ExpressVPN vs. NordVPN: Two VPN Titans Battle It Out in a Close Contest That Goes Down to the Wire

I’ve been using ExpressVPN and NordVPN for more than a decade, and have been consistently impressed with the exceptional quality of both services and how consistently each one has improved over the years. Both are two of the best VPNs in the industry and are neck-and-neck in virtually every category in which they compete, which makes comparing the two both easy and challenging. Easy because there’s not much to contrast between the two, and challenging because it’s difficult to declare a clear winner.

Both providers offer fast speeds, intuitive apps, robust encryption, forward-thinking privacy protections, expansive server networks and excellent streaming capabilities. Perhaps where the two differ the most is in their pricing structures, though even that is largely comparable. Be prepared to pay a premium for either service but, either way, you’re getting the best of the best.

ExpressVPN has the edge in privacy and usability, while NordVPN wins out for features and speed. Read on for a more detailed evaluation of how these two VPN giants stack up against one another in terms of speed, value, privacy and usability.

ExpressVPN vs. NordVPN compared

Speed winner: NordVPN was the fastest VPN in our latest tests

All VPNs will slow your internet speeds somewhat, sometimes even by 50% or more. At CNET, we generally like to see a VPN cut our base internet speeds by 25% or less — which is our cutoff for categorizing a VPN as “fast.” With less than a 25% speed loss, you’re unlikely to notice any major performance issues, even if your base internet connection is on the slow side and you’re streaming in 4K or engaging in other data-heavy activities like torrenting or videoconferencing.

Both NordVPN and ExpressVPN fall well below that 25% threshold, with NordVPN cutting our speeds by a mere 3% and ExpressVPN by 18% in our 2025 speed tests. If fast VPN connection speeds are your main priority, NordVPN is the way to go — but ExpressVPN is no slouch when it comes to speed performance either.

Value winner: NordVPN’s intro pricing is a decent value for a base VPN offering, but ExpressVPN’s renewal pricing is a bit more palatable than NordVPN’s

ExpressVPN and NordVPN are two of the most expensive VPNs on the market — although they have vastly different pricing structures. NordVPN offers tiered pricing, with a Basic VPN plan (which includes only the VPN) all the way up to a Prime plan that includes the VPN, Threat Protection Pro, a password manager, cloud storage and a suite of identity protection tools. ExpressVPN forgoes tiered pricing in favor of three different subscription plan lengths that include the VPN, a password manager and varying levels of ID protection depending on which plan you purchase.

Neither VPN’s pricing structure is ideal, though. Whereas NordVPN’s introductory pricing for its Basic plan is decent ($13 a month, $60 for the first year or $81 total for the first two years combined), the annual and two-year plans both renew at a preposterous $140 a year — for just the VPN. ExpressVPN’s monthly plan costs $13 a month and includes the VPN, password manager and dark web monitoring. The yearly plan adds identity theft insurance and a credit scanner and costs $100 for the first 15 months and renews annually at $117. The two-year plan adds a monthly credit report and data removal services and costs $140 total for the first 28 months and renews at the same pricey $117 annual rate.

Normally, I wouldn’t recommend signing on with a VPN provider for more than a year at a time due to how quickly things like performance, quality, policies and ownership can shift in the VPN industry, but ExpressVPN’s two-year plan offers more features than the yearly plan, but costs the same on an annual basis upon renewal. That is if you even want those extra features in the first place. For instance, ExpressVPN offers a monthly credit report in its two-year package, but what value does that really add when you can get a free credit report every week from each one of the national credit reporting agencies? Identity theft insurance can also be convenient in certain cases, but there’s no shortage of free resources you can take advantage of in case your identity is stolen.

While ExpressVPN’s ID protection extras may sound good on paper, being forced to pay for them whether you want them or not is a tough sell. I’d much rather see ExpressVPN offer a base “VPN-only” subscription option at a more reasonable price to more appropriately cater to the budget-minded crowd who just wants a VPN for privacy and perhaps to unblock streaming content. I’m told by ExpressVPN spokespeople that an overhauled tiered pricing structure is on the horizon, so hopefully we’ll see a basic VPN plan without the forced extras come to fruition.

If you want identity protection services from NordVPN on top of its password manager, cloud storage and Threat Protection Pro, you’ll need to spring for its Prime subscription tier which costs $18 a month, $108 for the first year (then $372 a year) or $177 total for the first two years combined (then $372 a year). That’s a considerable jump from its base VPN plan, but at least NordVPN offers a base plan (even if it is overpriced at renewal). Still, if adding identity protection services to your VPN plan is important to you, ExpressVPN is a much better value overall and costs $255 less annually than NordVPN upon renewal.

Looking strictly at NordVPN’s Basic plan compared to ExpressVPN’s pricing, ExpressVPN is still the better value over the long-term despite NordVPN’s comparatively attractive introductory pricing. With ExpressVPN, you get a password manager included at a lower price upon renewal than NordVPN’s Basic plan, which doesn’t include a password manager. If you want to add NordVPN’s password manager, you’ll pay $14 pear month, $72 for the first year (then $180 annually) or $105 total for the first two years combined (then $180 annually) — $63 more per year upon renewal than what ExpressVPN charges for the same services and more.

Privacy and security winner: ExpressVPN’s privacy protections and transparency are nearly unmatched

Although NordVPN’s privacy posture is solid, ExpressVPN gets the edge here because of its innovative privacy initiatives coupled with transparency that goes above and beyond what most of the competition delivers.

