ExpressVPN vs TorGuard Comparison

ExpressVPN vs TorGuard: Speed, Streaming & Torrenting Comparison in 2021

The United States of America is one of the founding members of the 14 eyes countries.

These countries surveille their citizens 24/7 and share this information amongst each other… besides the US also has laws that obligate a vpn company to comply any time the government asks for users logs.

So it it possible for a vpn company based in the United States to be safe?

In this ExpressVPN vs TorGuard review today we are  going to look at the pros and cons of these two vpn services.

We’ll compare ExpressVPN with TorGuard along the lines of speed, streaming capabilities and torrenting support.

I hope that by the end of this TorGuard vs ExpressVPN review you’ll be able to choose between either ExpressVPN or TorGuard anonymous vpn.

So let’s get started.

Here is a quick summary.

ExpressVPNTorGuard
Websiteexpressvpn.comtorguard.net
Servers3,0003,000
JurisdictionBVIUnited States
StreamingNetflix, Hulu, Amazon, iPlayerNetflix, Hulu, Amazon, iPlayer
Speed4.4/54.4/5
TorrentingAll serversAll servers
Kill SwitchYESYES
Works in China?YESYES
Devices58
Pricing$ 8.32/month$ 5/month

About

ExpressVPN is a vpn services provider based in the British Virgin Islands that provides secure and anonymous internet access.

Check out my detailed review of ExpressVPN.

TorGuard, on the other hand, is a VPN service provider that enables you to privately and securely download torrent files. It is based in the United States of America.

Here is an indepth TorGuard review.

Server Collection

How many servers does ExpressVPN and TorGuard have?

The more servers a vpn has, the more options you when choosing a server to connect to.

ExpressVPN currently has a collection of more than 3,000 servers that are spread over 94 different countries in different continents.

TorGuard, on the other other hand, also has a collection of 3,000 servers that are spread over 50 different countries.

Even though both vpns have the same number of servers, ExpressVPN has more spread out servers than TorGuard.

If you are looking for a vpn that has a larger geographical coverage then I recommend ExpressVPN.

Streaming

Accessing geo restricted entertainment content is one of the main reasons people purchase vpns in 2021.

So in order for a vpn to be relevant to most people it needs to be able to unblock most online video streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu.

Will you be able to stream content on popular platforms like Netflix using either ExpressVPN or TorGuard.

ExpressVPN is able to unblock Netflix in the US using its servers that are located in the US.

So you’ll be able to watch your favorite tv shows destined for the US audience without experiencing any proxy server error.

In addition to the US, you’ll also be able to unblock Netflix for other countries including the UK, Japan, Germany, Canada and Brazil.

ExpressVPN is also able to unlock content on other platforms like Hulu, Amazon Prime and BBC iPlayer.

TorGuard, unfortunately, is not able to unblock content on any streaming site using the normal vpn subscription.

All of their servers are blocked by these streaming platforms in most of the countries that I tried.

However, in order to be able to streaming content on Netflix and other platforms you need to separately purchase a dedicated IP address that is specialized for that.

Their dedicated IPs can unblock almost all the streaming sites that you’ll need to access.

While both vpns are capable of unblocking streaming sites, ExpressVPN does it by default while TorGuard does it through a dedicated IP that you need to purchase separately.

If you are looking for a vpn that supports streaming out of the box then I recommend ExpressVPN.

Speed

In order to have a great internet browsing experience, your internet connection speeds need to be fast enough.

So a good vpn should not cause a huge drop in your download speeds until your normal browsing is affected.

Let’s now look at how ExpressVPN vs TorGuard download speeds compare.

I tested the speeds of these two vpns by connecting to three different servers based in the US, UK and Hong Kong.

Then I used speedtest.net to test for ping, download and upload speeds before and after connecting to their servers.

ExpressVPN on average maintained download speeds that were 87% of my original download speeds.

TorGuard also gave me an average download speed of 87% of my original download speeds for the three servers that I connected to.

It is therefore clear that both ExpressVPN and TorGuard are a match for each other when it comes to their connection speeds.

If you are looking for a vpn with excellent connection speeds then I recommend either ExpressVPN or TorGuard.

Torrenting

When it comes to torrenting, it is said that TorGuard is the best.

But is it?

Let’s find out.

First, before you start downloading any torrent files from the internet you should ensure you are either connected to a vpn or a proxy server.

This will ensure that your real IP address is not revealed and your torrenting activities cannot be tied back to you.

Because anti piracy laws are getting tougher by the day, you don’t want to be caught torrenting copyrighted material.

Both ExpressVPN and TorGuard allow anonymous torrenting on all their servers.

So you don’t need to first connect to any special servers before you can start downloading any torrent files.

