ExpressVPN overview 2025: Quick speeds and a low studying curve

ExpressVPN is nice at its job. It is easy to be skeptical of any service with a knack for self-promotion, however do not let ExpressVPN’s hype distract you from the truth that it retains its front-page promise of “simply working.”

Outdoors of stable safety, the 2 greatest issues ExpressVPN provides are quick speeds and a easy interface. Our assessments confirmed solely a 7% common drop in obtain pace and a 2% lack of add pace, worldwide. And whereas the dearth of additional options could frustrate skilled customers, it makes for a real set-and-forget VPN on any platform.

This is not to say ExpressVPN is with out flaws — it is practically bereft of customization choices and it is notably costlier than its competitors — but it surely beats most VPNs in a head-to-head matchup.

For this overview, we adopted our rigorous 10-step VPN testing course of, exploring ExpressVPN’s safety, privateness, pace, interfaces and extra. Whether or not you learn straight by way of or skip to the sections which can be most essential for you, you need to come away with all the data it is advisable to resolve whether or not to subscribe.

Editor’s notice (7/25/25): We’re within the means of revamping our VPN protection to offer extra in-depth, actionable data and shopping for guides. Our suggestions, and all the data on this web page, are topic to alter because the replace continues. Take a look at our revamped ProtonVPN overview and NordVPN overview to see the brand new path, or study extra about how we take a look at VPNs.

Desk of contents

Findings at a look

Putting in, configuring and utilizing ExpressVPN

This part focuses on the way it feels to make use of ExpressVPN on every of the most important platforms the place it is out there. Step one for any setup course of is to make an account on expressvpn.com and purchase a subscription.

Home windows

As soon as subscribed, obtain the Home windows VPN from both expressvpn.com or the Microsoft Retailer, then open the .exe file. Click on “Sure” to let it make modifications, look ahead to the set up, then let your laptop reboot. Together with the reboot, the entire course of takes 5-10 minutes, most of it idle. To complete, you may want your activation code, which you will discover by going to expressvpn.com and clicking “Setup” within the top-right nook.

Excessive simplicity is the watchword for all ExpressVPN’s designs. The Home windows consumer’s launch panel consists of three buttons and fewer than ten phrases. You’ll be able to change your location or let the app decide a location for you — the “Good Location” is the server with the very best mixture of being close by and unburdened.

Every thing else is crammed into the hamburger menu on the prime left. Right here, in seven tabs, you may discover the Community Lock kill swap, the 4 varieties of content material blockers, the break up tunneling menu and the choice to alter your VPN protocol. You can even add shortcuts to varied web sites, helpful in the event you commonly use your VPN for a similar on-line locations.

To sum up, there’s virtually nothing right here to get in the best way: no delays, no snags, no nested menus to get misplaced in. It could be the world’s most ignorable VPN consumer. That is not a nasty factor in any respect.

Mac

ExpressVPN’s app for macOS is nearly an identical in design to its Home windows app. The method for downloading and setting it up is sort of the identical too. As on Home windows, it may be downloaded from the App Retailer or sideloaded instantly from the expressvpn.com obtain heart. Just a few options are lacking and a pair others have been added. Break up tunneling is gone (until you are still on a macOS decrease than 11), and you will not see the Lightway Turbo setting.

Mac customers do acquire entry to the IKEv2 protocol, together with the choice to show off computerized IPv6 blocking — Home windows customers have to go away it blocked always. Virtually each web site continues to be accessible by way of IPv4, but it surely’s helpful in the event you do must entry a particular IPv6 handle whereas the VPN is lively.

Android

Android customers can obtain ExpressVPN by way of the Google Play Retailer. Open the app, sign up and also you’re able to go. The Android app has a really good dark-colored design, solely barely marred by an pointless data field about how lengthy you’ve got used the VPN this week.

There’s a big button for connecting. Clicking on the server title takes you to a listing of places. On this listing, you’ll be able to both search or scroll and may select particular person places inside a rustic that has a couple of. We related to as many far-flung server places as we might, however not a single one took longer than a number of seconds.

