ExpressVPN
NordVPN
Winner: NordVPN
Here is the detailed pricing of both ExpressVPN and NordVPN:
Monthly Plan: $11.95/mo
6-Month Plan; $9.00/mo
2-Year Plan: $3.71/mo
Special Offer: 68% discount on the 2-year plan
Monthly Plan: $12.95/mo
6-Month Plan: $9.99/mo
1-Year Plan: 6.67/mo
Special Offer: Three months free with a 1-year subscription
NordVPN gets cheaper if you subscribe to a long-term plan for VPN. Their two-year discounted rate at $3.71 per month is one of the cheapest you can have in the market. However, a long-term subscription can give you higher risks like not having the option to switch to another VPN provider if the services get bad or won't work for you. However, NordVPN is not just the current cheapest VPN but it is also known to be a high-quality VPN that you can ever get.
ExpressVPN does not offer any free trial, nor do they offer two-year plans. Both companies can give you a 30-day money-back guarantee without forcing you to provide a reason why the service doesn't work for you. If you're looking for an annual VPN plan, then ExpressVPN would be a great deal for you. But if you want a longer commitment and a cheaper price, we suggest you go for NordVPN.
Winner: NordVPN
By a huge gap, NordVPN is the fastest VPN. Faster than ExpressVPN based on all of the speed tests ran for this comparison.
For its testing variables, the official VPN app was used for each service to ran all the tests for NordVPN vs ExpressVPN. Also, ExpressVPN's Lightway protocol was made to promote a faster and more secure but it was a closed source, unlike OpenVPN or WireGuard.On the other hand, NordVPN's WireGuard protocol is gaining multiple usage or popularity with VPN service worldwide because of its faster and more secure services. Unlike ExpresVPN's Lightway, WireGuard is open-source. NordLynx is the WireGuard VPN protocol of NordVPn's implementation.
Now, let us see the speed test results of these two VPNs from different locations.
ExpressVPN speed test result was 138Mbps. The baseline speed for us using virtual servers when this test was conducted was 410Mbps with a close distance of 24 ms ping. Meaning, the result was not as good enough as expected even if ExpressVPN Lightway protocol was used. It was proven that it is slower than the usual VPN speed offered by other companies
With a 410Mbps baseline, the result of NordVPN's speed test was quite good after showing a 445Mbps. It has proven that it is significantly better than ExpressVPN by about 309Mbps. In other words, the WireGuard VPN protocol works better, which is a big edge for the users.
The servers tested in Los Angeles, California showed a result of having Nord VPN (279Mbps) as being faster than ExpressVPN (209) by a large margin. The speed test showed that NordVPN is faster than ExpressVPN.
The speed tests ran for servers in Texas showed similar results again. NordVPN that has a result of 261 Mbps was faster than ExpressVPN by 54Mbps. It proves again that ExpressVPN's Lightway protocol cannot surpass the speeds of NordVPN's WireGuard or the NordLynx protocol.
A few long-distance speed tests were run in the United Kingdom with almost similar results to the previous one. Check this out!
ExpressVPN showed a result of 179Mbps, which is the fasted speed test result that it got. But the result below shows that NordVPN is still way better than this. NordVPN has a 295Mbps result and is better than about 60Mbps.
With that, it is clear that NordVPN's performance is way better, which makes it a big reason to win, especially if you opt for gaming or streaming, where speeds and ping are important.
The OpenVPN speed in every Virtual Private Network is essential since it is being used as a standard protocol for everyone. Now, let us start to tests using OpenVPN for ExpressVPN and NordVPN.
Usually, we can get around 150Mbps or so using ExpressVPN and OpenVPN protocol. Unfortunately, the recent speed testing showed a slower result than NordVPN. These are the results:
So, for those subscribers who want to use the OpenVPN protocol for speed and security, know that NordVPN offers a better performance advantage in this area again. Even if you use double-VPN servers that encrypt the traffic over to separate hops, NordVPN still did a better job than ExpressVPN's OpenVPN speeds.
Furthermore, take note that ExpressVPN does not grant any double-VPN server configurations or specialty servers like NordVPN does.
