In this review we're going to look at the service provided by VPN provider IPVanish. We're going to look at its privacy protection features, region unblocking functionality, usability and the speed you can expect when browsing and downloading through the VPN.
About IPVanish
IPVanish has a VPN network that spans 40,000+ IPs on 500+ servers in 60+ countries. The company is located in the United States and provides 24/7 365 days a year support to its users.
A monthly subscription costs $10.00 month ($120 annually), when paying annually this is lowered to $77.99 year ($6.49). The company also has a 3 month subscription available at $8.99 a month. It's possible to test the service first thanks to its 7 day money back guarantee.
Privacy
We base our privacy results on the sheet from ThatOnePrivacyGuy. IPVanish is clear that it doesn't log your traffic, the ThatOnePrivacyGuy sheet doesn't list other details on the logging of this VPN provider.
Because the company is in the United States, it obviously also falls under that country's jurisdiction. The company accepts Bitcoin for anonymous payments.
Regular speed
First a screenshot of Ookla’s Speedtest.net (beta) result, using automatic server selection. The screenshot shows the ping, download and upload speed of the connection without using the VPN. The connection used in this test has a latency of 28ms and can is able to reach speeds of 192.49 Mbps for downloading and 195.33 Mbps when uploading.
VPN connection speed
The speed of the VPN is tested by doing speed tests on servers located in 3 different physical locations far away from each other. We provide a screenshot of the speed in Amsterdam (Netherlands), Japan and Los Angeles(United States). All performed using Ookla's Speedtest with automatic server selection.
The result first is from Amsterdam, we see less speed compared to the VPN-less connection. But when connecting to IPVanish' Amsterdam server a download of 54.45 Mbps and upload of 45.86Mbs is excellent and more than sufficient to perform any task. Also the latency of 122ms won't be a showstopper for anything.
Second is the test in Japan . The Japan server performance is acceptable with a download of 11.57 Mbps, upload of 72.79 Mbps and latency of 164 ms.
The third location tested is in Los Angeles, the United States. The download of 46.96Mbps is sufficient for pretty much anything you'd like to do with the VPN, the upload of 73.97 Mbps certainly doesn't disappoint!
Download Ubuntu Image
We test real world performance by testing the download of an Ubuntu image using uTorrent using a random VPN server of the provider. When downloading a speed of 7.0Mb/s (56 Mbps) is achieved.
Usability
Besides performance of the VPN provider, also usability is important. IPVanish provides you with a Windows client that we think looks great and is easy to use. The client software allows you to choose a server from a list, to see whether the server will be responsive, the ping is added to the list. It's possible to mark your favorite server for easy connecting to it.
Besides a Windows clients, there are also clients for Mac OS X, iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
Besides the client software, VPN providers usually also have an online administration area where you can review your subscription information and download client software. Just like the client software, the IPVanish online area is well designed and easy to use.
Region unblock
Besides anonymity, another important reason for users to resort to a VPN, is the possibility to circumvent geoblocks. This makes it possible to view content that's normally not available in your region. One service that uses geoblocks is Netflix and the video streaming service has recently become more strict in VPN usage. Netflix is blocking servers of major VPN providers and therefore this test.
For this test a VPN server located in the United States was used to connect to both Netflix and Hulu. As you can see below, the region block was bypassed by IPVanish' servers.
Conclusion
IPVanish has the disadvantage of being located in the United States. If you want to hide your identity for other websites or other non-government services then there is nothing that should hold you back from using IPVanish. Our tests show that you'll get excellent download and upload speeds Also Hulu and Netflix still work if you want to view US content from a different country. And no matter on which operating system you are, IPVanish has you covered.
Pros
- Excellent performance
- 500+ servers in 60+ countries with 40,000+ IP addresses
- 24/7 365 days support
- Geo unblocking (still) works
- Easy to use client software
- Clients for many operating systems
- Pay with Bitcoin
Cons
- Company is located in the United States thus falling under US jurisdiction
- Servers in only 10 regions
Full disclosure about this review: To make our testing scalable, the speed tests are performed by the VPN provider, we perform random checks on the data to verify accuracy. In this case we tested the VPN speed in the Netherlands and Los Angeles and the Ubuntu download speed. We found no anomalies.
This review contains affiliate links, we are paid a commission when you decide to become a member of IPVanish. These have NO influence on the results and our conclusion. We exist for nearly 20 years and have NEVER taken any money to publish other results than our findings.
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