ExpressVPN Review | Torrent Friendly

Who are they? Where are they from?

ExpressVPN’s words:

ExpressVPN is a leading VPN service provider enabling users worldwide to safely and anonymously browse the web. With 1000+ servers across 87 countries and new servers added each week, ExpressVPN offers a comprehensive reach and provides uncensored access to international websites. The company’s award-winning apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Routers, and Linux preserve customer privacy and provide best-in-class internet security.

Headquartered in the British Virgin Islands with staff across the world, ExpressVPN has been operating since 2009 and today is one of the world’s largest providers of premium VPN services. A vocal advocate for internet freedom and privacy, ExpressVPN is a proud financial supporter of nonprofit organizations fighting to protect these rights. ExpressVPN continues to grow its customer base and service offerings as an ever-greater number of people are adopting the use of critical online security tools.

Price / Packages

Package Configuration

ExpressVPN includes the same feature, regardless of the pack we choose.

• 24/7 customer support by Live Chat
• Ultra fast servers in 87 countries
• Apps for Windows, Mac, iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android and Linux
• Best-in-class security & encryption
• Unlimited bandwidth & server switches
• 30 Days Risk-Free. Not satisfied? Get your money back, no questions asked.

The Ordering Process

To order a package, you are asked to enter your email address. You will then be taken to the payment page. When all requested data has been entered and sent, an email with login information will be sent to your e-mail address.

Payment Options

The company supports different Credit Cards (VISA, Mastercard, American Express…), PayPal, Bitcoin and Paymentwall.

• 1 Month: $12.95
• 6 Months: $59,99 – $9.99 per month
• 12 Months: $99 – $8.32 per month

Software & Connectivity

ExpressVPN offers Windows, Mac, iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android and Linux clients. The essence is kept in the different versions, with little configuration options and ease of use.

Windows Client

ExpressVPN v6.1 has been tested. Once we have installed the software and activated the product with the code we are given, we won’t have to log in the application. The interface is intuitive, with the option to turn on and off the VPN in its center, as the main option. Before you turn on the VPN, you can take advantage of the speed test included to see the servers which will better fit your needs. Furthermore, we will be able to change the preferences in a complete but not complicated list.

If you click the Choose Location button, you will be able to select the country (and specific server if there’s more than one). Also, it provides a Smart Location function, which will select the server for us. The list is divided into tabs, Recommended, All, and Favorites, so the decision will be easy.

When picking protocols, we can choose between OpenVPN (UDP), OpenVPN (TCP), IPSec (L2TP), PPTP, SSTP or an automatic choice. Each one has its own features, and some servers will only be available when using a specific one. The general options include the startup option, a Network Lock, and the account settings (enter activation codes or buy another subscription). The advanced tab, which would normally scare people, has only a DNS setting and a Diagnostic Data option.

The program works nicely on Windows 10 (64 bits), installation sometimes seems to crash, but you just have to wait till it ends.
Showing the server load in the list would be a welcomed addition.

Android App

App version 6.1.9 has been tested on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge running Android 6.0.1. The main interface looks the same as on the tested Windows client. The biggest difference is the lack of options. Only protocols OpenVPN (UDP or TCP) can be selected.

There’s no kill switch or auto reconnect, so if the VPN connection drops, you will continue to be connected without a VPN and possibly exposing yourself. You can search servers by country or city and ping all the servers in the list. There is no way to sort the list by ping, which would be handy because after pinging it doesn’t do that for you. Furthermore, no server load is shown.

iOS App

Not able to test at the moment due to the unavailability of an iOS device. It’s assumed the iOS app is very similar to the Android one.

Connectivity Options

As mentioned before, the Windows software supports OpenVPN (UDP), OpenVPN (TCP), IPSec (L2TP), PPTP, SSTP as protocols. Some programs, such as BitTorrent-based applications, require many connections, so using OpenVPN UDP is highly recommended, when, for example, the TCP wouldn’t work okay as too many connections are being made. No problems in connectivity have been detected in our tests.

Speed

Our standard and most reliable testing methods that we found are by downloading from the nearest and fastest HTTP or FTP link for 60 seconds and measuring the average and max transfer rate. Upload and ping tests are performed by the closest beta.speedtest.net server, the most accurate HTML5 speed test thanks to 3000+ servers worldwide.

