EU Sovereignty Score
Non-EU vendorVPNHeadquarters: VG

ExpressVPN: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

ExpressVPN is a subscription VPN service that encrypts internet traffic and routes it through the provider's servers. Apps are available for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, plus browser extensions and options for TVs, game consoles and routers. The service supports its own Lightway protocol alongside WireGuard and OpenVPN, and offers a kill switch, split tunnelling and dedicated IP addresses. According to the provider, its servers run on RAM only (TrustedServer), and its privacy policy states that it does not log browsing activity or connection IP addresses.

The operating entity, Express Technologies Ltd., has its headquarters in the British Virgin Islands. Its ultimate holding company is Kape Technologies in London, which acquired ExpressVPN in 2021 and is owned by Teddy Sagi. The servers sit in third-party data centres in many countries. The software is proprietary. For a European organisation, this is a provider outside the EU with a UK parent; GDPR transfer safeguards apply and the no-logs claims rest on the vendor's own statements.

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Sovereignty score
42 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-250
    Headquartered outside the EU (VG)
  • Data residency SOV-350
    Hosting inside and outside Europe (US, EU)
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-340
    Key management with a non-European vendor
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
    Closed source: switching requires data migration
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-630
    Closed source, runtime with the vendor

SOV codes: the matching objective in the European Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework. Official source

How the score is calculated

Facts and evidence

Last checked October 2, 2026
HeadquartersVG (OTHER)Verified by hand
Ultimate parent companyGBVerified by hand
EU adequacy decisionNo — no adequacy decisionVerified by hand
Sovereignty modelVendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hostingUS, EUVerified by hand
Open-sourceNoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantYesVendor-stated
Hosting signalAMAZON-02 - Amazon.com, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
CategoryVPN
TypeProduct
Websiteexpressvpn.com ↗

The hosting signal shows the network that serves the vendor's website, often a CDN, and not necessarily where the service or your data is hosted. How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to ExpressVPN

The European alternatives to ExpressVPN come from our knowledge base of over 6,200 vendors. We only list vendors headquartered in the EU or the EEA; fully European-owned vendors rank before vendors with a foreign owner. For each alternative you see the country, the open-source status and a short description.

Score per alternative: 0 = high exposure, 100 = sovereign

20 European VPN vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

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Why digital sovereignty matters with ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is headquartered in VG, outside the EU. Contracts and data therefore also fall under non-European law. The GDPR applies through contractual terms, but in a conflict with local legislation you have less certainty than with a European vendor. The ultimate owner is based in GB. Foreign control undermines part of the certainty a European headquarters offers.

ExpressVPN hosts data in US, EU. Exactly what stays within the EU — and what does not — is defined by the vendor's data processing agreement and sub-processor list, not by a setting you control yourself; check those documents for the precise scope, including backups, logs and support access.

ExpressVPN is closed source and hosted by the vendor. The encryption keys and the runtime sit with the vendor and switching requires data migration. Ask about bring-your-own-key, export options and open standards.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs ExpressVPN together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best European alternative to ExpressVPN?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to ExpressVPN include NordVPN, Surfshark and ProtonVPN. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to ExpressVPN?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to ExpressVPN include Mullvad VPN and NymVPN. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is ExpressVPN GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

ExpressVPN is headquartered in VG (OTHER) and hosts data in US, EU. The vendor states it is GDPR-compliant, but the data falls under non-EU jurisdiction. For full EU data residency the EU alternatives on this page usually offer more certainty.

Details and sources

Verified by handHeadquarters, owner, hosting locations and licence have been checked by us against public sources. Free of charge and for every vendor, not a paid label. Nothing in this knowledge base is taken over automatically. Last checked on October 2, 2026.

Sources

Public sources used in the latest check of this record.

Compliance evidence

The links below point to the vendor's own public documents. We only record what we found: a missing link means "not found publicly", not "not compliant".

No public compliance evidence has been recorded for this vendor yet. Do you know its DPA or subprocessor list? Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Cyber Resilience Act

Public signals that relate to the EU Cyber Resilience Act. They do not count towards the score. A missing line means "not found publicly".

Report a vulnerability
expressvpn.com/bug-bounty
security.txt
expressvpn.com/.well-known/security.txt

For products in scope of the CRA, CE marking is required from 11 December 2027; this cannot be checked yet.

Checked on October 9, 2026. What is the Cyber Resilience Act?

Digital sovereignty in VPN

VPN: Virtual private network — privacy protection, encrypted connection. In this category the choice of vendor determines who has legal access to your data, where that data lives and how easily you can switch later.

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8 European alternatives to ExpressVPN — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score