The choices menu is organized sensibly, with no choice positioned greater than two clicks deep. You will notice a few choices right here that are not out there on desktop, the very best of which is the flexibility to routinely hook up with your last-used ExpressVPN server each time your cellphone connects to a non-trusted wifi community.

There are additionally a number of common safety instruments: an IP handle checker, DNS and WebRTC leak testers and a password generator. These are additionally out there on the web site, however right here, they’re constructed into the app. Except the latter, we might advocate utilizing third-party testing instruments as a substitute — even a VPN with integrity has an incentive to make its personal app appear to be it is working.

iPhone and iPad

You’ll be able to solely set up ExpressVPN’s iOS app by way of the app retailer. Throughout setup, it’s possible you’ll must enter your password to permit your cellphone to make use of VPN configurations. In any other case, there are not any main variations from the Android course of.

The interface will not be fairly as pleasing because the dark-mode Android app, but it surely makes up for that by slicing out a few of the litter. The tabs and options are related, although break up tunneling and shortcuts are absent. Additionally, each cell apps make buyer help much more accessible than their desktop counterparts — plus, cell is the one approach to ship e mail help tickets.

Browser extension

ExpressVPN additionally contains browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome. These allow you to join, disconnect and alter server places with out leaving your browser window. It is good, however not important until you might have a really particular internet browser circulate you want.

ExpressVPN pace take a look at: Very quick averages

Connecting to a VPN virtually at all times decreases your pace, however the very best VPNs mitigate the drop as a lot as attainable. We used Ookla’s pace testing app to see how a lot of your web pace ExpressVPN preserves. For this take a look at, we emphasised the places ExpressVPN makes use of for many of its digital servers, together with the Netherlands, Brazil, Germany and Singapore.

Some phrases earlier than we begin:

• Latency, measured in milliseconds (ms), is the time it takes one knowledge packet to journey between your system and an online server by way of the VPN. Latency will increase with distance. It is most essential for real-time duties like video chatting and on-line gaming.

• Obtain pace, measured in megabits per second (Mbps), is the quantity of knowledge that may obtain onto your system at one time — similar to when loading an online web page or streaming a video.

• Add pace, additionally measured in Mbps, is the quantity of knowledge your system can ship to the online without delay. It is most essential for torrenting, because the quantity of knowledge you’ll be able to seed determines how briskly you’ll be able to obtain in trade.

The desk beneath exhibits our outcomes. We performed this on Home windows, utilizing the automated protocol setting with the Lightway Turbo function lively — a current ExpressVPN addition that retains pace extra constant by processing connections in parallel.

These are extraordinarily good outcomes. ExpressVPN is a winner on each obtain and add pace. Irrespective of the place we went on the earth, we by no means misplaced greater than about 7% of our obtain speeds, and add misplaced an astoundingly low common of two%. This implies that ExpressVPN deftly distributes its consumer load between servers to remove bottlenecks.

The latency numbers look worse, however the rise within the desk is much less sharp than we projected. Ping size relies upon much more on distance than obtain pace does, so we anticipate it to shoot up on servers greater than 1,000 miles from our location. Preserving the typical beneath 300 ms, as ExpressVPN does right here, is a powerful displaying.

ExpressVPN safety take a look at: Checking for leaks

A VPN’s core mission is to cover your IP handle and make you untraceable on-line. Our activity on this part is to determine if ExpressVPN can perform this mission each time you join. Whereas we will not be 100% sure, the assessments we’ll run by way of beneath have led us to consider that ExpressVPN is at the moment leak-proof.

Obtainable VPN protocols

A VPN protocol is sort of a frequent language {that a} VPN server can use to mediate between your gadgets and the online servers you go to. If a VPN makes use of outdated or insecure protocols, or depends on distinctive protocols with no seen specs or supply code, that is a nasty signal.

ExpressVPN offers you a choice of three protocols: IKEv2, OpenVPN and Lightway. The primary two are stable decisions that help the most recent encryption algorithms. OpenVPN has been absolutely open-source for years and is your best option if privateness is your aim. Whereas IKEv2 began life as a closed challenge by Microsoft and Cisco, ExpressVPN makes use of an open-source reverse-engineering, which is each higher for privateness and fairly quick.

