Both ExpressVPN and TorGuard promise the world to a user — privacy, security, speed, you know how it goes. But which VPN is better in practice: TorGuard or ExpressVPN? After a heated battle, we ended up preferring ExpressVPN as a more polished and quality VPN.
That doesn’t discredit TorGuard because the provider has some really bright spots — security and privacy, in particular. Today’s ExpressVPN vs TorGuard duel compares their features, prices, speed, and everything else, giving you an overview of their true qualities.
TorGuard and ExpressVPN are two distinct VPNs tailored to different audiences, so the objectively better pick (ExpressVPN) might not be for you. The final choice will depend on your needs and goals. This is why it’s vital to stay and read the comparison thoroughly.
ExpressVPN vs TorGuard VPN: Quick Comparison
| 🏆 ExpressVPN | TorGuard | |
| Our Current Ranking 📋 | #2 | TBD |
| Prices 🤑 | Starting at $4.99/mo | Starting at $32.99/year |
| Money-Back Guarantee 🪙 | 30 days | 7 days |
| Free Version/Free Trial 🆓 | No/7 days on iOS/Android | No |
| Logging/Jurisdiction 🕵️ | No/British Virgin Islands | No/USA |
| Protocols 🌐 | OpenVPN, Lightway, Lightway Turbo | OpenVPN, WireGuard, OpenConnect |
| Servers 🏠 | 3,000+ in 105 countries | 3,000+ in 50+ countries |
| Specialty Servers ✅ | Dedicated IP | Dedicated IP |
| RAM-Only Servers 🛡️ | Yes | Yes |
| Working With Netflix 📺 | Yes (US, UK, JP, CA, …) | Yes (with a dedicated streaming IP) |
| P2P Allowance ↔️ | Yes | Yes |
| Customer support ☎️ | Live chat, email | Support tickets |
| Concurrent Connections 📟 | 8 | 8, 12, or 30 |
Applications & Ease of Use
TorGuard feels a bit “barbaric” compared to ExpressVPN. Its apps are more technical, so traces of polish are non-existent. Still, its applications are functional enough, and thanks to using WireGuard, connection speeds are almost instantaneous. We’re referring to all devices.
Its iOS and Android apps are the same, so they’re not the prettiest either. Ultimately, TorGuard’s website is also a bit clunky and we can see that the company puts its eggs in another basket. ExpressVPN’s polished presentation is a sight for sore eyes in every sense.
Just look at its minimalistic apps and tell us you don’t like them. They’re identical on desktop and mobile platforms, so juggling your devices doesn’t mean you have to relearn the “road”. Plus, ExpressVPN’s apps feel snappier and premium, making it vastly superior to TorGuard.
Moving on, compatibility is top-notch on both sides. We’re looking at different desktop/mobile systems, routers, Smart TVs, Fire TV devices, Chromecast, Chromebooks, and whatnot. Both VPNs work on Chrome, Firefox, Brave, and Edge as formidable extensions.
In this role, they also block ads and prevent WebRTC leaks, so we enjoyed them during our TorGuard vs ExpressVPN testing. Finally, we’ll address their simultaneous connections. Both offer eight, but one is “up to” and the other is “at least” — ExpressVPN is the former.
TorGuard’s Standard plan offers eight, while Pro and Premium plans offer twelve and thirty simultaneous connections on a single subscription. We must say they’re impressive numbers compared to the industry standard.
Winner: ExpressVPN
Apart from more simultaneous connections, TorGuard doesn’t really beat ExpressVPN. The latter is more polished, easier to navigate, and snappier. Plus, eight simultaneous connections are more than enough for most people, providing a stellar experience that you’ll no doubt enjoy.
ExpressVPN vs TorGuard Price Comparison
Which VPN offers better value for money in 2026? ExpressVPN is our answer, although TorGuard is just a bit less expensive. If you want to find out more, you’ll have to read until the end. Let’s now focus on the VPN prices and first examine ExpressVPN.
You’ll agree that its pricing is straightforward.
The greenest plan in the middle should be your go-to. At $4.99/mo for 24 months and 61% off thanks to 4 free months, it’s the pick of the litter. The introductory offer also includes 5 GB eSIM and all the fancy features that the VPN offers. The annual plan is great, as well!
At 48% off thanks to 3 free months and the price of $6.67/mo, it’s a solid alternative if you don’t want to commit for too long. Moving on, we have TorGuard — we’ve examined its annual plans, as they’re 50% off. The cheapest is Standard at only $32.99 every 12 months.
