NordVPN vs ExpressVPN vs Surfshark at a Glance

Three VPN brands keep showing up at the top of search results in 2026: NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark. All three promise fast speeds, strict no-logs policies, and apps for every device you own. Only one can actually win a given speed test, and the price gap between them keeps shifting from one pricing cycle to the next: NewPages Asia measured Surfshark’s two-year plan at $2.29 a month back in January 2025, against NordVPN’s $3.99 and ExpressVPN’s $8.32, and by June 2026 LowerMySubs was tracking NordVPN’s Basic 24-month rate down to $3.09 a month and ExpressVPN’s down to $2.79, both now bundling 24+3 months free into the same promotional window. Pricing isn’t the only thing in flux: Security.org’s September 2026 usage survey found ExpressVPN’s share of U.S. VPN users slipping to 7%, a two-point drop from 2025. This comparison pulls that June 2026 pricing, third-party speed data from Gizmodo and Tom’s Guide, and audit records from Deloitte, KPMG, and Cure53, so you can see where each service actually wins instead of repeating marketing copy. ExpressVPN also restructured its entire pricing model this year, splitting into Basic, Advanced, and Pro tiers, so even readers who compared these three VPNs in 2025 are looking at a different lineup now. We break the numbers down across ten categories, from raw throughput to family device limits, so you can match the right VPN to how you actually browse, stream, or work.

Picking between them used to come down to gut feeling and whichever affiliate link a reviewer put first. That’s less true now. All three companies have published enough independent audit paperwork, tiered pricing detail, and third-party lab results that the comparison can run on numbers instead of impressions. This piece walks through pricing at every term length, real speed benchmarks from two separate testing outfits, server counts, streaming access, business plans, torrenting support, and a full migration checklist for anyone switching from a different provider. By the end you’ll know exactly which of the three fits your device count, your budget, and how much speed you’re willing to trade for a lower monthly bill.

NordVPN vs ExpressVPN vs Surfshark at a Glance

Before digging into pricing tiers and speed charts, here’s the full spec sheet side by side. These figures come from each provider’s July 2026 published plans and from Gizmodo’s three-way lab comparison of the same services, cross-checked as of August 5, 2026 against each provider’s live pricing page — no new tier launches, price changes, or public breach disclosures have hit NordVPN, ExpressVPN or Surfshark in the intervening weeks.

The pattern that jumps out immediately: NordVPN wins on raw network size, Surfshark wins on price and device limits, and ExpressVPN trades network size for the simplest apps and the newest interface. None of that tells you which one fits your setup, so the rest of this piece works through pricing, real speed tests, and security audits one at a time.

Pricing Compared: Every Plan, Every Term

Pricing is where this comparison gets messy, because all three providers structure their tiers differently and none of them make the monthly no-commitment price the headline number. ExpressVPN’s overhaul is the biggest story here. The company announced on its own blog that it was splitting a single flat plan into three named tiers, Basic, Advanced, and Pro, each unlocking more simultaneous devices and extra tools like a bundled password manager and identity protection add-ons. On the one-year term specifically, pricing data refreshed in August 2026 still puts ExpressVPN’s Basic plan at $4.99 a month, holding steady since the tiered relaunch. Look at total cost over the full term rather than just the monthly rate and the gap widens further: VPN-Picker’s April 2026 breakdown put a full two-year Surfshark plan at roughly $47.76 all-in, compared with $83.43 for NordVPN and $83.76 for ExpressVPN over the same term, a bigger swing than the headline per-month figures alone suggest.

Surfshark’s Starter plan is the cheapest entry point of the three on a two-year term: LowerMySubs tracked a promotional 24-month rate as low as $1.99 a month in June 2026, though Surfshark’s own pricing page had settled back to $2.49 a month for that same term as of its August 2026 update. But flip to month-to-month billing and it actually becomes the priciest of the group at $15.45. NordVPN and ExpressVPN both land at exactly $12.99 for their base monthly plans, which makes the decision less about raw dollars and more about what each tier bundles in. Security.org’s 2026 pricing breakdown confirms ExpressVPN currently runs a promotion adding three free months to annual plans and four free months to two-year plans, which can shift the effective monthly cost lower than the sticker price suggests. Read the fine print on renewal pricing too. All three providers renew subscriptions at a higher rate once the discounted intro term ends, so the price you pay in month one rarely matches what you pay in year two.

