ExpressVPN vs CyberGhost VPN

What we’re about to do is compare the features of two of the most popular VPN services on the market. Namely: ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN. There’s a good chance you’ve heard (even passing by) about either one of those since they hold leading positions. In our best VPN ranking, at least they do.

We’re expecting a lot of ties between the two since they both offer top-notch security, privacy, and a plethora of features. We promise you that by the end of it, you’ll have a clear picture regarding which one of them fits your needs best.

During our comparison article, we’re going to put several key features head-to-head, highlighting a clear winner (or a tie) in each section. But before we get any further, let’s take a look at this brief side-by-side comparison table.

Note that you can click the section you’re interested in if you want to read more about it. With that in mind, let’s see which one of these services fits your needs best.

Taking a quick glance at the table might tell you that no service is stronger than the other. However, you’ll see that ExpressVPN scores better in critical sections, such as data collection and speed tests.

Although CyberGhost VPN has some pretty powerful features, ExpressVPN (Save 49% Now!) just proved that it holds the leading position for a good reason. If you don’t want to find out more, that concludes our comparison (for you). From our standpoint, ExpressVPN wins, fair and square. However, if you want to find out more interesting stuff, keep on reading our article.

1. Jurisdiction

• ExpressVPN (Winner) – British Virgin Islands (Not 14 Eyes)
• CyberGhost VPN (Runner-Up) – Romania (Not 14 Eyes) – light restrictions

ExpressVPN is located in the British Virgin Islands, which is a group of self-governing islands in the Caribbean and not a member of the 5, 9, 14 Eyes Alliances. CyberGhost VPN’s headquarters are located in Romania, which is also not a member of the infamous association.

BVI’s jurisdiction consists of a set of self-imposed laws, and, most important, there’s no intelligence agency within the territory. With that in mind, we can safely conclude that when it comes to ExpressVPN, there’s absolutely no threat to your privacy.

Romania’s jurisdiction doesn’t restrict access to the Internet, except for when it comes to websites that promote gambling and pedophilia, which are heavily regulated, respectively blocked. Some complaints were recorded that regulations might restrict online behavior.

In conclusion, despite neither one of the countries above are members of the 5, 9, 14 Eyes Alliances, Romania has a bunch of light restrictions. ExpressVPN is a winner, but it’s a tight score.

2. Terms of service analysis

• ExpressVPN (Tie) – no suspicious mentions
• CyberGhost VPN (Tie) – nothing out of the ordinary

ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN implemented agreements between them and the end-users, in order to decide upon what’s considered to be acceptable usage of the service. More so, these documents also mentioned the penalty that arises if you violate these agreements.

Coming up next, we’re going to pinpoint the most important ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN terms of service. The purpose of this section is to unveil if either one of them has conflicting terms or at least questionable content.

ExpressVPN’s terms of service

• Through accessing the website and by using the service, you agree to be bound by the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy as well;
• Not accepting the agreements, either entirely or just partially means that you have to stop using the service altogether;
• You have to be a valid legal entity and be of 18 years old at least to have the right of using ExpressVPN;
• You need to make sure that you check the documentation every now and then since it might receive an update without prior notice;
• ExpressVPN states that it’s committed to protecting your privacy;
• ExpressVPN doesn’t collect or log any traffic destination, browser activity, data content, or DNS queries;
• ExpressVPN collects some personal data from you during registration;
• You are only allowed to use the service after you purchase a subscription;
• You might use ExpressVPN on more than 5 devices if you install it on your router, or if you purchase more subscription plans/licenses;
• You can benefit from a 30-day refund guarantee;
• You must not use ExpressVPN in an illegal manner;
• Misusing the service will lead in ExpressVPN terminating your account immediately and removing your refund eligibility;

You can tell for yourself that ExpressVPN’s conditions are not at all unreasonable. During our analysis, we didn’t spot anything out of the ordinary.

CyberGhost VPN’s terms of service

• If you access, download, install, or use CyberGhost VPN, it will count as your acceptance and agreement with the Terms of Service;
• You’re not allowed to borrow your CyberGhost VPN account to anyone, or sublet it, sublicense, or transfer it;
• You must be at all times in compliance with all laws and regulations;
• You can only use CyberGhost VPN in a lawful manner, with no exceptions;
• You shouldn’t enable anyone to use CyberGhost VPN for unlawful purposes;
• CyberGhost VPN shouldn’t be used for fraud, impersonation, or any other unlawful purpose;
• CyberGhost VPN isn’t an antivirus/antimalware tool, despite its privacy protection features;
• CyberGhost VPN doesn’t collect any of your personal data;
• You are solely responsible for the safekeeping of your account and what happens on it;
• You must not attempt to gain unauthorized access while using CyberGhost VPN;
• You’re not allowed to use CyberGhost VPN to distribute, or access illegal material such as child pornography;
• If you break any of the terms, your account will be swiftly terminated;

Long story short, CyberGhost VPN’s terms of service are perfectly reasonable.

