IPVanish

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.

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 connect to the internet.

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. Hopefully more features will be added to the iOS app in the future.