Quick speeds and a low studying curve

ExpressVPN is nice 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.”

Exterior of stable safety, the 2 finest issues ExpressVPN provides 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 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 almost bereft of customization choices and it is notably costlier than its competitors — however it beats most VPNs in a head-to-head matchup.

For this assessment, 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 are most vital for you, you must come away with all the data you have to determine whether or not to subscribe.

Editor’s observe (7/25/25): We’re within the means of revamping our VPN protection to supply extra in-depth, actionable data and shopping for guides. Our suggestions, and all the data on this web page, are topic to vary because the replace continues. Try our revamped ProtonVPN review and NordVPN review to see the brand new path, or study extra about how we test 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 main 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 adjustments, 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 will want your activation code, which yow 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 choose a location for you — the “Sensible Location” is the server with the most effective mixture of being close by and unburdened.

Every little thing else is crammed into the hamburger menu on the prime left. Right here, in seven tabs, you will discover the Community Lock kill swap, the 4 forms 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 numerous web sites, helpful for those who recurrently use your VPN for a similar on-line locations.

To sum up, there’s nearly nothing right here to get in the way in which: 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 immediately from the expressvpn.com obtain middle. Only some options are lacking and a pair others have been added. Cut 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. Nearly each web site continues to be accessible by way of IPv4, however it’s helpful for those who do must entry a selected 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’ve got used the VPN this week.

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

The choices menu is organized sensibly, with no possibility situated greater than two clicks deep. You will notice a few choices right here that are not out there on desktop, the most effective of which is the power to robotically hook up with your last-used ExpressVPN server every time your telephone connects to a non-trusted wifi community.

There are additionally just a few normal safety instruments: an IP deal with 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. Aside from the latter, we would advocate utilizing third-party testing instruments as an alternative — even a VPN with integrity has an incentive to make its personal app seem like it is working.

iPhone and iPad

You’ll be able to solely set up ExpressVPN’s iOS app via the app retailer. Throughout setup, chances are you’ll must 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, however it makes up for that by chopping out a number of the litter. The tabs and options are related, although break up tunneling and shortcuts are absent. Additionally, each cellular apps make buyer assist much more accessible than their desktop counterparts — plus, cellular is the one technique to ship e mail assist tickets.

Browser extension

ExpressVPN additionally consists of 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’ve gotten a really particular net browser circulate you want.

ExpressVPN velocity check: Very quick averages

Connecting to a VPN nearly all the time 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 knowledge packet to journey between your gadget and an online server via the VPN. Latency will increase with distance. It is most vital for real-time duties like video chatting and on-line gaming.

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

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

The desk under exhibits our outcomes. We carried out 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 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 person 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 way more on distance than obtain velocity does, so we anticipate it to shoot up on servers greater than 1,000 miles from our location. Maintaining the typical under 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 activity 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 under have led us to imagine that ExpressVPN is presently leak-proof.

Obtainable VPN protocols

A VPN protocol is sort of a widespread language {that a} VPN server can use to mediate between your gadgets 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 nasty signal.

ExpressVPN offers you a number of three protocols: IKEv2, OpenVPN and Lightway. The primary two are stable decisions that assist the most recent encryption algorithms. OpenVPN has been absolutely open-source for years and is the only option if privateness is your purpose. 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 will solely discover on ExpressVPN, although its source code is available on Github. It is just like WireGuard, in that each attain for quicker speeds and decrease processing calls for by maintaining 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 incorrect with any of ExpressVPN’s protocol choices. 99% of the time, your most suitable option shall be to set the controls to Computerized and let the VPN determine which runs finest.

Testing for leaks

ExpressVPN is without doubt one of the finest providers, however it’s not leak-proof (as you possibly can learn within the Background Verify under). Fortunately, checking for DNS leaks is an easy 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 fastened 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 will 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 commonest reason for VPN leaks is using public DNS servers to attach customers to web sites, which may mistakenly ship shopping exercise exterior 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 widespread flaws can result in VPN leaks: WebRTC visitors and IPv6. The previous is a communication protocol utilized in stay streaming and the latter is a brand new IP customary designed to broaden area availability. Each are good, however presently optionally available, so ExpressVPN robotically blocks each to make sure there isn’t any alternative for leaks to come up.