Having said those, in all server locations that were tested, NordVPN did a greater job than ExpressVPN. It beats EXpressVPN with OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols in all server locations.
Winner: NordVPN
Now, let us move forward and be more detailed about the security and encryption of the two VPN industry providers.
When it comes to server security, both VPN companies have their own features and offers. Here are some exceptional offers you can get from ExpressVPN:
Here are some exceptional offers you can get from NordVPN:
Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN showed good results and utilize strong encryption standards.
ExpressVPN and NordVPN offer the same levels of security when it comes to data encryption. The only small difference is their individual hash authentication but nevertheless, it still offers military-grade security that is considered to be the highest standard today.
The leak protection of both Virtual Private Networks showed great results again in this area of testing. Using the VPN test procedures, the leak protection features were fully tested in the respected VPNs.
Here are the desktop clients that ExpressVPN and NordVPN offer:
NordVPN has an advantage in this area. The main VPN protocols were both supported by ExpressVPN and NordVPN. However, the main difference was that ExpressVPN opted for a closed-source, self-developed Lightway protocol that is not used by anyone else and is not into the kernel while NordVPN used the opposite - opted for a widely-accepted, open-source protocol with WireGuard, which is integrated with Linux.
These are the main VPN protocols:
Winner: ExpressVPN anad NordVPN
Let's take into the different reliability of each VPN.
ExpressVPN's reliability did a great job in the testing. It's considerably the same as the usual VPNs available today.
Issue:
Accessing the streaming content is one of the big issues that ExpressVPN gives. In terms of reliability during the previous year, it was not able to unblock some streaming websites, such as BBC iPlayer and the likes.
With NordVPN, the latest round of test results seems to work very well in terms of reliability in the different areas.
There were no issues found with NordVPN in this testing.
Winner: NordVPN
If you look and test it yourself, you would see that both VPNs offer great features. However, they have their own differences and edges. Let's look into the details.
ExpressVPN has great but limited features. Meaning, it offers the basic VPN features that you get, unlike NordVPN that which gives specialty features. It provides basic and user-friendly VPN applications. These are the main features that you get to enjoy with ExpressVPN:
On the other hand, NordVPN's features have a big distinction over ExpressVPN. Let's take a look at these features.
Winner: ExpressVPN
The design and usability were the main factors in this category.
With ExpressVPN, it shows a very clean and minimal. Meaning, it can be an advantage for beginners since it is very simple, user-friendly, and gives no complicated access. To see more of its features and settings, you will need to click at least three lines in the top-left corner of the page, which will open a second window. Do not worry, it won't be confusing since it keeps the main app screen less cluttered.
Moreover, if you want to switch to a different server with ExpressVPN, you just need to either click the active server to open up a second window of server locations or click one of the two options at the bottom part of the app. ExpressVPN simply relies on a second screen pop-up for more options.
Now, NordVPN apps have more options and larger than ExpressVPN. On the left side of the NordVPN client, you can automatically see the specialty servers and country locations of these said features. You can also choose a server location with only one click to the global map. Moreover, this application is quite larger but it also gives you direct access to features, server location, and specialty servers.
The choice will be on the user's preference depending on how tech-savvy he/she is. But in general, EXpressVPN gives an easier VPN app for its users.
Winner: ExpressVPN and NordVPN
ExpressVPN and NordVPN's privacy and logs are both great options since it has no verified logs result in the testing.
ExpressVPN has always been maintaining a good track record when it comes to logging policy since it is always the main factor of the users when looking for a VPN provider. Meaning, ExpressVPN does not access or keep any record of the websites you visit regardless of what it is.
It has a straightforward no logs policy on their website:
ExpressVPN stores no activity logs and no connection logs from our users. Here's what that means:
No activity logs. ExpressVPN does not see or record which websites you visit. We never log the destination or contents of your traffic, and we run our own private, zero-knowledge DNS on every VPN server for added privacy and anonymity.
No connection logs. ExpressVPN never logs connection timestamps, session duration, your source IP address, or the ExpressVPN IP address that your computer assumes when connected to the VPN.
