Security and privacy are some of the most vital aspects of VPNs. When talking about ExpressVPN vs Proton VPN, we can notice a similar trend. Both excel in these aspects, bringing about a plethora of other features that make the VPN splendidly beautiful.
ExpressVPN is famous for its intuitive apps, fast speeds, and streaming prowess. Proton VPN’s server span can out-spread Albatross’ wings and its attention to privacy is outstanding. We have two capable providers who will fight for the win with great strength.
However, in this Proton VPN vs ExpressVPN duel, we don’t take ties for an answer. At the end of this comparison, one VPN will win and we’ll tell you which provider you should pick. If you’d rather get to the conclusion quicker, keep reading; you’re 10-ish minutes from there.
ExpressVPN vs Proton VPN: All You Need To Know
Oh, so you’d rather skip our comprehensive Proton VPN vs ExpressVPN analysis? Bad for you. If you’re in such a rush, here’s the conclusion right away – ExpressVPN has won!
We prefer its speed, stability, streaming prowess, and the ability to bypass censorship in China. Though, Proton VPN’s qualities in the form of a large server park, cheap prices, and more simultaneous connections shouldn’t be neglected even in your wildest dreams.
Before we start, here’s a table that compares their most important characteristics:
| ExpressVPN | Proton VPN | |
| Our Current Ranking | #1 | #4 |
| Prices | Starting at $4.99/mo | Starting at $2.99/mo |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 30 days | 30 days |
| Free Version/Free Trial | No/7 days through iOS/Android | Yes/No |
| Logging/Jurisdiction | No/British Virgin Islands | No/Switzerland |
| Protocols | OpenVPN, Lightway | OpenVPN, WireGuard |
| Servers | 3,000+ in 105 countries | 9,300+ in 112 countries |
| Specialty Servers | Dedicated IP | Secure Core, Streaming, P2P, Tor over VPN |
| RAM-Only Servers | Yes | Yes |
| Working With Netflix | Yes (15+ catalogs) | Yes (10+ catalogs) |
| P2P Allowance | Yes | Yes |
| Simultaneous Connections | 8 | 10 |
Applications & Ease of Use
The ExpressVPN vs Proton VPN battle now commences and we’re thrust into the first, warm-up round. We’ll address their compatibility, which is on the top level on both sides. With apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, both providers will work on a heap of devices and systems.
However, that’s never all when discussing some top-rated VPNs.
Proton VPN and ExpressVPN offer clients for Fire TV, Apple TV, Smart TVs, gaming consoles, routers, and other “non-typical” systems and devices. Their router VPN clients are especially great, as they allow you to use Lightway, OpenVPN, and WireGuard protocols.
This, however, depends on the type of router you’re using.
Proton VPN takes a bit of a lead by offering 10 simultaneous connections. ExpressVPN sports only 8, which is also below NordVPN, Private Internet Access, and Surfshark. On the flip side, ExpressVPN is far more intuitive and offers great-looking apps for beginners.
Connections are zappy and quick, with short waiting times before you’re secure. ExpressVPN’s apps look the same no matter the device you’re on, adding vastly to simplicity.
Proton VPN’s clients resemble those of NordVPN; the latter is still superior, though.
You have the world map, with the server list on the left. Above that is the Settings menu, which is a new window on macOS and Windows. Proton VPN’s mobile apps are terrific, and we especially like its free Android VPN app, which excels in features and ease of use.
Still, Proton VPN is a tad more complicated than ExpressVPN; newcomers, be aware of that!
Proton VPN has more concurrent connections, while ExpressVPN is far more intuitive, resulting in the first tie in today’s comparison.
Winner: Tie
Proton VPN vs ExpressVPN Price Comparison
Not all of us are Rockefellers – well, almost none of us are. Hence, we don’t want to overpay a VPN and get very little. Luckily, picking ExpressVPN or Proton VPN won’t produce unnecessary costs, especially if you aim for their 2-year deals with sweet discounts.
We’ll start with Proton VPN, which offers three distinct plans with no nonsense.
