ExpressVPN assessment : Simply as speedy, with its personal open supply protocol

Greatest Costs Immediately: ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN briefly:

• P2P allowed: Sure
• Simultaneous machine connections: 8
• Enterprise location: British Virgin Islands
• Variety of servers: 3,000+
• Variety of nation places: 105
• Value: $12.99 per 30 days, $99.95 for one 12 months, or $97.72 for 2 years

Once 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 grown right into a family identify over latest years and turn out to be synonymous with on-line privateness.

It’s, and has been, one of the reliable and notable VPN suppliers available on the market from the very starting. And with every successive 12 months the service simply retains bettering. Since our final assessment, ExpressVPN has undertaken two extra impartial safety audits, launched post-quantum encryption for all apps, and added its personal suite of id theft safety instruments. It has turn out to be a one-stop privateness and safety powerhouse.

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

What are ExpressVPN’s options and companies?

What’s new with ExpressVPN?

ExpressVPN has been busy this 12 months. It switched its Lightway protocol from C to Rust, in hopes of boosting its safety and efficiency capabilities in addition to making it simpler for future expansions. Then it rolled out Lightway Turbo which is a model new protocol that distributes visitors extra effectively throughout a number of lanes resulting in sooner connection speeds.

The service additionally underwent one other impartial audit and added servers in all 50 U.S. states—a transfer to immediately fight the rising variety of states which have handed age-verification legal guidelines.

The largest change to the service comes within the type of tiered pricing although. ExpressVPN has, because the starting, maintained a single-tier pricing mannequin wherein it provided all options and companies underneath one subscription. That has now modified and going ahead customers can select from three completely different membership tiers from ExpressVPN: Fundamental, Superior, and Professional.

ExpressVPN hands-on

Sam Singleton

Once you first open ExpressVPN, it has a easy single-panel interface with a related/not related button within the heart, and the nation choice beneath it. Then beneath that it exhibits the very best good location based mostly in your geo information. The interface seems 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 collection of shortcuts to web sites and internet-connected apps comparable to Google, Wikipedia, and Gmail. You may edit these shortcuts to customise them to your makes use of. 

ExpressVPN presents a pleasant sized server community that spans over 105 international locations with 3,000+ servers to select from. Admittedly, different VPNs provide extra international locations, however in all the time I’ve used and examined ExpressVPN I by no means actually discovered this to be a difficulty. Additionally, the service did add extra servers within the U.S. to now provide connections in each state.

In case you click on the drop down menu within the upper-right nook, you may entry extra issues comparable to VPN Places, Choices, and Assist & Help. The Choices menu is the place the meat of your settings is positioned. Right here ExpressVPN presents a good number of customizable options, the highlights being a kill-switch, split-tunneling, and skill to change protocols. All of those are pretty commonplace throughout all VPN companies. 

Notably nonetheless, ExpressVPN nonetheless doesn’t provide a multi-hop function to permit you to additional obfuscate your connection by chaining it by way of a number of VPN servers somewhat than only one. That is unlucky as many opponents already provide multi-hop connections and it’s a helpful privacy-enhancing function for customers. For a service as sturdy as ExpressVPN to not have multi-hop is disappointing—it looks like somebody didn’t get the memo.

Sam Singleton

Moreover, underneath the Choices menu, you may allow ExpressVPN’s personal ad- and tracker-blocking service referred to as “Risk Supervisor”. There’s additionally the choice to activate parental controls to dam grownup websites in case your children are utilizing the service as properly.

This addition of additional security measures on high of the VPN is one thing that plenty of the highest VPN suppliers comparable to Surfshark and NordVPN are providing now too. It’s definitely good to have and also you gained’t discover me arguing in opposition to it, however at this level there are seemingly higher stand-alone safety suites that supply higher blocking and safety.

It’s additionally price mentioning that whereas I targeted on the Home windows app for the needs of this assessment, ExpressVPN does provide extremely broad machine and browser assist. Moreover Home windows, it’s accessible for MacOS, iOS, Android, Linux, ChromeOS, Fireplace Stick, Android TV, succesful routers, and most lately Apple TV. To not point out that ExpressVPN’s browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox allow you to absolutely management the app from the browser as a substitute of appearing as easy browser-only proxy connections.

How a lot does ExpressVPN value?

ExpressVPN lately revamped its pricing mannequin and now presents three membership tiers: Fundamental, Superior, and Professional. Every is out there in a month-to-month plan, a 1-year plan, or a 2-year plan. 

Fundamental is the most affordable tier and comes with entry to the VPN with 10 simultaneous connections and ad-blocking. The Fundamental month-to-month subscription prices $12.99 per 30 days, $74.85 for 1-year, or $97.72 for a 2-year plan. In case you go for the 2-year plan you’ll additionally obtain an extra 4 additional months without cost. After your preliminary subscription time period ends each the 1-year and 2-year Fundamental plans will renew at $99.95 per 12 months.

Superior supplies all the pieces from Fundamental plus 12 simultaneous connections, full entry to ad- and tracker-blocking, a password supervisor, and three days of eSIM. An Superior subscription prices $13.99 per 30 days, $89.85 for 1-year, or $125.72 for a 2-year plan. Once more, you’ll get an additional 4 months free in case you subscribe to the 2-year plan. Annual charges renew at $119.95 after their preliminary time period.

