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| IPVanish Review |
Our verdict: IPVanish has fast download speeds and secure connections. It provides great value for money through its extensive features, powerful encryption and reliable protection.
Summary Review
First released in 2012, IPVanish has become
a standard in the VPN industry mostly for its user-friendly
applications and practical features for both mobile and desktops. We
don't usually heap praises when we're reviewing a VPN service but when
it comes to IPVanish, get ready because there's a lot of heaping to be
done. First of all, it's flawless whatever aspect you look into -
performance, customer support, apps, security, speeds, and server
network. It also works great for Kodi and has a strict no-logs policy
and an excellent server network across more than 75 locations. If you
are in the market for a VPN vendor that will provide security and
privacy for all your devices - be it mobile or desktop, you've come to
the right place!
Privacy / Anonymity
We checked
IPVanish’s privacy page and we like that they are pretty transparent
about the type of information they collect. According to them, “IPVanish
is a zero-logs VPN service provider, which means that we do not keep a
record of any connection, traffic, or activity data in regards to our
Services. In general, however, we monitor our Site activity to measure
its performance and improve functionality.” IPVanish collects your email
address, payment method, and billing address in order to register your
subscription, as well as some non-personal information like page
requests, browser type, OS, bounce rate, and the average time spent on
their site. All of this information is purportedly used for the
improvement of their site. This VPN vendor also does not track user
activities outside of their site nor do they track user’s website
browsing or connection activities.
In terms of protection and
security, IPVanish is certainly one of the best. It supports all four
major encryption protocols - OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, SSTP and PPTP.
Utilizing the unbreakable AES-256 cipher, this means that you are
protected at all times. Of course, it also has a VPN kill switch feature
that prevents data leaks in case your connection drops.
Speed and Reliability
As
expected, we were able to do standard browsing without any hitch.
IPVanish actually turned out some of the fastest connection speeds
during our reviews and tests. It's common knowledge that the speed
usually suffers when you connect to a VPN, but that is not the case with
IPVanish. In fact, it's fast enough for latency-free gaming, video
calling, and everything else that we do on the web! For example, our
base download speed before connecting to the VPN was 97.48Mbps.
Connecting to a server in our location resulted in a speed loss of only
10%, clocking at 84.10Mbps. We also tried connecting to servers in the
US, Australia, Singapore, and Germany with awe-inspiring results. We got
download speeds of 52Mbps, 24Mbps, 26Mbps, and 75Mbps, respectively.
Overall, IPVanish showed some of the best downloads, uploads, and
latency, so it's an excellent choice for avid gamers.
Platforms and Devices
Server Locations
IPVanish has a whopping 40,000+ IP addresses and over 1,300 servers worldwide. This is one of the highest numbers of IP addresses we’ve seen so far and this just means you won’t experience congestion or slow speeds while you’re connected to IPVanish. All major countries in every continent are covered including some of the less popular ones like Moldova and the Philippines. In addition, this vendor also provides a city-level granularity which will surely be appreciated by some of the more advanced users.
Customer Service
If you run into some issues, you can
easily get in contact with support agents through the Help button
integrated on their website. You have the option to either do a live
chat or simply leave a message. The Help page lists some FAQs as well as
setup guides, troubleshooting tutorials, billing questions, and more.
You can easily submit an email ticket too!
Pricing
Like most other providers, IPVanish offers three subscription packages. The month-to-month plan costs $10 while a 3-month plan is available for $26.99 billed every 3 months. This lowers down the monthly costs by as much as 25%. As can be expected, you’ll get the most savings (67%) if you pay upfront for their 1-year plan billable at $47.99 or just $3.99 per month. All plans are backed with a 7-day money-back guarantee.
