IPVanish review: A U.S.-based VPN that made big strides in recent years

Price When Reviewed

$47.89

Best Prices Today: IPVanish VPN

IPVanish in short:

• P2P allowed: Yes
• Unlimited machine connections: Yes
• Business location: United States
• Number of servers: 2,000+
• Number of nation areas: 75+
• Cost: $11.99 monthly or $47.89 for a yearly subscription

Very few VPN companies really personal their very own server networks and that’s the place IPVanish stands out. Instead of counting on industrial server farms, U.S.-based IPVanish prides itself on operating its personal {hardware} and servers. They even declare that operating their very own server infrastructure makes them a “top-tier VPN service.” In our take a look at, we took IPVanish for a spin to see if it may well actually dwell as much as that self-proclaimed title.

Note: This evaluate is a part of our ongoing roundup of the best VPN services. Go there to study extra about competing merchandise, what to search for in a VPN, and shopping for suggestions.

IPVanish: Features and companies

At first blush, IPVanish has a clear, if quite muted interface. The preliminary display you’re introduced with is a fast join dashboard with a world map that lets you select your server location and soar proper in. At the underside of the dashboard you possibly can see primary details about your connection together with the server location, IP tackle, connection standing, protocol used, and knowledge up and down. While it could not have any fancy design aptitude, the interface is intuitive and intensely consumer pleasant. I did observe nonetheless that the applying itself appeared to lag or take an uncommon period of time to load issues, comparable to once you transfer or zoom in on the map. First time connections to servers I had by no means used earlier than additionally appeared to take longer than common to attach.

Sam Singleton

There is a toolbar on the left of the applying’s interface with choices for Locations, Settings, Info, and Account. Under the Locations tab, you’re capable of entry extra detailed details about every server together with every location’s ping, load (quantity of server utilization from present consumer connections), and variety of servers obtainable in that location. They even have a useful filtering mechanism that lets you discover the servers with the least ping or load. There are over 2,000 servers all around the world to select from on IPVanish, which is a large step up from just some years in the past after they had lower than half of that.

In reality, IPVanish has made nice strides lately to replace and optimize its companies. It now helps most main working programs together with Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome, Linux, and some others. This is on par with many of the different high VPN suppliers.

IPVanish at the moment doesn’t have a browser extension, nevertheless it does provide entry to an in-browser SOCKS5 Proxy, which isn’t encrypted like a VPN connection, however does help you nonetheless reroute your browser’s site visitors by means of distant servers. 

IPVanish has additionally improved not too long ago in its location-spoofing skills. In earlier years, we observed that IPVanish servers have been ceaselessly blocked when attempting to entry location-restricted content material in different international locations. The firm has evidently stepped up its recreation and throughout the evaluate interval there have been only a few noticeable blockages whereas attempting to entry Netflix from quite a lot of IPVanish servers all through the world. Take this with a grain of salt, nonetheless, as Netflix and different streaming companies are continuously attempting to dam identified VPN IP addresses, making it a cat-and-mouse recreation that might change one other consumer’s personal private expertise.

Sam Singleton

The firm additionally does an amazing job with its buyer assist. It has a built-in assist contact hyperlink straight from the app. Additionally, it gives 24/7 dwell chat assist and a name heart that’s open every single day of the week. Its app even helps a number of languages comparable to English, Spanish, French, German, and Dutch. These are all welcomed additions lately that present the corporate is attempting exhausting to enhance the complete scope of its companies.

IPVanish: Performance

IPVanish

With claims of getting a superior community, how does IPVanish maintain up in pace checks? Really properly, really. Comparing speeds throughout 5 completely different international locations’ VPN server connections, IPVanish scored a powerful common of 59 % of the bottom obtain pace and 54 % of the bottom add pace. That places it firmly within the high 5 speediest VPNs we’ve examined.

Those comparatively excessive speeds must be loads quick sufficient to stream all the high-resolution video or video games throughout most nation connections. Please observe nonetheless that it is a single expertise on a restricted variety of machines, and your expertise could range.

IPVanish: Security and privateness

Being based mostly within the U.S. like IPVanish may probably result in privateness issues. This is because of sure home legal guidelines requiring that VPN firms log and retailer consumer info within the occasion that they’re wanted by regulation enforcement. But IPVanish guarantees to maintain your knowledge completely safe by not logging or sharing consumer info in any respect. 

This has been validated not too long ago when IPVanish allowed a third-party audit of its companies which was performed by Leviathan Security group. The audit confirmed the claims that IPVanish doesn’t maintain logs of consumer knowledge by any means. It’s not on a regular basis {that a} VPN supplier is prepared to place themselves by means of that form of scrutiny to substantiate its claims. 

Sam Singleton

IPVanish additionally helps numerous protocols comparable to WireGuard, IKEv2, and OpenVPN. It gives the extra choice to customise OpenVPN connections, permitting you to additional tweak and optimize your connection setup.

While utilizing its service, all the things is encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption which, whereas glorious, is the usual for many VPN suppliers these days. The Windows consumer comes with IPv6 and DNS leak safety—which our checks verified to be true utilizing each DNS leak take a look at and IPleak.web throughout all connections. Meaning that your true location just isn’t being by chance leaked whereas linked to its servers.

The IPVanish VPN service comes with a number of further perks as properly. It gives an automated kill swap which is able to disconnect you from the web within the occasion that your VPN connection is severed. Also, the VPN comes with an antivirus program known as VIPRE. It’s your commonplace run-of-the-mill antivirus nevertheless it’ll nonetheless block malware and different threats in your laptop—sadly it isn’t obtainable for cellular variations.

IPVanish: Final ideas

IPVanish is a really interesting VPN based mostly within the United States. Its connection speeds have jumped by leaps and bounds since our final evaluate and it’s now firmly entrenched amongst our quickest VPNs. The desktop app has additionally been improved with an interface redesign that’s simpler to navigate. A current third-party safety audit is a refreshing signal that IPVanish is assured in its companies and prepared to show it to customers. At just a bit below $50 for a yearly subscription the worth can also be exhausting to beat. Many folks may gravitate to extra distinguished VPN suppliers, however IPVanish shouldn’t be ignored. Its current enhancements present a willingness so as to add options that customers need whereas regularly bettering yr by yr.

Editor’s observe: Because on-line companies are sometimes iterative, gaining new options and efficiency enhancements over time, this evaluate is topic to vary with the intention to precisely replicate the present state of the service. Any adjustments to textual content or our last evaluate verdict might be famous on the high of this text.