IPVanish Review
It is fair to say that over the last few years we have seen a huge increase in not just the demand for a professional virtual private network (VPN) but the number of VPNs that have appeared on the market. There are well-established VPNs with their fair share of market share, earned over years of establishing their services. There are a number of new, and promising VPNs which have a lot to offer but are maybe dealing with a few teething problems.
That is why today we are looking at a relatively new VPN, released in 2014, that is seen as a top 10 competitor by many technical experts. IPVanish VPN is steadily growing as it offers one of the most stable packages supported by a dedicated team of customer service representatives.
IPVanish Review
Our IPVanish VPN review will cover the main aspects customers look at when deciding on which VPN they would prefer to use. IPVanish VPN is proving to be one of the most popular VPNs and it’s not hard to see why, with such a large amount of servers available to its customers. On top of this they have:
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- Dashboard
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- Diagnostics
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- Settings
- Some of the best security protocols
- High download and data speeds
- Easy to use interface for both beginners and the more advanced user
- Access to blocked websites
- High-end security
- Over 1,000 servers
- Servers in 60 countries
Is IPVanish really a tier 1 VPN?
One of the claims we were interested in when writing this IPVanish VPN review is that they claim to own all their own servers. If you Google ‘Is IPVAnish safe’? you will find that not many VPNs will be able to claim this. So, is IPVanish safe?
Having control over all your servers helps IPVanish VPN to control their systems and server maintenance keeping everything in-house. This can only lead to a more controlled security system which is also a pretty amazing claim to how serious they take security when you take into account their server number and that they are based in 60 countries.
IPVanish VPN may not have as many servers as some of the top 5 VPNs, which also means their VPN speed will struggle to match VPNs with servers in the mid thousands.
Security Protocol Details
To truly answer the question, ‘is IPVanish safe?’ we also need to look at the security protocols. And I can happily say that my IPvanish review can back up IPVanish’s claims to being one of the safest VPNs on the market. Not only does it offer OpenVPN for the average user IPVanish VPN also has alternative security protocols:
- PPTP
Point to point tunneling protocol (PPTP) is often considered a faster security protocol than OpenVPN, but it lacks the stability and security options
- L2TP
Layer 2 tunneling protocol is another option for advanced users, but it does not provide its own encryption OpenVPN should be your first port of call
- IPSec
Internet protocol security is a security system that authenticates and encrypts data. IPSec is something that a more advanced user may consider when they know what they are doing.
- IKEv (IKEv1, IKEv2) is used to set up online security associations and again should not be considered by a beginner, but just adds to the options of a more experienced user
- 256-bit encryption – Is IPVanish safe? With military-grade encryption, I would say it is one of the safest VPNs available!
Ultimately most users should stick to the most reliable and standardly used security protocol, which is OpenVPN. One benefit of the IPVanish VPN is that it is aimed at both beginner and advanced users, which not all VPNs do. With military-grade VPN encryption as standard, I would recommend sticking to the basic security settings which are designed to ensure the maximum security for the average user. In conclusion, we can definitely answer YES to the questions, ‘Is IPVanish safe?’
Features
Delving into the system’s technical details, we have found out a lot of information in our IPVanish VPN review. IPVanish VPN is one of the few VPNs that offer fully unlimited bandwidth alongside unlimited person-to-person file sharing traffic. And their unlimited offerings don’t end there, as they also deal in unlimited server switching, along-side their anonymous torrenting feature. So let’s have a quick look at what else IPVanish VPN has to offer:
- Server Locations 60
- Number of IP Addresses 40,000
- Does IPVanish VPN keep logs? NO!
- Does it have a kill switch? YES!
- Device connections per license 10
This IPVanish review has even surprised me. I have looked into so many VPNs and where one has strength, it may have a weakness in other areas. Not only does IPVanish offers a huge amount of servers, but they ensure their customers get the benefits of not 1 or 2 connections, which many VPNs offer, but they have access to 10! Some VPNs don’t come with a kill switch… IPVanish does! Some VPNs keep logs, which defeats the point of online anonymity. Again, IPVanish does not! It’s one of the best VPN no logs.
Usability
From our IPVanish VPN review, I would say that we are looking at a very easy-to-use piece of software. Downloading, connection and configuration are not too time-consuming and appear to be pretty straightforward.
Pricing
Although the lowest expert-rating in our IPVanish VPN review it is still a very reasonably priced option. The rating only appears lower because all the other areas have been rated so highly!
It is also worth mentioning that IPVanish offers a 7-day money back guarantee, which is lower than what some other VPNs offer (30-day to 45-day options are available), but by far not the worst.
IPVanish review of Pricing
- 1 month plan: $7.50 paid monthly
- 3 month plan: $6.74 a month paid every 3 months
- 1 year plan: $4.87 a month but paid once a year in one lump sum
A reasonable price plan considering all the benefits this VPN has to offer. You do have to be aware that some VPNs offer a 2 year service that can beat the lowest IPVanish price. But once you see our next experts VPN ratings you may feel comfortable in paying that little bit extra!
Customer Support and Product Reliability
Having a 24 hour customer support service that is open every day of the year is a great bonus to this VPN. They offer a professional Live Chat option as well as email extensive FAQ section. When using their live chat feature, you can be assisted pretty swiftly and is the recommended first option. If you have noticed that the waiting time is high on that particular day you can email them, but they do work on a ticketing system, so they can only assist you once all their other tickets have been completed. Overall IPVanish get a very high customer rating for support not just from the experts but from their customers making them a preferable choice for many users.
Does IPVanish VPN have any negative aspects?
Our IPVanish review hasn’t mentioned many negatives at present, so I would like to try and address them in the next section.
We are very lucky to be limited to the negatives, but on the odd occasion a minority of customers have experienced a recurring disconnection from the servers and despite being torrent-friendly one user complained that their internet service provider did fine them for illegal BitTorrent download files. I think it is worth pointing out that knowingly breaking copyright laws is your own decision, and although VPNs work tirelessly trying to protect your anonymity, governments and ISPs are always looking at new ways to protect copyright laws.
And this does lead us onto one of the possible biggest points worth mentioning. IPVanish can’t connect to Netflix so if that is your main aim with getting a VPN, then maybe this one is not for you. Because you will most certainly get a Netflix error.
Overall
IPVanish is a top 10 VPN service for a reason. They offer a fast and reliable service that is simple to use and easy to set up. Their prices are very good for the professional services they offer but despite their claims of not collecting logs on users, there have been some complaints in this regards. In a very serious online legal case against one of their users, IPVanish provided the police with personal activity logs about the defendant. As a US-based VPN, they are always going to be subject to stricter laws than VPNs based in countries with more lenient laws.
With plenty of other VPNs seeing a mixed reaction to their customer service and VPN reliability I think it is safe to say that despite the negatives mentioned above, IPVanish offers a higher level VPN in terms of professionalism and customer satisfaction. Just make sure to try its 7-day money back guarantee first and check out every feature it has, and really see if it meets your needs as a VPN user.
