Quick speeds and a low studying curve

ExpressVPN is sweet at its job. It is simple 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 presents are quick speeds and a easy interface. Our assessments confirmed solely a 7% common drop in obtain velocity and a 2% lack of add velocity, worldwide. And whereas the shortage of additional options might 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 dearer than its competitors — nevertheless it beats most VPNs in a head-to-head matchup.

For this evaluation, we adopted our rigorous 10-step VPN testing course of, exploring ExpressVPN’s safety, privateness, velocity, interfaces and extra. Whether or not you learn straight via or skip to the sections which might be most necessary for you, you need to come away with all the knowledge you could resolve whether or not to subscribe.

Editors’ notice: We’re within the means of rebooting all of our VPN evaluations from scratch. As soon as we do a recent move on the highest providers, we’ll be updating every evaluation with a ranking and extra comparative data.

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 obtainable. 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 adjustments, anticipate 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’ll find 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 possibly can change your location or let the app choose a location for you — the “Sensible Location” is the server with the most effective mixture of being close by and unburdened.

Every part else is crammed into the hamburger menu on the prime left. Right here, in seven tabs, you may discover the Community Lock kill change, the 4 kinds of content material blockers, the break up tunneling menu and the choice to vary your VPN protocol. It’s also possible to add shortcuts to varied web sites, helpful should you repeatedly use your VPN for a similar on-line locations.

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

Mac

ExpressVPN’s app for macOS is sort of similar 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 immediately 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, nevertheless it’s helpful should you do have to entry a particular IPv6 deal with whereas the VPN is energetic.

Android

Android customers can obtain ExpressVPN via 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 have used the VPN this week.

There’s a big button for connecting. Clicking on the server identify takes you to an inventory of places. On this checklist, you possibly can 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 may, however not a single one took longer than a couple of seconds.

The choices menu is organized sensibly, with no choice positioned greater than two clicks deep. You will note a few choices right here that are not obtainable on desktop, the most effective of which is the power to routinely connect with your last-used ExpressVPN server each time your telephone connects to a non-trusted wifi community.

There are additionally a couple of basic safety instruments: an IP deal with checker, DNS and WebRTC leak testers and a password generator. These are additionally obtainable on the web site, however right here, they’re constructed into the app. Apart from the latter, we might suggest utilizing third-party testing instruments as an alternative — even a VPN with integrity has an incentive to make its personal app appear to be it is working.

iPhone and iPad

You possibly can solely set up ExpressVPN’s iOS app via the app retailer. Throughout setup, it’s possible you’ll have to enter your password to permit your telephone to make use of VPN configurations. In any other case, there are not any main variations from the Android course of.

The interface isn’t fairly as pleasing because the dark-mode Android app, nevertheless it makes up for that by chopping out among the litter. The tabs and options are comparable, 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 strategy 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 could have a really particular internet browser circulate you want.

ExpressVPN velocity check: Very quick averages

Connecting to a VPN nearly at all times decreases your velocity, however the most effective VPNs mitigate the drop as a lot as doable. We used Ookla’s velocity testing app to see how a lot of your web velocity ExpressVPN preserves. For this check, 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 information packet to journey between your machine and an internet server via the VPN. Latency will increase with distance. It is most necessary for real-time duties like video chatting and on-line gaming.

• Obtain velocity, measured in megabits per second (Mbps), is the quantity of knowledge that may obtain onto your machine at one time — reminiscent of when loading an internet web page or streaming a video.

• Add velocity, additionally measured in Mbps, is the quantity of knowledge your machine can ship to the net directly. It is most necessary for torrenting, because the quantity of knowledge you possibly can seed determines how briskly you possibly can obtain in alternate.

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

These are extraordinarily good outcomes. ExpressVPN is a winner on each obtain and add velocity. Irrespective of the place we went on the planet, 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 person load between servers to get rid of 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 velocity does, so we count on it to shoot up on servers greater than 1,000 miles from our location. Retaining the common beneath 300 ms, as ExpressVPN does right here, is a powerful displaying.

ExpressVPN safety check: Checking for leaks

A VPN’s core mission is to cover your IP deal with and make you untraceable on-line. Our process on this part is to determine if ExpressVPN can perform this mission each time you join. Whereas we won’t be 100% sure, the assessments we’ll run via beneath have led us to consider that ExpressVPN is at the moment leak-proof.

Out there VPN protocols

A VPN protocol is sort of a frequent language {that a} VPN server can use to mediate between your units and the net 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 foul signal.

