ExpressVPN Review

ExpressVPN has always been excellent when it comes to internet speed. It’s not for nothing that everyone calls this the streaming VPN. These speeds are absolutely fantastic.

Indeed, it’s all dependent on the internet speed allowance your ISP provides, but ExpressVPN makes sure there are no serious drops in speed regardless of this.

We have made multiple tests on some of the most popular servers to see how they fare.

The benchmark guideline we started from was this one:

• Ping – 8ms
• Download speed – 87.56 Mbps
• Upload speed – 90.34

The first server we tested was the one from New York, US:

• Ping – 149ms
• Download speed – 85.30 Mbps
• Upload speed – 26.37 Mbps

Considering the distance between the testing location and the server itself, these results are unbelievable. Even putting that aside, such a low drop in speed changes the name of the game.

Let’s see if it continues like this. The UK server is next:

• Ping – 47ms
• Download speed – 70.33 Mbps
• Upload speed – 83.43 Mbps

Another blazing success. No surprise here. With such speeds, streaming HD and 4K is made child’s play.

This is the Australian server in Sidney:

• Ping – 319ms
• Download speed – 46.59 Mbps
• Upload speed – 2.46 Mbps

Despite the sharp drop in download speed, this is still more than enough to indulge and as much torrenting and streaming as you want. The upload speed is slightly worse, but you won’t need such high speeds here either.

Let’s see how the German server in Frankfurt fares:

• Ping – 59ms
• Download speed – 85.49 Mbps
• Upload speed – 82.63 Mbps

Yet another pleasing surprise, the German server is ready for action at any time. Just connect to it and start streaming.

Last but not least, we gave the South African server a shot:

• Ping – 202ms
• Download speed – 68.55 Mbps
• Upload speed – 9.72 Mbps

Even a location most other VPNs have trouble with, notorious for its low speeds, is incredibly fast. The conclusion is – in terms of speed, ExpressVPN leaves everyone else in the dust. It’s miles ahead of its competition.

The server coverage is another extremely important factor to be taken into consideration when talking about VPNs. It directly impacts the overall performance and applicability of the services.

Especially when it comes to streaming or unlocking sites like Netflix, having multiple servers with decryption capabilities is essential.

ExpressVPN has more than 3000 VPNs server in 160 locations, spread across 94 countries. This is a very large server coverage that encapsulates most of the world.

Wherever you are, you’ll be able to connect to their network without problems. In the
Americas alone, there are 16 server locations alone, with the US having 32 servers alone.

Europe has 48 server locations, the Asia Pacific region has 27, and the Middle East alongside the African region have 5 server locations.

The good thing about having many servers and, therefore, plenty of IP addresses, is that even if a premium streaming service bans some of them, you’ll still have a lot of backup plans to go with.

Netflix is known to have a beef with VPN services, and it’s actively banning as many IP addresses as they find. The good news is ExpressVPN is actively replacing these IP addresses constantly, so there’s no way you’ll be left gawking at Netflix from the outside.

After asking the customer support about the servers, they’ve said that only a few of them are leased, while the vast majority of the mare owned and managed by them.

Privacy and security are the most important aspects of any given VPN. Whether it collects sensitive data or not, what encryption it uses, what security measures it has in place, and the overall defense mechanisms.

It feels good to say that ExpressVPN trumps this category from the very start. It has a zero-logging policy that shines bright like a diamond. To make sure they don’t collect any important logs, we took our time using the live chat and asking them.

Here’s what they said:

Even the privacy policy itself says the exact same thing, that they only retain the email address and the payment information, while also clearly stating that they don’t collect anything else.

What they do collect is this:

• Information related to your account (personal information)
• Aggregate apps and VPN connection summary statistics (no IP addresses, no DNS queries, nothing related to the contents or destinations of VPN traffic)
• Anonymous VPN connection diagnostics and crash reports (you can opt out of this one)
• IP addresses authorized to use MediaStreamer, if you chose to use this service

Moving on to the encryption, ExpressVPN uses the state-of-the-art AES-256-bit encryption protocol used by government agencies and other cyber-security specialists around the world.

It’s practically a walking impenetrable tank of epic proportions that only a Gamma-ray burst would dent. Fortunately, they aren’t that common.

