostly in your geo information. The interface appears to be like about the identical because it has for just a few iterations now and that’s as a result of it’s easy and efficient—if it ain’t broke don’t repair it.

When linked, the display stays largely the identical besides that ExpressVPN will now present a number of fast hyperlinks to web sites and internet-connected apps resembling Google, Wikipedia, and Gmail. You can edit these shortcuts to customise them on 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 resembling VPN Locations, Options, and Help & Support. The Options menu is the place the meat of your settings are situated. Here ExpressVPN presents a good number of customizable options, the highlights being a kill swap, cut up tunneling, and talent to modify protocols. All of those are pretty commonplace throughout all VPN companies. 

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

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 youngsters are utilizing the service as nicely. This addition of a full-security suite on high of the VPN is one thing that a number of the highest VPN suppliers resembling 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 seemingly higher stand-alone security suites that provide higher blocking and safety.

It’s additionally value mentioning that whereas I targeted on the Windows app for the needs of this evaluate, ExpressVPN does supply extremely broad gadget and browser assist. Besides Windows, it’s accessible for MacOS, iOS, Android, Linux, ChromeOS, Fire Stick, Android TV, succesful routers, and most 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 evaluate, ExpressVPN is being provided 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 a bit of extra inexpensive, nevertheless it nonetheless ranks amongst one of many dearer VPN companies. There isn’t any free choice to check out ExpressVPN, nevertheless it does supply a 30-day money-back assure if you happen to resolve that it isn’t for you. Subscription funds might be accomplished by way of 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 completely different nations all all over the world over the course of some days after which examine them to my baseline web velocity throughout that point. In my testing, ExpressVPN server speeds have been wonderful. Across all areas examined, the typical obtain velocity was 71 % in comparison with the bottom velocity and the typical add velocity 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 velocity 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 approach. It’s nonetheless loads quicker than most companies we’ve evaluated and is greater than enough to accommodate a house person’s on-line actions.

ExpressVPN has lengthy promised that it’s going to unblock Netflix and that also holds true. In truth, it not solely unblocked Netflix, but additionally some 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 completely 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 could find it on GitHub. It’s additionally undergone a safety audit by the penetration testing agency Cure53. 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 nicely relying in your working system. The best factor to do is let ExpressVPN select the protocol routinely, 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 usually are not prone to have entry to a quantum pc in the intervening time, I’d in all probability file this beneath superfluous, however good to have.

ExpressVPN

As far as person privateness is anxious, there aren’t many higher VPNs on the market than ExpressVPN. It claims to not log any of your shopping historical past, or different private information resembling DNS queries, IP addresses, connection timestamps, or session length. It does maintain 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 unbiased audits. In 2022 alone, ExpressVPN underwent 12 audits on varied elements of its service. The most up-to-date audit was accomplished by Cure53 in November of 2022 and confirmed ExpressVPN’s no-log coverage. Surely, the sheer variety of unbiased audits makes ExpressVPN unmatched amongst all VPN suppliers. It’s a stage of transparency that may solely be applauded.

Furthermore, ExpressVPN is situated within the British Virgin Islands which isn’t topic to any worldwide alerts intelligence-sharing alliance or information retention necessities. Meaning it’s way 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 unbiased audit.

Is ExpressVPN value it?

Frankly, sure. In truth I don’t assume that there are numerous VPN companies available on the market at the moment that rival ExpressVPN. Its mixture of fantastic speeds, capability to unblock each streaming service, and dedication to person privateness hits all the proper notes. Add to that an interface that’s dead-simple to make use of and broad gadget assist and also you get a VPN that ticks (nearly) each field. It would possibly lack some tweakable power-user security measures, however most of us gained’t even discover this stuff.

ExpressVPN isn’t the most cost effective possibility accessible, however for every thing that it presents, the upper worth is greater than value it. Practically every thing about this service is top-tier and as an entire, ExpressVPN is sort of merely among the finest VPNs proper now.

Editor’s observe: Because on-line companies are sometimes iterative, gaining new options and efficiency enhancements over time, this evaluate is topic to alter so as to precisely mirror the present state of the service. Any modifications to textual content or our last evaluate verdict shall be famous on the high of this text.