ExpressVPN Review

ExpressVPN has been a big name in the VPN world for quite some time now. But is this VPN provider really as good as people claim it to be? Well, that’s exactly what we’ll try to figure out in this ExpressVPN review.

Truth be told, seizing the means of online security is slowly, yet surely becoming the responsibility of society, as a whole^[1]. Given that individuals make up societies, it only makes sense that you learn about the tools that are designed to protect your personal information from possible threats - a VPN is one such tool.

TL;DR: ExpressVPN has a great reputation in the VPN market - and with good reason, too. With awesome features, a super-secure location and top-notch performance, it’s a service provider that’s definitely on the top shelve of VPNs.

ExpressVPN Review: PROS

If you’ve been looking for VPNs for some time now, you’re probably aware that one of the most common questions that people have when it comes to choosing a VPN provider is data logging. This provider is no different - many people who read ExpressVPN reviews online wonder “does ExpressVPN keep logs?”.

Well, the answer is going to make you pretty happy.

A Strict No Logging Policy

Just to get you up to speed with this ExpressVPN review, data (information) logging is an issue that has plagued (and, admittedly, still does) many VPN users in the past. Logging happens when your VPN provider keeps track of your personal browsing information - the sites that you’ve visited, the frequencies of your visits, your personal IP addresses, DNS queries, etc.

After logging the information, it is rumored that these VPN providers do one of the two things - they either sell your data to third parties, or hand it over to the government.

Having said all that, you can now probably understand why people are asking “does ExpressVPN keep logs?” and “is ExpressVPN safe?”. However, you can rest assured - ExpressVPN does not track your sensitive information.

Latest ExpressVPN Coupon Found:

What information does Express VPN keep about their customers?

On their official site, the company does state (in a move of transparency) that they keep some information about their customers. Here is the list:

• Billing information;
• App versions;
• Server location;
• Emails;
• Dates of a successful connection.

You don’t need to worry, though - most VPN providers out there keep these forms of data on their customers. This is done because of two big reasons - out of necessity (i.e. billing info) and to provide better customer support.

Military-Grade Data Encryption to Ensure Maximum Security

Looking through different ExpressVPN reviews online, you might have noticed that a lot of VPN providers use different types of data encryption and information security tools. The top dogs - ExpressVPN included - all use a single method - AES 256 BIT encryption.

A lot of people reading this ExpressVPN review will probably have seen this string of letters and numbers being thrown around here and there, but will have little to no understanding of what it actually is. Well, to put it short, it is the best answer to the question “is ExpressVPN safe?”.

Table: ExpressVPN features

AES 256 is a type of encryption that the US governmental institutions (namely, CIA and FBI) use to protect sensitive materials and data. In other words, if you decide to use ExpressVPN, your information will be protected with the same level of security as the data possessed by the FBI.

If that isn’t reassuring, then I don’t know what is.

Location Allows for Maximum Security and Data Inconspicuousness

If security is the biggest concern that you have while choosing a VPN, you’ll be happy to find out that ExpressVPN is located in the British Virgin Islands.

Why is that? Let me elaborate.

In most countries, the government has the ability to demand VPN providers to track their users and collect information about them, their search and browsing histories, and so on. These countries usually form certain coalitions - examples include the 5-Eye or the 9-Eye groups. Within these groups of countries, VPNs are required by law to hand over the data of their customers.

Table: ExpressVPN pros and cons

As I’ve mentioned earlier in the ExpressVPN review, the situation with this VPN provider is different.

The British Virgin Islands do not belong to any of the above-mentioned groups of countries. People asking is ExpressVPN good and concerned with ExpressVPN safety should keep this in mind - this VPN does not need to provide any information about its users to third parties of any kind.

A Kill Switch for When Things Go Wrong

Nobody’s protected from connectivity issues - sooner or later, it is unavoidable that either your internet connection or the VPN itself will fail due to a power outage, connection loss or even a DDoS attack. Luckily, ExpressVPN has a solution for that, too.

ExpressVPN uses something known as a “kill switch”. Kill switches are like the eject button on a plane - when everything else fails, they are the last option to save your privacy.

Basically, the way that a kill switch works is that when you lose your connection to the VPN, it kills any and processes that you were in the middle of doing. This way, there is no chance that your private information will leak to third parties.

Great Speeds (Both Download and Upload)

Other than privacy, the majority of people who are looking for ExpressVPN reviews want to know the ExpressVPN speed. While it might not be the very first thing that comes to mind when thinking about VPNs (that would be the privacy), it certainly is on the top of the list.

To be completely transparent and check these things for myself, I’ve performed an ExpressVPN speed test before starting to write the review. I have to say, the outcome was more than satisfactory.

These are the results that I got while testing an EU server (from Europe). While I had expected the upload and download speeds to be great (the upload speed shocked me, in the best way possible!), I was mostly surprised by the ping (the thing that causes lag). Ideally, it could have been lower, but even this result was a fresh sight to see.

Overall, when it comes to the speed part of the ExpressVPN review, the results are great!

A Whole Lot of Servers + Torrents

ExpressVPN offers its users more than 3000 servers worldwide. That’s a huge number of servers! Admittedly, there are VPNs that offer even more than that, but 3000 is a great number for people simply looking for privacy and file sharing.

