IPVanish Review: Quick Expert Summary
IPVanish is secure, easy to use, and allows unlimited simultaneous connections, which makes it an ideal option for large households and people who use a lot of devices. IPVanish is also one of the top VPNs for torrenting.
It also has pretty fast speeds — in my tests, my speeds only decreased by 33% on average. While it doesn’t have a big server network (servers in 97 countries), its servers are evenly spread out in most parts of the world, so it’s easy for most users to find a nearby server for the fastest speeds.
IPVanish also offers:
- Perfect forward secrecy.
- Split-tunneling.
- Tor support.
- Antivirus (yearly plan only).
- And more…
IPVanish is a good VPN, but it has some drawbacks. For example, it doesn’t work in censor-heavy countries like China. Plus, its DNS leak protection is only available on Windows, and there’s no WebRTC protection.
I couldn’t get customer support to confirm whether it uses RAM-only servers, either. RAM-only servers are great for privacy, as all data gets wiped after every reboot. Many competitors are transparent about this information, so it’s disappointing that IPVanish wouldn’t tell me — it leads me to believe they don’t have RAM-only servers.
IPVanish has 1-month, 1-year, and 2-year subscription plans that are competitively priced — and the annual plans include a free subscription to VIPRE antivirus (for Windows and Mac users only). IPVanish also includes a 7-day free trial for all mobile devices when you sign up for a yearly plan through your respective app store. It backs its long-term plans with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
🏅 Overall Rank | #12 out of 82 VPNs |
🌍 Servers | 2,400+ |
📱 Number of Devices | Unlimited |
💸 Starting Price | $2.19 / month |
🎁 Free Plan | ❌ (free 7-day trial for Android and iOS with 1-year subscription purchase) |
💰 Money-Back Guarantee | 30 days |
IPVanish Full Review — Strong P2P Support, Intuitive Apps & Unlimited Connections
IPVanish has a reputation for being one of the best VPNs for torrenting — it allows P2P traffic on all of its 2,200+ servers, has fast download speeds, works with all of the major torrent clients, and provides 30+ SOCKS5 proxy servers that offer faster speeds than IPVanish’s regular servers.
It’s also very secure. It doesn’t keep records of the files that you download or the sites that you visit, and it protects your data with 256-bit AES encryption and a kill switch.
IPVanish has other strengths that make it one of the top VPNs in 2024. It has user-friendly apps, cheap prices for its annual plans, and allows unlimited simultaneous connections with one account.
IPVanish Plans & Pricing — Low-Cost Plans (But There’s No Refund for the Monthly Plan)
IPVanish has monthly and yearly subscriptions. It offers a 1-month, a 1-year, and a 2-year plan. The yearly plans include a free subscription for VIPRE antivirus for Windows and macOS, which is a really good deal for protecting your devices from malware and other cyber attacks.
IPVanish has good pricing for the first year of the long-term plans. The 1-year plan costs $3.33 / month, and the 2-year plan is more affordable at $2.19 / month, but both plans’ price doubles after the first year. It accepts PayPal, 6 different credit cards, and Google Pay, but I wish there was an option to pay with cryptocurrency, which provides more privacy. If you’re looking for a cheap VPN that accepts crypto payments, check out Private Internet Access and CyberGhost VPN.
IPVanish has a 30-day money-back guarantee for the long-term plans only (most VPNs offer a money-back guarantee on all of their plans). There’s also a 7-day free trial for iOS and Android devices when you sign up for the 1-year plan — but you must purchase the app through the Google Play Store or Apple App store. That being said, I think it’s better to buy the 1-year plan through the IPVanish site because you get the 30-day money-back guarantee and a longer time period to test out the VPN.
IPVanish Features — You Get Essential Security Features
IPVanish has the following industry-standard VPN security features:
- 256-bit AES encryption. IPVanish uses end-to-end bank-grade encryption to protect your data.
