Proton VPN vs ExpressVPN 2026: Price, Speed, Privacy and Verdict

01The Verdict at a Glance

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02Proton VPN vs ExpressVPN: Price in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

The two providers show prices differently. Proton quotes euros including tax: from the Czech Republic, its checkout listed €83.76 for two-year VPN Plus with a line underneath saying 21% tax was included (Proton VPN). ExpressVPN shows Czech visitors US dollars before tax. Its Czech pricing page says all amounts are in USD and tax is added at checkout where applicable (ExpressVPN). At checkout, Basic for 2 years and 4 months cost $83.72 plus $17.58 in VAT (21%), for a total of $101.30.

In Slovakia and the rest of the eurozone, ExpressVPN has charged fixed euro prices since February 2026 (ExpressVPN). These are also before VAT. With the currency switched to euros, the checkout we opened from the Czech Republic showed €69.72 for two-year Basic plus 21% Czech VAT, €84.36 in total. With Slovakia’s 23% VAT, that would be €85.76, or €3.06 a month, and the €79.95 renewal would become €98.34. We did not see a Slovak checkout for either provider. Proton lists its prices including VAT, so we use them as they are.

For the first term, ExpressVPN Basic is slightly cheaper than Proton Plus at list price, but Proton wins through the partner link. The real gap opens at renewal. Proton renews at €83.88 for 12 months (Proton VPN), while ExpressVPN Basic renews at $99.95 a year plus tax (ExpressVPN), so $120.94 with Czech VAT. Including two yearly renewals, Proton’s partner offer costs about CZK 5,830 over 48 months and ExpressVPN Basic about CZK 7,444 over 52 months (28 months plus two renewals). Both warn that renewal prices can change, and both let you turn off auto-renewal in your account. ExpressVPN is also A/B testing the Basic price, and Gizmodo saw $3.49 a month instead of $2.99 (Gizmodo).

Watch what the discounts are measured against, too. ExpressVPN advertises 80% off Basic, measured against its $14.99 monthly plan. Our Proton button says 70%: that’s how much cheaper two years of VPN Plus at €2.99 a month is than the €9.99 monthly plan. The partner offer costs €71.76 for 24 months including VAT, the discount code works only once per user, and after 24 months Plus renews at €83.88 a year. We break down every Proton plan in our Proton VPN price guide.

For Czech buyers, ExpressVPN has one drawback: on the website you pay in dollars, so the final koruna amount depends on your bank’s exchange rate. It only charges in CZK through the App Store, where Basic costs CZK 299 a month or CZK 1,990 a year and other subscriptions up to CZK 359 a month or CZK 2,790 a year (App Store). ExpressVPN’s 30-day money-back guarantee doesn’t cover App Store or Google Play purchases, though (ExpressVPN).

The pricier plans differ in what they bundle. ExpressVPN Basic already includes ExpressMailGuard email aliases, Advanced adds the ExpressKeys password manager and a travel eSIM with data, while Express Pro adds a dedicated IP address and the private AI assistant ExpressAI. Proton Unlimited unlocks all of Proton’s premium services: Proton Mail with 15 addresses, the Proton Pass password manager, a calendar and 500 GB of Proton Drive storage (Proton VPN). Both block ads and malware on their cheapest paid plan.

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03Proton VPN Has a Free Plan, ExpressVPN Only a Trial

This is a clear win for Proton. According to Proton, the Proton Free plan has no data or time limit, shows no ads and is covered by the same no-logs policy as the paid plans (Proton VPN). You can only connect 1 device, though, and the app assigns you a server in one of 10 countries without letting you pick (Proton VPN). P2P file sharing is paid only, and Proton only guarantees streaming on paid plans (Proton VPN, Proton VPN). We cover what Free can do and when it’s enough in our Proton VPN free guide.

ExpressVPN itself has no free plan. Its free trial is mobile only: 3 days in the iPhone app (App Store) and 7 days on Android through Google Play, according to the Czech listing (Google Play). On iPhone, the subscription is charged automatically when the trial ends unless you cancel first. On the website, you get a 30-day money-back guarantee for new customers (ExpressVPN). The company has also released EventVPN, a separate free VPN with ads and a single connection, which we don’t cover in this comparison (CNET).

