ibVPN Review

Important UPDATE: ibVPN has been acquired by StrongVPN and is no longer operational. We recommend you check out our StrongVPN review or visit them now.

ibVPN is one of the most reliable VPN services today, with numerous features and various plans and packages that are bound to meet the needs of different VPN users around the world. Unlike many other VPN providers, the Romanian-based provider doesn’t state that 100 percent of their customers are satisfied with their services. Instead, they provide genuine results, with an average rating of 4.54 for their overall services. In our ibVPN review, we will focus on all the most important aspects of their service, which can help you decide whether to trust this VPN provider with your online safety and privacy.

Interface

The moment you start using ibVPN’s client software, you realize why they are becoming increasingly popular worldwide. To begin with, registering to the websites is fairly easy and doesn’t require too much personal information. Once you decide whether you want to give the free trial a shot first or want the paid service immediately, you will proceed to download and install the VPN client.

The client is nicely done and pretty straightforward. After providing your username and password, you get to choose server locations and protocols. This is really easy – all you have to do is choose what suits your needs the most. Keep in mind that you can change both the server and the protocol at any moment – ibVPN has 150 servers in 47 countries, which is quite impressive.

Performance and Reliability

As far as protocols are concerned, ibVPN works with OpenVPN, L2TP, PPTP, and SSTP, all of which are the most common security protocols you can find nowadays. ibVPN also offers customers the chance to use ibDNS, the website’s very own SmartDNS service, in order to enhance user experience. As for the speeds, it’s normal to expect some slowdown when using a VPN. However, ibVPN doesn’t limit your speed and provides various servers to make sure that you don’t experience a slow connection.

Multi-Platform

ibVPN is dedicated to providing their customers ease of access and maximum security regardless of the platform they use. Therefore, they support Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS and Android and are compatible with mobile devices such as Windows and Android smartphones, the iPhone and iPad, as well as with gaming consoles such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Features

Like we already said in our ibVPN review, ibVPN has over 150 servers in 47 countries of the world. As far as the coverage goes, this is pretty good, although there are definitely providers with more servers and better geographic coverage. They have servers in Australia and New Zealand, the region which often gets neglected, so the users from Oceania will definitely be happy with the service. Even Africa is represented, with servers in Egypt and South Africa.

This VPN provider boasts military-grade encryption with 256-bit SSL or AES keys, which makes your bank transactions, credit card info, personal information and other sensitive data particularly safe.

As we already mentioned in the Multi-Platform section of our ibVPN review, ibVPN is compatible with a wide range of platforms and operating systems, including game consoles and routers.

One of the unique features of this VPN service provider is the Auto-Reconnect feature. As you probably know, your VPN connection can get interrupted and you can get disconnected from your VPN. By checking the Auto-Reconnect option in the client, you will be automatically reconnected in case something like that happens. Of course, if you don’t care for this feature, you can simply leave the box unchecked.

Another great feature is the Internet Kill Switch. This feature protects you from having your traffic exposed in case of an unexpected disconnection from your VPN. Simply add all the applications you don’t want to be exposed to the Kill Switch app list and if you get disconnected, they will shut down automatically. As you can see, this is a very welcome addition to the standard set of features and something that definitely sets ibVPN apart from other providers. Other prominent ibVPN features include Fastest Server, Fastest Favorites, and Rotating Favorites. For instance, using the Fastest Server feature allows your app to find the fastest server for your location, automatically connecting to it.

ibVPN offers a rather nice selection of protocols to choose from, including OpenVPN, which is preferred by many users and most experts since it is considered to be the most secure, PPTP, which is faster but not as secure, L2TP, which requires some extra effort to configure, SSTP and IPsec/IKEv2, both of which are very secure.

In addition, ibVPN has its own SmartDNS, which gives you some extra flexibility, especially if your main concern is unblocking websites and streaming content you are otherwise not able to. It currently unblocks more than 300 channels. ibVPN has mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android, available on iTunes and Google Play stores respectively. As for Mac and Windows users, the provider has easy-to-use clients available for both systems.

ibVPN also offers proxy extensions and IP changers for the most popular browsers, including Chrome, Opera, and FireFox. You can use these extensions for free in Guest Mode but bear in mind that non-paying users do not get access to all locations and get disconnected every 10 minutes.

Security and Privacy

ibVPN is one of the most transparent VPN providers out there and their policies are clearly stated on their website. They used to keep some logs for a period of 7 days but have listened to their users and decided to change this policy. We are happy to report that ibVPN keeps no user logs whatsoever anymore. You can rest assured that ibVPN is highly committed to security and privacy, requiring only the minimal personal information during the registration process and enabling their customers to make payments through Bitcoin.

Support

If the FAQ section doesn’t answer your problems, you can send an email to customer support or submit a support ticket that will enable you to talk to a customer support representative as soon as possible. You also have the option to make use of the company’s live chat, which is available to all customers 24/7.

Pricing Options

ibVPN offers several packages based on the purpose of using a VPN, including heavy streaming, regular streaming or filesharing and Torrent download. Whatever package you choose, there’s a 15-day money back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the provider’s services. They also offer a six-hour free trial to test out their features, and what’s best, no credit card is required.

Here are ibVPN’s packages:

• Ultimate VPN costs $4.95/month
• Standard VPN costs $3.08/month
• Torrent VPN $3.08/month
• Small Business VPN costs $14.58/month
• ibDNS/SmartDNS costs $3.08/month

ibVPN Pros & Cons

As we wrap up this ibVPN review, here’s a quick overview of the features that wowed us and the aspects of the service that could use some improvement.