- No-logs policy. IPVanish doesn’t log personal information like your IP address, the files that you download, and the websites that you visit.
- Kill switch. This feature automatically disconnects you from the internet if your VPN connection drops. The kill switch is available on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.
I like that IPVanish includes perfect forward secrecy with OpenVPN and IPSec. Perfect forward secrecy is an excellent security feature that changes the encryption keys that encrypt and decrypt your traffic after each online session, preventing a hacker from accessing your data on any previous or future encryption keys.
However, customer support wouldn’t tell me if IPVanish uses RAM-only servers — which leads me to believe it doesn’t. This is disappointing as RAM-only servers are super secure and make it more difficult for hackers to access your data. Many top competitors (including ExpressVPN) use them.
IPVanish has IPv6 leak protection for all of its apps, but it only offers DNS leak protection on Windows, and there’s no WebRTC leak protection — you have to manually disable WebRTC on your device. Many of IPVanish’s competitors like ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access have built-in leak protection for IPv6, DNS, and WebRTC.
IPVanish has 4 protocols, including WireGuard, OpenVPN (UDP and TCP), IKEv2, and IPSec. I like the variety of protocols available, and I’m really happy that IPVanish offers WireGuard, which has faster speeds than all of the other protocols.
Android | iOS | Windows | macOS | Linux | Apple TV | |
WireGuard | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
OpenVPN | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
IKEv2 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
IPSec | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
There’s also an Automatic Protocol setting in its VPN apps, which uses the best protocol available for your location.
IPVanish also offers a few extra security features, including:
Split-Tunneling — Select Apps & Websites to Exclude From the VPN Connection
IPVanish’s split-tunneling works well, and it’s available on Android, iOS, Windows, and FireOS. In my tests, I connected to a local IPVanish server to torrent, but I did everything else while connected to my local network. Split-tunneling allowed me to have faster download speeds, and I was still able to do browse, stream, and game without interruptions.
The split-tunneling works a lot like Private Internet Access and Proton VPN’s split-tunneling, which both also allow you to exclude apps and sites from the VPN tunnel. This allows you to basically exclude specific websites from the VPN tunnel instead of your whole web browser.
However, I wish IPVanish offered split-tunneling on more apps, like Private Internet Access, which also includes split-tunneling on Linux and macOS.
Overall, IPVanish’s split-tunneling feature is easy to use, free of bugs, and works well for excluding apps from the VPN tunnel on Android and FireOS. But I hope to see IPVanish add the tool to more platforms.
Threat Protection — Good For Blocking Ads & Suspicious Sites
IPVanish’s Threat Protection feature blocks annoying ads, trackers, and malicious sites on Android and Fire TV devices. The VPN uses whitelists and custom DNS to detect and filter ads and shady HTTP sites. Just like with Private Internet Access’s MACE, which also blocks ads, trackers, and malicious websites, I had to connect to the VPN for Threat Protection to work.
That said, I really like how NordVPN’s Threat Protection doesn’t require you to connect to the VPN to make it work.
In my tests, IPVanish’s Threat Protection feature was decent. I visited a couple of ad-heavy websites — Threat Protection stopped all ads on every site I visited from loading, though I could still see the ads’ placements on some pages. I also tested it with 5+ known phishing sites, and IPVanish always stopped me from visiting them when I had Threat Protection on.
Overall, I like IPVanish’s Threat Protection. It does a good job of blocking ads and problematic sites, but I wish it was available in more apps — ExpressVPN’s Threat Manager, which blocks trackers and shady sites, is available on iOS, macOS, and Linux, and PIA MACE is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Obfuscation — Useful on Restrictive Networks + in Censor-Heavy Countries
IPVanish offers obfuscation with its Scramble feature (available only with OpenVPN), but Scramble is unable to circumvent internet firewalls. IPVanish’s customer support reps told me most restrictive countries block its service.