04Proton VPN vs ExpressVPN: Speed

In TechRadar’s lab, Proton is faster. With WireGuard, it reached 1,475 Mbps on the nearest server and 1,548 Mbps from the UK to the US (TechRadar). ExpressVPN came closest with its Lightway Turbo protocol at 1,177 Mbps, but Turbo is only available in the Windows app for now (ExpressVPN). With standard Lightway, ExpressVPN managed just 428 Mbps, and 967 Mbps with WireGuard (TechRadar).

Other tests point the other way. In its June 2026 report, Artifact Security measured an average of 257.4 Mbps for ExpressVPN and 165.2 Mbps for Proton on Windows, and scored ExpressVPN 84 points to Proton’s 83. Proton, on the other hand, had the steadiest connection with the lowest jitter (5.93 ms vs 18.78 ms) and connected far faster, in 2.9 seconds vs 14.6 (Artifact Security). The report doesn’t say who commissioned the test. In its comparison this year, run from southeastern Europe, Gizmodo measured an average download speed loss of 24% for ExpressVPN and 43% for Proton (Gizmodo). CNET’s 2025 testing, by contrast, gave Proton a slight edge, with 16% speed loss vs 18% (CNET).

On a typical home connection in the Czech Republic or Slovakia, both are fast enough that you won’t notice a difference. The results depend more on who is testing, when, from where and with which protocol than on which of the two services you pick. If you have gigabit fiber and use Windows, you can switch on Lightway Turbo with ExpressVPN; with Proton, WireGuard does the job.

05Proton VPN vs ExpressVPN: Privacy and Audits

Both say they don’t log what you do online. According to Proton, Swiss law doesn’t require it to keep users’ connection logs (Proton VPN). Since 2017, Proton has received 458 legally binding orders from Swiss authorities and rejected all of them because it doesn’t have the requested data (Proton VPN). ExpressVPN explains its British Virgin Islands base by pointing out that VPN providers there face no mandatory data retention (ExpressVPN). Its privacy policy says it doesn’t store browsing history, IP addresses or DNS queries. It does record which day you connected (but not the time), to which location, and from which country and internet provider (ExpressVPN).

ExpressVPN leads on the number of audits. Its Trust Center lists 28 of them from 2018 to 2026, most by Cure53, though eight cover other products such as its password manager, email aliases or routers (ExpressVPN). Its no-logs policy was checked by PwC in 2019 and then three times by KPMG, most recently as of February 28, 2025 (ExpressVPN). Since 2022, Proton has commissioned a no-logs audit from the Polish firm Securitum every year, with 2026 marking the fifth in a row (Proton VPN). Keep in mind that each audit is only a snapshot of one point in time.

Each has a different strength. Since 2019, ExpressVPN has run all its servers from RAM only, so everything on them is wiped with each reboot (ExpressVPN). Proton instead uses full disk encryption on all its servers (Proton VPN, CNET). Proton, meanwhile, has published the source code of all its apps since 2020, and independent researcher Ruben Santamarta audited the apps’ security in November 2025 (Proton VPN, GitHub). ExpressVPN has open-sourced the code of its Lightway protocol (ExpressVPN), but Gizmodo notes that its apps aren’t open source (Gizmodo). ExpressVPN’s Lightway uses post-quantum encryption by default, which guards against attacks from future quantum computers (ExpressVPN), while Proton has it on its roadmap (Proton VPN).

Neither record is spotless. In 2017, Turkish police seized an ExpressVPN server but found no connection logs on it (TorrentFreak). In 2021 it emerged that ExpressVPN employed Daniel Gericke, who had previously worked for a UAE company tied to the Project Raven surveillance operation. ExpressVPN said it knew his background, didn’t condone the operation and would have its policy compliance audited every year (ExpressVPN). In 2024, the Windows app sent some DNS requests outside the tunnel when split tunneling was on, which ExpressVPN said affected under 1% of users (ExpressVPN). In July 2025, Proton announced it would move most of its physical infrastructure out of Switzerland over government proposals to expand surveillance (Proton). The services are still run by Geneva-based Proton AG, and its terms are governed by Swiss law (Proton, Proton).

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06Servers in Prague, Bratislava and Worldwide

Closer to home, Proton has the edge. Its server list shows 85 servers in Prague and 62 in Bratislava, and 20,839 servers in 149 countries worldwide (Proton VPN). ExpressVPN doesn’t publish server counts. It has one location in the Czech Republic, with a server in Prague (ExpressVPN), and one in Slovakia (ExpressVPN). In total, it offers 214 locations in 113 countries (ExpressVPN).

