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ExpressVPN’s global server network makes it a great choice for those who travel or work with people around the world. Backed by bleeding-edge post-quantum encryption technology, Express has landed a firm spot on our list. However, it’s expensive and falls short on features and usability compared with our overall top choice, . Proton has secured the top spot thanks to its generous free version and more well-rounded suite of security tools. Those issues aside, ExpressVPN's expansive network and exhaustive dedication to staying on the forefront of encryption tech earn it an Editors' Choice award as one of the best VPNs we've reviewed this year for frequent travelers, digital nomads, and anyone else who loves being on the bleeding edge of security technology.
Pricing and Plans
ExpressVPN isn’t alone in having confusing price tiers, nor is it even the worst offender. Still, you have to parse the checklists, bonus months, and yearly renewal math just to get a general idea of what you’re actually paying for. We vastly prefer VPN services that make their pricing and benefits clear up front to potential subscribers.
The simplest tier to understand is the monthly option, and it’s the subscription I would recommend out of the trio. It costs $12.95 per month and includes the VPN service, an ad blocker, tracker blocker, password manager, ID alerts, and a 1GB eSIM. The one-year plan includes three “free bonus months” that aren’t so free since those months are factored into the yearly price breakdown. That plan tacks on identity theft insurance and a credit scanner for $99.95 per year ($6.67 per month if you include the extra months). That plan will renew annually, and you only get the extra months the first time around. The two-year plan includes everything mentioned earlier as well as a monthly credit report and a data removal tool. That plan will run you $139.72 for the first two years ($4.99 per month with four bonus months).
Just keep in mind that this plan will renew yearly after that initial subscription, which I take to mean it renews at the one-year price point. However, the pricing page doesn’t clarify that detail anywhere. All three plans support a dedicated IP add-on that will run $8.99, $4.99, or $3.99 per month, depending on the length of your subscription.
ExpressVPN doesn’t offer a free plan, which is not surprising, as decent free VPNs are hard to come by. If you want a completely free VPN to try, I recommend checking out Proton VPN. It won our Editors’ Choice award due to its excellent feature set and generous free option.
You can pay for your ExpressVPN subscription with PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, bitcoin, and all major credit cards. It’s a good selection of payment options, but I’d like to see more support for anonymous payment methods like cash and more crypto options. earned our Editors’ Choice award for its outstanding stance on privacy, which includes accepting cash payments for its service.
Features
You can secure up to eight devices simultaneously with a single ExpressVPN subscription. It’s more than the industry average of five, but I find that those slots fill up fast. You’ll have to log in and out of frequently used devices to make sure you stay under that limit, especially if you have someone you share your subscription with, like a spouse. Competing VPNs such as are moving toward unlimited connections, and I’d like to see Express follow that trend.
If you can’t compromise on that device limit, there is a way around it: purchase the company’s or router. We're looking to get their hands on both devices for a thorough hands-on test, but the company claims the routers work by having ExpressVPN’s service pre-flashed to the device. That means that any device you connect through the router will automatically be protected as if you configured it through an app. The regular, fully-fledged Aircove won’t get around that device limit while you travel, but the GO model works as a portable Wi-Fi unit and can keep every device secured while you’re on the go.
If these devices work as advertised, the price is pretty compelling for a pre-flashed router. Setting up a VPN on your router can be difficult, so having pre-configured options takes out the guesswork. You can get the home model for $189 or the GO edition for $169.90. Keep in mind that you’ll need to supply your own ExpressVPN subscription on top of that price.
Keys, ExpressVPN’s password manager, is bundled with each subscription. It’s available on iOS, Android, and Chrome. I would like to see Firefox support in the future, as that’s where I do the majority of my browsing. It’s not quite as feature-rich as most . However, I was impressed with it as an add-on. It has encrypted credential and credit card storage, easy import and export options, and a streamlined UI and setup guide. I found that it worked seamlessly with every site I used it on.
Threat Manager lets you block trackers, malicious sites, ads, and adult sites. The options are either on or off, so you won’t be able to fine-tune them as you would a fully-fledged or . I found that these features worked decently. The parental block kept most blatant porn sites at bay, but sites like Reddit were still accessible. Since you can’t tailor any sites with an allowlist, I wouldn’t recommend the feature as your sole parental control tool. The ad blocker worked on text-based sites and some YouTube videos, but the latter was hit-and-miss. I still saw ads on Netflix, Twitch, and other media streaming sites.
