IPVanish Review – Everything You Need To Know About IPVanish

IPVanish Introduction

IPVanish is a fast, highly configurable VPN. All its apps are secure and don’t log any user activity. We recommend IPVanish to Firestick, Kodi and P2P users. The VPN does stream US Netflix, but that’s the only service it unblocks. In short, IPVanish is a top VPN for privacy, but not for worldwide streaming.

IPVanish is a US VPN service offering a wide range of features you won’t see in many VPNs.

After reviewing its VPN apps, we can confirm that IPVanish is a highly secure VPN. It uses trusted security protocols like OpenVPN and IKEv2, strengthened by AES-256 encryption. And most apps feature useful tools such as split tunneling, a kill switch and IPv6 leak protection.

IPvanish owns all its 1,400 servers in 57 countries, allowing it to have total control of its network security. It also provides over 40,000 shared IP addresses to its users.

The VPN service is one of the fastest on short-distance connections. Its quick P2P-friendly servers make it ideal for private torrenting. It also offers a SOCKS5 proxy, popular with some P2P users. It can also unblock US Netflix, and is great for Kodi streaming. In fact, IPVanish has the best Firestick VPN app, and is easy to set up on most Android devices.

Moreover, it has been a zero-logs VPN since 2017. However, this wasn’t always the case under Highwinds’ previous ownership.

The VPN let us down in two key areas. Firstly, it needs to unblock more streaming platforms, like BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu. Secondly, it won’t work at all in China and other highly-censored countries.

In short, IPVanish is a top VPN aimed at Kodi, Fire TV Stick and P2P users. It’s secure, no-logs, and its fast local speeds are well-suited for file-sharing.

 

 

IPVanish Features

We found the following options and features of IPVanish VPN during our test:

• Fast top class provider
• No artificial restrictions on the connection speed
• Unlimited broadband (no data limits)
• Easy to use software (works with Windows, MacOSx, Ubuntu Linux, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Chromebooks and routers)
• Switch unlimitedly between different IP-addresses and servers
• 40,000+ shared IP-addresses on 1500+ VPN servers in 75+ countries
• Thirty day money return policy
• Limited traffic logs
• Kill Switch for Mac OS and Windows: option that kills all internet traffic in case of a VPN connection drop, so you’re better protected
• LAN Blocking for windows, allowing you to block all LAN network traffic from and to your PC
• IPv6 and DNS leak protection
• OpenVPN Scramble/DPI (deep packet inspection) protection: extra protection against possible censorship

 

 

Netflix and Bittorrent

Many VPN-providers advertise options to circumvent geoblocking. However, practically this isn’t always the case – at least not all the time.

It is rather refreshing to see IPVanish NOT advertising its unblocking capabilities while offering them anyway! You’ll still have to find your access point to things like American Netflix or BBC iPlayer. But IPVanish has servers abound and spawns enough IP-addresses to ensure your connection to these services.

BitTorrent, on the other hand, is fully – and openly – supported. IPVanish’ servers are available for your up- and downloading all the time. And they manage to keep the speed up as well!

 

 

IPVanish Pros and Cons

Before I get too deep into IPVanish’s specs, here’s my overall impression of this service:

PROS

• Strong encryption: Uses the industry standard.
• Up to 10 simultaneous connections: Go ahead! Connect your laptop, iPhone, tablet, router, etc.
• Great download speed. It doesn’t slow your internet down too much.
• Allows torrenting. You can torrent using uTorrent.
• Allows split tunneling. IPVanish allows you to use its serves and others to maximize bandwidth capabilities.
• Great customer service. Live 24/7 chat, phone line, and email support are all available to get your questions answered.

CONS

• “Zero Log Policy” is questionable. The company was exposed for sharing logs for a criminal investigation.
• Under 5 Eyes surveillance. Since IPVanish is a U.S. based company, they are under 5 Eyes jurisdiction.
• Only some servers work with Netflix. You might not be able to access some of your favorite shows and movies.

So that’s my general impression, but you’re probably wondering about all the fun details that led me to these conclusions, right?

The first thing I’ll touch on is the history behind IPVanish. Good performing service or bad, that’s where I started to question whether or not the company was a good fit for me.

 

 

How fast is IPVanish VPN?

IPVanish is very fast on local connections. We recorded an average download speed of 84Mbps on nearby servers. This works out as a 10% speed loss, which is impressive. Having said that, there are even faster VPNs available.

Even on long-distance connections, IPVanish didn’t slow down our Internet connection too much. For example, we experienced an average download speed of 53Mbps connecting to the US. The VPN is fast enough for torrenting and HD streaming even on international connections.

On the whole, the VPN service was reliable and stable in all our speed tests. Connecting to a VPN server was remarkably quick, sometimes instant.

 

 

 

Prices IPVanish

IPVanish offers different VPN-subscriptions. Every subscription comes with the same options and functionalities. The prices purely differ on the basis of the length of the VPN subscription you sign up for. The longer your subscription, the less you will have to pay on a monthly basis.

 

 

 

How Safe is IPVanish?

IPVanish tries to present itself as a “no logs” VPN-provider. When we asked them, they told us they don’t keep any logs. However, in 2016 it came to light that IPVanish handed over information about a user to the American authorities. This means that they must have been keeping some sort of log allowing users to be identified. Because of this breach of trust, IPVanish hasn’t received a very high score in terms of safety. Logging means that this VPN comes with privacy risks.

To create an account with IPVanish, you have to give your name, your email address and payment information. Payment can be done through credit card, PayPal, Giropay or Bitcoin.

Using shared dynamic IP-addresses, meaning users could be using a new IP-address every time they connect to the service, and the fact that every IP-address is shared between the multiple users, adds (in theory) to the protection and anonymity of the users.

Another factor that is important when talking about privacy, is that IPVanish is an American company. This means that the company is subjected to the Patriot Act, National Security rules and the whole arsenal of NSA surveillance measures (Google “Snowden” for example). Some say that American companies enjoys a little bit of protection under law from the NSA (while the NSA may hack any non-American system), but in reality this argument doesn’t hold up.

 

Final Conclusion

IPVanish is a reliable VPN-provider, and a good option altogether.

The slightly high price point (compared to other services) and the overly complicated app interface could go for a bit of tweaking, but we are sure they are working on it as we speak. But besides that, there are hardly any issues.

If that’s what you’re looking for, IPVanish can definitely help you bypass those nasty geoblocks. And we adore the limitless use of BitTorrent on offer. Add to this the general reliability and relatively high and stable speeds of its VPN-servers, and IPVanish certainly makes the dash for the top tier of VPN-providers.