Here's how the two island services stack up when it comes to speed, security and cost. Most recently, ExpressVPN just spent the better part of the past year battling for NordVPN's spot at the top of the VPN industry food chain, but now relative newcomer Surfshark is looking to eat ExpressVPN's lunch.

But right now, we're feeling the island breeze. Sure, its status as a UK territory gives us pause when considering the potential privacy exposure if political pressure were ever to be applied.

While the British Virgin Islands is a UK territory, it isn't explicitly subject to UK data retention laws nor does it participate in intelligence-sharing agreements. When it comes to a privacy starting point, you want to look for a VPN headquartered or owned by countries outside of the US. And more pointedly, they're both headquartered in the privacy-friendly British Virgin Islands. The two VPNs are known for their private, no-logs services featuring competitive encryption and fast speeds. While their prices and server network sizes highlight their most notable differences, what makes the competition between Surfshark and ExpressVPN interesting is all that the two virtual private network options have in common. Surfshark is now owned by NordVPN, and ExpressVPN is now owned by Kape Technologies. In 2022, both Surfshark and ExpressVPN are navigating the reverberations of ownership changes that each went through last year.

Nord vs expressvpn