Both cover some countries with virtual locations, which give you an IP address from that country while the server sits elsewhere. Proton calls this Smart Routing, and neither the Czech Republic nor Slovakia is among those countries (Proton VPN). ExpressVPN labels its virtual locations in its server list, and neither country is marked as one (ExpressVPN). Only ExpressVPN sells dedicated IP addresses to regular customers: as an add-on to Basic and Advanced (shown at checkout for $3.99 a month before tax, with 29 regions to choose from) or included with Express Pro (ExpressVPN). Proton only offers them to businesses (Proton).

07Features and Apps

Proton gives power users more tools. Secure Core sends your traffic through a server in Switzerland, Iceland or Sweden first (Proton VPN), Tor servers open .onion sites without a separate browser, and port forwarding helps with torrenting. ExpressVPN doesn’t offer port forwarding (TechRadar). ExpressVPN, for its part, has MediaStreamer, a DNS service for smart TVs and game consoles that can’t run a VPN app. You have to register your IP address, and it doesn’t encrypt anything on its own (ExpressVPN).

Both have apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, Android, Apple TV, Android TV and Fire TV, plus browser extensions (Proton VPN, ExpressVPN). Proton Plus covers 10 devices, while ExpressVPN covers 10 on Basic, 12 on Advanced and 14 on Express Pro (ExpressVPN). CNET and Gizmodo both call ExpressVPN easier for beginners, while Proton offers more settings (CNET, Gizmodo). Language can matter if you share a device with Czech or Slovak family members: Proton’s apps, except on Linux, are available in both (Proton VPN). ExpressVPN’s iPhone and Mac apps come in 17 languages, but not in Czech or Slovak (App Store). Our guide to setting up a VPN on iPhone and Android walks you through the mobile setup.

08Streaming: Netflix and More

For streaming, the two are close. TechRadar got into most Netflix libraries with ExpressVPN but struggled with Australia and Japan (TechRadar). Tom’s Guide couldn’t unblock US Prime Video or Netflix in Australia and Japan with it (Tom’s Guide). In TechRadar’s test, Proton handled every Netflix library it tried but failed with several Amazon Prime Video regions (TechRadar). Tom’s Guide had trouble with Prime Video in Australia, Canada and Japan on Proton (Tom’s Guide). Gizmodo’s comparison this year gives Proton the streaming round, and CNET rates both as excellent (Gizmodo, CNET).

Netflix has its own rules: over a VPN you only see titles licensed worldwide, and its plan with ads doesn’t support VPNs at all (Netflix). When traveling in the EU, you don’t need a VPN anyway, since Netflix shows you your home catalog for a limited time (Netflix). If you mostly stream on a TV or console that can’t run a VPN app, ExpressVPN’s MediaStreamer gives it the edge.

09Proton VPN vs ExpressVPN in China

The big difference shows up in countries that block VPNs. Tom’s Guide says ExpressVPN generally works in China, thanks to its Hong Kong servers and the obfuscation built into Lightway (Tom’s Guide). The same site says Proton doesn’t work there (Tom’s Guide). Gizmodo got Proton’s Stealth protocol to connect in China roughly three times out of ten, while ExpressVPN held up in China, Turkey, Russia and the Gulf states (Gizmodo).

Neither provider guarantees it will work in China, and Proton itself says no VPN can be 100% reliable there (Proton VPN). If you’re traveling to China, ExpressVPN is the better pick of the two. Install it and test it before you leave.

10What Reviewers Say

Reviewers are split. Security.org and TechRadar rate Proton slightly higher, while Tom’s Guide and CNET favor ExpressVPN (Proton VPN reviews: Security.org, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, CNET; ExpressVPN: Security.org, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, CNET). In its head-to-head, Gizmodo named Proton the winner, five rounds to three (Gizmodo). The gaps are small, though, and the scores date from different months.

11Refunds, Payment and Canceling

Both offer a 30-day refund. Proton refunds the full amount within 30 days of your first purchase, but you can only ask once, and payments by cash or bank transfer aren’t refundable (Proton). ExpressVPN refunds new customers only and not after a renewal. If you’ve already had a refund, it can turn down another one. It refunds in US dollars, so if you paid in another currency, the amount can differ because of the exchange rate (ExpressVPN). With both, the guarantee only applies if you buy directly, not through the App Store or Google Play.