Lightway is the odd one out, a protocol you may solely discover on ExpressVPN, although its supply code is out there on Github. It is much like WireGuard, in that each attain for sooner speeds and decrease processing calls for by preserving their codebases slim. Nevertheless, Lightway was lately rewritten in Rust to higher defend the keys saved in its reminiscence.

In the end, you’ll be able to’t go flawed with any of ExpressVPN’s protocol choices. 99% of the time, your best option will likely be to set the controls to Automated and let the VPN resolve which runs greatest.

Testing for leaks

ExpressVPN is without doubt one of the greatest providers, but it surely’s not leak-proof (as you’ll be able to learn within the Background Examine beneath). Fortunately, checking for DNS leaks is a straightforward matter of checking your IP handle earlier than and after connecting to a VPN server. If the brand new handle matches the VPN server, you are good; if not, your VPN is leaking.

First, we checked the Home windows app with break up tunneling lively to make sure the flaw actually had been patched. We examined a number of servers and did not discover any leaks, which suggests the patch labored, although leaks had been uncommon even earlier than ExpressVPN fastened the vulnerability.

Actually, we did not discover any leaks on any ExpressVPN server we examined on any platform. Although questions stay about iOS, as you may see later on this part, that is an issue on Apple’s finish that even the very best VPNs can do little or no about for now.

The most typical reason for VPN leaks is using public DNS servers to attach customers to web sites, which may mistakenly ship shopping exercise outdoors the VPN’s encrypted tunnel. ExpressVPN avoids the dangers of the general public system by putting in its personal DNS resolvers on each server. That is the important thing issue behind its clear invoice of well being in our leak testing.

Two different frequent flaws can result in VPN leaks: WebRTC site visitors and IPv6. The previous is a communication protocol utilized in reside streaming and the latter is a brand new IP normal designed to increase area availability. Each are good, however at the moment elective, so ExpressVPN routinely blocks each to make sure there isn’t any alternative for leaks to come up.

One notice about VPN safety on iOS: it is a recognized and persevering with drawback that iOS VPNs don’t forestall many on-line apps from speaking with Apple instantly, outdoors the VPN tunnel. This dangers leaking delicate knowledge, even with Lockdown Mode lively in iOS 16. A weblog submit by Proton VPN shares a workaround: hook up with a VPN server, then flip Airplane Mode on and off once more to finish all connections that had been lively earlier than you related to the VPN.

Testing encryption

We completed up our battery of safety assessments by trying out ExpressVPN’s encryption instantly. Utilizing WireShark, a free packet sniffer, we inspected what it seems like when ExpressVPN transmits knowledge from one in all its servers to the web. The screenshot beneath exhibits a knowledge stream encrypted with Lightway UDP.

That lack of any identifiable data, and even readable data, means encryption is working as meant. We repeated the take a look at a number of instances, at all times getting the identical end result. This left us glad that ExpressVPN’s core options are working as meant.

How a lot does ExpressVPN value?

ExpressVPN subscriptions value $12.95 per 30 days. Lengthy-term subscriptions can deliver the month-to-month value down, however the nice offers they provide are likely to solely final for the primary billing interval.

A 12-month subscription prices $99.95 and contains three months without cost together with your first cost, costing a complete of $6.67 per 30 days. The bonus disappears for all subsequent years, elevating the month-to-month value to $8.33. You can even join 28 months at a value of $139.72, however that is additionally once-only — ExpressVPN can solely be renewed on the $99.95 per yr degree.

There are two methods to check ExpressVPN without cost earlier than making a monetary dedication. Customers on iOS and Android can obtain the ExpressVPN app with out getting into any cost particulars and use it free for seven days. On any platform, there is a 30-day money-back assure, which ExpressVPN has traditionally honored with no questions requested. You’ll have to pay earlier than you need to use it, although.