Scramble does a good job of hiding your VPN traffic from your internet service provider (ISP), but make note that it slows down your speeds due to the extra layers of encryption — my connection speeds were 41% slower with Scramble than with a normal OpenVPN connection, so I don’t recommend it for streaming or torrenting.
Overall, Scramble obfuscates your traffic, but it doesn’t work in restrictive countries and it significantly slows down your speeds.
Antivirus Protection — Decent Tools for Protecting Your Device
IPVanish includes a free subscription to VIPRE antivirus with the purchase of the 1-year or 2-year VPN plan. However, the bundled subscription only comes with apps for PCs and Macs. The VIPRE subscription includes the Advanced Security and Privacy Shield apps.
The Advanced Security app has the following features:
- Malware scanning — VIPRE offers up to 7 different malware scans (including full, quick, and rootkit scans) that scan all of the files and applications on your device for malware. In our tests, VIPRE’s malware scanner found and erased 95% of the sample malware files, which is very good, but not as good as top antiviruses like Norton or Bitdefender.
- Advanced real-time protection — VIPRE is able to identify new cyber threats with its machine learning technology.
- Cloud-based security — Its threat listings are constantly updated via an online virus database.
- Web protection — VIPRE prevents you from visiting websites or downloading files that may contain malware.
- Email protection — Blocks malicious emails, stops phishing attacks, and helps detect and prevent spam to keep your inbox less cluttered.
- Firewall — Protects you from experiencing network attacks.
- And much more…
The Privacy Shield app offers:
- Login credential removal — Detects and erases any of your unsecured login credentials.
- Ad blocking & anti-tracking — Blocks ads and tracking links to stop targeted advertising and identity theft profiling.
- Dark web scanner — Monitors your emails and passwords to ensure that they haven’t been involved in a data breach or listed on the dark web.
- Webcam & microphone blocker — Prevents hackers from accessing your webcam and microphone.
I’m a big fan of VIPRE’s web protection tool. In my tests, it prevented me from accessing all of the fake malware sites I tried to visit — this really put my mind at ease, as I knew anyone in my household could browse the web without accidentally landing on a malicious domain.
Overall, VIPRE is a good antivirus for someone looking for strong malware protection and really good privacy tools. It’s feature-rich, has an intuitive dashboard, and is a great free bonus that is included in IPVanish’s long-term plans.
Support for Tor Traffic — Increases Privacy While Browsing the Tor Network
IPVanish supports The Onion Router (Tor) over VPN on all of its servers to provide an extra layer of protection on the Tor network — if your IP gets leaked, other Tor users will only see the VPN IP address, and not yours. To use IPVanish while browsing on Tor, all you have to do is connect to a server and launch the Tor browser.
In my tests, I was able to seamlessly surf the Tor browser while connected to a local IPVanish server. However, browsing on Tor is a little slower compared to other browsers, and when I added IPVanish’s VPN encryption on top of it, it took around 15–20 seconds for sites to load. This speed decrease is normal due to the extra layer of encryption on the Tor network.
While IPVanish has good Tor support, NordVPN and Proton VPN offer more convenience — these VPNS have specialized servers that let you browse .onion sites in regular browsers like Chrome and Firefox instead of with the Tor browser.
Overall, though, IPVanish’s Tor support is great. You get Tor support on all servers, it’s easy to use, and it’s got decent speeds on the Tor browser.
IPVanish Privacy & Security — Has a Verified No-Logs Policy
IPVanish is a no-logs VPN. Its privacy policy clearly says IPVanish doesn’t log your IP address, what sites you visit, or what files you download. IPVanish only records your email address (to communicate with you) and payment method (for processing payments and refunds). I really like that IPVanish’s privacy policy is well-formatted, not full of complicated legal terms, and easy to understand.
But in 2016, IPVanish shared a user’s email address, full name, and IP address with US authorities. Even though IPVanish helped catch a child pornography trafficker by sharing user data, IPVanish went against its no-logs policy, which stated at the time that it didn’t store user IP addresses.
