2021 IPVanish Review

IPVanish Verdict | Review Summary

Company name: IPVanish VPN
Jurisdiction: United States of America
Experience: 8 years

Reasonable price, questionable streaming abilities

With a reasonable price, this company provides decent speed capabilities, yet, the media streaming abilities (especially with Netflix) is questionable, and it’s a fact that sometimes the company finds it hard to defeat Netflix blocking technology.

Winds of change due to new management

Supported devices cover most of the market, yet they don’t have browser extensions. Their new live chat is very professional and pleasant. The new owner and new management fight the previous owner’s leaking logs history that overclouds its reputation.

Is IPVanish the best value-for-money VPN deal?

IPVanish Pricing & Payment Method Overall (scores 90%)

How much IPVanish cost?

IPVanish offers 3 plans: (i) a monthly plan with a discount of 59% – $5.00 per month; (ii) a 3-month plan with 63%(!) discount – $4.50 per month; (iii) 1-year plan with a discount of 73%(!) – $3.25 per month. All the plans are including a bonus of 250GB cloud storage for free (!)

IPVanish doesn’t hold the strongest card in terms of pricing in the market. IPVanish claims on its website to be ‘the world’s only Top Tier VPN service provider’. The company owns and manages its servers, and It gives it the flexibility to handle and control the core of the activity, rather than rent it from other suppliers. In addition, IPVanish offers only thirty days of a money-back guarantee.

With what can I Pay IPVanish?

IPVanish proposes a narrow range of payment methods starting from various credit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, Amex, and Discover through Paypal and JCB. Our advice for the company is to broaden its payment possibilities to payment methods like Apple Pay, G-Pay by Google, Bitcoin, Alipay, UnionPay and VT Pay.

IPVAnish Plans

Is IPVanish Secure?

IPVanish Privacy & Security Overall (scores 97%)

How much is IPVanish Safe? | IPVanish Protocols and Encryption

As the rest of the important competitors in the VPN market, IPVanish incorporates the highest level of encryption, known as AES-256. To put it briefly, IPVanish utilises the 256-bit cryptographic cipher with their encryption, by doing so, they share the same encryption standards with organisations like CIA and FBI, these organisations and many others use AES-256 to secure the transmissions of high profile confidential data. Unencrypt AES-256 is literally impracticable and considered the summit of encryption. IPVanish utilises OpenVPN protocol, which supports both UDP and TCP ports and supports IKEv2 which is extensively used by mobile devices. Also, IPVanish offers L2TP/IPsec, yet not SSTP and not PPTP. Last but not least, IPVanish grants users access to the download-free SOCKS5 web proxy and split tunnelling so that clients can stay protected and still be able to use Netflix, BBC iPlayer, or other local services.

Does IPVanish keep logs?

IPVanish declares that they do not store users logs in their database. Yet, this company is located in the US jurisdiction, a derivation of it is the regulation that the company is under, and in the past, there were some concerns in June 2018, when a document appeared pointing that the zero-logging IPVanish had in 2016 responded to a call from the US Department of Homeland Security by providing information on a user’s activities, including connection and disconnection times and possibly the use of specific protocols. IPVanish exchanged hands since then, and Lance Crosby, CEO of new owner StackPath, said that he had no idea of the background to this case, and independent audits and current practice guaranteed there were no logs of any kind.

Wherever the truth lays, it’s more proof that VPN logging declarations can’t consistently be granted. The headline “zero logging” claims on the website won’t undoubtedly be exhibited in company practice.

Does IPVanish use Kill Switch?

For those of you who are using betting platforms online, IPVanish currently proposes a handy Kill Switch that will automatically eliminate any software or websites you were using if your VPN service just dropped. Yes, currently, unofficial resources imply that it might change in the future.

Can IPVanish block ads, malware and trackers?

IPVanish focuses on security and privacy service, which designed to protect and hide your internet usage habits from your Internet Service Provider or anyone else between your device and your Internet Service Provider. Unfortunately, unlike some VPN providers, IPVanish does not block ads, malware and trackers.

Can I watch Netflix with IPVanish? or any other media streaming service?

It is not entirely straightforward YES; our tests showed incapability to connect The Netherlands, Canada and the United Kingdom instantly. Definitely, IPVanish is one of the companies that finds it difficult to challenge Netflix is very aggressive nowadays with preventing VPN connections from reaching their service. Netflix applies different mechanisms to block connections from VPN providers.