And that’s another thing, too.

For a lot of people, the answer to the question “is ExpressVPN good?” boils down to using the VPN for file sharing purposes. This type of file sharing is called “Peer-to-Peer” sharing - it basically means that you share some sort of a file with another person or company via the web.

Most commonly, though, P2P sharing is used to reference torrenting. Well, ExpressVPN offers good news on that front, too - the VPN provider has special, designated servers that are there specifically to be used for torrents.

If you want an even extra added layer of security, you could use the Tor browser, too. While it is most commonly used to access the Deep Web, it can serve as an added layer of security.

On their own, official page, ExpressVPN even has a step-by-step guide of how to use uTorrent with their VPN.

Netflix USA - Unlocked!

On the topic of special servers, it would be impossible to write an ExpressVPN review and not mention the fact that the VPN actually unlocks Netflix USA for international users worldwide.

That’s pretty significant, too! Netflix has recently been putting in a lot of effort to try and eliminate people’s usage of a VPN to view their region-restricted content. For this reason, a lot of VPN providers have stated that their products no longer support Netflix. Thankfully, that’s not the case with ExpressVPN.

Same as with torrents, Express has designated servers that can be used to view Netflix USA. Keeping in mind the above-mentioned fact of a lot of VPNs shying away from this, it actually becomes a huge selling point for ExpressVPN.

A Gust of Fresh Air When it Comes to Customer Support

While VPNs have a bad reputation on the topics of data logging and security issues, a lot of them are also pretty iffy when it comes to customer support. It has almost become an industry standard to have very little to no actual support available, and just leave your customers hanging.

I had the privilege, however, to test out ExpressVPN’s customer support. And it did not disappoint.

ExpressVPN aims to change the name of the game with a 24/7 live customer support. And their support are professionals, too! I had some questions about the company’s information logging intricacies, and was given all of the data that I asked for.

ExpressVPN Review: CONS

As you might have noticed up to this point in the ExpressVPN review, the product really has little-to-no flaws around it. Sure, it could have more servers, but this is only relevant if you have a specific need for such a huge amount of servers - most people don’t.

Limited Device Connectivity

One thing that ExpressVPN could actually improve on would be the number of devices a user is able to simultaneously connect to the VPN. As of writing this ExpressVPN review, you could connect 3 devices. While that definitely isn’t a dealbreaker, there are VPNs that offer 5-7 connections at a time.

Price

The ExpressVPN price was actually the thing that I had feared the most while deciding whether or not I should purchase this VPN. I had heard that VPNs are an expensive thing to have, and so approached the ExpressVPN cost with a bit of skepticism. Then I was pleasantly surprised.

 

The ExpressVPN price is rather simple: their best deal is the 12-month package for $8,32 per month. The full Express VPN price list is as follows: 

• 12 months - $8,32 per month
• 6 months - $9,99 per month
• 1 month - $12,95 per month

While these are all reasonable prices on their own, there’s even more to it! If you happen to decide that the ExpressVPN cost is too big for you, or that you’re not happy with the services that you’re receiving, you can cancel your subscription in the first 30 days from your order.

I found that this isn’t only a cool feature, but it also serves the purpose of adding a whole lot of trust to ExpressVPN.

Summary

Quite frankly, there are two groups of people who are looking for ExpressVPN reviews online - people who need a VPN for the best possible security and don’t care about the ExpressVPN cost or its other features, and people who want to watch Netflix, share files and perform other region-restricted activities.

The latter group is the more picky one - coincidentally, it's also the more common one.

What this means is that no matter the reputation that a VPN provider might have, they need to constantly up their game, both when it comes to their prices and their features.

However, having read the review, you should be able to understand what I mean when I say that everything from the ExpressVPN price all the way to its security is great.

Is ExpressVPN safe? Hell ya. Does ExpressVPN keep logs? Hell no. Honestly, with the service that the company provides, they deserve to be on the top of the “Best VPN” list.

Here is The Best ExpressVPN Offer I Found:

Conclusion

So, would I recommend ExpressVPN?

Without a doubt, I definitely would.

All of my initial questions - is ExpressVPN safe? Is ExpressVPN good? - were wiped away one by one as soon as I actually tried their product out myself. The price really did justify all of the features that I received - whether it be torrenting or watching Netflix, I felt that I could trust ExpressVPN all the way through.

What’s more, is that I experienced no issues with neither security nor speed. Everything worked fine, there were (still are) no leaks, I didn’t need the kill switch even once! That’s actually surprising - I really thought that the VPN would give out at one point or another. I was proved wrong - and boy, am I happy about that!

If you’re searching for a reliable and time-tested VPN, do keep in mind that ExpressVPN is one of the top-dogs, and not without a reason. I hope that this ExpressVPN review has helped you to better understand the hype around this VPN service provider.

Also, if you're interested in how ExpressVPN compares to some other industry leaders, you could check our to-the-point comparison here. 

Scientific References

1. Adam D. Thierer: 'The Internet of Things and Wearable Technology: Addressing Privacy and Security Concerns without Derailing Innovation'