Conclusion: when it comes to Terms of Service analysis, we declare a tie between the two services.

3. Log-keeping policy

• ExpressVPN (Tie) – doesn’t keep logs
• CyberGhost VPN (Tie) – doesn’t keep logs

While ExpressVPN does collect some things about you, it’s not even half as bad as you think. The bottom line is that it doesn’t keep logs on your online activity, traffic destinations, DNS queries, and such. So even if someone were to capture this data, they can pretty much do nothing to identify you.

Now come CyberGhost VPN. This service also collects a bunch of info about you, but neither is this sensitive enough to identify you by it. It’s also mentioned in the policies we were analyzing before that in order to run flawlessly, CyberGhost VPN needs a bunch of data from each of its users. However, you’re required to hand it out yourself, so there’s little to no mystery surrounding the whereabouts of this information.

In conclusion, neither ExpressVPN or CyberGhost VPN collects sensitive data on you or keeps it on their servers.

4. Data collection

• ExpressVPN (Winner) – doesn’t collect sensitive data
• CyberGhost VPN (Runner-Up) – collects far more data than ExpressVPN, although not sensitive

Although we’ve mentioned above that each of these services collects some information from you, we didn’t make it clear exactly what kind of data we’re talking about. What we did say is that you’ll have to hand out most of these bits of information by yourself.

Keeping that in mind, let’s take a look at what data do these VPN providers collect from you:

ExpressVPN collected data

• Your email address
• Your payment info
• Activated apps and their versions
• VPN connection dates (not times)
• The VPN servers you chose to connect to
• Amount of MBs you transferred per day

CyberGhost VPN collected data

• Your name
• Your address
• Your email address
• Your username
• Your payment information
• Website usage information such as IP address (anonymized) and approximate location (country);
• Your transaction information
• What items did you buy
• What price you paid
• What billing method you used
• Partial credit card information
• Chargeback requests
• Canceled orders
• Data related to the browser you’re using
• Whether you access the website via mobile or desktop devices
• General properties and metadata
• Your Operating System version
• Your preferred language
• The date and time of your visit
• The referring website
• Your preferences in CyberGhost’s website during your visit

As you can see, CyberGhost VPN clearly collects a lot more data than ExpressVPN. Whatever the reason behind this data collection, we’re going to hand this one to ExpressVPN, as they prove you don’t need that much data to run a service impeccably.

5. Malware detection

• ExpressVPN (Tie) – a couple of alerts (most likely false positives)
• CyberGhost VPN (Tie) – one alert (most likely false positive)

If you plan that your PC will have a long and healthy life, you need to start taking some healthy practice tips from us. Never let anything come in contact with your computer without performing a thorough analysis beforehand as we do.

We’ve performed an online scan on both ExpressVPN’s and CyberGhost VPN’s installers before deploying them on our PCs, and the results were the following:

ExpressVPN

• Antiy-AVL – Worm[Email]/Win32.LovGate
• Yomi Hunter – MALWARE

CyberGhost VPN

• Dr.Web vxCube – MALWARE

Now you might notice that none of the files came perfectly clean out of the scanners. However, as you can see, the alerts seem pretty much generic, so we’re going to grant both of them the benefit of the doubt and consider them as false positives. It’s a tie.

6. Interface and ease-of-use

• ExpressVPN (Runner-Up) – easy to use, but also has advanced options
• CyberGhost VPN (Winner) – easy to use, looks better, has a simple/advanced view

If you’re looking for versatility, it’s crucial that the service you’re gonna go with is not only easy to use but also has some advanced parameter tweaking in its sleeve, so that it caters to both the needs of novice users and professionals alike.

Keeping that in mind, we’re going to perform a bit of analysis on ExpressVPN’s and CyberGhost VPN’s interface and usability factors. That way, we can easily decide on which one works best for you if you’re a beginner, or if you like tampering with a lot of configuration options.