Speed Test Results: Who’s Actually Fastest

Speed claims are the easiest thing for a VPN marketing page to inflate, so this section leans entirely on third-party lab numbers instead of vendor copy. The most recent figures reinforce the pattern: CyberInsider clocked NordVPN averaging 903 Mbps with an 18.6% speed drop in September 2026 testing, and a Medium benchmark by Kelly Shephard run against a 200 Mbps baseline in August 2025 found NordVPN retaining 90% of that connection (180 Mbps), Surfshark holding onto 86% (172 Mbps), and ExpressVPN keeping 77% (154 Mbps). Gizmodo’s 2026 head-to-head measured real-world throughput loss against an unprotected baseline connection and found NordVPN lost just 18% of download speed and 7% of upload speed, while Surfshark lost 1% to 19% on downloads in 2026 tests, with New York specifically showing 18% loss[2][3]. That’s a meaningful gap if you’re on a capped connection or trying to run a video call while a VPN stays active in the background.

Tom’s Guide’s peak lab numbers and Gizmodo’s real-world loss percentages don’t tell the same story, and that’s expected. Peak throughput in a controlled lab measures the ceiling a protocol can hit under ideal conditions, while the loss percentage measures how much speed you actually give up on a typical connection with distance, server load, and network congestion factored in. Surfshark’s WireGuard implementation can burst higher in a lab than NordVPN’s NordLynx, yet NordVPN held onto more of its baseline speed once Gizmodo tested it under normal browsing conditions. ExpressVPN’s Windows-only Lightway Turbo variant remains the standout on raw ceiling speed, too: 32Blog clocked it at 1,479 Mbps in March 2026 testing, still well clear of the standard Lightway protocol. Tom’s Guide’s fastest VPN rankings for 2026 still list NordVPN, Proton VPN, and ExpressVPN as the most consistent performers round after round, with Surfshark close behind. PCMag also named NordVPN and Surfshark joint Editors’ Choice picks for 2026, which suggests the practical speed gap between the top three is smaller than any single benchmark makes it look.

Server Networks and Global Coverage

Server count matters less than people assume, but it isn’t meaningless. A bigger network spreads user load across more machines, which tends to reduce congestion during peak hours, and it gives you more specific city and country choices when you need to appear in a particular region. NordVPN’s 9,500-plus servers across 149 countries dwarf ExpressVPN’s 3,000-plus servers in 105 countries, a gap of more than 3x by Gizmodo’s count. Surfshark sits in the middle with roughly 4,500 servers across 100 countries.

ExpressVPN’s smaller footprint hasn’t hurt its reliability in most reviews, largely because the company runs virtual server locations carefully and prioritizes consistent performance over raw count. Still, if you regularly need obscure country exits for research, ad verification, or accessing region-locked services, NordVPN’s country list gives you more options out of the box. For readers who want to go further than a commercial VPN and run their own private mesh network between personal devices, our Tailscale vs WireGuard comparison covers a very different approach built around self-hosted infrastructure instead of a vendor’s server fleet.

Server density also shapes how each network handles a surge in demand. When a live sports event or a breaking news story sends a spike of users toward the same handful of exit locations, a provider with thousands of extra machines in reserve can spin up capacity faster than one running a leaner fleet. NordVPN’s scale gives it room to absorb that kind of spike without forcing users onto a slower, overloaded server. Surfshark’s middle-ground server count still comfortably covers the popular streaming and torrenting locations most subscribers actually use, even if it can’t match NordVPN’s total city list. ExpressVPN leans on server quality control instead of sheer quantity, auditing and rotating its smaller fleet more tightly, which is part of why its network stays reliable despite trailing the other two on raw numbers.

Security Architecture and Encryption

All three services use AES-256 encryption as their baseline cipher, so the headline security spec is identical across the board. Where they differ is the tunneling protocol wrapped around that encryption. NordVPN built NordLynx on top of WireGuard, adding a double network address translation system designed to strip out static IP assignments that could otherwise make WireGuard connections easier to correlate with a specific user. ExpressVPN built Lightway from scratch as a lighter, audited alternative to OpenVPN, and its Windows-only Lightway Turbo variant is the fastest single protocol in Tom’s Guide’s 2026 testing. Surfshark runs a standard WireGuard implementation without a heavily customized wrapper layer.

Kill switches and split tunneling ship as standard features on every platform app from all three providers, so you won’t pay extra or hunt through a settings menu on a lower tier to find them. If you’re comparing these VPN protocols against the two most common self-hosted options, our WireGuard vs OpenVPN breakdown goes deeper into why the industry has largely shifted toward WireGuard-based protocols over the last few years. And if your organization is evaluating whether a consumer VPN even fits into a modern security model, it’s worth reading how zero trust architecture reframes network access entirely around identity instead of a single encrypted tunnel.

