IPVanish Review
IPVanish is a top-tier VPN provider looking to create a safe online environment for its customers and allow them to protect their confidential information and maintain anonymity while surfing the web from pretty much any corner of the world. The company was launched in 2012 with corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas.
Read our comprehensive IPVanish review to learn more about this VPN’s performance, server network, security features, logging practices, prices, and more.
Speed & Performance
Our team in Belgrade, Serbia tested 18 IPVanish servers over the course of one week and our top performers were servers located in New Plymouth (New Zealand), Stockholm, and Amsterdam, with Hong Kong, London, and Paris not far behind.
The benchmark ping and download/upload speed recorded by our testing team in Belgrade, Serbia.
The Stockholm server was our top performer in Europe, maintaining 70.59% of the original download speed.
The Los Angeles location provided us with 43.14% of the original speed, which was more than enough to stream Netflix US in full HD without any lag or buffering.
Our speeds in India were surprisingly high and Singapore was serviceable at best. Take a look at our full report in the table below.
| Location | Ping (ms) | Download (Mbps) | Upload (Mbps) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Americas | |||
| New York, US | 129 | 6.42 | 4.93 |
| Los Angeles | 186 | 19.11 | 3.61 |
| Miami, US | 174 | 7.55 | 2.88 |
| Dallas, US | 157 | 19.05 | 3.85 |
| Toronto | 139 | 14.04 | 4.83 |
| Mexico | 191 | 6.61 | 0.52 |
| Europe | |||
| London | 55 | 23.4 | 6.51 |
| Amsterdam | 44 | 29.61 | 6.95 |
| Frankfurt | 44 | 25.28 | 6.99 |
| Ukraine | 86 | 4.51 | 6.38 |
| France | 57 | 22.17 | 6.84 |
| Sweden | 59 | 31.27 | 6.25 |
| Oceania | |||
| Sydney | 380 | 2.58 | 1.63 |
| New Zealand | 319 | 33.85 | 1.77 |
| Asia | |||
| Japan | 307 | 8.15 | 1.62 |
| Hong Kong | 412 | 25.16 | 1.52 |
| Singapore | 492 | 4.44 | 1.33 |
| India | 195 | 11.23 | 2.88 |
During our tests, we did not experience any sudden disconnects and our overall experience was rather smooth without lags and speed drops. It is important to note that IPVanish subscribers have access to a list of all servers with loads in real-time, which prevents overcrowding.
Supported Platforms
Premium VPN services usually support all popular platforms and browsers – and IPVanish is no exception. The company offers dedicated software for Windows (7 SP1+), Mac OS X (10.10+), Android (4.0.3+), iOS (9+), and Fire TV.
IPVanish comes with a very simple and user-friendly client, which makes it ideal for VPN beginners.
It can be manually configured on Windows phones, Linux (Ubuntu), Chrome OS, and routers (Asus, Belkin, Buffalo, Linksys (Cisco), D-Link, Loglink, Microsoft, Motorola, Netgear, Nokia, Siemens, Toshiba, Sparklan, and Fuji). Finally, IPVanish is compatible with Kodi software.
It is good to know that you can purchase a router on the official website of the company, thus avoiding manual router configuration. There are 5 available routers on offer and they all come with pre-installed IPVanish.
Servers
IPVanish currently features 1,300+ servers in 75+ locations. 430+ are located in Europe, 760+ in North America, 50+ In Asia, 70+ in Oceania, and 20+ in Central/South America. You can view the full list of server locations on the official website. The company also provides its customers with more than 40,000 shared IPs.
There are no limitations when it comes to bandwidth, speeds, and server switching, which means you do not have to fear any throttling attempts from IPVanish. This is especially important for individuals who want to stream their favorite content in full HD, play online games or download torrents on a daily basis. The number of simultaneous connections is capped at 10, which is more than generous compared to similar services. This makes IPVanish ideal for larger households with numerous devices in need of VPN protection.
The client also provides users with a map view of the available server locations.
Apart from its VPN servers, IPVanish features SOCKS5 web proxy options that allow you to mask your original IP address and geo-spoof certain websites that block traffic from other countries. These servers do not encrypt your traffic, which makes them much faster than regular VPN servers but also less secure. Consequently, they are ideal for streaming, VoIP, and P2P filesharing through software like uTorrent, Deluge, and Vuze.
As already stated in this IPVanish review, IPVanish is a US-based company, which means it is legally forbidden to provide services in Cuba, Burma/Myanmar, North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Sudan. The ipvanish.com domain is blocked in China, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Kazakhstan.
Safety & Security
When it comes to connection protocols, IPVanish offers different possibilities for different platforms:
- Windows – OpenVPN, IKEv2, PPTP, SSTP, and L2TP. You can choose between ports 443, 1194, and 3074 (scramble). The available encryption options include AES-128 and AES-256. The OpenVPN scramble feature counters blockades by certain firewalls that can detect your OpenVPN connection and terminate it. Windows software also comes with a killswitch, IPv6 leak protection, and LAN blocking in case you are sharing a local area network.
- MAC OS X – OpenVPN, IPSec, IKEv2, L2TP. The port selection includes 443 or 1194 and the implemented cipher is AES-256. The software comes with a killswitch and API Load Balancing that suggests optimal servers based on your ping and location.
- Android – IPVanish for Android uses OpenVPN with AES-256 cipher. It also features OpenVPN Scramble and API Load Balancing.
