ExpressVPN
The expensive one, sold on speed and on never writing anything to a disk.
What it does
ExpressVPN runs in 105 countries on Lightway, a protocol it wrote and open-sourced, built on wolfSSL and designed to reconnect instantly when a laptop changes network. Every server runs TrustedServer: RAM only, reimaged from a known image on each boot, so there is no persistent disk to seize or subpoena.
The client is the least cluttered of the big three, and the split tunnelling and kill switch are reliable rather than clever.
Notes
- British Virgin Islands jurisdiction. Acquired by Kape Technologies in 2021 — a company whose history includes adware, and which also owns CyberGhost, Private Internet Access and several of the “best VPN” review sites that rank its products. That conflict is worth knowing before weighing the reviews.
- Lightway has been independently audited, and the source is public.
- Consistently the most expensive of the mainstream options, with no free tier.
Alternative to
| Alternative | Type | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Mullvad | Subscription | Cheaper, independent, and does not own its own reviewers |
| Proton VPN | Freemium | Audited, Swiss, free tier, open source clients |
| NordVPN | Subscription | More servers, more features bundled in, similar pricing games |
| Surfshark | Subscription | Much cheaper, unlimited devices |
Install
brew install --cask expressvpn