Head to head
The gap
The security score is not a total of good things. It starts at 100 and eight channels each take a share of what is left, so one channel can settle a record on its own. Both records are drawn here on the same scale — the model’s own cap of 0.9 — rather than on a scale fitted to this pair, which would make every comparison look equally dramatic.
Line by line
Every field the contract publishes about a provider, in the contract’s own groups, including the rows where the two agree — a table that printed only differences would invent a disagreement, and one that printed only the interesting rows would be us choosing what is interesting. Open a group to read its rows; each one says how many it holds and how many of them the two records answer differently.
A green cell means the methodology itself prices that value below the other one, not that we prefer it. Rows the model does not price carry no mark at all: price is never marked, because nothing in the model says cheaper is safer, and neither is coverage, platform count or devices. Where a value was never established the cell says so instead of showing a zero.
What actually happened
Other pairs
Pairs within the top ten get a page — 80 comparisons in all. Records below that are not paired here: a comparison earns a page where the choice between the two is a real one, and that choice is made near the top of the register.
Security
Usability
Rank 16 of 68 in the register
Virgin Islands (UK) · Commercial VPN
Exits in 106 countries
Security
Usability
Rank 6 of 68 in the register
United States · Commercial VPN
Exits in 91 countries
1 documented demand, none of which produced data
1 documented demand, none of which produced data
Notes
On the record as a whole.
Express Technologies Ltd., incorporated in the British Virgin Islands since 2009, owned by Kape Technologies plc since the September 2021 acquisition ($936M, Kape's own about-us page). TrustedServer RAM-only architecture has been audited annually by KPMG (ISAE (UK) 3000 Type I, most recently 28 Feb 2025) since 2022 for privacy-policy compliance, plus PwC Switzerland (2019, TrustedServer) and Cure53 (2019 browser extensions; 2021 Lightway protocol, open-sourced).
The 2025 KPMG report was read directly (confidence A): the server writes one pseudonymous event per connection (date without time, salted/hashed username, country+ISP GeoIP, data volume, location group, protocol) but never logs IP address or exact timestamp; builds are described as reproducible across two independently operated build systems.
In 2017, Turkish authorities seized an ExpressVPN server investigating the assassination of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov and found no usable logs (TorrentFreak, which carries a sponsorship notice for ExpressVPN — noted, not excluded, since the facts are externally checkable and ExpressVPN's own statement page has since returned HTTP 410 with no Wayback Machine snapshot).
In September 2021 the DOJ's Deferred Prosecution Agreement with Daniel Gericke, ExpressVPN's Chief Information Officer, over his prior 2016-2018 role in the UAE's 'Project Raven' hacking operation became public; the primary DPA document itself never names ExpressVPN (it covers only his earlier UAE employment) — the ExpressVPN link comes from ExpressVPN's own and press statements. ExpressVPN kept Gericke employed and published a public defense of that decision.
C12 is resettable_ad_id on the provider's own prose rather than on a store category. The privacy policy's marketing paragraph states that an Installation ID and an XV User ID are always collected and that advertising identifiers — IDFA or the Android Advertising ID — follow on explicit consent, all of it reaching AppsFlyer; the Play data-safety form independently declares Device or other IDs for advertising or marketing.
The consent gate and a mitigation nobody else here offers — AppsFlyer-bound traffic routed through a dedicated ExpressVPN IP pool so attribution cannot correlate by IP — are real and are recorded here, because the floor prices what can be held, not how well it is explained.
U07_protocols carries the whole picker: Lightway UDP and TCP as vendor_open, beside WireGuard, OpenVPN UDP/TCP and IKEv2. Lightway is ExpressVPN's own protocol and its source is published with independent review behind it (Cure53, 2021 and 2024), which is the distinction vendor_open exists for — proprietary prices the impossibility of telling whether a transport is weak, and here it can be told.
PPTP is retired on ExpressVPN apps by the provider's own protocol page, and L2TP and SSTP are explained there without being offered.
