Best VPN for 2023? ExpressVPN vs NordVPN vs Surfshark

new features new updates changes mergers

bug bounties so much stuff has happened

since our last nordvpn vs surf shark

versus expressvpn comparison so with all

this new info gathered up I figured I'd

go through the six most important

categories while pointing out all the

main Pros cons and the things other

reviews sometimes uh forget to mention

for some reason

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must have solid privacy and security

practices luckily for us all three of

these vpns have privacy policies that

say they don't log user data they went

through third-party audits to get those

claims confirmed these vpns pretty much

stand on equal grounds they operate with

ram-based servers that aren't even

capable of retaining any data and they

use reliable encryption ciphers you know

AES 256 or the more modern Cha-Cha 20

depending on the tunneling protocol you

end up using now while I like what I'm

seeing here in terms of security

there are a couple of issues I'd like to

address because the last time I did this

comparison expressvpn just got acquired

by Cape Technologies remember them the

company with a rumored malware past so

yeah I was pretty wary since I wanted to

be sure that whatever I recommend is

actually reliable well now that some

time has passed I have witnessed many

Express VPN attempts to clear their name

they went through multiple security

Audits and even offered a

record-breaking bug bounty so at this

point I'd have to consider expressvpn

safe to use now whether you decide to

trust them is entirely up to you express

is not the only one that raised some

concerns the surf shark and nordvpn

merger also caused a little stir

remember that however the companies have

remained independent and even rolled out

quite a few Innovations so so far I'm

actually loving what I'm seeing alright

next up the features first I went

through all the essentials all of the

providers have split tunneling for

Windows devices which I use a lot

especially when torrenting because it

allows me to have specific apps covered

with that VPN connection and other ones

that don't need it I also found reliable

kill switches that prevent data leaks if

your VPN connection should somehow drop

and all three vpns have traffic

obfuscation so they are reliable options

if you're looking to use a VPN in places

with restricted internet access you know

which countries I'm thinking of so yeah

those are the essentials and I'd expect

any reliable VPN to cover at least those

things but the best VPN 22 23 candidate

has to have a little more don't you

think I think they should and well these

guys do well most of them after my most

recent nordvpn review I can say that

this provider is the most feature packed

plus they went through a bunch of

updates for example they upgraded their

ad blocker to safeguard against malware

so all I gotta do is tap here to enable

and if I download a suspicious file well

it's gonna let me know and remove it

right away and for my testing I can

actually say it is very effective

nordvpn also introduced mesh net in 2022

which no one matches for this surfshark

vs nordvpn or even an expressvpn versus

nordvpn comparison when I turn it on I

can link remote devices it's not only

useful for hosting Lan parties but it's

a great way to share files as well you

can also access those files remotely

while protecting them all with

encryption and speaking of protection if

you're a true privacy Enthusiast or a

journalist or than an activist then

you're gonna like Nord specialty servers

with the double VPN feature that's going

to add another layer of security oh and

there's also the onion over VPN function

for maximum protection but uh yeah

you're gonna notice how much slower it

is compared to the regular VPN

connection and by the way if you're

already considering getting one of the

best VPN providers well be sure to check

out the discounts in the description

below seriously you're going to be

really glad you did moving right along

what about surf shark well it does have

an ad blocker just not as advanced as

threat protection there's multi-hop

which is an equivalent of the double VPN

server that nordvpn has but I did find

some other unique things during my surf

shark review for an example on Android

there's this exclusive GPS spoofer and

once I turn this baby on well I can

trick apps into thinking I'm in a

completely different location and even

if surfshark's ad blocker can't catch

malware they do have their own antivirus

instead now I won't go in too deep here

since it's an additional feature that

you uh have to pay for but I will say if

you're looking for an antivirus and VPN

combo this is one of the best options it

performed really well in my testing

catching 9 out of 10 malicious files

that I planted on my PC you know it's

kind of my thing and it's one of the

most affordable antivirus picks too

because well you have to keep in mind

that antiviruses who offer vpns mostly

offer very limited versions of them surf

sharks isn't limited so in their case

it's pretty unique feature now sadly

when I did an expressvpn review I didn't

find that many additional features just

a couple I guess unlike the other two

top VPN candidates expressvpn does not

have an ad blocker feature I only found

the threat manager on Apple and Linux

devices which does block trackers and

