ExpressVPN vs Private Internet Access

ExpressVPN does collect some anonymous connection logs, including the date you connect to the service, your choice of server location, and the total amount of data transferred each day. The company does not log your identity or activity, a fact which has been verified by independent audit.

The connection data recorded cannot be used to identify you, but it is still not quite the same as having a zero-logs policy. By contrast, PIA does not log any information whatsoever.

Both ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access have had their privacy claims tested by real-world events.

ExpressVPN had a server seized in 2017, and PIA was subpoenaed for data in 2016. In both cases, neither VPN service had any information to hand over, and no user data was discovered.

Here’s a table comparing ExpressVPN’s and PIA’s logging policies:

ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands, which means international authorities have very limited legal power to force the company to hand over user data (if it stored any).

By contrast, PIA is based in the United States, which is one of the least privacy-friendly VPN jurisdictions in the world. U.S. authorities can legally require companies to hand over personally identifiable information. However, PIA’s strict no-logs policy ensures that there is no user data to surrender.

Despite their differing jurisdictions, both PIA and ExpressVPN have proven through multiple real-world audits and incidents that they can be trusted to safeguard your privacy and uphold stringent logging practices.

Kape Technologies acquired PIA in 2019, and ExpressVPN in late 2021. The tech company also runs popular VPN service CyberGhost.

Previously known as Crossrider, Kape faced some controversy under its former management due to misuse of its browser extension platform. However, the company took corrective action in 2014 to address these issues.

Today, PIA and ExpressVPN continue to operate independently, maintaining the same robust privacy protections they offered prior to their acquisition by Kape Technologies.

Compared to most VPN services, PIA is a good VPN for streaming. It unblocks 6 Netflix regions including the US, and it’s also capable of streaming BBC iPlayer, Prime Video and Hulu.

However, ExpressVPN is better. ExpressVPN works with 18 Netflix regions more reliably, and it consistently unblocks BBC iPlayer, Disney+, HBO, Hulu, DAZN, and Amazon Prime Video on almost every server.

Use the table below to compare popular Netflix libraries each VPN works with:

In our most recent tests, ExpressVPN worked to stream the US Netflix library on every single US server except for one. If ExpressVPN isn’t working with Netflix, their customer service is very helpful in suggesting alternatives, too.

Overall ExpressVPN works with more Netflix regions, it’s faster internationally, and it’s a more reliable VPN for streaming US Netflix specifically. It might be more expensive than PIA, but you get a lot more for your money.

ExpressVPN and PIA offer similar performance when it comes to unblocking other popular streaming platforms. With either service, we’re always able to access BBC iPlayer, Max, Prime Video, and Hulu, without any issues.

Private Internet Access worked with BBC iPlayer on its London streaming server.

Surprisingly, though, PIA can’t access Disney+, a platform that ExpressVPN has reliably unblocked since its launch in 2019.

While both VPNs provide apps for Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV, only ExpressVPN extends compatibility to devices that don’t support VPN apps.

It’s user-friendly router app and effective Smart DNS feature (MediaStreamer) allow you to unblock movies and TV shows on your Smart TV or games consoles.

In contrast, PIA offers Smart DNS but it didn’t work for streaming in our latest tests.

While you can also manually set up PIA on a router, it doesn’t have an intuitive router app like ExpressVPN does.

Head of Research Simon Migliano testing the ExpressVPN Fire TV Stick app.

As you can see from our results, both ExpressVPN and PIA perform well on connections to nearby servers. However, ExpressVPN is marginally faster, with a speed reduction of just 3%, compared to 5% with ExpressVPN.

Overall, ExpressVPN and PIA are two of the overall fastest VPNs we’ve tested. On both local and international connections, both VPN services deliver low latency and speeds fast enough for HD streaming, quick torrenting, and lag-free online gaming.

If you want to stream geo-restricted content in HD and 4k, you’ll need a high-quality VPN that has fast download speeds on international servers.

We tested PIA and ExpressVPN’s download speeds while connected to different international servers from our test location in the US. Here’s a table comparing the results:

It’s a close call when it comes to VPN tunneling protocols, too.