On the record as a whole.
First fill 2026-08-26, refreshed 2026-09-12 on P03_court_record, P12_case_history and V12_client_open_source, refreshed again 2026-09-13 on M08_user_scale, P02_disclosure_history, P03_court_record, P05_transparency_report, P06_report_plausibility, P08_requests_received, P09_data_provided and P12_case_history, and refreshed again 2026-09-13 on U04_price_monthly and U04b_price_yearly.
The 2026-09-13 pass found PIA had published its Q1 2026 and Q2 2026 transparency reports since the record's last look at Q4 2025; the record now cites the Q2 2026 post (19 requests received, 0 resulting in data provided, covering April-June 2026, published 2026-08-06) as the freshest, with the same subpoenas/warrants/other/foreign breakdown structure as before.
M08_user_scale, P02_disclosure_history, P03_court_record and P12_case_history were re-read against the same sources and stand unchanged; the main transparency-report page still names no case beyond the 2016-2017 subpoenas already on file. The pricing re-read against the same buy-vpn-online page found both figures unchanged: month-to-month $11.95, one-year plan $47.88 billed for the first year and autorenewing at the same $47.88 with no intro/renewal gap, consistent with PIA's flat-rate pricing noted elsewhere in the catalogue.
Sourced from privateinternetaccess.com's own pages and blog, the two Deloitte ISAE 3000 (Revised) 'Independent Limited Assurance Report' PDFs (April 2024 and December 2025, both opened and read directly), Kape Technologies' own site, the Isle of Man/Companies House-sourced reporting on Kape's 2023 take-private by Unikmind Holdings (Teddy Sagi), and the official pia-foss GitHub organisation for the open-source clients.
The public CourtListener docket for United States v. McWaters (9:16-cr-80043, S.D. Fla.) was opened but names no subpoena, VPN provider or outcome; the affiliate writeup (vpncompare.co.uk) that describes that subpoena in detail was dropped as a forbidden source, and TorrentFreak's own coverage returned HTTP 403 to every fetch attempt this run, curl included. P03/P12 now rest on PIA's own transparency-report self-declaration instead.
Wikipedia was dropped from V12 in favour of the GitHub organisation itself. No affiliate or 'best VPN' aggregator site was used as a factual source anywhere in this record, even though several turned up repeatedly in search results with plausible-looking numbers (server counts, user counts, audit dates) that could not be cross-checked against a primary page and were discarded rather than used.
Open questions
Still open on this record.
The pentest, and the one not done. The pentest field is backed by Cure53's October-November 2024 review of the Lightway protocol, which found an unauthenticated-data-fragment denial of service rated High alongside four lesser items. ExpressVPN's trust centre lists a long series of such engagements, so the cadence is real; what it does not contain is an infrastructure pentest of the server fleet separate from the KPMG no-logs engagement.
The two prices, corrected. The pricing page now sells three separate plan lengths — 1-month, 12-month and 2-year — rather than the 24-28-month-only structure read on 2026-08-29. U04_price_monthly=14.99 is the Basic 1-month plan, autorenewing at the same $14.99. U04b_price_yearly=59.85 is what the Basic 12-month plan (billed as 12 months plus a 3-month bonus) actually charges for its first term; it autorenews at $99.95/year afterward, the figure the previous record had mistakenly stored as the yearly field itself.
The transparency report. P05/P06/P08/P09 now rest on ExpressVPN's biannual transparency report (Jul–Dec 2025: 155 government/law-enforcement requests, 0 disclosures, 3 warrants listed separately) reached via the Trust Center — the earlier run missed both.
The canary, and the rest of the block. No ExpressVPN warrant canary could be found and no primary statement denies one, so P07 stays unknown. P02/P03=none_known rest on the transparency series and the privacy policy's litigation stance; P11=none_known on the policy's statement that all demands run through BVI courts. P04=withdrew_physical is the June 2022 India exit.
