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ExpressVPN alternatives, and the conflict of interest behind the reviews
Most people looking for an ExpressVPN alternative are looking at the price: $99.95 a year, or $199.90 to renew a two-year plan that started at $139.72. The stronger reason is the one the review sites will not print, because in three notable cases the review site and ExpressVPN have the same owner.
ExpressVPN scores 70 on this page's weighting, owned by Kape Technologies. Every pick below beats it on the things this page weighs.
Why people replace ExpressVPN
The owner also owns the reviewers
Kape Technologies owns ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access and ZenMate, and it also owns vpnMentor, WizCase and SafetyDetectives. Those three sites rank Kape's own VPNs at the top of their charts. The recommendation and the product come out of the same company, and the disclosure, where it exists, is a footer link.
It is the most expensive mainstream option
$12.99 monthly, $99.95 for a year, and $199.90 to renew the two-year plan. Every pick below costs less per year, and two of them cost less than half. Nothing in the feature list explains the difference; the brand and the marketing spend do.
Kape went private in 2023
Unikmind Holdings took Kape off the London market, so the company no longer files public accounts. Whatever comfort a listed parent's disclosure obligations gave you, that comfort is gone, and what replaced it is a private holding company.
Closed apps, thin extras
The apps are closed source, there is no multi-hop and no port forwarding, and eight simultaneous connections is fewer than most rivals now allow. Lightway is genuinely good, and it is the one thing here you cannot replace like for like.
Weights on this page: Privacy & trust 30% · Price & renewal 15% · Censorship bypass 13% · Streaming 12% · Features 10% · App quality 10% · Speed (our tests) 5% · Support & refunds 5%. Formula.
Swiss, non-profit-controlled, open source, with the only free tier worth using.
78
Owner
Proton Foundation
Jurisdiction
Switzerland · Outside the alliances
No-logs audit
None — apps audited by Securitum, 2025
Price
from $4.49/mo
Runs oniOSAndroidMacWindowsLinuxRouterBrowserTV
The replacement that answers the ownership objection rather than moving it: a Swiss non-profit foundation holds control, the apps are open source, and Securitum's audit reports are published in full rather than summarised in a blog post. It streams reliably, it has more server countries than ExpressVPN at 117, and a year costs $59.88.
Not a first choice inside China, where ExpressVPN's automatic obfuscation still has the better record.
Privacy & trust
73
Price & renewal
77
Censorship bypass
69
Streaming
84
Controlled by a Swiss non-profit foundation since 2024
All apps open source and independently audited
Free tier with no data cap and no ads
Renewal is higher than the intro price
Free tier cannot choose a country
Speeds trail NordVPN and ExpressVPN in most tests
Lab test pending — scored on public dataiOS app score 68/100 from 101,311 ratingsFull reviewVisit Proton VPN
The expatriate favourite in China; expensive, dated apps, and thin on transparency.
43
Owner
Owner not disclosed
Jurisdiction
Seychelles · Outside the alliances
No-logs audit
None found
Price
from $12.50/mo
Runs oniOSAndroidMacWindowsLinuxRouterBrowserTV
The one swap that keeps the thing ExpressVPN is genuinely best at. Astrill has the strongest reputation of any provider for working inside China, with several obfuscation protocols and years of consistent user reports behind it. If you bought ExpressVPN to get online from Shanghai, this is the like-for-like move.
About $150 a year, no refunds at all, no published audit, and beneficial ownership is not disclosed — the App Store listing is under a different company name. Buy it for the one job it does.
Flat €5 a month, no email required, accepts cash; the privacy benchmark.
65
Owner
Amagicom AB
Jurisdiction
Sweden · Fourteen Eyes
No-logs audit
None — apps audited by Cure53, 2024
Price
from $5.40/mo
Runs oniOSAndroidMacWindowsLinuxRouterBrowserTV
The opposite philosophy to everything Kape represents: no marketing, no affiliate programme, no review-site empire, and no account beyond a random number. Flat pricing at about $5.40 a month with no renewal step, cash accepted by post, and public audits of both the apps and the infrastructure.
Streaming is unsupported by design, and the network is small at roughly 690 servers in 49 countries.