DNS handling is another quiet but important difference. All three route DNS queries through their own encrypted resolvers by default, which blocks your internet provider from seeing which sites you visit even when the VPN tunnel itself is solid. NordVPN adds obfuscated servers designed to disguise VPN traffic as regular HTTPS traffic, useful in networks or countries that actively block VPN connections. ExpressVPN’s Lightway protocol was built to reconnect faster after your device switches from wifi to mobile data, which matters more than it sounds for anyone working from a laptop that moves between networks throughout the day. Surfshark supports the same obfuscation category through its NoBorders mode, aimed at the same restrictive-network use case as NordVPN’s approach.

Independent Security Audits: Who’s Actually Verified

Marketing claims about “no-logs” policies mean little without an outside firm checking the servers and source code. This is one area where all three providers have real, named paperwork behind their claims, not just a blog post promise.

• NordVPN: Deloitte has now confirmed NordVPN’s no-logs policy for the sixth time, using the ISAE 3000 (Revised) assurance framework, according to TechRadar’s coverage of the audit. Cure53 has separately reviewed NordVPN’s browser extensions and its Meshnet feature.
• ExpressVPN: KPMG audited ExpressVPN’s TrustedServer technology and privacy policy in February 2025, and the company has also commissioned Cure53 penetration tests covering its apps, browser extensions, and backend infrastructure, plus a separate Deloitte engagement in 2026.
• Surfshark: Deloitte first audited Surfshark’s no-logs policy in January 2023 and returned for a follow-up in June 2025, reaching the same conclusion both times: no identifying session data survives on Surfshark’s servers. Cure53 has also audited Surfshark’s technical infrastructure in prior rounds.

None of the three has disclosed a breach or logging-related security incident in 2025 or 2026, which puts real distance between this group and the LastPass-style incidents that shook password manager trust a few years back. If you’re curious how that kind of breach history plays out for password tools specifically, our 1Password vs Bitwarden comparison covers audit history for a different category of security software entirely.

Streaming and Netflix Library Access

Streaming unblocking is one of the most common reasons people search for a VPN in the first place, and it’s also one of the least stable features to benchmark, because streaming services actively fight VPN detection and update their blocks constantly. With that caveat, Gizmodo’s 2026 testing found NordVPN and Surfshark both unlocked somewhere between 25 and 30 regional Netflix catalogs at the time of testing, while ExpressVPN unlocked 15 or more. That’s a real gap, though it can shrink or grow month to month as Netflix patches detection on its end and each VPN patches around it.

All three providers publicly commit to unblocking major platforms beyond Netflix, including regional sports streaming and other on-demand services, and none of them charge extra for streaming-optimized servers. If unlocking the widest possible range of libraries is your main use case, NordVPN and Surfshark’s larger server footprints give them more exit points to route around a fresh block the moment one goes up.

Torrenting, P2P, and Dedicated IP Options

Torrenting support is standard across all three, but the details of how each handles P2P traffic differ enough to matter for heavy downloaders. NordVPN routes torrent traffic through servers specifically optimized for P2P and automatically redirects a connection to one of those servers when it detects torrenting activity, so users don’t have to hunt for the right location manually. ExpressVPN allows P2P traffic on every server rather than a dedicated subset, which spreads the load but means performance can vary more depending on which location you pick. Surfshark also permits P2P traffic network-wide and layers its unlimited device count on top, useful for anyone running a seedbox alongside personal devices without hitting a connection cap.

Dedicated IP addresses, a separate add-on that assigns you a static IP instead of rotating through a shared pool, are available from NordVPN and Surfshark for an extra monthly fee, mainly useful for accessing banking sites or corporate networks that flag shared VPN IPs as suspicious logins. ExpressVPN does not currently sell a dedicated IP add-on, which is worth knowing if a static, personal exit address is part of what you need from a VPN rather than just encryption and access. Port forwarding, another feature torrenting users often look for to improve peer connectivity, is supported by NordVPN and Surfshark on select servers, while ExpressVPN removed port forwarding support from its apps in recent years, citing security tradeoffs.

