IPVanish Review 2020

IPVanish is a perfect choice if you are looking for a combination of speed, performance, and top-notch security and privacy. The VPN comes in handy for torrent lovers since it has an absolute zero logs policy and whatever you access online can’t be linked back to you – total online freedom. What’s more, IPVanish is widely preferred, has a large user base, and it’s the best VPN for Kodi.

Quick Stats

IPVanish came into operation in 1999, and it has since worked its way to become one of the top VPNs in the industry. IPVanish is also the only known “top tier” VPN service since they fully own and control their server network. Though based in the United States, the VPN makes up for this by upholding a strict no-logs policy. In this review, we aim to explore all the elements of the VPN and help you decide whether IPVanish is worth subscribing to.

Pricing Plan

IPVanish has three subscription plans. These pricing plans offer the same features but vary in terms of billing periods. We analyzed the three plans – pin-pointing how you should approach them:

• The one-month subscription costs $10 per month – a very costly plan that you should avoid unless you need the VPN for less than a month.
• Its three-month package goes for $8.99 a month – costing $26.99 every three m0nths – it will save you up to 25% of your money.
• Finally, there’s the annual subscription that retails at $6.49 every month – you’ll only pay for as low as $77.99 annually. We highly recommend this package, considering it’ll save you up 46% of your money.

This VPN offers a high quality of service that is coupled with a wide array of features – this way, justifying its considerably affordable price rates.

IPVanish Payment Methods

Unfortunately, IPVanish offers limited payment options. In particular, we were disappointed to learn that the VPN doesn’t accept any form of Cryptocurrency payment. At the time of our testing, the US VPN was only accepting all major credit/debit cards, and PayPal as well.

7-Day Money-Back Guarantee

IPVanish offers a “no-strings-attached” 7-day money-back guarantee. While its return policy lasts for seven days – unlike its competitors who give up to 30 days – it doesn’t include any dodgy clauses like other VPNs. Moreover, IPVanish has the best fuss-free money-back guarantee process that we’ve experienced. You don’t need to send an email when you want your refund – of course; it has to be within the first seven days.

All you have to do is access your control panel. Scroll down to the bottom of the subscription page; click on the link ‘I wish to cancel my subscription’. Once you perform the cancellation procedure, you’ll get a confirmation email. The refund should be done within the next 10 business days.

IPVanish Servers

IPVanish boasts of a larger server network, and it forms one of its selling points. This is especially because they own and manage their entire server network – a rare occurrence among VPN providers. This allows them to have complete control over how its user data is kept, consequently improving safety and privacy. Compared to other VPN services we have reviewed, IPVanish offers one of the most comprehensive lists of VPN locations. From popular countries such as the USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, and Australia to lesser demanded VPN locations such as Latvia, Lithuania, Vietnam, and Hong Kong.

The VPN has a strong claim of being the fastest-growing top tier VPN provider, and that is evident in its ever-growing server network. Currently, IPVanish owns over 40,000+ IPs on over 1200 servers, well distributed across 60+ countries. You can customize the VPN to use different IP addresses on a single session – a trick made possible by the VPN’s IP rotator feature.

IPVanish an excellent distribution of servers on all the five continents, including North America, South America, Asia, Oceania, Europe, Africa, and parts of Central America. None of the top VPNs can boast of such coverage. The VPN has the most comprehensive coverage in Europe with 422+ servers in 34+ countries. The US, where the VPN is based records the highest with 631+ servers across 17+ cities. Amsterdam – a city – claims over 97+ servers, well distributed in the city.

You’ll be pleased to know that IPVanish allows for unlimited server switching, as well as its bandwidth. P2P sharing is also widely supported across all its servers – making it an excellent choice for torrenting.

Features

Here’s a list of all the features included in an IPVanish subscription:

Kill Switch

Among the features that a VPN offers, a kill switch should be one. IPVanish does that and provides an automatic kill switch which blocks your device from accessing the internet until the VPN connection is restored. The unique feature ensures that your online activities remain private and secure from encroaching eyes. The automatic kill switch works excellently when you are torrenting on an unattended device.

Obfuscation Technology

Countries like China and Russia excel at internet censorship and are annoyingly perfect at blocking VPN traffic. However, IPVanish has an obfuscation technology feature which can mask the OpenVPN traffic to appear as a normal HTTPS traffic. This allows it to go around government security systems like the Great Firewall of China without being flagged.

IP Rotator

IPVanish as an IP Rotator feature that lets you rotate your IP address at intervals of 45, 60 and 90 minutes. The feature allows you to stay anonymous by constantly altering your online identity. That way, whatever you do online can’t be tracked to a specific IP address.

