ExpressVPN Review

Summary Review

ExpressVPN is a virtual private network service owned by Express VPN International Ltd. It is currently headquartered in Tortola, the British Virgin Islands and has about 201-500 employees.

If you’re looking for online privacy and anonymity then ExpressVPN is your best bet. They offer the highest level of encryption with no leaks, some great security features, a strict no-log policy that will keep you fully anonymous, and they are located in a privacy-friendly jurisdiction.

They are also fast and reliable when it comes to streaming, browsing, and gaming. For those living in a high-censorship country, you’ll be thrilled to know that Express VPN not only allows torrenting/P2P but they also work with Tor to further ensure your privacy. To top it all off, this VPN service is compatible with nearly every device and they have one of the most impressive customer service and support systems in the business.

Privacy / Anonymity

As per their privacy page, ExpressVPN claims that they “..do not collect logs of your activity, including no logging of browsing history, traffic destination, data content, or DNS queries. We also never store connection logs, meaning no logs of your IP address, your outgoing VPN IP address, connection timestamp, or session duration”.

According to them, they won’t sell your personal information to third parties. Personal information such as your email address and payment data is collected only to create and maintain your account. Also, there’s really no need to worry about your data getting hacked as they use highly advanced features like perfect forward secrecy, VPN split tunneling, AES 256-bit encryption, and more.

Streaming and Torrenting

No plans of traveling to China anytime soon? Fair enough. But you should know whether or not a VPN service is powerful enough to get around the so-called Great Firewall of China. After all, it is considered the ultimate test for a VPN. And yes, ExpressVPN is one of the few VPN services that still works in this region. Perhaps it’s due mostly to its wide range of server locations, notably the ones in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan.

If bypassing Netflix geo-restriction is a major concern, you’re still in good hands with ExpressVPN. We tried to access varying Netflix libraries across the globe just to see how deftly it can navigate around the geo-blocks. We were able to access both the UK and US libraries without any hassle, as well as Netflix Australia, Peru, Chile, and Brazil. We didn’t notice any lags or buffering either! We were able to stream content in HD quality and unlimited bandwidth.

ExpressVPN is also a solid choice for torrenting and P2P sharing for a number of reasons. It offers unlimited bandwidth, IP address masking, and they don’t restrict any content or site that you wish to visit. This means you can download any data, stream any content, or visit a website without any limitations!

Speed and Reliability

As you probably realized by now, ExpressVPN is turning out to be a real jack of all trades but the question remains, is it really fast? We don’t blindly trust peer reviews so we set out to do our own tests. We started with a base upload speed of 95 Mbps and after connecting to a server in the US, our speed dropped 85 Mbps. This means a speed loss of only about 10%! This is really impressive considering that the average speed loss when using a VPN is between 40% to 60%. We then connected to a server in Australia and got a result of 59 Mbps. This means that even if we connect to a server located halfway across the world, our speed only slowed down by 37% overall.

Platforms and Devices

A single subscription can give you five simultaneous connections regardless of your chosen platforms. ExpressVPN is also compatible with a multitude of devices including Windows, Android, Mac, iOS, Linux, Routers, Chromebook, Kindle Fire, and Nook. It will also work on game consoles and Smart TV’s such as Xbox, Playstation, Apple TV, Samsung Smart TV, Amazon Fire Stick TV, and Nintendo Switch. ExpressVPN also supports both Chrome and Firefox extensions. As of last year, all the apps and extensions are now available in over a dozen languages.



Server Locations

At the time of this review, ExpressVPN has 3000+ servers in 160 VPN server locations in 94 countries. This means they’ve basically covered every continent except for Antarctica.



Customer Service

Support is probably one of ExpressVPN’s strongest suit with their 24/7 live chat feature and a set of video tutorials that you can watch right on the support page or their own YouTube channel. What’s more amazing is that their front liners are experts who can walk you through just about any technical issue you encounter. Another way to contact support is by sending an email or submitting a support ticket.

Pricing

All ExpressVPN plans are covered with their unconditional 100% money-back-guarantee. This means that if you’re not happy for whatever reason, and you’re still within your first 30 days of service, you can simply contact support and get your full refund. Their month-to-month plan is available for $12.95 while their semi-annual plan costs about $9.99 per month. If you’re happy to sign up for a longer period, the difference can be quite significant. Pay for a year upfront and the monthly fee goes down to just $8.32 per month.