Privacy & trust
65
Price & renewal
83
Censorship bypass
63
Streaming
42
Account is a random number, no email or name
Same price forever, no intro-vs-renewal games
Accepts cash by post and Monero
Streaming unblocking is unreliable by design
Port forwarding removed in 2023
Smaller server network
Lab test pending — scored on public dataiOS app score 63/100 from 1,441 ratingsFull reviewVisit Mullvad
Unlimited devices at the lowest headline price of the big three; same owner as NordVPN.
72
Owner
Nord Security
Jurisdiction
Netherlands · Nine Eyes
No-logs audit
Deloitte, 2025 (report not public)
Price
from $2.19/mo · ~$4.41/mo over 3 yrs after renewal
Runs oniOSAndroidMacWindowsLinuxRouterBrowserTV
The pick when the objection is purely the bill. Around $53 for the first two years against ExpressVPN's $139.72, unlimited simultaneous connections, and the same streaming coverage in practice. It is the cheapest way to keep a mainstream feature set.
Owned by Nord Security, so you are swapping one conglomerate for another. Its renewal roughly triples too, and Netherlands jurisdiction is inside the Nine Eyes.
Privacy & trust
58
Price & renewal
77
Censorship bypass
69
Streaming
84
Unlimited simultaneous connections
Cheapest two-year intro among the major brands
Deloitte no-logs audit (2023) and Cure53 app audits
Renewal is about three times the intro price
Owned by Nord Security, which also owns NordVPN
Netherlands base sits inside the Nine Eyes
Lab test pending — scored on public dataiOS app score 66/100 from 128,114 ratingsFull reviewVisit Surfshark
When to stay with ExpressVPN Stay with ExpressVPN if you connect from China, Iran or Russia regularly and it has been working for you: automatic obfuscation with a long track record is worth real money, and only Astrill clearly beats it there. Stay if you value Lightway's reconnection behaviour on mobile, or if a household of eight devices on well-built apps is the whole requirement and the price is not a problem. The ownership objection is about who profits and who wrote the review you read; it is not a claim that the software is bad.
Start with who wrote the review that sold it to you
ExpressVPN spends more on marketing than any VPN in this database, and that spending includes owning the shelf. Kape Technologies bought ExpressVPN in 2021. Kape also owns vpnMentor, WizCase and SafetyDetectives — three sites that publish “best VPN” charts, and three sites where Kape’s own products do well.
None of this is illegal or hidden, exactly. It is disclosed the way these things are usually disclosed: accurately, in a place nobody reads. But it does mean that if your shortlist came from one of those charts, it was assembled by ExpressVPN’s owner. Our ownership map tracks all of it, and the not recommended page explains where we draw the line.
The price, plainly
ExpressVPN charges $12.99 a month, $99.95 a year, or $139.72 for two years that renew at $199.90.
Proton VPN is $59.88 for a year. Mullvad is about $65 a year at a flat monthly rate. Surfshark’s two-year intro is around $53. On a three-year view, the gap between ExpressVPN and Proton VPN is well over $150, and against Surfshark it is larger still. Run your own numbers in the true cost calculator — it is built to make renewal pricing visible, because renewal pricing is where this market makes its margin.
What ExpressVPN is genuinely best at
Two things, and both are worth naming before you cancel.
The first is China. ExpressVPN’s obfuscation is automatic rather than a setting you find in a menu, and its record inside the country is the best of the mainstream providers. Only Astrill has a stronger reputation, and Astrill costs more, refunds nothing and does not say who owns it.
The second is Lightway. It reconnects faster than most implementations after a mobile network drop, which is the difference people actually notice on a phone. WireGuard is close, and for most users the gap is invisible, but it is a real engineering advantage rather than a marketing line.
If neither of those is why you subscribed, you are paying a premium for a brand.
Picking by what made you leave
If you left because of who owns it, go to Proton VPN or Mullvad. Both answer the question structurally: a Swiss non-profit foundation in one case, a company that does not want your name in the other. Neither runs an affiliate programme that pays review sites to rank it.
If you left because of the price, Surfshark is the cheapest mainstream swap, with the caveat that Nord Security owns it and the renewal roughly triples. Windscribe and IVPN are flatter-priced and independent.
