NordVPN vs ExpressVPN: Same Speed, Different Price
ExpressVPN vs NordVPN ended in a draw in our comparison: NordVPN won three rounds, ExpressVPN won three, and the other two were ties. Even the speed round was an exact tie, with identical average download speeds over our UK, US, and Japan tests. So the choice is between NordVPN’s extra features and ExpressVPN’s lower price.
On NordVPN’s side, Double VPN barely affected speed, its ad blocker scored higher in our test, and its servers cover more countries. ExpressVPN renews for about $40 a year less and has the simpler app, plus more device slots on its higher plans. Its browser extension also surprised us by blocking far more trackers than NordVPN’s. We’d still pay the difference for NordVPN’s features.
ExpressVPN vs NordVPN: The Short Answer
- Pick NordVPN for feature depth: Double VPN at a 2.9% speed cost, Meshnet, 152 countries, and the stronger ad blocker.
- Pick ExpressVPN for cost and simplicity: $39 a year cheaper at renewal, connections in 1 to 2 seconds, and up to 14 devices.
- Speed is a dead heat. Both averaged 175.57 Mbps across the UK, US, and Japan.
ExpressVPN vs NordVPN: Quick Comparison
| ExpressVPN | NordVPN | |
| Starting price | $2.99 a month | $3.49 a month |
| Renewal | $99.95 a year | $139.08 a year |
| Download speed loss | 7.8% | 7.8% |
| Upload speed loss | 8.9% | 5.5% |
| Countries | 113 | 152 |
| Ad blocking on d3ward | 71% | 76% |
| Multi-hop | No | Double VPN |
| Port forwarding | No | No |
| Streaming services unblocked | 14 of 14 | 14 of 14 |
| Simultaneous devices | 10 to 14 | 10 |
| Connection time | 1 to 2 seconds | 2 seconds |
| No-log audits | KPMG, most recently February 2025 | Six since 2018, most recently December 2025 |
| Jurisdiction | British Virgin Islands | Panama |
| Refund speed in our test | 15 minutes | 10 minutes |
| Best Deals | Visit ExpressVPN >>> (80% Off) | Visit NordVPN >>> (75% Off + 3 Month Free) |
How We Tested
In our October tests, both VPNs used the same Windows 11 machine over Ethernet, on a 190.36 Mbps connection from Europe, with an unprotected baseline of 19.37 Mbps upload and 10 ms ping. We tested speed on servers in the UK, the US, and Japan, three sessions a day across three days, on each VPN’s default protocol. Ad blocking used d3ward’s 135-domain test with every category enabled.
Leak tests used ipleak.net and browserleaks.com, with the browser cache deleted between sessions. Streaming covered 14 services. Refunds were requested through live chat on secondary accounts paid by PayPal.
Speed: A Dead Heat
| Server | ExpressVPN | NordVPN | No VPN |
| UK | 185.74 Mbps | 184.73 Mbps | 190.36 Mbps |
| US | 177.03 Mbps | 181.50 Mbps | 190.36 Mbps |
| Japan | 163.94 Mbps | 160.47 Mbps | 190.36 Mbps |
| Average | 175.57 Mbps | 175.57 Mbps | 190.36 Mbps |
ExpressVPN took the UK by 1.01 Mbps and Japan by 3.47 Mbps. NordVPN took the US by 4.47 Mbps. The averages match to two decimal places. Upload speed is the one clear difference. NordVPN lost 5.5% across the three servers, compared to 8.9% for ExpressVPN, which shows up in video calls, cloud backups, and seeding. Latency tells the same story. In the same session, ExpressVPN recorded 42 ms to the UK, 129 ms to the US, and 223 ms to Japan.
NordVPN came in at 41 ms, 134 ms, and 215 ms. Under load on the British server, ExpressVPN recorded 69 ms down and 75 ms up, and NordVPN 72 ms and 78 ms. With no VPN, the same test showed 30 and 45.
Winner: Tie
Identical averages, a 3.4% upload advantage to NordVPN, and no difference either would notice in use.
Security Features: NordVPN Goes Deeper
Both passed the same baseline: AES-256 with post-quantum protection, private DNS resolvers, RAM-only servers, and app-level split tunneling. Both kill switches passed a pulled Ethernet cable and a killed process. On a PC restart, NordVPN’s Internet Kill Switch kept traffic blocked with no extra setting, while ExpressVPN’s default Network Lock let traffic out before the app reconnected, and only its strictest setting kept it blocked. The blockers show a clearer difference.
| Feature | ExpressVPN Advanced Protection | NordVPN next-gen antivirus |
| Domains blocked on d3ward | 71% | 76% |
| Scans downloaded files | No | Yes |
| Checks apps for vulnerabilities | No | Yes |
| Adult site blocking | Yes | Yes, on mobile |
| Works with the tunnel off | No | Yes |
| Included on the entry plan | Lite version only | No, Complete tier upward |
| Restricts protocol choice | Yes, Automatic or Lightway only | No |
That last row is a genuine ExpressVPN limitation. Enabling Advanced Protection grays out WireGuard and OpenVPN, so the ad blocker and the protocol menu are mutually exclusive.