The cheapest is the 24-month one at $2.99/mo. Then, we have the annual plan at $4.99/mo, topped up with the monthly $9.99/mo deal, which is the least affordable. You don’t get any free months and the renewal price is higher, so this is just an introductory offer.
Get Proton VPN’s Cheap 2-Year Plan
ExpressVPN’s prices are a tad higher initially but they can drop with the ExpressVPN coupon.
In that case, you’re looking at a 2-year plan at $4.99/mo and 4 free months. Compared to the costly monthly plan, you save 61%. ExpressVPN then has the annual plan, which, in all honesty, is overpriced at $6.67/mo, albeit, with 3 free months as a bonus.
Save 61% on ExpressVPN’s 2-Year Offer
Not to mention that Proton VPN also has a 100% free plan with uncapped bandwidth, respectable security features, and no logs. This plan allows you to test the VPN before buying it. Despite this, Proton VPN still has a 30-day money-back guarantee for all plans!
Just like ExpressVPN.
Though, the latter offers a 7-day free trial for iOS and Android sign-ups.
Which VPN Is Cheaper?
You don’t have to look with a magnifying glass to get a full picture of Proton VPN vs ExpressVPN. Proton VPN’s 2-year and 1-year plans are cheaper than ExpressVPN’s equivalents by a long shot. Budget users will surely prefer Proton VPN’s offer.
To find out more about it, we recommend reading our hands-on Proton VPN test.
Proton VPN vs ExpressVPN: Features Analysis
The most exciting part of this comparison is here – features.
So, should you pick ExpressVPN or Proton VPN if you’re looking to maximize the number of features you’re getting? Let’s sift through their shared and unique features and determine the winner.
Shared Features
Proton VPN and ExpressVPN have plenty in common, such as:
- Bank-grade 256-bit encryption
- Automatic kill switch
- IP and DNS leak prevention
- Split tunneling
- Ad/tracker blocker
- RAM-only servers
- OpenVPN support
- Dark web monitoring
As you can see, they don’t share only the basic features. Apart from split tunneling and a famous automatic kill switch, you get the option to block ads and trackers. Proton VPN’s NetShield is used for that, while ExpressVPN relies on its Advanced Protection.
One thing to note is ExpressVPN’s parental control abilities, which allow it to block adult sites. You can also unblock Pornhub and other adult sites anywhere by disabling this feature. Dark web monitoring is also present, alerting you of email and password breaches.
We mentioned that OpenVPN is on both sides but these providers have more protocols – more about them later. While we’re here, we’ll address that their IP and DNS leak protection methods are efficient, as we encountered NO such leaks during our extensive tests.
Unique Features
ExpressVPN has been characterized as “shallow” when it comes to features.
Our team agrees to an extent but not entirely because of the newest updates. ExpressVPN now offers a data removal service, which removes your data from data brokers and makes you more private online. Also, ExpressVPN introduced the Lightway protocol way back.
It’s primed and ready to provide neck-breaking speeds while maintaining encryption and unbreakable security. ExpressVPN even has dedicated IP addresses, which you won’t find in Proton VPN. Speaking of it, the provider offers a few tricks, such as its Secure Core.
Secure Your Connection With ExpressVPN
Secure Core servers are proprietary servers owned by Proton, used for multi-hop connections with the other servers. Using them means your traffic will be encrypted twice, as it passes through two servers located in different countries. ExpressVPN doesn’t have this.
Proton VPN also uses WireGuard, which is speedy and secure, even more than OpenVPN. During our Proton VPN vs ExpressVPN review, we discovered that the former has port forwarding, alternative routing (obfuscation), and Tor over VPN servers for the dark web.
Secure Your Online Presence With Proton VPN
Well, ExpressVPN has all of these, except port forwarding, but they’re not prominently displayed, instead, being more of “passive” features. To summarize, we’ll say that both are now filled with security features, each offering something unique.