P2P File-Sharing

IPVanish is relatively the only VPN that lets you use torrents on all its servers. But the VPN also warns that you might experience low speeds when using BitTorrent. Nonetheless, to improve file-sharing, IPVanish has a SOCKS5 proxy, which boosts P2P, BitTorrent as well as Tor file-sharing – all while observing your online anonymity.

IPv6 & DNS Leak Protection

IPVanish also has an exceptional capability that forces all your browsing traffic over IPv4 to stop any IPv6 addresses from leaking. Thus, ensuring your safety from snooping cybercriminals.

Equally, the VPN has a DNS Leak protection that protects your DNS from being pinging to your ISP – an occurrence that jeopardizes your online anonymity.

Privacy and security

Privacy

Based in the US, IPVanish attracts suspicion, mistrust and mixed reactions from various users at first glance. The US government not only demands companies to share their users’ information, but it’s also home to the world’s powerful intelligence agencies such as the NSA, FBI and many more. Moreover, numerous organizations and sections of the governments in the US are also hell-bent in the protection of copyrights. Acts like government surveillance and the trendy net-neutrality constitute a significant thing in the US – making the situation even worse for IPVanish.

However, on the upside, we were delighted to learn that IPVanish somehow manages to observe its strict zero-logs policy. Although we were disappointed to learn that the VPN no-longer accepts Cryptocurrency payments – which allows for anonymous payments – the VPN has some new privacy features such as automated kill switch, obfuscation tech, DNS leak protection.

Security

IPVanish ranks among the top VPNs that use next-gen encryption techniques. For instance, the VPN uses military-grade AES-256 bit encryption that is coupled with the RSA-2048 bit essential authentication techniques. Moreover, for Data authentication, the VPN uses the HMAC SHA1 and uses the HMAC SHA-256 for control authorization. Notably, IPVanish is also among the few VPNs that use the famous Diffie-Hellman Key (DHE), which works well with its Perfect Forward Secrecy.

Elsewhere, the VPN also offers various connection protocols for various client apps. Here’s a list of these protocols:

• Windows; OpenVPN 256-bit, OpenVPN Scramble, PPTP
• Android/ Fire TV; OpenVPN UDP/ TCP
• macOS; OpenVPN 256-bit, IPSec, L2TP
• iOS; IKEv2, IPSec
• Routers; OpenVPN, PPTP
• Linux; OpenVPN, PPTP
• Chromebooks; L2TP (128 bit), IPSec

Noteworthy, we focused on its OpenVPN Scramble – an advanced OpenVPN protocol – which has been designed to go-around VPN blocking techniques used by highly censored countries like China and Iran. Additionally, we don’t recommend the L2TP VPN protocol. However, the IKEv2 VPN protocol offers standard security and superb speeds.

Performance Speeds

Arguably, IPVanish is a reliable VPN. However, its client apps are not. The various apps can be frustrating – taking too much time to fully open, sometimes take long to connect, or at times failing to connect. The only way to start over is to kill the app, which often disappointing.

Notably, the windows client app can sometimes stop functioning and claim that certain drivers aren’t functioning. In such cases, you need to reinstall the drivers, and the VPN will resume its normal operations.

Speed Test

We performed extensive speed tests to verify the VPN’s bold claims of offering fast speeds. You should know that all IPVanish speed tests are done using its standard protocol – OpenVPN (UDP) protocol.

The first screenshot below shows the results we got without the VPN.

The screenshot below illustrates the results we got after connecting to a server near our actual location.

Finally, we connected to a server that was somewhat far away from our physical address, and the results – as shown below – were outstanding.

From the results above you can see that the VPN’s speeds across all servers are superb. Although some servers might not be as fast as others, we recommend that you try to connect to a server that’s close to your actual location – to enjoy super-fast speeds.

Ease of use

Getting Started with IPVanish

There’s nothing complicated when getting started with IPVanish; all you need is to click on the “Start Now” button. You’ll then be redirected to the pricing page where you’ll choose your ideal package. To continue with the registration, you’ll need to provide your email and password, before selecting your preferred payment method. Finally, your account will be created and a confirmation email sent to you. Now you can download your target client app from the “Apps” section. The whole process takes less than five minutes.

IPVanish Client Apps

Desktop Client

At the initial run, the app requires you to enter your login details. The app keeps a memory of your login detail, so you don’t login in next time.

After the login procedure, you’ll be presented with a straightforward home screen.

The client offers you several connection options to choose from. You can use the VPN’s “Best City” and “Best Server” feature to connect automatically. Optionally, you can opt to manually select the server location you want to connect to by accessing the “Server List” section – or use the map. It should take up to 20 seconds to connect.