Just like the official website says, 256-bit keys means –

“2256 or 1.1 x 1077 possible combinations. That’s 115,​792,​089,​237,​316,​195,​423,​570,​985,​008,​687,​907,​853,​269,​984,​665,​640,​560,​000,​000,​000,​000,​000,​000,​000,​000 combinations! A brute-force attack on a 256-bit keyspace is simply infeasible, even if all the world’s most powerful supercomputers ran for as long as the universe has existed so far, billions and billions of times over.”

The VPN protocols used are OpenVPN (TCP and UDP), L2TP-IPsec, and PPTP. The last two are weaker than OpenVPN, so you should have a pretty good reason to use them.

ExpressVPN employs HMAC authentication, the control-channel encryption is regulated by the AES-256-CBC, the data-channel encryption functions based on a “symmetric encryption scheme”, with the Diffie-Hellman key exchange.

It also uses Perfect Forward Secrecy, in which a new encryption key for each session is renegotiated every 60 minutes.

At the very most, if a hacker manages to intrude on your device, the most he would be able to obtain is “60 minutes of data”. Everything else is protected by a different key.

Moreover, the zero-knowledgeable DNS is a brand-new feature employed by ExpressVPN that makes sure your DNS doesn’t leak any personal or important information to anyone.

ExpressVPN is incredibly easy to use, both the website where you can find information on their services and access your account, as well as the VPN app itself.

Compatibility:

• Windows
• Mac
• Linux
• iOS
• Android
• Routers

There are browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox as well as multiple tools for DNS and WebRTC leak tests.

This is how the ExpressVPN app looks on Windows:

It moves very swiftly, and it takes almost no time to connect to a server. Just select one from the list, click on the button, and in a few seconds, you’ll have a brand new IP address.

As for how it fares on mobile phones, we tried that as well on Android. Here’s how the interface looks.

As for the settings tab, it’s fairly simplistic and accessible.

ExpressVPN rocks a very good customer support service. You can email them and wait for a few hours to get a detailed answer or you can just contact the live chat and receive a reply in seconds.

We tested the live chat and it was everything we could have wished for. Though I do get the feeling that it wasn’t a real person at the other end of the line, seeing as though the answers came way too quickly, and they were pretty extensive.

They might not go the extra way in providing any further information that might help, outside the question itself, but they are straightforward and receptive. There’s nothing I can add here. It’s a 10/10.

Moreover, they do offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. And by the looks of it, they are trustworthy with it as well.

If you’re not satisfied by their services or if you want to cancel the subscription for whatever reason, just contact the customer support, and they’ll issue you a full refund within 30 days. It’s as simple as that.

With this level of excellence and professionalism, ExpressVPN should be super expensive, right? Well, the truth is in the middle, of sorts. It’s not inaccessible to anyone, that much is sure.

These are all the pricing plans at the time of the writing:

$12.95 for one month is spicier than other premium VPNs, but the 12-months package is extremely advantageous in the long-run.

All of the plans are guarded by a 30-day money-back guarantee, regardless of the reason or time you ask for a refund.

Only mobile users will benefit from a 7-day free trial. Otherwise, there isn’t one available for Windows or any other platforms.

As for payment methods, there are quite a lot – credit cards, PayPal, Bitcoin, WebMoney, Alipay, UnionPay, Yandex Money, Giropay, iDEAL, Sofort, Carte Bleue, Interac Online, Mint, FanaPay, OneCard.

To subscribe, you’ll need to provide your email address, credit card information, and postal code (optional).

All in all, ExpressVPN is one of the most performant online security providers on the market, and its services have proven this time and time again. If you have any questions, leave them here, and we’d love it if you share any experiences you had with ExpressVPN.

Best of luck!

ExpressVPN FAQ

Is there a Crack for ExpressVPN?

No, there is no such thing, no matter what you’ve heard or read on the internet. ExpressVPN is premium, and there’s no way you can crack it. The closest thing you can do is give your credentials to someone else, while you’re paying for the subscription.

But how is that any way to crack it? After all, someone is still paying for it, one way or another.

100% of all sites on the internet who say they have a crack for ExpressVPN are fake, filled with viruses and malware. Not 99%, but 100%. All of them.

These sites are simply using the fact that a lot of people don’t actually know a lot about how cracks work and take advantage of the gullible.

This is not PC games we’re talking about, single player enclosed systems that use local security features. These can easily be bypassed with a little work. ExpressVPN is a private network with thousands of servers hosted on the internet, fitted with the latest generation encryption protocols.

If the average Joe could bypass these security features, then you would have a sad joke for a VPN. This isn’t the case with ExpressVPN.