NordVPN vs IPVanish

NordVPN and IPVanish are consistently fast when connecting to nearby servers, with both VPNs suffering a speed loss of just 5%.

Both VPNs also recorded an average upload speed of 94Mbps when connecting to the same nearby server.

The only difference on local connections is IPVanish’s slightly better ping time of 7ms.

If you’re connecting to a server nearby, you won’t notice any impact on your internet speed from either VPN.

Over longer distances, IPVanish registers much faster speeds than NordVPN.

When connecting from New York to South Africa, NordVPN reduced our download speed by 34%. In comparison, IPVanish was impressively fast, slowing our connection by just 17%.

You can compare our full long distance download speed test results below:

Server Location	NordVPN	IPVanish
UK	90Mbps	91Mbps
Germany	92Mbps	82Mbps
Brazil	83Mbps	94Mbps
Australia	84Mbps	86Mbps

In our latency tests, we found NordVPN added 8ms of ping, whereas IPVanish added 7ms. Although the difference is minimal, this means IPVanish will give you a slightly smoother connection for online gaming.

We tested NordVPN and IPVanish while playing popular online games including CS:GO, Fortnite, and Minecraft. In both cases, we didn’t notice any lag while playing.

Aside from Hotstar India, NordVPN unblocks every popular streaming service that we test. This includes Hulu, Max, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, and more.

In contrast, when connected to an IPVanish server, we encountered error messages whenever attempting to stream geo-blocked content from Prime Video and Max.

We were particularly impressed with NordVPN’s consistency in unblocking services on the first attempt. Rarely needing to switch servers made for a seamless and pleasant user experience.

NordVPN also outperforms IPVanish when it comes to unblocking global Netflix regions. It worked with almost every Netflix library we tested, whereas IPVanish only worked with three.

Here’s how both VPN services compare when it comes to Netflix regions:

Netflix Region	NordVPN	IPVanish
Australia	Yes	No
Brazil	Yes	No
Canada	Yes	Yes
France	Yes	No
Germany	Yes	No
India	No	Yes
Japan	Yes	No
Mexico	Yes	No
Netherlands	No	No
Switzerland	No	No
UK	Yes	Yes
US	Yes	Yes

If you want to access UK, US, or Indian Netflix then both NordVPN and IPVanish are good options. For other popular libraries though — such as Japan, South Korea, or Brazil — you will need to stick to NordVPN.

IPVanish isn’t as focused on streaming as other top VPN providers. NordVPN, by comparison, puts more resources into keeping its streaming functionality up to date.

Both IPVanish and NordVPN have private logging policies. NordVPN logs your username and a connection timestamp but this is deleted 15 minutes after a session ends.

IPVanish goes further by logging no data whatsoever, aside from your email address and payment method. This is standard practice and can’t be linked to your VPN activity.

Independent audits have verified both companies’ logging policies. However, in January 2022, NordVPN updated its policy to comply with lawful requests from law enforcement, stating that it will “comply with lawful requests as long as they are delivered according to all the laws and regulations.” This means NordVPN could potentially log and share user activity if legally compelled.

That said, there is no evidence to suggest that NordVPN has shared any user data, as indicated in their latest transparency report.

NordVPN is registered in Panama, which is considered a privacy haven. There are no laws that would force NordVPN to track your activity or hand over any user logs.

On the other hand, IPVanish is based in the United States, one of the most privacy-hostile countries. However, since IPVanish maintains no user logs, it would have nothing to hand over to any government or corporation if requested. This mitigates our concerns about its jurisdiction.

For additional peace of mind, we would like to see IPVanish follow NordVPN’s lead by publishing regular transparency reports and adopting a diskless server network.

You can purchase a dedicated VPN IP address from NordVPN for an additional $8.99 per month.

Sadly, this feature is a serious privacy issue as the dedicated IP address is we discovered that it’s directly linked to your NordVPN account.

As such, any browsing activity associated with your dedicated IP address can be traced back to you.

Although this isn’t part of the default VPN subscription, it’s still a disappointing oversight from NordVPN.

In terms of encryption, NordVPN and IPVanish are equally as secure.

By default, both services use a version of the WireGuard protocol to tunnel traffic, with ChaCha20 as the encryption cipher. Both VPNs also offer OpenVPN and AES-256 encryption as an alternative.

OpenVPN and WireGuard have been proven safe by regular testing and are open-source which means anyone can inspect their source code to detect faults.

Their encryption ciphers are widely-used and tested too. They have never been broken by brute force and there are currently no known vulnerabilities for either.