ExpressVPN’s TrustedServer technology takes the traditional principles of a RAM-only server infrastructure a step further by reinstalling the entire software stack in addition to wiping any data with every reboot, minimizing the risk of misconfiguration while ensuring no user data remains stored on a hard disk. ExpressVPN was also one of the first VPNs to implement post-quantum encryption to protect against potential future threats from quantum computers, and has recently integrated ML-KEM into the Lightway protocol to keep up with evolving post-quantum security standards.

NordVPN followed suit and also recently rolled out post-quantum protections across platforms, similarly integrating the latest NIST standard ML-KEM algorithm into its NordLynx protocol. This has helped NordVPN come up to speed with ExpressVPN and other top VPN options for privacy-focused users.

ExpressVPN’s 22 independent audits since 2018 leaves others, including NordVPN, in the dust. In that same time period, NordVPN has commissioned five independent audits, including a steady clip of annual audits in 2022, 2023 and 2024. However, NordVPN’s full audit reports are only available to customers, meaning that you have to register an account and buy a subscription to access the reports. ExpressVPN’s full audit reports, on the other hand, are available for the general public to scrutinize directly from its Trust Center, exemplifying its strong dedication to transparency.

That said, both VPNs have strict no-logs policies that have been audited, which is more than many other VPNs can declare. Both NordVPN and ExpressVPN employ industry-standard AES 256-bit and ChaCha20 encryption and deliver other essential VPN privacy protections like a kill switch and DNS leak protection. Both are also based out of privacy-friendly jurisdictions (NordVPN in Panama and ExpressVPN in the British Virgin Islands) outside of the 14-Eyes data-sharing alliance.

I like that ExpressVPN has a built-in ShuffleIP feature that automatically changes your IP address for every site you visit while connected to its network, giving you extra protection against the possibility of anyone tracing your activity back to you. NordVPN doesn’t offer such a feature but does include a few other privacy features that ExpressVPN doesn’t. For instance, NordVPN offers Onion over VPN, which leverages the Tor network, as well as double VPN connections, which route your traffic through two VPN servers instead of just one. Both of those features boost your privacy by supplying you with an extra layer of encryption. Although ExpressVPN is still the VPN I’d pick for critical privacy needs, I’d like to see the provider add the option for multihop connections in the future to make its service even stronger.

Usability winner: ExpressVPN is the easiest VPN to use across all platforms

I often recommend ExpressVPN to beginners because it’s the simplest VPN to use no matter what platform you’re using it on. The app delivers a consistent experience across platforms, is nicely minimalistic and easy to navigate. There’s no learning curve required with the ExpressVPN app, so it’s just as accessible to total newbies as it is to experienced VPN users. NordVPN’s app is also user-friendly, but somewhat more cluttered — especially on mobile where the map navigation functionality dominates the interface. That said, I particularly like that NordVPN gives you the option to pause your VPN connection instead of disconnecting outright, which can be helpful if you need to jump off the VPN connection for a short amount of time but don’t want to risk forgetting to reconnect when you need it.

Both VPNs offer apps for Windows, MacOS, Linux (with GUI), Android, iOS, Android TV, Fire TV and Apple TV. Both also work on routers, but ExpressVPN’s router app (which is compatible with various router models including its own Aircove router) delivers by far the most intuitive router setup in the industry. This makes unblocking geo-restricted streaming content with ExpressVPN on smart TVs and streaming devices like Roku without native VPN support almost too easy.

I also prefer ExpressVPN’s Apple TV app over NordVPN’s because it’s far simpler to navigate, with servers organized in a sensible manner. While I use ExpressVPN’s Apple TV app on a regular basis in my free time, I stay away from NordVPN’s unless I’m actively testing it because it’s a pain to navigate, with side-scrolling navigation the only option to browse server locations arranged in no discernable manner. I find it a curious choice for a VPN that has servers in 118 countries. If you’re looking to stream content with NordVPN on a streaming device, its Fire TV Stick app delivers a far superior experience.

ExpressVPN and NordVPN are both excellent for streaming, with each provider expertly unblocking geo-restricted content on popular streaming sites like Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and BBC iPlayer. However, I found ExpressVPN to be slightly more reliable for unblocking content on various international Netflix libraries. For instance, my family and I routinely use ExpressVPN to unblock Hungarian content on Netflix, whereas NordVPN is unable to give us access to the same content. On the other hand, NordVPN offers servers in 118 countries while ExpressVPN has servers in 105, meaning that NordVPN should theoretically give you access to a wider range of international streaming content.

I like ExpressVPN’s newly updated iOS app, which includes some nice usability enhancements, including quick access to the protocol selection functionality and more intuitive server navigation options. You can quickly choose your desired VPN protocol right from the home screen and easily select from the five most recent, fastest or most popular server locations based on where you are. Additionally, you can now sort server countries by the number of available endpoints and easily select from a list of city-level servers. NordVPN’s app allows you to sort countries by alphabetical order or popularity.

Bottom line

Ultimately, whether you choose ExpressVPN or NordVPN, you’re making an excellent choice. Both VPNs sit at the very top of CNET’s list of the best VPNs available for a reason — they’re first-class providers that deliver exceptional performance and privacy. Which one you choose will largely depend on what specifically you need from your VPN.

If you’re looking for the fastest possible speeds from your VPN or if you want additional privacy features like double-hop connections or Onion over VPN, go with NordVPN. Also, if you find Meshnet helpful for what you do online, then it also makes sense to go with NordVPN — although Meshnet is free to use whether you’re a NordVPN customer or not. If you’re looking for the easiest app to use across platforms and the best option for streaming, I recommend going with ExpressVPN. Also, if you have critical privacy needs and/or appreciate companies with elevated transparency efforts, ExpressVPN is a great way to go.