Twelve simultaneous connections will cost you $65.49 annually, while thirty boosts it to $71.49 annually in the Premium plan. Pro and Premium plans include a dedicated IP, whilst the Standard plan leverages only static IP addresses, which admittedly isn’t too shabby.
The nicest thing about TorGuard is that renewal costs are the same, as you see above. ExpressVPN renews at a higher price ($149.70/mo), as most popular VPNs usually do. It does redeem itself with a 30-day money-back guarantee compared to 7 days in TorGuard. That’s a plus.
But here’s the catch.
TorGuard charges you additionally for its Streaming Bundle because it otherwise isn’t a great option for streaming (these VPNs are better). ExpressVPN offers its full streaming prowess at no cost, while TorGuard’s Streaming Bundle + VPN is $121.98 annually (~$10.16/mo). That’s 40% more than the priciest Premium plan!
Winner: Draw (Sort of…)
Looking at TorGuard vs ExpressVPN, we can conclude that TorGuard is just a smidge cheaper annually in the long run. With the streaming bundle you’ll likely want, TorGuard isn’t so affordable and comes close to ExpressVPN, which, while still costs more, also provides more, as you’ll soon see.
As strange as it sounds, with this proposition, the pricing round is a peculiar draw.
TorGuard vs ExpressVPN: Features Analysis
It’s time to see what the big guys bring to the table on the security front. Before we continue, we’ll mention that we tested them for IP and DNS leaks and found no black stains. Simultaneously, we discovered quite a few excellent security features that we’ll share now.
Shared & Similar Features
- Bank-grade encryption. We all know about the golden standard of 256-bit encryption. Both VPNs use it to conceal your identity and prevent ISP tracking. It’s impenetrable, so you don’t have to fear cyber-attackers anymore.
- Kill switch. In ExpressVPN, it’s Network Lock. In TorGuard, it’s App Kill. Honestly, we prefer the latter, because it can terminate specific apps if the VPN unexpectedly shuts down to prevent IP leaks. Meanwhile, Network Lock works only on the system level.
- Ad-blocking. Advanced Protection in ExpressVPN blocks ads vehemently and keeps trackers at bay. At the same time, TorGuard’s Ad-Blocking DNS works wonderfully, keeping unwanted things out of your way. We have no complaints here.
- Split tunneling. We explained what split tunneling is and how it works in a dedicated article. It’s a way to route only specific apps through the VPN tunnel, leaving the rest of your traffic untouched. ExpressVPN supports it on all devices, while TorGuard only offers it on Android. A strange decision, especially given users’ vocal requests for broader support.
Unique Security Features
In our ExpressVPN vs TorGuard analysis, we found TorGuard to be a bit shallower in terms of advanced security features. If you look at NordVPN, you’ll find more of these, as discussed in our NordVPN vs TorGuard comparison. That said, the features we did find in TorGuard are of exceptional quality and work as intended — so it’s hard to complain.
Advanced Protocols
TorGuard and ExpressVPN offer OpenVPN, but to spice things up, they include WireGuard and Lightway respectively. WireGuard is a well-known deal at this point — a fast and reliable protocol for streaming, gaming, and all bandwidth-intensive activities. Is there anything better?
There is — Lightway. And there’s something better than that — Lightway Turbo. The latter is ExpressVPN’s sped-up Lightway, which enables multi-lane support that boosts stability and connection speed. What’s more, Lightway has been audited by Cure53 very recently.
This audit proved Lightway’s security, privacy, and stability. In our speed tests, which you’ll soon arrive at, Lightway Turbo was faster than TorGuard’s WireGuard. Keep in mind that Lightway was made by ExpressVPN, so it’s the only provider that uses this protocol.
Obfuscation
Obfuscation is automatically applied to all ExpressVPN connections, so there’s no need to fiddle around to find it. TorGuard’s personalization means you’ll have to choose whether to use it. Luckily, it’s found under the Proxy menu easily, where you can enable Stealth Proxy.
Stealth Proxy is famous for its ability to sidestep censorship and is implemented in VPNs for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, China, etc. TorGuard lets you pick from a few countries, such as the US, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Germany, and each country has multiple proxy locations.
While this approach might seem more flexible, especially with an optional OpenConnect protocol, we prefer ExpressVPN’s simplistic take. Since each connection is technically obfuscated, you go with whatever location you want, which allows for more freedom.
Other Notable Features
In TorGuard, we’d like to mention dedicated IP addresses that you can get (just one) as part of Pro and Premium plans. It lets you choose the location from a pool that includes the USA, Norway, Japan, the UK, etc. Dedicated IPs are great if you use a VPN for a business, let’s say.
