ExpressVPN vs NordVPN

Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN are leading VPN providers and, at Comparitech, we find it hard to choose between them. In this review, we will examine the attributes of each of these top picks and see which is better suited to various tasks.

By working through an attribute-by-attribute analysis, we can accurately compare between these two services. Here’s what we found in our NordVPN vs ExpressVPN comparison:

Summary: ExpressVPN vs Nord VPN

Pricing & discounts

Both companies offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. We have tested these and can testify that both providers honor this pledge without asking you to provide a reason or prove why the service doesn’t work for you.

ExpressVPN gives you three months free on a one-year term, making it a better deal if you’re looking for an annual plan. NordVPN offers steep discounts on longer terms, so you can get a rate of $2.99 per month if you’re willing to commit to pay upfront for three years of service.

Best Deal for ExpressVPN:Get 3 months free here with the annual plan.

Best Deal for NordVPN:Save 75% on the three year plan here (75% discount).

Features

ExpressVPN and NordVPN are two of the few VPNs to offer command-line utilities for easy installation on devices running Linux. Both providers also offer native apps for Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire devices.

ExpressVPN beats NordVPN in the router stakes because it has its own easy-to-use custom firmware that works with select routers. For both providers, manual setup is possible with routers flashed with compatible firmware. ExpressVPN and NordVPN each provide their own extensive library of tutorials which explain how to install the VPN on various router types.

The simultaneous connection allowance of NordVPN is double that of ExpressVPN. In both cases, if you install the VPN on a router, that counts as just one connection from your allowance.

NordVPN has an ad tracker blocker and malware protection system called CyberSec. This can be turned on within the app.

Unblocking capabilities

When is comes to unblocking geo-restricted streaming sites, both ExpressVPN and NordVPN are certainly up to the challenge. There really isn’t much you can’t access from abroad with either of these services.

The one edge ExpressVPN has is that it can unblock more Netflix libraries than NordVPN. Note that not all ExpressVPN servers in a given region will unblock a streaming site from that region, so you may have to contact customer support to find out which server to use.

In NordVPN’s case, every server we’ve tested will work to unblock Netflix. However, if the library that corresponds to your server location can’t be unblocked, NordVPN will automatically redirect you to the US Netflix library.

If you have a Kodi box, you can use either of these VPNs to get around regional restrictions on TV services. Neither ExpressVPN nor NordVPN has an app that can be installed on a Kodi box. However, the range of VPN protocol options that both present (see below) mean that there are plenty of options in case your particular Kodi box doesn’t support OpenVPN.

If you’re using Kodi on your computer, you can control your geolocation using the native ExpressVPN or NordVPN app installed on your device.

China

Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN perform well in China. The main ExpressVPN website is actually blocked by the Chinese government, but the company provides an alternative address for users in China.

ExpressVPN is very aware of the challenges of keeping its service available in China. Although the service works in the People’s Republic, there are sometimes service outages. However, ExpressVPN has a record of being the best VPN for China, with NordVPN also having a respectable performance in that market.

Setup and interface

The ExpressVPN app is small and keeps mobile-friendly proportions even when it is used on a PC or Mac.

The NordVPN main screen shows a map of the world with a marker in each country where the company operates servers. This map is also available on the mobile device version and it doesn’t lose any of its appeal on smaller screens.

The NordVPN layout is a lot more attractive, although not as space-efficient as the ExpressVPN design. With ExpressVPN you select a server location from a dropdown list and you can select specific locations rather than just the country.

You can also opt for a list view with NordVPN. The NordVPN server selection list gives you more detail than the map — there are other connection options, such as DDoS protection, a connection through the VPN to the Tor network, and a choice of a double-hop route.

Both VPN apps include extra security features and operating settings.

In both cases, these options are available on a separate page. This is a good design idea because it keeps the main screen of each app uncluttered.

Overall, the NordVPN is slightly more user-friendly, while the ExpressVPN app has a professional look and is efficient.

One slightly perturbing security feature of the ExpressVPN setup process is that you have to get an activation code by logging in to your account on the website before the app will work.

Both companies have association agreements with wifi router vendors, which enables you to buy a router through the VPN website. You can get a combo package with either company that signs you up for the VPN service when you buy the router.

Servers and performance

Although ExpressVPN has servers in more countries, NordVPN has more servers overall.

