In 2012, the Mudhook Media, Inc., created IPVanish VPN. Over the years, they’ve improved and expanded their network to make your web browsing faster, safer and more secure.
- 1,300 anonymous VPN servers
- No traffic logs
- Fastest speeds
IPVanish is the world’s Top-Tier VPN service provider that hordes over 40,000 IPs on 1,300+ anonymous servers in more than 75 countries. Even more, all servers support P2P, but do they say?
Note that IPVanish owns and operates virtually all its server network. Therefore, you will benefit from both privacy and performance.
This VPN provider touts themselves as the “The World’s Best VPN.” Moreover, most review sites assert their service is fully anonymous, secure, and fast. Really?
For this review, I carefully tested its speeds, streaming, cost, security, privacy, ease of use, and more. So let’s disclose its features, and more—both good and the bad.
My Verdict
IPVanish is a reliably secure, easy to use, fast VPN that offers value for your money. Besides, it’s useful for unlocking lots of geo-restricted content. Also, the VPN easily connects to almost all devices and OS, including Mac OS, iOS, Windows, and Android.
OVERALL RANK: 4.2/5
Security Score: 5/5
Speed: 4.5 /5
Average Download Speed: 48.6 Mbps
Streaming Score: 3.6/5
Privacy Rating: 5/5
Value for the Money: 4/5
Streaming Support: HD
Streaming Services Supported: Netflix, Spotify, HBO Now, others
Supports Torrenting: Yes, on all servers
Netflix: Yes, not all servers
Trial: 7-day refund warranty
PROS
- Features L2TP, OpenVPN, and IKEv2
- Allows torrenting on all its servers
- Competitive pricing
- 10 simultaneous connections
- Unblocks Netflix
- Zero logs policy
CONS
- No Bitcoin support
- No free trial
Features
IPVanish has more than 40,000 shared IPs and over 1,300 servers distributed across 75+ countries. As mentioned, the service providers own and operate all the servers.
Although IPVanish doesn’t have browser extensions, yet, it features easy to connect native apps that are compatible with a broad set of devices and platforms. For example, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Linux, Chromebook, routers, and FireTV.
Still, FireOS and Android users enjoy a split-tunneling that allows you to select the apps you won’t use with IPVanish.
Despite Netflix blocking multiple IPVanish’s servers, they still got more others to let you enjoy this service. Can’t connect to one? A friendly customer assistant is always ready to help you connect to a server that supports Netflix.
Well, with their unlimited bandwidth, you can also stream HBO, torrent endlessly, and more. Likewise, you can access Kodi content using this VPN.
Apart from providing reliable security, IPVanish doesn’t collect personal logs, and won’t track your activities. Thanks to their use of government-level encryption, and adherence to a no-logs policy.
To save you a few bucks, IPVanish lets you connect up to 10 simultaneous devices. Meaning, it can be used by everybody in your house.
And in case you can’t navigate through these features, check out their comprehensive help section for assistance. Notwithstanding, they offer 24/7 customer support via email or live chat.
Streaming
One of the main reasons for using VPN is to bypass streaming restrictions. Whether it’s watching your favorite movie or sports streaming, a good VPN should let you do it with ease. And with minimal loss of performance.
Despite not stating it on their official website, IPVanish works with Netflix and supports torrenting. Our tests revealed that the VPN unblocks US Netflix (not all) far better than most competitors.
A few servers we tested—the Netherlands and the UK —didn’t bypass detection. As a result, I had to do some digging to watch my favorite movies and shows.
IPVanish also lets you privately stream sports from your favorite site. Plus, this VPN service enables you to access your preferred Kodi without a fuss. However, I couldn’t stream BBC iPlayer and Hulu.
Security and Privacy
Like your ISP, a VPN can potentially monitor your internet activities, but a lot of them choose not to. In fact, some VPN providers adhere to a strict no-logs policy, which means they don’t keep a record of your activities, traffic, and connections. Into the bargain, they promise not to rent your personal information.
To protect your privacy, IPVanish uses trusted AES-256 encryption, which is furthered by some of the best security features. For example, a list of tunneling protocols such as OpenVPN, L2TP, IPsec, SSTP, PPTP, and IKEv2.
While OpenVPN advances both security and speed, you have to download it to your device. In the same way, you can download the SOCKS5 web proxy. These options are suitable for torrenting, as they not only hide your identity but also offer top download speeds.