In our opinion, ExpressVPN’s service is stable sufficient that it is value paying additional. Maybe not this a lot additional, however that is dependent upon what you get out of it. We advocate utilizing the 30-day refund interval and seeing how effectively ExpressVPN works for you. If it is a VPN you’ll be able to take pleasure in utilizing, that runs quick and unblocks all the things you want, that is value a server’s weight in gold.

ExpressVPN aspect apps and bundles

ExpressVPN contains some particular options that work principally or wholly separate from its VPN apps. A few of these come free with a subscription, whereas others add an additional value.

Each subscription contains the ExpressVPN keys password supervisor. That is out there below its personal tab on the Android and iOS apps. On desktop, you may must obtain a separate extension out of your browser’s retailer, then sign up utilizing your account activation code. It is out there on all Chromium browsers, however not Firefox.

Beginning in 2025, new subscribers get an eSIM plan by way of vacation.com, a separate service linked to ExpressVPN. The baseline 1GB vacation eSIM plans final for five days and may apply to nations, areas, or the whole world (although it isn’t clear whether or not the package deal deal applies to the regional and international plans). Longer-term plans embrace bigger eSIM plans.

You’ll be able to add a devoted IP handle to your ExpressVPN subscription for an extra value per 30 days. A devoted IP permits you to use the identical IP handle each time you hook up with ExpressVPN. You’ll be able to add the handle to whitelists on restricted networks, and also you’re assured to by no means be blocked due to another person’s dangerous exercise on a shared IP.

In contrast to lots of its opponents, ExpressVPN would not at the moment supply antivirus or on-line storage providers, however there’s a complete bundle of ID safety instruments known as Id Defender. We’ve not reviewed any of those merchandise intimately, however this is a listing for reference:

• ID Alerts will inform you if any of your delicate data is leaked or misused on-line. It is free with all plans, however you may must enter your private data in your ExpressVPN account web page or a cell app.

• ID Theft Insurance coverage grants as much as $1 million in id theft reimbursement and comes free with new ExpressVPN one-year or two-year subscriptions. It is not but out there to those that subscribed earlier than it launched in October 2024.

• Information Removing scans to your data in knowledge brokerages and routinely requests that it’s deleted. It is also free with one-year and two-year plans.

• Credit score Scanner is just out there for United States customers. It screens your exercise on the three credit score bureaus so you’ll be able to shortly spot any suspicious transactions.

The Id Defender options are at the moment solely out there to new ExpressVPN prospects within the US.

Shut-reading ExpressVPN’s privateness coverage

Though we fear that the consolidation of VPN manufacturers below the umbrella of Kape Applied sciences (ExpressVPN’s guardian firm) will make the business much less aggressive, we do not consider it is influencing ExpressVPN to reap the benefits of its customers’ privateness. To verify, and get a full sense of what kind of privateness ExpressVPN guarantees its customers, we got down to learn ExpressVPN’s privateness coverage intimately. It is lengthy, however fortunately geared toward informal customers as a substitute of legal professionals. You’ll be able to see it for your self right here.

Within the introduction, ExpressVPN states that it doesn’t maintain both exercise logs (similar to a consumer’s shopping historical past whereas related to the VPN) or connection logs (such because the period of a consumer’s session and their IP handle, which can be utilized to extrapolate shopping exercise). It then specifies the seven varieties of knowledge it is legally allowed to gather:

• Information used to join an account, similar to names, emails and cost strategies.

• VPN utilization knowledge which is aggregated and cannot be traced to any particular person.

• Credentials saved within the ExpressVPN Keys password supervisor.

• Diagnostic knowledge similar to crash studies, that are solely shared upon consumer request.

• IP addresses approved for MediaStreamer, which is just for streaming gadgets that do not in any other case help VPN apps.

• Advertising knowledge collected instantly from the app — a “restricted quantity” that is stored nameless.

• Information voluntarily submitted for id theft safety apps.

Of these seven exceptions, the one ones that depend as purple flags are account knowledge and advertising and marketing knowledge. Each classes are extremely private and may very well be damaging if mishandled. Fortuitously, complying with subpoenas will not be one of many allowed makes use of listed for both knowledge class, nor does the coverage let ExpressVPN promote the info to different non-public events.