Like NordVPN, it undergoes a third-party no logs audit which was performed by the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and verified the privacy protection and no-logs policy measures are secured.
Furthermore, NordVPN's logging policy does not store any of your connection timestamps, session information, bandwidth, traffic data, IP addresses, etc. As explained on their website, this is their commitment to their users:
We do not store connection timestamps, session information, used bandwidth, traffic data, IP addresses, or other data. Nothing to store - nothing to share with anyone.
As we have said, its logging policy was verified by the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which is a third-party audit to verify their performance.
Winner: ExpressVPN and NordVPN
Both Virtual Private Network providers are based in good privacy jurisdictions, where your data is surely secured.
ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands where it has an ideal location for the users' data security and privacy. The British Virgin Islands is not a member of the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, Fourteen Eyes surveillance group. Also, it is a free and independent country that has its own judicial and legal system despite being known to have historical ties to the British. To prove that it has a better jurisdiction, Surfshark is also joining the British Virgin Islands for their jurisdiction.
NordVPN is based in Panama where it is not a member of the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, Fourteen Eyes, too. It is generally considered to be a good foreign jurisdiction, which is safe from the United States and the European influence.
Both of these countries have strong privacy protections in place, which makes it more popular for the Virtual Private Network companies as well as the Business and Banking industry that requires a higher demand for security.
Winner: NordVPN
In this category, both VPN providers showed recommendable results. However, there are some differences that you should take note such as the speed and the leak protection.
Winner: ExpressVPN and NordVPN
Are you the kind of VPN user that wants to stream Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, etc.? Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN can help you access it easily. Read their respective results below:
ExpressVPN will give you 24/7 or unlimited access to Netflix but only for selected regions. However, you need not worry since it covers the main 13 regions that most Netflix subscribers use such as the UK, US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, and Spain. It will allow you to stream in the HD version with great speed.
NordVPN currently has a larger number of Netflix libraries than ExpressVPN. By having more than 1 covered region ExpressVPN, it can allow you to stream into these countries such as the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Japan, Australia, India, Brazil, South Korea, and Finland.
Other streaming sites
With regards to multiple streaming site (s), the two VPNs have the same performance as well and pretty good internet speed and download speed.
These are the streaming sites that are supported by ExpressVPN:
With NordVPN, these are the streaming sites that are being supported:
Both Virtual Private Networks can also perform well in restricted regions such as China. Although ExpressVPN is already blocked by the Chinese government, it still made a way out for its subscribers by giving alternative IP addresses. However, there are sometimes service outages since it is strongly monitored by the People's Republic. Still, it has a strong record when it comes to having its way around from the newly-introduced blocks from China.
With NordVPN, It consistently works with Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, and more. However, there are also instances that service outages will occur, especially with Netflix. If the Netflix library does not correspond properly to your server, NordVPN will automatically redirect you to another Netflix library such as the UK, Singapore, or more.
Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN offer dedicated apps in the Amazon store if ever you need one for FireTV or Firestick.
Winner: ExpressVPN
Both expression and NordVPN give a wide range of payment methods for their subscribers. All the major credit card companies are available as well as PayPal, Bitcoin, and other payment processors.
With ExpressVPN, all you need to do is to input your valid email address and your payment details.
NordVPN has disregarded PayPal in their payment options since 2019 for no reason, which made it a hindrance since most users use PayPal during payment. However, all other major payment methods are available such as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
With refunds, both offer a 30-day money-back guarantee with different discounts and special packages on the holidays.
To make it more reassuring, you can test both VPNs for a few weeks and cancel which seems to work less for you.
NordVPN and ExpressVPN use industry-accepted 256-bit encryption. NordVPN uses another additional security feature a NAT firewall located on their servers.
China secretly owns many of the world's VPN providers, however, there is no evidence I can find to say it is owned by one of these secret Chinese companies.
Russia has been increasing its activity in blocking VPN on the Russian Iron Firewall - But as long as you do not use it to access sites the government blocks you should be ok.
NordVPN has is the best encryption and encryption safeguards.
NordVPN is a good choice here
Nord VPN is a great selection for German VPN service.
See Our Other VPN Comparison's here