In 2017, IPVanish’s parent company was acquired by StackPath, which performed an independent audit to prove that IPVanish was a strict no-logs VPN. In 2022, IPVanish had its no-logs policy reviewed by Leviathan Security Group — the results are available in the customer account portal.
IPVanish is headquartered in the US, which is part of the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliances (a group of countries that share surveillance data). But if the US government requested user data from IPVanish, I know IPVanish wouldn’t actually have any to hand over.
Overall, IPVanish has a strict no-logs policy — while it violated its no-logs policy in the past, it’s now under new ownership.
IPVanish Speed & Performance — Pretty Fast Speeds on All Servers
I ran speed tests by connecting to a server in all 97 countries where IPvanish has a server, and I experienced an 83% average decrease in speed, which is obviously not good. But I live in Romania, which has some of the fastest internet speeds in the world, and it’s not fair to compare my speeds with someone from a country that has average speeds.
So, I asked my colleague in the US to conduct speed tests, and IPVanish reduced his speed by an average of 33%, which is pretty good. We both used WireGuard for our speed tests because it was the fastest protocol.
As expected, I had the fastest speeds while connected to servers in my country. But my speeds were also good while connected to distant servers in the US and Japan. Even though I experienced minor buffering on distant servers, I still had fast speeds for torrenting, browsing, and Voice over IP (VoIP) calls. But my biggest complaint is that it took me 20–30 seconds to connect to a server regardless of the location — my colleague in the US reported it took him 10 seconds.
I first ran a speed test without being connected to a IPVanish server to get a baseline for my speeds. Next, I used IPVanish’s Quick Connect feature (which connects you to the fastest server for your location), and I was connected to a server in Romania. My download speeds slowed down by 75%, but my online experience was hardly affected — websites and 4K videos loaded instantly, and I was able to download large files very fast.
When I connected to a US server, I had a 91% decrease in speed — websites took 5 seconds to load and 4K videos took 10 seconds to start. What’s more, I experienced buffering while watching and skipping through 4K videos, but my 1080p videos worked just fine. My torrenting speeds were also good (it took 15-20 minutes to download 10-15 GB files), and I didn’t experience any freezing or disconnections during a VoIP call.
Finally, I connected to a VPN server in Japan. The speeds were 85% slower and my online experience was similar to when I was connected to a US server. Websites and 4K videos took 5 seconds to load, but I didn’t experience buffering while watching content.
But I wanted to see what type of speeds my colleague in the US had with IPVanish. First, he connected to his local network to get the baseline of his internet speed. Then, Quick Connect connected him to a server in New York City. His download speed was reduced by 14%, and he had extremely fast speeds for browsing, streaming, and torrenting.
Next, my colleague connected to a server in Germany, where he experienced a 21% loss. He experienced minimal speed loss — websites loaded in 2-3 seconds, it took 25 minutes to download a 20 GB file (which is pretty fast), and he didn’t report any freezing or call drops during a VoIP call with a friend in the UK.
When he connected to a server in Australia, his speed dropped by 46%. Videos took about 4–5 seconds to begin, but once they started, there were no interruptions. Websites took up to 5 seconds to load, but my colleague maintained pretty fast speeds for torrenting.
Overall, IPVanish offers very fast speeds on local servers and decent speeds on distant servers, but it took up to 30 seconds to connect to a server. On distant servers in the US and Japan, my speeds slowed down noticeably and there was a delay for websites to load. But I had fast speeds for torrenting, gaming, and VoIP calls across all servers.
IPVanish Servers & IP Addresses — Server Network Is on the Smaller Side
IPVanish has 2,400+ servers in 97 countries and 75+ locations. Many top VPNs have a larger server network — ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN both have servers in 100+ countries, for example. But IPVanish’s servers are spread throughout most of the world, allowing most users to find nearby servers to get good speeds.
