ExpressVPN Review

ExpressVPN collects less data than the vast majority of VPNs. It also offers an anonymous payment method when signing up, and its diskless server network means the service can’t log any activity data.

However, ExpressVPN does retain some anonymous connection logs, such as the date of your last connection and your bandwidth usage. This data is only used for diagnostic purposes and to improve the service.

Importantly, a third party can’t use this information to identify you from your web activity. Real-world tests, like server raids and third-party audits, have confirmed this fact several times.

That said, we’d still much prefer if the VPN adopted a true no-logs privacy policy, like Private Internet Access and PrivateVPN.

ExpressVPN is headquartered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), an excellent jurisdiction choice for a VPN service. The BVI doesn’t have any mandatory data retention laws, making it easier for ExpressVPN to maintain the assurances made in its logging policy.

The BVI is not part of any data-sharing alliance like the Five Eyes, meaning other governments and agencies cannot force ExpressVPN to hand over any user information.

ExpressVPN’s 2021 acquisition by Kape Technologies sparked controversy due to Kape’s history with an SDK platform that third parties used for ad injection. However, this platform was shut down in 2016, years before the ExpressVPN acquisition.

Under Kape’s ownership, ExpressVPN has actually improved its privacy practices through additional audits and bug bounty programs.

Unlike most other VPNs that store server information on hard drives, ExpressVPN’s servers are diskless. Named TrustServer, this feature prevents the VPN from logging any of your usage data and it makes it impossible for a hacker to extract data from the server.

ExpressVPN is one of the only VPN services to have had its diskless server network audited by a third party. Cure53, the auditor, confirmed that all of ExpressVPN’s servers are diskless and that “No IP addresses or PII [personally identifiable information] can be written to physical disk”.

All of its servers are owned and operated by ExpressVPN, too, meaning they aren’t rented from a third party. We prefer this as it minimizes the possibility of a server being interfered with by a hacker or other bad actors.

Unblocks US Netflix & 17 Other Regions

In every test for the past 12 months, ExpressVPN always worked with US Netflix. The videos loaded instantly and streamed in HD without any buffering.

However, we found that ExpressVPN’s default US server doesn’t stream Netflix. Instead, you’ll have to manually connect to the New Jersey - 1 server location.

Other VPNs, like Surfshark and NordVPN, automatically connect you to a server optimized for streaming, so we’d like to see ExpressVPN do the same.

ExpressVPN unblocks all major Netflix libraries without issue.

Unlike most other VPN review websites, we also test every VPN with Netflix in every server location.

Disappointingly, ExpressVPN doesn’t work at all with some popular Netflix libraries, like Mexico and Argentina. Windscribe is a better choice if you want to unblock international Netflix libraries.

Streams Max, YouTube TV & All Other US Streaming Sites

When using ExpressVPN, we could access US streaming services from anywhere. The VPN worked with Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, and it works to bypass YouTube TV blocks.

Unlike Netflix, every site was accessible with any US ExpressVPN server, including New York and San Francisco.

ExpressVPN streams US streaming sites from anywhere.

In each case, videos loaded within one second. The videos always stayed at the maximum quality of 4K or 1080p and didn’t buffer at any stage.

Unblocks BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Sky Go & Other UK Platforms

Unlike many popular VPNs, like PIA and PrivateVPN, ExpressVPN unblocks the UK library of Disney+.

While connected to its London server, we were able to access Star content from our US Disney+ account for no additional cost. We enjoyed content like Family Guy and Grey’s Anatomy, which is usually only available with a Hulu subscription.

We could access Star content on a US-based Disney+ account by connecting to a UK server.

ExpressVPN also bypasses BBC iPlayer’s geo-blocks on all Undisclosed of its UK servers. Using it, we streamed live and on-demand content in HD, including Match of the Day and Top Gear.

Until recently, ExpressVPN was a poor choice for BBC iPlayer. Before, you’d have to use the VPN’s browser extensions or MediaStreamer Smart DNS service. We’re pleased ExpressVPN has focused on improving its streaming performance.

We also found the VPN to be a top choice for accessing other UK streaming platforms. It worked with Sky Go, Now, Channel 4, and ITVX. It’s also the best VPN for France, able to unblock every French streaming service.

