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IPVanish Review
Price & Value
Great Value for Money
There are three subscription plans available: a monthly, a yearly, and a two-year plan. Each option is paid upfront and includes exactly the same features.
However, only the yearly and two-year plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
If you sign up to IPVanish via our links, you can get a discount of up to 83%.
Monthly
$12.99/mo
Billed $12.99 every month12 Month(s)
$2.79/mo
Billed $33.48 the first year, $89.99 thereafter24 Month(s)
$2.19/mo
Billed $52.56 the first 2 years, $89.99 yearly thereafter
IPVanish Risk-free Trial
There is no 100% free trial, but there is a 30-day money-back guarantee with the yearly plan. This refund is 100% no-questions-asked and is usually processed within 10 working days.
If you sign up for IPVanish via the Apple App Store then you won’t qualify for the money-back guarantee at all, which seems a little unfair but is unfortunately common practice.
Payment & Refund Options
American Express
Mastercard
PayPal
Visa
Streaming
Great for torrenting and good for US Netflix
IPVanish unblocks American Netflix on most US servers.
We tested IPVanish to see if it unblocks Netflix in the most popular countries around the world. Here are our results:
| Country | Unlocks Netflix | Example Server |
|---|---|---|
| USA | ✓ | chi-a02.ipvanish.com |
| UK | ✗ | n/a |
| South Korea | ✗ | n/a |
| Germany | ✗ | n/a |
| Mexico | ✗ | n/a |
| Canada | ✗ | n/a |
| Japan | ✓ | nrt-a02.ipvanish.com |
However, the VPN service won’t work with BBC iPlayer, Disney+ or Amazon Prime Video.
If you need a VPN that works well with Kodi or Amazon Fire TV, IPVanish is a very good choice.
IPVanish’s native Fire TV application lets you easily stream geo-restricted content from your TV. Currently, IPVanish is the best VPN for Firestick.
Great for Torrenting?
IPVanish is well-suited to torrent quickly and safely. It’s very fast, and it operates over 40,000 individual IP addresses, is ideal for high-bandwidth activities like torrenting.
P2P activity is permitted on all servers and the VPN has a strict zero-logs policy.
Also, we detected no IP or DNS leaks and there is an effective kill switch on all apps except iOS. This tool protects your true IP address from being visibile if your VPN connection drops.
Speed
IPVanish Delivers Fast Short-Distance Speeds
IPVanish is very fast on local connections.
We recorded an average download speed of 93Mbps on nearby servers. This works out as a speed loss of less than 10%, which makes it one of the fastest VPNs we’ve ever reviewed.
Even on long-distance connections, IPVanish was fast enough for HD streaming from abroad.
We also found IPVanish to be very reliable and stable. The client connected to the VPN server remarkably quickly ‒ sometimes in less than one second.
Local Speed Test results before using IPVanish:
- Download Speed: 93.76Mbps
- Upload Speed: 97.58Mbps
- Ping: 2ms
Local Speed Test results with IPVanish:
- Download Speed: 84.13Mbps
- Upload Speed: 90.33Mbps
- Ping: 7ms
Download speed loss when IPVanish is running: 10%
We tested our connection speed before and after connecting to an IPVanish server in London, near our physical location. Here are the results:
- Download speed without IPVanish: 93.76Mbps
- Download speed with IPVanish: 84.13Mbps
- Our download speed loss when IPVanish is running: 10%
Our average speeds and latency when using IPVanish were amongst the best we’ve seen. Our ping was only 7ms on a local connection, which is ideal for gaming.
In terms of performance, it’s also one of the most reliable VPN services we’ve reviewed, providing consistent local speeds from one test to the next, month after month.
This makes IPVanish an ideal VPN for torrenting, streaming, and one of our top recommendations for gaming.
Long-Distance Speed Tests
We tested how IPVanish performs on long-distance connections by measuring our internet speeds before and after connecting to its servers around the world.
IPVanish’s global speeds are good. We measured an average download speed of 53Mbps in the US, which is a percentage speed loss of 44%. This isn’t bad considering the distance involved, but there’s certainly room for improvement.
Connections to Australia and Singapore weren’t bad either, both with an average download speed loss of approximately 75%. These results are passable, but needs improving.
