TechRadar Verdict
If you need access to any of the popular streaming channels or P2P file exchange, then My Expat Network is a good choice, as long as you don’t mind sometimes volatile download speeds. It is also a solid option for users who want privacy in restrictive countries that may be actively blocking VPN providers but its privacy policy is a bit short and customer support slow to respond.
Pros
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Unblocks all popular VOD channels
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Deploys StealthMode
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Allows torrenting
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30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
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Small server network
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Can be slow
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Not many details in its privacy policy
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Customer support could use improvement
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Headquartered in Hong Kong, My Expat Network is a VPN platform that has been active for over 10 years - so it knows a thing or two about how to provide a good anonymity service.
It doesn’t have a lot of servers, at least not thousands like some of the best VPN providers, its download speeds can be inferior, and it isn’t the cheapest on the market, but it does unblock all the main streaming services and provides an optional second layer of encryption to bypass VPN blocking measures.
Price
You can sign up for My Expat Network’s services under one three billing options. If you go for the 1-month option, you’ll be charged $10.99/month, the 12-month subscription will cost you $6.79/month, while the cheapest option is the 24-month plan at $5.49/month. These rates place the provider slightly toward the more expensive end of the pricing range.
If you wanted to test the service before making the final decision, you won’t get a traditional free trial. However, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee which you can use instead if you don’t like what you’re getting.
Regardless of the chosen subscription option, you’ll be able to run up to 5 simultaneous connections, or more if you enable it on a router or buy one pre-installed.
Buyers can pay using PayPal or credit cards - and cryptocurrencies are not accepted.
Alternatives
My Expat Network is good, but there are better VPN providers out there, especially considering its price. For example, NordVPN, CyberGhost, and Surfshark are all cheaper, but with a lot more servers, user-friendly clients for every major platform, and readily available customer support.
If you can afford it, ExpressVPN is even better, although more expensive.
Streaming
My Expat Network is an expert in unblocking some of today’s most popular video-on-demand platforms like Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and many more.
Considering this is the reason why many users start using a VPN in the first place, it is certainly an important quality.
About the company
My Expat Network Limited is a Hong Kong-based company. There aren’t many servers in its network, only 120, which is not even close to thousands some of the top providers have.
These servers are scattered across 12 countries, including in Canada, Australia, Spain, and more.
Privacy and encryption
To protect your privacy, My Expat Network deploys the bullet-proof AES-256 encryption and OpenVPN and IKEv2 connection protocols. Its apps are also equipped with DNS leak protection and a kill switch, which shuts down your internet access if the VPN connection is interrupted. Torrenting is supported, albeit only on the Netherlands servers.
For an additional level of encryption, you can use the “Stealth Mode” VPN connection, which helps you bypass local restrictions on VPN usage, which are in effect in places like China or the United Arab Emirates. However, the provider recommends you use the Primary connection as default and only turn on the Stealth Mode when absolutely required as the additional encryption may have a negative effect on connection speed.
My Expat Network claims to not retain or store any information regarding your Internet activity, the bandwidth you use, or any of your DNS queries, and that’s as much as we get from its no-logs policy. We aren’t told if any other logging takes place, such as IP addresses, devices used, geo-location, connection times, etc. We also have no choice but to trust it, as there hasn’t been an independent audit of its claims.
Support
If you’re using any of the major platforms, you’ll be able to run this provider’s services, as it supports Windows, iOS, Mac, Android, and Linux with native clients, as well as DD-WRT and Sabai Technology routers with manual installation and config files.
Its Android app has been downloaded 10,000+ times but only got a 2.7 rating out of 5, as rated by 81 users. It was last updated on July 4, 2019. The iOS app has performed even more poorly, with 1.9 stars from 12 people. It was last updated on May 11, 2020.
The provider’s support center is quite large and contains all sorts of articles, installation guides, FAQs, and more. Users also have at their disposal an online helpdesk and an optional installation service which helps you set everything up with the help of TeamViewer.
Keep in mind, however, that the online helpdesk isn’t the same as live chat and you may need to wait for a while before you receive a response to your query. Two days in and we still haven’t received a reply to a simple question.
Speed and experience
My Expat Network’s desktop apps aren’t as straightforward as they should be. As soon as you install the app, it will hide away in your taskbar and you’ll only see it when connecting or tinker with the settings.
Testing download speeds gave us some pretty mixed results. The server in Italy gave us a solid 23Mbps on a 40Mbps test connection, while the one in the UK only delivered 8.3Mbps. We also tried connecting to a server in the US and it gave us a very good 18Mbps, although during the subsequent testing it fell to only 8.37Mbps.
Verdict
My Expat Network is a solid provider of VPN services that unblocks popular streaming channels, enables torrenting, and uses additional encryption methods to circumvent blocking of VPN service by governments and ISPs. However, its download speeds are a bit unpredictable, its server network small, and customer service slow to respond to direct questions.
If these are a priority for you, you might want to consider a better solution such as ExpressVPN instead, as it’s the best VPN service that money can buy.