I love that IPVanish is one of the few VPNs that displays both the ping (how long an internet signal takes to travel from your device to the VPN server) and the server load percentage (how many active users are connected to the VPN server) to help users find fast servers.
I’m also a big fan of IPVanish’s P2P support — it permits torrenting on every server, so you can always find a nearby server. Some VPNs (like Proton VPN and CactusVPN) only let you torrent on dedicated P2P servers.
Plus, I think it’s great that it has SOCKS5 proxy servers in 30+ locations, including the US, the UK, Australia, and Germany. These servers replace your IP address with an IP address from the country you’re connected to and provide faster downloads. But keep in mind that SOCKS5 proxies don’t use encryption.
IPVanish claims that it has 40,000 IP addresses, which should make it easier to avoid reCAPTCHAs (a test websites use to determine if a visitor is a real user or a bot). But in my tests, I still often encountered reCAPTCHAs.
And IPVanish doesn’t offer dedicated IPs, which are IP addresses that are only assigned to you. Private Internet Access and CyberGhost VPN charge a small additional price for dedicated IPs, but PrivateVPN offers them for free.
Overall, IPVanish has a decent server network that covers most parts of the world, displays the ping and server load to make it easier to find the fastest servers, allows P2P traffic on every server, and has 40,000 IP addresses.
IPVanish Streaming Support — Accesses Most Popular Sites
IPvanish has decent streaming support. It works with popular services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and Max, plus smaller ones like Channel 4, Crackle, and CBC. However, it doesn’t work with Disney+.
Overall, IPVanish is a good option for streaming. Still, if you’re looking for a VPN that’s really great for streaming, I recommend ExpressVPN.You can also take a look at our curated list of the best VPNs for streaming here.
IPVanish Torrenting Support — Offers Speed-Boosting SOCKS5 Proxy Servers
IPVanish is really good for torrenting. It allows P2P traffic on all of its servers, and it works with all major torrent clients like qBittorrent, Deluge, Vuze, and uTorrent.
qBittorrent | ✅ |
Vuze | ✅ |
Deluge | ✅ |
uTorrent | ✅ |
BitTorrent | ✅ |
Transmission | ✅ |
One thing that I’m a fan of is how IPVanish has 30+ SOCKS5 proxy servers — in my tests, the SOCKS5 proxy servers increased my speeds by about 10%. But it doesn’t offer port forwarding, which connects you to more peers for faster speeds, like Private Internet Access.
I do like that it has leak protection — Before I began torrenting, I ran IPv6, DNS, and WebRTC leak tests on servers in 10 different countries. Thankfully, each test showed 0 leaks.
Overall, IPVanish is great for torrenting. It’s P2P-friendly, works with all of the top torrent clients, and includes SOCKS5 proxy servers that offer faster speeds.
IPVanish Gaming Support — Low Ping + Works With Cloud Gaming
IPVanish works well for gaming — I played a couple of Dota 2 games online and the experience was smooth. I first connected to a local server to download the game (around 40 GB of data) and it downloaded in about 20 minutes — which is pretty fast. In my games, I had an average ping (120-123 ms) and didn’t encounter any lags or freezes.
IPVanish protects you from DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, which force you offline. But unlike ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access, its servers don’t come with anti-DDoS protection, so a lousy opponent can target the VPN IP address, in which case you may have to reconnect to another server.
I like that it has support for cloud gaming platforms — it’s one of the few top VPNs that do. In my tests, I didn’t have any issues using the VPN to game on GeForce Now.
Plus, you can play games on your gaming console with IPVanish. It supports manual configuration on a lot of popular routers — I was able to configure it on mine and play games on my PlayStation 5. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a dedicated router app like ExpressVPN.
Overall, IPVanish is a decent pick for gaming — it has good speeds, protects you from anti-DDoS attacks, has router support, and supports cloud gaming services.
