PureVPN vs ExpressVPN – Which One is Better?

In this age of numerous cyber threats, a lot of people have had no other choice but to opt for VPN services to ensure both personal privacy and security. However, there are several VPN service providers in the market today, but choosing the best is always an issue for many.

In this article, we’d be making a comparison between two popular VPN service providers, ExpressVPN and PureVPN. Undoubtedly, both have their place in the global market, but the question is, which is better, ExpressVPN or PureVPN? We won’t be giving a direct answer to that question yet until we have shown you their similarities and differences with contrasting facts about both of them.

ExpressVPN vs PureVPN

Pricing, Payment Options, and Refund

From the table above, it is apparent that PureVPN is cheaper and cost-effective than its opponent, ExpressVPN. For instance, while the one year deal offered by PureVPN is just $5.81 per month and the 5-year plan is $1.32 per month, ExpressVPN offers the same one year plan at a bit higher price, $8.32 per month.

Also, both PureVPN and ExpressVPN offer a refund policy of 31-day money-back guarantee and 30-day refund period, respectively, in addition to the prices, they both offer. They also both accept anonymous payment methods to ensure complete privacy.

Privacy & Logging

PureVPN is located in Hong Kong, and ExpressVPN has its base in the British Virgin Islands. Both countries don’t support data retention requirements without any affiliation with Fourteen Eyes intelligence-sharing countries.

Both providers have no logs policy; it is also stated on their websites that user’s personal or any sort of information is not stored. In this aspect, PureVPN is discovered to be ahead as it offers better anonymity relative to ExpressVPN. Not only that, ExpressVPN registers connection logs such as the date of the connection, the servers used, and the amount of bandwidth consumed.

Server Network

PureVPN claims to have 2000+ servers globally, while ExpressVPN offers about 3000+ servers. ExpressVPN is widely known in the industry to have one of the largest numbers of servers. Also, PureVPN has more VPN server locations with its servers spread across over 140 countries. One similar feature to both providers is that they have the same capability to unblock content that is regionally blocked around the world. Besides, the providers have a mix of both physical and virtual servers. Check out the statistics below.

Security

When it comes to security, ExpressVPN offers more slightly advanced protection than PureVPN. Both VPNs similarly make use of protocols such as OpenVPN, L2TP, and PPTP. However, PureVPN also adds the use of SSTP and IKEv2 protocols. These two protocols help to deliver fast speeds but not as secure as OpenVPN.

There’s yet another difference between the two VPNs, and that’s in the utilization of RSA keys; PureVPN makes use of RSA-2048, while ExpressVPN makes use of RSA-4096, which is said to be theoretically twice as secure.

They also offer features like IP leak protection, Networklock, and more.

Speed

To get the connection speed of both VPNs, a test was conducted using the speedtest.net website and setting the base connection at 30 Mbps. Both service providers managed to deliver phenomenal speeds with max reaching up to 28.81 Mbps. The table below shows the tests conducted for different locations.

App interface and usability

Comparing the apps of both providers, ExpressVPN has a friendlier user interface with its home screen, only having needed options such as Smart location, Select location, Recent location, and the main Connect button.

PureVPN has a bulkier looking interface as you have to find your way through multiple sub-menus just to get on with different settings.

However, PureVPN’s iOS app offers simple menus, a much cleaner interface, and a one-tap connectivity option.

Customer Support

With live chat, Email, and Tutorials/setup guides, both providers offer excellent customer support. These platforms are quite comprehensive to help with whatever issues or complaints you may have.

Compatibility & Features

Generally, impressive features such as simultaneous connections, Split-tunneling, Killswitch, and more are offered by both providers. The users can take advantage of these features to boost their overall online security.

For example, the Killswitch feature that comes with these VPNs can help prevent your IP address from accidentally getting leaked in a situation of an abrupt connection drop. In addition to that, powerful 256-bit encryption is included. This can prevent hackers from gaining access to your data.

Comparing both VPNs, both providers basically offer similar and equally powerful security features. When it comes to compatibility, both are equally compatible with lots of operating systems and devices.

Other features

Lastly, other features include torrenting and Netflix support. Both providers support P2P file sharing (Torrenting) on a good number of optimized servers.

Not only that, both ExpressVPN and PureVPN support Netflix streaming, delivering incredible HD quality video streaming speeds, which are a popular reason why people use VPNs in the first place.

Final Verdict

Looking at the result of the evaluation carried out, both VPN providers actually tied in a lot of aspects, but to say one win over the other may be a little difficult.

However, here’s the conclusion of the matter: if you’re going for affordability, PureVPN offers better prices for its plans than ExpressVPN but if it’s the overall performance you want, I’d recommend ExpressVPN.

You can read a full review of ExpressVPN here.

You should also know that whichever one opts for will be good for you.