The Ultimate ExpressVPN Review 2023 – Is It Worth The Price?

ExpressVPN is one of the leading entrants right now in the tech industry that is uncompromising in providing up-level speedy servers to fulfill every customer’s need. ExpressVPN speed test is conducted in this guide, and you will be amazed by the result surely.

It is fast and reliable and allows you to connect to region-blocked sites like American Netflix in Australia, browse the internet, bypass government censorship, and download torrent files.

But how well does it actually perform? Is it legitimately good, or does it just have a strong PR game? So let’s get straight to the salient features of ExpressVPN review Australia in 2023.

ExpressVPN Review April 2023 [Quick Summary]

Here is a quick summary of the ExpressVPN review Australia:

Beyond your expectations, ExpressVPN delivers almost every online platform coverage faultlessly. Nothing can beat the reliability and security of this VPN service.

Here is a brief idea of why ExpressVPN is unmatchable.

How does ExpressVPN Compare to other Popular VPNs?

Here is ExpressVPN’s comparison with two of the top-rated VPNs, Surfshark and NordVPN.

VPNs
Website	www.expressvpn.com	surfshark.com	nordvpn.com
No. of Servers	3000+ servers in 105 countries	3200+ servers in 100+ countries	6000+ ultra-fast servers in 61 countries
Simultaneous Connection	Five Devices	Unlimited	Six Devices
Customer Support	24/7 Live Chat and Email	24/7 Live Chat and Email	24/7 Live Chat and Email
Money Back Guarantee	30 Days	30 Days	30 Days
Average Speed (Base: 100 Mbps)	86+ Mbps	85+ Mbps	80+ Mbps
Video Streaming Quality	4K Ultra HD	HD and ultra 4k HD	4K UHD
Encryption Type	AES 256-bit encryption	AES 256-bit encryption	AES 256-bit encryption
P2P Torrenting	Yes	Yes	Yes
Connection logs	Some aggregated data	None	No
Unblocks Netflix	✓	✓	✓
Unblocks Amazon Prime Video	✓	✓	✓
Unblocks BBC iPlayer	✓	✓	✓
Overall rating	9.3	9.7	7
Best Deal	AU$10.21/mo (US$ 6.67/mo) - Save up to 49% with exclusive 1-year plans + 3 months free	AU$3.81/mo (US$ 2.49/mo) - Save up to 77% with exclusive 2-year plan + 30-day money-back guarantee	AU$6.11/mo (US$ 3.99/mo) - Save up to 63% with exclusive 2-year plan + 3 months free for a friend

What are the Pros and Cons of ExpressVPN?

How Much Does ExpressVPN Cost?

ExpressVPN offers three subscription plans to users: monthly, bi-annual, and yearly.

All ExpressVPN plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. In addition, the company processes refunds without questions, so you can always request your money back if you aren’t satisfied with the service. You it’s not an issue for ExpressVPN cancellation anytime.

You can pay for your ExpressVPN subscription through a credit card, PayPal, UnionPay, Alipay, WebMoney, Giropay, or Yandex. Money, or Klarna. The service also provides anonymous payment options via Bitcoin.

ExpressVPN discount deal:

How Fast is ExpressVPN?

Speed is always a perennial concern when using a VPN. Thankfully, ExpressVPN performs excellently in this department. Of course, it slows down your internet like any other VPN service, but the drop is hardly noticeable. In fact, it recorded the fastest results on our speed charts to date.

We randomly picked three ExpressVPN UK, US, and Australian servers and ran them on Ookla’s online speed test tool. We then calculated the averages for each region to eliminate any anomalies.

Remember that not all network connections are built the same, so your experience might differ from ours.

ExpressVPN Speed Test Results for Australia

ExpressVPN Speed Test Results for the US

ExpressVPN Speed Test Results for the UK

You might notice from the above results that ExpressVPN has got a high ping on international servers. As such, we don’t recommend it for global competitive gaming. However, for local gaming, it definitely works.

ExpressVPN Australia Security Features [Top Encryption and Security Protocols]

ExpressVPN has different unique features and protocols. You might have read about its protocols in ExpressVPN reviews, but how each protocol and feature is different, that we will tell you here:

• Encryption [Military-Grade Protection]
• Security Protocols [Multiple Options for different Devices]
• ExpressVPN DNS Leak Protection Test Results — Passed
• ExpressVPN has Private DNS on all Servers
• Independently Audited
• ExpressVPN Kill Switch

Encryption [Military-Grade Protection]

ExpressVPN has a number of security protocols that you can use to make the VPN fit your needs. Protocols are a group of rules that tell a VPN how to encrypt your data. On Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS, you can change them in the protocols tab.