At Proton’s checkout we saw card, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay. According to its help page, Proton also accepts bitcoin, cash and bank transfer (Proton VPN). For step-by-step instructions, see how to cancel Proton VPN and how to cancel ExpressVPN.

12Proton VPN or ExpressVPN: Which Should You Choose?

Choose Proton VPN if you

• want a lower price after renewal
• are looking for a free VPN for one device with no data cap
• want apps in Czech or Slovak and open-source code
• download torrents and would benefit from port forwarding
• value Swiss jurisdiction and Secure Core
• use Proton Mail or Proton Drive and would get value from Proton Unlimited

Try Proton VPN: 70% off for 2 years

Choose ExpressVPN if you

• travel to China or other countries that block VPNs
• want the simplest possible app with nothing to configure
• stream on a TV or console that can’t run a VPN app
• want RAM-only servers and post-quantum encryption
• need a dedicated IP address or more than 10 devices

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We have also compared Proton with NordVPN, Surfshark and Mullvad, and ExpressVPN with NordVPN. For other providers, see our roundup of the best VPNs for 2026.

13Frequently Asked Questions

14The Bottom Line

For most people in the Czech Republic and Slovakia who want a VPN for public Wi-Fi, privacy and the occasional stream, Proton VPN is the better deal. It costs about the same as ExpressVPN for the first term, is cheaper after renewal, lists 85 servers in Prague and 62 in Bratislava, offers apps in Czech and Slovak and can even be used for free. ExpressVPN is worth it if you travel to countries with censorship, want the simplest possible app, stream on a TV or console that can’t run a VPN app or want RAM-only servers. Whichever you choose, note your renewal date.

Data protection matters for business websites and apps too. If you are planning a project that handles customer data, see how we build custom websites, what it costs and how we work.

15Sources

• Proton VPN: pricing
• ExpressVPN: pricing (Czech version)
• ExpressVPN: local currency pricing
• Proton VPN: free VPN
• Proton VPN: free vs paid
• Proton VPN: free plan servers
• Proton VPN: about us
• ExpressVPN: about us
• Proton: privacy policy
• ExpressVPN: privacy policy
• Proton VPN: features
• ExpressVPN: features
• Proton: moving infrastructure (blog, 2025)
• Proton VPN: transparency report
• Proton VPN: no-logs audits
• ExpressVPN: Trust Center and audits
• ExpressVPN: KPMG audit 2025
• Proton VPN: open source and app audit
• GitHub: ProtonVPN
• ExpressVPN: Lightway protocol
• TorrentFreak: ExpressVPN server seized in Turkey (2017)
• ExpressVPN: statement on Daniel Gericke (2021)
• ExpressVPN: Windows app DNS issue (2024)
• Proton VPN: server list
• Proton VPN: Smart Routing
• ExpressVPN: server locations
• ExpressVPN: Czech Republic server
• ExpressVPN: 214 locations in 113 countries
• Proton: dedicated IP addresses
• Proton VPN: Secure Core

• Proton VPN: NetShield
• Proton VPN: spring and summer 2026 roadmap
• Proton VPN: Tor over VPN
• Proton VPN: port forwarding
• ExpressVPN: MediaStreamer
• ExpressVPN: kill switch
• Proton VPN: downloads
• Proton VPN: app language
• App Store: ExpressVPN (Czech Republic)
• Google Play: ExpressVPN (Czech listing)
• Proton VPN: does it work in China?
• Proton: terms of service
• ExpressVPN: terms of service
• Proton VPN: payment options
• TechRadar: fastest VPN (August 2026)
• Artifact Security: VPN Performance World Tour 2026 (PDF)
• Gizmodo: ExpressVPN vs Proton VPN (2026)
• CNET: ExpressVPN vs Proton VPN (2025)
• TechRadar: Proton VPN review
• Tom’s Guide: Proton VPN review
• CNET: Proton VPN review
• Security.org: Proton VPN review
• TechRadar: ExpressVPN review
• Tom’s Guide: ExpressVPN review
• CNET: ExpressVPN review
• Security.org: ExpressVPN review
• Netflix: VPNs and proxies
• Netflix: traveling in the EU
• Czech National Bank: exchange rates, October 19, 2026

Prices and ExpressVPN details as of October 19, 2026; other Proton details as of October 18 and 19, 2026. ExpressVPN prices with VAT (except the checkout total for two-year Basic), per-month figures, multi-year totals and koruna amounts are our own calculations using the Czech National Bank rate of October 19, 2026.