ExpressVPN provides you a collection of three protocols: IKEv2, OpenVPN and Lightway. The primary two are stable decisions that help the most recent encryption algorithms. OpenVPN has been totally open-source for years and is the only 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 source code is available on Github. It is just like WireGuard, in that each attain for sooner speeds and decrease processing calls for by holding their codebases slim. Nonetheless, Lightway was not too long ago rewritten in Rust to higher shield the keys saved in its reminiscence.

In the end, you possibly can’t go unsuitable with any of ExpressVPN’s protocol choices. 99% of the time, your best option shall 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, nevertheless it’s not leak-proof (as you possibly can learn within the Background Examine beneath). Fortunately, checking for DNS leaks is a straightforward matter of checking your IP deal with earlier than and after connecting to a VPN server. If the brand new deal with matches the VPN server, you are good; if not, your VPN is leaking.

First, we checked the Home windows app with break up tunneling energetic 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 have been uncommon even earlier than ExpressVPN mounted the vulnerability.

In actual fact, 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 most effective VPNs can do little or no about for now.

The most typical explanation for VPN leaks is using public DNS servers to attach customers to web sites, which may mistakenly ship searching 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 visitors and IPv6. The previous is a communication protocol utilized in dwell streaming and the latter is a brand new IP normal designed to develop area availability. Each are good, however at the moment non-compulsory, so ExpressVPN routinely blocks each to make sure there is no alternative for leaks to come up.

One notice about VPN safety on iOS: it is a known and continuing problem that iOS VPNs don’t stop many on-line apps from speaking with Apple immediately, outdoors the VPN tunnel. This dangers leaking delicate information, even with Lockdown Mode energetic in iOS 16. A blog post by Proton VPN shares a workaround: connect with a VPN server, then flip Airplane Mode on and off once more to finish all connections that have been energetic earlier than you related to the VPN.

Testing encryption

We completed up our battery of safety assessments by testing ExpressVPN’s encryption immediately. Utilizing WireShark, a free packet sniffer, we inspected what it seems like when ExpressVPN transmits information from one in every of 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 check a number of instances, at all times getting the identical consequence. 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 carry 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 at no cost along with your first fee, 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. It’s also possible to 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 12 months degree.

There are two methods to check ExpressVPN at no cost earlier than making a monetary dedication. Customers on iOS and Android can obtain the ExpressVPN app with out getting into any fee 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 should use it, although.

In our opinion, ExpressVPN’s service is stable sufficient that it is price paying further. Maybe not this a lot further, however that will depend on what you get out of it. We suggest utilizing the 30-day refund interval and seeing how properly ExpressVPN works for you. If it is a VPN you possibly can take pleasure in utilizing, that runs quick and unblocks every part you want, that is price 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 obtainable below its personal tab on the Android and iOS apps. On desktop, you may have to obtain a separate extension out of your browser’s retailer, then sign up utilizing your account activation code. It is obtainable on all Chromium browsers, however not Firefox.

Beginning in 2025, new subscribers get an eSIM plan via holiday.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 complete world (although it is not clear whether or not the bundle deal applies to the regional and world plans). Longer-term plans embody bigger eSIM plans.

You possibly can add a devoted IP deal with to your ExpressVPN subscription for an additional cost per month. A devoted IP helps you to use the identical IP deal with each time you connect with ExpressVPN. You possibly can add the deal with to whitelists on restricted networks, and also you’re assured to by no means be blocked due to another person’s unhealthy exercise on a shared IP.

Not like a lot of its opponents, ExpressVPN does not at the moment provide antivirus or on-line storage providers, however there’s a complete bundle of ID safety instruments known as Id Defender. We have not reviewed any of those merchandise intimately, however here is an inventory 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 identification theft reimbursement and comes free with new ExpressVPN one-year or two-year subscriptions. It is not but obtainable to those that subscribed earlier than it launched in October 2024.

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

• Credit score Scanner is just obtainable for United States customers. It displays your exercise on the three credit score bureaus so you possibly can shortly spot any suspicious transactions.

The Id Defender options are at the moment solely obtainable to new ExpressVPN clients 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 benefit from 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 an alternative of attorneys. You can see it for yourself here.

Within the introduction, ExpressVPN states that it doesn’t maintain both exercise logs (reminiscent of a person’s searching historical past whereas related to the VPN) or connection logs (such because the length of a person’s session and their IP deal with, which can be utilized to extrapolate searching exercise). It then specifies the seven kinds of information it is legally allowed to gather:

• Knowledge used to enroll in an account, reminiscent of names, emails and fee strategies.

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

• Credentials saved within the ExpressVPN Keys password supervisor.

