ExpressVPN Review 2023

 

 How Much Does ExpressVPN Cost?

ExpressVPN has three subscription options: $12.95 billed each month, $59.95 billed every six months, or $99.95 billed annually. As with most VPN service plans, the only difference is how long you commit.

The company accepts payment by all major credit cards, PayPal, and other services such as WebMoney. You can also purchase an ExpressVPN subscription with bitcoin. Notably, Editors' Choice winners IVPN and Mullvad accept cash payments for even more anonymity. 

 

The current average monthly price of the VPN services we've tested is $9.78, which is quite a bit below ExpressVPN's $12.95 asking price. Editors' Choice winner Mullvad VPN asks just just 5 euros per month ($5.32 at the time of writing), making it one of the cheapest VPNs available. 

What Do You Get for Your Money? 

 

In our conversations with ExpressVPN, the company often came back to the idea that it was focused solely on making the best VPN possible. As such, it doesn't provide ad- or malware- blocking with its VPN or offer any of the add-ons that you might find with other VPNs, such as dedicated IP addresses. Some VPN companies, like NordVPN and CyberGhost VPN, have expanded to include other branded products.

 

ExpressVPN does provide 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

Unfortunately, that's the end of ExpressVPN's privacy features. The service does not provide push-button access to the Tor anonymization network, which bounces your requests through several volunteer intermediaries for even more privacy. Note that you do not need a VPN to access Tor, it's just very convenient.

You also cannot use ExpressVPN to create a multi-hop connection. This routes your traffic through two VPN servers. That way, your privacy remains secure even if the second VPN server has been compromised. Only Editors' Choice winners NordVPN and Proton VPN offer access to Tor, multi-hop connections, and split tunneling.

VPN Protocols

VPNs are a mature technology and as such there are many ways to create a VPN connection. OpenVPN is our long-standing favorite, as it is open-source and has been picked over for potential vulnerabilities by anyone with the interest to do so. WireGuard is the open-source heir apparent to OpenVPN, and it claims better speeds and newer encryption technology. It is, however, so new that not every VPN company has fully embraced it.

 

ExpressVPN does not offer WireGuard and has instead focused on OpenVPN and its own protocol called Lightway(Opens in a new window). This protocol uses the open-source wolfSSL cryptography library, which is smart because trying to build new cryptographic systems isn't a safe bet.

 

Lightway and OpenVPN are supported on ExpressVPN's Android, Linux, Mac, and Windows apps. They are also available for routers configured to use ExpressVPN. Currently, the ExpressVPN iOS app only supports OpenVPN as well as IKEv1/2. The macOS and Windows apps have legacy support for L2TP, but we advise using this older protocol. The ExpressVPN Windows app also supports IKEv2

 

Servers and Server Location 

Part of what you are paying for with a VPN subscription is access to the company's fleet of VPN servers. These are the machines through which your web traffic will flow. It's generally good to have a diverse distribution of servers, which ensures that you'll be able to find one close by, no matter where you travel, and likely get better service because of that proximity. It also gives you more options for spoofing your location.

ExpressVPN offers 160 server locations(Opens in a new window) across 94 countries, which is nearly double the average we've see across the VPN products we've evaluated. The company also excels in geographic diversity, with several servers in Africa and excellent coverage across South America—two continents often underserved or completely ignored by other VPN companies. ExpressVPN also maintains servers for some countries with repressive internet policies, including Turkey and Vietnam. The company also maintains servers in Hong Kong and Ukraine.

Granted, ExpressVPN does not have not the largest collection of servers. HMA VPN boasts coverage of 190 countries, PureVPN 140 countries, and Surfshark VPN recently announced it served 100 countries. However, it has maintained a consistently high quality collection, we'll explain.
ExpressVPN is transparent about its use of virtual servers(Opens in a new window). An explanatory page says that less than 3% of servers are not physically located where they appear to be, and it lists their true location. ExpressVPN's Turkey, Venezuela, and Vietnam servers, for example, are all virtual. This sounds reasonable. ExpressVPN also allows customers to select specific servers, letting them get the most out of the company's wide reaching location options.

To protect its servers in data centers around the world, ExpressVPN says it uses RAM-only servers, which do not write any information to disk. ExpressVPN also says it uses a cryptographic key scheme(Opens in a new window) that assigns unique keys for each server and does not store those keys on disk, making it much harder for an attacker to impersonate an ExpressVPN server. Those servers, ExpressVPN says, are in third-party data centers that limit access to servers.

That said, most consumers probably do not need a lot of server locations—virtual or otherwise. What they probably need are as many servers as possible, as near as possible to their homes. This really cuts into ExpressVPN's value proposition. The company offers an all-around excellent service, but its best feature is really geared toward the frequent traveler, the businessperson, or someone with very specific needs.

Your Privacy With ExpressVPN

If a VPN company were lacking in morals, it could easily monetize your personal information much the same way an ISP can, and that's why it's important to read and understand a VPN's privacy policy. Don't worry, we've read the fine print for you.
To its credit, ExpressVPN's privacy policy(Opens in a new window) is thorough and fairly clear, though it could stand to be easier to read. TunnelBear VPN does an excellent job of being transparent to customers in an understandable way and more companies should emulate its efforts.
The company says it stores no logs of user activity, originating IP address, the VPN IP you connect with, the session duration, nor a connection timestamp. That's what you want to hear from a VPN company. Better still, ExpressVPN makes it clear in its policy (and verified to us) that the company does not sell user data.

Tough Competition

ExpressVPN is an excellent choice for frequent travelers or anyone who absolutely must have a server in a specific location. Its minimal reliance on virtual servers and emphasis on secure hardware set it apart from many other VPN services that boast big server distributions. Most importantly, it has made a strong commitment to the privacy and security of its customers. We also dig the app's new retro appearance. 

 

Despite its achievements, ExpressVPN falls short of an Editors' Choice award. This is not because of any failing on ExpressVPN's part, but because competitors simply offer a lot for less, making them more attractive to the average consumer. If you're on the road often, require VPN access to a specific country, or are enticed by its privacy setup, ExpressVPN will not disappoint. If you're just looking for an all-around excellent service with a more affordable price, you should also consider our overall Editors' Choice for VPNs, Proton VPN.