What is never published. Subscriber count (M08) and total server count (U03) are not published. Server hardware ownership (C08: owned vs leased) and app-level device identifiers (C12) could not be established from any page checked.
106 countries against a claim of 113. U02_server_countries reflects the 105 country-landing pages in ExpressVPN's own sitemap plus China (confirmed 'Available - Virtual Locations' on the live /vpn-server page but lacking a dedicated landing page) — 106 codes total, against the site's own marketing claim of '113 Countries'; the live server-location page is a very large per-protocol table that was not exhaustively parsed, so the gap between 106 and 113 is reported rather than resolved.
An audit finding between two categories. V11_audit_findings is recorded as session_metadata rather than none_linkable or aggregates_only: the 2025 KPMG report describes a structured per-connection record (country, ISP, date, protocol, data volume, a stable salted-hash pseudonym) that is more than a pure aggregate but lacks IP and precise time — a genuinely ambiguous case for this field's four middle categories.
Not checked this pass. Whether ExpressVPN's coverage exists outside affiliate sites (X08), its affiliate payout tier (X10), and whether owner-run review media flags the ownership tie (X11) were not checked in this pass.
P2P, looked for and absent. U12a_p2p_allowed stays unknown for a different reason than the rest: it was looked for and is not published. Neither sitemap (578 page and support URLs) nor the terms of service mentions P2P, BitTorrent or file sharing anywhere, while every other catalogued provider states its position in its own documents. A support article or a terms clause would close it; a review site saying it works would not.
Still open on this record.
What the report is. The security score rests on a Deloitte Audit SRL limited assurance report under ISAE 3000 (Revised), signed 19 December 2025 for the configuration as of 31 October 2025. Read what that is: the conclusion is negative assurance — "nothing has come to our attention" — against a description PIA's own management wrote, and the report states it provides no assurance for any other period.
Who the report is for. The auditor also restricts the report to PIA management and disclaims responsibility to any other reader, so the strongest document in this record is one whose author declines a duty of care toward the person reading it here. Procedures were performed on a sample basis, which is why fleet coverage is recorded as a sample.
What it did not examine. The report covers infrastructure only. C07a_app_sdk and C12_device_identifier are app-side facts it never examined; they now cite the privacy policy instead, which describes analytics for website visitors and opt-in diagnostic reports carrying platform and app version. Reading either as a statement about SDKs compiled into the app is the weakest link in this record, and the open-source clients are where it would actually be settled.
The 2016 subpoena rests on PIA's own word, not the court file. The only detailed account of the McWaters case (S.D. Fla., 9:16-cr-80043) sits on an affiliate site this record cannot cite; CourtListener's docket for that case names no subpoena, no provider and no outcome. P03_court_record and P12_case_history now stand on PIA's own transparency-report statement that it was subpoenaed in 2016-2017 and produced nothing — a B-level self-declaration, not a verified court record.