ExpressVPN’s interface and overall feel

When it comes to ExpressVPN, our first impression was that it has an optimal level of user-friendliness and intuitiveness so that it can be operated even by inexperienced users. The main screen proudly holds a large connection button, a location selection menu, as well as a hamburger button for accessing the main menu.

You can use the main menu to access all the VPN locations, run a speed test, and even access ExpressVPN’s configuration window.

But don’t take our word for it, take a look at our screenshots below and notice how you can adjust various settings, ranging from general ones, but also protocol, account, or browsers settings.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can take a look at the Advanced section, but we advise you not to tamper with it if you have no idea how it works like.

In the General settings, you can access/modify the following options:

• Launch ExpressVPN on Windows startup
• Start ExpressVPN minimized
• Connect to the last used location automatically upon launch
• Cut Internet traffic (all of it) if the VPN disconnects suddenly
• Allow access to LAN devices (printers, file servers)
• Enable split tunneling and manage it

The Protocol section enables you to choose from the following options:

• Automatic
• UDP – OpenVPN (best speed-security combination, might not work on all networks)
• TCP – OpenVPN (higher applicability than UDP, but might be slower than it)
• L2TP – IPsec (weak security, useful for anonymization when other protocols don’t work)
• PPTP (same as L2TP – IPsec)

In the Account category, you can perform the following actions:

• Sign out
• Refer friends

The Browsers tab lets you:

• Retrieve browser extensions for supported web browsers

The Advanced section lets you modify the following settings:

• Share crash reports, speed tests, and successful/failed VPN connection attempts
• Prevent IPv6 address detection while connected
• Toggle exclusive ExpressVPN DNS servers usage
• Optimize Windows networking to maximize VPN speed
• Choose language

CyberGhost VPN’s interface and overall feel

Notice how CyberGhost VPN’s interface is somewhat similar to ExpressVPN’s one. The main components are all there: the large connection button, the location selector, even the “more” button that lets you expand the main screen.

However, as opposed to ExpressVPN, CyberGhost VPN offers you the chance of choosing between a simplified interface and an advanced one. As you’d expect, the advanced version offers you more features you can interact with, including several server categories, connection features, smart rules, and settings.

You can choose from favorite servers, but also ones that are specialized in torrenting, and streaming. Or, if you have some favorite ones, you can quickly access them by clicking the star-shaped icon.

The connection features let you block ads, malicious websites, and online tracking, but also perform automated HTTPS redirection, and compress data. The smart rules let you configure connection rules such as adding exceptions, adjusting startup behavior, as well as enable wi-fi and app protection.

Last, but not least, we have the configuration screen, which holds only two categories. Namely:

General:

• Choose the preferred language;
• Select an appearance profile;
• Enable automatic kill switch;
• Toggle anonymous usage data submission;
• Reset settings to default;

Connection:

• Choose the default protocol for your connection;
• Use TCP instead of UDP;
• Use a random port to connect;
• Enable or disable DNS leak protection;
• Disable IPv6 connections whenever you’re connected to the VPN;
• Repair your virtual network card;

Conclusion: after lengthy debates, we’ve decided that CyberGhost VPN has a nicer feel to it. It provides you with greater flexibility and just looks better than ExpressVPN’s.

7. Device number / mobile or not

• ExpressVPN (Tie) – 5 simultaneous connections, excellent app quality
• CyberGhost VPN (Tie) – 7 simultaneous connections, flimsy browser extensions

ExpressVPN lets you connect from 5 devices simultaneously, CyberGhost VPN supports up to 7 devices at the same time. While CyberGhost VPN should win since it allows you to connect to 2 more devices than ExpressVPN does, things are a bit different.

When it comes to their compatibility on mobile devices, they both qualify, since they both support mobile devices, with dedicated apps, too.

ExpressVPN’s supported devices:

• Laptops and desktops: Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook
• Mobile devices: Android, iOS, Amazon Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble Nook HD
• Wireless routers: Asus, DD-WRT, D-Link, Linksys, Netduma, Netgear, Sabai, Tomato, TP-Link
• Streaming media consoles – with DNS: Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Boxee Box, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Roku, WD TV Live, Xbox One, Xbox 360

CyberGhost VPN’s supported devices:

• Desktop: Windows, macOS, Linux;
• Mobile: iOS, Android;
• Browser: Chrome, Firefox;
• TV: Amazon Fire Stick, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku TV, LG SmartTV, Samsung SmartTV, webOS;
• Routers: DD-WRT, TomatoUSB, TomatoUSB Merlin Build, regular routers;
• More: Raspberry Pi, Synology NAS, Sat-Receiver, Enigma2, VU+ Solo, PlayStation, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Tizen OS, Chromecast, PlayStation 3;

Although the variety of devices seems similar between the two services, we’ve noticed a slight quality decrease when it came to CyberGhost VPN. The browser extensions seemed a bit clumsy, especially the one for Google Chrome.

