In this ExpressVPN vs StrongVPN comparison we are going to look at the pros and cons of these two vpns.
ExpressVPN and StrongVPN are some of the best vpns if you are looking for a vpn service that delivers great download and upload speeds.
However, how do these two vpns compare in other aspects like streaming capabilities, torrenting support and their privacy policies?
In this StrongVPN vs ExpressVPN comparison in 2021 we’ll compare these vpn to see which is a better vpn overall.
I hope that by the end of this comparison, you’ll be able to choose between either ExpressVPN or StrongVPN.
Let’s get to it.
Here is a quick summary.
| ExpressVPN | StrongVPN | |
| Website | expressvpn.com | strongvpn.com |
| Servers | 3,000 | 950 |
| Jurisdiction | BVI | United States |
| Streaming | Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iPlayer | Netflix, Hulu, Amazon |
| Speed | 4.4/5 | 4.2/5 |
| Torrenting | All servers | All servers |
| Kill Switch | YES | YES |
| Works in China? | YES | YES |
| Devices | 5 | 12 |
| Pricing | $ 8.32/month | $ 5.83/month |
About
ExpressVPN is a VPN company that delivers very fast connection speeds as well as very secure and private internet access.
Check out my detailed review of ExpressVPN.
StrongVPN is a VPN company based in the United States that enables you to access the internet anonymously thereby making you invisible to your ISP and government.
Here is a more in depth StrongVPN review.
Server Collection
If you want to have a lot of options when choosing a server to connect to then you need to choose a vpn with a huge collection of servers.
Which vpn between ExpressVPN and StrongVPN has a bigger pool of servers?
ExpressVPN, at the time of this writing, has over 3,000 vpn servers that are located in different countries.
StrongVPN, on the other hand, has a total of 950 vpn servers that are based in 30 different countries spread over different continents.
Compared to ExpressVPN, StrongVPN is a very small company because of their small server count.
If you are looking for a vpn that will avail a servers in most of the countries that you travel to then I recommend ExpressVPN.
Streaming
Which streaming platforms are ExpressVPN and StrongVPN able to unblock?
Even though streaming is a very popular activity online, most streaming platforms are on a crack down on vpn IPs that are used to access geo restricted content on these platforms.
So as soon as a proxy or vpn IP is detected, it is blacklisted and your access to geo restricted content is blocked.
A good vpn should therefore be able to replace their IPs with new IPs as soon as they are blocked.
ExpressVPN has an amazing ability to unblock Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and BBC iPlayer using their servers based in the countries where you want to access these servers.
You’ll be able to stream geo restricted tv shows on platforms like Netflix without experiencing proxy server errors.
StrongVPN is also able to unblock video content on Netflix and Hulu.
Even though you won’t be able to stream content on other platforms like Amazon Prime and iPlayer using StrongVPN servers, Netflix and Hulu work great without proxy server errors.
Clearly, though, ExpressVPN has a better support for more streaming sites than StrongVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn that will enable you access video content on more streaming platforms then I recommend ExpressVPN.
Speed
Great connection speeds enable you to stream content using the best qualities available like HD and 4K.
If you connect to a vpn and you end up with connection speeds that are less than 80% of your original connection speeds then that’s a slow vpn.
So how does ExpressVPN vs StrongVPN compare in terms of connection speeds?
I tested the connection speeds of these two vpns by connecting to three different servers based in three different countries.
I connected to servers based in the US, UK and Hong Kong and then used speedtest.net to test for ping, upload and download speeds.
ExpressVPN was able to deliver downloads speeds that were 87% of my original connection speeds on average.
StrongVPN, even though a little slower, was also able to maintain an average of 83% of my original download speeds before connecting to their servers.
It therefore means that even though both ExpressVPN and StrongVPN delivered great connection speeds, ExpressVPN is a faster vpn than StrongVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn that delivers fast download speeds then I recommend ExpressVPN instead of StrongVPN.
Torrenting
Anti piracy laws are getting tougher by the day in most countries today.
You don’t want to be caught downloading any copyrighted material on torrenting websites.
In fact, in certain countries vpns are forced to block torrenting traffic completely.
So you are want to stay safe from any lawsuits, always ensure that you online download torrent files after connecting to either a vpn or proxy server that does not keep logs of your IP address.