Recent changes
13 Sep 20261 changes
Why this provider is in the catalogueM14_inclusion_basis
hand_picked, adverse_record changed to adverse_record
12 Sep 20263 changes
Security scoresecurity.score
15 changed to 14
Security verdictsecurity.verdict
insufficient changed to not_recommended
Yearly plan price USD, first term as chargedU04b_price_yearly
99.95 changed to 59.85
30 Aug 20261 changes
Weakest protocol still offeredC13_weakest_protocol
wireguard changed to not on the record
13 Sep 20261 changes
Why this provider is in the catalogueM14_inclusion_basis
hand_picked, adverse_record changed to adverse_record
12 Sep 20263 changes
Chronology of documented enforcement eventsP12_case_history
{"date":"2016-03","kind":"subpoena","outcome":"nothing_produced","source_url":"https://www.vpncompare.co.uk/private-internet-access-no-log-claim-put-to-the-test/"} changed to {"date":"2016-03","kind":"subpoena","outcome":"nothing_produced","source_url":"https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/transparency-report"}
Security scoresecurity.score
27 changed to 25
Requests received in periodP08_requests_received
30 changed to 19
30 Aug 20261 changes
Weakest protocol still offeredC13_weakest_protocol
wireguard changed to not on the record
| ChannelPressure taken from what was left | ExpressVPNDominant channel: Integrity0 to 0.9, longer is worse | Private Internet AccessDominant channel: Integrity0 to 0.9, longer is worse |
|---|---|---|
| IntegrityHas it been caught saying one thing and doing another? | 0.633 | 0.459 |
| RetentionDoes a record exist that links traffic to a person, and who checked? | 0.455 | 0.188 |
| JurisdictionCan someone compel what exists, without the provider getting a say? | 0.000 | 0.272 |
| HygieneWhat identifying material is collected in passing, and can the client be checked at all? | 0.134 | 0.101 |
| IgnoranceHow much of this did nobody establish? | 0.127 | 0.071 |
| ArchitectureWho operates the exit, and what does it do to the traffic? | 0.050 | 0.050 |
| DisclosureHas it already handed something over? | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| SilenceTen years, millions of users and nothing on record? | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| What is left of 100The channels multiply: each one takes a share of what the one before it left standing | 14 | 25 |
| ExpressVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Security | 14 not recommended · rank 16 of 68 | 25 insufficient · rank 6 of 68 |
| Usability | 70 out of 100 | 73 out of 100 |
| Record completeness | 84% usability 92% | 89% usability 100% |
| ExpressVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Who operates the exit | Run by the provider itself provider_operated | Run by the provider itself provider_operated |
| Retention as declared | Session metadata session_metadataBexpressvpn.com · | Nothing that links traffic to a person none_linkableBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| RAM-only diskless servers | Yes, checked by someone independent yes_verified | Yes, checked by someone independent yes_verified |
| IP allocation model | Dedicated address offered as an option dedicated_option | Dedicated address offered as an option dedicated_option |
| Signup without email | No, an email address is required no | No, an email address is required no |
| Anonymous payment options | Cryptocurrency through a processor | Cryptocurrency through a processor |
| Own DNS inside the tunnel | Yes, on the provider's word yes_declared | Yes, on the provider's word yes_declared |
| Worst third-party SDK category in the app | Install attribution attributionBexpressvpn.com · | Analytics analyticsBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Worst third-party tracker category on the site | Advertising adsBexpressvpn.com · | Analytics analyticsBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Who owns the hardware | — not establishedno source published | Owned by the provider ownedBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Offered countries that sit under a logging mandate | 7 United Arab Emirates, Belarus, China, India, Kazakhstan, Turkey, VietnamBexpressvpn.com · | 6 United Arab Emirates, China, India, Kazakhstan, Turkey, VietnamBserverlist.piaservers.net · 2 sources · |
| Hosting in the mandate countries it offers | Virtual locations only, hardware elsewhere virtual_onlyBexpressvpn.com · | Physical and virtual both mixedBserverlist.piaservers.net · 2 sources · |
| Incorporation country mandates retention | No such mandate no | No such mandate no |
| Beneficial owner sits under a retention regime | No such regime no | No such regime no |
| Persistent device identifier | A resettable advertising identifier resettable_ad_idBexpressvpn.com · 2 sources · | An identifier scoped to the app app_scoped_idBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Weakest protocol still offered | — the question does not arise | — the question does not arise |
| What the exit does to passing traffic | — not established | — not established |
| ExpressVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| At least one independent audit | Yes, and the report was read yes_verified | Yes, and the report was read yes_verified |
| How the report is published | The full report is published full_pdf | The full report is published full_pdf |
| Subject of the audit | The no-logs claim itself · The infrastructure | The no-logs claim itself · The infrastructure |
| Server fleet coverage | The whole fleet all_fleetAexpressvpn.com · | A sample of servers sampleAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| Auditor name | KPMG LLPAexpressvpn.com · |
| ExpressVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Server seizure by law enforcement | Seized, and nothing usable was on it seizure_no_dataCtorrentfreak.com · | No seizure on record none_knownCprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Actual disclosure history | No disclosure on record none_known | No disclosure on record none_known |
| Court record of compelled production | No court record none_knownBexpressvpn.com · 2 sources · | Told a court it had nothing to produce unable_to_produceBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
| Response to a national logging mandate |
| ExpressVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Documented gap between claim and behaviour | — not established | — not established |
| Marketing against audit findings | No gap on record noneBexpressvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
| Ownership structure transparency | Ownership is stated and checkable clearBexpressvpn.com · 2 sources · | Ownership is partly stated partialBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Adverse events on the owner group record | A history of adware or malware adware_malware_history | A history of adware or malware adware_malware_history |
| ExpressVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Express Technologies Ltd.Bexpressvpn.com · 2 sources · | PIA Private Internet Access, Inc., 5555 DTC Parkway, Suite 360, Greenwood Village, CO 80111, USAAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| Where the company sits | Virgin Islands (UK) VGBexpressvpn.com · 2 sources · | United States USAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Year the service launched | 2009Bexpressvpn.com · |
| ExpressVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms with a client | 10 Windows, Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, Routers, Android TV, Browser extension, Apple TV, Fire TVBexpressvpn.com · | 9 Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Routers, Android TV, Apple TV, Browser extensionBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
| Countries with an exit | 106 countriesBexpressvpn.com · | 91 countriesBserverlist.piaservers.net · 2 sources · |
| Paying monthly | $14.99 per monthBexpressvpn.com · | $11.95 per month |
By circumstance
| ExpressVPN | Private Internet Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Torrenting | — not established | Allowed yes |
| Streaming | Reachable yes | Reachable yes |
| Devices at once | 10 | unlimited |
| Under censorship | Claimed to work claimed | Claimed to work claimed |
| Exits in mandate countries | 7 United Arab Emirates, Belarus, China, India, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Vietnam | 6 United Arab Emirates, China, India, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Vietnam |
| Hosting in those countries | Virtual locations only, hardware elsewhere virtual_only | Physical and virtual both mixed |
| Company under a mandate | No such mandate no | No such mandate no |
| Secret orders | No secret-order regime on record none_known | National security letters or their equivalent nsl_equivalent |
ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access were assessed by the HushFleet team: ExpressVPN scores 14/100 for security, in the Not recommended band, and Private Internet Access 25/100, in the Insufficient band. They share an independent audit and one owner group. The 11-point gap opens widest on Jurisdiction — “Can someone compel what exists, without the provider getting a say?” — taking 0% from ExpressVPN and 27% from Private Internet Access.
| Deloitte Audit SRL (Romania)Aassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
| Auditor category | One of the Big Four big4 | One of the Big Four big4 |
|---|
| Assurance standard | ISAE 3000 isae3000 | ISAE 3000 isae3000 |
|---|
| Date of latest report | 2025-02-28Aexpressvpn.com · | 2025-12-19Aassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Audit cadence | An annual series annual_seriesBexpressvpn.com · 3 sources · | Repeated, at no fixed interval repeated_irregularBprivateinternetaccess.com · 3 sources · |
|---|
| Total published audits | 5Bexpressvpn.com · 4 sources · | 3Bprivateinternetaccess.com · 3 sources · |
|---|
