IPVanish Review

Here’s all you really need to know: IPVanish doesn’t log anything related to your online activity.

It does collect your email address and payment information, which is standard, but IPVanish automatically deletes both 45 days after account termination.

IPVanish goes further than most VPNs to minimize data collected.

Though these claims are backed by an independent audit of its logging policy and regular transparency reports, this isn’t as definitive proof as a court case.

The only instance of this happening actually saw IPVanish hand over user logs to the FBI to aid in a criminal investigation. However, this doesn’t make me trust IPVanish less as it happened almost a decade ago under drastically different ownership.

More recently, the VPN has begun to roll out RAM-only servers, which eliminate any possibility of activity logging by periodically wiping themselves. While this currently only covers 35% of its servers, IPVanish pledges to have a RAM-only network by 2027.

I’d encourage IPVanish to also offer anonymous payment methods (like crypto), which is both good practice and would negate any privacy risk from collecting payment info. However, as things stand, the VPN’s recent track record gives me no reason to doubt its current privacy policy.

You can use IPVanish to stream a whole host of geo-restricted content. In fact, I used the VPN to unblock 17 Netflix libraries, including the US, UK, and Japan.

The VPN unblocked popular Netflix libraries, like Canada, with ease.

A real demonstration of the VPN’s consistency came with UK streaming, where it unblocked BBC iPlayer, ITVX, and All 4 with a 100% success rate. Considering IPVanish used to struggle with BBC iPlayer, this is a marked improvement.

The story was similar for streaming locally in the US. All 22 US server locations worked with every streaming service I tested, including harder-to-unblock platforms, like Hulu and Peacock.

Using IPVanish, I streamed live and on-demand content on BBC iPlayer.

The VPN also continues its reign as my number one pick for streaming on Kodi and IPTV, thanks to its excellent Fire TV app.

There were, of course, some misses elsewhere. Most notably, IPVanish struggled with some foreign-language platforms like Movistar+, Wavve, Videoland, and TV4.

Our user experience was hit-and-miss, too. For instance, I was sometimes blocked from accessing a streaming service due to the VPN defaulting to OpenVPN. To fix this, change the protocol in settings from ‘Automatic’ to ‘WireGuard’.

I have no complaints here: IPVanish is the fastest VPN in my top 10.

Not only is it very fast, but it’s stable and reliable, too. I never experienced any sudden drops in download speed or spikes in ping times.

One important caveat is that these speeds are only possible with WireGuard. My internet speed was much slower using OpenVPN, especially when connecting to distant locations like Japan or Australia.

You can use the chart below to see how IPVanish’s international speeds compare to other top VPNs:

As you can see, IPVanish is the best-of-the-best when it comes to consistency across its server network. It is more than fast enough for all your needs.

Low Ping for Online Gaming

While connected to a local IPVanish server, I consistently recorded a ping time of 7ms. This is an excellent result that allows you to play fast-paced online games without any lag.

I didn’t experience any lag while connecting to a nearby US server.

On longer-distance connections, I experienced increased ping times and very occasional periods of lag. However, I was still able to play online with minimal disruption and avoid any sudden disconnections.

Depending on your protocol, you can use one of the following encryption ciphers: AES-256 or ChaCha20. I tested both using Wireshark, a packet inspection tool, and confirmed that IPVanish successfully encrypted my network traffic.

The VPN’s encryption completely concealed my network traffic.

I also tested the VPN’s apps for IP and DNS leaks using our in-house tool. In most cases it worked exactly as intended, but its macOS kill switch failed to prevent my real IP address from leaking during a VPN server change.

I first flagged this over a year ago, so we’re disappointed to see it continuing to affect IPVanish’s apps. While it’s still safe to use the VPN on Mac, I recommend you completely shut down your online activity before switching VPN servers.

I tested IPVanish with our internal leak detection tool.

Beyond its apps, IPVanish’s security infrastructure is up there with the best. It owns and manages its entire server network, including DNS servers, massively reducing the risk of third-party interference.

This is matched by very few VPNs and reassures me that IPVanish keeps personal data sent over the internet safe.

Compared to its 53 server locations in 2023, IPVanish has effectively doubled its server network in just two years. This ensures you can get an IP address from almost every country in the world.