The one actually annoying factor right here is that in the event you ask ExpressVPN to delete your private knowledge, you will not be capable to use your account from then on. You are not even eligible for a refund on this case, until you are inside 30 days of your preliminary subscription.

As for advertising and marketing knowledge, ExpressVPN collects system fingerprints and site knowledge while you join an account on its web site. The privateness coverage additionally claims that is anonymized, as its “methods are engineered to decouple such knowledge from personally identifiable data.” Audits corroborate this, as we’ll see within the subsequent part. So, whereas it could be higher if ExpressVPN did not accumulate any private knowledge in any respect, its practices do not seem to pose a threat to something you do whereas utilizing the VPN — simply the ExpressVPN web site.

Privateness audits

VPN suppliers typically get third-party accounting corporations to audit their privateness insurance policies. The concept is {that a} well-known agency will not mortgage its status to lie on behalf of a VPN, so their outcomes might be trusted.

For the final a number of years, ExpressVPN has had KPMG look over its privateness coverage and related infrastructure (see “TrustedServer” beneath). KPMG’s most up-to-date report, accomplished in December 2023 and launched in Might 2024, discovered that ExpressVPN had sufficient inside controls in place that customers might belief its privateness coverage.

The report is freely out there to learn. This can be a superb signal, although we’re looking for a extra up-to-date audit quickly.

TrustedServer

“TrustedServer” is a advertising and marketing time period ExpressVPN makes use of for its RAM-only server infrastructure. RAM-only servers don’t have any onerous drives for long-term storage and return to a typical disk picture with each reboot. This makes it theoretically unattainable to retailer consumer exercise logs on them, even when ExpressVPN wished to try this.

The KPMG audit, linked above, studies that TrustedServer works as marketed. Between its many clear privateness audits and the Turkish server incident in 2017, we’re ready to say ExpressVPN is a non-public VPN, despite its aggravating exception for advertising and marketing.

Can ExpressVPN change your digital location?

Subsequent, we examined whether or not ExpressVPN can really persuade web sites that you just’re someplace aside from your actual location. Our safety assessments have already confirmed it may possibly conceal your IP handle, but it surely takes greater than leak-proofing to idiot streaming websites nowadays — Netflix and the others have gotten superb at combing by way of metadata to smell out proxy customers.

The method for testing this can be a lot like how we dealt with the DNS leak assessments: strive a number of totally different servers and see if we get caught. We checked 5 pattern places outdoors the U.S. to see if we a) received into Netflix and b) noticed totally different titles within the library. The outcomes are beneath.

In fifteen assessments, ExpressVPN slipped up solely as soon as. Docklands, the UK server it selected because the quickest, wasn’t in a position to entry Netflix. We switched to a server labeled merely “London” and unblocked it with out challenge.

All the opposite places received us entry to an alternate Netflix library on the primary strive. We even checked whether or not the India server, which is bodily positioned within the UK, confirmed us totally different movies than the UK servers. It did, which makes us much more assured that ExpressVPN’s digital places are hermetic.

Investigating ExpressVPN’s server community

ExpressVPN customers can hook up with a complete of 164 server places in 105 nations and territories. These places are moderately effectively distributed throughout the globe, however as with all VPNs, there is a bias towards the northern hemisphere. There are 24 places within the U.S. alone and an extra 66 in Europe.

That is not to say customers within the International South get nothing. ExpressVPN has IP addresses from 9 nations in South America (Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela) and 6 in Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco and South Africa). The community even contains Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, spectacular since central Asia could be the area most frequently shafted by VPNs.

Nevertheless, many of those servers have digital places totally different from their actual ones. For these of you selecting a server based mostly on efficiency as a substitute of a selected IP handle, ExpressVPN’s web site has a useful listing of which servers are digital. The dangerous information is that it is a large chunk of the listing. A complete of 63 ExpressVPN places are digital, or 38% of its complete community.

To scale back the sting, ExpressVPN takes care to find digital servers as near their actual places as attainable. Its digital places in Indonesia and India are bodily based mostly in Singapore. This is not at all times sensible, resulting in some awkwardness like working a Ghana IP handle out of Germany. However it helps ExpressVPN carry out higher within the southern hemisphere.

