ExpressVPN was established in 2009 and is registered in the British Virgin Islands with its headquarters in Hong Kong. It's owned by Kape Technologies, the parent company of Private Internet Access and CyberGhost, two other large VPN providers. ExpressVPN has wide application support, servers in over 100 countries, and additional features like ad and tracker blocking, parental controls, and a dedicated IP address for an extra fee.
Our Verdict
ExpressVPN is great for torrenting. It allows you to download torrents without a data limit, keeps your IP address and DNS queries hidden, and has a functional kill switch, so your traffic won't leak if you reboot your system or the VPN client crashes. While it requires you to register with an email address, you don't need to provide a password, as you can use email sign-in links. Additionally, you can pay with Bitcoin for enhanced anonymity. That said, it delivers pretty disappointing speeds, so downloading large files could take a while.
Accepts Bitcoin.
Functional kill switch.
Slow speeds and mediocre latency.
No WireGuard support.
ExpressVPN is acceptable for private browsing. On the technical side, it offers excellent security, keeping your IP address and DNS requests hidden, and features a functional kill switch that helps prevent leaks. Unfortunately, however, Express has poor policies and business practices that make it a difficult service to trust. It has a past marked by controversy and policies that enable the company to collect and use your personal data for marketing and analytics purposes.
Accepts Bitcoin.
Functional kill switch.
No WireGuard support.
Policies indicate collection of personal data for marketing.
Problematic corporate ownership.
ExpressVPN has poor business practices and policies. The privacy policy allows the company to collect your personal information for marketing purposes and share it with third-party analytics platforms. It's also owned by Kape Technologies, a company with a history of distributing malware, and is led by individuals with a history of questionable ethics.
Policies indicate collection of personal data for marketing.
Problematic corporate ownership.
ExpressVPN has excellent security. It keeps your IP address and DNS queries encrypted while you're connected, and it has a proper TLS implementation, protecting you from man-in-the-middle attacks. Also, its kill switch works properly, so your data won't leak outside the VPN tunnel if your internet reconnects or if you restart your system.
Functional kill switch.
No WireGuard support.
We're testing this VPN's speed on an ongoing basis and will update this verdict when we have more data. See the Performance section of the review to look at the data we've collected so far.
Slow speeds and mediocre latency.
Changelog
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Updated Jan 23, 2026:
We've updated the text throughout the review to reflect the changes from Test Bench 0.10.1.
- Updated Jan 23, 2026: We've updated this review to Test Bench 0.10.1! This is a minor update to how we conduct our speed tests. Read the changelog for more info.
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Updated Dec 17, 2025:
We've added a link to the newly published Best VPNs For Privacy article in the Popular VPN Comparisons section of the review.
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Updated Dec 16, 2025:
We've added text throughout the review to correspond with the new privacy tests in Test Bench 0.10.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
ExpressVPN only has one tier and no other variants. You can purchase a dedicated IP address for an additional monthly fee.
Popular VPN Comparisons
ExpressVPN is one of the giants of the VPN industry. Along with NordVPN, you've probably seen it advertised online or promoted by influencers. It's a full-featured VPN service that performs well in terms of security. It keeps your IP address and DNS queries encrypted, and even has a functional kill switch that turns off your internet connection in case the VPN client crashes or your system restarts. That said, it delivers mediocre speeds and latency, so your browsing experience won't feel particularly snappy, and downloads may take a while. Also, while it features Lightway, a proprietary protocol of ExpressVPN, it doesn't support WireGuard, the de facto industry standard protocol that's fast and lightweight. It's also generally more expensive than the competition, and only supports eight devices connected simultaneously instead of the common 10.
Like Private Internet Access, another VPN that we tested, ExpressVPN is also owned by Kape Technologies, which privacy-minded users tend to criticize due to controversies about ad injection from its past. If that's a concern for you, consider other VPNs we've tested, like Mullvad and IVPN.
To see which services we recommend, check out our articles on the best VPNs, the best VPNs for Windows PCs, or the best VPNs for privacy.
NordVPN and ExpressVPN each have their pros and cons. Nord's biggest weakness compared to ExpressVPN is that its kill switch doesn't work as effectively, as it leaks some calls after a system reboot. On the other hand, Nord is significantly faster than ExpressVPN. Neither supports the WireGuard protocol but has its own proprietary protocols, Lightway and NordLynx for ExpressVPN and NordVPN, respectively. Also, NordVPN has a higher maximum number of connected devices, 10, compared to Express's 8.
ExpressVPN and Surfshark VPN each have strengths and weaknesses. ExpressVPN has much better security than Surfshark VPN, since the latter's kill switch leaks some data outside of the tunnel after a system reboot. On the other hand, Surfshark delivers significantly faster speeds and better latency for a snappier experience and quicker downloads. Also, Surfshark doesn't have a limit on how many devices you can have connected at the same time, while Express has a maximum of 8.
ExpressVPN and Mullvad have similar security performance, but Mullvad is significantly faster than Express. Mullvad is a better choice for privacy, as its policies indicate that it collects less information about you, and it has a more favorable history of corporate practices than Express. Additionally, Mullvad offers better anonymity-preserving registration options, as your only login credentials are a randomly generated account number, rather than requiring an email address. That said, ExpressVPN has servers in more countries.
Test Results
Like most VPN providers, ExpressVPN doesn't secure its internet routing (BGP) properly. This means that even if your ISP protects against attacks like route hijacking, your traffic could still be misdirected once it enters the VPN's network. This is only a concern for highly targeted and resource-intensive attacks that are feasible only for governments or large corporations to orchestrate.
While ExpressVPN has a no-logs policy, its privacy policy stipulates that the company collects and retains personal data, including your city, postal code, device information, and email address, for marketing purposes and may share it with third-party analytics platforms.
ExpressVPN publishes frequent third-party audits of its no-logs and privacy policies. The audits are of high quality and yield positive results.
ExpressVPN has poor business practices. It's owned by Kape Technologies, a company that owns several competing VPN companies, including Private Internet Access and CyberGhost. They also own several VPN review websites that recommend Kape's VPNs, presenting a conflict of interest. Kape Technologies also has a past marked by controversy, most notably for distributing malware when the company was known as Crossrider, along with other issues involving the ethics of key individuals in leadership positions.
ExpressVPN also engages in aggressive marketing that uses bold claims, influencer marketing, 'discounts' for long subscription periods, and enables email marketing by default. The terms of service also heavily favor the company, with stipulations that force arbitration for US subscribers, prohibit class action lawsuits, and allow for the banning of accounts at their discretion.
You can pay for this VPN using Apple Pay, Google Pay, a credit card, PayPal, or Bitcoin via BitPay.
We're testing this VPN's performance on an ongoing basis, and will update the text for the download speed, upload speed, and latency tests when we have more data.
This VPN's native Linux app supports Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Raspberry Pi OS Buster, Mint, and Arch. You can also configure it manually.
It's also available on various platforms, including iOS, Android, smart TVs, and as extensions for Chrome and Firefox. You can also install it on your router, so all your network traffic goes through the VPN.
ExpressVPN's Lightway protocol is open source.