| Retention as the report states it | Session metadata session_metadataAexpressvpn.com · | Nothing that links traffic to a person none_linkableAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Client source code published | Some clients partialBexpressvpn.com · | Every client allBgithub.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Reproducible builds | Yes, and a build was reproduced yes_verifiedAexpressvpn.com · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| Separate pentest | Yes, and the report was read yes_verifiedAcure53.de · 2 sources · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| Strength of the assurance opinion | A reasonable-assurance opinion reasonableAexpressvpn.com · | A limited-assurance conclusion limitedAassets-cms.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
Pulled its servers out rather than comply withdrew_physical |
Pulled its servers out rather than comply withdrew_physical |
| Transparency report | Current, with request numbers fresh_with_numbers | Current, with request numbers fresh_with_numbers |
|---|
| Reported numbers plausible for this scale | The numbers are plausible at this scale plausible | The numbers are plausible at this scale plausible |
|---|
| Warrant canary discipline | — not establishedno source published | Never had one noneBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Requests received | 155Bexpressvpn.com · | 19Bprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Requests that produced data | 0 | 0 |
|---|
| Secret-order regime | No secret-order regime on record none_knownBexpressvpn.com · | National security letters or their equivalent nsl_equivalentCeff.org · |
|---|
| Chronology of documented enforcement events | 1 documented demandCtorrentfreak.com · | 1 documented demandBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| How the service is paid for |
|---|
Paid subscriptions only paid_only |
Paid subscriptions only paid_only |
| Claims of 100% anonymity or military-grade crypto | Makes no such claim noBexpressvpn.com · | Claims total anonymity or military-grade encryption yesBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Aggressive lifetime subscriptions | Does not no | Does not no |
|---|
| Coverage exists only on affiliate sites | — not establishedno source published | Covered outside affiliate sites too noCtechradar.com · |
|---|
| Security incident and how it was disclosed | Disclosed by someone else third_party_disclosedBjustice.gov · 2 sources · | No incident on record none_knownCprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Affiliate programme and payout tier | — not establishedno source published | A standard payout standardBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Owner-run review media discloses the tie | — not establishedno source published | — the question does not ariseno source published |
|---|
| App store declaration | The store form matches the published policy matches_policy | The store form matches the published policy matches_policy |
|---|
| 2010Cen.wikipedia.org · |
| User base scale (mass >=10M, mid >=1M, niche <1M) | — not establishedno source published | Mid: a million users or more midBinvestegate.co.uk · |
|---|
| Ultimate beneficial owner as written | Teddy Sagi, via Unikmind Holdings Limited (Isle of Man), sole shareholder of Kape Technologies plc since the May 2023 delisting; Kape owns ExpressVPN through Express Technologies Ltd.Cen.wikipedia.org · 2 sources · | Teddy Sagi, via Unikmind Holdings Limited (Isle of Man), sole shareholder of Kape Technologies plc since the May 2023 delisting; Kape owns PIA Private Internet Access, Inc.Cen.wikipedia.org · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Other businesses of the owner group | Antivirus · A review directory · Adtech or adware | Antivirus · A review directory · Adtech or adware |
|---|
| Country of the ultimate beneficial owner | IM | IM |
|---|
| Owner group | kape | kape |
|---|
| Date the current owner took control | 2021-09Cexpressvpn.com · 2 sources · | 2019-12Bkape.com · |
|---|
| Role of this brand inside the group | A brand the group acquired acquired_brandCexpressvpn.com · | A secondary brand secondary_brandCkape.com · |
|---|
| Infrastructure shared with cluster siblings | — not established | — not established |
|---|
| Paying yearly | $59.85 a year at renewal, billed onceBexpressvpn.com · | $47.88 a year at renewal, billed onceBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Usable free tier | No free tier none | No free tier none |
|---|
| Works under active censorship | Claimed to work claimed | Claimed to work claimed |
|---|
| Protocols offered | 4 A vendor protocol with published source, WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2Bexpressvpn.com · 3 sources · | 3 WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2Bhelpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Kill switch coverage | On every platform all_platforms | On every platform all_platforms |
|---|
| Split tunneling available | Available yes | Available yes |
|---|
| Simultaneous connections | 10Bexpressvpn.com · | unlimitedBprivateinternetaccess.com · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Friction to start using it | An email address only email_only | An email address only email_only |
|---|
| P2P allowed | — not establishedno source published | Allowed yesBprivateinternetaccess.com · |
|---|
| Major streaming services reachable | Reachable yes | Reachable yes |
|---|
