IPVanish Review

IPVanish is a popular VPN service that boasts a larger server network and claims to deliver the “best VPN speeds” in the industry.

Perhaps like you, I’m never satisfied taking these marketing statements at face value. So I decided to put IPVanish through extensive testing for the updated 2019 IPVanish review:

• Does IPVanish offer “top tier” speeds throughout the entire server network?
• Do IPVanish’s apps keep all data safe with a good kill switch, IP and DNS leak protection, and secure encryption?
• Does IPVanish provide stable connections without interruptions (good reliability)?
• Is it worth the price?

All of these questions are clearly answered in the review below, with all tests results backed up by screenshots. First we’ll cover an overview explaining our findings, then dive into the detailed results.

IPVanish Overview (Pros and Cons)

After conducting numerous speed tests with IPVanish servers in Europe, the US, and Canada, I concluded that IPVanish is one of the fastest VPNs I’ve tested. Nearby servers were always near my full baseline speed (over 90 Mbps). Long-distance server tests were likewise impressive, with excellent reliability and connection stability across the board.

Security and privacy tests were also perfect. I did not find any IP address or DNS leaks with any of the IPVanish apps I tested on Windows, Mac OS, and Android. Everything worked perfectly, with data being secured via the OpenVPN protocol using AES 256-bit encryption.

IPVanish has also lowered their prices with the 57% discount coupon while also increasing simultaneous connections allowed per account up to ten. Each subscription comes with a 7 day money-back guarantee. Lastly, IPVanish is one of the few VPNs in the world that owns every server in their network, which improves performance and security.

What are the main drawbacks?

The main drawback with IPVanish is that it is based in the United States, and the US is not the best privacy jurisdiction (due to mass surveillance). But because IPVanish has a zero logs policy, the US jurisdiction may not be concerning for most users. After all, no logs = no data.

Despite this drawback, IPVanish is still a solid VPN that offers excellent performance and security, as you will see below with the test results.

IPVanish Coupon
Get 57% off IPVanish (Drops price down to $5.20/month)
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IPVanish speed test results

On its website IPVanish claims to offer the “best VPN speeds” through their “top tier” server network with locations around the world.

I’ve been personally using/testing IPVanish since 2015 and it has generally been among the fastest VPNs I have used. So is 2019 any different with the latest round of tests?

To find out, I tested numerous servers throughout the IPVanish network. My baseline (non-VPN) connection speed was about 100 Mbps connection and my physical testing location was Germany. Now let’s examine the results.

Nearby IPVanish speed tests

First up was a nearby IPVanish server in Frankfurt, Germany: 95 Mbps

This is indeed an excellent test result, nearly maxing out my baseline speed. So far, so good!

Next up was a nearby server Amsterdam (Netherlands). Once again, the speeds were amazing at over 95 Mbps:

So far these are amazing test results. The latency (ping) was excellent with every server, and download and upload speeds was near the full baseline.

For the final test I tried out a server in the UK (London), which was further from my location, but still relatively close. Once again the speed was great, coming in over 91 Mbps:

These are amazing results. I tested other servers throughout Europe and the results were also excellent. IPVanish offers consistently fast speeds on all nearby servers I tested, which nearly max out my baseline connection speed. Impressive!

Long-distance tests with IPVanish servers in the US and Canada

For the second round of IPVanish performance tests I went with servers in the US and Canada. And once again, the results were impressive.

The first test was with a server in New York: 85 Mbps

Given the longer distance between me and the NY server, I did not expect results this good.

Next up was an IPVanish server Dallas, which was even further away, but still had great speeds considering the distance: 73 Mbps

Finally I also tested a few servers in Canada, and the results were also excellent. Here is my speed with an IPVanish server in Toronto:

These are some of the best VPN speed test results I’ve seen, without any problems regarding speeds or connection stability. Overall, IPVanish does indeed provide the “best VPN speeds” with their network, exactly as they claim on their website.

If you value performance with a VPN, IPVanish would be a solid choice based on these results. Not only were the speeds fast, but they were also consistent.

This makes IPVanish a good choice for people who need a fast VPN for torrenting or people who want a VPN for Kodi streaming.

Ok, now before we move onto the security/privacy test results, let’s first cover some basics about IPVanish, including the cost, apps, and subscription details.

How much does IPVanish cost?

The cost of IPVanish is about average for high-quality VPNs that offer premium performance. It is slightly less expensive than ExpressVPN, but a bit more than NordVPN.

With the regular prices, the cheapest you can get IPVanish for is $6.49/month with the annual plan. Fortunately, IPVanish is currently offering a nice 57% discount coupon, which saves you quite a bit on the standard prices.

When you use the IPVanish coupon the prices drop down to what you see below:

Note: This coupon only applies to the first billing cycle. Therefore the most savings will come through the annual plan.