IPVanish apps let you control their OpenVPN setup (443 or 1194), which helps users to connect since you’re allowed to select a preferred VPN port. What’s more, the “Scramble OpenVPN Traffic” lowers the possibility of your VPN tunnel being identified. For this reason, IPVanish is worth consideration especially if you’re living in anti-VPN countries like Iran and China.
The windows client offers IPv6 protection, a kill switch, and DNS protection. These minimize the possibility of exposing your real identity online; in case the VPN connection goes down.
Remember, although IPVanish remains within the confines of the US law, they’ve got no user-data to supply, the providers assert.
However, in 2016 this VPN provider responded to requests by the US Dept. of Homeland Security by providing a user’s information. The good news, after this incident, IPVanish was sold to StackPath—the company that publicly promised never to store users’ logs. All seems good.
Speed
Decent connection speeds are critical to enjoying all your online activities—whether personal or work-related.
I ran several speed tests on selected IPVanish servers from the UK, EU, US, and Asia. First, I connected to one US IPVanish server. Then, I logged the connection time before running a ping test. The process was done twice across the target servers. To establish the download speeds, I connected to the same servers from the regions above.
As per this testing, the average download speed on the 4 servers was about 48.6 Mbps. Ping times didn’t deviate much from the normal range. The speeds were quite fast; however, those located far from my geo-location (such as India) couldn’t go past 10Mbps.
The results showed that IPVanish VPN offers above-average connection speeds. So it doesn’t disappoint when it comes to speed, as it provides decent download and upload speeds. Good enough to handle data-intensive activities like torrenting, gaming, and streaming in HD.
What I categorically liked the most about IPVanish is its DNS lookup time. This VPN averaged about 0.43 seconds, making it one of the fastest VPNs I’ve ever tested as far as lookup times are concerned. Note that, longer DNS lookup time can waste your time locating a file from a web-based server.
Cost
About pricing, IPVanish features a simple pricing scheme with only 3 options. For instance, the VPN providers don’t water down their services with “tiered packages” such as platinum, gold, bronze, etc. Instead, you receive similar services; the only difference is the period you’ll access their service.
While I found IPVanish to be an affordable VPN, like any VPN provider, the one-month subscription is the most expensive. The best value option is the annual subscription plan, though the 3-month plan is significantly discounted compared to the one-month plan. Into the bargain, all plans come with a 7-day money-back warrantee.
When it comes to paying, you can do it via PayPal and all major credit cards, including Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and so on. However, if you must pay using anonymous methods, like Bitcoins, you might want to consider the below alternatives.
Alternative VPN Options
Among the features that define a good VPN include fast services, private connections, and online freedom. And IPVanish checks all these, and more. So are there alternatives to IPvanish? With fancy features?
PrivateVPN and NordVPN are top alternatives to IPVanish.
PrivateVPN
PrivateVPN is a great VPN for privacy and security with more than 100 servers in 60 countries around the world.
This VPN lets you unblock Netflix, iPlayer, Hulu, Amazon Video, and other streaming services. Plus, you can torrent, at fast speeds.
That’s not all. It’s a no-logs VPN comes encrypted with 2048-bit; which is one of the safest and fastest protection. To further your security, its complemented by a line of VPN protocols like OpenVPN, L2TP, PPTP, IPSec, and IKEv2. However, there’s one con: kill switch is only accessible on Windows.
PrivateVPN stands out for its price. It costs quite cheap for a premium VPN service—which you can pay using Bitcoins. On the same note, the provider offers a 7-day free trial, as well as a 30-day money-back guarantee. And more, one subscription lets you protect up to 6 devices simultaneously.
NordVPN
Arguably the most popular VPN provider around, NordVPN requires no skill to download and click the blue Quick Connect button.
NordVPN packs more than 5632 servers in 60 countries across the world, all encrypted with AES 256-bit. The servers also use Open VPN protocol, so your security is guaranteed.
This Panama-based provider works very well with lots of streaming services, Netflix, BBC, Amazon Prime, Pandora, torrenting, and a lot more. Therefore, you can use your single account to stream up to 6 devices safely—no matter it’s a Mac, Windows, iOS, Linux, Android, or router.
Noteworthy, IPVanish offers some of the top-ranked speeds. For this reason, you can torrent and stream without a glitch.
Are you stuck? NordVPN offers 24/7 customer support via live chat or email, with quick to help support representatives. Most importantly, it’s affordable. Not sure? Try their 30-day money-back guarantee or 7-day free-trial for mobile users.
