ExpressVPN’s big 2025 pivot: cheaper plans and a quantum future

According to TechRadar, ExpressVPN spent 2025 fundamentally changing its business and tech. It moved from a single, premium price to three new tiers—Basic, Advanced, and Pro—to boost accessibility. The company also solved the notoriously difficult problem of split tunneling on macOS and pushed for open standards in post-quantum cryptography to future-proof encryption against quantum computing threats. Andreas Theodorou, Head of Technical and Strategic Communications, framed the year as making privacy “accessible” and technically robust. The company is now predicting 2026 will be a “big year,” with new products and updates slated for Q1 that focus on holistic online safety without sacrificing privacy.

The price pivot

Look, this is probably the change most people will actually notice. For years, ExpressVPN was the “expensive but good” option. One plan, one price. That model was getting creaky. With tons of cheaper rivals offering unlimited connections, sticking to a rigid premium tier was a risk. So they split it up: Basic, Advanced, Pro. It’s a classic move, but a smart one. They get to say they’re more accessible (and they are, with a cheaper entry point), while still having a top-tier plan for power users or families who need to cover a dozen devices. Basically, they’re trying to stop budget-conscious users from walking away without devaluing their brand. It’s a balancing act, but it seems like a necessary one in today’s market.

The macOS mountain

Here’s the thing about split tunneling on a Mac: it’s a massive engineering headache. Apple’s system-level security, while great for users, makes it incredibly hard to reliably and securely route some app traffic through a VPN while letting other traffic go direct. Many VPN providers have just… given up on it for macOS. They either don’t offer it, or their implementation is flaky. So for ExpressVPN to not only solve it but do it in a way that meets Apple’s own compliance bars? That’s a legit technical win. It’s the kind of deep, unsexy engineering work that justifies a higher price on the Pro plan. It tells their Apple-using customers—a huge and valuable segment—that they’re not a second-class citizen.

The quantum gambit

This is where things get really forward-thinking. The “store now, decrypt later” threat is a real, if futuristic, concern. A bad actor could be intercepting and storing encrypted data today, waiting for quantum computers to become powerful enough to crack current encryption standards years from now. ExpressVPN’s push for an open, industry-standard Post-Quantum WireGuard implementation is interesting. Instead of hoarding a proprietary solution as a marketing bullet point, they’re trying to lift the entire industry. That’s a good look. It suggests they’re confident in their core engineering and more focused on the long-term health of privacy tech than a short-term sales advantage. It’s a bet on the future that also happens to be good PR.

What accessibility really means

So, is privacy more “accessible” now? Financially, sure. A lower-cost tier helps. But I think ExpressVPN is playing a deeper game. Accessibility isn’t just about price. It’s about the product actually working flawlessly on your platform of choice (hence the macOS fix). And it’s about ensuring the protection you buy today doesn’t become obsolete tomorrow (hence the quantum work). They’re trying to build a moat with engineering, not just marketing. The hint about 2026 projects that promote “online safety protections without sacrificing privacy” is tantalizing. Think threat blocking or identity monitoring that uses things like Zero-Knowledge Proofs (which Theodorou name-dropped) so that even ExpressVPN doesn’t see your data. That’s the next frontier. If they can pull that off, then the new pricing tiers start to look like just the opening move in a much bigger strategy.