NordVPN vs ExpressVPN
Pick NordVPN if you want a price in Australian dollars and current test results. Pick ExpressVPN if you value its Lightway protocol and RAM-only servers and do not mind paying in US dollars.
On a Melbourne server NordVPN kept 88% of our download speed in October 2026, the fifth-highest of the seven VPNs in our current round. ExpressVPN kept 86% on Sydney when we last tested it, in August 2021.
The rest of the quick answer comes from the providers’ own sites, read for our daily data check:
- Cheaper to start: NordVPN, on each one’s lowest monthly price in Australian dollars
- Devices at once: NordVPN 10, ExpressVPN 10–14
- More countries: NordVPN
- Refund window: NordVPN 30 days, ExpressVPN 30 days
Price and renewal in Australian dollars
| VPN | Lowest monthly price | Renewal price | Money-back | Countries | Devices | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 NordVPN | A$4.79 27 months, A$129.33 upfront | A$187.08 per year | 30 days | 150 | 10 | Black Friday deal ends soonVisit NordVPN |
2 ExpressVPN | US$4.99 (about A$7.10) 15 months, US$74.85 upfront | US$99.95 per year | 30 days | 113 | 10–14 | Visit ExpressVPN |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
– means we do not have that detail yet. Prices shown in US$ are published in that currency; the Australian-dollar figure is approximate, converted at the European Central Bank euro reference rates for 30 Oct 2026 (US$1 = A$1.424).
How this list is ordered
The order is calculated from the figures in the table, weighted as follows. The full method
- Lowest monthly price (AUD): 60%
- Countries with servers: 40%
Ranking calculated 2 Nov 2026.
NordVPN’s checkout price is the price on your statement, because it charges in Australian dollars. ExpressVPN charges in US dollars, so our conversion shifts with the exchange rate and your bank may add a fee.
Watch the renewal column more than the headline price. Both discount a long first term, then renew every 12 months at a much higher rate.
NordVPN’s best rate needs 27 months paid upfront, and ExpressVPN’s needs 15 months. Set a reminder a few weeks before either renews, when switching saves the most.
NordVPN and ExpressVPN side by side
Devices and apps
NordVPN covers 10 devices at once; ExpressVPN covers 10–14, depending on the plan. Ten or so suits one person or a couple, and a family can pass it quickly.
The side-by-side cards above list each one’s apps and browser extensions, read from its own site.
The protocols differ more than the apps. Each company built its own: NordLynx for NordVPN and Lightway for ExpressVPN.
Security.org found OpenVPN 5 to 10% slower than NordLynx in its NordVPN review. It likes Lightway on phones and other low-powered devices, because the code is light.
Australian servers
NordVPN’s Australian servers are in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney; ExpressVPN’s are in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Either way you can stay close to home for banking, Stan, Kayo and ABC iview.
Privacy, audits and ownership
Both say they keep no logs of what you do online, and both say outside firms have checked. Security.org says third-party auditors have verified NordVPN’s policy.
ExpressVPN names KPMG, PwC and Cure53 as auditors, and says its RAM-only servers, which hold nothing once they restart, have been audited too.
ExpressVPN belongs to Kape Technologies, whose own site lists CyberGhost and Private Internet Access among its brands (read in October 2026). NordVPN belongs to Nord Security. ExpressVPN says it is registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Top10VPN notes that ExpressVPN keeps some data, such as how much bandwidth you use, but nothing that identifies you. Security.org found that openness reassuring.
Speed from Melbourne
NordVPN is the one with current figures. Its latest local result kept 88% of our download speed (October 2026), against ExpressVPN’s 86% (August 2021).
We compare the share kept rather than raw Mbps, because our home line’s speed differs between rounds.
Overseas, NordVPN kept 78% in the US (October 2026), 62% in the UK (October 2026) and 83% in Japan (October 2026). The tables put NordVPN beside ExpressVPN’s latest result; we have no ExpressVPN result for Japan.
| VPN | Speed kept | Download | Ping | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | 78% | 41.2 Mbps | 159 ms | October 2026 |
| ExpressVPN | 25% | 25.1 Mbps | – | August 2021 |
Our download speed to a server in the United States, from Melbourne, as a share of the same line's speed with the VPN off that day. Line speeds differ between test years, so compare the share kept.
Tested on an account NordVPN gave us free of charge (14–25 Oct 2026).
| VPN | Speed kept | Download | Ping | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | 62% | 32.9 Mbps | 280 ms | October 2026 |
| ExpressVPN | 42% | 43.1 Mbps | – | August 2021 |
Our download speed to a server in the United Kingdom, from Melbourne, as a share of the same line's speed with the VPN off that day. Line speeds differ between test years, so compare the share kept.
Our earlier results (2021–22)
NordVPN was faster on most downloads when we last tested both side by side, in August 2021. ExpressVPN was quicker to India and on most uploads.
From our test bench Melbourne, August 2021
| Connection | Download | Upload | Ping |
|---|---|---|---|
| No VPN | 104.1 Mbps | 18.1 Mbps | 15 ms |
| NordVPN, Sydney server | 99.2 Mbps −4.7% | 8.99 Mbps −50.3% | 46 ms |
| Server in | Download | Upload |
|---|---|---|
 United States | 85.7 Mbps −17.7% | 5.25 Mbps −71.0% |
 United Kingdom | 80.2 Mbps −23.0% | 7.60 Mbps −58.0% |
 India | 19.1 Mbps −81.7% | 1.35 Mbps −92.5% |
 Brazil | 73.8 Mbps −29.1% | 3.59 Mbps −80.2% |
12.5 MiB/s average torrent download rate on an Australian server (August 2021)
Our own measurements on a Melbourne home connection of about 104 Mbps at the time, August 2021. Changes are against the speed of the same line with the VPN off, measured the same day.