Both IPVanish and NordVPN have passed every leak test we’ve ever put them through. This means they don’t leak your IP, DNS, or WebRTC information.

They both have a kill switch, too. This is essential for VPN privacy and security. We tested it by deliberately cutting our VPN connection while running an IP checker tool, and both VPNs worked every time.

The two VPN services also own their own DNS servers, and default to using them — which means your ISP won’t see the websites you’re requesting.

Although NordVPN and IPVanish use similar encryption methods, NordVPN offers far more additional security features.

Along with its leak protection and kill switch, IPVanish includes two additional features: split-tunneling and a SOCKS5 proxy.

NordVPN includes all of the above as well as obfuscated servers, multi-hop, colocated servers, and TOR integration.

By comparison, IPVanish’s offering is quite simplistic. It includes all the basics a VPN needs to have, but if you’re looking for advanced security features, NordVPN is more likely to have them.

NordVPN costs $1 more per month than IPVanish on its 2-year plan. Additionally, NordVPN’s renewal rate is $99.48, significantly higher than IPVanish’s $89.99 renewal price.

Despite the higher cost, we still recommend choosing NordVPN beyond the initial two-year plan due to its superior quality and performance in nearly every aspect compared to IPVanish.

Both NordVPN and IPVanish offer free trials, with NordVPN’s available on Android and IPVanish’s on both iOS and Android, each lasting 7 days.

However, we find the money-back guarantee to be a more flexible option for testing the service across different platforms.

Both VPNs offer a 30-day refund period, and our experience with receiving refunds from both providers has been excellent.

You can connect to NordVPN servers in 111 countries, compared to just 53 for IPVanish.

Here’s a break-down of the number of server locations each VPN offers in every continent:

Continent	NordVPN	IPVanish
Europe	46	31
Asia	27	10
South America	12	5
North America	14	4
Africa	7	1
Oceania	4	2

As you can see, NordVPN provides significantly broader coverage across each continent. This disparity is especially notable in Africa, where NordVPN offers seven times more server options than IPVanish.

IPVanish exclusively uses physical servers, where the server is physically located in the region it represents. NordVPN has recently started using a mix of both physical and virtually located servers.

Both VPNs impressed us with their extensive city-level options in the US, with NordVPN covering 14 cities and IPVanish covering 20.

Both VPNs look similar thanks to their use of an interactive server map. However, we found NordVPN’s crisp white and blue colour palette more visually pleasing than IPVanish’s dull colour scheme. Even when enabling light mode, IPVanish’s app didn’t look appealing.

Despite this, IPVanish is easy to use, with clearly labeled features and an easily accessible server list. However, the app displays too much detail, such as ‘time connected’ and data usage during a VPN session, which could be reduced for a cleaner interface.

Contrastingly, we disliked the lack of labelling in NordVPN’s apps. Many features, like Threat Protection, are hidden behind undescriptive icons, making them harder to find and use.

The design of NordVPN’s app is slightly inconsistent between Windows and Mac. On macOS, the server list is always visible on the side. Whereas, the Windows app requires you to expand a drop-down menu and scroll through a list. This became frustrating when we needed to change servers regularly.

By comparison, IPVanish has a more consistent design between platforms. The PC and Mac apps are almost identical in design and function resulting in a consistent user experience.

Both VPNs let you connect to a location by clicking on it in the server map. While we think this looks nice, it’s not particularly functional compared to a standard server list.

IPVanish really shines on Android. It’s intuitively laid out, with more settings available than on any other platform.

The app opens onto a connection page, which allows for one-click connections. All settings and location options can be accessed from tabs at the bottom of the screen. This works well, and we were able to access everything we needed with just a few taps.

The iOS app shares the same intuitive layout as the Android version but offers fewer advanced options. Features like the Scramble protocol are not available, making the iOS app the least versatile of IPVanish’s offerings.

In stark contrast, NordVPN’s iOS app is exceptional, offering a user-friendly interface where everything can be found with one or two taps, and you can connect directly from the home screen.

However, NordVPN’s Android app is less impressive, with numerous menus and settings that can make it challenging to find and adjust key features.

Both IPVanish and NordVPN have applications for Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV.

NordVPN’s TV apps are some of the most feature-complete we’ve seen, including split tunneling, a variety of protocols, and a kill switch. The app unblocks fewer Netflix libraries than the PC or mobile apps, though, which is frustrating.

There is also an option to connect to P2P-optimized servers from the app, making it a good choice if you want to set up Kodi on your Fire TV Stick.

