IPVanish Review & Test: Is It the fastest and most reliable VPN?

IPVanish VPN is a US-based VPN provider since 2012. It has a relatively more extensive server network with 40,000+ IPs on 1,600+ servers in 75+ locations worldwide.

IPVanish is becoming a popular choice for people focused on personal online privacy and security, unmetered connections, secure cloud backup, a wide range of clients, competitive speeds, 24/7 customer support, and more.

And IPVanish claims on its website ‘IPVanish is the only true Top Tier VPN service in the world.’ But is it really what it is advertised to be? In this IPVanish Review, I will rigorously test IPVanish, show you everything about IPVanish’s pros, cons, features, speed test, pricing, and more.

Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links that I receive a small commission for at no cost to you. You can read my full affiliate disclaimer in the footer.

IPVanish Reviews Overview

IPVanish VPN Key Summary

IPVanish VPN Pros & Cons

Pros

• No-logs privacy policy
• 40,000+ shared IPs, 1,600+ VPN servers in 75+ locations
• 256-bit AES encryption
• SOCKS5 web proxy
• IKEv2, OpenVPN, and L2TP/IPsec VPN protocols
• Unblocks Netflix U.S. and Disney+
• Apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Fire T.V., and Chrome
• 24/7 customer support (Phone, Live Chat, and Tickets)

Cons

• 30 days risk-free (annual plan only)
• Can’t unblock iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video
• U.S. based company

What is IPVanish VPN?

IPVanish was first launched commercially with only 32 servers in 2012. It belongs to Mudhook Media Inc., an independent subsidiary of Highwinds Network Group in Orlando, Florida. And today, IPVanish’s server network was expanded to 1,600+ servers in 75+ locations worldwide.

Interestingly, IPVanish has been traded many times over the past few years. This is a brief introduction to the historical background of this company.

• IPVanish was founded in 2012 by Mudhook Media Inc.
• In 2017, Highwinds Network Group was acquired by CDN company StackPath.
• In 2019, IPVanish was acquired by J2 Global with their NetProtect business.

J2 Global, Inc. is the parent company of many brands’ publishers, like IGN, PCMAG, and SugarSync. IPVanish was one of many VPN services acquired by J2 Global. And J2 Global also was the parent company of StrongVPN and Encrypt.me. I didn’t expect to have so much information behind IPVanish.

Logging Policy

IPVanish does claim it is a zero-logs VPN service provider, which means it doesn’t keep a record of any connection, traffic, or activity data. But it will collect your email address and payment method to maintain the service. I found the transparent claims in the privacy policy:

“IPVanish does not collect, monitor, or log any traffic or use of its Virtual Private Network service on any platform.”

And IPVanish gives a brief summarizes of the logging policy:

This seems to be very accurate and transparent. IPVanish puts users’ personal security and privacy first.

However, IPVanish was caught up in the controversy because of the data-sharing incident of 2016.

In 2016, Highwinds Network Group, the company’s previous owners, cooperated with the FBI for a criminal case and handed over the user’s details. That’s contradictory with IPVanish’s no-logs privacy policy.

But now, IPVanish is owned by J2 Global, not Highwinds Network Group anymore. And this case is handled by Highwinds Network Group in 2016.

This incident greatly impacted its reputation, and even it had a few hiccups when it was acquired by StackPath in 2017. Lance Crosby, the founder, and CEO of StackPath claimed that:

“at the time of the acquisition, […] no logs existed, no logging systems existed and no previous/current/future intent to save logs existed.”

The good news is that any complaints about the data leaking have not happened again since 2016. If you really worry about that, have a quick look at ExpressVPN.

IPVanish VPN Speed Test

Your connection speed may drop slightly while using a VPN. And you can refer to your network ping time, download speed, and upload speed and determine your network changes.

For this updated IPVanish review, I tested seven servers on the distance from our physical testing location in Seattle, US. Our baseline connection speed was about 265Mbps without IPVanish.

• Short-distance: US, CA
• Long-distance: UK, JP, TW, AU, SG

Our testing results show that IPVanish performs better with nearby servers. When I connected to the local IPVanish server(US), the download speeds dropped about 79.5%, and the ping time increased to 65ms.

For long-distance server, the download speed dropped dramatically, the ping time increased so much. IPVanish didn’t perform as well as I thought it would.

Although the performance was not very bad, IPVanish is not one of the fastest VPNs compared to the top-tier VPN such as ExpressVPN and NordVPN.

IPVanish VPN Server Locations

IPVanish server network has grown from the original 32 to 1,600+ VPN servers in 75+ locations worldwide. In terms of users’ privacy, IPVanish doesn’t choose to rent third-party servers. On the contrary, the entire network is owned and managed by IPVanish.