PIA supports WireGuard, a secure and lightweight protocol that is used by almost every other VPN service. ExpressVPN is missing WireGuard functionality, but it makes up for it with its own open-source protocol called Lightway.

Lightway is exclusive to ExpressVPN. It uses AES encryption and performs extremely well in our speed and security tests. With Lightway, you’ll consume less bandwidth and battery power than other VPN protocols due to its small codebase.

ExpressVPN offers Lightway (a proprietary protocol), OpenVPN, and IKEv2 on macOS.

PIA’s protocol selection doesn’t fall far behind, but support for Lightway pushes ExpressVPN slightly ahead when it comes to connection protocols.

When it comes to encryption, both ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access are equal in almost every regard. If you’re just looking to stay safe on public WiFi, both options will suit you well.

Both VPNs offer a remarkable level of control over the way your data is encrypted. They use AES-256-CBC encryption, with an additional option for AES-256-GCM on PIA. This is combined with Perfect Forward Secrecy, a 4096-bit RSA key, and SHA-512 HMAC authentication, which verifies your connection to the server and prevents interference with the data being transmitted.

In short, PIA and ExpressVPN offer the strongest encryption available, with granular options to choose the settings that work for you. NordVPN is the only VPN more secure than ExpressVPN, due to its comprehensive cybersecurity suite.

A VPN should not use anything less than the AES-128 cipher to encrypt your data.

A functioning kill switch stops your IP address from leak should your internet connection suddenly drop. To test PIA and ExpressVPN’s kill switches, we used our bespoke kill switch test tool on multiple devices.

We ran the mobile and desktop versions of both VPNs through IP, DNS, and WebRTC leak tests and found that our identity and location were consistently protected.

ExpressVPN’s kill switch isn’t fully secure on macOS.

Here are our full kill switch test results:

Private DNS servers and leak protection are built into both VPN services by default, but you’ll have to enable DNS leak protection manually in PIA’s Windows application, which is an unnecessary shortcoming.

Both services also include an essential VPN kill switch, which automatically disconnects you from the internet if the VPN connection drops, preventing your public IP address from being exposed.

ExpressVPN and PIA have servers in more countries than nearly any other VPN service.

ExpressVPN has servers in 106 countries, while PIA’s server network consists of 91 countries.

Although ExpressVPN technically offers a broader range of countries, in our experience, both services had servers in the countries we wanted to connect to.

Here’s a full list of the number of countries covered by PIA and ExpressVPN in each continent:

However, ExpressVPN offers a noticeably wider selection of city-level servers.

City-level servers allow you to be more specific in your choice of server within a country, which can help you achieve the fastest possible speeds and bypass more specific geo-blocks.

The one exception is PIA’s coverage of US cities and states, being the only VPN to provide IP addresses from all 50. In contrast, ExpressVPN covers 12 states.

PIA has the largest server network of any top VPN service. Its 18,651 servers is significantly larger than ExpressVPN’s count of 3,000.

The benefit of PIA’s huge server network is that it minimizes server load, which can improve performance and increase the chances you’ll connect to a reliable server that’s close to your physical location.

Compared side-by-side, ExpressVPN’s server menu is simpler than PIA’s, but it displays less information.

Novice users can set up both VPNs in a few minutes and benefit from a simple “one-click connect” design that will automatically choose a recommended server based on your location.

Here’s a video of us connecting to both ExpressVPN and PIA side-by-side:

PIA offers unlimited simultaneous connections on one subscription, while ExpressVPN only offers 8. Despite these limitations, we found ExpressVPN’s apps considerably easier to use.

In fact, ExpressVPN is so easy to use that it’s hard to find a single flaw. Its applications are simple to set up, intuitive to navigate, and well-designed. In our tests, it took less than five minutes to subscribe, install, and start using the VPN apps on almost every operating system.

ExpressVPNs apps are almost identical across devices. In contrast, there are a few notable differences between each PIA app, and its settings menus are complicated to navigate at first.

This may bode well for advanced users looking for lots of intricate settings, but it’s slightly overwhelming for the average user.

