Start with who owns them
ExpressVPN has been owned since 2021 by Kape Technologies, the company that also owns CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, and — through its 2021 purchase of Webselenese — vpnMentor, WizCase and SafetyDetectives. Those three sites publish VPN rankings, and ExpressVPN tends to be at the top of them. The relationship is not disclosed where a reader would see it. This is not evidence that ExpressVPN is a bad product; it is evidence that most of the “ExpressVPN vs NordVPN” articles you will find have an interested party on one side.
NordVPN is owned by Nord Security, which merged with Surfshark in 2022 and owns no review sites. Its comparison pages are ordinary marketing.
Where ExpressVPN is genuinely better
Censorship bypass. Lightway detects a hostile network and switches to its obfuscated mode without a setting, and ExpressVPN has the longest record of working in China and the UAE of any mainstream provider. NordVPN’s obfuscated servers work, but they must be turned on manually, they use OpenVPN rather than NordLynx, and they are less consistent in expat reports. If you will be behind the Great Firewall, this decides it.
Apps and devices. ExpressVPN’s apps are the most consistent across platforms, the Apple TV app is native, and Aircove is the only router sold with a VPN built in. For a household that wants everything covered without configuring anything, it is the easier product.
Where NordVPN is genuinely better
Almost everything else. The network is more than twice the size, which shows up as more unflagged streaming addresses and more cities. The feature list is longer — Tor-over-VPN, Double VPN, Meshnet, Threat Protection Pro, dedicated IPs in a dozen countries. The audit history is longer, at four Deloitte no-logs audits. The price is lower on every term. And the ownership carries no review-site conflict.
Price, honestly
Both providers price the same way: a low two-year intro, then a renewal at the standard yearly rate. NordVPN’s two-year Basic plan is about $83, renewing at roughly $278 for another two years — about $7.53 a month across the 48 months that covers. ExpressVPN’s two-year plan is about $140, renewing at roughly $200, which works out at about $7.08. Neither is a cheap VPN, and on a like-for-like basis they are within fifty cents a month of each other. NordVPN’s advantage is what is in the product, not the price.
The iPhone apps
This month’s App Store analysis separates them clearly. ExpressVPN’s iOS app scores in the top tier, with a critical-complaint rate around half of NordVPN’s. NordVPN’s app has the widest gap on the site between its all-time rating and recent sentiment, driven by billing and auto-renew complaints — the largest billing flag of any app we track. If the iPhone is your main device, this is a real consideration and it favours ExpressVPN.
What we have not tested
Speed and leaks, on either. Published tests put NordLynx slightly ahead on throughput and Lightway ahead on reconnect; our own numbers, on a stated line with dates, are pending, and the speed dimension is excluded from both scores until they land.