• Diagnostic information reminiscent of crash reviews, that are solely shared upon person request.

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

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

• Knowledge voluntarily submitted for identification theft safety apps.

Of these seven exceptions, the one ones that rely as purple flags are account information and advertising and marketing information. Each classes are extremely private and could possibly be damaging if mishandled. Luckily, complying with subpoenas isn’t one of many allowed makes use of listed for both information class, nor does the coverage let ExpressVPN promote the info to different non-public events.

The one actually annoying factor right here is that should you ask ExpressVPN to delete your private information, you will not have the ability 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 information, ExpressVPN collects machine fingerprints and site information whenever you join an account on its web site. The privateness coverage additionally claims that is anonymized, as its “programs are engineered to decouple such information from personally identifiable data.” Audits corroborate this, as we’ll see within the subsequent part. So, whereas it will be higher if ExpressVPN did not accumulate any private information 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 repute to lie on behalf of a VPN, so their outcomes could 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 inner controls in place that customers may belief its privateness coverage.

The report is freely available to read. It is a excellent signal, although we’re searching 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 haven’t any onerous drives for long-term storage and return to a typical disk picture with each reboot. This makes it theoretically inconceivable to retailer person exercise logs on them, even when ExpressVPN needed to try this.

The KPMG audit, linked above, reviews 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 truly persuade web sites that you just’re someplace aside from your actual location. Our safety assessments have already confirmed it will possibly cover your IP deal with, nevertheless it takes greater than leak-proofing to idiot streaming websites today — Netflix and the others have gotten excellent at combing via 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) acquired 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 acquired 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 connect with a complete of 164 server places in 105 nations and territories. These places are moderately properly 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 World 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 would be the area most frequently shafted by VPNs.

Nonetheless, many of those servers have digital places totally different from their actual ones. For these of you selecting a server primarily based on efficiency as an alternative of a specific IP deal with, ExpressVPN’s web site has a useful checklist of which servers are digital. The unhealthy information is that it is a huge chunk of the checklist. A complete of 63 ExpressVPN places are digital, or 38% of its complete community.

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

In comparison with direct opponents like NordVPN and Surfshark, ExpressVPN does not have many particular options. It is aimed squarely on the informal market and can most likely disappoint energy customers. Having stated that, what they do embody works properly. On this part, we’ll run via ExpressVPN’s 4 substantial options outdoors its VPN servers themselves.

Community Lock kill change

“Community Lock” is the identify ExpressVPN provides to its kill change (although it is known as “Community Safety” on cell). A VPN kill change 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 professional ExpressVPN server, it cuts off your web entry. You will not have the ability to get again on-line till you both reconnect to the VPN or disable Community Lock.

That is necessary for everybody, not simply customers who want to cover delicate visitors. The not too long ago found TunnelVision bug theoretically permits hackers to arrange faux public wi-fi networks via which they redirect you to equally faux VPN servers, which then harvest your private data. It is unlikely, however not inconceivable, and a kill change is the easiest way to forestall it — the change 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. It’s also possible to toggle whether or not you may nonetheless have the ability to entry native units whereas the kill change is obstructing your web — that is allowed by default.

Menace supervisor, advert blocker and parental controls

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

You possibly can’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 intensive 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 approach: examine a field to dam every part on the checklist, uncheck it to permit every part via. In assessments, the advert blocker was practically 100% efficient in opposition to banner adverts, however failed to dam any video adverts on YouTube or Netflix.

The parental management choice blocks an inventory of porn websites. It is a straightforward 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 stop the kid from turning off or uninstalling the VPN consumer.

Break up tunneling

Generally, you may discover it useful to have your machine getting on-line via two totally different IP addresses directly — one in your residence providers and one for a location you are attempting to spoof. That is the place break up tunneling is useful: it runs some apps via the VPN whereas leaving others unprotected. This may additionally enhance your speeds, because the VPN must encrypt much less in complete.

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

ExpressVPN Aircove router

By now, it must be clear that we discover ExpressVPN to be a extremely dependable however typically unexceptional VPN service. Nonetheless, 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 business VPN that comes with its personal dashboard interface.

Normally, 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, shall be immediately acquainted to anybody who already is aware of the best way to use an ExpressVPN consumer. It even permits totally different units in your house to hook up with totally different places via the router VPN.

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

ExpressVPN buyer help choices

ExpressVPN’s written assist pages are among the greatest in the marketplace. Its dwell chat is extra of a blended bag, and complicated questions might trigger delays. Nonetheless, it’s no less than staffed with human brokers who goal to answer precisely, reasonably than resolve your ticket as shortly as doable.