In addition to that, I found that my download speeds for torrent files when connected to TorGuard servers was a little faster than ExpressVPN.

Also, since both of these vpns do not keep logs of your IP, as we’ll discover later, it is completely safe and anonymous to torrent with either of these vpns.

However, if you are looking for a vpn that better suited for torrenting then I recommend TorGuard anonymous vpn.

Privacy Policy

In order to ensure that your internet access is private, you need to connect to a vpn that does not keep logs of your internet activity while you are connected to their servers.

However, vpn companies are crafty these days and always insert certain clauses in their privacy policies that might compromise your identity online.

You should therefore ensure that you thoroughly read the privacy policy to ensure there isn’t more than meets the eye.

I read both privacy policies before writing this ExpressVPN vs TorGuard comparison and here is what I found out.

ExpressVPN, to begin with, is based in the British Virgin Islands which is a privacy friendly location.

The BVI does not have any mandatory data retention laws that obligate vpn companies to keep logs of their users.

It also does not form part of the 14 eyes countries alliance that surveille their citizens and share this information.

There privacy policy also states clearly that they do not keep logs of your IP address and DNS queries.

It means there are no logs on ExpressVPN servers that can be used to identify who you are.

TorGuard, however, is based in the US which is not a very privacy friendly location.

First, because the US is a founding member of the 14 eyes countries surveillance alliance that spy on their citizens and share this information.

Secondly, the US has laws that obligate vpn companies to comply any time the government as for particular user logs through a court order.

That notwithstanding, TorGuard is able to provide private internet access as they state clearly in the privacy policy that they do not keep logs of your traffic.

While this is great, I’d appreciate if TorGuard specified clearly what kind of logs they keep and what they don’t keep.

A vpn needs some kind of logs to be able to enforce their maximum allowed simultaneous devices.

If you are looking for a vpn that will provide you with private internet access the either ExpressVPN will be do for now.

Encryption and Data Protection

Is your data secure when being transmitted over the network?

In order to guarantee the security of your personal information a vpn should employ the use of some of the strong encryption technologies available in 2021.

This ensures that even if your data was to land in the hands of a malicious hacker, they won’t be able to decrypt it and see the actual information.

ExpressVPN uses AES 256-bit encryption by default in all its applications.

It is a very tough encryption and has never been hacked before.

TorGuard, on the other hand, gives you more options when it comes to encryption technologies that you can choose from.

It supports AES 256-bit encryption, 128-bit encryption and Blowfish 128-bit.

You can choose or change the encryption technology that you want to use in the TorGuard app settings.

In addition to encryption technologies, vpns also use certain connection protocols to ensure that your information is secure.

ExpressVPN currently supports two of the most secure vpn protocols called OpenVPN and IKEv2/IPSec.

TorGuard, on the flip side, supports more connection protocols and gives you the option of setting your favorite default protocol.

It supports OpenVPN, OpenConnect, L2TP/IPSec and IKEv2 protocols.

If you are looking for a vpn that offers you multiple options in terms of encryption technologies and connection protocols then I recommend TorGuard.

However, both vpns guarantee the security of your data online.

Ad Blockers

An ad blockers helps you ensure that you have an ad free browsing experience.

Once turned on, you’ll be able to browse most websites without ads because they’ll be blocked.

This is particularly interesting for some of the websites that are very aggressive with their ads to an extent that they become very intrusive and annoying.

So how does ExpressVPN vs TorGuard ad blocking capabilities compare?

ExpressVPN, unfortunately does not have any inbuilt ad blocking capabilities in any of its applications.

A malware blocker is also missing so ExpressVPN cannot protect you from internet ads or from malware on the internet.

TorGuard, on the flip side, has an inbuilt ad blocker on its that when turned on will block ads on most websites.

In addition to the ad blocker, TorGuard also has a malware blocker that will protect your device from getting infected anytime you accidentally land on a known malware infected website.

If you are looking for a vpn with a great ad and malware blocker then I recommend TorGuard instead of ExpressVPN.

Dedicated IPs

Since all vpns will assign you a random shared IP address every time you connect to the internet, it is hard to ensure that you always connect to the internet using the same IP.

This is where a dedicated IP comes to the rescue.

It ensures that you can always connect to the internet using the same IP that is unique only to you and is not shared by anyone else.

You’ll need a dedicated IP for example if you want to remotely access your home security camera feed.

ExpressVPN, at the time I was writing this TorGuard vs ExpressVPN comparison, does not support dedicated IPs.

TorGuard, on the flip side, supports dedicated IPs… just like I already mentioned when talking about streaming.

But you’ll need to purchase these dedicated IPs separately which ads to the total cost of using TorGuard.