If you left because of the closed source code, Proton VPN, Mullvad, IVPN, Windscribe and AirVPN all publish their clients. ExpressVPN does not, and no audit substitutes for that if you want to check the software yourself.
If you are leaving because a review site told you to, check who owns the review site first.
What to do this week
Read the billing page and write down the renewal date and the renewal price. If you are inside 30 days of a purchase made on expressvpn.com, the refund is straightforward and the decision is now. If not, disable auto-renew, buy a month of one alternative, and test it from the network that made you want a VPN in the first place. Cancel only once the replacement has passed that test.
iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, Router, Browser, TV
iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, Router, Browser, TV
iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, Router · not Browser, TV
iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, Router, Browser · not TV
Devices
8
10
5
5
Countries
105
117
58
49
WireGuard
✓
✓
✓
✓
Kill switch
✓
✓
✓
✓
Obfuscation
✓
✓
✓
✓
RAM-only servers
✓
?
?
✓
Open-source apps
✗
✓
✗
✓
Split tunnelling
✓
✓
✓
✓
Multi-hop
✗
✓
✓
✓
Port forwarding
✗
✓
✓
✗
Ad blocker
✓
✓
✓
✓
P2P allowed
✓
✓
✓
✓
Free tier
✗
✓
✗
✗
Netflix
Works
Works
Unreliable
Unreliable
BBC iPlayer
Works
Works
Unreliable
Unreliable
Works in China
Works
Unreliable
Works
Unreliable
Works in UAE
Works
Works
Works
Unreliable
Cash / crypto
crypto
cash, crypto
crypto
cash, crypto
Live chat
✓
✓
✓
✗
iOS app score
78/100 (4.7★)
68/100 (4.6★)
40/100 (3.7★)
63/100 (4.1★)
Our lab test
Pending
Pending
Pending
Pending
How to switch without paying twice
Find the renewal amount, not the intro amountSign in and read the billing page. A two-year plan bought at $139.72 renews at $199.90. Knowing whether that date is next month or next year is the difference between switching now and switching calmly.
Test the replacement where you actually need itIf China, the UAE or a restrictive workplace network is the reason you pay for a VPN, test the new provider from that network before cancelling. A provider that works from your sofa may not work from the place that made you buy one.
Use the 30-day guarantee deliberatelyExpressVPN refunds within 30 days of purchase on plans bought directly. If you are inside that window, decide now rather than after it closes. App Store purchases follow Apple's rules instead and are frequently refused.
Move the router configuration lastIf you flashed a router with ExpressVPN's firmware or a manual OpenVPN profile, plan that separately. It is the step that leaves a household without internet at the wrong moment, and every provider's router setup differs.
Cancel, then confirm the charge is goneCheck the card statement after cancelling. Subscriptions bought through Apple, Google or PayPal are cancelled in those systems, not in the provider's dashboard, and cancelling in the wrong place leaves the billing running.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns ExpressVPN?
Kape Technologies, which bought it in 2021 for $936 million. Kape also owns CyberGhost, Private Internet Access and ZenMate, plus the review sites vpnMentor, WizCase and SafetyDetectives. Kape itself was taken private by Unikmind Holdings in 2023 and no longer files public accounts.
Is CyberGhost or Private Internet Access a real alternative?
Not if ownership is your reason for leaving. Both are Kape brands, alongside ExpressVPN. They are cheaper, and if price is the only objection they solve it, but your money stays with the same company and the same review-site arrangement.
Which ExpressVPN alternative works best in China?
Astrill, by reputation and by consistent user reports over several years. Proton VPN and NordVPN both work sometimes with obfuscation enabled and both are unreliable from week to week. No provider can promise this, and anyone who does is selling you something.
Is ExpressVPN still safe to use after the Kape acquisition?
There is no public evidence of user data being mishandled since the acquisition, and the service has been audited. The objection is structural rather than an incident: a private-equity owner that also owns the sites reviewing the product has interests that are not automatically yours. Whether that matters is your call, but it should be an informed one.
How much cheaper are the alternatives?
Proton VPN is $59.88 for a year against $99.95. Mullvad is about $65 a year, flat, with no renewal increase. Surfshark's first two years are roughly $53 against $139.72. Astrill is the exception and costs more at about $150 a year.
