ExpressVPN review: Our favorite for gaming and streaming
ExpressVPN has become a household name - or at least as close as a VPN is likely to get - taking over mainstream ads on sites like YouTube. In our roundup of the nine best providers in June, it came out on top for streaming services, frequent travel, and gaming. But, notably, it wasn't the best overall, falling short in areas like security and usability.
There are three main use cases for VPN besides general security: geo-blocking, streaming, and gaming. This means my tests were like watching Shrek on the clock, using a VPN to access Canadian Netflix from my US-based home office, where the ogre movie is not currently available.
ExpressVPN was easy to sign up, download, and use, but compared to other services, it didn't impress me. Competitors like ProtonVPN, for example, had easier ways to connect across platforms. But an ExpressVPN subscription comes with a password manager to store and autofill credentials on websites. That's a plus in a world where complex passwords are essential to keeping your accounts secure.
The best VPNs don't get in your way and you'll barely notice they're working. But one quirk was that ExpressVPN's internet speeds surpassed our baseline internet speed metrics. The service is likely bypassing ISP traffic shaping or a similar anomaly, as all other VPNs will hurt internet speed in some way. But it managed to hide the IP address and pass DNS and WebRTC leak tests as privacy measures.
ExpressVPN
It was also easy to access geo-blocked content using ExpressVPN, with little to no buffering. There were loading delays that only lasted a few seconds when I tried to stream the news on YouTube using ExpressVPN, but no delays after that. Finally, ExpressVPN passed the game test avoiding lags and maintaining a normal loading time. However, this was a fairly basic test where I logged into the online game Slither.io from a UK-based VPN to play worm-eating competition with international users. Surfing the web with ExpressVPN was as easy as being online without it. With ExpressVPN, a ping test measured the time it takes for data to travel from the computer to the server and back at 100 milliseconds, compared to 16 milliseconds without VPN enabled.
The biggest advantage of ExpressVPN is that it supports up to five devices at once. This means that I could perform all the tests simultaneously and still had no slowdowns. It's ideal for sharing with a family or people who like to game, watch TV and scroll through their phones at the same time. This is the main reason why ExpressVPN has become our top choice for streaming and gaming. Connectivity was solid, it had a wide range of servers in 94 countries and provided clear instructions on setting up any device.
But in terms of security, I wanted more. ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands, which
ExpressVPN has become a household name - or at least as close as a VPN is likely to get - taking over mainstream ads on sites like YouTube. In our roundup of the nine best providers in June, it came out on top for streaming services, frequent travel, and gaming. But, notably, it wasn't the best overall, falling short in areas like security and usability.
There are three main use cases for VPN besides general security: geo-blocking, streaming, and gaming. This means my tests were like watching Shrek on the clock, using a VPN to access Canadian Netflix from my US-based home office, where the ogre movie is not currently available.
ExpressVPN was easy to sign up, download, and use, but compared to other services, it didn't impress me. Competitors like ProtonVPN, for example, had easier ways to connect across platforms. But an ExpressVPN subscription comes with a password manager to store and autofill credentials on websites. That's a plus in a world where complex passwords are essential to keeping your accounts secure.
The best VPNs don't get in your way and you'll barely notice they're working. But one quirk was that ExpressVPN's internet speeds surpassed our baseline internet speed metrics. The service is likely bypassing ISP traffic shaping or a similar anomaly, as all other VPNs will hurt internet speed in some way. But it managed to hide the IP address and pass DNS and WebRTC leak tests as privacy measures.
ExpressVPN
It was also easy to access geo-blocked content using ExpressVPN, with little to no buffering. There were loading delays that only lasted a few seconds when I tried to stream the news on YouTube using ExpressVPN, but no delays after that. Finally, ExpressVPN passed the game test avoiding lags and maintaining a normal loading time. However, this was a fairly basic test where I logged into the online game Slither.io from a UK-based VPN to play worm-eating competition with international users. Surfing the web with ExpressVPN was as easy as being online without it. With ExpressVPN, a ping test measured the time it takes for data to travel from the computer to the server and back at 100 milliseconds, compared to 16 milliseconds without VPN enabled.
The biggest advantage of ExpressVPN is that it supports up to five devices at once. This means that I could perform all the tests simultaneously and still had no slowdowns. It's ideal for sharing with a family or people who like to game, watch TV and scroll through their phones at the same time. This is the main reason why ExpressVPN has become our top choice for streaming and gaming. Connectivity was solid, it had a wide range of servers in 94 countries and provided clear instructions on setting up any device.
But in terms of security, I wanted more. ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands, which
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