We’ve reviewed quite a few VPN service providers by now. But it can still be difficult to see how they compare to each other. 

In this post, we put NordVPN and ExpressVPN to the test to see which one of the two is the better choice.

OK, let’s get started with our NordVPN vs. ExpressVPN Face Off.

NordVPN vs ExpressVPN - Side By Side

Name	NordVPN	ExpressVPN
Rating	8.5/10	9.0/10
User Friendliness Score	9	9
General features
Price per month (cheapest)	$3.71	$8.32
Simultaneous Connections	6	5
Servers	5460	3000
Countries	59	94
Allows torrenting / P2P	Yes	Yes
Streaming
Netflix	Yes	Yes
Hulu	Yes	Yes
Amazon Prime	Yes	Yes
Disney+	Yes	Yes
Security
Supports TOR	Yes	No
Split Tunneling	Yes	Yes
Router Support	Yes	Yes
Unlimited bandwidth	Yes	Yes
Refund Period	30 Days	30 Days
Free trial	No	No
Desktop Operating Software	Windows, MacOS, Linux	Windows, MacOS, Linux
Mobile Apps	iOS, Android	iOS, Android
Browser Extensions	Yes	Yes
VPN Protocols	IKEv2, OpenVPN, WireGuard	IKEv2, OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP
Encryption	AES-256	AES-256
DNS Leak Protection	Yes	Yes
VPN Kill-switch	Yes	Yes
Rent/Own Infrastructure	Both	Rent
Hacked	Yes	No
Malware/Ad Blocker	Yes	No
Privacy
Logging Policy	No-logging Policy	No-logging Policy
Privacy Policy	Good	Good
Jurisdiction	Panama	British Virgin Islands
Out of 14 eyes	Yes	Yes
Warrant Canary	Yes	No
Accepts Cryptocurrency	Yes	Yes
Sign-up Information Required	Only Valid Email	Only Valid Email
Speed (average)
Avg. Ping NY	142.5 ms	23 ms
Avg. Download NY	Over a 60 Mbps Network (Download): 65.77 Mbps	Over a 60 Mbps Network (Download): 60.76 Mbps
Avg. Upload NY	Over a 30 Mbps Network (Upload): 22.90 Mbps	Over a 30 Mbps Network (Upload): 26.91 Mbps

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1. Speed

Speed is always going to be an important consideration for VPN users. You want more privacy, sure, but you also want to keep the speedy connection you’re paying for. 

Let’s look at our ExpressVPN vs. NordVPN speed tests and see how they rank. 

NordVPN

Tested on a 60Mbps (Download) and 30Mbps (Upload) network

Server: U.S.A., New York

Average Download Speed: 65.77Mbps

Average Upload Speed: 22.89Mbps

ExpressVPN

Tested on a 60Mbps (Download) and 30Mbps (Upload) network

Server: U.S.A., New York

Average Download Speed: 60.76Mbps

Average Upload Speed: 26.91Mbps

So the results are very similar. Both services get me pretty close to my ISP‘s full bandwidth. 

NordVPN has a small advantage on download. 

While ExpressVPN has a small advantage on upload.

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2. User-Friendliness

Most, if not all VPN providers include native client apps with their service. 

This is very convenient, particularly for newer users who may not know how to configure a VPN client. And a misconfiguration in your VPN software can break all the “protection” you think you’re getting.

Both NordVPN and ExpressVPN provide official client apps to their users.

They also both provide, Chrome and Firefox browser extensions. 

Both ExpressVPN and NordVPN allow up to 6 simultaneous connections. 

And they both provide unlimited bandwidth. 

NordVPN offers a higher number of servers than ExpressVPN. But Express VPN offers a larger number of countries.

And we had no need to contact customer support for either provider.

This is going to be a tough one… So what’s the outcome of NordVPN vs. ExpressVPN on user-friendliness?

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3. Streaming

Streaming is quickly becoming an important feature to support, for VPN providers, as streaming services continue to gain traction.

NordVPN and ExpressVPN are both streaming-friendly. And both of them can bypass Netflix’s VPN ban. I tested them both and was happily streaming Netflix over both services. 

NordVPN provide a support document on what to do if you’re having trouble accessing Netflix. And I did need to follow the instructions provided there to get it to work. 

Whereas with ExpressVPN, it just worked.

So who wins?

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4. Security and Encryption

Encryption is a VPN’s reason for being. Supporting strong ciphers is critical for any serious VPN provider.

AES-256 is the industry-standard and is supported by both NordVPN and ExpressVPN.

However, this applies to IKEv2 and OpenVPN. 

NordVPN offer the WireGuard protocol, as well, which uses more modern ciphers. Whereas ExpressVPN also supports weak and obsolete protocols like L2TP/IPSec and PPTP.

The problem I see with supporting weak and obsolete protocols is that new users may not realize they’re using compromised protocols. 

Better to limit the use to secure protocols only.

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5. Logs and Privacy

NordVPN and ExpressVPN commit to strongly worded privacy and no-logging policies. 

Let’s take a look at how they communicate this.

Here’s an excerpt of NordVPN’s privacy policy:

“NordVPN guarantees a strict no-logs policy for NordVPN services, meaning that your activities using NordVPN Services are provided by automated technical process, are not monitored, recorded, logged, stored or passed to any third party. We do not store connection time stamps, session information, used bandwidth, traffic logs, IP addresses or other data. From the moment a NordVPN.com user turns on the NordVPN.com software, their Internet data becomes encrypted. Any online traffic coming from user’s device is no longer visible to ISP, third-party snoopers or cyber criminals. Further, NordVPN have a strict no logs policy when it comes to seeing user activity online: NordVPN is based in Panama, which does not require data storage.” 