You can also access the “Settings” section where you can toggle the various tabs to tweak the connection settings.

Smartphone Client

The IPVanish smartphone client is similar in design for all mobile apps including the Android and iOS platforms. Like all clients, you’ll be required to enter your login details at the initial run. Consequently, you’ll be presented with a home screen that has a conspicuous “Connect” button – which will automatically connect you to the best server. Equally, the VPN gives you the option to connect to a specific server. You can do this by clicking on either Country, City or Server to access the available list.

To access other sections like the Settings page, click on the settings icon located on the top-right corner.

Compatibility

IPVanish offers outstanding end-to-end encryption for all your devices, including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, FireTV, Linux, Chromebooks as well as Routers.

Netflix US Compatibility

We carried several tests to confirm the VPN’s ability to unblock Netflix US and got disappointing results. Unfortunately, IPVanish doesn’t work well with Netflix US. Netflix like other major streaming outlets has an advanced blocking feature that detects common VPN IP protocols and prevents them. Therefore, if you try accessing Netflix using IPVanish, chances are you’ll get an error!

BBC iPlayer Compatibility

After several failed trials, we concluded that IPVanish doesn’t work with BBC iPlayer either. Likewise, the streaming service has a feature that can identify the IPVanish IP address and block its traffic.

The disappointing results also apply to Hulu. Moreover, after consulting with the support team, IPVanish confirmed that they no longer support these services. Nonetheless, we were delighted to discover that with its obfuscation feature, your OpenVPN traffic can mimic and connect to the New York server, thereby overcoming the imposed Netflix US restrictions.

IPVanish for China

Despite having an outstanding obfuscation tech feature, IPVanish claims that:

Our IPVanish service will likely not work if you are attempting to connect to our VPN from inside of China or other countries that block our domain/website. The only possible way it might work is to manually configure and connect to our servers’ IP addresses instead of our server names. However, please note that China, in particular, has started blacklisting our IP addresses too… so even this measure may not help.

Additionally, they’ve provided an exclusive guide that will help you to connect manually when in China.

Customer Support

Giving credit where it’s due, IPVanish has come from miles away to make their customer support a superb service. While in the past you could be frustrated with their seemingly slow response, the VPN seems to have employed measures to improve its service. Moreover, the VPN now has additional options through which you can get the support you need. You can choose to use its fast-responsive email support; you can opt for the readily available live chat tool. There are also various guides you can use to solve the common technical misunderstandings.

We were particularly impressed by its live chat support, which they confirmed is now available 24/7.

IPVanish Free Trial?

Similar to most premium VPN service providers, IPVanish doesn’t offer any free trials. The reason behind this might be the fact that some users tend to abuse these free trials instead of only using them to test out the VPN app. So if you want to give the VPN app a go, you have to pay for the subscription.

Bottom line

• Pros

• • No-logs policy
  • Affordable price plans
  • Super-fast speeds
  • 10 concurrent connections
  • Works in China
  • Military-grade encryption
  • Multiple native apps
  • 7-day money back guarantee
  • A superbly owned server network

• Cons

  • Doesn’t support Cryptocurrency payments
  • Doesn’t unlock major streaming outlet

IPVanish Review – The Final Verdict

If you’ve read our IPVanish review, then you’ll agree that it packs several exciting features that make it a top-rated VPN. The VPN does its best to honor its name by making your IP to literally vanish – thanks to its strict no-logs policy. We can’t exactly highlight a major flaw of this VPN, except for its inability to unblock Netflix, BBC iPlayer and Hulu.

However, on the upside, IPVanish offers astonishing, ultra-fast speeds, and excellent privacy and security abilities making it a top VPN in the industry.

The advantages of choosing IPVanish as your VPN provider are very convincing to any customer; whether or not it would be your first time using a VPN service. Here’s a good summary of what we think:

• Helpful startup instructions on the website.
• A wide network of servers and IP addresses.
• Competitive pricing.
• Great connectivity speed.
• Up to 10 VPN connections on one account.
• Optimized to work well with Kodi.

Hopefully, this review has been a good eye-opener for those considering to get a credible VPN provider. In case you have tried IPVanish yourself, we’d love to hear your feedback, whether positive or negative. Share your thoughts in the comment section below. In case you’re looking for a VPN that actually works with Netflix, take a look at these top IPVanish VPN alternatives.

IPVanish Review

Name: IPVanish

Description: As one of the most popular VPN services around, IPVanish offers excellent customer support, over 600 different VPN locations, and easy-to-use apps.

Price: 10

Currency: $

Operating System: Windows, OSX, Android, iOS

Application Category: Multimedia

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