Watching Amazon Prime with VPN

Amazon Prime’s developing video streaming service let you access to content such as worldwide movies and TV shows. With the US or UK-based Amazon Prime account and a VPN, you can relocate your internet connection as you watch an enormous amount of titles from the UK or US.

Watching BBC iPlayer with VPN

Watch all your favourite TV Series on BBC through IPVanish VPN service and enjoy BBC’s excellent news coverage, children’s programming, and drama series with channels like BBC One, BBC Two, CBeebies, and more.

Can I torrent with IPVanish?

IPVanish is quite suitable for torrenting. With more than 1,300 servers spread and the fact that IPVanish supports P2P connections for all of their servers, IPVanish is an excellent solution for torrenting anonymously.

IPVanish Privacy & Security Components

IPVanish Speed Rating

IPVanish Speed Overall (scores 94%)

How Fast is IPVanish?

IPVanish goes along the line with other premium providers and presents an impressive low download speed lose of 12-19% with great results from Austrian servers and depending on the location; this is a good result when comparing with other providers in which we experienced a 65-80% speed drop.

Can I torrent with IPVanish?

Though IPVanish doesn’t emphasise it within its communications, IPVanish does offer safe and anonymous P2P connection from all of its servers, and as a result of low speed loses, torrenting is stable.

Can I watch streaming media with IPVanish?

Again, IPVanish doesn’t highlight this topic too much, but we could watch Netflix from all of its servers from the US. BBC iPlayer works as well, and we did not experience any disconnections.

How Fast is IPVanish?

Our routine check under 100Mbps provided us with a ‘net speed’ of 97.7 Mbps without connecting to VPN servers. Connecting via IPVanish server in Austria (EU) gave a good download speed result of 81.5 Mbps, upload speed of 50.21 Mbps and 42ms ping. We checked in more locations as follows:

IPVanish Servers Speed

IPVanish Servers

If you have a router, you can choose to install your VPN through your router al change all of your home Wi-Fi network to an anonymous one with all the other devices behind that router enjoying from the same benefit. It’s all about installing a front shield and not dealing with each device separately. This is a good solution as well, for people who have many devices and wish to bypass the simultaneous connection of 10 devices. Setting it with IPVanish gives you the advantage of protecting your Wi-Fi with OpenVPN protocol and AES 256 encryption.

General Remark about VPN Speed

Please bear in mind that the speed is a result of cumulative factors such as your actual internet connection if you are using LAN or Wi-Fi connection, your exact location, the device you are using, whether it is a laptop, desktop or mobile phone, it all have different specifications that influence your speed.

IPVanish Speed Components

Which devices does IPVanish support?

IPVanish User-Friendly Overall (scores 90%)

IPVanish provides a wide range of solutions for the majority of devices and operating systems such as Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, routers chrome OS and a unique solution for Amazon Fire TV and Windows phones.

Installing VPN on Router with IPVanish

If you have a router, you can choose to install your VPN through your router al change all of your home Wi-Fi network to an anonymous one with all the other devices behind that router enjoying from the same benefit. It’s all about installing a front shield and not dealing with each device separately. This is a good solution as well, for people who have many devices and wish to bypass the simultaneous connection of 10 devices. Setting it with IPVanish gives you the advantage of protecting your Wi-Fi with OpenVPN protocol and AES 256 encryption.

Can I install IPVanish on Mac?

IPVanish developed a satisfying app for macOS. Downloading and installing is quite an easy process, and once you finished, then you will be connected to IPVanish VPN servers. The interface is very much evident and understandable even for novice users.

IPVanish Android & iOS Apps

IPVanish provides Android & iOS Apps as well like other prominent VPN providers and offers both Android and iOS (iPhones) apps that work fine, and it’s intuitive. For the iOS users, who wish to use OpenVPN instead of IKEv2, IPVanish provides OpenVPN Connection software with .ovpn config files at the members’ area.

Can I watch Amazin Fire TV with IPVanish?

IPVanish offers a unique solution for allowing you to use VPN over Amazon Fire TV.

IPVanish User-Friendly Components

IPVanish Support Rating

IPVanish Support Overall (scores 90%)

One of the most significant inconveniences in the VPN industry is customer support. We are talking about digital services with companies that most situated in ‘special’ jurisdictions to act more freely. Unfortunately, a lot of them fail by providing unreliable and inconstant customer service. In the past, IPVanish failed to provide what they have promised in their advertisements. Still, recently IPVanish added a live chat feature and by that performs like the rest of the other prominent competitors. From the other aspects of IPVanish support, we came across a quite helpful support centre, knowledge base and excellent source of FAQ.

IPVanish Support Components