One observe 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, exterior the VPN tunnel. This dangers leaking delicate knowledge, even with Lockdown Mode energetic in iOS 16. A blog post 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 have been energetic earlier than you linked 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 to be like when ExpressVPN transmits knowledge from one among its servers to the web. The screenshot under exhibits an information 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 occasions, all the time getting the identical consequence. This left us happy that ExpressVPN’s core options are working as meant.

How a lot does ExpressVPN price?

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

A 12-month subscription prices $99.95 and consists of three months without cost together 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 price to $8.33. It’s also possible to join 28 months at a price 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 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 need to use it, although.

In our opinion, ExpressVPN’s service is stable sufficient that it is price paying additional. Maybe not this a lot additional, however that is determined by what you get out of it. We advocate utilizing the 30-day refund interval and seeing how properly ExpressVPN works for you. If it is a VPN you possibly can get pleasure from utilizing, that runs quick and unblocks every thing you want, that is price a server’s weight in gold.

ExpressVPN aspect apps and bundles

ExpressVPN consists of 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 price.

Each subscription consists of the ExpressVPN keys password supervisor. That is out there underneath its personal tab on the Android and iOS apps. On desktop, you will 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 via holiday.com, a separate service linked to ExpressVPN. The baseline 1GB vacation eSIM plans final for five days and might apply to nations, areas, or all the 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 deal with to your ExpressVPN subscription for an additional cost per month. A devoted IP permits you to use the identical IP deal with each time you hook up with ExpressVPN. You’ll be able to 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 dangerous exercise on a shared IP.

In contrast to lots of its rivals, ExpressVPN does not presently provide antivirus or on-line storage providers, however there’s a complete bundle of ID safety instruments known as Identification 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 will must enter your private data in your ExpressVPN account web page or a cellular 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 isn’t but out there to those that subscribed earlier than it launched in October 2024.

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

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

The Identification Defender options are presently 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 underneath the umbrella of Kape Applied sciences (ExpressVPN’s father or mother firm) will make the business much less aggressive, we do not imagine it is influencing ExpressVPN to benefit from its customers’ privateness. To substantiate, 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 preserve both exercise logs (corresponding to a person’s shopping historical past whereas linked 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 shopping exercise). It then specifies the seven forms of knowledge it is legally allowed to gather:

• Information used to enroll in an account, corresponding to names, emails and fee 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 corresponding to crash studies, that are solely shared upon person request.

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

• Advertising and marketing knowledge collected immediately 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 rely as crimson flags are account knowledge and advertising knowledge. 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 knowledge class, nor does the coverage let ExpressVPN promote the information to different non-public events.

The one actually annoying factor right here is that for those who 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 knowledge, ExpressVPN collects gadget fingerprints and site knowledge while you join an account on its web site. The privateness coverage additionally claims that is anonymized, as its “programs are engineered to decouple such knowledge from personally identifiable data.” Audits corroborate this, as we’ll see within the subsequent part. So, whereas it might be higher if ExpressVPN did not acquire 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 companies 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 will be trusted.

For the final a number of years, ExpressVPN has had KPMG look over its privateness coverage and related infrastructure (see “TrustedServer” under). KPMG’s most up-to-date report, accomplished in December 2023 and launched in Could 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 time period ExpressVPN makes use of for its RAM-only server infrastructure. RAM-only servers haven’t any exhausting drives for long-term storage and return to a typical disk picture with each reboot. This makes it theoretically not possible to retailer person exercise logs on them, even when ExpressVPN wished to do 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.

Can ExpressVPN change your digital location?

Subsequent, we examined whether or not ExpressVPN can really persuade web sites that you just’re someplace apart from your actual location. Our safety assessments have already confirmed it will possibly disguise your IP deal with, however 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 it is a lot like how we dealt with the DNS leak assessments: attempt a number of completely different servers and see if we get caught. We checked 5 pattern places exterior the U.S. to see if we a) bought into Netflix and b) noticed completely different titles within the library. The outcomes are under.