How does StrongVPN vs ExpressVPN torrenting capabilities compare?
ExpressVPN and StrongVPN, luckily, support P2P file sharing on all their servers.
So you don’t need to first connect to any special torrenting servers in order to start downloading your torrenting files.
In addition to that, as you’ll discover below, neither of these vpns keep logs if your IP address so torrenting is completely safe and anonymous on these servers.
If you are looking for the best vpn for fast and anonymous torrenting then I recommend ExpressVPN just because you’ll enjoy faster download speeds than StrongVPN.
Otherwise both vpns are great for torrenting.
Privacy Policy
If you want your internet access history to be private and known only to you, you should ensure you only use a vpn that keep zero logs of your internet activity.
The less information about you a vpn keeps the harder it will be for them to identify who you are.
So which vpn between ExpressVPN or StrongVPN provides the most privacy online?
Let’s compare ExpressVPN vs StrongVPN privacy policies in terms of the physical jurisdiction of these companies as well as what their privacy policies state.
ExpressVPN, first of all, is headquartered in the BVI.
The BVI is a friendly location for privacy because they don’t have any mandatory data retention laws that force vpns to keep logs of your internet usage.
Apart from that, this country does not form part of the 14 eyes surveillance alliance of countries.
A recent security audit also confirmed that ExpressVPN does not keep any logs that can be used to identify you.
StrongVPN, on the other hand is based in the United States.
Because the US forms part of the 14 eyes countries, it is not a great place to base a vpn company if you want true privacy.
Besides, vpn companies based in the US are required to comply anytime the government asks for logs.
That notwithstanding, StrongVPN spells out that they do not keep logs of your activities while connected to their servers.
I find that rather vague.
StrongVPN could do a better job by stating exactly what kind of logs they don’t keep and what they keep.
It is obvious that every vpn needs some kind of logs to function properly.
As stands today, though, both vpns are great for privacy as they don’t collection information that can either be used to identify you or tie you to certain activities on their servers.
Encryption and Data Protection
Once way to ensure that you personal information is secure is to encrypt it using an encryption algorithm that is tamper proof.
Most vpns will employ the use of the best military grade encryptions available…
…and both ExpressVPN and StrongVPN are not left out.
ExpressVPN and StrongVPN currently both use AES 256-bit encryption technology that is very secure and impossible to crack.
It ensures that even if your information was hijacked by packets sniffers, the hackers won’t be able to decrypt and see the actual information.
ExpressVPN, in addition to this encryption, uses OpenVPN and IKEv2/IPSec connection protocols to transmit your information.
They are some of the most secure vpn connection protocols available in 2021.
StrongVPN, on the flip side, supports a tad bit more vpn connection protocols.
You’ll have the option of connecting via either OpenVPN, IKEv2, SSTP, L2TP and WireGuard protocols.
Both of these vpns offer you the most secure encryption and data transmission protocols.
If you are looking for the most secure protocols then either ExpressVPN or StrongVPN will do.
Ad Blocker
Have you been a victim of aggressive advertising on most websites.
Or a particular ad seems to keep following you everywhere you go on the internet.
Ad companies are constantly tracking you online and using your information to deliver better ads to you.
If you don’t want to be tracked using tracking pixels online, you need to use a vpn that supports ad blockers.
Most premium vpns have an inbuilt ad blocker that can enable you block ads.
Neither ExpressVPN nor StrongVPN has ad blockers in any of the desktop or mobile applications at the time I was writing this ExpressVPN vs StrongVPN comparison.
You also won’t get a malware blocker to protect your from phishing websites from any of these vpns.
It is quite a disappointment especially for ExpressVPN because this vpn company really charges a premium for their services.
If you are looking for the best vpn ad blocker then you should look elsewhere.
I would suggest either NordVPN or PIA.
Dedicated IPs
If you need to access the internet using the same IP address every time then you need a dedicated IP address.
This is the case because if you connect to a vpn normally, they’ll assign you a shared IP address that changes every time you connect to a different server.
A dedicated IP on the other side is only used by you and is not shared by anyone.
While using a shared IP is great for ensuring that certain activities on the server cannot be traced back to you, there are instances when you need a dedicated IP.
For instance, if you want remote access to your home security camera feed or your work network.
Unfortunately, neither ExpressVPN nor StrongVPN supports dedicated IPs at the time I was writing this StrongVPN vs ExpressVPN review.