Professional is the top-tier membership and comes with all the pieces from Advance and Fundamental plus 14 simultaneous connections, 5 days of eSIM, and entry to your personal devoted IP. A Professional subscription prices $19.99 per 30 days, $134.85 for 1-year, or $209.72 for a 2-year plan plus 4 additional free months. The Professional annual charges renew at $199.95 per 12 months after the preliminary time period.

The month-to-month worth for the Fundamental plan is kind of excessive contemplating you’re principally paying for only a VPN connection. The Superior plan supplies significantly better worth month-to-month contemplating it’s just one greenback extra per 30 days. After all all subscriptions turn out to be way more cheap when choosing longer-term plans. The Superior plan particularly is a superb deal for many customers if they will swing the upfront value. The Professional plan can be a superb worth if you’d like your personal devoted IP—one thing that’s hardly ever provided packaged collectively and often prices as a lot or extra per 30 days as your entire Professional plan.

ExpressVPN presents a 7-day free trial for brand spanking new members in addition to a 30-day money-back assure on all subscription plans in case you resolve that it isn’t for you. 

Subscriptions will be paid for 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 six completely different international locations all around the globe 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 as soon as once more glorious. Throughout all places examined, the common obtain velocity was 70 % in comparison with the bottom velocity and the common add velocity was an equally spectacular 80 % in comparison with the bottom. That firmly places it into our high 5 quickest VPNs, up there as one of many velocity kings—the McLaren to NordVPN’s Ferrari, if you’ll.

The speeds this time round did drop about 1 % from final 12 months’s checks, however that shouldn’t be trigger for concern as web speeds are notoriously fickle. It’s nonetheless quite a bit sooner than most companies we’ve evaluated and is greater than ample to accommodate a house person’s on-line actions. You aren’t prone to discover a lot, if any, buffering points whereas streaming or lag whereas gaming. 

ExpressVPN’s newest Lightway Turbo protocol guarantees elevated speeds and it principally delivered, form of. Whereas I did discover some servers sped up fairly a bit (round 10 to fifteen %), common speeds throughout all servers examined with the brand new protocol have been about the identical as total averages. Lightway Turbo averaged 72 % of the bottom obtain speeds and add speeds have been nonetheless hovering at 80 %. Some servers have been sooner, however oddly, different servers have been a bit slower than with various protocols. 

That being stated, I exploit Lightway Turbo as my default protocol these days with ExpressVPN. The connections are secure and as soon as I discovered which servers labored finest in my very own scenario then it did truly present a efficiency increase. Different customers could have combined outcomes, however I nonetheless suppose it’s a worthy improve total. 

ExpressVPN has lengthy promised that it’s going to unblock Netflix and that also holds true. The truth is, 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 Apple TV.

How is ExpressVPN’s safety and privateness?

ExpressVPN presents OpenVPN and its aforementioned proprietary Lightway protocols, in addition to its newly built-in post-quantum WireGuard protocol. It makes use of its Lightway Turbo protocol to attach by default—this may be modified underneath the Choices menu if you want.

The Lightway protocol can be open supply and yow will discover it on GitHub. It’s additionally undergone a safety audit by the penetration testing agency Cure53. For many who don’t wish to use Lightway, there may be the choice within the Home windows app to make use of OpenVPN—now upgraded with DCO for higher efficiency—or post-quantum WireGuard as a substitute. IKEv2 and L2TP/IPSec protocols could also be accessible as properly relying in your working system.

Sam Singleton

One other nifty privateness function that ExpressVPN applied is ShuffleIP. This function, lively by default, mechanically adjustments your IP handle for every web site you go to somewhat than remaining static like many different VPNs. This privacy-enhancing function makes it way more tough for potential third events to trace your on-line exercise.

So 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 comparable 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 Home windows asks you up entrance if you wish to contribute this information. Extra of those choices sooner or later, please.

The service is remarkably upfront about what it does and doesn’t observe and it backs up its claims too with quite a few impartial audits. In 2022 alone, ExpressVPN underwent 12 audits on numerous elements of its service. In 2023 and 2024, it undertook extra audits and most lately in 2025 it accomplished one other—the most recent being in February by KPMG LLP which confirmed its TrustedServer system and privateness coverage weren’t storing or compromising person information. 

Absolutely, the sheer variety of impartial audits makes ExpressVPN unmatched amongst all VPN suppliers. It’s a degree of transparency that may solely be applauded.

Moreover, ExpressVPN is positioned within the British Virgin Islands which isn’t topic to any worldwide indicators intelligence-sharing alliance or information retention necessities. That means it’s way more tough for any authorities to pressure ExpressVPN to share any information about customers or servers. Turkey even forcefully seized ExpressVPN servers in 2017 and nonetheless got here up with nothing in any case—I name that the final word impartial audit.

Is ExpressVPN price it?

The quick reply is: completely. The truth is I don’t suppose that there are lots of VPN companies out available on the market at the moment that rival ExpressVPN. Its mixture of fantastic speeds, capacity 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 machine assist and also you get a VPN that ticks nearly each field. It would lack some tweakable power-user security measures and different companies could provide a bigger catalog of minor safety addons, however most of us gained’t even discover this stuff.

ExpressVPN isn’t the most affordable possibility accessible, however for all the pieces that it does provide, the upper worth is greater than price it. Virtually all the pieces about this service is top-tier and as a complete, ExpressVPN continues to be fairly merely the most effective VPNs round.

Editor’s word: As a result of on-line companies are sometimes iterative, gaining new options and efficiency enhancements over time, this assessment is topic to alter in an effort to precisely replicate the present state of the service. Any adjustments to textual content or our remaining assessment verdict can be famous on the high of this text.