- iOS – The available protocols include IKEv2 and IPSec and the chosen cipher is AES-256. Apart from this, the iOS version of IPVanish features API Load Balancing, 3D Touch that enables you to connect to your VPN with a long-press on the home screen, and the Always On technology that auto-connects to IPVanish any time it detects Internet traffic.
- Fire TV – OpenVPN with AES-256 cipher.
Windows Phone supports only L2TP with AES-128, Ubuntu uses OpenVPN or PPTP with AES-128/256, Chrome OS features OpenVPN and L2TP with AES-128/256, and routers use OpenVPN with AES-256.
Some IPVanish reviews claim that the company offers DHE-2048 forward secrecy, which is not true, as confirmed by its customer support team. This means the software will not generate a different encryption key for each session.
Ipleak.net only managed to detect our assigned Tokyo IP, which means our original address in Belgrade, Serbia was perfectly safe the entire time. We also did not have any problems with DNS leaks.
Logging & Privacy
To create your personal IPVanish account, you will be prompted to provide your email address and payment method, which means the company does not ask for your real name or physical address.
When you browse the official website, IPVanish collects your browser type, page requests, operating system, bounce rate, and average time spent on site. Outside of its website, however, IPVanish never tracks user activity.
The company uses cookies and third-party pixels from sources like Bing, Facebook, Google Ads, Google Analytics, Twitter, New Relic, Sift Science, and ZenDesk.
The collected info is used to:
- Create your account, collect payments, administer accounts, and verify your identity.
- Monitor trends and website usage, offer relevant content to users, and manage customer relationships.
- Send a periodic newsletter about products, news, and offers made by IPVanish or its marketing partners and affiliates.
- Respond to help requests and provide technical assistance. The company also maintains internal records of individuals support histories.
When it comes to third-party service providers, IPVanish uses Delighted for customer feedback, Sift Science and MaxMind for fraud detection, SendGrid for email communication, Stripe for payment processing, UpSellit to resolve potential card abandonment, WPEngine for blog hosting, Firebase for app crash information, and ZenDesk for live chat and support ticket system.
You can use your Account Control Panel at any given moment to modify your personal information and send an email to support@ipvanish.com for any technical requests and other inquiries.
Streaming
During our tests, we were able to connect to Netflix US from Europe and stream content without any problems. We also accessed the UK version of Netflix, but Netflix Germany, France, Japan, and Italy recognized our VPN connection and blocked us from accessing any content. The streaming experience was smooth and seamless thanks to decent speeds on some of the US servers.
Torrenting
As we already mentioned in this IPVanish review, the company does allow P2P filesharing, which means you are allowed to use it to download torrents. Having said that, its Terms of Service prohibit receiving or uploading any copyrighted material.
Since encryption will inevitably slow down your Internet connection, IPVanish features SOCKS5 proxy servers, which allow you to mask your real IP address and download torrents anonymously without actually encrypting your traffic.
Plans & Pricing
IPVanish offers three different pricing plans, including the monthly option ($10.99 per month), the 3-month subscription ($5.32 per month; billed $15.96 every 3 months), and the full-year plan ($3.99 per month; billed $47.89 every year). What’s also important to note is that their yearly plan includes Ransomware & Malware Protection.
The accepted payment methods include credit cards (MasterCard, VISA, American Express, Discover, JCB, and Delta) and PayPal. There is no free trial at the moment, but every order comes with a 7-day money-back guarantee.
Support
IPVanish mentions 24/7 customer support multiple times on its official website, but the order screen indicates that the support team operates Monday-Friday 9 AM – 5 PM UTC-6. You can contact the company’s support staff using the live chat feature on the official website or send a support ticket to support@ipvanish.com.
IPVanish Pros & Cons
At the end of this IPVanish review, here’s a quick overview of the features that wowed us and the aspects of the service that could use some improvement.
- 1,300+ servers in 75+ locations
- 40,000+ shared IPs
- Unlimited bandwidth, speed, and server switching
- Support for all popular platforms
- Solid security configuration
- Numerous connection protocols, including OpenVPN
- AES-256 encryption
- No activity logs
- P2P allowed
- SOCKS5 proxy servers
- Up to 10 simultaneous connections
- Unlocks Netflix US
- Live chat
- Competent and friendly user support staff
- No perfect forward secrecy
- Blocked in China
I’ve used IPVanish over a year & lately it seems it’s disconnected more than connected. And there’s no way to know unless u continually enter IPV. I’m leaving them. How hard could it be to include something to see if we’re connected. Yes, I’m auto-connected, but that rarely works either anymore, it seems.
Thxs for the reviews that helped me decide where to go. They’re the best!
Not the fastest there is, but rather solid performance.
This used to be the best vpn of all times, but the latest update just killed it. It’s so difficult to connect that I’m starting to think that it’s a pure God’s miracle every time I succeed.
Great service so far. I had no trouble whatsoever. It works fast, opens anything I want and every time I want to ask anything support is online and answers fast.
Great service
I thought my connections would be faster, to be honest. But I understand that you can’t have your cake and eat it too, meaning you can’t use vpn and have super fast connections, it takes a toll definitely. Other than that, excellent service.
I love the customer support over at IP Vanish. I’ve had problems configuring my router and the procedure is not very well explained, but the guy working at support was very helpful and patient.
This has been my fav vpn provider for a couple years now. I switched because there was a bargain price on the plans at the time and frankly I am very satisfied, especially with the service.
I’ve signed up for IP Vanish mainly because of the variety of server locations and unlimited switching. It’s important to me because I really travel a lot. The plans are affordable, imho, the speeds are decent.
I don’t know the first thing about VPN and these sorts of things but I needed a safe way to access torrents so this one works perfectly for me.