Beyond the blockers, NordVPN has categories ExpressVPN doesn’t offer. Double VPN chains two servers for two encryption layers, costs 2.9% of download speed, and connects in 3 seconds. That makes it usable every day, and not only when the stakes are high.
Onion Over VPN adds a Tor hop. Obfuscated servers and the NordWhisper protocol cover filtered networks. Meshnet links up to 60 of your own devices over encrypted tunnels. NordVPN’s kill switch also works at the app level,
ExpressVPN’s answer is narrower and partly newer. Obfuscation applies to every Lightway connection automatically. An MCP server arrived in 2026, letting an AI client change server or protocol through ordinary instructions, and ExpressVPN was the first VPN to offer one.
Lightway Turbo is the disappointment. It gained 0.45 Mbps over plain Lightway and disabled split tunneling while active.
Winner: NordVPN
A better blocker, a second encrypted hop at almost no cost, Meshnet, and a kill switch with more control.
Privacy: Different Kinds of Proof
Both operate from countries with no data retention law and no membership of the Five, Nine, or 14 Eyes arrangements. Neither logs IP addresses, DNS queries, browsing history, or traffic content, and leak tests were clean for both across three servers, including IPv6 and WebRTC.
What each keeps beyond that differs, and both state it openly. ExpressVPN records daily bandwidth totals, the dates of connection, and which server location you chose. NordVPN records none of those, and keeps a last-session timestamp for about 15 minutes to enforce the device limit.
Neither set identifies what a subscriber did online.
| ExpressVPN | NordVPN | |
| Jurisdiction | British Virgin Islands | Panama |
| No-log audits | KPMG, as of 28 February 2025 | Six since 2018, latest December 2025 |
| Audit standard | ISAE 3000 Type I | ISAE 3000 (Revised) |
| Specialty servers audited | Not stated | Double VPN, Onion Over VPN, obfuscated |
| Tested by seizure | Turkey, 2017: no logs found | No |
| Documented failure | DNS leak, 2022 to 2024 | Finland server breach, 2018 |
What the Record Shows
The table leaves out three points.
- Read the audit standard alongside the number. A Type I engagement tests how controls are designed on a given date. A Type II would test whether they worked over a period. NordVPN’s six engagements span eight years, and the most recent inspected the specialty servers alongside the standard ones.
- A seizure proves more than an audit. Turkish investigators took an ExpressVPN server in 2017 and found no logs and no connection records. No commissioned examination replicates that, because the auditor is invited and the police aren’t. NordVPN’s transparency report records a Panamanian warrant it did comply with, handing over payment-related data and confirming an email address, which covers account information and no activity.
- Each has a failure on record. ExpressVPN’s Windows app leaked DNS requests between May 2022 and February 2024 in one split tunneling mode, found by a reviewer before the company saw it, then fixed in version 12.73.0 and verified afterward by Nettitude. A NordVPN server in Finland was breached in 2018 through a data center’s own remote management tool, exposing no user data, and the rebuild that followed shaped the audit record it has today.
ExpressVPN belongs to Kape Technologies, which also owns Private Internet Access and CyberGhost, and each brand commissions its own independent audits.
Winner: Tie
NordVPN has six audits that cover its specialty servers, and ExpressVPN has a seized server that proved its claim in the field. Both records stand up.
Streaming and Torrenting
Both unblocked all 14 streaming services we tested, a result no other VPN in our tests matched.
| Service | ExpressVPN | NordVPN |
| Netflix US, Canada, Japan | Unblocked | Unblocked |
| BBC iPlayer | Unblocked | Unblocked |
| ITVX | Switch servers | Unblocked |
| Prime Video | Switch servers | Switch servers |
| JioHotstar | Unblocked | Unblocked |
One service was the shared limitation: it blocked both desktop apps, and each VPN unblocked it only with location spoofing in its browser extension. Changing your Netflix region worked on the first attempt for both.
NordVPN’s SmartPlay works automatically on any device with its app installed, including Android TV and Fire TV. For Samsung and LG TVs, which don’t support VPN apps, NordVPN offers a separate Smart DNS service.
ExpressVPN’s equivalent is MediaStreamer, a DNS service that requires registering your home IP address first. ExpressVPN states that MediaStreamer can’t change your location. For torrenting, every server on both networks accepts P2P, and downloads move at the speed the tunnel allows. Neither offers port forwarding.
Winner: NordVPN, Narrowly
Equal on the platforms themselves, with NordVPN unblocking ITVX without a server switch.
Censored Countries: Two Approaches
We haven’t tested either VPN in China for this comparison, so this round compares the mechanism and what it costs. ExpressVPN applies obfuscation to every Lightway connection automatically. There’s no separate server list and no setting to find, and the speeds we recorded already include it, since obfuscation was active throughout our testing.