Our testing surfaced a few small usability issues with PIA. For example, its Windows app runs in the system tray by default, which pins the client to the bottom of your device’s screen. The option to detach it is buried in the app’s settings, which isn’t necessarily obvious.

Similarly, PIA’s Mac app runs in the menu bar by default. This means you can’t place the app in your dock, and any keyboard shortcuts you may have set up won’t work.

We also found PIA’s macOS application was fairly slow to load and operate. The app took around three seconds to load in our tests, which does add up with regular usage.

PIA’s macOS and iOS app.

Both ExpressVPN and PIA support unrestricted P2P activity across their entire server network. You can torrent from any server without any bandwidth limits or location restrictions.

We tested both VPN services with popular torrenting clients including qBitTorrent, uTorrent, and Deluge. We were able to successfully torrent files on every server we tested, and we didn’t record any IP or DNS leaks using either VPN.

Combined with AES-256 or ChaCha20 encryption, effective kill switch features, and safe privacy policies, this makes ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access equally safe for anonymous P2P file-sharing.

Using ExpressVPN with the qBittorrent torrent client.

If you’re looking to protect your torrenting traffic, you’ll be safe with either VPN. However, they do offer different features for P2P.

For example, if you’re on a network with a strict NAT type, PIA’s port forwarding feature lets you redirect incoming connections to ports 443, 80, 110, 53, 8080, and 9201. You can use this to bypass your NAT firewall, increasing the number of torrenting peers you can communicate with and improving your P2P upload speeds.

ExpressVPN doesn’t support port forwarding, which makes Private Internet Access the superior choice for seeding torrents.

PIA port forwarding can be set up with one click from in the app’s settings menu.

PIA also offers native support for a SOCKS5 proxy, as well as Shadowsocks. This gives you more options for rerouting your torrenting traffic, but it will not make it more secure.

Our P2P speed tests also found that ExpressVPN is slower than PIA VPN. We measured an average download bitrate of 9.6MiB/s when torrenting with PIA VPN, which is marginally faster than the 9.4MiB/s we measured while torrenting with ExpressVPN.

ExpressVPN is much easier to use on routers than PIA, due to its custom router app. The app works in-browser and provides a polished and intuitive user interface. We were able to quickly switch between VPN serves in-app, whereas PIA limited us to a single server location at a time.

ExpressVPN also provides its own range of Aircove routers with its VPN app pre-installed. This significantly reduced setup time and provided a more bespoke experience than buying a pre-flashed router from a third party — as was the case with PIA.

Using ExpressVPN’s router app, we were able to share our VPN connection with every device in our household. This included games consoles, Smart TVs, and virtually any device with an internet connection.

Both VPNs include a Smart DNS tool in their base subscriptions. Smart DNS changes your online location by connecting you to a DNS server in a different country. It works on devices that don’t support VPN apps, like games consoles or Smart TVS.

Though ExpressVPN’s Smart DNS tool is limited to just 2 locations, compared to PIA’s 5, it’s much better for streaming. In fact, PIA’s DNS tool failed to unblock a single streaming service.

In comparison, we used MediaStreamer in our testing to unblock US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu and more.

Both VPNs offer similar features, but PIA’s are better-developed and easier to use. For example, PIA’s MACE ad blocker is the best we’ve tested, blocking 100% of ads compared to 60% with ExpressVPN’s Threat Manager.

Similarly, we found it straightforward to set up and use PIA’s dedicated IP feature, whereas ExpressVPN’s slow rollout meant we were unable to test its equivalent feature. We’ve experienced this slow rollout before, when ExpressVPN took 9 months to implement its password manager across all apps.

In general, our user experience was better with PIA’s suite of extra features.

Neither VPN work reliably to bypass web censorship, but ExpressVPN has a higher success rate. While connecting to our remote Shanghai server, ExpressVPN worked 14% of the time, compared to PIA’s 50%.

We also liked that ExpressVPN’s servers are automatically obfuscated, by default. As such, you don’t need to switch protocols, install any additional software, or edit your settings.

This is unlike PIA which requires you to switch to a third-party proxy, Shadowsocks, in your VPN settings.