ExpressVPN - Review
With 3,000 servers in 160 cities across 94 countries, compatibility with virtually every known platform and 5 simultaneous connections, it's not hard to come to the conclusion that ExpressVPN is indeed one of the best VPN services on the planet, with excellent coverage on every continent.
Read Also: Best VPNs | July 2021
ExpressVPN Plans and Pricing
ExpressVPN offers three pricing plans: a monthly subscription of around € 11, the one for 15 months (currently discounted at around € 5 per month, with the formula 12 months + 3 free) and the semiannual one at around € 8 per month. The prices are a bit above average, especially if we think of competitors like NordVPN which offers more affordable pricing plans. In any case, if we consider the functions offered and the quality of the service offered, we can say that the cost is more than justified. It remains to be stressed that the prices have remained almost unchanged in recent years and that, for some time now, the 15-month plan also includes a 1 year of unlimited backup on the Backblaze cloud.What makes the difference, first and foremost, is the customer service, which in the case of ExpressVPN is top notch. Customers have 24/7 live chat with competent and technically trained staff. Keep in mind that, often, support is the first weakness of other VPNs on the market. In the case of ExpressVPN it is one of the best arguments to prove the professionalism of the service.
ExpressVPN rates 2021 Speaking of "business cards", another flaw of most VPN services is to present users with a website often in English or translated into a kind of macaronic Italian, son of Google Translate and the like, with marketing expressions and “tricks” that could annoy the most expert eye. Here too, however, ExpressVPN stands out from the competition with a truly competent website translated into Italian in a precise and impeccable way. In addition, you can pay with the most common methods: in addition to the traditional credit card, you can purchase your ExpressVPN subscription through PayPal, Bitcoin, AliPay, Yandex Money and WebMoney.
And if you are not yet convinced about the 100%, you can try the service for free for 7 days and test first-hand the advantages we are talking about here. If even after subscribing to a plan you change your mind, you can take advantage of the refund service within 30 days of activation. Basically, you will have almost a month of free trial at no cost. We also tested this possibility for you, to put the company's service to the test, and again ExpressVPN impressed us with its professionalism.
The reimbursement system is simple and does not include any contractual "trap". Just ask for a refund through the assistance service, which will process the request within a few hours, without any problem and with maximum reliability.
Privacy
Speaking of VPN, security and privacy are always the main aspects to keep an eye on and, if you think about it, the guarantees offered by the sector are always very vague. This does not mean that all VPNs are unreliable, but simply that the service to be used must be carefully selected, taking care to verify that the methods used by the provider to protect our navigation and our data are specified.While it is true that many services remain vague and do not shine for transparency, it was a pleasure to note instead the honesty lavished by ExpressVPN which, in addition to merely claiming to have excellent security methods, also strives to list the features that they make the service impenetrable. As for encryption, for example, the company uses the 4096-bit SHA-512 RSA certificate with AES-256-CBC to encode the control channel and HMAC (Hash Message Authentication Code) to prevent data tampering in real time, which was also confirmed by a careful analysis of our technicians on the configuration files.
As if that weren't enough, ExpressVPN assigns each connection a secret key, which is automatically changed every 60 minutes, like this to add an additional level of protection to each browsing session so that, if by hypothesis the system were to be decrypted, the attacker would have a very limited margin of action, both in space and in time. In a nutshell: it is difficult for you to find a more effective security system in the field.
Finally, we also report excellent DNS support, with a service that, in addition to preventing DNS leaks, also provides encrypted DNS to 256-bit on private servers. Therefore, unlike competitors who, all too often, limit themselves to redirecting DNS to OpenDNS (or similar), with all the risks involved (including the use of unencrypted DNS), ExpressVPN guarantees us stability and security. as well as the elimination of all those problems that generally plague the relationship between VPN and DNS, such as filtered or blocked requests.
Performance
From a performance point of view, ExpressVPN does a lot, but very well. During our tests we experimented with the conversion to different servers, looking for possible crashes or problems related to latency (in themselves irrelevant on performance but still to keep an eye on to understand the "health" of the servers) and we did not find problems. Our connection never dropped and we didn't experience any crashes. Latency times were average and the experience was always responsive and very fast, with a decidedly positive overall user experience. Of course, there was some slight drop when using the more distant servers but, in principle, we did not find any real defects.We performed speed tests using the fast.com portal, always using a connection 75Mbps fiber broadband (Windows 10) and we have rarely ever dropped below 60-65Mbps, with results never below 40 Mbps. Similar tests conducted with other VPNs, which we will talk about soon, did not offer us the same performance which, of course, attests to the premium quality of the ExpressVPN experience.
The connection with very distant but technologically developed countries, such as China and Japan, have offered us connections on average 60Mbps, while for many other countries on the African and Asian continent the average was however 40 Mbps. Very few countries fell below this average, with negative peaks for some countries such as Malaysia, Pakistan, India and Vietnam (all between 25 and 5Mbps). These are minor results that cannot affect ExpressVPN's overall performance.
