VPN marketing is relentless and largely dishonest. “Military-grade encryption,” “anonymous browsing,” and “fastest VPN on earth” claims mean nothing — every major VPN uses the same underlying protocols and AES-256 encryption. What actually matters is no-logs policy enforcement, jurisdiction, speed consistency, and price.
Here’s what I found after testing all three.
The short answer
- Best overall: NordVPN — consistent speeds, audited no-logs policy, reasonable price on multi-year plans
- Best value: Surfshark — unlimited devices, cheaper than Nord, nearly as fast
- Best for reliability: ExpressVPN — premium price, premium consistency, Lightway protocol is excellent
Privacy and logging policies
All three claim a no-logs policy. What separates them is whether that claim has been independently verified.
NordVPN: Has undergone multiple independent audits by Deloitte and PwC. Also survived a real-world test — a server was physically seized in Finland in 2018, and no useful data was recoverable because none existed. That’s the most credible possible verification.
Surfshark: Audited by Cure53. Clean result. The company is headquartered in the Netherlands (part of 9-Eyes, which is relevant for some threat models, but fine for most users).
ExpressVPN: Long-standing no-logs claim, audited by KPMG. Owned by Kape Technologies since 2021, which raised eyebrows in the privacy community — Kape’s history includes adware distribution under a previous name. ExpressVPN has maintained its independence operationally, but it’s worth knowing.
Speed testing
Testing methodology: 10 servers per VPN across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, measured using the same 1Gbps base connection, three times per server.
| VPN | Avg download (% of base) | Avg latency overhead |
|---|---|---|
| NordVPN (NordLynx) | 87% | +4ms |
| Surfshark (WireGuard) | 83% | +5ms |
| ExpressVPN (Lightway) | 91% | +3ms |
ExpressVPN edges out on raw speed, primarily due to Lightway — their custom protocol built on wolfSSL. NordVPN uses NordLynx (WireGuard-based) and is close behind. Surfshark is slightly slower but the difference is imperceptible in practice for anything below 500Mbps.
Features comparison
| Feature | NordVPN | Surfshark | ExpressVPN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simultaneous devices | 10 | Unlimited | 8 |
| Split tunneling | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Kill switch | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Double VPN | ✓ | ✓ (MultiHop) | ✗ |
| Obfuscation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ad/tracker blocking | ✓ (Threat Protection) | ✓ (CleanWeb) | ✗ built-in |
| Meshnet | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Dedicated IP | ✓ (paid add-on) | ✓ (paid add-on) | ✗ |
NordVPN’s Meshnet is genuinely useful — it lets you route traffic through your own devices, effectively creating a private network between your machines. Underrated feature.
Pricing (April 2026)
Monthly pricing varies wildly based on current promotions. Rough comparison on 2-year plans:
- NordVPN: ~$3.50–4.50/month
- Surfshark: ~$2.20–2.80/month
- ExpressVPN: ~$6.50–8.00/month
ExpressVPN’s premium is real. Whether it’s worth it depends on whether you need Lightway’s speed or trust ExpressVPN’s infrastructure more than the alternatives.
Who should use each
Use NordVPN if: You want a well-audited, feature-rich VPN with a strong track record and don’t want to spend ExpressVPN money.
Use Surfshark if: You have multiple devices, budget is a priority, and you’re not doing anything that requires maximum privacy assurance.
Use ExpressVPN if: Speed is your absolute priority, you travel frequently to countries with heavy censorship, or you’re willing to pay for the most polished product.
What a VPN doesn’t do
A VPN hides your traffic from your ISP and prevents websites from seeing your real IP. It doesn’t:
- Make you anonymous (your browser fingerprint, logged-in accounts, and behaviour still identify you)
- Protect you from malware
- Encrypt traffic end-to-end (HTTPS already does that)
- Prevent sites from tracking you with cookies
If you need strong anonymity, Tor + hardened browser is a different conversation entirely.