Bypassing Censorship — Fails to Get Around Firewalls in Restrictive Countries
IPVanish doesn’t work in restrictive countries. IPVanish’s support reps told me many restrictive countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt successfully block its service.
If you’re in a country that restricts access to the internet, I recommend ExpressVPN because it consistently works in restrictive countries, is very secure, and has fast speeds.
IPVanish Ease of Use: Mobile & Desktop Apps — Simple-to-Install Apps for Many Devices
IPVanish has apps for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Apple TV, and Fire TV. I easily installed the Android and iOS apps on my smartphones in 1 minute, and the desktop apps on my Windows 11 PC and MacBook Pro in 1-2 minutes.
How to Install IPVanish (Just 3 Simple Steps):
- Get an IPVanish subscription. Pick and plan that best fits your needs and create an account.
- Download and install the app. Get the VPN app on all of your devices.
- Launch the app. That’s it! You can now connect to any server you want.
Android — Feature-Rich & 1-Click Connections
IPVanish’s Android app is easy to use and has an intuitive interface. In addition to connecting to the fast server with the Quick Connect feature, it’s simple to manually find a fast server. IPVanish sorts the servers alphabetically by country, city, and ping.
Plus, the Android app has descriptions for each of the connection settings. I also like how it comes with a tutorial, which shows you how to use the VPN app, that you can come back to at any time in the Settings menu. The Android app comes with WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2, has split-tunneling, and includes IPVanish’s ad, tracker, and malicious site blocker (Threat Protection).
IPVanish’s Android app lacks IPv6 and DNS leak protection, and it doesn’t have a built-in kill switch — but you can easily enable the Android OS kill switch. If you prefer an Android VPN with a built-in kill switch, I really like CyberGhost VPN and ExpressVPN.
Overall, I like IPVanish’s Android app. It doesn’t have a built-in kill switch and leak protection, but it offers secure protocols, good split-tunneling, an ad blocker, and a user-friendly design.
iOS — Comes With Siri Shortcuts + Split-Tunneling
IPVanish’s iOS app has a similar design to the Android app, but it isn’t as feature-rich. I like how the iOS app comes with a Favorites tab, where you can save your favorite servers, as well as with Siri Shortcuts that help you to start and stop the app. IPVanish’s iOS app also comes with WireGuard, IKEv2, and IPSec, and it has a kill switch.
I like how it offers split-tunneling, as most VPNs don’t support split-tunneling on iOS due to the operating system’s restrictions — this is why you can only split-tunnel sites on iOS, and not apps. TunnelBear, one of the few top VPNs that offers this feature on iOS, also allows you to exclude sites from the VPN tunnel only. However, the iOS app is missing IPv6 and DNS leak protection.
Overall, it’s a decent iOS app. It’s easy to navigate, has a split-tunneling feature, and it even works with Siri commands. But, there are better iOS apps out there.
Windows/Mac (Desktop) — Automation Options for Instant Connections
IPVanish’s desktop apps are also easy to use and include really good features. The apps have the Quick Connect feature, let you configure the VPN to auto-connect when on certain networks or on launch, and they make it easy to manually select a server — there’s even a map that displays all of the server locations (competitors like Proton VPN and TunnelBear also offer maps).
Both the Windows and macOS apps provide an excellent variety of protocols, allowing you to choose different ones for different functions. The Windows app comes with WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2. The macOS app also includes WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2, but it adds IPSec.
I like that you can use the kill switch on both desktop apps, but only the Windows app has IPv6 and DNS leak protection — the macOS app is missing DNS leak protection and split-tunneling.
Overall, IPVanish’s desktop apps have an intuitive interface, good security features, and a huge menu of protocols. But the Windows app is better than the macOS app because it comes with DNS leak protection.
Router Support — Works With Many Models & Firmware
You can manually configure IPVanish on your router — it’s compatible with a lot of popular router firmware, including AsusWRT and DD-WRT, which is great since there are some really good VPNs, like TunnelBear, which don’t have router support at all.