Here are the average speeds we got when we connected to servers around the world from our office in London:
- USA: 53Mbps (download) & 37Mbps (upload)
- Germany: 76Mbps (download) & 81Mbps (upload)
- Singapore: 25Mbps (download) & 2Mbps (upload)
- Australia: 24Mbps (download) & 6Mbps (upload)
Server Locations
2,200 Self-Owned Servers & 40,000+ IP Addresses
IPVanish has a large network of 2,200 servers in over 77 locations, all of which are entirely self-owned and managed.
Users also have access to over 40,000 IP addresses, which is one of largest networks we’ve ever seen.
A large number of IP addresses helps to prevent server congestion and performance while connected to popular locations.
The network includes servers in most European countries and over 500 servers in North America, although the choice is more limited outside these regions – particularly in Africa. Here’s a breakdown of exactly how many servers are available in each region:
- North America: 822
- Europe: 434
- Asia: 66
- Oceania: 83
- South America: 32
- Africa: 12
There has never been a security or infrastructure breach in IPVanish’s history, and we consider It one of the most trustworthy providers from a security perspective.
City-level server locations are available in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Brazil. You can find the full list of city-level locations below:
- UK: Manchester, London, Glasgow
- Canada: Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal
- Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth
- Brazil: São Paulo, Rio De Janeiro
- US Central: Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston
- US East Coast: Ashburn, Atlanta, Boston, Miami, New York
- US West Coast: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Seattle
You can connect to servers in 53 different countries. The full list of server locations is on the IPVanish website.
Privacy
A Trustworthy & Verified No-Logs VPN
IPVanish is a zero-logs VPN provider. This means it does not keep any record of your connection data or browsing activity.
It’s privacy policy is clearly-written and very transparent. It explicitly states that it does not keep traffic or even metadata logs:
“IPVanish does not collect, monitor, or log any traffic or use of its Virtual Private Network service on any platform.”
To summarise, IPVanish’s logging policy is as private and transparent as it gets.
The only information collected is an email address and payment method in order to process transactions.
The VPN does not:
- Log user traffic or usage of the VPN service
- Sell or rent user information to third parties
We’re pleased to note that there’s nothing that worries us in the document. It’s an enforceable logging policy that prioritizes user anonymity, privacy, and security.
Considering most VPN logging policies track at least server load or login information for maintenance purposes, this makes IPVanish a standout VPN for privacy.
Competing VPN providers have reassured their customers by investing in external audits by independent third parties. We’d like to see IPVanish follow suit to verify their logging practices.
Who Owns IPVanish?
IPVanish is one of the longest-running commercial VPNs available, founded in 2012 by Mudhook Media, part of the Highwinds Network Group.
In 2017 it was acquired by Stackpath, a CDN, cloud services, and firewall company. Two years later, Stackpath itself was acquired by online media giant J2 Global.
Throughout its many acquisitions, IPVanish has always been operated by companies headquartered in the US ‒ a member of the Five-Eyes data sharing agreement.
Theoretically, the company could be forced to hand over any web logs to US government agencies. However, the company enforces a zero-logs policy, so its invasive jurisdiction is not an issue.
Security
IPVanish VPN Is Very Safe to Use
| Protocols | Available in IPVanish |
|---|---|
| IKEv2/IPSec | Yes |
| L2TP/IPSec | Yes |
| OpenVPN (TCP/UDP) | Yes |
| PPTP | Yes |
| SSTP | Yes |
| WireGuard | Yes |
| Encryption | Available in IPVanish |
|---|---|
| AES-128 | Yes |
| AES-192 | No |
| AES-256 | Yes |
| Blowfish | No |
| ChaCha20 | No |
| Security | Available in IPVanish |
|---|---|
| Diskless Servers | No |
| DNS Leak Blocking | Yes |
| First-party DNS | Yes |
| IPv6 Leak Blocking | Yes |
| Supports TCP Port 443 | Yes |
| VPN Kill Switch | Yes |
| WebRTC Leak Blocking | No |
| Advanced Features | Available in IPVanish |
|---|---|
| Ad Blocker | No |
| Dedicated IP | No |
| Double VPN | No |
| SOCKS | Yes |
| Split Tunneling | No |
| Static IP | No |
| Tor over VPN Server | No |
| Tracker Blocker | No |
IPVanish is a safe VPN with strong security.
The VPN protects your data transfers with industry-leading AES-256 encryption and supports the highly secure protocols OpenVPN, IKEv2, and L2TP/IPsec.
We tested all its apps and they all effectively hide your IP address, encrypt your data, and protect you from IP, DNS, WebRTC, and IPv6 leaks.
