The speeds of IPVanish servers

I ran a few speed test on the IPVanish servers and here is what I came up with (I’m using 100 Mbps Internet connection within EU). If you are looking for the most fast VPN in the world, read this guide.

US Server (New York)

• Ping: 133ms
• Download: 34.71 Mbps
• Upload: 24.72 Mbps

EU Server (Amsterdam)

• Ping: 38ms
• Download: 82.67 Mbps
• Upload: 43.19 Mbps

Asia Server (Hong Kong)

• Ping: 341ms
• Download: 7.61 Mbps
• Upload: 5.88 Mbps

UK Server (London)

• Ping: 56ms
• Download: 80.25 Mbps
• Upload: 42.09 Mbps

IPVanish offers respectable download and upload speeds. When connected from EU to EU they only throttled my speed by 18%. However,  it’s hard to justify the cost of their service when you compare the US speeds that they offer with the speeds of other, less expensive services. For example, the download speeds of IPVanish (on the U.S. based servers) were slower than NordVPN and SaferVPN (read review), which both cost less than $4/month.

Decent Working App

Installing their app was a pretty smooth straightforward process (although, annoyingly, I had to restart my computer afterward). Upon launching the software, it was instantly apparent that IPVanish offers an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. They now also offer a kill switch for Windows and Mac users. They make it easy for you to find everything you need and give you a plethora of settings and options to toy around with.

IPVanish usability

The only complaint I have with their interface is that they offer no instructions on setting up and using the SOCKS5 proxy from the account portal.

IPVanish SOCKS5 Proxy

While this isn’t a huge deal and can easily be resolved with a quick Google search (or by reviewing IPVanish’s article on the topic), with the SOCKS5 proxy being such a huge selling point, you would think that they would streamline the setup process as much as possible.

No Traffic Logs

If you read through the fine print in the privacy policy of many VPN services, you might be shocked to realize that their advertised “Anonymous Browsing Experience” isn’t so anonymous after all.

In fact, if you choose the wrong provider, your personal data and information could be stored on one of the company’s internal servers and the privacy policy (which you agreed to) gives them the rights to use that data for a whatever purposes they see fit.

• Unfortunately, we have mixed feelings about IPVanish’s “no logs” policy. They’ve been in the news in the past for logging and handing over data for a user to Homeland Security, despite claiming that they keep no logs.
• That doesn’t give users who use their service full trust in them. This happened in 2016, though. They’ve since been taken over by a new company, called StackPath, that promises full assurance of privacy and security.
• We have a strict policy against the collection of both connection and activity logs. We will never store the metadata about your VPN session or information about how you used the service. So while you are never truly anonymous online, IPVanish is one of the few VPNs that gets you about as close to total anonymity as possible.

Strong Encryption (AES-256)

IPVanish relies on the same encryption protocol, AES-256, that is used by many of the world’s leading security agencies and government organizations. With the rapidly increasing number of brute force cyber attacks, this is a huge plus. In December of 2016, WordFence, a WordPress security plugin, noticed a dramatic increase in the number of brute force attacks being executed against WordPress websites (which power more than 25% of the internet).

• In fact, things got so bad that, at one point, there were more than 30,000 unique attacking IPs per day! While this statistic should serve as a wakeup call to many website owners, it also should not be a cause for alarm. 
• By surfing the web with an AES-256 encrypted VPN (like IPVanish) your IP address and all personal data will be protected from hackers to the point that your data is virtually Brute Force Proof. That also means that you can get around IP specific censorship leveraged by schools, employers, and governments.

Download Free SOCKS5 Web Proxy

Like most VPN providers, IPVanish allows users access to several different protocols including the default OpenVPN as well as PPTP, and L2TP. While OpenVPN’s are generally the recommended protocol since they offer fast speeds that don’t sacrifice privacy or security, they do come with a downside.

• That downside is that you have to download a client directly to your device in order to access the unique certificate required to establish a secure connection. Luckily, there is an alternative.
• IPVanish gives their customers access to a special proxy server protocol known as SOCKS or Socket Security. This protocol allows you to enjoy the same benefits of a standard VPN without having to download any software to any of your devices. This means that you can hide your IP address, hide personal information, and enjoy faster performance all without downloading an intrusive third-party tool.

While this provides a huge service to certain customers (especially individuals looking to circumvent censorship laws or other IP-related restrictions), it should be noted that the speed and download-free surfing comes at a cost.

The reason a SOCKS proxy is able to achieve faster speeds than a traditional VPN is that it doesn’t use the same encryption standards. In other words, it doesn’t offer the same privacy and security protocols that prevent hackers, cyber-criminals, and governments from accessing your personal information.

While the proxy does an admiral job of obfuscating your location, it does little-to-no good when it comes to protecting your privacy and security. Even though this is a “Pro” for IPVanish and certainly a unique protocol to offer, be cautious and educate yourself about the SOCKS proxy before taking advantage of this feature.

Torrenting is Allowed

With IPVanish, not only is torrenting (P2P) allowed. It’s blatantly encouraged. Unlike many VPN providers, IPVanish has no qualms about customers using their service to Torrent freely and privately. Their carefree attitude towards torrenting might anger some anti-piracy advocates, however, for the average VPN user, this feature is a major bonus. If you are looking for the perfect VPN for torrenting, this brand is the perfect partner.

Ten Device Connection Limit

One of my favorite “Features” of IPVanish is that they allow you to simultaneously connect up to 10 devices. Most VPN services, including premium companies like ExpressVPN, limit your simultaneous connections to 3 devices. This might not seem like a big deal to some of you, however, for those of you with family members or spouses, buying a second license can be a huge frustration and unwanted expense.

However, with IPVanish’s generous 10-device limit, you, your spouse, and even your kids can browse safely and securely, all at the same time.

Some Servers Unblock Netflix

IPVanish doesn’t specifically state on their site if they’ll work with Netflix or not. Most VPN providers have begun steering clear of official statements over the past few years, because the video-streaming giant now employs one of the most sophisticated VPN-detection systems to date.

But regardless of their official stance, we still test them. We connect to different country servers, fire up Netflix, and try to stream something. Anything! Results didn’t start out well with IPVanish because the first three servers we tried didn’t work:

1. Canada
2. United Kingdom
3. Netherlands

However, the fourth time was the charm! We connected to a U.S. server in Chicago and were able to bypass detection with the United States: Chicago server. The only issue was that the server lagged a bit. So if you need a VPN that works with Netflix, read this.

TOR Compatibility

TOR or The Orion Network is a network that encrypts and relays your traffic information across several servers ensuring that it is difficult (read: impossible) to track your real-time location.

For those of you who need serious security measures to fight against government surveillance or censorship laws, TOR allows you to create a second layer of security with an existing VPN to maximize your privacy and ensure that your location and identity remains private.