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

All the opposite places bought us entry to an alternate Netflix library on the primary attempt. We even checked whether or not the India server, which is bodily situated within the UK, confirmed us completely 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 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 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 consists of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, spectacular since central Asia stands out as the area most frequently shafted by VPNs.

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

To scale 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 based mostly in Singapore. This is not all the time 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 rivals 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 mentioned that, what they do embrace works properly. On this part, we’ll run via ExpressVPN’s 4 substantial options exterior 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 cellular). A VPN kill swap is a security function that retains you from broadcasting exterior the VPN tunnel. If it ever detects that you just aren’t linked to a respectable 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 vital 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 not possible, and a kill swap is the easiest way to forestall it — the swap all the time triggers until you are linked 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 will 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 underneath 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 an inventory 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 might’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 every thing on the listing, uncheck it to permit every thing via. In assessments, the advert blocker was almost 100% efficient towards banner adverts, however failed to dam any video adverts on YouTube or Netflix.

The parental management possibility blocks an inventory of porn websites. It is a straightforward possibility for involved mother and father, however solely works whereas ExpressVPN is linked. As such, it is meant for use together with device-level parental controls that stop the kid from turning off or uninstalling the VPN consumer.

Cut up tunneling

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

ExpressVPN consists of break up tunneling on Home windows, Android and Mac (although solely on variations 10 and under). You’ll be able to solely break up by app, not by web site, however 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 wherein it is a clear business chief: VPN routers. ExpressVPN Aircove is, to our information, 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 an enormous 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 easy methods to use an ExpressVPN consumer. It even permits completely different gadgets in your house to connect with completely different places via the router VPN.

Aircove’s largest disadvantage is its worth. Presently 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 well worth the one-time fee.

ExpressVPN buyer assist choices

ExpressVPN’s written assist pages are a number of the finest in the marketplace. Its stay chat is extra of a combined bag, and sophisticated questions could trigger delays. Nonetheless, it’s at the very least staffed with human brokers who goal to answer precisely, slightly than resolve your ticket as shortly as doable.

We approached ExpressVPN’s assist 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?” (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/assist, the written assist middle 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 many who study higher that manner.

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

The stay assist 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 wished a solution on our particular case, so we contacted stay chat by clicking the button on the bottom-right of each FAQ web page.

Reside chat begins with an AI assistant, which isn’t too exhausting to get previous — simply ask it a query it will possibly’t reply, then click on “Switch to an Agent.” We bought 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 stay chat agent cannot reply your query, you will be redirected to open an e mail assist ticket. Annoyingly, there isn’t any technique to go on to e mail assist via the web site or desktop apps, although cellular customers have the choice to skip immediately 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 file 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 atmosphere for on-line privateness. The BVIs haven’t any legislation requiring companies to retain knowledge on their customers, and the method for extraditing knowledge is famously troublesome, requiring a direct order from the very best court docket.

In 2021, the BVI implemented the Data Protection Act (DPA) [PDF link], which prevents corporations based mostly within the territory from accessing knowledge on their customers wherever on the earth. It is a fantastic privateness legislation in principle, modeled on best-in-class laws within the EU. Nonetheless, we could not discover any proof that its supervising authority — the Workplace of the Data Commissioner — has a pacesetter or workers.

In different phrases, whereas ExpressVPN isn’t 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 determined by whether or not you belief the corporate itself. Let’s examine 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 very best check of a VPN’s method 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 advocate 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 linked to an ExpressVPN server, their shopping exercise was typically going on to their ISP, unmasked.

The bug solely impacted just a few 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 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, Personal Web Entry, and Zenmate (earlier than it merged into CyberGhost). As shown on its website, it additionally owns Webselenese, writer of VPN assessment 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 immediately have interaction with, nor search to affect, the content material on any Webselenese website,” 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 opinions 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 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 informed 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 rapid 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 Undertaking 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 finest 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 through the time it has been linked to Kape, Sagi, or Gericke.

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

Closing verdict

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

Nonetheless, for sure particular circumstances, ExpressVPN will not be the only option. There is no technique to arrange your individual server places, like NordVPN provides, 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 advise going with ExpressVPN for normal on-line privateness, for spoofing places in your house nation whereas touring, or for those who recurrently 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.