NordVPN has a server feature that ExpressVPN doesn’t offer, which is VPN chaining (also known as multi-hop VPN or double-hop VPN). A number of server options in the NordVPN application will route your traffic through two servers, encrypting packets twice over. This is an interesting security feature, but it can slow down the connection. Another security routing option that NordVPN offers is a connection through one of its servers to the Tor network.

Here are the countries in which each VPN provider has servers:

Based on our latest speed test results, both NordVPN and ExpressVPN are among the top five fastest providers, with NordVPN having a bit of an edge. You can see their performance with respect to other providers in the chart below.

As you can see, both provide above average speeds and should be plenty fast enough to stream HD and live HD video.

Security

Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN offer multiple VPN protocols. The best of these is OpenVPN and is the system you should probably use if you want top-level security. The processing of encryption for OpenVPN can be a little slower than with lighter protocols. With NordVPN’s recent data breach ExpressVPN wins on security.

If you need to squeeze out a little extra speed for situations such as online gaming, you have the option of choosing L2TP with ExpressVPN or trying IKEv2 (often supported on mobile devices) with NordVPN.

PPTP is offered by ExpressVPN, but this is an old standard that is no longer considered secure. ExpressVPN also offers SSTP, which is the more secure replacement for PPTP.

Overall, the choice of VPN protocols is solid with both providers. NordVPN has a slight edge because it offers the fast IKEv2 for use with mobile devices.

The encryption standard offered by ExpressVPN is slightly better than that of NordVPN. Both companies use AES encryption with a 256-bit key. This provides cast-iron security because the cipher is uncrackable.

ExpressVPN has an advantage in the security that it offers for the control channel. This cipher is used for session establishment and to protect the distribution of AES keys. Both companies use RSA encryption for this channel, but ExpressVPN uses a longer key — 4,096 bits against the 2,048-bit key used by NordVPN.

This security level is particularly important if you are in China. It is believed that the Chinese authorities can now crack RSA with a 1,024-bit key and is working on the 2,048-bit key version. If and when they get there, NordVPN will be completely insecure in China, but it will be some time before that happens. ExpressVPN has over-engineered its control channel encryption to ensure total security.

Both companies scramble the encrypted content of packets to prevent any repeated data creating patterns in the encrypted transmission.

DNS calls are unencrypted, so if a VPN lets your computer carry on using the default DNS service nominated by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), then all of the websites that you visit could be logged by your ISP, hackers, or government spooks tapping the line. Fortunately, both ExpressVPN and NordVPN force all DNS references to travel down their encrypted tunnels, preventing any outsiders from seeing your activity on the web.

Both providers have the same security options in their apps that help you to prevent your real IP address from being exposed. You can instruct both apps to start when the operating system boots up, which means that you can set them to run on your computer all of the time. Both apps include a kill switch option. That function will prevent any app on your computer from connecting to the internet without the VPN being active.

NordVPN has an overall kill switch and allows you to create a selective kill switch on a per-app basis. ExpressVPN doesn’t have that per-app kill switch, but it does offer split tunneling. This allows you to nominate apps to bypass the VPN and keep all others protected.

Since we first published this article, NordVPN suffered an isolated data breach. While we still see NordVPN as taking security very seriously this is a blemish on an otherwise strong track record.

Privacy

Neither company is based in a ‘Five Eyes’ country, so they are both free from security agency pressure to disclose the details of their users’ activities or cooperate with US or UK court orders to trace a particular customer.

ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands, which has no data retention laws. The location of NordVPN in Panama is not quite as safe as it may at first seem. The country has some Draconian copyright laws and has been forced on a number of occasions to cooperate with the US authorities. However, NordVPN does not have any servers in its home country, which enables it to avoid government pressure to disclose information.

NordVPN has a slightly better privacy policy than ExpressVPN because it keeps no logs at all.

All VPNs say they don’t keep any logs. However, when you dig a little deeper, what they often mean is that they don’t keep any activity logs. An activity log would record every action performed by the user, including websites visited and data downloads. Unfortunately, by tracing a connection from its destination back through to its originator, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies can track you to your door. A VPN breaks the chain of that trace, but connection logs can be used to trace a user through the VPN.

NordVPN says it does not keep any connection logs, but ExpressVPN does keep some minimal, non-identifying logs. Those logs include your account ID, the date (not time) of connections, the location connected to and from, and the total amount of data transferred. The fact that the company does not record your IP address should make it impossible to trace you.

This brings up the question of whether it is possible to open an account anonymously. If you have to give your credit card to open an account, then you can be traced through that. Your identity can also be traced through your email account.

Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN allow you to pay with cryptocurrencies, which means you can’t be traced through your bank. With ExpressVPN you can also choose to pay through a Mint card, which is a pre-paid card that you load up with cash in stores and doesn’t require you to identify yourself. With both services, you need to give an email address. However, you can just use a burner email address. So, with both providers, it is possible to create an anonymous account and prevent anyone from linking your activities to your real identity.

The levels of privacy offered by ExpressVPN and NordVPN are excellent. This is one of the reasons that both of these services are good choices for those who like to download entertainment with torrents. As copyright infringement is an illegal activity, you need strong identity protection when you download. Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN are open about their support for torrenters, so you don’t need to be coy about your activities if you need to contact customer support with questions about optimizing the setup for torrents.

Setup

VPNs can use different methods to mask your IP address. Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN use the shared address method. In this scenario, all of your outgoing traffic is labeled with the VPN server’s IP address. All the other users connected to that server at the same time also get represented by the server’s IP address. Anyone trying to trace activity from the target website back to the originator will arrive at the VPN server and will not be able to tell which VPN customer originated that request.

hared IP address systems are managed by a system called “port address mapping” (PAT). You may have read about the protection that some VPNs offer with a NAT firewall. This is actually PAT. The address translation system makes it impossible to identify an IP address behind the gateway and this automatically creates a firewall. Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN give you NAT firewall protection.

In some circumstances, you may need your own private IP address. This is particularly important if you want to accept incoming connections. In this instance, the NAT firewall will not apply to your connection. You would need a private, or ‘static,’ IP address if you want to set up your own server. This might be for your own website, for a gaming server, or to create your own cloud storage system.

You can’t get a static IP address from ExpressVPN. However, NordVPN offers the service for an extra fee. You can choose to have an IP address from the UK, the USA, the Netherlands, or Germany. It doesn’t matter where you live or where you actually are.

All VPNs offer a degree of DDoS protection because anyone hoping to launch a DDoS attack against you would first need your IP address. When you use the internet through a VPN, no one ever sees your IP address, just the IP address of the VPN server that you are connected to. Therefore, anyone thinking that they are launching an attack against you would actually be attacking the VPN  server. VPN servers have much greater capacity than your computer and so they can absorb most attacks. NordVPN can give you extra DDoS protection if you are likely to be the target of large and frequent attacks. ExpressVPN doesn’t offer that service.

Customer service

Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN are industry leaders in customer support. Both have a live chat facility on their websites, staffed with knowledgeable experts. In regular visits to both chat systems, we found ExpressVPN quicker to connect.

We also tested out email responses for each provider. ExpressVPN and NordVPN both responded quickly and thoroughly to a simple streaming-related question. ExpressVPN did fumble a bit on one seemingly straightforward question about DNS leaks by providing a lot of information about the topic without actually answering our question. However, upon follow-up, the question was answered promptly. ExpressVPN had the best average response time (1 hour 40 mins compared to NordVPN’s 3 hours 24 mins). Here are the results from asking each team three questions.

First ExpressVPN’s results:

Now NordVPN’s results:

To their credit, both VPN services did actually send replies to all questions — some VPNs don’t. Although the response times for some queries seem long, these are actually some of the fastest responses in the industry.

Conclusion

Both of these VPN services are highly recommended. The larger number of server locations available with ExpressVPN may mean that you would need to choose this service over NordVPN if the countries that you want to appear to be in aren’t on the NordVPN server list.

NordVPN would also get your business if you want a dedicated, static IP address and extra DDoS protection because ExpressVPN doesn’t offer those services.

In terms of security, ExpressVPN edges ahead slightly because it has stronger control channel encryption. In terms of privacy, NordVPN is a little better because of its zero logs policy.

Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN work in China and offer good protection in other repressive regimes, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. Tests show that speed and availability is slightly better with NordVPN.

If you particularly want to use a VPN for video streaming, then ExpressVPN is probably your best choice. Although NordVPN can get you into Netflix, making it one of the leading VPN services in the world, it doesn’t offer access to as many libraries as ExpressVPN does.

NordVPN’s apps are slightly easier to use, but ExpressVPN has the advantage of having its own custom firmware for simple setup on compatible routers.

The 30-day money-back guarantee both services offer gives you a chance to try out ExpressVPN and NordVPN and test them for yourself. Whichever of these VPN services you choose, you will be in safe hands.

Best Deal for ExpressVPN:Get 3 months free here with the annual plan.

Best Deal for NordVPN:Save 75% on the three year plan here (75% discount).