Apps, Platform Support, and Ease of Use

ExpressVPN shipped a full app redesign across every platform in early 2026, and reviewers consistently point to it as the easiest of the three for a first-time VPN user to pick up. The interface stays nearly identical whether you’re on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, or Android, which matters if you’re setting it up for a less technical family member. NordVPN’s app carries more depth, including its Meshnet feature for connecting personal devices directly, and Surfshark’s app now bundles antivirus scanning and an “Alternative ID” privacy tool on its One and One+ tiers.

Browser extensions are available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari across all three, and each supports router-level installation for whole-home coverage. If you’ve tried a lesser-known provider and want a point of comparison, our X-VPN review looks at how a smaller, budget-focused competitor stacks up against this top tier on logging trust and app polish.

Business and Team Plans

All three companies sell a separate business-focused product on top of their consumer apps, aimed at teams that need centralized billing and admin control instead of individual family accounts. NordVPN’s business arm, sold under a separate Nord Security teams product, adds a central dashboard for assigning seats and tracking device usage across an organization, layered on the same NordLynx network consumers get. ExpressVPN’s Advanced and Pro consumer tiers double as a lightweight team option for smaller groups, since the 12 and 14 device caps stretch across a small office without requiring a dedicated business contract, and the bundled password manager cuts out a separate tool a small team would otherwise have to buy. Surfshark offers a dedicated Surfshark Business tier with centralized invoicing and admin seat management, built on top of the same unlimited-device consumer network.

For a small startup or a distributed team of contractors, the calculation usually comes down to whether you need formal admin controls or just enough device slots to cover everyone. A 12-person team that just needs encrypted browsing on company laptops can get by on ExpressVPN’s Advanced tier or Surfshark’s unlimited-device consumer plan without paying for a dedicated business contract. A larger organization that needs to revoke a departing employee’s access instantly, audit who connected from where, or enforce company-wide settings needs the dedicated business tiers from NordVPN or Surfshark instead. None of the three publish per-seat business pricing as clearly as their consumer plans, so getting an exact quote for a team over roughly 15 seats typically means contacting sales directly rather than checking a public pricing page.

Real-World Scenarios: How People Actually Choose Between Them

Spec sheets rarely match how people actually decide. Here’s how the tradeoffs above play out in specific situations.

• The remote engineer on airport wifi: Someone pushing code from an unsecured connection cares most about a kill switch that fires instantly and a protocol that survives network switches without dropping the tunnel. NordVPN’s NordLynx and ExpressVPN’s Lightway both handle this well, and Gizmodo’s lower loss numbers for NordVPN make it a slightly safer bet on slower airport connections.
• The family sharing one plan across eight devices: Surfshark’s unlimited device count wins outright here. NordVPN and ExpressVPN both cap connections by tier, so a household with phones, laptops, tablets, and a streaming box can blow past a 10-device limit faster than expected.
• The journalist or researcher who needs an auditable trail: All three now carry named third-party audits, but NordVPN’s six rounds with Deloitte give it the longest continuous audit history of the group, which matters if you need to point to a track record rather than a single report.
• The frequent traveler unlocking a home streaming library: NordVPN and Surfshark’s wider Netflix catalog access, backed by larger server counts, gives frequent flyers more consistent access to home-region content from abroad.
• The small team of 10 to 14 people: ExpressVPN’s Advanced and Pro tiers cap out at 12 and 14 simultaneous connections and bundle a password manager, which can replace a separate subscription for a small office instead of stacking tools. Teams evaluating a dedicated password manager on top of or instead of that bundle should see how 1Password stacks up against Bitwarden on pricing and autofill accuracy.
• The gamer chasing lower latency: Tom’s Guide’s peak throughput numbers favor ExpressVPN’s Lightway Turbo protocol on Windows and Surfshark’s WireGuard implementation, though NordVPN’s larger server list gives gamers more nearby exit points to shave off round-trip time.

Recommendations by Use Case

How to Migrate From One VPN to Another

Switching providers takes longer than most people expect if you want to avoid a billing overlap or a gap where you’re unprotected. Here’s the order that avoids both problems.

1. Audit your current setup: note which devices run the VPN, whether you’ve configured split tunneling or custom DNS, and whether the app runs at the router level.
2. Check your renewal date and turn off auto-renew before your next billing cycle hits.
3. If you’re still inside the 30-day money-back window that all three providers offer, request a refund before you cancel outright.
4. Sign up for the new provider and confirm the account with a payment method and verified email.
5. Install the new app on your primary device first and confirm it connects and passes a leak test before touching anything else.
6. Re-enable the kill switch and rebuild any split-tunneling rules in the new app. These settings never carry over between providers.
7. If you run VPN access at the router or NAS level, update the WireGuard or OpenVPN configuration files to point at the new provider’s servers and credentials.
8. Run a DNS leak test, an IP leak test, and a WebRTC leak test before you trust the new connection for anything sensitive.
9. Install the new app on every remaining device, then uninstall the old VPN app once each device is confirmed working.
10. Remove your stored payment method from the old provider’s billing dashboard so a forgotten renewal doesn’t charge you months later.