However, remember that since a dedicated IP is tied to your account, it is very easy to track back certain activities on this server to you.
So don’t use a dedicated IP for prohibited activities like torrenting.
If you are looking for the best vpn dedicated IP address then I recommend either NordVPN or CyberGhost.
Kill Switch
Any serious vpn company should ensure that they have a kill switch in all their apps, or at least the desktop apps.
If you turn on an internet kill switch, all traffic on your device are encrypted and routed through your vpn tunnel.
Anytime that your vpn app disconnects from the server, internet access for your entire device is blocked.
This happens often times when your internet connection drops or when you are switching servers.
ExpressVPN and StrongVPN both have internet kill switches that ensure that your real IP is not leaked anytime that your vpn app disconnects from the servers.
Even if your torrent client was running when the vpn disconnects it will have to pause and wait for reconnection.
If you are looking for the best vpn kill switch then I recommend either ExpressVPN or StrongVPN.
Split Tunnelling
When you connect to a vpn, all your internet access it channelled through your vpn tunnel.
However, if you want to to exempt certain applications from having their traffic channelled through your vpn, you need a split tunnel.
It enables you to whitelist certain applications so that they are exempted from the vpn tunnel.
You could do this for example if you want to maximized on your connection speeds and not have your application that runs backups slowed down by vpn speed drops.
ExpressVPN has an inbuilt split tunnel whereas StrongVPN does not have a split.
If you are looking for the best vpn split tunnel then I recommend ExpressVPN instead of StrongVPN.
Works in China?
Are you looking for a vpn that you can carry with you to China someday?
China has a very strong firewall that detects and blocks vpn traffic.
So most vpn apps will not work in China.
Regardless, you need a vpn while in China because this country controls internet access heavily and certain websites are completely blocked in China.
So if you want to continue accessing popular sites like Google.com or YouTube.com when inside China, you need to use a vpn that can bypass deep packet inspection technology of China’s firewall without being detected.
ExpressVPN is able to work flawlessly in China and enable you to access the censored websites.
StrongVPN also has a powerful server obfuscation technology that is able to make its traffic look like normal https traffic and fly under the radar undetected.
In fact, StrongVPN even guarantees on their website that their vpn with be able to work successfully in all cities in China.
If you are looking for a vpn for China the either ExpressVPN or StrongVPN with work.
Pricing
So how much will it set you back to use either ExpressVPN or StrongVPN?
As we near the end of this ExpressVPN vs StrongVPN comparison in 2021, let’s now compare these two vpns to establish the cheaper one.
Most vpns will give you great discounts with longer subscription plans in order to encourage to purchase a longer subscription.
It is a thing with all vpns anyway.
Both ExpressVPN and StrongVPN have their longest plans being their 1 year plans that cost $ 8.32/month and $ 5.83/month respectively.
It is clear that StrongVPN is cheaper vpn compared to ExpressVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn that will enable to you save some money then I recommend StrongVPN instead of ExpressVPN.
Payment Options
Let’s finish this ExpressVPN vs StrongVPN comparison by looking at the various payment methods available when you use these two vpn.
If a vpn is serious about your privacy and anonymity online, they’ll provide payment methods that let you give less information about you as possible.
For example, payment methods like gift cards and cryptocurrencies do not require your billing address.
So you can sign up with a disposable email address and pay with some Bitcoins.
ExpressVPN supports more payment methods as you’ll be able to pay with credit cards, PayPal and Bitcoins.
StrongVPN, on the other hand, only supports payments through all major credit cards and PayPal.
It does not supports any cryptocurrency payments.
If you are looking for the best Bitcoin vpns then I recommend ExpressVPN.
In Conclusion
I hope this ExpressVPN vs StrongVPN comparison opened your eyes to the main pros and cons of these two vpns.
Are you now ready to make a choice between either ExpressVPN or StrongVPN?
If you are looking for a cheap vpn that is able to unblock both Netflix and Hulu, supports torrenting on all servers and supports more vpn protocols then you should go for StrongVPN.
However, if you are willing to pay few more $$$ for a vpn with excellent speeds, top notch streaming support and that supports Bitcoin payments then ExpressVPN it is.
Have you used either ExpressVPN or StrongVPN before?
Please share your experience in the comments below.
