IPVanish
$6.49 /mo
Pros
- Great range of apps
- 10 concurrent connections
- Amazon Fire TV Support
- Strong encryption levels
- Every continent covered
Cons
- Short money back guarantee
- Doesn't work with Netflix
IPVanish is one of the best-known VPN services around. It allows you to browse the web anonymously, remains safe and secure while online, and maintain more than decent speed while doing it.
While it’s advertised as a great choice when it comes to protecting pretty much any device or system we wanted to cut through the marketing and find out if that’s the reality.
So we’ve been putting their service to the test to find out once and for all if IPVanish is any good.
Pricing and Packages
The first great thing about IPVanish that you should be aware of is that it does everything it does at very reasonable prices. The service offers one package available at different subscription rates, all of which are very affordable.
The first one is a monthly package which you can obtain for only $10 per month. The second one lasts three months, and it costs $26.99, or $8.99 monthly. This package allows you to save up to 25% of your money, while not having to worry about renewing it for three whole months.
Finally, there is also a 1-year package, which you can pick up for $77.99, or $6.49 per month. This is the cheapest package when taken on a monthly basis, and it allows you to save up as much as 46%.
- 1-Month: $10.00/mo
- 6-Months: $8.99 /mo
- 12-Months: $6.49 /mo (46% saving)
Oh, and one last thing — IPVanish also features a 30-day money-back guarantee, in case you purchase a package and then change your mind.
30 day money back guarantee
Mobile Apps
As mentioned earlier, IPVanish allows you to cover multiple different devices and systems at once.
You can use the service on as many as ten devices simultaneously, which means that every member of your family can have their mobile device secured, in addition to having all other devices in your household protected.
When it comes to mobile devices, IPVanish supports both, Android, and Apple iOS systems, no matter which model you use.
It supports Android version 4.0.3 and higher, as well as iOS versions 9 and higher.
IPVanish’s mobile apps are easy to use.
The apps are easy to use, and they have access to numerous servers, as well as excellent protection, featuring OpenVPN security protocol and AES 256 encryption. The service also keeps zero logs of your mobile usage, meaning that all of your online actions will be known only to you.
The app also features a Scramble feature as an extra layer of protection, which is used to trick firewalls which can detect the OpenVPN protocol. There is also a feature that will automatically connect you to the fastest server available so that your speed will not suffer.
There’s also a Split Tunnelling feature that lets you pick apps to fall outside the VPN connection which is extremely useful.
IPVanish has plenty of options.
In addition, iOS systems also have access to additional features such as 3D touch and ‘Always On’, which automatically connects you to a VPN when online traffic is detected.
30 day money back guarantee
Computer Apps
Next, we have desktop apps, which is another area that IPVanish has completely covered. The service is fully functional on a variety of devices, and it covers systems such as Windows, Mac, Linux and even other devices such as routers, Chromebook, or Fire TVs.
While dedicated apps are available for Windows and Mac, Linux users will need to follow manual set-up instructions.
IPVanish desktop apps are easy to use.
Similarly to mobile apps, desktop apps also keep zero logs, while providing access to all of the available servers. The desktop apps also feature a kill switch, just in case your VPN connection gets lost for some reason. The kill switch will instantly cut you off, preventing anyone from taking advantage of the loss of VPN.
The Windows version of the app also features IPv6 Leak Protection, LAN blocking, OpenVPN Scramble, and dual user interfaces. The app features three different protocols, and port selection, in addition to AES-256 encryption, meaning that you can get protected every time you’re online.
Plenty of settings and features in the desktop apps.
The Mac version features all the same protocols, port selections, and encryption, in addition to IPVanish’s DNS or 3rd party DNS.
There are fewer features for Linux systems, but the Linux set-up instructions also has two protocols (OpenVPN and PPTP) and two encryption levels (AES 256 and AES 128) available.
30 day money back guarantee
Server Locations
When it comes to IPVanish servers, this is another area where the service shines.
It offers a massive network of over 1,200 servers around the world, located in over 80 major cities in around 50 different countries. That amounts to over 40,000 shared IPs.
Strangely IPVanish states they offer services in 60 countries, but the actual amount available contradicts this and is more in the region of 50.
IPVanish covers the most of the world but their server count is a little off.
IPVanish offers around 433 servers in Europe, which are located in numerous countries such as Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and others.
There are over 630 servers in North America, including Canada (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver), Costa Rica, Mexico, and of course, the US (New York, Miami, Las Vegas, San Jose, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, and more).
The service also offers 18 servers in Brazil, 66 in Australia, 3 in New Zealand, 2 in Israel, 2 in South Africa, 1 in the UAE, and 53 in Asia (Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines).
30 day money back guarantee
Streaming Service Unblocking
Unfortunately when it comes to streaming services IPVanish performs quite poorly.
At the time of writing, they don’t unblock most of the popular streaming services including the likes of Netflix and BBC iPlayer.
If you’re after unblocking content then you’re best off sticking with ExpressVPN. As good as IPVanish is for protecting your privacy and other uses, they’re quite poor for unblocking TVservices.
Speed and Bandwidth
IPVanish also does not lack in terms of speed either.
As mentioned, it has special built-in features that allow you to connect to the fastest server available, and it offers pretty fast options, at that.
We put IPVanish to the test by downloading a test file and monitoring the download speeds from our test location in the UK. Our speed without a VPN was: 62.31 Mbps.
The following were our results when connected to IPVanish’s servers.
- UK: 61 Mbps
- France: 61.36 Mbps
- Germany: 60.65 Mbps
- Switzerland: 61.15 Mbps
- United States: 58.82 Mbps
- Hong Kong: 58.59 Mbps
- Australia: 59.84 Mbps
Overall the speeds achieved were excellent and you’ll have no issues regardless of where you connect to.
You can use IPVanish for a wide number of purposes that require high-speed internet, such as streaming videos in high quality, browsing, downloading, and even torrenting.
The service also offers unlimited bandwidth and P2P traffic, as well as unlimited server switching, in case the server you are connected to gets overcrowded or slows down for some other reason.
30 day money back guarantee
Verdict
With all of this in mind, is IPVanish a good service? We say yes. It is very affordable, with three low-priced plans, each more affordable than the next.
It features apps for multiple mobile devices, including Android, and iOS devices, meaning that you can remain protected on the go, which is an excellent thing if you tend to travel a lot and often depend on public Wi-Fi.
As for the desktop apps, they also cover a large number of devices and systems, which means that you can use IPVanish on any device you own, as long as it can connect to the internet. Not only that, but IPVanish allows you to connect up to 10 devices at the same time.
It has a large number of servers across the world, on pretty much every continent, meaning that you should have no trouble with unlocking online content, even if your government and ISP have decided to block it. This makes IPVanish a great choice for accessing foreign content and bypassing censorship.
IPVanish is let down by the fact it doesn’t work in China, nor is it good for streaming services like Netflix, BBC iPlayer or other popular services. However, if either of those aren’t necessary for you, then the rest of the service is solid.
Also, you can do everything at decent speeds. While they may not be the very fastest, IPVanish offers speeds that are more than acceptable, and you can still stream quality videos, download files, browse, or even torrent anonymously. Protection levels are great for every system and device.
All in all, IPVanish is a great service that you won’t want to overlook, and it will provide you with almost everything you require.
Plus, if you happen to change your mind after purchasing one of its plans, you can always get your money back as long as you ask within seven days from the moment of purchase.
30 day money back guarantee