Advanced features include traffic obfuscation, split tunneling, DNS and IPv6 leak protection as well as the ability to manually configure your DNS settings.
There’s also a VPN kill switch to keep your data secure in case of a connection drop. This isn’t turned on by default and it’s not available on iOS, so make sure to switch it on before connecting.
The apps also offer an unusual level of control over your OpenVPN configuration, and there’s even a SOCKS5 proxy available for torrenters.
IPVanish Leak Test
We tested IPVanish’s apps for leaks and found that it does not leak IP, DNS, or WebRTC data.
IPVanish’s leak test results when connected to its Chicago server
As you can see, our DNS, IP, and WebRTC addresses were all registered in the US, which is the location of the VPN server we connected to. There is absolutely no sign of our true location in the UK, which is a great result.
Our tests show that IPVanish works to effectively hide your IP address and true location, which means that you can use the service to unblock foreign websites and stream content from different countries.
Wireshark Packet Inspection
After testing for leaks, we continued our analysis by inspecting the traffic leaving our device when connected to a server. This allows us to make sure that the VPN client is encrypting our data effectively.
We did this test using Wireshark, a free and open-source packet inspection tool.
The UDP stream from IPVanish shows no plain text
We were unable to find any data being sent across our network in plain text. We found no unencrypted TCP or UDP traffic, and no HTTP or DNS traffic traveling in plain text.
This shows that IPVanish is working exactly as intended and fully encrypting all the traffic leaving our device. You can therefore trust IPVanish to hide your activity from your ISP or protect your data on public WiFi networks.
Device Compatibility
IPVanish is Compatible with Major Platforms & Devices
Apps
Windows
Mac
iOS
Android
Linux
Router
IPVanish has dedicated apps for all major platforms including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV, and Linux.
The VPN is easily configurable and you can even install it on your router for network-wide protection.
You can use the VPN on up to 10 different devices simultaneously, which is a generous device limit that exceeds a lot of competing services. Most VPN services limit simultaneous connections to around five devices per subscription.
More confident users can also manually configure IPVanish to work on Windows phones, Ubuntu, Chromebook, and more.
There are no browser extensions available, though.
Installing IPVanish on Your Router
There are two choices for getting IPVanish on your router: you can either buy a router pre-flashed, or manually install the VPN on another compatible router.
Installing a VPN on your router allows you to protect your entire network with VPN encryption and bypass your provider’s simultaneous device limit.
This means you unblock region-restricted content and hide your IP address on devices without native VPN applications such as your PlayStation, Xbox, Roku, and more.
IPVanish’s wide compatibility with routers, fast speeds, and low latency make it one of the best VPNs for gaming.
IPVanish is compatible with the following DD-WRT-enabled routers:
- Asus
- Belkin
- Buffalo
- D-Link
- Linksys (Cisco)
Manually installing a VPN on your router isn’t easy or cheap though, and you need to make sure you have the right hardware first. We recommend consulting the IPVanish website to make sure your router is compatible before proceeding.
IPVanish for Firestick & Kodi
IPVanish is one of the very few VPNs to offer a native app for Amazon’s Fire TV devices.
This app will encrypt your connection and help to bypass region-restrictions to unlock content from other countries. Installation is very easy, and there’s a detailed setup guide on the company’s website.
To install IPVanish on your Fire TV Stick:
- Select ‘apps’ and then ‘categories’ from the Firestick home screen.
- Choose ‘utility’ and then select the IPVanish application.
- Download IPVanish and select ‘open’ to enter your login details.
- Click ‘connect’ to use the nearest server location, or choose your server manually in the ‘options’ menu.
Compatibility with Kodi is also a big benefit of IPVanish.
Overall, we recommend IPVanish as the best VPN on the market for Kodi and Fire TV.
Ease of Use
Simple Setup & Apps with Many Advanced Settings
How to Install & Set Up IPVanish
Starting the setup process is very simple. Click the button to download the relevant software from the site.
You can check setup progress here, but it only takes a few minutes from start to finish.
Once you've downloaded the software, you'll see this screen prompting you to run the IPVanish app.
IPVanish main dashboard shows key connection info and permits server selection. We like the nice graph too.
Power users will select servers from the main dashboard rather than the server list as it's a slicker experience.
IPVanish server list view with filters - it's mostly pretty good but not as optimal as using the main dashboard.
IPVanish is rich with advanced settings for customizing connections and it's well laid out to boot. Nice!
