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My Expat Network Review

My Expat Network is a VPN service that started in 2010. It claims to provide expatriates an easy way to unblock sites based on their home countries and provide continuous streaming of TV content. The company covers 12 different countries and provides 120 servers.

We found this provider fairly decent for that purpose. It has a good selection of channels for the listed countries. One major issue, however, is that it covers only Western channels, giving people coming from non-Western nations fewer options. This is disappointing since people from all over Asia would like to be able to unlock content back home as they are abroad, as would those from Africa.

Another big issue we encountered is its logging policies. While we admire My Expat Network for being upfront about its use of logging tools, this will still cause much concern for expats who don’t want to be followed online. We suggest that you consider looking at our top 10 VPN recommendations for better options.

Features

My Expat Network’s main feature is the ability to unblock region-locked online TV websites in different countries. Some of the sites that they claim you can access are:

  • NBC Sports (United States)
  • CTV (Canada)
  • Rai Scuola (Italy)
  • Phoenix TV (Germany)
  • Cuatro (Spain)

The large selection of channels makes the service well-suited for expatriates wanting to catch up on shows from their home countries by connecting to servers there. One issue, however, is that the accessible channels are only from the US and Europe. It would have been nicer if access to servers in Asia and Africa were also added.

The provider has other key features aside from unblocking TV content, including:

  • P2P file transfer
  • Multiple protocol support (OpenVPN and IKEv2)
  • AES-256 encryption
  • Multi-platform support, including routers
  • VPN apps

While My Expat Network’s features are fairly standard, both expats and non-expats will find this VPN suitable for typical VPN applications.

One interesting thing about My Expat Network is that it also offers routers. These already come preconfigured with the provider’s software, which lessens the work to be done when using the service for network-level protection, or for Smart TVs and gaming systems that don’t usually do well with software on them.

My Expat Network Routers

The routers are entirely optional but are still a nice inclusion to My Expat Network’s services.

Servers and countries

My Expat Network currently has 120 servers in 12 different countries, including:

  • The United Kingdom
  • Norway
  • Canada
  • Spain
  • Italy

For a service that is aimed towards expats, the number of covered countries is rather small, considering that there are also expats from other countries. Note that these countries correspond only to those locations where My Expat Network provides channel unblocking.

If you are looking for other locations for a different purpose, you might want to opt for a provider like VyprVPN. This particular company covers 60 different countries, providing you more options.

Speed and reliability

My Expat Network claims to offer fast VPN connections for its unblocking features. The site sadly does not provide any speed data to back up its claims. This will be an issue for those who plan on using the service for streaming since there is no way to determine if the provider can support the needed speeds.

The relatively small network also affects the reliability of the provider for different applications. For instance, not all of the locations would be a viable option when you use P2P to transfer files. This means you should decide how you are going to use My Expat Network before signing up to make sure it suits your needs. If P2P torrenting is a need, see our list of the best VPNs for this task.

Pricing and payments

Unlike other providers that offer fixed-term plans, My Expat Network has monthly packages based on the countries you want to unblock and the type of your device. Below are the base prices for each device category.

My Expat Network Pricing

This setup gives you greater flexibility in choosing your plans. To purchase, select the device type and the country. You can choose either one country or all, with the price adjusted accordingly.

You can pay them using PayPal or credit cards.

Support

My Expat Network provides customer support through an online contact form. This is implemented in a slightly cumbersome manner:

  • You need to first click on the Help button at the bottom of each page and search for the issue you want to resolve.
  • If there’s no relevant answer, the site will then prompt you to leave a message using the form.
  • The site says that its agents will reply to you within 24 hours.

The site does provide installation guides and a short FAQ for common issues. You can also check out the official blog for relevant articles about using this VPN service. The blog is slightly disorganized, which can make things hard when looking for specific articles.  

Logging and policies

My Expat Network states that it uses a software called Hotjar to keep track of your sessions. Hotjar records information like:

  • Device IP address
  • Device screen size
  • Pages visited
  • Current country
  • Mouse clicks

While the site says this information is anonymized, it still logs a significant amount of user data, and not all expats are going to be fine with such a policy. If you are wary of this, check out our list of no-logs VPNs instead, and find a more private option.

My Expat Network offers a 30-day money back guarantee on all of its services. To claim the refund, simply cancel your subscription in your account panel. The site will then refund your money within a few days.

Expert recommendations

My Expat Network has dedicated itself to unblocking online TV content, but its coverage is rather average. It provides access that’s limited to countries within North America and Europe. This also makes My Expat Network less suitable for other uses, like P2P file transfers, since they only allow that on servers in the Netherlands.

We like the pricing plans since you can tailor your subscription based on the devices you use often. As our My Expat Network review showed, logging is the biggest issue with this provider since it pretty much collects and stores so many pieces of your personal information. We suggest that you consider choosing a different option from our list of top geo-unblocking providers.

My Expat Network Review