IPVanish VPN review: Fast connections and solid protection

June Wan/ZDNET

ZDNET's key takeaways

• IPVanish secures an unlimited number of devices for $39.96/year.
• The VPN is tailored for high-end online protection with turbocharged speeds, performing much better on North American connections.
• Its jurisdiction in the US raises privacy concerns, and some servers drop connections.

(Editor's note: IPVanish is owned by Ziff Davis, ZDNET's parent company. For more, see our Editorial Guidelines.)

IPVanish has a fairly large number of users and also good ratings (4.2 and 4.5 on the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store, respectively). The VPN might not sit at the top of our best VPNs list, but its popularity indicates that it has features worth the hype; for example, you can simultaneously connect as many devices as you want.

Also: The best VPN services: Expert tested

After thoroughly testing the service, I found that IPVanish is a reliable but simple VPN service. It provides solid protection and has one of the largest shared IP address pools to enhance user privacy online. There are some unique perks, too, like a kill switch app for Fire TV, cloud storage, and multi-device file syncing. That said, I also encountered slight performance inconsistencies and other drawbacks.

Fast speeds, not far from my normal internet connections 

Unsurprisingly, my connections through IPVanish remained fast. My colleagues also remarked on the swift speeds in our previous tests (we do fresh testing every year), so not much seems to have changed -- and that's a good thing. You should still expect slight drops from your normal internet speeds, however, because VPNs work by encrypting connections and tunneling data concurrently. Speed loss is expected -- even the fastest VPNs I've tested slightly slow your connection.

I conducted multiple speed tests in several locations with the Speedtest by Ookla online tool (editor's note: Ookla is owned by ZDNET's parent company, Ziff Davis) while using IPVanish, switching between different servers and protocols and recording the impact on speeds. I also took readings during peak and off-peak usage times (based on North American time zones) to see if the VPN was impacted by server congestion issues. I grouped the server locations into regions and compared average speed readings with and without a VPN.

The US and Canadian servers had better average speeds than servers in other regions. IPVanish devotes a lot of its infrastructure to the North American market -- over 40% of the servers are in the US alone (to ease high usage traffic). This makes IPVanish a great USA VPN choice whether you're inside or outside the country. I didn't notice that much of a difference when I tested speeds during peak and off-peak bandwidth usage times, although I made a point to pick a server with minimal load for the best speed performance.

Screenshot by Kennedy Otieno/ZDNET

IPVanish servers near your location will often give the best speeds because the internet traffic doesn't have to travel over long distances. Some close-by individual servers registered a more than 90% speed retention. The WireGuard protocol gave the fastest speeds, which is to be expected since it often performs better than OpenVPN. In the extremes, however, I experienced as much as 40% slower speeds on IPVanish servers further from my location (specifically, the servers in Japan). 

Is IPVanish secure?

IPVanish deploys advanced cryptography standards to protect you from cyber threats and privacy intrusion. The advanced encryption standard (AES) scrambles communications between your device and the internet into unreadable data and secures it with keys. It locks out third parties, like internet service providers (ISPs), Wi-Fi admins, and hackers, from monitoring your online activities. You can safely browse anywhere without having to watch your back.

The first thing you might want to do after installing the app is to turn off the kill switch (it's enabled by default). I couldn't open any pages on the internet because the feature blocked me from accessing the internet without the VPN. For someone who is still new to using VPNs, this automatic setting can create some confusion. However, the kill switch is a crucial feature meant to protect your IP from getting exposed if your connection drops or if you forget to turn on the VPN.

Screenshot by Kennedy Otieno/ZDNET

Upon launching the app on your device, navigate to the settings icon (denoted by the cog wheel symbol) to discover more security features. I was overwhelmed by the many settings that let you tailor the levels of protection and privacy. This is also where you can also turn off the automatic kill switch and instead choose to enable it manually.

Below are some other essential features that I came across in the app.

The safest protocols

IPVanish offers robust protocols like WireGuard, OpenVPN (UDP/TCP), IKEv2, and IPSec. I like that even users of Apple devices can access all these protocols as conveniently as their Android and Windows counterparts. WireGuard and OpenVPN often have the best performance, but you can choose the Automatic Protocol setting for the VPN to pick one for you. IKEv2 and IPSec perform optimally on mobile devices.

Screenshot by Kennedy Otieno/ZDNET

Leak protection

The VPN tunnels your internet traffic through its private DNS by default, instead of the public ones like those assigned by your ISP. This, added with the encryption, cuts off any chances of anyone seeing your online searches and the pages you visit. Also, the VPN has IPv6 leak protection, which is great because some sites and web services can track IPv6 connections (and most VPNs don't do anything about it).

Screenshot by Kennedy Otieno/ZDNET

Customize your network security

You have the flexibility of choosing how IPVanish should connect to different networks. If you're fond of using public Wi-Fi networks, you can set the VPN to automatically launch on untrusted networks. It's also possible to add trusted networks that you want to use freely without the VPN interfering.

Screenshot by Kennedy Otieno/ZDNET

Threat protection

IPVanish also blocks ads, trackers, and risky sites. It has a Threat Protection setting (like NordVPN's feature) that filters some types of ads and can stop trackers from secretly collecting your information.

Split tunneling 

You can exclude specific applications or websites from tunneling through the VPN and instead connect to the unencrypted internet. This can help to minimize bandwidth consumption and also ensures you get unfiltered connection speeds while accessing vital web services.

Screenshot by Kennedy Otieno/ZDNET

Privacy: Can IPVanish be trusted?