The IPVanish applications are simple to use and offer a good suite of accessible features. It’s easy to change servers and the interface is reasonably intuitive. The advanced privacy settings are also easy to navigate, meaning it is suited to both VPN beginners and more experienced users.
Installation is made very easy: the Windows and Mac clients install like any other VPN and the iOS and Android applications are available in their respective app stores. There’s also a direct download of the Android APK available for you if you consider yourself technically advanced and want more control over your setup process.
For beginners, there are detailed set-up guides available on the IPVanish website for every platform and there is also an optional tutorial when you first log in to the app.
Some of the apps do lack a few key features – in particular the iOS app – but it’s still fast and secure. The Smart TV app for the Amazon Fire TV Stick stands out as far more complete than equivalent apps offered by other providers. We’ll go through each of the platforms and the features they offer in more detail below.
Here’s an overview of the key features available on every major platform:
Windows Client
The IPVanish Windows app looks complex at first, but is in fact very simple to use. Once you’ve connected to a server a status panel will display the protocol you’re using, time connected, server name and bandwidth usage, which is an unusual level of detail. There’s also a real-time graph showing upload and download speeds over time.
The IPVanish Windows app allows you to change server locations with just a few clicks
You can pick a country, city, or server to connect to or just press “connect” to automatically use the best server available.
In the side-menu, the server list can be sorted by country, server load or response time. There’s also a useful search box that allows you to filter by keyword. One click will add a server location to your favorites list, which saves the hassle of searching in the future.
There is the option to pick a location from a map, with numbers to represent how many servers are available in a given location.
The settings tab has options for starting the VPN automatically when your PC turns on, as well as access to a kill switch and scramble protocol, which will help mask OpenVPN traffic. The kill switch isn’t enabled by default, though, so be sure to turn it on before you start browsing.
The default protocol is OpenVPN UDP, but you can also use OpenVPN TCP, IKEv2, L2TP, SSTP, or PPTP. There’s full DNS and IPv6 leak protection and the ability to switch between OpenVPN ports 1194 and 443.
OpenVPN and IKEv2 are both secure and fast protocols that we fully recommend. It’s not clear why SSTP and PPTP are included at all – these protocols are outdated and aren’t considered secure. We recommend avoiding them where possible.
Overall, the IPVanish Windows app performs very well and has plenty of advanced features to keep experienced VPN users happy.
macOS Client
The IPVanish macOS client has most of the same features as the Windows equivalent, minus LAN exemption. Its interface is a little more difficult though – it opens as a windowed app, but you can only get to the settings from the menu bar app, which is far from intuitive.
Both desktop apps include a real-time graph of upload and download speed
Unlike some competing macOS clients – like NordVPN or Proton VPN – it does have a kill switch, though, which is necessary for a top-tier VPN.
Uniquely, the Mac application has the option to toggle between IPVanish and third-party DNS, as well as a toggle for IPv6 leak protection. We think IPv6 leak protection should be on by default, but it would be nice to see the DNS option on other platforms.
Android App
IPVanish’s Android app is its most impressive client, with more features than any other app.The UI is mostly great too: quick and easy to navigate.
The home screen displays a range of useful information including your current IP address and location, a target country, and a ‘connect’ button to get you online quickly. Settings, account details, and a full server list are available from the menu in the top left, or you can use the quick select fields on the home screen.
The Android app is even easier to use than on desktop
You’re able to select servers by country or city in the locations menu, but there are no server load figures to help you choose the least congested location. There’s also no favorites system to speed up the process of getting connected. Instead, you’ll have to manually scroll to specific servers when you need them.
There’s a support tab as well, to make things easy if you ever get stuck.
The best thing about the Android app is its versatility and huge feature list. It includes a kill switch and split tunneling, as well as a LAN exemption to help you connect to local devices without issues.
You can choose between OpenVPN UDP or TCP connections and there’s a wider choice of ports than you’ll see with the Windows client (1194, 443 and 8443).
There are also some features with unique utility for mobile connections. You can choose to reduce the MTU (maximum transmission unit) to help connect to websites on mobile data, for instance.
There’s a setting to notify you when connected to an insecure network, and the option to “scramble” data, too. This might help get past network-level content blocks but it won’t get you through any heavy-duty censorship tools.
Overall, the IPVanish Android app is an impressive VPN client that’s relatively easy to use and comes packed with a long list of advanced features.
iOS App
The IPVanish app for iPhone is visually quite different to the Android app, but it’s still relatively easy to use.