They’re also great for gaming servers, or if you simply don’t want to use shared IPs. ExpressVPN offers them too, and they’re an optional extra in each plan. Other than that, we found more features in ExpressVPN, such as Parental Control that blocks pornography sites.
There’s a slew of improvements on this side, and most come from ID Theft Insurance.
ExpressVPN protects you from cyber extortion and even includes a dark web monitor that informs you if some of your private data has leaked on the dark web. Each plan also lets you access ExpressVPN Keys, a handy little password manager usable on iOS, Android, and in the browser.
Winner: ExpressVPN
Both providers have what it takes to keep you safe and secure online. However, ExpressVPN takes the reins thanks to an in-house protocol, etched-in obfuscation, Parental Control, and ID Theft Insurance features. It’s an all-around security package that’s tough to beat at the given price.
Do TorGuard and ExpressVPN Store Logs?
They don’t, and that’s the thing we love about them.
You don’t have to spend hours on their privacy policies. Go to ExpressVPN’s website and you’ll quickly detect no shortage of transparency and what we call “direct” language. Everything is explained in an easy-to-grasp manner, which is always appreciated.
Sensitive logs, such as your IP address, browsing history, DNS queries, timestamps, and others aren’t stored. If something is on the server, it’s in an anonymized form, or it’s there for a short period before it’s lost to oblivion because the provider doesn’t need this information.
By the way, what we said applies to both providers. Both also use RAM servers, which means that pulling out the cord and restarting the server also wipes clean all data. While ExpressVPN resides in the British Virgin Islands, TorGuard is a VPN based in the USA.
Is it a big deal? Not really. But something else is — third-party audits.
ExpressVPN has many — 20+ if we’re not mistaken. TorGuard shares only the last digit. Zero. This VPN lacks transparency, which instantly puts its privacy claims on the seesaw that goes from true to false and vice versa constantly. Can we trust TorGuard? Well… perhaps?
Can we trust ExpressVPN? For sure — Cure53, PwC, KPMG, and other companies gave us ample reasons. We don’t say TorGuard stores logs, but we don’t say it doesn’t. Until a third-party audit does its job, we can only speculate.
Winner: ExpressVPN
As a clear-cut VPN that doesn’t keep logs, ExpressVPN ultimately takes the crown. We don’t want to take away anything from TorGuard, but a third-party audit from a reputable company would do wonders to level the playing field. More transparency would be welcome from the company.
Which VPN is Faster? (Speed Test Comparison)
If you came here specifically for speed tests, we got you covered. We tested TorGuard vs ExpressVPN in Belgrade, which was our location at the time. Each test was repeated 3 times a day, 3 days in a row, using 3 well-known server locations: the UK, the USA, and Japan.
In our comprehensive tests, we aimed for their fastest protocols. In ExpressVPN, we enabled Lightway Turbo, while TorGuard was set to WireGuard. It’s good to know that we performed our tests on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as the busiest days in terms of internet usage.
All tests were performed using the Speedtest app on Windows 11.
Here’s the first speed test without VPNs enabled:
With this as our starting point, it’s time to check out the table below, where we highlighted their speed losses in all three locations, based on the fastest results we achieved for each. As hinted at previously, ExpressVPN performed like a champ and was considerably quicker.
| Download Speed Loss | Upload Speed Loss | |
| ExpressVPN | 24% | 9% |
| TorGuard | 32% | 65% |
If we examine another table, we can see the same trend. Here, we displayed their best speed test results across all three locations. We can see that ExpressVPN’s download speeds were higher, especially on more distant servers — for us, those were in the USA and Japan.
| ExpressVPN | TorGuard | |
| UK Server Speeds (DL/UL) | 46.25/9.53 Mbps | 44.15/1.90 Mbps |
| US Server Speeds (DL/UL) | 42.04/9.34 Mbps | 33.11/1.81 Mbps |
| Japan Server Speeds (DL/UL) | 32.06/8.65 Mbps | 29.43/6.62 Mbps |
As for the ping, TorGuard and ExpressVPN were on par. Our latency was higher on more distant servers because of the distance, but that’s normal.
Winner: ExpressVPN
TorGuard isn’t slow and performs like your average VPN — that’s exactly where the problem is. ExpressVPN’s speeds were more consistent on distant servers, rendering it more stable and reliable overall. Whether we’re gaming, streaming, or torrenting, we’d choose ExpressVPN any day.
