88 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2020At $8.32 (about £6.50)/month for a year,
ExpressVPN is a bit pricey. There are six-
month $9.99 (about £7.80)/month) and one-
month $12.95 (about £10) options, with a 30-
day money-back guarantee. NordVPN costs
£5.38/month for a year, £9.20 for one month,
£3.84/month for two years, or £2.69/month
for three years; all with a 30-day money-
back guarantee. X-VPN charges $5.99/month (about £4.60) per
year or $11.99 (about £9.20) for a month, with a seven-day money-
back plan. CyberGhost offers a yearly plan for £4.59/month, a
£10.29 one-month option or £3.09 per month for two years, with a
45-day money-back scheme. VPN Unlimited costs $5/month (about
£3.90) for one year. One month costs $9.99 (about £7.70), two-year
is $2.79/month (about £2.10), and lifetime is $199.99 (about £155);
you get a seven-day trial and a seven-day money-back scheme.NordVPN, which supports six devices in
a subscription, is the easiest to use. Simply
pick a server from the map to connect. You
can also select which of the two protocols
you want to connect with from the
Preferences window. X-VPN is the most
feature rich, supporting five devices and
with a dedicated list for streaming services.
When picking a protocol, the app shows you the ratings for speed,
security and access for each. ExpressVPN, which also supports
five devices with a single subscription, is also easy to use. The
Preferences window allows you to choose a protocol and select
apps to work with split tunnelling. CyberGhost offers support for
up to seven devices and dedicated servers for streaming; the server
list also displays the load percentage and active number of users,
which is very handy. VPN Unlimited allows you to connect up to
five devices and offers dedicated streaming servers. You can also
pick which protocol you want to use from the settings menu.The results here are the average of five
speed tests, based on the optimum VPN
connection for our location. These were then
compared to the speed of our internet
connection with no VPN active. In each case,
the speeds with the VPN active dropped, as
expected, although the differences between
each provider were fairly marginal. The
speeds you are likely to experience will be different. They will also
vary based on the server location and load. Without a VPN, our
internet speed tested at 58.50Mbps (download) and 9.35Mbps
(upload). NordVPN’s download speed was 51.14Mbps, while
its upload speed was 9.13Mbps. X-VPN measured 53.58Mbps
(download) and 9.13Mbps (upload). ExpressVPN scored
51.52Mbps (download) and 8.68Mbps (upload). CyberGhost hit
57.08Mbps (download) and 8.99Mbps (upload). VPN Unlimited
was nominally the fastest, scoring an average of 58.30Mbps, but
it also had a relatively slower upload speed of 8.78Mbps.All the services require an email ID to log
in and card details for payment, although
some offer alternative payment methods.
NordVPN offers a double VPN, has a no-logs
policy, and accepts cryptocurrencies. X-VPN
offers multi-layered encryption technology
and nine protocol options, althought it’s not
at all transparent about what these are. It
also logs more data than many VPNs. ExpressVPN accepts Bitcoin
payments and has a no-logs policy. It’s also one of the few VPNs to
provide split tunnelling (routing some apps/services through the
VPN, while others access the internet directly). CyberGhost only
offers three protocols but it has a no-logs policy and accepts
cryptocurrency payments. VPN Unlimited offers six protocols; it
doesn’t specify a no-logs policy though. When tested for DNS leaks
(revealing your IP address), all VPNs provided strong protections.TEST RESULTS
TEST RESULTS TEST RESULTS
TEST RESULTS
Te s t 1 Price Te s t 2 Security
Te s t 3 Speed Te s t 4 Ease of use
Do you get your money’s worth? Making sure your data is private
How fast is your connection? Set up and running features
CyberGhost +++++
ExpressVPN +++++
NordVPN +++++VPN Unlimited +++++
X-VPN +++++CyberGhost +++++
ExpressVPN +++++
NordVPN +++++VPN Unlimited +++++
X-VPN +++++CyberGhost +++++
ExpressVPN +++++
NordVPN +++++VPN Unlimited +++++
X-VPN +++++CyberGhost +++++
ExpressVPN +++++
NordVPN +++++VPN Unlimited +++++
X-VPN +++++APPLE CHOICE Group test
Image credits (left to right, top to bottom): NordVPN, Express VPN, CyberGhost, X-VPN