Bottom line: Although CyberGhost VPN lets you use its service from more devices (7, as opposed to 5), some of its “extra” services (we’re looking at you, Chrome Extension) didn’t meet our requirements completely. We’ll declare it a tie.

8. Number of servers

• ExpressVPN (Tie) – 3000+ servers – 160 server locations – 94 countries
• CyberGhost VPN (Tie) – 5818 servers – 112 locations – 89 countries

The number of servers is yet another feature that you need to consider whenever you’re choosing the most suitable VPN service for your needs. As a rule of thumb: if a service has a lot of servers, you’ll have a wider variety of locations and IP addresses to connect to/use.

We must say that we’re impressed by CyberGhost VPN’s server count. 5818 servers is an impressive amount, not to mention the number of locations and countries it covers, which is almost as great as ExpressVPN’s.

With that in mind, we’re forced to declare it a tie, since ExpressVPN covers more locations, but CyberGhost VPN has a larger server count.

9. Killswitch and split tunneling

• ExpressVPN (Tie) – has killswitch and split-tunneling
• CyberGhost VPN (Tie) – has killswitch and split-tunneling

If you’re wondering why you need a kill-switch in the first place, picture this: you’re out there performing some activities that you’d prefer remained private, so you’re using your favorite VPN. Your VPN connection suddenly drops, and your PC, trying to be nice, re-establishes your default connection but doesn’t tell you, because it doesn’t want to bother you. Now your connection is not private and secure anymore, and you have no clue.

The kill-switch makes sure this situation never occurs by simply blocking all the Internet connection attempts that are not secured by your VPN of choice. So if your PC re-establishes your insecure connection, all traffic will be blocked.

Split tunneling enables you to access data on your LAN network even though you’re connected to your VPN by keeping only certain parts of your activity secure and private. Both of them benefit from both killswitches and split-tunneling features. We’ve noticed that in both VPN’s cases, the kill-switch and split tunneling were not available on every device. However, we’re gonna let that last part slide, since those two features are usually designed for desktop users.

Conclusion: It’s a tie.

10. Torrenting and Netflix

• ExpressVPN (Tie) – lets you torrent and unblocks Netflix
• CyberGhost VPN (Tie) – lets you torrent and unblocks Netflix

It’s not exactly up to debate since both services do a terrific job with torrenting and unblocking Netflix (and other services for you). Some of the other services include Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify, Disney+, and other similar ones. Once again, it’s a tie.

11. Security tests

• ExpressVPN (Tie) – no security issues were detected
• CyberGhost VPN (Tie) – no security issues were picked up

Among the parameters we’ve tested both services for we remind of the IP address, PTR, country, city, latitude, longitude, ASN, ISP, domain name, IP type, IPv6 geolocation, DNS, WebRTC, and Flash IP.

We’ve performed a battery of tests for each of the service, and concluded that both of them are equally safe since we haven’t been able to detect anything wrong with them during the security assessments.

ExpressVPN’s security test results

As you can see, ExpressVPN can hold its end of the deal by making sure your connection doesn’t leak even a bit. Everything is sealed, airtight. Basic tests such as IP leak detections came out impeccable, and so did the advanced ones such as IPv6 geolocation, WebRTC, and Flash IP.

CyberGhost VPN’s security test results

We put CyberGhost VPN against the same variety of tests, trying to locate any potential issues with it, as we did with ExpressVPN. Notice for yourself in the table and screenshots that we’ve inserted above that this service has produced perfect scores for all of our tests and in every section.

Conclusion: we’re going to declare it a tie once again since both ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN had remarkable results during our security assessments. Not one of them leaked and our procedures unfolded uneventfully.

12. Speed tests

• ExpressVPN (Winner) – (78 Mbps – 270 Mbps)
• CyberGhost VPN (Runner-Up) – (16 Mbps – 310 Mbps)

We used our go-to speed test service, Netflix’s fast.com website, to decide which one of these services can fit your needs best when it comes to speed. As we’re always doing during our reviews, we use a wide variety of locations, instead of picking just the most convenient one. That being said, let’s see how each service held up against our speed tests.