You can get access to over 40,000 IP addresses with IPVanish. It’s a very efficient way to relieve server congestion. IPVanish also makes a reasonable distribution of servers worldwide according to user needs.

• North America: 923
• Europe: 522
• Asia: 49
• Oceania: 53
• SouthAmerica: 37
• Africa: 11

Also, you can choose the city-level servers in the following locations:

• UK: Manchester, London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Maidenhead
• France: Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux
• Canada: Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal
• India: New Delhi, Mumbai
• Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth
• Brazil: Sao Paulo, Rio De Janeiro
• USCentral: Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, New Orleans
• USEastCoast: Ashburn, Atlanta, Boston, Miami, New York, Chicago, Charlotte, Atlanta
• USWestCoast: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Seattle

IPVanish’s decent-sized network allows you to choose the closest best performing server to you. You can check all servers list via the IPVanish website.

Apps, Extensions, and Compatibility

Apps

• Windows
• macOS
• iOS
• Android
• Chrome OS
• Linux

IPVanish almost supports all popular platforms and devices, including Windows, macOS, IOS, Android, Chrome OS, and Linux. It’s amicable to get started, even you haven’t used IPVanish before.

IPVanish used to allow users to connect up to 10 different devices simultaneously, but today, it generously changed this restriction to unlimited. You can protect more devices of your families or friends.

Apps for Games Consoles & Streaming Devices

• Amazon Fire TV
• Kodi

IPVanish provides native apps for Fire TV and Kodi. It will help you protect your online privacy and get access to geo-blocked content. IPVanish also offers a setup guide on its website.

When it comes to game consoles, I found there is no more installation instruction about them. I would like to make full use of the router for gaming. IPVanish is compatible with the DD-WRT-enabled routers below:

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

You had better ensure that you have the firmware on your router. However, if you get any problems, I recommend getting help from customer support.

The disappointing thing is IPVanish doesn’t offer browser extensions at all. If you would like to use the plugin, you should check out ExpressVPN.

IPVanish VPN unblocks Netflix, BBC iPlayer & torrenting?

IPVanish does provide a vast server network, but it doesn’t work well for geo-blocked content. And IPVanish also doesn’t boast on their site if they’ll work with Netflix or not. It just lists some common online media that can get access to:

• Bing
• Facebook
• Gmail
• Google
• Kodi
• Skype
• Sling TV
• Spotify
• Twitter
• Whatsapp
• YouTube

Aren’t these the essential functions of a VPN? Yes, of course. But anyway, I still try to test it.

I find it’s a little clumsy when I try to find servers for streaming. Because IPVanish doesn’t provide a convenient way for streaming, no streaming mode, no optimized servers. What you have to do is only testing one by one.

Fortunately, most US servers work well to unblock Netflix and Disney+, but others not. I also find the network isn’t very reliable and consistent while watching Netflix or Disney+. So IPVanish is not the best option for unblocking geo-blocked streaming service.

However, IPVanish offers native applications for Amazon Fire TV and Kodi. It is the right choice for them. But when it comes to BBC iPlayer, Hulu, HBO, and other streaming services, I recommend you look at NordVPN that provides many optimized servers for streaming services.

Torrenting

IPVanish doesn’t talk too much about P2P sharing and torrenting on its website. I contact the support team to ensure that every IPVanish’s server supports torrenting download, but none of them are optimized.

Even so, I found the download speeds reduced a little while torrenting based on my testing.

IPVanish does take your privacy seriously. It also respects the intellectual property of others. IPVanish states that torrenting copyrighted material is forbidden in the DMCA policy.

However, IPVanish implements a strict zero-log policy. It means that IPVanish couldn’t provide any info even it receives the DMCA complaints.

For faster connection speeds, you can also use the SOCKS5 proxy with IPVanish. It won’t throttle your download speeds while torrenting, even it’s less secure than the IPVanish app client.

What’s more, IPVanish offers a plan with a cloud storage service called SugarSync for backups or P2P file sharing, belonging to J2 Global.

IPVanish Works in China, UAE & more?

IPVanish briefly mentioned it could break the country’s regional restrictions, no matter where you’re located, but this is not the case.

I tested all IPVanish servers and protocols in my China physical location on macOS. IPVanish couldn’t work at all. And I found IPVanish has the same problem in other highly-censored countries.

If you are looking for a VPN for breaking the aggressive internet censors, you can have a look at ExpressVPN or Hotspot Shield.

