NordVPN’s widespread marketing campaigns have made it one of the most recognizable VPNs on the market. The DNS leaks were concerning, but the decisive response from ExpressVPN was illustrative of the company’s commitment to transparency and user privacy. During our tests with the updated app, we detected no leaks with or without split tunneling enabled. Shortly thereafter, ExpressVPN was able to roll out a fix to its Windows app that resolved the DNS issue and reinstated the split tunneling feature. We were impressed with the transparency with which the company acknowledged the situation, promptly publishing a blog post and a comprehensive troubleshooting guide. We notified ExpressVPN, who immediately disabled split tunneling from its Windows app as a temporary solution while engineers got to work on a permanent fix. This meant that our true IP address, general location and the websites we visited were exposed. When we most recently evaluated ExpressVPN for privacy and security, we uncovered an alarming bug in its Windows app that sent our DNS requests to our ISP instead of to ExpressVPN’s dedicated DNS servers when we had the split tunneling feature enabled. ExpressVPN’s speeds were still plenty fast enough for general browsing as well as for more data-intensive activities like streaming, gaming and videoconferencing - especially if you use Lightway. Still, ExpressVPN’s speeds were largely consistent and aligned with our expectations across protocols and server locations. However, we saw substantially better speeds from NordVPN (11% speed loss) and Surfshark (17% speed loss). This is still fast, considering that many VPNs can slash your internet speeds by 50% or more. In 2024, we measured a 24.8% average speed loss with ExpressVPN. Though fast enough for most any online activity, ExpressVPN’s speeds are not quite as fast as some of its competitors, based on our latest speed tests. While it's not technically a free trial, you can request your money back within 30 days. NordVPN is more in line with ExpressVPN on price at $13 per month or $100 annually (after a promotional $60 price for the first year). The service costs $13 per month, $60 every six months or $100 per year, which is considerably more expensive than the $11 per month or $60 per year that Surfshark charges. But for the best, you’ll need to pay a premium - ExpressVPN is one of the most expensive VPN providers currently on the market. It’s also excellent for streaming and the easiest VPN app to use on any platform. It’s a veteran VPN provider that consistently demonstrates a strong commitment to privacy and transparency. Paid plans also include a 30-day, money-back guarantee.ĮxpressVPN is currently CNET’s pick for the best VPN overall, scoring an 8.8/10 on our VPN rating scale. Proton VPN's paid plans cost $72 per year or $10 per month and include access to servers in 69 countries and support for 10 simultaneous connections. Paid subscribers get additional security protections like an ad/malware blocker, access to Secure Core servers, Tor over VPN and a stealth protocol to help cloak the VPN connection and bypass firewalls. Proton VPN has all the standard security features you'd expect from any VPN provider worth its salt, including a kill switch, DNS leak protection and AES 256-bit encryption included on its free tier. Free users get access to servers in three countries (US, Netherlands and Japan) and can connect one device at a time.Īll of its apps across platforms are fully open-source and are routinely audited by third-party cybersecurity professionals. We were even able to access Netflix using Proton VPN's free servers. And Proton VPN doesn't track you or serve you ads like other free VPNs do. True, it lacks support for torrenting and doesn't include all the bells and whistles as its paid subscriptions, but Proton VPN's free tier is secure and doesn't put limits on speed, data or usage time like most other free VPNs do. Proton VPN's free tier is the only truly free VPN we've encountered that's worth using.
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