Post-quantum is the new buzzword in the world of VPNs, and Express has stepped forward to prepare for the potential quantum future. Basically, companies and bad actors have stockpiles of encrypted user data in the hopes that advancements in computer technology (of the quantum computing variety) will allow that data to be decrypted in minutes, hours, or days instead of the millions of years required to crack encryption with the current technology. Express is trying to get ahead of the curve by making the data it handles quantum resilient. That protection is available on all connections that use Lightway, the company's in-house VPN protocol. While this is a good future-forward attitude, it’s impossible to evaluate as the technology does not exist yet to truly put these claims to the test.
Recently, there have been proof-of-concept encryption breaks, most notably was able to crack data protected by 22-bit RSA. 22-bit RSA is much more mathematically simple than the common 256-bit AES encryption that protects the most sensitive areas of the internet, like banking institutions, classified government files, and so on. But it's still a canary in the coalmine for what's to come, and it's reassuring to see ExpressVPN at the forefront of protecting your personal information.
There’s a browser extension available on Chrome and Firefox that functions as a control center for the main VPN application. It doesn’t add anything you don’t already get with the central client, but it does let you configure your connection without having to tab out of your browser.
ExpressVPN provides split tunneling, which lets you designate what traffic should travel through the VPN's encrypted connection and what should travel outside it. Split tunneling is useful for activities like gaming or streaming media, which require a lot of bandwidth but are comparatively low risk. It also offers a kill switch, which it calls Network Lock.
Although a VPN can improve your online privacy, it's just one tool and cannot protect against every threat. We strongly encourage you to use standalone , enable wherever it is available, and use a password manager to store complex and unique passwords for each site and service you use.
VPN Protocols
ExpressVPN’s network is built on its Lightway protocol. While most VPNs make use of the open-source protocol WireGuard due to its reliability and performance, Express has established Lightway as a direct competitor. Lightway delivers comparable performance, reliability, and privacy. The protocol’s core is open-source and freely available for review on .
You can configure a few versions of Lightway in the app. There’s Lightway UDP, TCP, and Turbo. Turbo is the newest offering by the company and claims to boost performance reliability even further than the already-fast base protocol. I found that my speeds were roughly the same compared with a regular Lightway connection, but you may benefit more from this feature if you have a poor base connection or live in a region far from an optimal server. That feature is currently only available on Windows. There’s also OpenVPN TCP and UDP for good measure. IKEv2 is available on iOS, Mac, and routers. The site claims it is available on Windows, but it was nowhere to be seen in my client. Only Lightway UDP provides the post-quantum technology I mentioned in the previous section.
Servers and Locations
ExpressVPN’s is expansive and offers competitive global coverage. There are roughly 3,000 servers distributed across 105 countries. The regions Express covers are well-served with city-level options in a wide range of locations.
Of those 3,000 servers, Express offers unparalleled geographic diversity. It covers underserved regions like Africa and South America. There are also servers in Hong Kong and Ukraine, which are two regions many competitors have pulled out of completely.
I’m pleased to see that ExpressVPN is transparent about its use of , though I would like to see a note in the app as well. As is, you have to go to the site’s virtual server page to get those details. Virtual locations are servers configured to appear as if they are in a country other than where that physical hardware is located. Neither is necessarily bad, but I prefer it when companies disclose exactly where customer data is heading.
The server page shows you which protocols each one supports. I normally look to see if a given server supports torrenting or peer-to-peer (P2P) interactions. While it’s not mentioned on the server page, I confirmed with a customer support representative that ExpressVPN supports torrenting on all of its servers. One notable missing feature is multi-hop. I’m glad to see ExpressVPN include advanced technology like post-quantum encryption, but I’d prefer to see multi-hop included first. After all, multi-hop has a proven use case, while post-quantum’s time to shine is yet to be seen.
To protect its data centers worldwide, ExpressVPN uses RAM-only servers, which do not write any information to disk. ExpressVPN also says it uses a that assigns unique keys for each server and does not store them on disk, making it much harder for an attacker to impersonate an ExpressVPN server.
Privacy
To discuss ExpressVPN’s privacy measures, it’s necessary to understand the nature of the VPN’s parent company, . It’s a long story, but the short of it is that Kape used to be known as Crossrider. The service rebranded after some backlash over its blatant adware distribution . With the rebrand, the company completely shifted focus to VPNs and privacy software. Kape Technologies has come to own CyberGhost, Zenmate, Private Internet Access, ExpressVPN, and a number of affiliate review websites that push the company’s products.