As the data shows, connecting to a nearby server barely impacted our download speed, with a loss of just 3%. Regardless of your location, you can expect similar high speeds when connecting to nearby servers.

Of all the VPNs we’ve reviewed, ExpressVPN is the second-fastest VPN for download speeds on both local and international connections.

ExpressVPN’s impressive speeds come from two key features: its custom-built Lightway protocol optimized for performance, and a network of 10Gbps servers that provide high bandwidth capacity.

That said, we’ve observed a decline in ExpressVPN’s international speeds recently, and it’s no longer the fastest VPN for far-away servers. Compared to our previous tests, its speeds have decreased by 27% in South Africa and 7% in Germany.

To put all of this into context, you can see how ExpressVPN’s speed performance compares to other leading VPNs in the chart below:

Fast Ping for Lag-Free Gaming

ExpressVPN’s strong speed performance makes it a top choice for gaming. We recorded a ping time of 8ms on a nearby server, which is faster than almost every other VPN we’ve reviewed.

Using ExpressVPN on Xbox, our connection was quick enough for fast-paced games, like Warzone and Halo. The VPN was always fast enough for competitive gaming on every local server we tested.

We didn’t experience any lag on Halo Infinite while connected to ExpressVPN.

The VPN also has servers in countries like Egypt and Argentina, where you’ll encounter easier gaming lobbies. But as is typical, ExpressVPN’s ping time increases significantly on further away servers. Unless you’re playing a slower-paced game, we recommend you stick to servers in your country.

ExpressVPN uses a different VPN tunneling protocol than other VPN services. We’d prefer if the VPN used more established technologies, as these have been tested for longer and by more people.

ExpressVPN’s default protocol is Lightway, which was developed by ExpressVPN and is exclusive to it. Thankfully, Lightway encrypts traffic using the AES-256 cipher, a very secure encryption method you can trust to conceal your most sensitive data.

Lightway is open-source, meaning anyone can inspect its code base. Although this is an excellent way to build trust in a proprietary tunneling protocol, it’s still not as trustworthy as a widely used open-source protocol like WireGuard.

Lightway has performed well in our security tests, but we’d like to see ExpressVPN at least add WireGuard as an option.

ExpressVPN offers Lightway but not WireGuard.

Like most other VPN services, ExpressVPN uses Perfect Forward Secrecy, a 4096-bit RSA key, and SHA-512 HMAC authentication. Put simply, this conceals your web activity and ensures an attacker can’t alter your internet data in real time.

ExpressVPN’s apps and browser extensions successfully encrypted all our traffic, including internet activity outside the web browser. We checked for this using Wireshark, a tool that allows you to analyze individual packets.

We found that the VPN successfully concealed the websites we visited, and obfuscated data on insecure HTTP websites.

Head of Research, Simon Migliano, tested ExpressVPN’s encryption with Wireshark.

Though this might be expected, surprisingly many other VPN browser extensions are basic web proxies that don’t encrypt network traffic.

Kill Switch Stops IP Address Leaks

All of ExpressVPN’s apps include its ‘Network Lock’ kill switch. We rarely see kill switches available on every platform, especially Fire TV and iOS, so we’re pleased ExpressVPN has maintained functionality across all devices.

To verify ExpressVPN’s kill switch works as expected, we tested it using our in-house kill switch testing tool. This checks for IP address leaks after an unexpected connection drop.

As you can see in the screenshot below, ExpressVPN’s kill switch successfully prevented our true IP address from leaking outside of the VPN tunnel.

ExpressVPN’s kill switch isn’t fully secure on macOS.

That said, we did discover that ExpressVPN’s macOS app leaks IP addresses when changing to a different server location. The app shows you a warning message before you do this, but it’s disappointing that ExpressVPN has not fixed this vulnerability altogether.

We ran ExpressVPN through our IP, DNS, and WebRTC leak tests. The VPN passed all tests, meaning we recorded no network traffic leaks and all our personal information was hidden.

As shown in the screenshot below, ExpressVPN masked our real UK network details.

