IPVanish: our opinion on this VPN in 2023
Founded in 2012, IPVanish is among the veterans of the genre. This VPN offers a complete service, despite a very austere interface. However, it has a few small bonuses in its subscription, including 500 GB of storage space in the cloud. But is it a powerful and trustworthy VPN?
Features of IPVanish VPN
| 💰monthly prices | €3.36 |
|---|---|
| 💸 Refund | Within 30 days |
| 💻🌍 Number of server/ locality | More than 1900 servers in 75 countries |
| 📱Apps | android/ ios/ windows/ mac/ linux / chromebook/ android tv |
| 👨👩👧👦 Number of simultaneous connections | Unlimited |
| 📺 Access to US Netflix | Yes |
| ⏬⏫ P2P mode | No |
| 🔐 Retention of user data | Read the ‘privacy policy’ section |
Who is IPVanish?
IPVanish is an 100% American VPN that started in Florida in 2012. At the time, the service was exclusively based in the USA, had only 32 servers and was only available on Windows. But already at the time, IPVanish cultivated a desire to own its own network infrastructures, where most VPNs were supplied by service providers whose services they rented, such as Amazon, Microsoft or IBM. Today, servers, racks and even the cables are 90% owned by IPVanish on a global scale, which can therefore best adapt its hardware needs according to its activities. IPVanish is now owned by StackPath, one of the largest US cloud storage service providers. It is probably for this reason that the VPN offers, in addition to its regular subscription, access to secure storage in the cloud.
Getting started with IPVanish VPN
The launch of the IPVanish client can confuse the neophyte a little. We have direct access to a large dark window and no large buttons to start the VPN as is the norm with most services today. There is above all a succession of small modules and selection tabs distributed here and there on a black and green background. No need for dark mode you will tell me. You can still display a map (admittedly rudimentary) from an option available in the list of servers. For once, we prefer to dig into the list of countries as the latter brings little interest, even visually speaking. This still allows the VPN to visibly address power users already familiar with the network domain. For example, there is the real-time display of transmission and download speeds, the IP used or the protocol in operation.
Behind this rather austere gas factory interface, we appreciate the fact of having the possibility of filtering everything very easily, by country, by server speed, or even by specific server once the territory has been chosen. On the other hand, there is no option to choose VPNs specialized in a type of use (for the streaming where the peer to peer For example).
The advanced options are unfortunately few in number and above all are not fully synchronized between the versions desktop and mobile. This gives rise to some aberrations, such as the mode split-tunneling (which allows you to assign the VPN connection to a specific application) which is absent from the Windows and Mac version, while present on mobile. The mobile application has nevertheless benefited from some care since our last test with a much more pleasant interface and better management of advanced options. You could almost say that this mobile version supplants the experience desktop.
Servers and performance
IPVanish now has over 2200 servers located in 75 locations around the world. Here are the tests we carried out from a Parisian fiber connection (in wired mode) on the NPerf site:
| DOWNLOAD (Mb/S) | UPLOAD (Mb/S) | ping | |
|---|---|---|---|
| WITHOUT VPN | 945 | 671 | 2 |
| FRENCH SERVER (AUTO) | 882 | 530 | 2 |
| FRENCH SERVER (MARSEILLE) | 898 | 369 | 11 |
| US SERVER (HOUSTON) | 389 | 38 | 122 |
| US SERVER (LOS ANGELES) | 27 | 26 | 205 |
| JAPANESE SERVER (TOKYO) | 9 | 26 | 222 |
| TAWAIN SERVER (TAIPEI) | 13 | 1 | 230 |
| SOUTH AFRICAN SERVER (JOHANNESBURG) | 10 | 12 | 168 |
| FINNISH SERVER (HELSINKI) | 627 | 51 | 37 |
- Tests were performed with automatic protocol assignment
IPVanish uses most protocols that have already proven themselves and especially their time, like IKEV2 or OpenVPN. But it was notably through the introduction of the Wireguard protocol that VPN performance took off. It must be said that it now equips most VPN services, but IPVanish manages it in a very nice way. In France, for example, excellent performance is achieved, close to what the connection without VPN can offer, both in downloadin upload or latency.
Inevitably, the further away you go, the more the speeds begin to drop, but they are not ultimately so shameful as that in Europe. On the other hand, it is more complicated when you go beyond the oceans. In any case, it is not a problem to have access to foreign catalogs from VOD platforms such as Netflix, Prime Video or Disney+, and this, in the best possible quality. Last word on potential DNS leaks when connecting to one of the IPVanish servers: RAS. Of all our tests carried out from different locations, IPVanish was able to hide our IP address. We can therefore at least rely on its reliability.
The IPVanish Privacy Policy
Since IPVanish is based in the United States, its privacy policy unfortunately cannot be taken seriously. First of all because the country is part of the 14 Eyes surveillance alliance and participates in mass surveillance on the web. It thus requires VPN services to provide the maximum amount of data from their respective customers. It is therefore difficult to believe in the alleged good faith of IPVanish proudly displaying on the first page of its site a guarantee of protection of the private data of its users via its policy of non-retention of logs. Especially since IPVanish is a textbook case if we are to believe a particular past event. In 2016, a VPN client was suspected by the FBI of sharing child pornography through the IRC network. IPVanish then provided the client’s real IP address, email address, and all logs and login information. Suffice to say that this totally contradicts the discourse of the VPN and its alleged policy of transparency. So be careful when choosing to take into account this crucial element in our eyes in the role of a VPN.
IPVanish Customer Service
From its customer area, on its website, IPVanish allows you to contact customer service by chat. This one is only in English, but the advisers have a relatively efficient automatic translation tool. The after-sales service responded to us very quickly, a few seconds after connecting. Otherwiseit is possible to have access to a multitude of tutorials from the site’s help page (again in English only) which answers hundreds of questions, sometimes even very specific, without having to go through an exchange with the support teams.
The price of IPVanish subscription plans
IPVanish changes the price of its packages very often. It’s typically the kind of VPN where you have to watch the promotions, with an annual subscription that can occasionally fall below 45 euros. Currently, 3 packages are offered with prices in the market average.
Note that a license covers “as many devices as you want“, whether computers under Windows or Mac to the router via smartphones. Finally, the last non-negligible advantage of IPVanish is that its owner is also one of the largest American hosts (StackPath), it offers in its subscription a formula including the VPN and a storage space in the clouds of 500 GB.