IPVanish has detailed tutorials on the site, complete with screenshots, which makes them very easy to follow — it took me only around 15 minutes to configure IPVanish on my router. If you don’t want to go through the trouble of setting up the VPN on your router and are in the market for a new one, IPVanish comes pre-configured on some routers. And if that’s not an option, I recommend checking out ExpressVPN, which has an intuitive app you can install on your router that won’t cost you extra.
All in all, IPVanish’s router support is great if you don’t mind taking the time to set up the VPN on your router.
IPVanish’s Apps: Is IPVanish Easy to Use?
Yes, IPVanish has easy-to-use apps for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, Apple TV, and Fire TV. The mobile apps and desktop apps have different interfaces, but both have an intuitive design.
The Android and iOS apps have split-tunneling but are missing DNS leak protection, and the Android app doesn’t come with a native kill switch. IPVanish’s desktop apps are secure and have a great selection of protocols.
Android | iOS | Windows | macOS | Apple TV | |
Graphical User Interface (GUI) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Kill Switch | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
Split-Tunneling | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
Threat Protection | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
Antivirus Protection (VIPRE) | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
IPVanish Customer Support — Offers Various Platforms
IPVanish has a good range of customer support options:
Live Chat Support — Friendly & Knowledgeable Representatives
IPVanish has really great live chat support that’s available around the clock. When I tested IPVanish’s live chat, I was usually connected to someone in under 10 seconds. All of the support reps I talked to were polite, helpful, and responsive. Some took a couple of minutes to answer my questions, but, in fairness, they were quite technical questions. IPVanish offers support in English, but the reps can use a translation tool for other languages.
Email Support — Responds Within a Day
IPVanish’s email support is very good. I sent a couple of emails to its reps and was really happy with how they handled my queries. It took between 7 and 8 hours for the reps to respond via email. All of my questions were technical and each reply was thorough and resolved my issues.
Phone Support — Offered in 7 Countries
IPVanish stands out as one of the rare VPNs offering phone support. It caters to 7 countries, including the US, Mexico, the UK, Germany, Spain, Australia, and Brazil, and operates from 7am–7pm CT (UTC -6) from Monday to Saturday.
Support Guides — Well Organized & Thorough
IPVanish’s support articles are very informative — they resolved most of my issues, and I didn’t need to contact customer support that often. I also like how they’re split into well-organized categories, including billing questions, setup guides, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and troubleshooting guides, and that IPVanish has really helpful video tutorials (like ExpressVPN and NordVPN).
Additional Tools on the Site — Good Password Generator + Convenient IP Checker
IPVanish provides a few additional tools on its website, including:
- Password generator — IPVanish has a free password generator that’s very easy to use. In my tests, it took me just a couple of seconds to create a password — just pick the password length from the dropdown bar (up to 20 characters) and choose whether or not you want to include symbols. I like this feature because it’s really useful, but I prefer ExpressVPN’s password generator which helps you create much stronger passwords that also are longer and use special characters.
- IP checker — IPVanish’s “What’s My IP Address” tool is a great way to see whether your VPN is leaking your IP address. Once you visit the site, it shows you the IP address you’re accessing the internet with and tells you where you’re located based on that string of numbers.
What IPVanish Can Do Better — Add Split-Tunneling to Mac & Linux + Boost Server Network
IPVanish is a solid VPN, but there are some things it can do better. Namely, split-tunneling isn’t available on every device, the server network is only medium-sized, it lacks full leak protection, and it’s not good for sensory-heavy nations.
Split-tunneling is only offered on Android, Windows, and iOS — I wish it was available on Mac and Linux devices. ExpressVPN includes the convenient feature on Mac and is one of the only VPNs to have it on routers. Private Internet Access offers split-tunneling on Linux but doesn’t have it for routers.