Visually, we found the app to be a bit bland, but it’s easy enough to use.

IPVanish’s Fire TV and Android TV apps have even more features than NordVPN’s. They include auto-startup, auto-reconnect, LAN exemption and split tunneling features. There’s a choice between OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols, too.

We’re especially keen on the app design, which balances aesthetics with advanced functionality. We particularly liked the app’s pure black background, which made it look great on our OLED TV.

Unlike IPVanish, NordVPN offers browser extensions for Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox. The add-ons are just proxies, not full VPNs. They only route your browser traffic, and it’s encrypted using TLS rather than AES or a similar cipher.

We don’t recommend using the browser add-ons for security, but they can be useful for location spoofing.

Both NordVPN and IPVanish have some router support, but IPVanish is much more comprehensive in this regard. IPVanish is compatible with the following DD-WRT enabled routers:

• Asus
• Belkin
• Buffalo
• D-Link
• Linksys (Cisco)

You can also buy a pre-flashed IPVanish router, if the setup process is too technical for you. This is an expensive option, but the FlashRouter privacy app is great for managing multiple devices in your home.

NordVPN can’t be manually installed on as many routers as IPVanish, but it also has the option to be purchased pre-flashed on a router of your choice.

IPVanish is one of the fastest VPNs for torrenting we’ve tested. We measured an average download bitrate of 9.9MiB/s with IPVanish, and 9.8MiB/s with NordVPN.

These are both very fast, and certainly fast enough for consistently good P2P performance. That said, IPVanish is the faster service by a small margin.

NordVPN has a larger server network than IPVanish, but IPVanish allows P2P file-sharing in every one of its server locations.

We discovered that NordVPN requires you to connect to one of its specialized P2P servers, otherwise it will reroute your traffic through servers in the Netherlands or Canada.

This caused our file-sharing speeds to drop substantially as our P2P traffic had to travel through additional and more distant servers.

Both VPNs include features essential to torrenting such as a working kill switch and private logging policies.

However, IPVanish includes port forwarding support whereas NordVPN doesn’t allow it. This is a must-have feature for advanced torrenting users as it lets you manually choose which NAT firewall port your traffic is routed through.

In most cases this will speed up P2P connections, especially when seeding.

Although NordVPN doesn’t currently work in China, with a success rate of just 0% in the past year, it’s still more reliable than IPVanish.

In 8 years of testing, IPVanish has never been able to bypass Chinese censorship.

Alternatively, we suggest you use one of the very best VPNs for China which work the majority of the time.

In the video below, we demonstrate how NordVPN can be used in China when it’s working:

NordVPN uses proprietary obfuscation technology to get around censorship. Previously, this was an effective tool for bypassing Chinese censorship but NordVPN has failed to get past the Great Firewall since March 2022.

IPVanish offers its obfuscation setting, OpenVPN Scramble, on all platforms. It works by wrapping VPN traffic in a layer of HTTPS to make it resemble normal traffic.

While neither NordVPN or IPVanish currently work in China, both may work in other censored regions with less advanced firewalls, like Turkey or Russia.

Both IPVanish and NordVPN offer all the customer support basics that you would expect: live chat, email support, and online guides.

Unlike NordVPN, which only offers these core options, IPVanish also maintains a telephone support service. This is an unusual but helpful alternative for people that need more immediate help or would prefer speaking to a real person.

We tested both NordVPN and IPVanish to see which VPN’s customer support gave us good advice the fastest.

We asked both providers the same set of questions during normal work hours to see which would perform better.

Here’s how NordVPN performed:

Question	Response Time	Question Answered
What type of encryption does NordVPN use?	Instant	Yes
What Netflix libraries does NordVPN unblock?	Instant	Yes
What’s the fastest NordVPN protocol?	95 seconds	Yes

Here’s how IPVanish performed:

Question	Response Time	Question Answered
What type of encryption does IPVanish use?	5 minutes	Yes
What Netflix libraries does IPVanish unblock?	3 minutes	Yes
What’s the fastest IPVanish protocol?	4 minutes	Yes

Overall, NordVPN’s customer support was consistently much quicker than IPVanish. We found IPVanish’s chatbot would often start by linking to guides, which generally didn’t contain relevant information.

When we got through to a human, we found it took a few minutes for them to actually answer our question. IPVanish’s customer service staff were helpful and polite, but NordVPN’s were much more direct and informative.

NordVPN’s chatbot is so good, we only had to talk to its live chat support team once. When we did, they were quick and helpful.