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With so many options out there, choosing the right VPN can be a challenge. You need to find a VPN that’s reliable, secure, fast, and won’t burn a hole in your pockets.
IPVanish is a United States-based VPN provider that’s quickly growing in popularity and becoming one of the leading choices for those looking for increased internet security. It operates around 1,600 servers across 75+ different locations worldwide and offers up to 10 simultaneous connections.
But how does IPVanish fare compared to its competitors, and is it worth your money? In our in-depth IPVanish review, we’ll explore the speed, performance, security, and pricing of this VPN provider to help you make an informed decision.
At a Glance
IPVanish offers excellent security optimized for torrenting, gaming, and streaming to a lesser degree. But its inconsistent speeds and occasional glitches leave a bit to be desired.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Strong encryption
- Allows torrenting
- 10 simultaneous connections
- Plan includes 250GB web storage on SugarSync
- Unblocks Netflix and Disney+
- Reliable Windows kill switch
Cons
- Speeds can be inconsistent
- Interface could be more user-friendly
- No third-party audits
- Occasionally disconnects
IPVanish - Full Review
Speed
IPVanish doesn’t throttle your bandwidth, but it isn’t ahead of the pack when it comes to download speeds. While it may not be the fastest VPN out there, it still provides average download speeds in the United States.
IPVanish’s American download speed was around 200 Mbps, which is pretty average for a VPN in this price range. However, the speed slightly increased after switching to IKEv2.
Unfortunately, the speeds significantly took a hit after connecting to long-distance servers. Download speeds from European servers averaged 40-60 Mbps, while a UK to Australia connection could only yield around 2 Mbps.
Privacy
Privacy is one of the main reasons to use a VPN. IPVanish employs reliable 256-bit AES encryption and supports IKEv2 and OpenVPN, two of the most secure protocols currently employed by VPN providers. You can also customize OpenVPN configurations to scramble your traffic for a deeper level of anonymity.
When it comes to logging, however, things get a bit muddied. IPVanish claims a “strict zero-logs policy,” which means they don’t log the user’s IP, traffic, or activity data. However, unlike other VPNs such as NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and TunnelBear, IPVanish’s zero-logging claims have never been tested by an independent audit.
Torrenting
IPVanish is an excellent choice for users who download torrents frequently, as it allows BitTorrent and other P2P networks. It doesn’t throttle your download speeds or impose a bandwidth cap on torrent activity.
Moreover, with its no-logs policy, secure obfuscation/stealth encryption, and SOCKS proxy to mask your IP address, it’s one of the most torrent-friendly VPN providers in the market, offering top-of-the-line privacy while torrenting.
Streaming
IPVanish’s location-spoofing capabilities can circumvent geo-restrictions on US Netflix and Disney+. You may need to try a few servers first, though, since not all of them are guaranteed to work.
Unfortunately, IPVanish falls short of other competitors as it failed to unblock other popular streaming services like Amazon Prime, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer.
Gaming
IPVanish is part of an exclusive list of VPN providers that own their servers and infrastructure instead of renting them. This significantly reduces lag and makes IPVanish an excellent gaming VPN.
Furthermore, you can look up the current load and ping time of each server, sort the servers by ping time, and even search for gaming-optimized servers.
Subscription Plans
IPVanish has a straightforward price scheme that includes three payment options, all of which offer the same features. Using this VPN service costs $9.99 billed each month, $26.99 every three months, or $77.99 per year.
This pricing is slightly above average, especially since it doesn’t offer many additional features. However, if you make regular use of cloud services, you can save a lot since IPVanish’s plan also includes 250GB of storage via SugarSync.
Moreover, IPVanish offers first-time users a generous discount for the first billing cycle. If you want to try out IPVanish’s service first, you only need to pay $3.49 for the first month or $27.99 for the first year.
Free Trial
For iOS users, IPVanish offers a 100% seven-day free trial that gives you full access to all the VPN’s features. Unfortunately, if you don’t use iOS, you won’t be able to enjoy this free trial.
However, IPVanish still offers a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee. You will still be billed, but the charge can be fully refunded if you decide to cancel your subscription before the refund period ends. This will also allow you to enjoy the full range of its services.
The Verdict
To recap our IPVanish review, this VPN provider boasts a considerable number of servers and a variety of geographic locations, and it’s especially great for gaming and torrenting. It’s also pretty strong when it comes to encryption and privacy. While the company’s privacy policy could be clearer, we have no reason to doubt their zero-logs policy.
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