The terminal is where you type commands on Linux.

Security Protocols [Multiple Options for different Devices]

There are different protocols for ExpressVPN, some of which are listed here:

• OpenVPN
• IKEV2
• L2TP/IPsec
• Lightway

OpenVPN:

Since it’s open-source, this protocol is one of the safest. People from all over the world are always looking at the code to improve it. It also works with UDP and TCP.

IKEV2:

Most people think it’s faster than OpenVPN, but in my tests, it was only 1% faster. This protocol isn’t as safe as the others, so we only use it when the others don’t work. There is no TCP option, so some firewalls will block it.

L2TP/IPsec:

This is the least safe choice because it is one of the older protocols. Although in my tests, it was the fastest. It’s good to use when speed is more important than safety.

Lightway:

Lightway is a VPN protocol made by ExpressVPN. It is very light, which makes it perfect for mobile devices.

Here are some of the reasons why you might want to use Lightway:

Fast speed: I was able to get download speeds that were 5% faster than what I usually get. If you’re using a less powerful device, like a smartphone, you can also switch from wolfSSL encryption to ChaCha20 to speed things up even more.

Updated Encryption: WolfSSL is a modern cryptographic library that has been checked by third parties and offers 256-bit encryption that is good enough for the military.

Quick switch between networks: Lightway doesn’t cut off your VPN connection when the signal goes out. Instead, it puts it on hold. When you switch from WiFi to a mobile network, you can connect right away. It also makes it easier to connect when waking up a phone from sleep mode or airplane mode.

Small codebase: One of the lightest VPN protocol codebases is Lightway, which only has 1,000 lines of code. This makes it easier to check up on Lighway. It also uses less battery, which is great if you want to encrypt traffic on your phone.

Depending on the device you’re using, you’ll have a variety of different protocol choices to choose from:

ExpressVPN has Private DNS on all Servers

Since it has private DNS servers, ExpressVPN was able to pass the leak tests. To go from one website to another, you need to connect to something called the Domain Name Server. A Private DNS server gets rid of this middleman, which makes it harder for your information to get out.

You can use your own DNS if you want to, but we recommend using ExpressVPN’s Private DNS servers as much as possible.

Independently Audited

Several well-known security companies have done their own audits to show that ExpressVPN is as safe as it says it is. These ExpressVPN reviews tell us that they never found any big problems, and every small hole was quickly patched.

ExpressVPN has the most audits by the most different firms out of all the VPNs we’ve tried. It’s constantly being improved by world-class experts, and we are especially impressed that its privacy policy has been audited by more than one company.

ExpressVPN Kill Switch

Under General Tab, you can find Kill Switch!

The kill switch on ExpressVPN stops your internet traffic if the VPN ever drops out, so you are always safe. This is an important part of any VPN, and ExpressVPN’s version of it is called “Network Lock.”

I tried to refresh a website while I was switching to the Melbourne server to test this feature. When the connection isn’t complete, ExpressVPN tells you in the browser that the traffic is blocked.

The kill switch is always turned on in Windows, Linux, and Mac. You can also allow devices on the LAN to connect. This is helpful if your printer is connected to WiFi so that a broken server won’t mess up your documents. You can turn the kill switch on and off with the desktop and Android apps, but not with the router app.

It’s called Network Protection on Android, and you just need to set the VPN to “Always On” in the Android settings to make it work.

Network Lock works on desktops, Android, and routers, but iOS doesn’t have a kill switch. I keep track of the best VPNs for mobile, including iOS, and ExpressVPN is one of the best. It’s terrible they don’t have this important feature.

Does ExpressVPN Allow Torrenting?

Since we are avid torrent users, we were really interested in finding is ExpressVPN safe for torrenting?

We first checked on the website and were pleased to read that ExpressVPN did indeed allow torrenting. Once confirmed, we tested it with a couple of torrent clients. Again, the download speeds were fast, and the connection did not drop for a second.

The best part was, unlike other VPNs, ExpressVPN does not limit you to a few specialized torrenting servers. You can connect to any server from the list and enjoy unrestricted torrent support. However, we recommend you use your nearest server to get the best results.

With P2P file-sharing, things were significantly different. Due to a lack of a port forwarding option, we struggled to download large files. However, if you are looking for the best VPN for torrenting and P2P applications, NordVPN is the best industry offers.

Does ExpressVPN Allow Split Tunneling?

ExpressVPN offers split Tunneling on its Mac, Windows, and the ExpressVPN router app. Unfortunately, the feature is not available for mobile apps.

