IPVanish Review

IPVanish has been around for years in the VPN market, with over 20 years of experience and operations underneath its belt. The company has swapped hands a few different times, but it claims to offer the same thing. Describing itself as the “only true tier-1 VPN” service in the world, it makes quite a few major claims about how strong it is, how many options it offers and how secure it is.

But is it as secure as some think? Is it really the best? Let’s take a deeper look.

Users are offered a variety of options for their subscription needs. They can start things off with a $10 a month fee to cover the majority of costs for their items. They also offer options for 3-month increments at 8.99 a month or a year at 6.49 in total. All of the options also include options to get access to 25GB of Sugarsync data storage. Users will have to make payment upfront, meaning that they will have to take a risk in determining if the service is able to fit their needs. Thankfully, the company offers a 30-day moneyback guarantee, which minimizes the risk involved for the consumer.

The company also offers a $5 month-to-month plan as a summer sale as of June 2020 that includes all of the same packages, and will be available from this time until an undetermined date.

Signup is fairly straightforward, with users only providing payment information along with an email address.

Subscribers have a multitude of options available to them when it comes to platform compatibility with their choice of software and operating systems. These include Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Amazon Fire, Linux, Chromebooks or directly on a router. Each one comes with a detailed kit for setup, making the installation process understandable and easy to perform.

IPVanish distinguishes itself from other clients by using rather powerful encryption to keep it safe. First off, it has an industry standard-level of AES 256-bit encryption, which is considered unbreakable when assaulted with brute force hacking methods. They also have stated that they will not store any traffic logs of users, keeping their connections completely secure.

Users have select protocols available for users to adapt and change their software so that they can adapt to the particular needs. It is limited in amount, with only IKEv2, OpenVPN and L2TP/IPsec VPN protocols available at this time. And if users continue to use their devices, the service offers a SOCKS5 proxy that will protect and minimize the sharing of IP addresses if the user decided to call a friend or send information via P2P or VoIP addresses.

On top of that, users will get a panel every time the software activates, reminding them of the company’s “no log” policy and how nothing that users will do is recorded, in hopes of respecting the user’s “civil right to privacy.”

Upon activating the software, users are immediately prompted to connect. While a user can easily just connect up to the best possible countries, cities and servers with a single click of the button, options to customize the connection is also available to the user. Want to use a server in Australia that is in Australia? There are a multitude of options available, with each one easily accessed and used by the owner. If users want additional details on which servers are available, they can check the Server List tab, which displays all active servers along with the number of servers per city, the connection speed and the option to favorite your preferred server for future usage.

For many users, VPNs are often used to protect their own security while downloading files, either from torrenting servers or from their favorite gaming website. We used the Google internet speed test to determine the strength of the connection. For a control, the device this was all tested on runs at a speed of 40 Mbps download/24.2 Mbps upload. Here’s how a selection of random servers compared

Chicago Server: 41.9 Mbps / 3.58 Mbps
Toronto, Canada server: 43.8 Mbps download / 3.39 Upload Mbps
Brisbane, Australia server: 32.3 Mbps download/ 3.59 Mbps upload

There were minimal delays in our use of VPN servers while operating, with only a few minor issues in early tests in determining a consistent connection. Users will have minimal issues with these servers in total.

While IPVanish does not directly list the specific services directly available through their software, they do offer a multitude of options for users. We had no issues accessing Netflix in the U.S., Sling TV, Spotify and YouTube over our period of testing, although our BBC iPlayer was not accessible upon testing it. Geoblocked content was also accessible, as limited as such content might be.

With IPVanish reportedly owning 1,400 servers across 75 locations, there are a variety of options available to users. They currently offer access to servers in China and Iran, as well as obvious locations like Australia, United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. Most locations have between 2-4 servers, which means plenty of options to keep your information safe without having to compete with others for server time.

Sugarsync

Both of the subscriptions by IPVanish offer users 250 GB of Sugarsync, a file syncing service so that any changes on files contained in such a service would be provided across platforms. While StrongVPN offers the service, it is not often evident how to get it. Some reviewers report that they had to contact customer service to get access to such a service.

The service works particularly well and has proven itself to be reliable across platforms. If you are a computer user who swaps devices or wants to make sure your files are safe and saved in the cloud, Sugarsync is a worthwhile option.

As a VPN provider, IPVanish is a rock-solid option. Between the variety of servers, the connection of the strength and the support for users, it provides exactly what they need on request for a reasonable fee. IT’s also been consistent across the board.