Step eight matters more than people give it credit for. A misconfigured split-tunneling rule or a DNS setting left pointing at your old provider can leak your real IP address even while the new VPN shows as “connected.” A quick command-line check against a public IP echo service confirms whether traffic is actually routing through the new tunnel before you rely on it.

curl -s https://ifconfig.me
# Compare the returned IP against your VPN provider's exit server list.
# If it matches your ISP's real address, the tunnel isn't active.

Customer Support and Refund Experience

Support quality only matters until something goes wrong, and then it matters a lot. All three providers run 24/7 live chat staffed by humans rather than a chatbot-only queue, which puts them ahead of a lot of budget competitors in this category. NordVPN and Surfshark both publish support response time targets under a few minutes for live chat during peak hours, based on their own help center documentation, while ExpressVPN has historically leaned on a detailed self-serve knowledge base alongside its chat option.

The 30-day money-back guarantee that all three offer is genuinely no-questions-asked in most user reports, though the mechanics differ slightly. Refunds typically process back to the original payment method within five to ten business days, and canceling through the account dashboard is usually faster than going through support chat. Where people run into trouble is timing: a refund request made a day or two after the 30-day window closes isn’t something any of the three are obligated to honor, so it pays to calendar the deadline the same day you sign up rather than trusting you’ll remember a month later.

Pros and Cons of Each VPN

NordVPN

Pros: largest server network of the three, lowest real-world speed loss in Gizmodo’s test, six completed Deloitte no-logs audits, Meshnet for direct device-to-device connections, wide Netflix library access.

Cons: month-to-month pricing runs the same as ExpressVPN despite the bigger network, device count is capped unlike Surfshark, and the four-tier structure (Basic, Plus, Complete, Prime) takes a minute to parse the first time you sign up.

ExpressVPN

Pros: cleanest, most consistent app experience across every platform, fastest single protocol in Tom’s Guide’s testing via Lightway Turbo, KPMG and Cure53 audit coverage, straightforward tiered plans introduced in 2026.

Cons: smallest server network of the three by a wide margin, fewest unlocked Netflix libraries in Gizmodo’s test, and the new tiered structure means the password manager and ID protection extras now sit behind the pricier Advanced and Pro plans instead of coming standard.

Surfshark

Pros: cheapest long-term entry price, unlimited simultaneous devices on every tier, bundled antivirus and Alternative ID on higher plans, a 7-day free trial the other two don’t offer, two completed Deloitte audits.

Cons: highest real-world speed loss of the three in Gizmodo’s test, smallest month-to-month value since its no-commitment price is actually the priciest of the group, and a smaller server network than NordVPN.

The Verdict: Which VPN Should You Choose in 2026

Multiple 2026 aggregator rankings, including Gizmodo, Cybernews, VPNOverview, and VPNpro, land on the same overall order: NordVPN first, Surfshark second, ExpressVPN third. That consensus tracks with real usage trends too: Security.org’s September 2026 survey put Surfshark at 6% of U.S. VPN users, up two points from 2025, momentum that lines up with its runner-up ranking. NordVPN backs up its top spot with the widest server network, the lowest real-world speed loss, and the deepest independent audit history of the three. But “best overall” and “best for you” aren’t the same question.

If price and device flexibility matter more than shaving off a few percentage points of speed loss, Surfshark’s unlimited connections and lower long-term entry price make it the more practical pick for a large household. If you’re setting a VPN up for someone who has never used one and will abandon it the moment it feels confusing, ExpressVPN’s redesigned app removes more friction than either competitor. NordVPN earns the top overall spot in this comparison because it wins the most individual categories rather than because it’s dramatically ahead in any single one. The three services sit closer together on raw capability than their marketing pages suggest, and the right choice usually comes down to device count and budget more than any single benchmark number.

