ExpressVPN vs PureVPN

There are few VPN providers as widely popular as PureVPN and ExpressVPN. Both providers have a massive global customer base and offer similar features.

But that doesn’t stop us from asking the tough question, which VPN is better between ExpressVPN vs PureVPN?

The short answer is – Both providers are equally good, however, ExpressVPN is the clear winner in terms of server count, features and overall performance.

But what exactly makes each VPN in this content equally strong? That’s exactly what we are going to find out today.

Pricing, payment options, and refund

PureVPN is definitely more cost-effective and cheaper than ExpressVPN. It offers top-notch web security privacy and amazing discount packages with prices more affordable than ExpressVPN. For example, the 1-year plan by PureVPN costs just $5.81/month and a 5-year plan for simply $1.65/mo.

On the other hand, a 1-year plan by ExpressVPN costs $8.32 per month, which makes it a significantly more expensive service than the former provider.

Finally, PureVPN offers a 31-day money-back guarantee and the former offers just one day less i.e 30-day refund period. For the significantly lower price, PureVPN wins this round. Both service providers accept a wide range of payment methods and accept anonymous payments.

Privacy & Logging

Both VPN providers are located in safe jurisdictions. ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands and PureVPN is headquartered in Hong Kong. Both of these countries are free from data retention requirements and have no affiliation with Fourteen Eyes intelligence-sharing countries.

Both VPN providers follow a legitimate no logs policy. More specifically, ExpressVPN and PureVPN assure zero activity and IP address logs. They state clearly on their respective websites that they do not store personal or any kind of information of users for any reason. In fact, both providers have logging policies that are committed to protecting their user’s online privacy.

Aside from jurisdiction, if we talk about logs, PureVPN offers better anonymity than ExpressVPN as it neither collects connection logs nor any activity logs. Whereas ExpressVPN on the other hand stores connection logs such as date of the connection, servers used and bandwidth consumed.

On the plus side, both of these providers accept anonymous payments through cryptocurrencies and even gift cards.

Servers

If we talk about servers, PureVPN offers 2000+ servers whereas ExpressVPN offers 3000+ servers. Getting into the nitty-gritty and ExpressVPN has one of the largest number of servers in the industry. It has 1000 more servers than PureVPN.

PureVPN gets the better of the former with more VPN server locations. Compared to ExpressVPN, PureVPN offers servers in 140+ countries. That being said, both VPNs are equally capable at unblocking regionally blocked content from around the world.

If we talk about similarities between the two, both PureVPN and ExpressVPN use a mix of physical and virtual servers.

Using the following table, you can check the servers’ availability from these providers in your desired country:

As such, it is hard to pick a winner in this battle as both have a solid and geographically diverse server network.

Security

If we talk about security, ExpressVPN is slightly more advanced than PureVPN. In terms of similarities, both VPNs support OpenVPN, L2TP, and PPTP protocols. That’s where the similarities end because PureVPN also supports SSTP and IKEv2 protocols. These protocols can offer fast speeds, however, not as secure as OpenVPN.

Another difference you’re going to find between the two VPNs is the utilization of RSA keys. While PureVPN uses RSA-2048, ExpressVPN uses RSA-4096 which is theoretically twice as secure.

Other than that, both ExpressVPN and PureVPN offer additional security features like Networklock, IP leak protection and more. You can enable and tweak different options from the settings menu available within both PureVPN and ExpressVPN apps.

Speed

Both providers managed to deliver equally phenomenal speeds with highs reaching up to 29.07 Mbps. ExpressVPN and PureVPN are known for their fast service and did not disappoint us in the online speed test. The test was performed using the speedtest.net website with a base connection of 30 Mbps.

ExpressVPN is only a slightly faster service than PureVPN, which shows how closely matched the two VPN providers are. Thus, this round is once again a tie.

Customer Support

Both providers offer excellent customer service through live chat, Email and Tutorials/setup guides.

If you head over to either ExpressVPN or PureVPN, you can find customer support ranging from 24/7 live chat to email support to even ‘How-to guides’. Suffice to say you will find comprehensive help on both websites which is more than enough for an average user.

