Cybersecurity · head to head
ExpressVPN vs Secure Privacy
ExpressVPN
Cybersecurity
Consumer VPN registered in the British Virgin Islands, owned by Kape Technologies since 2021, with repeated third-party audits.
- From
- $6.67/month
- Rated
- -
Secure Privacy
Legal
Consent management and website privacy compliance priced per domain by monthly consent volume
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Secure Privacy has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: ExpressVPN ownership passed in 2021 to Kape Technologies, formerly Crossrider, whose earlier browser extension platform was widely used to distribute adware, and Kape also owns VPN review publications, so nominally independent rankings a buyer consults may originate inside the same corporate group.; Secure Privacy consent allowances are the real constraint and they are per domain, so a high traffic site on the Business tier can burn through 50,000 consents well before month end and be pushed to a tier that costs more than four times as much.
- They diverge on capability: ExpressVPN covers TrustedServer, Secure Privacy covers Cookie scanning.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which ExpressVPN and Secure Privacy actually diverge.
| Attribute | ExpressVPN | Secure Privacy |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $6.67/month | Free |
| Pricing model | subscription | Per domain per month by consent volume |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Platforms | Web, Desktop, Mobile, Api | Web |
| Category | Cybersecurity | Legal |
| Founded | 2009 | Unknown |
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in ExpressVPN
- TrustedServer
- Lightway protocol
- Repeated external audits
- Network Lock
- Split tunnelling
- Aircove router
- Threat Manager
- Private DNS
Only in Secure Privacy
- Cookie scanning
- Automatic cookie blocking
- Legal templates
- Data subject access requests
- IAB TCF 2.3
- Cross-domain consent
- Scan behind login
- Audit logs and SSO
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
ExpressVPN
- A buyer who wants the largest available body of published third-party audit evidence behind a no-logging claimnot Secure Privacy
- Households wanting whole-network coverage through a router without configuring firmware by handnot Secure Privacy
- Frequent travellers who need connections that survive switching between mobile data and hotel Wi-Fi without droppingnot Secure Privacy
- Non-technical users who want the kill switch and DNS handled correctly by default rather than configurednot Secure Privacy
Secure Privacy
- A mid-sized ecommerce site that wants published pricing it can budget against rather than an enterprise quote cyclenot ExpressVPN
- An agency running consent across many client domains that needs branding removed and per-domain billingnot ExpressVPN
- A company that needs both a consent banner and maintained privacy and cookie policy templates without retaining a law firmnot ExpressVPN
- A business receiving occasional deletion and access requests that wants them tracked in the same tool rather than in a shared inboxnot ExpressVPN
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
ExpressVPN
- Ownership passed in 2021 to Kape Technologies, formerly Crossrider, whose earlier browser extension platform was widely used to distribute adware, and Kape also owns VPN review publications, so nominally independent rankings a buyer consults may originate inside the same corporate group.
- In 2021 the company's then chief information officer was named in a United States Department of Justice deferred prosecution agreement over work for a foreign government's offensive cyber programme and remained in post, which is a governance fact that sits uncomfortably alongside a product sold entirely on trust.
- Audits are point-in-time engagements against an agreed scope, so they establish that specified servers and code matched the stated policy when examined, not that the infrastructure behaves the same way today or under different ownership.
- Several country locations are virtual, meaning the hardware physically sits elsewhere, and after India's 2022 directive requiring VPN providers to retain subscriber data ExpressVPN withdrew its Indian servers, so an Indian connection is routed through hardware in another country, which matters if you need genuine in-country routing.
- There is no port forwarding and no dedicated IP option, so seeding torrents, hosting a service behind the tunnel and any inbound connection do not work, and users who need those capabilities have to use a different provider.
Secure Privacy
- Consent allowances are the real constraint and they are per domain, so a high traffic site on the Business tier can burn through 50,000 consents well before month end and be pushed to a tier that costs more than four times as much.
- Billing is per domain, which makes multi-brand organisations and agencies pay linearly with domain count even when the configuration is identical across all of them.
- There is no data discovery or records of processing at enterprise depth, so it documents website consent rather than a privacy programme, and organisations facing a regulator will still need something more.
- Automatic cookie blocking is not available on the free tier, so the free plan cannot deliver the compliance behaviour that is the reason to install a consent tool in the first place.