We have also included tests from the built-in speed test in the ExpressVPN software, however those speed tests are unreliable due to the short testing period of many servers.

Speed Testing

We used two different PCs both connected by cable. One located in Madrid, Spain and the other in The Hague, Netherlands. Both locations are connected with a 300/30 Mbps cable connection.

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[su_tab title=”Results from Spain”]

Download link used: http://ftp.udc.es/ubuntu-releases/16.10/ubuntu-16.10-desktop-amd64.iso

Results without VPN in Spain

Your IP address, Telefonica de Espana
Nearest testing server Madrid
Ping 3 ms
Average upload 3,79 MB/sec
Average download 27,3 MB/sec
Maximum upload 3,88 MB/sec
Maximum download 32,3 MB/sec

Note that it is in MB per second, not Mb per second. 1 MB/sec= 8 Mb/sec.

Results with VPN in Spain

Your IP address 192.162.26.2, Sologigabit
Nearest testing server Madrid
Ping 63 ms
Average upload 608 KB/sec
Average download 1,25 MB/sec
Maximum upload 2,50 MB/sec
Maximum download 2,03 MB/sec

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[su_tab title=”Results from The Netherlands”]

Download link used: http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/ubuntu-releases/16.10/ubuntu-16.10-desktop-amd64.iso

Results without VPN in The Netherlands

Your IP address, Ziggo
Nearest testing server The Hague
Ping 10 ms
Average upload 3,79 MB/sec
Average download 30,1 MB/sec
Maximum upload 3,35 MB/sec
Maximum download 32,2 MB/sec

Results VPN in The Netherlands

Your IP address 31.204.150.253, i3d.net
Nearest testing server The Hague
Ping 10 ms
Average upload 30 Mbit/s
Average download 84.3 Mbit/s
Maximum upload 31 Mbit/s
Maximum download 231 Mbit/s

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It doesn’t matter which server is chosen, the download speed seems capped at 84 Mbit/s, but stable and consistent experience.

With the built-in speed tests performed with ExpressVPN, we got lower speed (inaccurate), but similar in general. It seems like being near the server (physical distance, meaning the country) means a lot, but the top speed isn’t super high, but still enough for heavy tasks like streaming and downloading.

Servers

ExpressVPN provides 136 different server locations in 87 countries and adding more every month. It’s not a great number of servers if you consider the price and compare it to IPVanish. At the time of writing, the full server location list.

Server Locations

Reliability

The software allows you to connect quickly to every server, no matter how far they are. It is stable (we haven’t experienced drops) and the speed is constant, even when connected with multiple devices such as your Android, iOS, OSX and Windows ExpressVPN clients.

Level of Privacy

The ExpressVPN logging policy states that they won’t collect or log traffic data, just  when being connected to the VPN. The information we provide, like email and payment information, will be stored, but never shared unless it’s necessary for the service. They are used for contacting and help you.

They specify the data they may collect to improve the speed and stability. Their website uses cookies and website analytics tools to track sales ads and understand which pages on the site receive visitors, so they can know their target audience.

The software doesn’t require you to log in and can be used by several people at the same time, so we are safe using it to hide our internet activities.

IPv6, DNS and WebRTC IP Leak Test

We tested for IP leaks at https://ipleak.net. ExpressVPN did not leak our IP through WebRTC and IPv6. It also did not leak the DNS address of our ISP. This is consistent with company claims.

[su_row][su_column size=”1/3″]IPv6: [icon name=”fa-check”][/su_column] [su_column size=”1/3″]DNS: [icon name=”fa-check”][/su_column] [su_column size=”1/3″]WebRTC: [icon name=”fa-check”][/su_column][/su_row]

Support

ExpressVPN provides a 24/7 support, through three different ways: Contact Form, Live Chat, or email. The Live Chat gets you an instant response but may lead to a less detailed answer. The other methods may take a few hours to respond, but on the other hand, they can provide more personal and technical help.

Apart from that, they have tutorials and a troubleshooting section which may solve our problem, in case we have one. At least, during our test, we haven’t had.