Head-to-head VPN comparisons that go beyond spec sheets. We line up audit records, independent speed results, features, and pricing side by side — and name a winner for your specific needs.
Both are cheap, both are audited, and both have been tested by someone who did not ask permission. The results went in opposite directions, and that is the whole comparison.
Unlimited devices on both. Within a few dollars on price. Both inside intelligence-sharing countries, and both owned by a group that also owns one of their competitors.
These two are not rivals in the way the comparison pages imply. One company owns both of them, and it owns a third VPN and a large review site as well.
One of them schedules its proof and publishes the report. The other was subpoenaed twice without warning and had nothing to hand over. That difference matters more than the price gap.
One asks you to forgive a documented 2017 incident. The other asks you to commit without a way back. Twelve dollars separate them across four years.
Eight dollars separate these two across four years, and both publish their audits openly. What decides it is a 45-day refund window against no window at all.
TunnelBear commissioned the first public VPN audit anyone had done. ExpressVPN’s trust center now lists 28. One costs $107 more across four years, and one has no refund window at all.
One provider was caught handing logs to the FBI in 2017 and responded with permanent third-party auditing. The other has never been caught, and has never been independently checked either.
Both give you 45 days to change your mind, which is the longest window available. One has published a transparency report every quarter since 2011. The other has published none since 2019.
Published sources credit ExpressVPN with anywhere from 18 to 28 audits. Hotspot Shield has none of its no-logs policy. The two cost within a few dollars of each other.