IPVanish Encryption & Security

Protocols

• IKEv2/IPSec
• L2TP/IPSec
• OpenVPN (TCP/UDP)
• PPTP
• SSTP

Encryption

• AES-256

Security

• DNS Leak Blocking
• First-party DNS
• IPV6 Leak Blocking
• Supports TCP Port 443
• VPN Kill Switch

Advanced features

• SOCKS5 Proxy
• Trusted Network

IPVanish pays extra attention to the security of users’ online privacy due to the data-sharing incident of 2016. It uses the industry-standard AES-256 encryption to prevent your online data from leaking. And there is a wide of supported network protocols like OpenVPN, IKEv2, and L2TP/IPsec.

In my testing, I found no IP, DNS, WebRTC, and IPv6 leaks.

IPVanish also offers many advanced features to enhance your privacy protection, but Kill Switch and IPv6 Protection feature only work under the OpenVPN protocol. There is a little difference between different platforms and devices.

There is no automatic option to choose the best protocol for you, and the OpenVPN is the default protocol. If you feel bad, just switch to others and figure out for the best.

IPVanish Supports Ad Blocker?

No. IPVanish doesn’t launch this feature like NordVPN or SurfShark VPN.

IPVanish Offers Static or Dedicated IP Addresses?

No, it doesn’t. IPVanish offers over 400,000 shared IPs for all customers. The IP address is reassigned every time while connecting to IPVanish servers.

The dedicated IP addresses are very beneficial for particular users, and NordVPN is the right choice for this.

IPVanish Customer Support

IPVanish provides excellent 24/7 support via live chat, email, and phone. If you need any help with IPVanish, you can find the website’s top menu bar’s reliance. The live chat is amicable and helpful.

Besides, you can directly call IPVanish for help in the following countries:

• United States
• Australia
• Mexico
• the United Kingdom
• Spain
• Australia
• Brazil

IPVanish also offers an extensive online support center. You can find more articles by category.

The IPVanish application also has a diagnostics feature to help you efficiently located your problem. If IPVanish crashed or couldn’t work, you can go to ‘Diagnostics’ and click ‘Archive For Support.’

And IPVanish will collect logs and archive a zip file to your computer. You can submit a ticket with the zip file to the IPVanish support team. The more information you provide, the faster the problem will be solved.

IPVanish is easy to use?

How to Install & Set Up IPVanish

IPVanish app clients are effortless to use with so many features. It offers a pleasant user experience, no matter what is a smartphone or a computer.

IPVanish will automatically update the servers when you launch it, and you can easily choose the nearby country with the best available city and the best single server.

After everything is set up, all you need to do is click the green ‘Connect’ button and wait for a successful connection. You can check out the detailed statistics, including time connected, data up, and data down when you are connected.

IPVanish Pricing Plans & Refund Options

IPVanish Coupon Code

IPVanish currently offers $52 off for the first year subscription. Here is the latest IPVanish coupon code for 2020.

IPVanish Pricing Plan

Both IPVanish and SugarSync belongs to J2 Global. So it adds a bundled sales package plan except for IPVanish separately.

IPVanish provides two pricing plans, $3.49 monthly and $27.99 for the first billing cycle year. When it comes to the bundle, it’s $3.84 monthly and $34.99 for the first billing cycle.

SugarSync is a cloud storage service for backup or file sharing. You will get 500 GB of storage if you subscribe to the bundle plan.

VPN

VPN + Storage

Payment & Refund Options

IPVanish accepts credit cards, debit cards, or PayPal. It no longer supports bitcoin payment methods, and it doesn’t support cryptocurrencies and Alipay at all.

IPVanish doesn’t offer a free trial, but instead a 30-day money-back guarantee, no question asked. Unfortunately, if you subscribed to IPVanish monthly or your account was created via the Apple App Store, you won’t enjoy the guarantee.

As usual, it will take 3 business days to be processed before you receive a refund.

How to Download IPVanish?

IPVanish is compatible with many platforms and devices. You can easily download it via the application center. You can click here to save $52 before your get started with IPVanish.

After that, you log in to IPVanish with your account and select the right protocol and best server, click the ‘Connect’ button and get access to the freedom.

IPVanish FAQs

IPVanish Alternatives

IPVanish VS NordVPN

IPVanish’s server network is decent-size, but there is no any optimized server for streaming. However, NordVPN has a SmartPlay feature for online streaming. You can easily watch geo-blocked content in HD with fast server speeds.

Click here to Visit NordVPN or Read NordVPN Review.

IPVanish VS Hotspot Shield

IPVanish can’t work well in high-censorship countries, even it claims that on its website. IPVanish still needs to improve when compared to Hotspot Shield. Hotspot Shield is one of the best VPNs that could bypass the GFW in China. It’s super fast with 1,800+ servers in 80+ countries.

Click here to Visit Hotspot Shield or Read Hotspot Shield Review.

The Bottom Line

If you have used IPVanish, please share your honest review (good or bad).