malicious sites and no I'm not expecting

the malware detection like Nord has but

the ability to block ads would at least

be nice and it would put surf shark vs

expressvpn on more equal footing right

now in the expressvpn app I do like

their shortcuts feature which allows me

to quickly access my most used websites

and there's also a cool feature for VPN

router setup called device groups I can

switch locations easier and customize

the connection which is usually a real

pain in the butt with other vpns other

than that there isn't much more to show

it seems like Innovative features just

aren't their Focus right now so look all

of these guys are safe and most of them

are packed with additional features but

do they perform well to figure that out

first I went through some Reddit threads

looking at how people view these

providers and what issues they faced

I've found a lot of different opinions

about performance while some people were

happy about great speeds others were

complaining about unstable connections

so I ran a new speed test to check it

myself my Baseline is around 300 Mbps as

some of you know and for each of these

tests I went ahead and used the fastest

protocols which is wireguard for surf

shark Nord links for Nord and

lightweight for expressvpn I tested

three different locations and it quickly

became clear that all of them have

pretty similar results I only

experienced a bigger speed drop in Japan

when testing expressvpn but it's nowhere

near as bad as the last time I tested

them so I guess they must have patched

things up a little hope so overall surf

sharks showed the most stable results

but honestly with either of these

providers your browsing experience

shouldn't be affected or really even

noticeable at all and one more thing to

note here are the servers nordvpn

currently has the most but it only

covers 60 countries expressvpn has

servers in 94 countries yet since

they've upgraded their servers the only

clue we have about how many they

actually have is the why server count

doesn't matter article not super

reassuring Is It Anyway last but not

least surfshark actually covers the most

locations 100 different countries now

while the server count is less than what

Nord has I don't think that difference

is a big deal especially when you keep

in mind that the speeds kept up just

fine so yeah good speeds and plenty of

locations you probably know what that's

good for streaming so it should come as

no surprise that surfshark performs

Super well when I tested its abilities

to access geo-restricted content I got

through to 29 yes 29 different Netflix

libraries binge some Doctor Who on BBC

iPlayer and accessed a handful of other

major platforms as well now minored VPN

versus expressvpn streaming tests

weren't that much different from each

other they also got through to

everything I tested including the Zone

which can be a surprisingly tough nut to

crack sometimes connecting is not always

perfect but usually if I run into errors

just switching the servers is all I need

to do to fix it also since expressvpn

has some lower speeds in Japan well I

thought I'd see some buffering but the

process actually went really smoothly

and I even accidentally discovered that

Netflix Japan has the entire Harry

Potter series in it what the heck it's

not even on UK Netflix which is kind of

silly don't you think now comparing

expressvpn vs surf shark versus nordvpn

in terms of torrenting that's a bit of a

different story and honestly it's going

to depend on what you specifically need

as a torrenter nordvpn has specialty

servers so your server choice is limited

but I found a Sox 5 proxy on it which

usually improves my download speeds when

torrenting surfshoc allows P2P on all

their servers but I didn't find any

other torrenting focused stuff in the

app I mean but it hurts for either of

them to include port forwarding saying

anyway expressvpn also has P2P enabled

on all their servers but there is one

catch if you need a VPN just for

torrenting well are you really up for

paying as much as expressvpn wants you

to

get Textra sorry and speaking of pay yep

it's time to talk pricing or rather

overall value expressvpn offers good

security and privacy measures as well as

great performance but since there are no

additional features I'd say it's a

little overpriced just put expressvpn

versus surfshark and the difference in

the long-term plan pricing is obvious

yikes now knowing that they don't have

lots of features I'd like to see some

better features for the money that we

end up spending however I will say

monthly subscription pricing is very

similar on all three providers so I

guess that's something but in terms of

affordability the battle really comes

down between nordvpn vs surfshark the

shark has lower prices unlimited device

connection and seems to match nordvpn at

every turn except for security features

if you want nord's threat protection

specialty servers and all that other

good stuff they have well it might be

worth some extra cash to go with them

all right hope you enjoyed this VPN

comparison and hey if you did don't

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Channel let me know which VPN you use

yourself or maybe which one you're

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give you lots of options all right

that's it for this video and I'm gonna

see you in the next one