hey guys and welcome to my review today of expressvpn now express is known as one of
the oldest and best vpns in the industry so today i wanted to do an extensive review of how well it
actually works and performs for activities such as torrenting unblocking streaming
services like netflix and ultimately keeping you safe and protected online now even though
i found express to surpass most vpns in several areas it still won't be the perfect choice for
everyone so i'll also discuss any situations where you may want to go with something else
and just a reminder you'll find links in the description to any special deals or discounts
not available on their website so feel free to take advantage of those if you like so
i'll start off by taking a look at their privacy policy which is often one of the main determining
factors for whether or not to use a particular vpn now in terms of their privacy policy and
promises of absolute anonymity express does continue to deliver in this regard not only are
they completely transparent about their privacy policy in terms of what they log and what they
don't but due to a criminal investigation it was actually proven that expressvpn doesn't track any
relevant information about you on their servers because due to the assassination of a russian
ambassador the turkish authorities seized one of expressvpn servers as part of their
investigation now they believe someone had used expressvpn while deleting relevant information
from the assassin's gmail and facebook accounts however the turkish authorities were unable to
find any logs or information to help with their investigation and this is huge because with most
vpns you're ultimately just trusting and hoping they're doing what their privacy policy states but
with express you can actually have that absolute assurance and confidence that this is the case
while it's unfortunate that security tools like vpns can be abused for illicit purposes express
is basically so secure that any activity even criminal activity won't be exposed by expressvpn
express even goes so far as to say that they will continue to oppose any efforts by governments to
install things like backdoors on their servers that could undermine or expose your privacy
now something else worth noting is that express is also based in the british virgin islands which has
full sovereignty over its own data regulations and so this means they don't have to answer to
any foreign governments however if there's a case where a high-profile criminal is involved
they will probably cooperate but even in such cases there won't be any incriminating information
to share since expressvpn doesn't keep any logs of their online activities also each year express
has continued to allow audits from independent companies like pricewaterhousecoopers and cure53
and each year express passes these audits without a problem so from a privacy standpoint express
is as good as it gets when it comes to keeping your online activities completely private now in
terms of speed express has always been known as being one of the fastest if not the fastest vpn
you can get however something to note is that your internet speed will always decrease by
some amount when using any vpn because they are basically adding an additional server for you
to connect to but what's unique about express is they've managed to make this reduction in speed to
be pretty insignificant especially when compared to a lot of other vpns for example after running
several different tests for express in over 30 different countries using a dozen different
servers the average decrease in speed was only about three to seven percent for local servers
and anywhere from five to twenty percent for international servers which is truly exceptional
for vpn even good vpns will see an average decrease in speed of about 10 to 20 or more
for just local servers and around 30 to 50 for international servers and while i'm not surprised
by express doing so well given how it's performed in the past it seems like the new investments
they've made into their servers is really paying off and continuing to push the envelope of
how fast a vpn can be now something to keep in mind is that there are a few situations in some
european countries where nordvpn will sometimes outperform express such as in italy also when
connecting to servers in new zealand i found nord would sometimes beat express at times here as well
so even though expressvpn is still the fastest vpn overall depending on where you're located
in the world there are a few locations where at times you may find nord will be slightly faster
now when it comes to unblocking geo restrictions for different streaming media providers such as
netflix this continues to be an area that gives a lot of vpns a hard time but i found express as in
the past continues to be reliable at unblocking a large variety of streaming media platforms
such as netflix amazon prime espn disney plus bbc iplayer hulu and many others especially when
using their newer lightweight protocol in fact i found their lightweight protocol to be more
reliable than openvpn when it came to unblocking geo-restrictions for netflix so ultimately out
of all the vpns i've tested expressvpn continues to be the easiest and most effective to use when
it comes to unblocking any geo-restricted content and then regarding the topic of torrenting this is
another area that some vpns either avoid or tend to penalize their users if they torrent too much
but with expressvpn there are no torrenting restrictions and no bandwidth limitations
whatsoever you also don't have to worry about making sure you're using a special server for
torrenting as all of their servers are optimized for peer-to-peer activity basically this means you
can select whichever server will give you the best results and not have to worry about getting into
any trouble for it and because of all the safety measures expressvpn has such as a kill switch
you can be totally confident that no one will know what you're torrenting except you now as you may
have gathered from their privacy policy earlier on express is basically as secure as it gets
express uses aes 256-bit encryption in combination with the openvpn protocol basically they use the
same high level of encryption used by banks and governments and then a newer security feature
express launched recently is called trusted server this is a technology that ensures your
data is never written to a server's physical hard drive and it wipes all data with every reboot now
this just further ensures that none of your data is stored or is even capable of being stored
anywhere on their servers and then protocol wise express provides a decent selection to choose from
it's a good balance between giving those with some experience a few different options to work
with but for those newer to vpns you won't have to worry about getting confused or overwhelmed
for example if you don't have any idea about what protocol you should use
expressvpn will automatically pick the best one for you without you ever having to worry about
it another cool security feature is that express runs its own private zero knowledge dns servers
uh this means that the websites you visit are all encrypted by expressvpn not your isp or a third
party ultimately this prevents any ip address dns or web rtc leakage and as a result express