Streaming & Torrenting
Streaming and torrenting are important benefits of VPN services, but not every VPN offers them. We’ll start with streaming and mention that ExpressVPN works with multiple Netflix libraries, along with services like BBC iPlayer, Hotstar, ESPN+, YouTube TV, and others.
It’s also possible to enjoy free NFL live streams outside the US, while simultaneously enjoying buffer-free footage. If you’re big into sports, you’ll be glad to know that it also lets you watch the French Open tennis tournament online and for free. ExpressVPN’s browser extension is efficient too, as it blocks WebRTC and spoofs your location, ensuring you can always unblock region-locked content.
TorGuard can’t hold a candle to ExpressVPN. Without its dedicated streaming IP addresses, it performs rather poorly. Occasionally, it’ll unblock Netflix US, but don’t expect more than that; again, on occasion! Buying a dedicated streaming IP makes TorGuard sing another song.
It’s efficient in that case, but nowhere near as ExpressVPN.
Torrenting is up next and we don’t need to blabber for hours in this aspect. In our TorGuard vs ExpressVPN test, both showed impressive P2P speeds and allowed torrenting on all servers. What’s more their security and privacy allowed us to torrent anonymously.
Indeed, TorGuard has a few more P2P-focused tools, like SOCKS5 and Port Forwarding, but in our assessment, they weren’t particularly useful. I mean, the performance using our local servers was virtually the same, so it’s not worth tweaking around if you’re too busy.
Winner: ExpressVPN
This round has two parts, so streaming goes to ExpressVPN and torrenting is a tie, which means it’s 2:1 for ExpressVPN that takes it. TorGuard’s poor streaming prowess is a red flag for many, while ExpressVPN doesn’t hold punches, making it a superior choice for online entertainment.
Server Locations
Some of the largest VPNs globally include thousands of servers for every user’s enjoyment. Fortunately, ExpressVPN is one of them, with over 3,000 servers in 105 counties and 160+ locations. The server spread is impressive and rarely beaten by its competitors.
ExpressVPN also offers dedicated IP servers but lacks Multi-hop — the same as TorGuard.
Speaking of the devil, TorGuard offers an identical server number, 3,000, but only has 50 countries to choose from. City-level servers are mostly concentrated in the US, with other countries receiving a location or two at best. Dedicated servers aren’t on the list.
However, you can buy dedicated streaming IP addresses and different types of proxies. But, as explained here, proxies aren’t better than VPNs, and if you’re a VPN user, proxy benefits surely won’t interest you that much.
Winner: ExpressVPN
TorGuard’s server fleet is by no means little — it’s enough. However, ExpressVPN takes the reins by offering 55 countries more, with 160+ locations to pick from. With a larger, more present server network, it’s easy to see why we went with ExpressVPN.
Do They Work in China and Other Censored Countries?
To cut it short, they do work in China, but we can’t say they’re 100% reliable.
Both use obfuscation, which is enough to sidestep or hurdle the Great Firewall, but around 6/10 attempts are successful. TorGuard is a bit more customizable, letting you fine-tune it to try and repair the issue if it appears. We tested its Stealth Proxy in our in-depth analysis.
It worked well, along with OpenConnect, which happens to be slightly less efficient. Stealth Proxy is what its name implies — a proxy. Despite that, it performs well, with no notable speed and stability losses, although they occur occasionally because of the firewall.
ExpressVPN and TorGuard work in other censored countries without a hitch. The results are superior in the UAE, Qatar, Russia, Turkey, Iran, etc. In 2026, it’s hard to tell which VPN is the most reliable for China and overcoming censorship in general. All have their dark moments.
Winner: Tie
We have to go with a tie in this round, because TorGuard and ExpressVPN work in China, but not ideally and always. They’re excellent performers in other censored regions, too, which levels the playing field and results in a tie.
Conclusion: ExpressVPN Beats TorGuard
We’ll let you calculate the final score. If not, you’ll have to trust us that ExpressVPN scored more points, and is, by extension, the winner of today’s duel. TorGuard has a few notable qualities, such as more simultaneous connections, efficient torrenting, ample security features, and a no-logging policy.
To its detriment, ExpressVPN only offers fewer concurrent connections, with everything else that TorGuard offers, but on a much higher level. On a grand scale, ExpressVPN will impress more people. It’s sleek, smooth, and professional, with all the features and functions packed in a neat little app.
Not to forget, it’s superior in speeds, streaming, privacy, server fleet, and even unique security features. We’ll conclude by saying that ExpressVPN is just a speck pricier than TorGuard, but if you can, save up and get it because it’s still a better value for money.