NordVPN treats it as a choice. Obfuscated servers use OpenVPN TCP disguised as ordinary HTTPS, and the newer NordWhisper protocol does the same job through a web tunnel. Both require switching away from the default. NordWhisper also has a clear cost: on the same British server, it came in at 161.13 Mbps, compared to 184.73 Mbps on NordLynx, a 12.8% drop, and its ping climbed from 42 ms at idle to 180 ms down and 808 ms up under load.
In short, ExpressVPN’s obfuscation is free and always on, while NordVPN’s offers more methods and costs both speed and a trip into settings.
Winner: ExpressVPN
Obfuscation on every connection at no speed cost, compared to a setting change and a 12.8% drop.
Servers and Coverage
| ExpressVPN | NordVPN | |
| Countries in the app | 113 | 152 |
| Servers | 3,000, last published figure | Over 9,500 |
| Specialty servers | Dedicated IP | Double VPN, Onion Over VPN, obfuscated, dedicated IP |
| Virtual locations | Yes, labeled in the app | Yes, labeled in the app |
| Router | Aircove, its own router | Manual setup and Smart DNS |
NordVPN’s app lists 39 more countries, and ExpressVPN stopped publishing a server count at 3,000. ExpressVPN’s answer is city-level depth in the markets it serves, with more than 20 American cities, plus Aircove, its own Wi-Fi router with the VPN inside the firmware.
Winner: NordVPN
NordVPN covers 39 more countries and operates over 9,500 servers, compared to the 3,000 ExpressVPN last published.
Apps, Devices and Support
ExpressVPN’s apps are the simplest in the category: one connection button, recent locations underneath, the full list a click away, and the same layout on every platform. The 2026 redesign removed the Settings menu.
The protocol picker, kill switch, and split tunneling now appear under Profile, which takes a week to learn. NordVPN’s app includes more and shows it, with a side panel full of specialty servers and features that several plans don’t include. The default map view also looks better than it works, since typing a country name beats scrolling a globe.
Connection times favor ExpressVPN slightly: 1 to 2 seconds, compared to 2 seconds on NordLynx, 3 on OpenVPN, and 4 on NordWhisper. Both cover Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Fire TV, Apple TV, routers, and browsers. Devices are ExpressVPN’s clearest advantage: 10 on Basic, 12 on Advanced, 14 on Pro, compared to 10 on every NordVPN plan.
We tested both extensions in Chrome, and the result surprised us. ExpressVPN’s blocked 87% of tracker domains, compared to 52% for NordVPN’s. NordVPN’s works standalone, while ExpressVPN’s requires Proxy Mode without the desktop app. Support put us through to a human in under 20 seconds on both.
Winner: ExpressVPN
Simpler apps, quicker connections, up to four more device slots, and a much stronger browser extension.
Price: ExpressVPN Costs Less, Twice Over
| Plan | ExpressVPN | NordVPN | Difference |
| Entry tier, long-term | $2.99 a month | $3.49 a month | 50 cents |
| Paid up front | $83.72 for 28 months | $94.23 for 27 months | $10.51 |
| Renewal | $99.95 a year | $139.08 a year | $39.13 |
| Middle tier | $4.49 a month | $4.49 a month | None |
| Top tier | $7.49 a month | $7.49 a month | None |
| Monthly | $14.99 | $14.99 | None |
The middle and top tiers cost the same, and they buy different things. The NordVPN Complete plan adds next-gen antivirus, NordPass, and 1 TB of NordLocker storage, and the Prime plan adds Coveron identity protection. The ExpressVPN Advanced plan adds tracker blocking, ExpressKeys, and ExpressMailGuard, and the Pro plan adds a dedicated IP address and 14 devices. Renewal is the bigger cost.
Both entry plans cost about the same in the first term, and the difference grows to $39.13 every year after that. Both include a 30-day money-back guarantee, and both refunded a PayPal purchase quickly: 10 minutes for NordVPN, 15 for ExpressVPN. Mobile trials last 3 days. ExpressVPN covers Android and iOS, NordVPN Android only, and each requires a card.
Winner: ExpressVPN
Fifty cents cheaper to start and $39 cheaper every year after that.
ExpressVPN vs NordVPN: The Scorecard
| Round | Winner |
| Speed | Tie |
| Security features | NordVPN |
| Privacy | Tie |
| Streaming and torrenting | NordVPN |
| Censored countries | ExpressVPN |
| Servers and coverage | NordVPN |
| Apps, devices and support | ExpressVPN |
| Price | ExpressVPN |
Which One Should You Buy?
The rounds split evenly, three each with two ties, so the decision turns on which three you care about. For most people, that’s NordVPN. Double VPN at 2.9%, the stronger blocker with file scanning behind it, 39 more countries, and Meshnet each justify the extra $39 a year on their own.
ExpressVPN is the better buy for the simplest apps in the category, more than ten devices, a browser extension that blocks properly, or the lowest long-term cost. Nothing in our testing shows a speed penalty for choosing it. Both appear in our best VPN ranking, and both refund within 30 days, so the decision is reversible.