In comparison with direct opponents like NordVPN and Surfshark, ExpressVPN would not have many particular options. It is aimed squarely on the informal market and can in all probability disappoint energy customers. Having mentioned that, what they do embrace works effectively. On this part, we’ll run by way of ExpressVPN’s 4 substantial options outdoors its VPN servers themselves.

Community Lock kill swap

“Community Lock” is the title ExpressVPN offers to its kill swap (although it is known as “Community Safety” on cell). A VPN kill swap is a security function that retains you from broadcasting outdoors the VPN tunnel. If it ever detects that you just aren’t related to a reliable ExpressVPN server, it cuts off your web entry. You will not be capable to get again on-line till you both reconnect to the VPN or disable Community Lock.

That is essential for everybody, not simply customers who want to cover delicate site visitors. The lately found TunnelVision bug theoretically permits hackers to arrange pretend public wi-fi networks by way of which they redirect you to equally pretend VPN servers, which then harvest your private data. It is unlikely, however not unattainable, and a kill swap is one of the simplest ways to forestall it — the swap at all times triggers until you are related to an actual server within the VPN’s community.

Like most of ExpressVPN’s options, all you are able to do with Community Lock is flip it on and off. You can even toggle whether or not you may nonetheless be capable to entry native gadgets whereas the kill swap is obstructing your web — that is allowed by default.

Risk supervisor, advert blocker and parental controls

ExpressVPN teams three instruments below the heading of “superior safety” — Risk Supervisor, an advert blocker and parental controls. Risk Supervisor consists of two checkboxes: one which blocks your browser from speaking with exercise monitoring software program and one which blocks a listing of internet sites recognized for use for malware.

You’ll be able to’t customise the lists, so that you’re restricted to what ExpressVPN considers worthy of blocking. They share their sources on the web site. Whereas the lists are in depth and open-source, they depend on after-the-fact reporting and may’t detect and block unknown threats like a correct antivirus.

The adblock and parental management choices work the identical manner: verify a field to dam all the things on the listing, uncheck it to permit all the things by way of. In assessments, the advert blocker was practically 100% efficient towards banner advertisements, however failed to dam any video advertisements on YouTube or Netflix.

The parental management choice blocks a listing of porn websites. It is a simple choice for involved dad and mom, however solely works whereas ExpressVPN is related. As such, it is meant for use along side device-level parental controls that forestall the kid from turning off or uninstalling the VPN consumer.

Break up tunneling

Generally, you may discover it useful to have your system getting on-line by way of two totally different IP addresses without delay — one to your house providers and one for a location you are attempting to spoof. That is the place break up tunneling is useful: it runs some apps by way of the VPN whereas leaving others unprotected. This could additionally enhance your speeds, because the VPN must encrypt much less in whole.

ExpressVPN contains break up tunneling on Home windows, Android and Mac (although solely on variations 10 and beneath). You’ll be able to solely break up by app, not by web site, but it surely’s nonetheless fairly helpful. For instance, you’ll be able to have BitTorrent dealing with a heavy obtain within the background when you use your browser for innocuous actions that do not want defending.

ExpressVPN Aircove router

By now, it needs to be clear that we discover ExpressVPN to be a extremely dependable however typically unexceptional VPN service. Nevertheless, there’s one space by which it is a clear business chief: VPN routers. ExpressVPN Aircove is, to our data, the one router with a built-in industrial VPN that comes with its personal dashboard interface.

Often, putting in a VPN in your router requires tinkering with the router management panel, which turns off all however probably the most skilled customers — to not point out making it a large ache to modify to a brand new server location. Aircove’s dashboard, in contrast, will likely be immediately acquainted to anybody who already is aware of easy methods to use an ExpressVPN consumer. It even permits totally different gadgets in your house to hook up with totally different places by way of the router VPN.

Aircove’s largest downside is its value. At present retailing at $189 (not together with an ExpressVPN subscription), it is round 3 times costlier than an aftermarket router fitted with free VPN firmware. A few of you would possibly nonetheless discover the comfort definitely worth the one-time cost.