Payment methods – IPVanish accepts most major payment methods, including all large credit cards and also PayPal.

Unfortunately, IPVanish does not support any cryptocurrency payment options at this time, although they have in the past. When I asked a customer service rep about this he explained the change was due to large fluctuations in the Bitcoin price and the high transaction fees, but they may be adding it again in the future.

I am also maintaining an IPVanish coupon page to track the latest deals and promotions. Aside from using the coupon above, you will be able to see if there are any temporary sales, which will be advertised directly on their homepage. (I’ve only seen them offer temporary sales a few times per year, such as for Black Friday or Cyber Security day.)

Refund policy – IPVanish offers a 7 day no-questions-asked money-back guarantee, which they clearly explain on their website:

If you are less than 100% satisfied with IPVanish VPN service, we will gladly refund your payment as long as the refund is requested within one week from the date of the purchase.

This is pretty clear cut and I did not see any issues or worrisome fine print.

IPVanish apps

IPVanish provides a wide selection of applications for many devices and platforms.

For this IPVanish review, I tested out their apps on Windows, Mac OS, and Android.

IPVanish Windows app – The IPVanish Windows app did very well in testing. It is user-friendly, stable, and never froze up or crashed.

IPVanish Mac OS – The IPVanish Mac OS app also did well in testing. This is an updated and improved version over IPVanish Mac OS apps I’ve tested in the past,  which were a bit buggy. I did not notice any bugs or connections issues with the new Mac OS app.

IPVanish Android – The IPVanish Android app performed well in testing without any issues to report. It has a good design and was stable in testing.

We’ll take a closer look at the apps in the privacy/security tests below.

10 connections!

IPVanish now allows 10 simultaneous connections with every subscription. The previous policy allowed five, but then in 2018 they doubled the number. This is well above average for the VPN industry (see for example with ExpressVPN at only 3 connections per subscription).

Privacy and security test results

IPVanish uses the OpenVPN protocol with AES 256-bit encryption. This is the gold standard for VPNs and it is currently considered unbreakable.

IPVanish performed well in all privacy and security tests for this review. I tested IPVanish for IP address leaks (both IPv4 and IPv6) and DNS leaks.

Prior to running these tests, I verified the following privacy/security settings were active:

• IPv6 leak protection (IPVanish provides you with an IPv4 address, while blocking IPv6 and ensuring you real IPv6 address does not leak out of the tunnel.)
• DNS leak protection (All of your DNS requests are handled by IPVanish servers, with DNS leak protection activated by default.)
• Kill switch (A kill switch will block all traffic if the VPN connection drops to keep your data and identity secure.)

Now we will move onto the test results.

Windows app: Here is a test using the Windows app with a London, UK server. Everything passed with no issues whatsoever.

Mac OS app: Here are the test results with the Mac OS app using an IPVanish server in Amsterdam: no leaks, everything was working correctly.

Everything checked out with the leak tests: no issues to report.

IPVanish’s privacy and security will:

• Protect you against IP address leaks (both IPv4 and IPv6)
• Protect you against DNS leaks
• Protect your traffic and data if the VPN connection drops (kill switch)

As you can see in the results above, IPVanish passed all privacy and security tests without any leaks discovered.

IPVanish servers

One unique benefit you get with IPVanish is access to a massive server network with locations spanning all around the world.

IPVanish has one of the largest server networks in the VPN industry, and as we saw with the tests above, it provides users with peak performance.

What good is a large server network?

• More servers generally means better speeds as there is more available bandwidth per user.
• This also helps you to select specific servers for different needs, whether you are looking for a nearby server in your area or another geographic location for accessing media.
• It also gives you more options for geo-spoofing your location, which may be useful when purchasing plane tickets.

Top tier network – Another benefit with IPVanish is that they own and manage their entire server network. In other words, everything is completely under their control. This is what they mean when they refer to their business as “the world’s only Top Tier” VPN provider.

Owning their entire server network infrastructure provides two distinct benefits:

• Excellent performance in terms of speed and reliability
• Great data security (no rental servers from third parties)

Does IPVanish use virtual server locations?

A “virtual server location” is when a server that is advertised as being in a certain location is not actually there. For example, I found that PureVPN has many servers are not actually in the advertised location, and they do not disclose this to their users.

You can identify virtual server locations using ping tests to triangulate the exact location (see here). With IPVanish, I tested a number of different servers and they all checked out. It does not appear that IPVanish is using any virtual server locations.

IPVanish and logs

IPVanish is a zero logs VPN service as they explain on their website. But before getting into their exact logging policy, we’ll first examine a logging case that happened a few years ago.

In 2016, when IPVanish was owned and operated by a different company, they cooperated with the FBI for a criminal case. In this specific case, they provided connection data to authorities, after the FBI made two separate requests during an investigation. While this is concerning from a privacy standpoint, especially since IPVanish has a no logs policy, it’s also important to note this happened when the company was under different ownership and management.