For your convenience, we listed their vital features in the table below; it’s very tight!
| Feature | ExpressVPN | Proton VPN |
| Proprietary Protocol | Yes, Lightway | No ❌ (WireGuard) |
| Dedicated IP | Yes ✅ | No ❌ (only for Business users) |
| Multi-hop | No ❌ | Yes ✅ |
| Ad-blocker | Yes ✅ | Yes ✅ |
| Obfuscation | Yes ✅ | Yes ✅ |
| Port Forwarding | No ❌ | Yes ✅ |
Winner: Tie
Do ExpressVPN and Proton VPN Store Logs?
Not keeping logs is crucial for maintaining your privacy. You can have all the security in the world but if the VPN resorts to logging, you’re doomed to fail. So, do Proton VPN and ExpressVPN have this nasty practice? Good news – they don’t!
Proton VPN is from Switzerland, while ExpressVPN is chilling on the British Virgin Islands. Both are privacy-friendly countries but the latter is even more so, as the BVI is off-shore, which means privacy laws are more stringent.
This, however, influences the outcome minimally. If at all.
Judging by their privacy policies, neither VPN stores:
- IP addresses (native or VPN-issued)
- DNS requests (DNS queries)
- Visited websites or browsing history
- Location information
- Detailed connection timestamps
Mandatory lots include your email address and some telemetry data for troubleshooting. This data can’t be associated with you because no private data is needed for this, and second, all stored data is in an anonymized form in both providers.
There’s more under the hood and we need to mention third-party audits.
ExpressVPN has virtually over 18 at this point, with Proton VPN having a few. Either way, this huge difference doesn’t affect the level of trustworthiness because neither had logging incidents in which they, God forbid, handed out user-related data to the authorities.
Such was the 2017 case with IPVanish which we evaluated recently.
Winner: Tie
Which VPN Is Faster: Proton VPN or ExpressVPN?
Don’t think this duel will be all ties and no concrete winners. We’ll have a winner this time, we promise. Before we say which provider is faster, ExpressVPN or Proton VPN, let’s promptly look at our native internet speed tested in Belgrade, like both of these VPNs.
This was our reference point, and from here, we performed a few simple tests. We tested both providers for 3 days in a row, repeating the tests 3 times a day to get the most precise results. Also, we settled for 3 server locations – the UK, the USA, and Japan.
To level the playing field, we didn’t opt for manual protocol selection. Instead, we left the setting at “Automatic” in both providers, to ensure they get to pick for themselves and decide on the fastest protocol based on the situation.
The results we’ll examine are the averages from our tests, so first up, we have the average speed losses in percentages – let’s analyze them:
| Download Speed Loss | Upload Speed Loss | |
| Proton VPN | 43% | 21% |
| ExpressVPN | 24% | 9% |
Okay, so these results favor ExpressVPN and tell us that Proton VPN isn’t a speed champ. We found NordVPN a bit faster compared to Proton VPN. However, even ExpressVPN is speedier and offers noticeably better performance for downloading and uploading.
Interested in our average speed test results from each of the 3 locations?
| UK (Download/Upload) | US (Download/Upload) | Japan (Download/Upload) | |
| Proton VPN | 195.66/18.47 Mbps | 260.69/11.56 Mbps | 119.74/16.21 Mbps |
| ExpressVPN | 298.82/18.50 Mbps | 274.61/18.35 Mbps | 206.33/16.73 Mbps |
Here’s another comprehensive table with them – the outcome is the same i.e. ExpressVPN is faster and more stable no matter how you look at it.
Winner: ExpressVPN
Get Blazing-Fast Speeds With ExpressVPN
Streaming & Torrenting Comparison
We have a pretty interesting setup here. ExpressVPN and Proton VPN are great options for torrenting and P2P in general. While Proton VPN offers dedicated torrenting servers, P2P will work on just about any server. However, P2P is blocked in the free plan – such a shame.
ExpressVPN has no fancy dedicated servers. Instead, the entire fleet is ready for torrenting at any moment. ExpressVPN’s speed overshadows Proton VPN but when using nearby servers, the performance gap is reduced. Still, it’s there in both downloads and uploads.