And here’s one from ExpressVPN’s privacy policy:

"ExpressVPN is committed to protecting your privacy. We want you to understand what information we collect, what we don’t collect, and how we collect, use, and store information. We do not collect logs of your activity, including no logging of browsing history, traffic destination, data content, or DNS queries. We also never store connection logs, meaning no logs of your IP address, your outgoing VPN IP address, connection timestamp, or session duration.” 

The privacy policies of both ExpressVPN and NordVPN are very clear. 

Both go into sufficient detail. 

Both seem to understand what they are talking about.

However, in 2018, one of NordVPN’s servers was hacked by a third-party who had access to the data center hosting Nord’s server.

This can happen to any provider who rents its infrastructure. And ExpressVPN also rent their infrastructure. 

But because of luck or better security practices (or perhaps a little of both), ExpressVPN hasn’t been hacked – perhaps because of their diskless servers (more on that later).

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6. Pricing

Turning to pricing and payment now, here are the different packages, prices and accepted payment methods offered by each provider:

NordVPN

Visit NordVPN (save 70%)

Subscriptions

• 11.95 USD for one month of service
• 83.88 USD for one year of service (works out to 6.99 USD per month)
• 119.76 USD for two years of service (works out to 4.99 USD per month)
• 125.64 USD for three years of service (works out to 3.49 USD per month)

Payment Methods

• Credit Card
• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• Amazon Pay
• Alipay
• UnionPay
• CryptoCurrencies

ExpressVPN

Visit ExpressVPN (save 35%)

Subscriptions

• 12.95 USD for one month of service
• 59.95 USD for six months of service (works out to 9.99 USD per month)
• 99.95 USD for one year of service (works out to 8.32 USD per month)

Payment Methods

• Credit Card
• PayPal
• Bitcoin
• Interac
• UnionPay
• Alipay
• WebMoney
• Giropay
• iDEAL
• Klarna
• And more (which aren’t listed)

And both providers offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

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7. Torrenting

Torrenting works with both providers. I tested both. Neither provider blocks nor throttles P2P traffic.

ExpressVPN doesn’t make a big deal about P2P on their website. But they are torrent-friendly. Just connect and torrent.

NordVPN, on the other hand, does talk about it more. And NordVPN offers dedicated P2P servers, which they clearly label in their apps.

These servers are presumably using some type of obfuscation technique or are situated in countries where file-sharing is less likely to be criminalized.

But again, you can torrent without issue with both VPN providers. 

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8. Other Features

There are also other differences between these two providers:

• NordVPN provide Tor over VPN servers.
• NordVPN offers an ad & tracker blocker.
• NordVPN publishes a warrant canary.

• ExpressVPN supports split tunneling.
• ExpressVPN operate diskless servers.

Outstanding Features

NordVPN

• Onion Over VPN: NordVPN’s support for Onion Over VPN is a very good security feature, that can be particularly beneficial to dissidents and journalists. Onion over VPN servers routes all of your device’s traffic over the Tor network, after the VPN. This gives a significant 2nd layer of protection to your connection. Do note that Tor can dramatically slow down your connection.
• WireGuard Support: NordVPN’s support for the WireGuard protocol makes them standout as well. While WireGuard is still considered experimental, its recent inclusion in the Linux kernel means it’s soon ready for prime time. WireGuard is extremely fast, has a small code base, and it only supports modern encryption ciphers.

ExpressVPN

• Split Tunnelling: Split tunneling is a feature that enables policy-based routing. Policy-based routing enables you to route certain traffic through the VPN while routing other traffic outside the VPN. This is useful to enable local LAN access while connected to the VPN network. Or to access certain services that block VPNs while torrenting over VPN. It’s very flexible and can be configured to fit your situation.
• Diskless Infrastructure: ExpressVPN rent their infrastructure just like NordVPN does. However, they run all of their infrastructure from volatile memory (RAM), booted from read-only disks. This is huge security-wise. It’s a hardened configuration that can be rebooted in the event a vulnerability is introduced. And, once rebooted, the server is back to factory spec. No more vulnerability. We hope more VPN providers go down this road moving forward

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Conclusion: NordVPN vs ExpressVPN

So who’s the winner? 

We had eight categories:

The winner in each category gets one point. 

In the event of a tie, both providers get a point.

So the breakdown is as follows:

• Speed – (Tie)
• User-friendliness – (ExpressVPN)
• Streaming – (NordVPN)
• Security & Encryption – (NordVPN)
• Logs and Privacy –  (ExpressVPN)
• Pricing – (NordVPN)
• Torrenting – (ExpressVPN)
• Features – (ExpressVPN)

So that’s 5 points for ExpressVPN and 4 points for NordVPN. 

I knew it would be close because I knew these were both high-quality VPN services. In my mind, these results make sense.

For more information on these VPN providers, check out our NordVPN review and our ExpressVPN review.

ExpressVPN

Go With ExpressVPN if:

• You want the high level of security provided by diskless servers.
• You want to use split tunneling.
• You want to unblock Netflix.

Get ExpressVPN and save 35%

NordVPN

Go With NordVPN if:

• You want to use Tor over VPN.
• You want an ad & tracker blocker.
• You want to unblock Netflix.

Get NordVPN (70% off)

Thanks for reading!