Split Tunneling is a useful privacy feature that gives you more control over how VPN traffic is routed. You can choose which apps you want to be covered under the VPN and which ones you want to travel outside it.

There are three ways to set up ExpressVPN split tunneling:

1. All apps use the VPN
2. Do not allow selected apps to use the VPN
3. Only allow selected apps to use the VPN

Privacy — A Trustworthy Company That Won’t Store Your Data

ExpressVPN works with a zero-log policy and it is not in a country that is part of the 14 Eyes Alliance. It belongs to Kape Technologies, which also owns a number of other VPNs (CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, and ZenMate, for ex.).

Does ExpressVPN Keep logs?

ExpressVPN never stores logs!

ExpressVPN doesn’t keep any logs, so it won’t store, share, or sell your personal information.

ExpressVPN says it only collects the following:

• Details about how you signed up (billing details and email address)
• How many apps and versions of apps you’ve used
• The day a connection was made (no specific time)
• Where you connect to a server (but not the IP address assigned to you)
• The amount of data transferred in one day

I was impressed by how little information is stored; I can’t think of another VPN that collects less. This is the minimum of information that is needed to keep the VPN running and keep in touch with customers. It only shows that you’ve used a VPN at some point, but nothing else.

You can further protect yourself by paying with cryptocurrency and making a new email address for your account. I asked ExpressVPN’s live chat support if your data, payment information, and email address could be deleted. It can, but only after you stop paying for the service.

Upon request, ExpressVPN can delete all the information which was saved!

ExpressVPN does not collect:

• Your own IP address or the IP address of the VPN you used
• Information about the websites you’ve been to and when.
• Metadata DNS queries (sites you’ve tried to get to)

How to Install the ExpressVPN App? [Quick Guide]

In this guide, we have provided the simple steps to install the ExpressVPN app. ExpressVPN’s desktop and mobile apps look good, work well, and are easy to use once you get to the ExpressVPN login page you’ll get to know yourself. It looks sleek and modern, and the big power button is in the middle.

Here is the step-by-step guide for the installation of ExpressVPN.

Does ExpressVPN Work on all Devices?

You can connect up to five devices simultaneously on a single ExpressVPN account. That’s not bad at all.

ExpressVPN Desktop Apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Windows and Mac apps are similar!

The ExpressVPN apps for Windows and Mac are almost the same. Even their protocols are the same. The only difference is that OS 11 and later Macs don’t have the Split Tunnel feature. Also, it takes a little time to learn how to use Linux commands.

The Linux app also has almost same features!

ExpressVPN Apps for Android and iOS devices

Android and iOS of ExpressVPN are easy to use!

The apps for Android and iOS are a lot like the ones for the desktop, but iOS is missing some important features. The Android app has all the same features as desktop apps (Split Tunneling, Kill Switch, Auto-Connect), plus a few more. The iPhone version, on the other hand, doesn’t have Split Tunnelling or Network Protection (the Kill Switch feature).

Does ExpressVPN have a browser extension?

Yes! it’s the only VPN service that provides full-form VPN extensions for Chrome, Safari and Firefox browsers. In fact, browser extensions are perhaps the most impressive offering of ExpressVPN.

Unlike other browser extensions that serve as mere proxies, ExpressVPN browser extensions work like true VPNs, securing your browser traffic at just a click of a button. In addition, they come free of any restrictions or limitations and are directly synced to the ExpressVPN app.

Does ExpressVPN offer Smart DNS?

Yes, every ExpressVPN subscription comes with the MediaStreamer smart DNS proxy service. You can set up ExpressVPN on your Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo Switch gaming console using the exclusive MediaStreamer service.

What is MediaStreamer? It is a SmartDNS tool that spoofs your location to give you access to geo-restricted TV shows and movies without encrypting your browsing traffic, unlike a regular VPN.

This VPN feature is handy for streaming on devices that do not natively support VPN apps, like Smart TVs, Gaming Consoles, and Set-top streaming boxes.

ExpressVPN Router Firmware

Unable to change the DNS server on Roku, Chromecast etc. You can still connect to the VPN manually using your WIFI router if your router’s firmware supports it. However, ExpressVPN has better options.

ExpressVPN’s router firmware completely replaces your router’s existing firmware. It is free and comes with all preconfigured ExpressVPN server locations, plus several other features that let you control which devices in your home use the VPN.

Does ExpressVPN Work with all Streaming Services?

Yes! ExpressVPN brings its A-game to the streaming floor. We tried running multiple streaming services on ExpressVPN to understand the VPN’s full streaming scope. BBC iPlayer worked flawlessly. HBO Max and Hulu allowed us in without any complaints. YouTube TV ran smoothly. Streaming on Hotstar was effortless.