ExpressVPN buyer help choices

ExpressVPN’s written assist pages are a few of the greatest available on the market. Its reside chat is extra of a blended bag, and sophisticated questions could trigger delays. Nevertheless, it’s at the least staffed with human brokers who purpose to answer precisely, reasonably than resolve your ticket as shortly as attainable.

We approached ExpressVPN’s help options with a easy query: “If I requested that ExpressVPN delete all my private knowledge, would I be capable to get a refund for my unused subscription time?” (Bear in mind from the Privateness Coverage part that submitting a full deletion request additionally cancels your ExpressVPN account.)

Our first cease was expressvpn.com/help, the written help heart and FAQ web page. It is divided into setup guides, troubleshooting, account administration and data on every of ExpressVPN’s merchandise. The setup guides are glorious, together with screenshots and clearly written steps; every one features a video information for individuals who study higher that manner.

Troubleshooting is simply pretty much as good — no movies, however the identical requirements of readability and usefulness prevail. The part begins with common issues, then delves into particular points you would possibly face on every working system. Every article clearly derives from an actual buyer want.

The reside help expertise

To get solutions on our refund query, we visited the account administration FAQs. This part acknowledged that the refund coverage solely applies inside 30 days of buy. Fairly clear-cut, however we nonetheless wished a solution on our particular case, so we contacted reside chat by clicking the button on the bottom-right of each FAQ web page.

Dwell chat begins with an AI assistant, which isn’t too onerous to get previous — simply ask it a query it may possibly’t reply, then click on “Switch to an Agent.” We received on-line with (what claimed to be) a human in lower than a minute. Answering the query took longer and concerned an uncomfortable 10-minute silence, however we did get a transparent verdict from an actual individual: refunds are inside 30 days solely, it doesn’t matter what.

If the reside chat agent cannot reply your query, you may be redirected to open an e mail help ticket. Annoyingly, there isn’t any approach to go on to e mail help by way of the web site or desktop apps, although cell customers have the choice to skip instantly there.

ExpressVPN background verify: From founding to Kape Applied sciences

ExpressVPN launched in 2009, which makes it one of many oldest client VPNs in continuous operation. In additional than 15 years of operation, it is by no means been caught violating its personal privateness coverage, although its document is not freed from extra minor blemishes.

Headquarters within the British Virgin Islands

Founders Dan Pomerantz and Peter Burchhardt registered the corporate within the British Virgin Islands from the begin to reap the benefits of that territory’s favorable authorized setting for on-line privateness. The BVIs don’t have any regulation requiring companies to retain knowledge on their customers, and the method for extraditing knowledge is famously tough, requiring a direct order from the best court docket.

In 2021, the BVI applied the Information Safety Act (DPA) [PDF link], which prevents corporations based mostly within the territory from accessing knowledge on their customers anyplace on the earth. It is an amazing privateness regulation in idea, modeled on best-in-class laws within the EU. Nevertheless, we could not discover any proof that its supervising authority — the Workplace of the Data Commissioner — has a pacesetter or employees.

In different phrases, whereas ExpressVPN will not be legally required to log any knowledge on its customers, there’s technically no person stopping them from doing so. Whether or not you belief the jurisdiction is dependent upon whether or not you belief the corporate itself. Let’s have a look at what the opposite proof says.

Safety and privateness incidents

Two important incidents stand out from ExpressVPN’s 16-year historical past. In 2017, when Andrei Karlov, Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, was shot to demise at an artwork present. Turkish police suspected somebody had used ExpressVPN to masks their id whereas they deleted data from social media accounts belonging to the alleged murderer. To research, they confiscated an ExpressVPN server to comb for proof. They did not discover something.

A police seizure is the very best take a look at of a VPN’s strategy to privateness. The supplier cannot put together beforehand, pretend something, or collude with investigators. The Turkey incident continues to be among the finest causes to advocate ExpressVPN, although eight years is a very long time for coverage to alter.

