I've been using ExpressVPN for over 2 years now.
Pretty much any VPN will work if you are in a place that doesn't fuck with the internet: ie. CHINA. Here is my review.
Reliability is the main reason I initially chose ExpressVPN, despite it being one of the most expensive, it has worked MOST of the time. However, in China at least, it can take anywhere up to a few minutes to establish a connection to the some servers; others won't work at all. Sometimes longer with the connection is unsuccessful and it has to keep trying; and that's when they're working properly.
There have been no less than 3 significant occurrences where it didn't work at all for periods of two whole weeks. The latest being during the PRC's 70th year anniversary . The eventual "fix" was to release a whole new app. The linux version came out a few days after the Android one, so I was stuck using my phone as a hotspot for that time.
When it's working. I can connect to a few key locations; HK, USA, UK, Singapore, Japan. But specific countries (they have servers all over the world) will fail. I can't connect to Australia to access government/taxation websites for example.
As of writing, it is down, and has been down for a few days now. If you want to know exactly how long, check my voat activity (voat is blocked in China), as I'm active on both forums. There is a link for "updates on the situation in China" on the app, and now not even that's working (that's never happened before). It's anyone's guess when it will be up again.
I will be purchasing another VPN, and having both at once, simply because I need open internet (specifically gmail) enough that it justifies the expense. At this stage it'll probably be Nord, because I figure that the bigger providers will have the resources to constantly battle the chinks, but I'm very open to other suggestions (for android and linux, not IOS).
My final verdict: if you don't live in a commie shit-hole, shop around, and get the cheapest one. They should all work fine. If you need it for specific reasons in a hostile environment, then it justifies the expense of multiple VPN providers. You also have other options such as shadowsocks, that are very cheap, but I haven't used those.
Thanks for the excellent response.
I live in China as well, and use Astrill with good success. ExpressVPN and Astrill together are enough. Astrill is my main.
l欢迎光临!
Tor browser is compromised. Maybe use the network with diff browser with scripts blocked
I don't know how to use it (never tried).
It's on my list of things to do though because the way things are going, the normal content I like (metokur and other "edgy" streamers and vids) will only be available on the dark web.
(post is archived)