ExpressVPN Review - Lightning Fast VPN For Streaming Anything, Anywhere

More so today than ever before, online safety, security, and privacy are an absolute must.

But there’s a problem: browsing the internet in a private and secure manner is challenging on many fronts.

Fortunately, there are a handful of solutions that can give you peace of mind. And that’s where ExpressVPN comes into play.

Overview and Highlights

ExpressVPN is a premium service with a long track record of providing top-notch service and solutions.

It’s designed to hide your IP address and encrypt network data so no one can see what you’re doing online. In other words, you can search the web anonymously.

Some of the many highlights of ExpressVPN include:

• Choose from 160 locations across 94 countries
• 24/7 live chat
• Built to defeat content restrictions and censorship
• Super (super) fast!

In this ExpressVPN review, we provide the information you need to determine if it’s the right solution for you.

ExpressVPN Features

ExpressVPN has all the features you need, along with a handful that you may have never considered.

To start, you can use the service with almost every device imaginable. This is the result of easy-to-use apps designed for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, and more.

While the primary purpose of using ExpressVPN is to overcome content restrictions and censorship, that’s just the start. It’s packed full of high-level features such as:

Watch what you want

Streaming is more prominent than ever before, but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy.

Without a VPN, you may find it impossible to visit blocked websites and services.

With ExpressVPN, you can access any type of content, regardless of your location. This allows you to watch what you want, listen to what you want, and visit every website on the world wide web.

Encrypt everything

It’s natural to have concerns about outsiders tracking your internet activity.

With ExpressVPN encryption, you can put this concern to rest once and for all.

ExpressVPN protects your connection with 256-bit AES, DNS/IPv6 leak protection, split tunneling, and a kill switch.

And of course, all of this is happening behind the scenes. You don’t have to do anything special on your end.

Anonymous browsing

ExpressVPN does not store connection or activity logs. Anonymous means anonymous when you use this VPN service.

Be anywhere, from anywhere

It’s easy to keep your real location hidden as you can choose from 160 locations spanning nearly 100 countries.

Power and speed

For many people, the biggest fear of using a VPN is a lack of power and speed.

ExpressVPN gives you the power of unlimited bandwidth, so speed is never a concern. No more worrying about buffering when watching your favorite television shows, movies, and sporting events.

Speed and Performance of ExpressVPN

Without fast speeds and high performance, a VPN will frustrate you more than anything else.

ExpressVPN offers blazing speeds, no matter your location. This gives you confidence that your performance will never suffer, no matter if you’re watching movies on Netflix or funny cat videos on YouTube.

From the moment you first use ExpressVPN, you’ll realize that it was built for speed from the ground up.

To start, there’s a “smart location” feature that allows you to connect to a server. When doing so, ExpressVPN measures speed, distance, and latency to ensure that you get the fastest server every time you log on. This is one of the primary features that sets ExpressVPN apart from the competition.

Local speeds

For our ExpressVPN review, we ran a handful of local speed tests. After connecting to a server closest to our office, our speed checked in at 22 Mbps.

While this resulted in a speed decrease of roughly 22 percent, it’s impressive when compared to other VPNs. Even with this reduction, streaming and browsing reliability didn’t drop off.

Note: you have the option to choose your own server, which may result in faster speeds. If nothing else, it’s worth experimenting when you log on.

Long-distance ExpressVPN speeds

This is when things get a bit trickier. For example, if you’re in the United States and connect to a server in Europe, you should expect a lower speed than if you choose a local server. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use the long-distance option.

In our test, we connected to a server in London and achieved a speed of 15.2 Mbps. This resulted in a speed reduction of approximately 50 percent.

Even with the speed reduction, it was still possible to stream in full HD, listen to music, and browse the internet without any hiccups. But of course, if you can achieve faster speed locally, it’s an option to strongly consider.

Security Protocols

Security is one of the primary reasons for using a VPN. And for that reason, ExpressVPN takes this seriously.

When compared to competing VPNs, ExpressVPN stacks up well in regards to security. In addition to the security features you’ve come to expect, there are several extras — such as split tunneling — that give you even more confidence that you’re protected.

The first thing you need to know is that ExpressVPN uses 256-bit AES encryption. This is a combination of AES 256-bit cypher, SHA-512 HMAC authentication, and a 4096-bit RSA key.

In simple terms, it doesn’t get any better. AES 256-bit encryption means that the same key used to encrypt your data is required to decrypt it. In other words, it’s next to impossible to crack the code.

SHA-512 HMAC authentication is just as important, as this protects you when conducting data transfers.

Added to the above, there’s a 4096-bit RSA shared key that both the sender and receiver can use to verify authenticity.

With the use of multiple security protocols, there’s always another level of protection to keep you safe and secure.

Best yet, ExpressVPN automatically chooses the best security protocol to ensure a reliable and fast connection. The default — which is the one you’ll use most often — is the OpenVPN UDP protocol. However, others are supported, such as:

• L2TP/IPsec
• PPTP
• OpenVPN TCP

Privacy Measures

Do you ever get the feeling that someone is watching you online? It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. What matters is that you find a way to browse without this concern weighing on your mind.

Just the same as its security protocols, ExpressVPN has privacy measures in place to keep you anonymous at all times.

Here’s something that many people don’t know: some countries are more privacy-friendly than others.

ExpressVPN is located in the British Virgin Islands, which is not part of the “5-Eyes, 9-Eyes, and 14-Eyes agreement.”

When using the internet, there’s nothing scarier than the thought of someone keeping logs on your activity. This includes things such as the sites you visit, the data you share, and DNS queries.

ExpressVPN does not maintain any type of connection or activity logs. You’re 100 percent anonymous when you use this service.

Pricing and Fees

Before we discuss ExpressVPN pricing and fees, let’s dive into its “30-day money-back guarantee.”

If you’re not 100 percent satisfied with ExpressVPN — regardless of the reason — all you have to do is contact the company within 30 days to request a refund.

As for pricing, there are three tiers:

• 12 months (with three months free): $6.67/month
• Six months: $9.99/month
• One month: $12.95/month

The 12-month plan is the most cost-effective, as you gain three months free and a monthly cost of less than $7.

There are no additional fees for using ExpressVPN.

ExpressVPN Award-Winning Customer Support

There’s no better feeling than knowing that you have access to award-winning customer support, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It doesn’t matter if you have questions about ExpressVPN Netflix services, pricing, how to connect — or anything else — there’s always someone available to show you the way.

24/7 customer support is available via live chat, which allows you to quickly and efficiently connect with a representative no matter where you are or what type of device you’re using.

There is also an online support center with instructions, videos, and troubleshooting guides.

Note: online resources are available in 16 languages.

Conclusion

A high-performing VPN is well worth every dollar you spend on it.

ExpressVPN is a top performer across the board, with its security features and ease of use leading the way. When combined with award-winning customer support, you have a solution you can rely on when streaming or simply browsing the internet.

From cybercrime to data tracking, it’s never been more stressful to use the internet. You’re constantly worried about someone hacking your bank account or tracking the type of content you engage with.

We hope that our ExpressVPN review has opened your eyes to what this product can do for you. Even though it costs a minimum of $6.67/month, the peace of mind and confidence you gain in return is a good feeling.