The second incident started in March 2024, when a researcher at CNET knowledgeable ExpressVPN that its model 12 for Home windows often leaked DNS requests when customers enabled the break up tunneling function. Whereas these customers remained related to an ExpressVPN server, their shopping exercise was typically going on to their ISP, unmasked.

The bug solely impacted a number of customers, and to their credit score, ExpressVPN sprang into motion as quickly as they discovered about it. The workforce had it patched by April, as confirmed by the researcher who initially found the vulnerability. However whereas their fast and efficient response deserves reward, it is nonetheless a mark towards them {that a} journalist seen the bug earlier than they did.

Kape Applied sciences possession and administration questions

In 2021, an Israeli-owned, UK-based agency known as Kape Applied sciences bought a controlling curiosity in ExpressVPN. Along with ExpressVPN, privately held Kape owns CyberGhost, Non-public Web Entry, and Zenmate (earlier than it merged into CyberGhost). As proven on its web site, it additionally owns Webselenese, writer of VPN overview web sites WizCase and vpnMentor, which poses an obvious battle of curiosity.

When reached for remark, a consultant for ExpressVPN mentioned that “ExpressVPN doesn’t instantly interact with, nor search to affect, the content material on any Webselenese web site,” and pointed us to disclosure statements on the web sites in query — this is one instance. Even so, it is a good reminder to not take VPN evaluations at face worth with out understanding who’s behind them (Engadget is owned by Yahoo, which doesn’t personal any VPNs).

Diving deeper into the background of Kape’s possession will lead you to proprietor Teddy Sagi. Return far sufficient, and you will see he did jail time in Israel and was talked about within the Pandora Papers, amongst different issues. Extra lately, headlines in regards to the billionaire have centered extra his companies within the on-line playing and fintech arenas, in addition to his actual property ventures. An ExpressVPN consultant instructed us that “Kape’s manufacturers proceed to function independently,” and our investigation bore that out — we could not discover any proof that Kape or Sagi have instantly tried to affect ExpressVPN’s software program or each day operations.

Nearer to the instant day-to-day operations of ExpressVPN was the corporate’s employment of Daniel Gericke as CTO from 2019 by way of 2023. Throughout that point, the US Justice Division introduced it had fined Gericke and two others for his or her earlier employment on a surveillance operation known as Mission Raven, which the United Arab Emirates (UAE) used to spy by itself residents.

The revelation prompted a public response from ExpressVPN defending its resolution to rent Gericke, arguing that “[t]he greatest goalkeepers are those educated by the very best strikers.” ExpressVPN’s consultant confirmed that the corporate nonetheless stands by that linked assertion.

Gericke parted methods with ExpressVPN in October 2023, per his LinkedIn profile. Whereas we do not know what we do not know, we will say that ExpressVPN has not notably modified its public-facing safety and privateness insurance policies in the course of the time it has been related to Kape, Sagi, or Gericke.

Ultimately, how a lot ExpressVPN’s historical past issues to you is a private selection. In the event you object to any present or previous actions by Kape Applied sciences or Teddy Sagi, there are different premium VPN choices you would possibly desire. In the event you want extra data to make up your thoughts, we advocate studying by way of CNET’s 2022 deep dive on ExpressVPN’s company historical past.

Last verdict

ExpressVPN is the VPN we most frequently advocate to novices. It takes zero coaching to make use of, and constantly will get previous filters on streaming websites. It additionally runs within the background with nearly no influence. If something is definitely worth the excessive value of admission, it is the superb speeds distributed evenly throughout the worldwide server community.

Nevertheless, for sure particular instances, ExpressVPN might not be your best option. There is no approach to arrange your individual server places, like NordVPN provides, and no double VPN connections, like you’ll be able to construct for your self on Surfshark. Its company background is extra suspect than the entities backing Proton VPN, and in contrast to Mullvad, ExpressVPN would not work in China — it is so well-known that the federal government targets its servers particularly.

We recommend going with ExpressVPN for common on-line privateness, for spoofing places in your house nation whereas touring, or in the event you commonly must unblock websites in different nations. That encompasses 19 of each 20 customers, which is okay by us, as ExpressVPN is a good service. It is simply extra of a dependable outdated screwdriver than a multi-tool.