There are no signs that the company still deals in adware, malware, or user data. However, it’s a glaring part of the past that is hard to overlook. At the very least, there’s a conflict of interest with the company’s ownership of privacy tool review sites. I will continue to evaluate the privacy policy as it is now, but I recommend taking the above into consideration when making a purchase of ExpressVPN or any other products from Kape Technologies.
ExpressVPN’s is thorough and presented clearly. It is a bit dense in the sense that it reads more like a legal document than an explainer. I’m a fan of because it frames it with questions, sample scenarios, and clearly elaborates on confusing language.
According to the privacy policy, the service does not sell logs of user activity, originating IP addresses, the IP address of the VPN a user is connected to, the session duration, or any connection timestamps. I confirmed with a company representative that ExpressVPN does not sell or profit from user data in any way.
The company is transparent about the seven types of data it does collect. That data falls into the following categories:
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Personal data submitted in association with your Account (“Personal Data”)
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Aggregate Apps and VPN connection summary statistics (“Usage Statistics Data”)
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Data added to ExpressVPN Keys (“Keys Data”) (applicable only to ExpressVPN Keys users)
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Anonymous App diagnostics, including crash reports (“App Diagnostic Data”) (optional)
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IP addresses authorized to use MediaStreamer Services (“MediaStreamer Data”) (applicable only to MediaStreamer users)
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Data for marketing purposes, collected exclusively when using the App
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Identity Defender data
In summary, ExpressVPN records the aggregate amount of data transferred by each user, the date a user last connected, and the country a user last connected to. ExpressVPN says this information is insufficient to identify a specific individual since it would be identical to many other users on its network.
Biannual transparency reports give a rundown of every request that the company has fielded over the last six months. The first 2025 report should be right around the corner, but the latest one for is currently live. It shows that ExpressVPN had 163 requests from government, law enforcement, or civil agencies. It also received 807,788 DMCA requests and a single warrant from a government institution. The service reports that no requests resulted in the disclosure of user-related data.
Where a company is based can determine whether or not the service is required to keep user data. It’s not impossible for VPNs that operate in jurisdictions that require data retention to operate safely, but it does make for an uphill battle. Luckily, ExpressVPN is headquartered in the privacy-friendly British Virgin Islands. The country does not have any data retention laws. The company points out that any requests for user information would have to be issued from a local court, and those requests will only be heard by the courts if the crime under investigation is punishable by at least a year in prison in the British Virgin Islands.
has a section that goes over every security audit it has undergone. As of the time of writing, the company has been audited 22 separate times on its features and services. While the parent company’s past may be cause for concern, we are confident that, based on the evidence available, Express is doing its due diligence in handling user data.
Does ExpressVPN Work With Netflix?
Netflix relies on licensing agreements to determine what it can and cannot stream to users in certain regions. Those deals are why the catalog you get in the United States is different from the one in Japan. A good VPN can get around those blocks and give you access to any regional catalog. We break down the unblocking capabilities of a service into three categories: blocked, limited, and open. A VPN is considered blocked if it is barred from accessing the service completely. A limited classification is when Netflix can’t quite pin down where you are and displays a slim catalog of Originals. Open is total access with no restrictions.
ExpressVPN accessed every catalog we tested without issue. The chart above and our guide on how to unblock Netflix with a VPN explain how we qualified these results. While you're at it, check out our recommendations for the .
Speed and Performance
Speed tests are imperfect measurements of a VPN’s performance. These results are best used to get a baseline idea of what to expect from the service. I run a series of tests using to find my base internet speeds at a given day and time. Next, I connect to what the VPN suggests as the fastest server for my location and calculate the percentage change between the figures. page goes over our testing more in-depth if you would like to learn more. (Note: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag.com 's parent company. For more, see the ethics policy in our .)
ExpressVPN decreased download speeds by 18.55%, upload speeds by 7.45%, and increased latency by 95.62%. These results are above average, though not quite as impressive as recent performance. You can view the full comparison between the VPNs we test in the chart below.
Remember that network connections are variable. I establish a new baseline speed for each test because my regular connection can fluctuate throughout the day, and so can yours. A VPN adds yet another variable, so your experience may differ from ours even if you test in a similar location with the same service.