To put this into context, IPVanish now provides servers in 43 more countries than Windscribe and 62 more than Mullvad.

The VPN service offers city-level server choice in 9 countries including the US and the UK. This is useful for accessing geographically restricted content like NBA blackouts, or for connecting to servers close to you for fast speeds.

In the US, IPVanish offers access to endpoints in 19 US states, which is good, but certainly nowhere near as extensive as ExpressVPN’s or PIA’s presence in all 50 US states.

Following multiple redesigns, IPVanish’s user experience is better than ever. However, I still have some criticisms of the VPN’s overall look and feel.

I’ve detailed how its apps differ on each major platform below:

IPVanish is the joint second fastest VPN for torrenting that I’ve tested, with a less than 1% slowdown. To the human eye, there is no difference in download speed between torrenting with and without the VPN.

IPVanish is among the fastest P2P VPNs available.

Aside from being very fast, the VPN permits P2P traffic on all of its servers, making setup a breeze. Just connect to any server, and you’re ready to start torrenting.

You can also choose to route your file-sharing traffic through IPVanish’s SOCKS5 proxy. A proxy provides faster speeds at the cost of no encryption, but I don’t recommend this here as IPVanish is already fast enough.

There is one P2P feature missing from IPVanish’s arsenal: a port forwarding tool. Again, this isn’t essential, but it would close the gap on the very best torrenting VPNs.

From an anonymity perspective, I have nothing to criticise. As shown in its transparency reports, the VPN has never forwarded a DMCA request to a user.

You can use IPVanish on multiple devices at once.

Without a router app or Smart DNS proxy, it’s extremely difficult to use IPVanish on devices that don’t support VPN software (like Smart TV and game consoles).

You’re left with two options: manually install the VPN on your router, or buy a router pre-flashed with an IPVanish server. The former is needlessly difficult, and the latter is very expensive.

IPVanish’s Secure Browser offers a novel alternative to traditional VPN browser extensions.

Instead of running locally, it streams a sandboxed browser from a secure, remote environment. This means your browsing is isolated from your device, protecting you from fingerprinting, malicious links, and session tracking.

It’s best suited for the most privacy-focused users who want extra protection, as Secure Browser can stop malware before it reaches your device, something a regular VPN extension can’t do.

However, it’s only available on the higher subscription tier and limits you to 30 hours per month. During testing, I noticed some lag and occasional grainy video, and it can be a bit annoying having to reactivate it for each new tab.

Overall, it’s an innovative tool, but more of a niche feature rather than a replacement for a standard VPN browser extension.

Highly-Customizable Multi-Hop Feature

Multi-hop routes your connection through two VPN servers, instead of one, making it harder to monitor your online activity.

I particularly liked that IPVanish lets you choose the entry and exit server locations for your multi-hop connection. This is unlike Surfshark’s or NordVPN’s multi-hop feature which limit you to pre-set server combinations, often close together.

You can combine any of IPVanish’s 112 server locations.

For example, I used IPVanish to route my connection from Andorra to India. This level of customization is unprecedented and really sets the VPN apart.

Threat Protection Works on All Apps

Threat Protection is a feature that blocks ads, trackers, and malicious websites as long as you’re connected to IPVanish. In my experience, it worked well to remove banner and video ads across a variety of webpages.

What impressed me most is its device compatibility: you can use Threat Protection on every IPVanish app. In contrast, many VPNs restrict their ad blockers to Windows and Mac only.

Scramble Protocol Performs Adequately

The VPN provides a dedicated protocol, called Scramble, for bypassing web censorship. It disguises your VPN connection as normal internet traffic to circumvent firewalls and deep packet inspection.

You can use Scramble in several countries where internet access is restricted, but I found that it didn’t work in heavily-censored regions, like China.

Unlike the vast majority of VPNs, IPVanish lets you use its anti-censorship tool on most of its apps. This includes often overlooked platforms like Fire TV, iOS, and Android.

24/7 Customer Support

Through its dedicated live chat, IPVanish offers customer support seven days a week. Unique to the VPN, you can also talk to a support agent over the phone Monday to Friday (9am – 5pm CT).

In general, I found its agents to be helpful and attentive, answering all of my queries and addressing any issues I had with the VPN service.