I like how IPVanish has servers located in all of the regions around the world. However, it only has servers in 97 countries, which isn’t terrible but falls well short of many other top providers. For example, ExpressVPN, CyberGhost VPN, and Surfshark have servers in at least 100 countries.
IPVanish also doesn’t work in restrictive countries like China and Russia. It does have obfuscation for bypassing internet restrictions, for use on a company or school network, but IPVanish lacks the tools to bypass stiff firewalls in these countries.
In addition, IPVanish’s leak protection fails to match its competitors. While I didn’t experience any leaks in my tests, its DNS leak protection only applies to Windows, and there’s zero WebRTC leak protection. Top VPNs like Private Internet Access have full built-in leak protection.
Is IPVanish One of the Best VPNs in 2024?
IPVanish is secure and good for torrenting, plus it provides unlimited simultaneous connections. It offers industry-standard security features like 256-bit AES encryption, a kill switch, a no-logs policy, and secure protocols, and extra features like perfect forward secrecy. It also has servers in 97 countries, allows P2P traffic on every server, and has intuitive apps for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and Fire TV.
In my tests, I had really fast speeds on local (Romania) servers and pretty fast speeds on distant servers (US and Japan) — my gaming, torrenting, and VoIP call speeds were fast and stable on all servers. I downloaded large 10+ GB torrents in 15-20 minutes using popular torrent clients like qBittorrent, Deluge, uTorrent, and more. And IPVanish has 30+ SOCKS5 proxies that provide even faster download speeds.
While there are a lot of things I like about IPVanish, it has a handful of flaws. It offers split-tunneling only on Windows, Android and iOS, and it doesn’t work in restrictive countries like China. Also, DNS leak protection is only included on Windows, and there’s no WebRTC protection.
IPVanish has several payment plans to choose from, and it backs its long-term plans with a 30-day money-back guarantee. There’s also a 7-day free trial for mobile devices when you sign up through your app store.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does IPVanish work with Netflix?
Yes, IPVanish works with Netflix, as well as other popular streaming sites, including Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer. However, it doesn’t work with Disney+.
Will IPVanish slow down my internet connection speeds?
Yes, IPVanish will slow down your internet connection speeds, but all VPNs reduce your speeds because of the added layer of encryption. My colleague in the US ran speed tests, and IPVanish only slowed down his internet speeds by an average of 38%, which is above average. While IPVanish reduced my speeds by 83%, I am from a country (Romania) that has very fast speeds, so even with this reduction in speed I had fast speeds for browsing, torrenting, and gaming across most of IPVanish’s servers.
Does IPVanish keep logs?
No, IPVanish doesn’t keep logs and has a strict no-logs policy. It passed two independent audits to prove it doesn’t store logs, but only IPVanish users have access to the latest report.
Is IPVanish free?
No, IPVanish doesn’t have a free plan. But IPVanish has a 30-day money-back guarantee for its 1-year plans, allowing you to test out the product before making a longer commitment, and it has a 7-day free trial for iOS and Android devices when you download the app via the App Store or Google Play Store.
There are free VPNs available, but I don’t recommend using them. They often have very slow speeds, set a limit on your data, are missing essential security features, log your internet traffic, have buggy apps, and offer poor customer support.
Instead, I recommend sticking with a low-cost premium VPN like IPVanish. IPVanish’s 1-year plan is $3.33 / month and its 2-year plan costs $2.19 / month.
Does IPVanish have an Apple TV app?
Yes, IPVanish has a dedicated Apple TV app that you can download directly from the app store and install on your Apple TV in just a couple of minutes. It’s one of the few VPNs to offer a native app for Apple TV — with most VPNs, you have to set up the VPN on your router to be able to encrypt your Apple TV traffic. Plus, it’s very easy to use. I like how you can connect to the fastest server in just 1 click and that it lists your most recent server locations for quick access on the main screen.