ExpressVPN’s speed tests results

When it comes to speed, ExpressVPN is indubitably one of the most powerful VPN choices out there. If you look at the table and screenshots posted above, not only you’ll notice eye-watering speed values (270 Mbps), but also some sort of consistency.

Not even the slowest speed result (78 Mbps) can be considered slow if you take a moment to realize that some other services are struggling to reach this value (for their best server, that is).

CyberGhost VPN’s speed tests results

What started as a great, promising array of tests ended up in such a disappointing note. Notice how the first two tests reached unmatched results, 230, respectively 310 Mbps, which are stupendous. However, starting with Brazil everything went south, as CyberGhost VPN wasn’t able to get even past the 40 Mbps threshold. The slowest server had a speed value of only 16 Mbps.

Without any ado, ExpressVPN is the winner in this category. CyberGhost VPN has some fast servers, but they’re no match to ExpressVPN’s.

13. Price

• ExpressVPN (Runner-Up) – $6.67/month (Totally $99.95 for 15 months) – 49% discount
• CyberGhost VPN (Winner) – $2.75/month (Totally $99 for 3 Years) – 80% discount

Since it’s “all about the money” like that song used to say, we’ve decided to focus our attention on this aspect when comparing the two popular services. More so considering that users won’t waste time with flashy features and hi-tech security talk if the price is over the roof.

That being said, let’s compare the pricing options for each of the services and decide which one of them offers a better bargain.

ExpressVPN’s pricing options

• 1 Month – $12.95 – Buy Now
• 6 Months – $9.99/month (Totally $59.95) – Buy Now
• 15 Months (Including 3 Free months) – $6.67/month (Totally $99.95) – Buy Now and Save 49%

ExpressVPN’s supported payment methods:

• Credit cards: VISA, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, VISA Electron, DELTA, Diners Club INTERNATIONAL.
• PayPal
• BitCoin
• Other: Alipay, UnionPay, iDEAL, Klarna, WebMoney, Giropay, YandexMoney.

CyberGhost VPN’s pricing options

• 1 Month Plan – $12.99 – Buy Now
• 1 Year Plan – $5.99/month (Totally $71.88) – Buy Now and Save 53%
• 2 Year Plan – $3.69/month (Totally $88.56) – Buy Now and Save 71%
• 3 Year Plan – $2.75/month (Totally $99) – Buy Now and Save 80%

CyberGhost VPN’s supported payment methods:

• Credit Card: VISA, MasterCard, American Express
• PayPal
• BitPay

14. Money-back guarantee

• ExpressVPN (Runner-Up) – 30 days money-back guarantees
• CyberGhost VPN (Winner) – 45 days money-back guarantee

No argument there, CyberGhost VPN clearly offers a better deal with a money-back guarantee that’s 50% larger than ExpressVPN’s. Neither one of the services imposes special requirements to be eligible for this deal. More so, CyberGhost VPN also offers you a 1-day trial, which is something that ExpressVPN fails to deliver.

15. Customer support

• ExpressVPN (Tie) – great customer support
• CyberGhost VPN (Tie) – great customer support

Last, but not least, we’re going to discuss customer support for a bit. It’s a very important part of our daily routines that we experience an issue with one thing or another, and we’d sometimes like to receive help, especially if the issue is way out of our expertise area.

With that in mind, we’ve tested ExpressVPN’s customer support, then we gave CyberGhost VPN’s a shot, and the results were nothing short of great. Both services provided us with great levels of assistance, timely replies, as well as helpful, friendly staff. Truth be told, we couldn’t expect any lesser from neither one of the services.

Among the customer support options you have with both services you can find email support, live chat, an outstanding amount of help-yourself guides (for those times you’re not really up for chatting), and troubleshooting sections. Regardless of whether you want to speak to somebody or not, both ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN are ready to help you with your VPN-related issues. We declare a tie.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we have to declare ExpressVPN our absolute winner, although it was a pretty tight competition between it and CyberGhost VPN. Both providers offer top-notch services, unmatched security, as well as flexibility and ease-of-use.

We had a lot of ties because of that, but in the end, it seems that CyberGhost VPN had a bit more wins than ExpressVPN. Although it’s a matter of choice at this point, we choose ExpressVPN as the best all-round VPN, since it scored better in critical sections such as speed and data collection.