We approached ExpressVPN’s help options with a easy query: “If I requested that ExpressVPN delete all my private information, would I have the ability to get a refund for my unused subscription time?” (Keep 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 wonderful, together with screenshots and clearly written steps; every one features a video information for individuals who be taught higher that approach.

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

The dwell help expertise

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

Stay chat begins with an AI assistant, which isn’t too onerous to get previous — simply ask it a query it will possibly’t reply, then click on “Switch to an Agent.” We acquired 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 dwell chat agent cannot reply your query, you may be redirected to open an e-mail help ticket. Annoyingly, there is no strategy to go on to e-mail help via the web site or desktop apps, although cell customers have the choice to skip immediately there.

ExpressVPN background examine: From founding to Kape Applied sciences

ExpressVPN launched in 2009, which makes it one of many oldest shopper 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 benefit from that territory’s favorable authorized setting for on-line privateness. The BVIs haven’t any legislation requiring companies to retain information on their customers, and the method for extraditing information is famously tough, requiring a direct order from the very best courtroom.

In 2021, the BVI implemented the Data Protection Act (DPA) [PDF link], which prevents firms primarily based within the territory from accessing information on their customers anyplace on the planet. It is an excellent privateness legislation in concept, modeled on best-in-class laws within the EU. Nonetheless, we could not discover any proof that its supervising authority — the Workplace of the Info Commissioner — has a frontrunner or employees.

In different phrases, whereas ExpressVPN isn’t legally required to log any information on its customers, there’s technically no person stopping them from doing so. Whether or not you belief the jurisdiction will depend on 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 death at an art show. Turkish police suspected somebody had used ExpressVPN to mask their identity whereas they deleted data from social media accounts belonging to the alleged murderer. To analyze, they confiscated an ExpressVPN server to comb for proof. They didn’t find anything.

A police seizure is the absolute best check of a VPN’s strategy to privateness. The supplier cannot put together beforehand, faux something, or collude with investigators. The Turkey incident continues to be probably the greatest causes to suggest ExpressVPN, although eight years is a very long time for coverage to vary.

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

The bug solely impacted a couple of customers, and to their credit score, ExpressVPN sprang into motion as quickly as they realized about it. The group 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 in opposition to them {that a} journalist observed 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 purchased a controlling interest in ExpressVPN. Along with ExpressVPN, privately held Kape owns CyberGhost, Non-public Web Entry, and Zenmate (earlier than it merged into CyberGhost). As shown on its website, it additionally owns Webselenese, writer of VPN evaluation web sites WizCase and vpnMentor, which poses an obvious battle of curiosity.

When reached for remark, a consultant for ExpressVPN stated that “ExpressVPN doesn’t immediately 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 — here’s one example. Even so, it is a good reminder to not take VPN evaluations at face worth with out realizing 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 prison time in Israel and was mentioned in the Pandora Papers, amongst different issues. Extra not too long ago, headlines in regards to the billionaire have targeted extra his companies within the online gambling and fintech arenas, in addition to his real estate ventures. An ExpressVPN consultant advised 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 immediately tried to affect ExpressVPN’s software program or each day operations.

Nearer to the fast day-to-day operations of ExpressVPN was the corporate’s employment of Daniel Gericke as CTO from 2019 via 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 Challenge Raven, which the United Arab Emirates (UAE) used to spy by itself residents.

The revelation prompted a public response from ExpressVPN defending its decision to hire Gericke, arguing that “[t]he greatest goalkeepers are those skilled by the most effective 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 throughout the time it has been related to Kape, Sagi, or Gericke.

In the long run, how a lot ExpressVPN’s historical past issues to you is a private alternative. If you happen to object to any present or previous actions by Kape Applied sciences or Teddy Sagi, there are different premium VPN choices you may favor. If you happen to want extra data to make up your thoughts, we suggest studying via CNET’s 2022 deep dive on ExpressVPN’s corporate history.

Remaining verdict

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

Nonetheless, for sure particular instances, ExpressVPN will not be the only option. There is no strategy to arrange your personal server places, like NordVPN presents, and no double VPN connections, like you possibly can construct for your self on Surfshark. Its company background is extra suspect than the entities backing Proton VPN, and in contrast to Mullvad, ExpressVPN does not work in China — it is so well-known that the federal government targets its servers particularly.

We propose going with ExpressVPN for basic on-line privateness, for spoofing places in your house nation whereas touring, or should you repeatedly have to 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 previous screwdriver than a multi-tool.