App usability and interface

If we compare the Windows and iOS apps of both providers, ExpressVPN boasts a much simple user interface than PureVPN. The home screen of ExpressVPN is minimalistic in design and offers only the most needed options like Smart location, Recent location, Select location, and the main Connect button.

On the other hand, PureVPN’s Windows app looks quite bulky and can feel a little redundant to use at times. For instance, you have to go through multiple sub-menus just to tweak around with different settings. Not only that, but the Windows app is also quite sluggish compared to ExpressVPN.

That said, the iOS app of PureVPN offers a much cleaner interface with simple menus and a one-tap connectivity option.

Overall, ExpressVPN is much more convenient to use than PureVPN.

Features & compatibility

Both PureVPN and ExpressVPN offer a lot of impressive features like Killswitch, Split-tunneling, simultaneous connections and more. These features can be pretty useful and boost your overall security online.

For instance, the Killswitch feature can help you prevent your IP address from leaking accidentally in case of an abrupt connection drop. Other than that, powerful 256-bit encryption can prevent hackers from stealing your data.

If we compare PureVPN and ExpressVPN, both of these providers offer similar and equally powerful security features. The only difference you’re going to notice is branding. For instance, the Killswitch feature found in PureVPN is labeled as Networklock in ExpressVPN.

If we talk about compatibility, both providers are equally compatible with a wide range of devices and operating systems.

PureVPN is comfortably compatible with all operating systems and devices. The provider now offers easy compatibility for 50+ devices. Similarly, ExpressVPN has client-friendly apps for all types of platforms including Amazon Fire devices, Linux, and even routers to secure multiple devices at the same time.

Unblocking capabilities

When it comes to unblocking popular VoD services like Netflix, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer, both PureVPN and ExpressVPN are equally capable. In our testing, we managed to unblock almost every geo-restricted websites and services we could come up with.

Not only did we managed to unblock multiple Netflix regional libraries with both ExpressVPN and PureVPN, but we also managed to unblock Hulu and Amazon prime.

That being said, when it comes to streaming speeds, ExpressVPN performed slightly better than PureVPN.

Torrenting/P2P

Both providers support torrenting and P2P on plenty of optimized secure servers. Even more impressive is the fact that both ExpressVPN and PureVPN follow strict no-logs policy and are located in safe jurisdictions.

With PureVPN, you can safely perform P2P activities without worrying about your information being monitored. The same is true for ExpressVPN. The BVI jurisdiction and no-logging policy of the company enable safe torrenting on any server in the VPN’s network. Therefore, you can count on either of these VPNs to enhance the security of your torrenting sessions.

Netflix support

Both providers work with Netflix and deliver HD quality video streaming speeds. Netflix streaming is one of the biggest reasons why VPNs are highly demanded by people worldwide. Although many VPNs lack the ability to access Netflix, ExpressVPN and PureVPN are both quite capable of working with Netflix.

All you need is a US server from either of these VPN providers in order to gain access to all Netflix content restricted in your region. The fact that both services also deliver fast speeds allows high-quality streaming with minimal buffering.

China

PureVPN works significantly better than ExpressVPN in China. This is due to the fact that PureVPN actually offers twelve servers located within Shanghai (6) and Beijing (6) China. Whereas ExpressVPN on the other hand only offers servers in Hong Kong.

This makes a huge difference when it comes to accessing regionally blocked Chinese content from abroad. Not only is PureVPN widely accessible within China, but connections are also much more stable than ExpressVPN.

PureVPN wins this round.

Final Verdict: ExpressVPN is the clear winner!

Both PureVPN and ExpressVPN are equally matched in terms of features, however, its the actual performance where PureVPN excels. The only thing PureVPN offers than PureVPN is the price.

But the fact is, you can’t go wrong with either of these VPN tools and the decision ultimately comes down to personal preference.

If you are on a budget, then you will find PureVPN much more affordable. If, on the other hand, price is the least of your concerns, then ExpressVPN will surely prove to be well worth it’s salt.

To read more about it, here’s our comprehensive ExpressVPN review.

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