ExpressVPN passed all of our leak tests.

Previously, a bug in ExpressVPN’s Windows app caused DNS leaks when split tunneling was enabled, allowing your ISP to see the websites you visited.

Thankfully, the issue was fixed quickly once disclosed, and we’ve not seen any evidence to suggest the issue has recurred.

Reassuringly, ExpressVPN uses first-party DNS servers. In other words, ExpressVPN handles and encrypts your DNS requests, not your ISP. Very few VPN services have these servers.

For added security, we’d like to see ExpressVPN support IPv6 addresses in the future. Currently, ExpressVPN simply blocks your true IPv6 address and doesn’t replace it with one from the VPN server. This risks leaking your IPv6 address if the blocking functionality fails.

As paranoid internet users, we’re put at ease by ExpressVPN’s commitment to transparency. It commissions more independent security audits than any VPN we’ve reviewed.

In the last 3 years alone, ExpressVPN has been subject to 13 security-related audits. By comparison, NordVPN has had just one in security audit in the same time.

Most recently in May 2024, Cure53 conducted a security audit of ExpressVPN’s browser extension. Only two minor issues were identified, both of which were fixed before the report was made public.

As you can see from the table, ExpressVPN has servers in many locations. In each continent, the VPN allows you to get an IP address from many more countries than other top VPNs, including 15 more than PIA VPN.

That said, some popular regions are still missing. We’d like to see ExpressVPN add virtual locations in the UAE and Russia in a future update.

ExpressVPN server list on iOS (left) and Android (right)

Interestingly, even though ExpressVPN and every other VPN review site claims it has servers in 105 countries, we found the actual figure is 106.

We’ve checked this dozens of time in the app to ensure we’ve not miscounted. While it’s likely an innocent oversight on ExpressVPN’s part, it’s unusual to see a VPN service understate one of its own features.

More City-Based Server Locations Than Other VPNs

ExpressVPN lets you connect to servers in specific cities in 15 countries, which is significantly more than IPVanish (7) and CyberGhost (9).

This feature is valuable for connecting to the closest possible server to you, or for accessing localized content like avoiding MLB blackouts or watching out-of-market NFL games.

However, ExpressVPN provides fewer US city-based servers than some other VPN services. For example, ExpressVPN has servers in 12 states, while Private Internet Access allows you to get an IP address from 50 states and HMA from 48.

We found it extremely easy to install, set up, and use ExpressVPN. We chose our subscription plan, created an account, and entered our payment details.

After we subscribed, we received a confirmation email with an activation code and a link to the installation guide for our device.

Even setting up ExpressVPN’s router app requires no technical knowledge and is just as intuitive once installed. To avoid setup altogether, you can purchase ExpressVPN’s Aircove router. This comes with ExpressVPN pre-installed, but it’s expensive.

Thankfully, ExpressVPN updated its design in 2021. Before then, we criticized it for looking outdated and for being difficult to use on some platforms. The new update looks a lot better and keeps the design consistent across devices.

As we’ve mentioned throughout this review, ExpressVPN is simply a joy to use. We choose to use it as our daily driver over every other VPN service.

After years of using it, we sometimes take for granted just how well it does the basics: like quick server connection times, a minimal and attractive interface, and superb performance that handles everything with ease.

ExpressVPN is our favorite VPN to use.

The difference becomes obvious when we switch to even other top VPNs. Surfshark, for example, can even frustrate us with constant upgrade pop-ups and minor annoyances. ExpressVPN, by comparison, feels premium from day one.

Most of the time, we just click the large ‘on’ button and we’re set. We only venture beyond the home screen when connecting to international servers for geo-blocked content.

The one issue that bothers us is that we encounter CAPTCHAs more often with ExpressVPN than any other VPN service. This significantly worsens the experience of using it as these often take over 10 seconds to finish.

To fix this, we’d like to see ExpressVPN refresh the IP addresses on its servers more frequently or limit the number of people who can connect to a single server IP address. A dedicated IP feature would also be useful for users who are happy to pay extra.

With its strong AES-256 encryption and private logging policy, ExpressVPN is one of the safest VPNs for torrenting. Unlike some other VPN services, there’s no record of ExpressVPN ever forwarding DMCA requests to users.