How does IPVanish's jurisdiction in the US affect privacy? Well, this is an important factor to consider if anonymity is your top priority. The US has data retention policies for companies and can legally force providers to submit some identifiable information. Also, the US is a key member of the 5/9/14 Eyes alliance and cooperates with other countries in sharing intelligence. For these reasons, IPVanish may not be the best VPN for privacy, if you can't afford to take chances. 

That aside, the provider has taken some measures to earn the public's trust. It has a no-logs policy to reassure users that it doesn't monitor or collect private data, including online searches, content accessed, and location. The policy has been audited by Leviathan Security Group, which verified that the provider adheres to its zero-logging claims. When we inquired about this audit (on March 28, 2022) from the Leviathan Security Group, we received the following response:

"Leviathan found no evidence of logging of IPVanish user traffic, content, or destination addresses that would contradict or violate their published privacy policy. None of the distinctive port numbers, IP addresses, hostnames, or other test data were found to have been logged anywhere on the system."

While the news about the independent audit is good, this exercise should be done frequently. 2022 was years ago, so another audit is due.

OK server network coverage, but some slight performance issues

IPVanish's fleet of 2,400+ servers distributed across 90+ locations and cities is fairly big, but still falls short of some of the best providers like NordVPN or ExpressVPN. IPVanish doesn't specify the number of countries where it has servers, but I counted 75 countries in total. 

Despite the server presence in fewer countries, IPVanish has more than 40,000 IP addresses on rotation. That's encouraging because it means you're less likely to find yourself sharing the same IP address with several users. I also found it easy to manage servers in the app. For example, you can sort them based on country, city, latency, and even favorite the best-performing ones.

Server connections were near-perfect in most locations. There weren't any delays while switching servers in the app, as was the case when I tested some ExpressVPN servers. I did, however, encounter slight performance issues when using UK servers. They kept disconnecting after a short period, which was quite annoying. (This might have been due to a temporary server outage because they worked fine when I tested them later.)

Unfortunately, IPVanish doesn't have any specialized or optimized servers for activities like streaming, torrenting, or gaming. You have to use the regular servers for almost everything. I prefer VPN apps with clearly labeled servers to avoid wasting time manually searching for servers that work. Also, IPVanish doesn't offer static or dedicated IPs, which is limiting because some users may not like the shared or changing IP addresses.

Screenshot by Kennedy Otieno/ZDNET

Can I use IPVanish for streaming, gaming, and torrenting?

I tested IPVanish with multiple streaming services, and it worked most of the time. I could instantly open some exclusive Netflix libraries on the first try. I tried the New York, Miami, Seattle, and Los Angeles servers, and they all worked with Netflix. I also got positive results with most of the European servers before I encountered problems on the Japanese servers. I received an error notification, most likely because Netflix detected and blocked the VPN traffic. I did a bit of troubleshooting like clearing cookies and cache and also using a different browser account. It finally worked, and I accessed the Japanese library several times with ease.

IPVanish also accessed platforms like Hulu, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, Max, ESPN+, and DAZN without issue. The connection speeds are ideal for 4K streaming, too -- I didn't experience any buffering whatsoever. If you're specifically interesting in streaming with a VPN, we've curated some of the best VPNs for streaming.

For gaming enthusiasts, IPVanish makes it easy to find low-ping servers in any location. The server list shows all available servers in any location alongside other important data like the server load and ping.

All IPVanish servers support safe torrenting. Aside from the safety features in place to secure your connections and activities, the VPN's SOCKS5 proxy servers can be configured with P2P clients for optimal torrenting performance. You can conveniently use the VPN with Bittorrent, qBittorrent, or Deluge, and the proxy setup will help to speed up file-sharing and downloads. 

One IPVanish account is enough for all your devices at an affordable price

With a single IPVanish subscription, you can secure an unlimited number of devices. This is great, considering that most VPNs have a limit of 10 or fewer connections. IPVanish is perfect if you need protection for your entire household or business devices.

You can choose from yearly and monthly tier plans. The basic plan (Essential), which is also the cheapest in the long run, costs $39.96/year ($3.33/month). If you need additional features, like 1TB cloud storage, file syncing across devices, and a secure browser with a built-in VPN, you can get the Advanced plan for $53.88/year ($4.49/month). Both plans are also available at monthly subscription rates of $12.99/month and $14.99/month, respectively.

IPVanish offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on the yearly plans. That can be restrictive to anyone who wants to test the service for longer before committing. A seven-day free trial is available to Android and iOS users if you download the app from Apple's App Store or the Google Play Store.

Compatible devices and the user experience

You can install and use IPVanish on PCs (Windows, Mac, and Linux), Android and iOS devices (including tablets), routers, smart TVs like a Fire TV, media streaming boxes like a Chromecast, and Nvidia Shield. Not long ago, the VPN provider introduced a native app for Apple TV so you no longer need a complicated setup to watch your favorite shows at home. IPVanish also offers extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers.

It was very straightforward to sign up for IPVanish. I chose a plan on the website and a setup link was sent to my email address once the payment went through. I then installed the app and connected to a secure server in under five minutes. Thanks to the intuitive design, you barely need assistance using the app. Still, customer support is within reach 24/7 via chat, email, and phone (during working hours). 

ZDNET's buying advice

Although not perfect for streaming, IPVanish has excellent connections and offers solid protection from online threats. It's also a good choice if you have many devices and want to secure them all with a single subscription. The app is very user-friendly, making even the most inexperienced VPN user feel like a pro. Besides some minor issues, the VPN offers an elite service comparable to some of the best in the game.