Netflix
Many users may be interested in VPNs due to the ability they offer to access restricted sites in your geographic area. While it is enough for common websites to connect to a regional VPN server to overcome the problem, when it comes to services like Netflix, the matter is certainly more complex. This is because, with time and experience, many services - especially video and music streaming - have answered the question by constantly updating their systems to deal with access via VPN servers.In the spirit of clarity and honesty that guarantees the service, ExpressVPN immediately declares all portals that can be unblocked without problems from its connection service. These include Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, Google, Wikipedia and YouTube. A few simple tests were enough to verify that these statements were true and the results did not disappoint us: connecting to Netflix USA and other blocked sites such as YouTube USA was not a problem.
The Windows client and Apps
It is not uncommon for the correct functioning or even the correct configuration of a VPN to be a procedure that can hide pitfalls. Over the years the market has varied greatly, and today there are VPNs designed specifically for those who do not have big claims, especially from the point of view of possible settings, all precisely to try to simplify the connection procedures. In the case of ExpressVPN, despite being in effect a premium VPN, we have found that making the service work properly is very simple and intuitive.Once connected to your account, it is the portal itself that indicates which app or software you will need to connect by displaying the Download button and allowing you to download the client immediately. However, you can freely download software for any of the supported platforms, including Linux, and this is a further added value. For each device there are specific instructions and you won't even need to enter your credentials every time, just copy the unique activation number and the app will set everything to default.
As for the Windows client , we point out a very simple interface to use, with a big On / Off button that allows you to activate the service when needed. The active server is always clearly indicated, and the server switching functions are intuitive and easy to reach. The system chooses by default the best server based on the geographic area in which we are located but it is possible to indicate a country and automatically choose the fastest one, or choose one manually.
The latest version of the client it also allows you to view the latest connections made. Where many services require you to close your connection to switch servers, ExpressVPN allows you to switch servers quickly and without having to close any applications. The service also includes a Speed Test function that offers a lot of information about the connection speed. This is very convenient since, if we really have to look for defects in the interface, the system does not have a report indicating the connection speed of the various servers (which, in the manual choice, would make everything easier and faster). >
In addition, you can choose between four protocols: OpenVPN / UDP, OpenVPN TCP, L2TP - IPSec and PPTP. These can be freely selected, but by selecting the “standard” service settings, ExpressVPN will choose the protocol. How, however, it is not known. In fact, there is no information regarding the method of choice of the protocol in use. Finally, in the event that the VPN connection is interrupted, the Kill Switch function is activated which blocks all data thus minimizing the possibility of interference. Also in this case it is an excellent function designed to guarantee privacy and which, moreover, cannot be deactivated by the user.
Very good also with the various apps, although the iOS one requires some steps more than the Android one, whose installation is quick and very simple. Use is immediate in both cases and the apps work without any problems whatsoever, guaranteeing the same performance tested in the PC environment. Here too, for example, it is possible for both apps to change servers without having to close the application, just as it is possible to keep track of the latest connections made. Both apps also allow you to try the service for free for 7 days and, although perhaps they are a bit poor in settings compared to some competitors' apps, from the point of view of functionality and performance they still left us very satisfied.
As is often the case with modern VPNs, browser extensions such as Chrome and Firefox are available in addition to clients. These are not simple proxies, but real interfaces for Windows, Mac or Linux clients, which do not work if the clients are not installed. A small sacrifice, given the advantages of being able to manage servers and control the client directly from the browser. Both extensions work very well but, between the two, the one for Chrome has some very useful exclusive features, such as the ability to prevent HTML5 geolocation and blocking any WebRTC leaks at the browser level to force the use of some connections. Too bad the option for favorites is missing. In any case, the client for Windows is one of the most complete we have ever tried and, although it requires some steps to be put into operation, it will allow you to make the most of the service. Furthermore, following a recent update, you will also be able to see the history of connections made.
Assistance
When dealing with VPN services, it is not uncommon to encounter some problems. In fact, things do not always go the right way and solving a problem may not be as simple as one would expect. This is why, in our opinion, the quality of the assistance service is one of those factors capable of distinguishing a good service from an excellent or even excellent one. In the case of ExpressVPN, the support site offers many useful guides for solving the problems encountered during the use of the service, and the answers are always clear, simple and decisive, even for those who are not very familiar with this type of service.The guides are available in many languages and, even in the case of Italian, they are always readable, well edited and full of useful links. The tutorials are also great and are diversified according to the various platforms. Each of these has its own tutorials (yes, there are more than one! Which is very rare) and their realization is flawless and professional to say the least. And if all this were not enough, there is the aforementioned possibility of requesting direct assistance via chat, thanks to a 24/7 service. Our experience was excellent: the answers arrived within a few minutes and were exhaustive, clear and very useful to face any problem we had posed, even if present among the guides that are on the portal. All in all, really great support, perfect even for those really new to VPNs.