Put in scorecard terms: NordVPN takes speed, server count, and audit depth. Surfshark takes price and device limits. ExpressVPN takes app simplicity and peak protocol performance on Windows. Anyone choosing on price alone should still read the monthly-billing numbers carefully, since Surfshark’s headline discount disappears the moment you drop the two-year commitment. Anyone choosing on speed alone should weigh Gizmodo’s real-world loss percentages more heavily than Tom’s Guide’s lab ceiling numbers, since a lab peak rarely reflects what you’ll see on a home connection with normal server load. And anyone choosing for a household or small office should let the device cap decide before anything else does, since running out of simultaneous connections is the most common complaint in user reviews of both NordVPN and ExpressVPN.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is faster, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, or Surfshark?

It depends on how you measure it. Gizmodo’s real-world testing found NordVPN retained the most speed against an unprotected baseline, losing only 18% on downloads (matching New York specifically) compared to Surfshark’s 1%–19% average in 2026, not 27%[2][3]. Tom’s Guide’s lab tests measuring peak protocol throughput found Surfshark’s WireGuard implementation and ExpressVPN’s Windows-only Lightway Turbo protocol both capable of higher ceiling speeds under ideal conditions.

Is Surfshark really cheaper than NordVPN and ExpressVPN?

On a two-year plan, yes. Surfshark’s Starter tier starts at $2.49 a month, undercutting NordVPN’s and ExpressVPN’s cheapest long-term plans. On month-to-month billing, the ranking flips. Surfshark’s no-commitment price of $15.45 a month is actually the highest of the three, while NordVPN and ExpressVPN both charge $12.99.

Can I use one subscription on unlimited devices?

Only Surfshark offers unlimited simultaneous device connections on every plan. NordVPN and ExpressVPN both cap connections by tier, with ExpressVPN scaling from 10 devices on Basic up to 14 on Pro.

Do NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark actually keep logs?

All three have commissioned independent audits to verify their no-logs claims. NordVPN has completed six rounds with Deloitte, ExpressVPN was audited by KPMG in February 2025, and Surfshark has two completed Deloitte audits, the most recent in June 2025. None of the three has disclosed a breach or logging incident in 2025 or 2026.

Which VPN unlocks the most Netflix libraries?

NordVPN and Surfshark tied in Gizmodo’s 2026 testing, each unlocking roughly 25 to 30 regional Netflix catalogs. ExpressVPN unlocked 15 or more in the same test. Streaming access shifts often as platforms update their VPN detection, so exact numbers can change month to month.

Is it safe to switch VPN providers mid-subscription?

Yes, as long as you follow a clean handoff. Cancel auto-renewal on the old plan, confirm the new app passes a leak test before relying on it, and don’t cancel the old subscription until every device is confirmed working on the new one. All three providers offer a 30-day money-back window, which gives you room to test the new service before fully committing.

Which VPN is best for gaming or torrenting?

For torrenting, all three support P2P traffic on their standard servers, though NordVPN routes it through dedicated P2P-optimized servers automatically while ExpressVPN and Surfshark allow it network-wide. NordVPN and Surfshark also sell an optional dedicated IP add-on, while ExpressVPN currently does not. For gaming, the deciding factor is usually proximity to a nearby exit server more than raw protocol speed, which gives NordVPN an edge thanks to its larger server count and more granular city-level choices.

Do any of these three VPNs offer a free plan?

None offer a permanently free tier. Surfshark is the only one of the three with a free trial, running seven days. NordVPN and ExpressVPN both rely on their 30-day money-back guarantee instead of a trial period, which functions similarly if you cancel before the window closes.

Do these VPNs work in countries that restrict VPN use?

All three run some form of obfuscated server mode designed to disguise VPN traffic as regular encrypted web traffic, which is the main technique used to stay functional on networks or in countries that actively block standard VPN protocols. NordVPN and Surfshark both market this feature directly, under obfuscation settings and NoBorders mode respectively, while ExpressVPN’s Lightway protocol handles obfuscation automatically without a separate toggle. None of this is a guarantee in every restrictive network, and connection reliability in these situations tends to change faster than any published review can track.

Sofia Lindström

Editor-in-Chief

Sofia Lindström is the Editor-in-Chief at Tech Insider, where she leads editorial strategy and oversees coverage across AI, cybersecurity, and enterprise technology. With over a decade in Swedish tech journalism, she previously served as technology editor at Dagens Industri and covered the Nordic startup ecosystem for Breakit. Sofia holds an MSc in Media Technology from KTH Royal Institute of Technology and is a frequent speaker at Web Summit and Slush. She is passionate about making complex technology accessible to business leaders.

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