Express VPN

www.snipca.com/41662

With more than 3,000 servers in 160 locations across 94 countries, Expressvpn lets you unblock content and browse privately by pretending to be almost anywhere in the world. While other providers have more servers in total, few have such a wide spread, which means you’ll always enjoy a speedy, reliable connection. The company is based in the British Virgin Islands, so isn’t subject to Fourteen Eyes surveillance (see previous page).

Expressvpn lets you connect five devices at once and offers easy-to-use desktop and mobile apps, extensions for Firefox and Chromium browsers, and support for streaming sticks and smart TVS. In addition to industry-standard AES-256 encryption, Expressvpn’s own Lightway protocol (www.snipca.com/41664) further increases its security and speed, while its handy Smart Location option (see screenshot above right) automatically connects you to the fastest available server. All Expressvpn servers are Ram-only, which means none of your data is stored on physical drives, and its strict no-logging policy has been independently audited by business consultancy Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC) to confirm that it doesn’t collect or share user data.

Expressvpn does a brilliant job of unblocking geo-restricted web content, letting you access BBC iplayer from abroad and international versions of Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, without any problems. It’s also packed with useful security features, including a ‘kill switch’ that immediately halts internet traffic when your VPN connection drops; split tunnelling, which lets you specify which apps are routed through its servers; and a new Threat Manager that blocks trackers and malicious sites, though currently only on IOS, macos and Linux.

The only drawback is that it’s expensive compared with rival services, but you can save 49 per cent on a 12-month subscription using the link we’ve provided above.