- Single sign-on and audit logs appear only on the 249 dollar Advanced tier, which puts basic enterprise access control behind a per-domain price that is punishing for anyone with more than a couple of sites.
Pricing, plan by plan
ExpressVPN
$6.67/month- 1 Month$12.95/month
- 8 devices
- 94 countries
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 12 Months$6.67/month
- All features
- 3 months free
- Best value
- 6 Months$9.99/month
- All features
- 30-day guarantee
Secure Privacy
Free- FreeFree
- Up to 10 domains
- 500 consents per month
- 1 legal template
- Small$15/month
- Per domain
- Unlimited domains
- 5,000 consents per month
- Business$59/month
- Per domain
- 50,000 consents per month
- Over 40 legal templates
- Advanced$249/month
- Per domain
- 5 million consents per month
- Audit logs
Which should you pick?
Choose ExpressVPN if
- You need trustedserver.
- You work on Web, Desktop, Mobile, Api.
- You also want lightway protocol.
Choose Secure Privacy if
- You need cookie scanning.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want automatic cookie blocking.
Questions people ask
- Is ExpressVPN or Secure Privacy better?
- Neither clearly leads. ExpressVPN starts at $6.67/month and Secure Privacy at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, ExpressVPN or Secure Privacy?
- Secure Privacy has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $6.67/month for ExpressVPN and Free for Secure Privacy.
- Does ExpressVPN or Secure Privacy run on more platforms?
- ExpressVPN runs on Web, Desktop, Mobile, Api. Secure Privacy runs on Web.
- Can I use Secure Privacy for free?
- Yes. Secure Privacy has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. ExpressVPN starts at $6.67/month.
- What is ExpressVPN best used for?
- ExpressVPN is most often used for a buyer who wants the largest available body of published third-party audit evidence behind a no-logging claim, households wanting whole-network coverage through a router without configuring firmware by hand, frequent travellers who need connections that survive switching between mobile data and hotel wi-fi without dropping, non-technical users who want the kill switch and dns handled correctly by default rather than configured. Of those, a buyer who wants the largest available body of published third-party audit evidence behind a no-logging claim and households wanting whole-network coverage through a router without configuring firmware by hand are not what Secure Privacy is typically brought in for.
- What can ExpressVPN do that Secure Privacy cannot?
- ExpressVPN covers TrustedServer, Lightway protocol, Repeated external audits, Network Lock. Secure Privacy covers Cookie scanning, Automatic cookie blocking, Legal templates, Data subject access requests.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
ExpressVPN: Who owns ExpressVPN?
Kape Technologies, which acquired it in 2021. Kape was previously named Crossrider and also owns CyberGhost, Private Internet Access and Zenmate, along with the review sites vpnMentor and Wizcase.
Secure Privacy: What is a consent, for billing purposes?
A recorded consent decision from a visitor. Because returning visitors can re-consent, consent counts do not map cleanly to unique visitors, and this is the most common source of unexpected tier upgrades.
ExpressVPN: Is the British Virgin Islands jurisdiction actually useful?
It has no mandatory data retention law and is outside the Five, Nine and Fourteen Eyes arrangements, which is the reason it was chosen. It also means limited practical legal recourse for a subscriber, so the jurisdiction protects the company's ability to hold no data rather than protecting you against the company.
Secure Privacy: Is the free plan usable?
For evaluation only. It caps at 500 consents a month and does not include automatic cookie blocking.
ExpressVPN: Has the no-logs claim been audited?
Yes, repeatedly. PwC and KPMG have examined the no-logging claims and the TrustedServer architecture, and Cure53 has reviewed the applications, extension and protocol. The reports are published.
Secure Privacy: Does it handle data subject requests?
Yes, from the Business tier at 59 US dollars per domain per month. The Small tier does not include it.
ExpressVPN: Can I torrent with it?
Yes, peer-to-peer traffic is permitted on the network, but there is no port forwarding, so you can download but you cannot accept inbound connections and seeding performance suffers as a result.
Secure Privacy: Can it replace OneTrust?
For website consent and simple request handling, yes. For data discovery, records of processing and vendor risk, no.
ExpressVPN: Does it work in China or similar networks?
Sometimes, using obfuscated connection modes, but no provider can guarantee this and availability changes without warning. Treat it as best effort and have a fallback.
Related pages
More on Secure Privacy
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