Does ExpressVPN work with Netflix? You get access to 20+ Netflix libraries, including twenty-three server locations in the US, of which almost all unblock Netflix without any problems.

We found servers in New York, Dallas, Washington DC, Denver, and Miami as best configured for streaming in Australia. They were fast and stable.

Following is a summary of our findings:

What are the ExpressVPN Top Server locations?

ExpressVPN operates 3000+ servers in 105 countries countries. That’s a huge server inventory, bettered only by NordVPN, CyberGhost, and TorGuard in the market. One advantage of using a VPN with many servers is that you rarely suffer from traffic congestion, even on busy days.

Full List of ExpressVPN’s Server Locations

ExpressVPN provides servers in almost all regions, including the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East. Europe has got the most extensive coverage on the continent level with sixty-four locations. On the country level, it’s the US that ranks first. You get to connect to fifteen different US cities.

There are also plenty of server options for Australia. You can choose from servers in four cities: Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane. We tested all four locations and experienced no problems whatsoever.

Does ExpressVPN Use Virtual Locations? While most ExpressVPN servers are physical servers, the company has some virtual servers too. These servers are configured to provide connections in locations where it isn’t easy to install physical hardware. The total number of ExpressVPN virtual servers is forty-one.

Does ExpressVPN work in China?

Yes, ExpressVPN’s Android and iOS apps work in China. It is one of the few VPNs that can bypass China’s Great Firewall as it is already described in this ExpressVPN Australia review. China is a country with strict internet censorship. Its censorship is known as Great Firewall.

Because of this, popular sites like Facebook, YouTube, and even Google are inaccessible in China. When Chinese authorities banned VPNs a few years ago, ExpressVPN was one of the few still working.

Thanks to its advanced technology and features, you can easily access your favorite social media, streaming services, and websites in China.

Is ExpressVPN Customer Service Any Good?

ExpressVPN customer service is not only good, but it’s incompetent. However, supportive live chat members are available via Zendesk around the clock to handle any hitches and queries.

How can I contact ExpressVPN? You can contact the ExpressVPN support team at any time by clicking or tapping on the chat box at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen.

They get back to your text message in five minutes or less. They also helped customers with blogs and posts about new features and possible VPN uses. These documents are available in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, and German to help you understand them better.

There is also a ticket generator option for your query. Submit a ticket on the ExpressVPN website and get an instant email from them.

We tested ExpressVPN’s live chat support to see how responsive the agents were.Jasper connected to us within a few seconds and answered all our questions promptly and politely.

Contact ExpressVPN 24/7 support

Overall, we were left quite impressed with ExpressVPN review Australia. It would have been even better if the company had offered on-call support.

Does ExpressVPN offer Obfuscated Servers?

3000+ servers are offered by ExpressVPN in 105 countries countries. There are no activity logs or other records kept by the company that could be used against you. Obfuscated servers, TrustedServer technology, and split tunnelling are a few of its nice-to-have features.

How do I enable obfuscation in ExpressVPN?

How we Tested ExpressVPN? – Testing Methodology

Test and data points are taken into account when evaluating ExpressVPN Australia review:

• IP Leak Test: To verify if it discloses the IP address of the user or not. IP leak protection ensures your identity remains anonymous on the internet, keeping your IP address well and truly hidden.
• DNS Leak Test: A DNS leak can mean that third parties, such as your ISP, can see your internet activity.
• Testing for IPv6 Leaks: VPNs are IPv4 traffic only and cannot route IPv6 traffic, especially on Windows devices.
• WebRTC leak test: WebRTC is the protocol used in voice and video chat. Check if it is routed through the VPN tunnel.
• Availability of VPN protocols: The Express VPN review reveals that it offers four connection protocols to choose from Lightway, OpenVPN (TCP and UDP), IKEv2, and L2TP/IPSec. The encryption standard is set to AES-256 by default and cannot be changed. It combines with perfect forward secrecy (PFS) technology for added protection.
• Speed Test: To check the speed of ExpressVPN servers, we ran speed tests on different servers in USA, UK, Australia, India and Canada.
• Unblocking Capabilities: Unblocks Netflix and other streaming services such as BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, Hulu and Disney Plus.
• Number of server locations and the number of countries covered.
• Responsiveness, Availability and Knowledge Level of Customer Support Team.
• Device Compatibility: Offers easy-to-use apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and extension for Chrome and Firefox browsers.

4 Streaming Services you can stream in Australia using VPN:

Bypass as many services as you want using VPN service while in Australia. Enjoy streaming geo-restricted content in Australia:

FAQs