Now, streaming is another point that luckily, isn’t a weakness of these two.
ExpressVPN unblocks over 15, while Proton VPN works with over 10 Netflix catalogs. During our review, we found that the latter offers streaming-dedicated servers, which means added streaming optimization. Therefore, you get to unblock even more “stubborn” services.
After testing the provider, we discovered these servers won’t always work as advertised. It struggled with a few platforms like ESPN Plus and Sky Sports. ExpressVPN worked like a charm here, especially with its Chrome VPN extension with location spoofing abilities.
ExpressVPN also includes Smart DNS, also known as MediaStreamer. This makes streaming possible on all devices, even those that are non-VPN-friendly. Proton VPN lacks an equivalent, losing yet another battle to the read team.
Entertainment-wise, ExpressVPN will provide way more than Proton VPN.
Winner: ExpressVPN
Download in P2P and Stream With ExpressVPN
Server Locations: ExpressVPN vs Proton VPN
Premium VPNs such as these infuse us with high expectations of their server fleets. Indeed, most premium providers are widely spread across the world, which is the case here. If we look at them side-by-side, we’ll notice that:
- ExpressVPN has 3,000+ servers in 105 countries
- Proton VPN has 9,300+ servers in 112 countries
While ExpressVPN’s number of countries is massive, Proton VPN caught up over time and even surpassed its fierce rival. With 112 countries on offer and 3 times more servers, Proton VPN simply trumps ExpressVPN. Moreover, there are dedicated servers.
You have streaming, P2P, and Tor over VPN ones, all of which are impressively reliable. Both providers have 10 Gbps ports and RAM-based servers, making us never question their quality. In addition, Proton VPN’s server fleet is more diverse with Secure Core.
Proton VPN has 105 secure core servers in 66 countries, which is plenty to play around with. Both providers have physical and virtual servers; like VPN servers in India, for example, and a few more countries. ExpressVPN doesn’t have dedicated servers but it has dedicated IPs.
That, however, is a much less popular feature, especially compared to streaming servers in Proton VPN. That’s why the Swiss provider wins this round by a long shot.
Winner: Proton VPN
Bypassing Censorship: Which VPN Does It Better?
After comparing Proton VPN vs ExpressVPN in China a thousand times, we found that the former is extremely unreliable. In fact, the provider admits that on its site, clearly stating that it won’t work in China, despite alternative routing e.g. built-in obfuscation.
ExpressVPN’s obfuscation is a killer one. It bypasses DPI in China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and other censored countries, allowing you to use it anywhere in the world. A key point for ExpressVPN is SPEED, which doesn’t drop too much in these countries.
Bypass censorship with ExpressVPN
Proton VPN can bypass censorship in “mild” conditions. For instance, it’s a VPN suitable for schools, workplaces, and corporate environments where access to the internet is restricted. These environments pose no threat to Proton VPN but neither do to ExpressVPN.
Since ExpressVPN works in China and its Swiss nemesis doesn’t, the former takes the win.
Winner: ExpressVPN
Conclusion: ExpressVPN Beats Proton VPN in 2024
With a final score of 6 to 5, we can confidently say that ExpressVPN is the winner in this comparison with Proton VPN.
BUT…
This isn’t a knock-out win for the champ. In this ExpressVPN vs Proton VPN duel for 2026, the Swiss provider held its own in the majority of rounds. Simultaneously, it turned out to be more affordable while offering 9,300+ servers, which is THREE times more than its opponent.
ExpressVPN excels in speed and performance, torrenting, streaming, and overcoming censorship. Security, privacy, and compatibility are exceptional on both sides. So, to conclude, judging by ExpressVPN vs Proton VPN advantages, the former is indeed better.
Do you care more about the server spread or, let’s say, streaming? We think we both know the answer. Also, do you value connection speed more than the 2 extra simultaneous connections in Proton VPN? Again, you and we know the answer and we agree.
That said, ExpressVPN beats Proton VPN in all the most important categories. Despite the “close” score of 6:5, we’d much rather use ExpressVPN even though it’s a bit pricier.