We tested ExpressVPN with torrent clients like qBittorrent, uTorrent, and Deluge. In every instance, the VPN concealed our IP address and all other personal information. All of our activity was masked from our ISP and other third parties.

ExpressVPN is a top VPN for downloading torrent files.

Fast P2P File Transfers, but No Port Forwarding

We also measured ExpressVPN’s torrenting speeds when running it through our in-house P2P speed test process.

Even though it doesn’t support port forwarding, we found that ExpressVPN is one of the fastest VPNs for torrenting. ExpressVPN’s average speed was 9.4MiB/s, meaning we could download any sized torrent file almost as quickly as without a VPN.

Here’s how quickly we could download a 20GB torrent file with ExpressVPN compared to other top VPNs:

It’s not the very fastest P2P VPN we’ve tested, but ExpressVPN’s impact on torrent download times is almost unnoticeable.

ExpressVPN looks and feels identical across every platform and device, so you won’t have trouble knowing how to use it.

If you plan on sharing your subscription with others, be aware that ExpressVPN allows only 8 simultaneous connections per account. This is slightly below average, and is especially disappointing given that cheaper services like PIA and Surfshark don’t impose any limits.

By installing ExpressVPN on a router, you can protect all the devices on your network, and spoof your location on devices that don’t support VPN apps, like Smart TVs and games consoles.

ExpressVPN is the only VPN that offers a dedicated router app. This means that you can change VPN settings and switch servers through a website on your laptop or phone as simply as you can on its desktop or mobile apps.

ExpressVPN’s router app extends compatibility to every device.

If you don’t want to install the software on a router yourself, ExpressVPN even offers its own routers — Aircove and Aircove Go.

If you can’t or don’t want to install ExpressVPN on your router, ExpressVPN’s Smart DNS feature, MediaStreamer, provides an alternative.

With this, you can’t select an IP address location manually. Instead, it’ll only work with a set list of over 100 compatible streaming services, such as US Netflix, HBO Max, and BBC iPlayer.

ExpressVPN is a good choice for accessing blocked websites and apps, either on restricted networks or in countries with web censorship.

The VPN disguises your VPN traffic as regular web traffic, letting you access restricted websites and apps. It’s so effective that the VPN also circumvents internet censorship in the UAE, Russia, Iran, and all other restrictive nations.

Unlike every other VPN, obfuscation technology is built into all of ExpressVPN’s servers. There’s no manual configuration required and no specialized apps to install, making it the easiest VPN we’ve used for circumventing internet censorship.

ExpressVPN works intermittently in China.

Finally, in October 2024, ExpressVPN launched a long-awaited dedicated IP feature. Until then, it was the only VPN in our top 10 that didn’t offer this functionality.

This feature allows you to connect to a server with an IP address that’s exclusive to you, unlike standard VPN IPs that are shared among dozens of users.

Frustratingly, we’re still unable to test this feature because ExpressVPN claims it’s “gradually being rolled out”. A similar phased rollout occurred with their password manager, which took 9 months before we could access it.

Again, this pattern reinforces our concern that ExpressVPN is frankly too slow to implement and execute product developments.

We’re especially eager to get our hands on this feature with ExpressVPN so we can get around the CAPTCHa issue that is so common with the VPN.

All of ExpressVPN’s apps include an ad and tracker blocker, named Threat Manager.

According to our data, Threat Manager only blocked 60% of ads and trackers. Private Internet Access and NordVPN prevented 100%.

As it stands, Threat Manager is a useful feature that’ll enhance protection of your web activity from data profiling. But there are better alternatives available.

ExpressVPN Keys is available on iOS, and Android, and as a Chrome browser extension for desktop.

Though it was a surprise that it was included in the base VPN subscription, unlike Proton VPN’s or NordVPN’s password managers, we were mostly underwhelmed by it and have since returned to using a dedicated password manager.

ExpressVPN Keys doesn’t autofill passwords in Chrome, and unlike 1Password and LastPass, it doesn’t have an app for Safari on Mac.

The Keys Chrome extension lacks basic features, like autofill.