From our test bench Melbourne, August 2021
| Connection | Download | Upload |
|---|---|---|
| No VPN | 102 Mbps | 18.4 Mbps |
| ExpressVPN, Sydney server | 88.2 Mbps −13.5% | 9.83 Mbps −46.6% |
| Server in | Download | Upload |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 25.1 Mbps −75.4% | 7.08 Mbps −61.5% |
| United Kingdom | 43.1 Mbps −57.7% | 4.95 Mbps −73.1% |
| India | 63.5 Mbps −37.7% | 4.88 Mbps −73.5% |
| Brazil | 42.6 Mbps −58.2% | 11.7 Mbps −36.4% |
 South Africa | 55 Mbps −46.1% | 3.94 Mbps −78.6% |
11.8 MiB/s average torrent download rate on an Australian server (August 2021)
Our own measurements on a Melbourne home connection of about 102 Mbps at the time, August 2021. Changes are against the speed of the same line with the VPN off, measured the same day.
On a Sydney server, NordVPN downloaded at about 99 Mbps, 95% of a 104 Mbps line. ExpressVPN reached about 88 Mbps, 86% of its 102 Mbps baseline. You would struggle to notice either gap on Netflix.
The bigger gap was overseas. NordVPN held about 86 Mbps on a US server where ExpressVPN managed 25: enough for streaming either way, but slow for large downloads.
Both cut uploads roughly in half on Sydney. Torrent downloads were close, at 12.5 and 11.8 MiB/s.
| VPN | Our torrent speed | P2P policy | Kill switch | Port forwarding | Audited by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | 4.44 MiB/s tested October 2026 | Allowed in our test tested October 2026 | ✓ Listed | ✓ Listed | Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers AG Switzerland |
| ExpressVPN | 11.8 MiB/s tested August 2021 | Not checked | ✓ Listed | ✓ Listed | KPMG, PwC, Cure53 |
Torrent speed is the average download rate we measured on an Australian server, with its date. Features and auditors are as each provider lists them; "Not checked" means we have not recorded it yet.
NordVPN’s row is our October 2026 run on a standard Melbourne server, as fast as the same torrent with the VPN off. ExpressVPN’s is still the 2021 figure, from a different line and file, so do not compare the two directly.
Independent testers have been back to ExpressVPN more recently; our ExpressVPN review summarises them. Top10VPN recorded a 2% loss on nearby servers with Lightway, and 4% for NordVPN on the same kind of test.
Leaks and kill switch
NordVPN kept our lookups private, and our only ExpressVPN check is from 2021.
| VPN | DNS | IPv6 | WebRTC | Kill switch | Switching servers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | No leak tested 25 Oct 2026 | Could not test tested 25 Oct 2026 | No leak tested 25 Oct 2026 | Chosen apps only, off by default; drop test not run tested 25 Oct 2026 | Kill switch off: No leak (4 s offline) tested 25 Oct 2026 |
| ExpressVPN | No leak tested 11 Aug 2021 | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
"Could not test" means our line had no IPv6 to leak. "Not recorded" means we tested the VPN but did not record that check; "Not tested" means we have not tested the VPN yet. Neither means it failed.
NordVPN had no DNS leaks on servers in Melbourne, San Jose, London, Tokyo, Santa Clara, Mumbai, São Paulo, Johannesburg and Los Angeles (14–25 Oct 2026). Sites were looked up through NordVPN, not our internet provider. We could not test IPv6, because our line has none.
On a Mac, NordVPN’s kill switch only closes apps you choose, and it was off by default when we checked in October 2026. We did not run a drop test.
Our only ExpressVPN check is the IP leak test from August 2021, so we will not lean on it until we repeat it.
Streaming
Neither is a sure thing for streaming on our evidence. NordVPN’s results changed from day to day in October 2026:
- BBC iPlayer: blocked on five UK servers on 14 October, then played on a London server on 17 October.
- ABEMA: blocked on Tokyo on 14 October, played there on 25 October.
- Netflix (25 October): the US library played on Los Angeles; Netflix UK and Japan showed a VPN or proxy message.
| VPN |  Netflix US | Netflix UK |  BBC iPlayer |
|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | Played tested 25 Oct 2026 | Blocked tested 25 Oct 2026 | Played tested 17 Oct 2026 |
| ExpressVPN | Not tested | Not tested | Played (EastEnders) tested August 2021 |
Our own results from Melbourne, with the date we tried. "Site loaded" means the service's local site opened through the VPN but we did not play anything (usually no account). Results from different years come from different test rounds.
Our only ExpressVPN streaming result is BBC iPlayer playing EastEnders on a UK server in August 2021. We have not tried it with American Netflix.
Top10VPN says ExpressVPN unblocked 115 out of 120 streaming services it tested. If one service is why you are buying, test it before the refund window closes.
Which should you choose?
- Choose NordVPN for Australian-dollar pricing and a provider we retested from Melbourne in October 2026.
- Choose ExpressVPN for Lightway and RAM-only servers it says are audited, if you are happy paying in US dollars.
If price decides it, compare both with Surfshark and the rest of the cheapest VPNs in Australia.
Full reviews: NordVPN review · ExpressVPN review
Guides for both
- UK VPN: British servers from Australia
- US VPN: American servers from Australia
- Japan VPN: Japanese servers from Australia
- India VPN: Indian servers from Australia
- Best VPN for Netflix in Australia
- How to watch AFL and NRL overseas
- Is torrenting illegal in Australia?
- The definitive VPN guide: how a VPN works