However, once assigned you’ll have a safe and secure dedicated IP for your personal that you can then whitelist in any network or software that requires it.

I don’t encourage you to use your dedicated for activities like torrenting.

This is because a dedicated IP address is tied to your account so it is very easy to trace back certain activities on this IP to you.

If you are looking for a vpn that supports dedicated IP address then I recommend TorGuard.

Kill Switch

If you want to always stay secure and anonymous online then you need a kill switch.

Whenever you are switching servers or when your internet connection drops, your vpn app disconnects from the server and real IP is exposed.

So if you were in the process of downloading some torrent files then your ISP will see the traffic.

A kill switch will cut off internet for your entire device anytime the vpn app disconnects from the server.

So all processes, including your torrenting client, are paused until your vpn app reconnects.

This ensures that those few seconds where your real IP would be exposed and negate the whole point of using a vpn do not occur.

Both ExpressVPN and TorGuard have an inbuilt kill switch functionality that ensures that all your internet traffic is encrypted and channelled through your vpn tunnel at all times without fail.

If you are looking for a  vpn that has an inbuilt kill switch then I recommend either ExpressVPN or TorGuard anonymous vpn.

Split Tunnelling

While is great to always have all your internet traffic channelled through your vpn, there are times when you need to exempt certain applications from the vpn.

This could be the case for certain security conscious application that are not impressed by you constantly changing your IP address.

For these applications a change in IP could mean your account has been hacked.

So they are just trying to be careful and ensure that no one gains unauthorized access to your personal account or privileges.

A split tunnel enables you to whitelist certain applications and exempt them from having their traffic encrypted and channelled through the vpn tunnel.

Luckily, both ExpressVPN and TorGuard have a split tunnelling feature that will enable you to whitelist certain applications.

Remember that since applications in your split tunnel do not have their traffic going through your vpn they do not benefit from the added security that a vpn provides.

Also, since this traffic flows as usual through your ISP, your ISP will see the sites that you visit.

So you are not anonymous on these apps.

If you are looking for a vpn with a split tunnel then either TorGuard or ExpressVPN is great for you.

Works in China?

Which one between TorGuard or ExpressVPN will be able to work in China?

China amazes us with its ability to detect and block vpn traffic through its great firewall technology.

Its firewall has a deep packet inspection technology that is able to detect and either throttle or completely block vpn traffic.

ExpressVPN, fortunately, is able to bypass China’s firewall and access censored content without being detected.

TorGuard is also able to bypass the great firewall of China.

However, because China’s firewall is great at detecting OpenVPN traffic, you’ll need to change your connection protocol to OpenConnect and turn on the STunnel feature.

Once done, you’ll be able to access internet in China using TorGuard without a problem.

If you are looking for a vpn that work in China, then either ExpressVPN or TorGuard will work in China with no problems.

Pricing

How much does it cost to use either ExpressVPN or TorGuard?

As we near the end of this TorGuard vs ExpressVPN comparison, let’s compare the pricing options of these vpns to establish the cheaper one.

In order to get the best discount with any vpn, you need to subscribe for a longer period of time… like 2 or 3 years.

Both ExpressVPN and TorGuard have their longest subscription plans being their 1 year plans.

ExpressVPN 1 year plan costs $ 8.32/month while TorGuard 1 year plan costs $ 59.99/year… which is approximately $ 5/month.

It is therefore evident that TorGuard is a cheaper vpn as compared to ExpressVPN.

However, I don’t like that neither vpns provide plans longer than 1 year because I find having to renew vpns yearly very cumbersome.

If you are looking for a cheap vpn that will let you save some bucks then I recommend TorGuard.

Payment Options

Let’s finish off this ExpressVPN vs TorGuard comparison by looking at the payment options that each provides.

I’ll be particularly keen on which vpn offers anonymous payment methods like Bitcoin.

It is because these anonymous payment methods do not require your billing address.

This enables you to gives as little information about you as possible by signing up with a fake email address and then paying with some Bitcoins.

ExpressVPN and TorGuard both support payment methods like PayPal, all the major credit cards and cryptocurrency payments using Bitcoin.

So if you are looking for the best Bitcoin vpns then I recommend either TorGuard or ExpressVPN.

In Conclusion

I hope this ExpressVPN vs TorGuard anonymous vpn comparison helped learn some strengths and weaknesses  of these two popular vpn services.

Are you now ready to make a choice between either TorGuard or ExpressVPN?

If you are looking for a vpn that is great for torrenting, provides a dedicated IP and is relatively cheap then I recommend TorGuard.

However, if you are willing for pay a little more for a vpn with great streaming capabilities, works in China and supports Bitcoin payments then I recommend ExpressVPN.

Have you used either ExpressVPN or TorGuard before?

Please share your experience in the comments below.

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