Advanced features can be accessed through the settings button in the top right hand corner. There’s not much on offer here – there’s no kill switch to protect your data and you only get two additional settings: an auto-connect option and the ability to switch protocol between IKEv2 and IPSEC.
The default protocol is IKEv2, which is a solid choice for mobile devices that move between WiFi and cellular data. While you can switch to IPSec if you want, we recommend sticking with IKEv2 for optimal security.
The iOS app is a bit more limited than the Android offering
There’s no split tunneling or LAN exemption, which is underwhelming. You are able to build whitelists and blacklists of wireless networks though, so the app will know which networks to protect and which are trustworthy.
On a positive note, server load and ping times are displayed in the servers list, which is helpful for figuring out which location will offer the best performance. There’s also a simple and straightforward favorites system to save time scrolling when choosing your preferred location.
Overall, the IPVanish iOS client is a basic app that’s functional if not perfect. It lacks some essential features like a VPN kill switch, which means we don’t recommend it for privacy-reliant activities like torrenting. Hopefully more features will be added to the iOS app in the future.
Smart TV App
The IPVanish Smart TV app is one of the easiest-to-use VPN apps for TV we’ve ever seen. It isn’t especially pretty, but picking servers and changing settings is simple even when using a Fire TV Stick remote.
The real-time upload and download speed graph is still in the middle of the screen, but it doesn’t get in the way of functionality. If anything, it looks better on a TV than it does on a phone or computer screen.
IPVanish has the best Smart TV app we’ve seen
The drop-down menus for server locations feel awkward on most platforms but they are a good solution on TV, where most VPN apps struggle to make large server lists accessible.
There are plenty of features available including auto-startup, auto-reconnect, an optional LAN exemption and even split tunneling.
The VPN can be set to either OpenVPN UDP or OpenVPN TCP ‒ with the option to “scramble” traffic if you wish. This is ideal if you find your VPN traffic being blocked. There’s a support tab, too, which we really appreciate.
We did experience some problems connecting to servers in the UK, meaning you might have to cycle through a few locations until you find a server that works.
The VPN also takes slightly longer to connect than on other platforms, but it’s not slow enough to be frustrating ‒ particularly if you don’t intend to change server too often.
It’s very refreshing to see that IPVanish has put a lot of work into its TV app ‒ for so many providers it just feels like an afterthought. We recommend it enthusiastically for anyone looking to use a VPN on their TV.
Customer Support
Helpful 24/7 Live Chat Support
| Customer Support | Available in IPVanish |
|---|---|
| 24/7 Email Support | Yes |
| 24/7 Live Chat Support | No |
| Chatbot | No |
| Email Support via Online Form | No |
| Live Chat Support | No |
| Online Resources | Yes |
| Tutorial Videos | No |
IPVanish offers customer support via an extensive online help section, 24/7 email ticketing and a live chat service. The fastest way to contact customer support is via live chat, which we found to be friendly and helpful.
Live chat is a welcome addition
We’ve found live chat always responds quickly – you can find it in the bottom right hand side of the Support Center page. There are resources for learning about VPN technology in general as well as in-depth tutorials on using the service with different platforms. There are 12 guides to using IPVanish on Windows, for example, with separate tutorials for different protocols and operating systems.
The company also has excellent email support with impressively well-written responses and an online FAQ section for straightforward solutions to the most common issues. There’s telephone support, too, which isn’t offered by any other big name VPN. It’s available from 9am to 5pm CST, Monday to Friday.
Overall, IPVanish offers excellent customer support through a good variety of contact methods. The email ticketing and live chat services are fast and helpful while the telephone support is a rare and welcome addition.
Bypassing Web Censorship
Not recommended for China
IPVanish does not work in China or other highly-censored countries. It’s not just the website’s domain that is blocked in these countries – many users have also reported that the VPN apps don’t work either.
While it does come with an obfuscation feature called “Scramble VPN traffic,” the service is very upfront about its inability to bypass the Great Firewall.
Additionally, IPVanish states that it is “forbidden to do business in”:
- Cuba
- Iran
- Myanmar
- North Korea
- Sudan
- Syria
And that its domain, ipvanish.com, is blocked in:
- China
- Kazakhstan
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- United Arab Emirates (UAE)
It is unlikely the VPN service will work in any of the countries where the IPVanish domain is blocked.