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Wednesday, June 7th
Express VPN is a very popular and highly-rated VPN service headquartered in the British Virgin Islands. It has a higher price tag than most other VPNs, but the features and reliability it offers are worth the cost. With a large and well-distributed network of servers, strong security practices, split tunneling, and a user-friendly interface, Express VPN is an excellent choice for a VPN service.
Pricing Is High, But So Is Quality
As noted, pricing for Express VPN is higher at $12.95 per month billed monthly, $9.99 per month billed semi-annually, or $8.32 per month billed annually. Like most service plans that VPN companies offer, the monthly price decreases the more time you commit to the subscription. Unlike many other VPN services, with Express VPN you can use Bitcoin to subscribe. If you are truly concerned about the pricing, Express VPN offers a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.
Good Mix of Hardware and Virtual Servers Worldwide
Express VPN has servers in 94 countries, split tunneling, and private DNS. They use TrustedServer technology to avoid any writing of data to disk storage so that your level of not being tracked is improved. They provide an internet kill switch in case the VPN is disabled. Express VPN doesn't have ad blockers or malware blockers, but they do have Threat Manager, which is an anti-tracking feature. If you regularly need to check your speed, you can find that information in the app rather than going to third-party websites for speed tests.
Support for Dozens of Devices and Operating Systems
If you want to install Express VPN on your router, you can. It also is supported on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, Chromebook, and Kindle Fire as well as browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. You can install it on smart TVs, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Chromecast, Nvidia Shield, and Android TV. You can even have it activated on game consoles like Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. There are easy instructions to follow for each device and situation.
Carefully Chosen Focus on Proprietary Technology
There is no multi-hop or Tor routing, but it does have split tunneling for traffic that needs to be routed separately through the VPN. Instead of WireGuard, Express VPN offers its own tunneling protocol called Lightway. This is all part of their strategy to focus on what matters most to their customers rather than throwing in everything and the kitchen sink.
Positive Reviews
Reviews of Express VPN are very positive. Everyone likes the ease of use, speed, features, and customer support. A few people are disgruntled, however. They don't like how it sometimes disconnects, long support chat queues, trouble with configuration on certain devices, and lack of support for Linux. There is not a Better Business Bureau rating for Express VPN.
Worth the Money
Given its strong popularity among its user base, the positive reviews given by prominent IT-centric publications, and being one of the more prominent and recognizable brands , Express VPN is an excellent choice for a VPN service (if you don't mind the high price).
A VPN is a virtual private network that allows you to browse the Internet securely. It makes a private network for you that is encrypted (scrambled) so that all the data coming to or leaving your computer is unreadable to anyone trying to peek at your browsing habits. But if you have nothing to hide, why would you want to use a VPN?
The reality is that there are plenty of people in the world who would love to access your private information such as passwords and bank account numbers. For example, a hacker might want to steal your password as you submit it from your computer to your email provider to log in. There are also people who want to know what you're looking for on the Internet. Marketers want to see your exposed data about what you like to shop for. Governments desire to know at every moment what their citizens are discussing, searching, and browsing.
Your credit card information is particularly important to protect. Most websites these days have end-to-end encryption to protect sensitive purchase information. But for the ones that don't, or for when that technology fails, a VPN adds a layer of protection to keep hackers from "sniffing" out your credit card information.
Another bonus? If you want access to streaming media that is only available in certain countries, a VPN can make it look to the streaming services in those countries as if you're a resident, and therefore you'll have no restrictions on accessing your favorite TV shows and movies.
Do you browse the Internet from public Wi-Fi connections in places such as airports, coffee shops, or shopping malls? If you do this without a VPN, your data is openly exposed to hackers who make a habit of monitoring unsecured Wi-Fi signals for data to steal.
You can't even trust your own internet service provider (ISP) with sensitive information about your browsing habits. They are often looking for additional revenue streams, including selling information about which websites your IP address has been accessing. A VPN hides that information from your ISP.
For people living in countries where the government has little or no respect for the right to privacy, a VPN is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, government bureaus, agencies, and leaders could have full access to everything you say or do online, including planning protests, criticizing laws and policies, or donating money to political organizations.
Therefore, it's critically important that you research the features, reputation, security, performance, customer service, and cost of various VPN services before you decide which one to subscribe to. Here are some factors to consider.
TopConsumerReviews.com has compiled a report of the best VPN services available and ranked them in the order of quality and reliability. We hope these reviews will help you find the right VPN service to make browsing the Web 100% secure!
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