is able to provide you with government level privacy and security now express does support
tor over vpn so if you're a tor user you can use express in combination with the tor network also
during my testing there were no data leaks which can be a problem for a lot of other vpns now
feature wise express has most of the features you would expect including some premium features that
aren't as common with other vpns as an example one of the unique features express provides is
split tunneling and this feature basically lets you decide which apps are protected by expressvpn
and which apps won't be affected by it for example you may only want to have expressvpn active when
you're torrenting or conversely you may want expressvpn to be on all the time except when
you're using google maps either way this split tunneling feature allows you to have a better user
experience as you can customize which applications are affected or not affected by expressvpn now a
couple features express doesn't currently have is a dedicated ip address or custom dns while the
average user won't probably need or want to use these if either one of these features are critical
for you to have you may want to consider something else but one of the most important features for
any vpn to have is a kill switch and unfortunately this is something that a lot of vpns lack express
however does provide this which when turned on prevents any information from being sent over
the internet if your vpn were to unexpectedly shut down now if you're an ios user just keep in mind
that the kill switch is automatically enabled whereas pc users will need to manually turn
this feature on and if you're looking for a vpn that can get around the great firewall of china
expressvpn is one of the only vpns that still works in china despite the country's
ability to block most vpns while using expressvpn you'll actually be able to access chinese tv or
other websites and your data will look like any normal browsing data through expressvpn's
proprietary obfuscation meaning that the great firewall of china won't be able to identify that
you're even using a vpn you also don't need to worry if you're living in countries where there's
heavy restriction and censorship if you're in this situation all you need to do is have the protocol
selection switch to automatic and then this activates expressvpn's proprietary obfuscation
technology by default this means you'll be able to beat aggressive online censorship in places like
china and other restrictive countries like turkey and uae but if you're already inside china you may
find that the standard url to access expressvpn is blocked so if this is the case just download
the tor browser and use the link i'll provide for you which i'll put in the description now
regarding usability expressvpn has one of the largest selections of servers to choose from
you can get access to over 3000 servers spread across 160 different locations in 94 countries
and as a result this makes it very easy to connect to a nearby server no matter where you are
in the world the benefit of having a server close to you to use is that you'll typically get better
speed and performance and then when it comes to device compatibility i have yet to find another
vpn that works so well on such a variety of devices express allows you to connect up to five
devices simultaneously and this includes devices such as pcs and macs mobile devices apple tv
amazon fire tv a chromecast nintendo playstation xbox and roku which makes express an ideal choice
for media streamers console owners or gamers wanting to enjoy the benefits of using a vpn as
well because one of the problems i've encountered with other vpns is either a lack of apps to use on
different devices or the interface of these apps are just more difficult to use as an example a lot
of vpns don't include a router app but express not only includes one but it's made their app easy for
beginner to use so as a result this means you'll be able to protect devices on your network such as
smart devices like fridges that don't normally run software of their own and expressvpn's apps are so
well designed that they've actually won awards for their user interface and how easy they are to use
so expressvpn is definitely an ideal choice for anyone who's never used a vpn before and support
wise expressvpn continues to provide some of the best support i've experienced in this industry
while not all vpns provide live chat support express makes this available to you 24 7.
in addition their support reps are friendly helpful and can actually handle technical
questions in case you run into any difficulty now when it comes to pricing there are currently three
plans you can choose from all plans include a 30-day money-back guarantee and they're great
about honoring this should you decide you're not happy with their service basically you get
a better deal the more months you pay for upfront you can end up saving quite a bit more this way
so i'd certainly recommend that option if that works within your budget now also i was able
to get you guys a couple extra free months so if you're thinking of trying expressvpn
include this coupon in the link below so feel free to take advantage of that if you like now as great
as expressvpn is there are a few reasons it may not be the best choice for someone but first if
you're a more advanced user who wants to be able to customize things such as your protocol and
encryption settings then you may want a vpn that offers you a more granular level of control while
i consider this one of the strengths of express and why it's so easy for even a complete newbie
to use the simple interface might be a problem for some also if you need or want to be able to
connect to more than five devices simultaneously then you may want to consider a vpn that offers a
larger number of device connections because unless you're open to purchasing a second
subscription you may want to consider something else but otherwise is expressvpn worth the money
absolutely because what sets express apart is the combination of speed performance support
security and features it provides so it's going to be the ideal vpn no matter what you need a
vpn for whether you're looking to torrent stream game or just want to stay safe online and whereas
most vpns typically fall short in some way express performs exceptionally well in each
of these different areas and that's what makes it such a well-rounded vpn to use in addition
express continues to not only be the fastest vpn i've ever tested but the easiest to use as well
also what's unique about express is they're one of the few vpns that's been proven not to store
any of your online activities so ultimately if you're looking for the overall best vpn currently
available for beginner and advanced users alike express would definitely be the one to get so
hopefully you found this review helpful and if so please leave a thumbs up as i always appreciate
that and just remember that if you want to try expressvpn i'll include a link in the description
for some additional free months so feel free to take advantage of that if you like also if you
have any questions please don't hesitate to let me know down in the comments below as i always love
getting to answer as many of those questions as i can but otherwise thanks so much for watching
you guys i really appreciate your time and i'll look forward to seeing you in the next video