NordVPN vs ExpressVPN: Which One is More Worth Buying?

We reviewed ExpressVPN and compared it to its biggest competitor, NordVPN, so you can find out which VPN is truly worth your money.

ExpressVPN and NordVPN are the two of the best VPNs in the current market, but the high price of ExpressVPN drives a lot of people away as compared to NordVPN which has a much cheaper offer. Is ExpressVPN worth the price?

After thoroughly testing both NordVPN and ExpressVPN, I’ve come to a definitive conclusion that might help others on the fence about these two leading VPN services. Let’s dive deep into the comparison, but I’ll say it upfront: NordVPN has edged out ExpressVPN for me, and here’s why.

NordVPN vs ExpressVPN: Why NordVPN is the Better Choice?

1, Privacy & Security – ExpressVPN raises concerns for some users.

When it comes to privacy and logs, NordVPN and ExpressVPN are great options. Both of these VPNs are verified as no logs VPNs.

However, ExpressVPN received criticism after being acquired by known malware distributor Kape Technologies in 2021. Kape previously made money through ad platforms. You can see a lot of criticism on Reddit with many people giving up using ExpressVPN because of this!

Even more concerning is that Kape seems to be experiencing operational issues. A few months ago, the company laid off a significant portion of its global workforce. Even ExpressVPN’s Chief Technology Officer for Privacy, Dan Gericke, announced his departure on LinkedIn.

It’s certainly possible that ExpressVPN (or other Kape-owned VPNs like CyberGhost and PIA) will suffer a noticeable blow to quality, especially with the engineering and QA departments have been hit heavily. However, all we can do for now is wait and see.

In summary, it is currently not recommended to purchase VPN from Kape. The reason is very simple, if there are more trustworthy options out there, why settle for one that may be risky?

2, Speed: ExpressVPN is the faster VPN on nearby servers, but NordVPN is faster on far-away servers

ExpressVPN is faster than NordVPN on nearby servers

To test NordVPN and ExpressVPN local speeds, we used the app’s automatic server selection feature. In NordVPN, this is called ‘Quick Connect’. In ExpressVPN, it’s named ‘Smart Location’.

The table below shows a comparison of NordVPN and ExpressVPN’s speed performance.

	NordVPN	ExpressVPN
Local Download Speed	95Mbps	97Mbps
Average International Download Speed	86Mbps	85Mbps
Local Upload Speed	94Mbps	91Mbps
Ping	8ms	8ms
Time to Connect	3.6 seconds	1.5 seconds
Fastest VPN Protocol	WireGuard (NordLynx)	Lightway

We found that ExpressVPN’s speeds are slightly faster on local connections. When using it, our download speeds dropped by just 3% to 97Mbps. NordVPN caused our speeds to slow to 95Mbps, an 5% drop.

Both VPNs will be more than fast enough for almost every web activity. However, if you want the fastest raw download speed, ExpressVPN will perform better on nearby servers.

Upload speeds are important for nearby connections. You’re more likely to be connecting locally when using the VPN for activities like torrenting and secure video conferencing.

NordVPN’s upload speeds are faster than ExpressVPN’s. In our tests, we recorded an upload speed reduction of 6% with NordVPN, compared to 9% with ExpressVPN.

NordVPN is faster for long-distance connections

To stream geo-blocked video content in HD and 4K, a VPN needs to have fast download speeds on international connections.

We recorded ExpressVPN and NordVPN’s download speeds while connected to servers in four different continents from our test location in the US. Here’s a table showing our results:

Server Location	NordVPN	ExpressVPN
UK	90Mbps	93Mbps
Germany	92Mbps	87Mbps
Japan	89Mbps	83Mbps
Australia	84Mbps	83Mbps

As you can see, NordVPN is faster than ExpressVPN on most international servers. Though the difference is not that stark, our content still loaded quicker and we didn’t experience any buffering.

3, Price – NordVPN is the winner with the cheapest rates.

In terms of price, NordVPN is the winner with the cheapest rates.

NordVPN offers the cheapest price with a two-year discounted rate of $2.99 per month. ExpressVPN is more than double the price of NordVPN when looking at the cheapest monthly rates. NordVPN is currently the best cheap VPN, offering a high-quality service at under $4 per month.

Note: In addition to their Standard subscriptions, NordVPN now offers Plus and Complete subscriptions. These offer additional features such as a cross-platform password manager, a data breach scanner, and 1 TB of encrypted cloud storage. If you need those additional features, opting for one of these expanded subscriptions could be a more economical way to go instead of subscribing to each component separately.

Visit NordVPN to Learn More >>

4, NordVPN offers More servers and More server locations

	NordVPN	ExpressVPN
Countries	111	105
Specialty Servers	Yes	No
Servers	6,328	3,000

NordVPN clearly has ExpressVPN beat in the server category. In comparison to ExpressVPN, NordVPN offers:

• More servers
• More server locations
• Many specialty servers

In terms of the geographic server locations, NordVPN has a slight edge with 111 country locations, while ExpressVPN has locations in 105 countries.

• Check out the list of countries supported by NordVPN >>
• Check out the list of countries supported by ExpressVPN >>

5, Security & Technical  – NordVPN is marginally more secure than ExpressVPN

The table below shows a comparison of NordVPN and ExpressVPN’s encryption and security features.

	NordVPN	ExpressVPN
VPN Protocols	WireGuard & OpenVPN	Lightway & OpenVPN
Encryption Cipher	AES-256 & ChaCha20	AES-256 & wolfSSL
Kill Switch	Yes	Yes
Leak Protection	Yes	Yes
First-Party DNS	Yes	Yes
Open-Source Apps	No	Browser Extension Only
Colocated Servers	Yes	No

Our research found that NordVPN is marginally more secure than ExpressVPN. NordVPN uses reputable encryption ciphers and protocols, like WireGuard and ChaCha20, while ExpressVPN uses proprietary alternatives. We found that ExpressVPN’s macOS client will leak your true IP address when changing server locations.

Conclusion: NordVPN wins in 2024

While we like and recommend both of these VPN services, we believe that NordVPN is the better option. It has made massive progress over the past few years and has overtaken ExpressVPN in most categories, especially in the areas of performance, privacy, and streaming.

It is for all of these reasons and more that we consider NordVPN to be the best all-around VPN service and give it our top recommendation.

At the end of the day, either of these two VPNs may be the best service for you. It all depends on your needs and uses for the VPN. Whichever service you decide to go for, be sure to get the best price via the discounts below:

Whichever service you decide to go for, be sure to get the best price via the discounts below:

And now for ExpressVPN.

Right now, 49% off is the best deal you can get on ExpressVPN. Even with the discount, ExpressVPN is still much more expensive than NordVPN — about double the price.

If you are really still on the fence, keep in mind that ExpressVPN and NordVPN both offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. Therefore you could purchase both VPNs, test each service for a few weeks, and then cancel the one you don’t want for a full refund.