Hands On With ExpressVPN on Windows
All Windows testing was performed on an running the latest version of Windows 11. The ExpressVPN app window is small and designed with soft colors. There isn’t a startup tutorial, but the interface is fairly simple, with a large power button front and center that controls your connection to the network. It’s an approachable aesthetic. However, the interface can feel busy since every setting menu pops up with a new window. The design elements aren’t as present throughout these pop-up menus either. I expected more polish, even if those elements aren’t critical to the service. Some may like the no-frills approach, but I prefer more cohesive themes that make the app more attractive and fun to use.
A complete set of configuration options is available in the options menu. There, you can enable the kill switch, decide on startup behavior, manage split tunneling, and tweak advanced tools and protocol settings. There are a few helpful links in the drop-down menu for checking your IP address and confirming that you’re not experiencing any DNS leaks. You’ll also get direct links to live chat support and the ID alerts page.
An additional window lets you browse and search ExpressVPN's servers, but you can’t do much more than scroll through country or city-level servers. A filter option for congestion would be a welcome feature. I’d also like to see a disclosure somewhere detailing which servers are virtual locations.
Hands On With ExpressVPN on macOS
I tested ExpressVPN on a 2020 M1 MacBook Pro running Sequoia 15.5. Since there's no App Store version, you’ll have to go directly to to get it. The user experience is largely the same as on Windows, with minimal design differences.
The biggest changes I found were that split tunneling isn’t present and that I had access to the IKEv2 protocol. Split tunneling is technically supported but only on macOS 11 or earlier. There has been no word on whether ExpressVPN will bring back support for this feature with newer macOS iterations. Even so, it's one of our top choices if you want a good Mac VPN .
Hands On With ExpressVPN on iOS
I tested ExpressVPN on an iPhone 14 running iOS 16.3 . You can download the service directly from the App Store. The iOS version is the sleekest out of the platforms I tested, it's one of our favorite iPhone VPNs . The same power button is there front and center, but there’s also a map below it showing where you are connected to as well as a chart for how long you’ve been connected to the VPN over the past week.
Unique to mobile is a speed test page where you can check your download and upload speeds while connected to a server. On the server page, there’s an additional filter option to sort the servers by number of endpoints. That detail is somewhat useful, but I think more options would be a welcome addition across all platforms.
IKEv2 is present on iOS. The kill switch has two tiers of protection. The basic one shouldn’t interfere with features like AirDrop or Apple CarPlay. The advanced setting is more aggressive but can disrupt certain Apple services. Split tunneling isn’t available on iOS, either, like on macOS.
Hands On With ExpressVPN on Android
I tested ExpressVPN's Android app using a Samsung Galaxy S23 FE running Android 14. The design is essentially the same as the iOS version. You can choose a light or dark theme manually, but I found that the app automatically synced with my phone's theme setting.
There are some notable differences between the iOS and Android versions of ExpressVPN. On Android, the kill switch only has one setting since it won't interfere with screen sharing or Android Auto. There's no IKEv2 protocol support on Android. You can choose between Lightway or OpenVPN. However, split tunneling is present and can be configured similarly to the Windows version of the feature. I ran a set of tests to make sure the servers worked, and I didn't run into any problems with connectivity using each of the protocols.
Customer Service and Support
ExpressVPN has a detailed with useful articles, guides, and FAQs. The search functionality is basic but works well. I recommend taking a look through the guides before you reach out to the support team.
To gauge the support response, we sent the 24/7 live chat a query about IKEv2 support for Windows. The site states that the protocol should be included, but it was nowhere to be found in the client. I was connected to an actual agent in three minutes, though I did have to bypass an AI help bot and fill out a short form with the nature of my request.
The agent clarified that IKEv2 is not supported on the newer ExpressVPN versions (12.0 and later). I asked if there were plans to update the newer versions with IKEv2 support, but the agent was not aware of any details. The support response was quick and went well, but I’m disappointed by this discrepancy on the site. IKEv2 is shown as a supported option, which could factor into a buyer’s decision.
ExpressVPN has a 30-day money-back guarantee, which is average. If you want to cancel, you have to reach out to support. My agent was friendly but pushy with scripted messages asking me to stay or explain in detail why I was leaving. Once I was firm that I wanted to cancel and get a refund, my request was processed in just a few minutes.
