One of the great things about this VPN’s compatibility with multiple devices is that, because you can connect up to 5 devices simultaneously on any ExpressVPN account, your whole family can all be on the same account at once, with no worry about whether their devices will work with your VPN.
iOS & Android VPN apps
You can find both the ExpressVPN app for iOS and the ExpressVPN app for Androids in the App Store or Play Store. These apps are similar, but slightly different. For example, Android users have a network protection feature that acts like a kill switch which iOS users don’t have.
When you turn on your mobile phone, you can manually connect to a VPN server, or choose the option to auto-connect to the VPN server – a good choice if you want to make sure you are always browsing securely.
The desktop ExpressVPN app has some features that are missing from the iOS and Android versions:
- There is no Tor compatibility with the mobile VPN apps, so when you need the extra protection of Tor, you should use your desktop version.
- IPv6 leak protection does not work on the mobile app.
- Android only supports OpenVPN, while iOS users can choose between OpenVPN and IPSec/IKEv2 protocols. OpenVPN is probably the only protocol you would use, though, since it is the highest standard, so the options on iOS aren’t really relevant.
- You can only perform a speed test on the desktop app. Server latency and download speed are not visible on your mobile apps. Despite this, connections are always reliable on both desktop and mobile apps, and may sometimes be faster on the mobile app.
Browser extensions
ExpressVPN has a dedicated browser extension for both Chrome and Firefox.
The ExpressVPN browser extension helps hide your HTML5 geolocation to ensure that you are using the HTTPS encrypted versions of websites whenever possible.
This browser extension will only encrypt the traffic that passes through your browser – sort of like split tunneling – so any other online activity is unencrypted.
Router app
ExpressVPN offers you the opportunity to connect their VPN to your routers (including Orbi routers) with their router app. Installing the VPN on your router will protect every device that is connected to your WiFi, even if they don’t usually support VPN software – including TVs, games consoles, mobile devices, or tablets. A really awesome benefit to this is that, once connected to the router, all of the (unlimited number of) devices on your wifi are now connected to your VPN as only one user, so you still have 4 more users who can technically connect to your ExpressVPN account.
To use the VPN with your router, you can select your specific router from the drop-down menu on ExpressVPN’s website, and it will walk you through the simple steps of installation.
You can change your VPN settings to use the split tunneling feature if you want to leave certain devices off your router connection, and add them freely if you change your mind.
Number of simultaneous device connections
ExpressVPN allows you up to 5 simultaneous connections.
But, if you install the VPN app on your router, you can connect an unlimited number of devices to your router, as the router is considered a single device. So, if you install ExpressVPN on your household router, everyone who connects to your wifi is protected, and you still have 4 more devices that you are able to connect.
Compared to its competitors, Express is at the bottom of the list in this category, as NordVPN allows for 6 simultaneous connections, and Surfshark allows unlimited simultaneous connections.
Fortunately, for most people, 5 connections are still plenty, especially since you can connect ExpressVPN to your router, which would allow anyone who is using your Wi-Fi – ie, your whole family – to connect to your VPN as a single user, giving you 4 more connections available.