Who actually owns your VPN
The consumer VPN market looks like a dozen competing brands. At the corporate layer, four of the best known share a single owner. That same owner also owns the two largest sites that review VPNs.
Every one of these exit points belongs to somebody. That is the whole question.
Short answer
Kape Technologies owns ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access and ZenMate. It also owns vpnMentor and Wizcase, two of the largest VPN review sites, acquired with their parent company Webselenese for about $149.1m in 2021. NordVPN and Surfshark are owned by Nord Security, a separate company. Proton VPN is owned by Proton AG in Switzerland.
The ownership map
Every major consumer VPN, its ultimate owner, and whether that owner also owns review sites that rank it.
| VPN brand | Ultimate owner | Service jurisdiction | Owner also owns review sites | How it was acquired |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ExpressVPN | Kape Technologies | British Virgin Islands | Yes | Acquired 2021, around $936m |
| CyberGhost | Kape Technologies | Romania | Yes | Acquired 2017 |
| Private Internet Access | Kape Technologies | United States | Yes | Acquired 2019 |
| ZenMate | Kape Technologies | Germany | Yes | Acquired 2018 |
| NordVPN | Nord Security | Panama | No | Independent, never Kape owned |
| Surfshark | Nord Security | Netherlands | No | Merged with Nord Security in 2022, brands still run separately |
| Proton VPN | Proton AG | Switzerland | No | Independent, majority controlled by a Swiss non-profit foundation |
Jurisdiction here means where the VPN service itself is incorporated, which is not always where the parent company sits. Kape Technologies was listed on London's AIM market until it was taken private in 2023 and delisted that May.
The part that actually matters
Concentrated ownership is normal in software and is not, on its own, a scandal. Four brands under one roof can still be four decent products. The problem is what Kape bought next.
In 2021 Kape acquired Webselenese for roughly $149.1m. Webselenese owns vpnMentor and Wizcase, two of the highest traffic VPN review sites on the internet. Both present themselves as independent testers. Both rank VPNs.
So the company that owns ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access and ZenMate also owns two of the sites telling millions of people a month which VPN is best. As of our check in July 2026, those sites ranked Kape products first in every category we looked at.
None of this is secret. It was disclosed to the London market when it happened and it sits in Kape's own filings. It is simply never mentioned at the one moment it is relevant, which is when someone is reading a review and reaching for a card.
The Crossrider history
Kape Technologies was called Crossrider until March 2018. Crossrider ran a development platform that was widely used to distribute adware and browser hijacking extensions. The company exited that business and rebranded before moving into consumer privacy.
In 2023 Kape was taken private by Unikmind, the vehicle of the Israeli businessman Teddy Sagi, who had acquired Crossrider back in 2012. The deal valued the company at roughly $1.6bn and it left London's AIM market at the end of May 2023. Since then the group's numbers are no longer published to a public market.
People disagree in good faith about how much a rebrand eight years ago should weigh today. What is not in dispute is that buyers are entitled to know it, and that a review site owned by the same group is not going to be the one to tell them.
How to read a VPN review now
- Check who owns the reviewer before you weigh the review. A site owned by a VPN company, ranking that VPN company first, is not a test result. It is marketing with a table in it.
- Assume commission everywhere, and look for disclosure. Nearly every VPN review site earns commission on what it ranks, this one included. That is not disqualifying. Hiding it is.
- Ownership is a security question, not only an ethics one. A VPN provider sees the traffic your internet provider would otherwise see. Who ultimately controls that company, and under which country's legal process, is part of the product you are buying.
- Watch for the same list everywhere. If five sites give you the same top five in the same order, that is a signal about the industry's commercial structure, not a consensus of independent testing.
Read next
The best VPN in the UK, ranked by ownership
No speed tests we did not run. Ranked on ownership, audit record and jurisdiction, with our commission printed next to every entry.
Full breakdownWho owns NordVPN, and where is it based?
The parent company, the Panama incorporation, the Lithuanian engineering roots, and what the audits do and do not cover.
In progressWhich VPN review sites are independent?
Ownership of the largest review and comparison sites, scored on disclosure rather than on their rankings.
Commercial disclosure
Criticising conflicted reviewers while earning commission is the same conflict, so here is ours, stated up front rather than buried in a footer.
The Quiet Web earns affiliate commission from NordVPN. If you follow one of our links to NordVPN and subscribe, we are paid a percentage of that subscription, and a smaller percentage if you renew in later years. That cost is not added to your price.
We are not paid by Kape Technologies, ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, ZenMate or Proton. You should weigh that when reading the page above: we have a commercial reason to find the Kape story interesting. We have published the underlying facts so you can check them rather than take our word for it, and every affiliate link is labelled at the point it appears, not only here.
Sources
- Kape Technologies plc, announcement of the acquisition of Webselenese Ltd, March 2021, consideration stated as $149.1m.
- Kape Technologies plc, announcement of the acquisition of ExpressVPN, September 2021.
- Kape Technologies plc regulatory filings and annual reports covering the CyberGhost (2017), ZenMate (2018) and Private Internet Access (2019) acquisitions, and the March 2018 rebrand from Crossrider.
- Unikmind Holdings cash offer for Kape Technologies plc, 2023, valuing the equity at about $1.58bn, and the subsequent AIM delisting on 31 May 2023.
- Nord Security corporate disclosures covering the 2022 merger with Surfshark, including the statement that the two brands continue to operate independently.
- Proton AG published ownership and governance structure, including the Proton Foundation's controlling stake.
- Category rankings on vpnMentor and Wizcase, checked by us in July 2026.