IPVanish is now owned by StackPath, a company based in Dallas, Texas (USA). This logging case happened when IPVanish was owned/operated by HighWinds Network Group in 2016.  The sale to StackPath took place in February 2017, after the logging case.

I requested clarification about this from IPVanish and they provided me with the following statement:

That court case was from 2016 – long before StackPath acquired IPVanish in 2017. IPVanish does not, has not, and will not log or store logs of our users as a StackPath company. We can’t speak to what happened on someone else’s watch, and that management team is long gone. In addition to not logging, StackPath will defend the privacy of our users, regardless of who demands otherwise.

Additionally, I also spoke to IPVanish staff about this case and they provided further assurances that this type of cooperation has not and will not happen with StackPath.

What are IPVanish’s current logging policies?

As they explain on their website:

IPVanish is a zero-logs VPN service provider, which means that we do not keep a record of any connection, traffic, or activity data in regards to our Services.

The only information that is collected during registration is an email address (for account purposes) and payment information for account renewal, refunds, etc.

There are also a few VPN providers that have been verified in real test cases as VPNs with no logs. Some of these include ExpressVPN, NordVPN, VyprVPN, and others.

IPVanish support

IPVanish offers excellent customer support, which I tested and verified for this review. If you need assistance, IPVanish provides:

• 24/7 chat support
• 24/7 email support
• Telephone support (check their website for hours; based in the US central time zone)

I tried phone support, just out of curiosity because I’ve never seen a VPN offer phone support. It went well – I was quickly connected to a guy named Blake, somewhere in the US, rather than an overseas call center in the Philippines. Blake was helpful.

I also tried the chat support and everything worked as expected. I was quickly connected with someone who answered my general questions:

I did not have any technical issues or problems with the apps, so my support interactions were limited to general questions.

The IPVanish website also contains some great guides and informational articles on various topics. These are all accessible from the knowledge base and in the member’s area.

You should be able to get everything set up just using the guides in the member’s area. But if you have any problems then you can try chat support or just send them an email.

IPVanish Android

I also downloaded and tested out the IPVanish Android app for this review.

Overall it performed well without any issues to report. Here are a few screenshots I took, with the Android app on the left, leak test results in the middle (no leaks!) and a basic speed test on the right (slower speeds were due to the slow network I was on at the time, not the VPN).

Overall the IPVanish Android app seems to work fine. Connecting and switching servers was easy and I didn’t find any leaks or problems to report.

If you want to use a VPN on your mobile devices (Android or iOS), IPVanish would be a good choice.

IPVanish router

IPVanish is also a good choice if you want to use a VPN on a router. This will secure (encrypt) your entire home network and all devices that connect to your router. Furthermore, it will only count as only one device when you use IPVanish on your router. But because IPVanish gives you 10 simultaneous connections, this probably is not an issue.

A VPN router is a smart idea simply because most internet providers are now monitoring and recording your online activities. This is official policy in the United States, the UK, and now also Australia (see the best VPN services for Australia).

Want to use IPVanish on a router? Check out the IPVanish router options here.

Does IPVanish work with Netflix?

No. IPVanish does not consistently work with Netflix.

Unfortunately, all of the IPVanish servers I tried seem to be blocked by Netflix. However, there are occasionally reports of a server getting through.

The support person I chatted with also confirmed IPVanish’s difficulty in accessing Netflix. When you try, you will get the annoying Netflix proxy error message.

Currently there are two VPNs that continue to work very well with Netflix:

• ExpressVPN Netflix
• NordVPN Netflix

There are also some other options that you can read about in the Netflix VPN guide, which has recently been updated and improved with the best (and worst) VPNs for Netflix.

IPVanish review conclusion

As you can see with all the test results, IPVanish performed very well for this review. It remains an excellent VPN for those seeking the best performance in terms of speed and reliability, while also offering excellent encryption and security features.

Value: Is IPVanish worth the price?

As noted toward the beginning, IPVanish is quite reasonable with pricing when you use the 57% off coupon. But to directly answer the question, IPVanish does indeed offer a solid value when you consider:

• IPVanish provides superb speeds throughout the entire server network (better than most other VPNs I’ve tested)
• You get 10 simultaneous connections (industry average is 5)
• The IPVanish apps are secure, stable, and user-friendly
• You will have access to 24/7 live chat and email support, as well as phone support during regular business hours

While IPVanish is based in the United States, it is a zero logs VPN service with a strong commitment to user privacy under new leadership with StackPath. If you think it may be a fit for your needs, all plans come with a 7 day money-back guarantee, which gives you a risk-free out if it doesn’t meet your needs.

Alternatives to IPVanish:

(ExpressVPN Review)

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(NordVPN Review)

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(VPN.ac Review)

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If you have used IPVanish, feel free to share your honest review (good or bad) below.