IP Vanish has a decent amount of servers and features, first-rate security, a strict no-logs policy, and a repo for speed. But its price is a bit high than most of the popular VPNs, so, let’s see where it lies on the term of features:
PROS
- Waste spread of servers
- Connects 6 devices at once
- 2 kill switches
- Specialist servers
- Moderately affordable
CONS
- Moderately faster speeds
- 94 countries
- Record Netflix access
- Strongly supports torrenting
- User friendly app
Speed & Expectations
Today everyone wants a lightning fast internet, that’s why VPN developers pay high emphasis on developing really efficient software, especially for internet speed.
But while using a VPN, your connection might get slow reason being all the extra efforts and encryption it has to put into the process, so a decrease in speed is a common phenomenon with VPNs.
And, of course, you have to know how much this is going to affect you before purchasing it.
Speed is a tough standard, so let’s see whether it stands on these three metrics or not:
Download speed: This is evaluated in megabytes per second (mbps) and a higher number is better.
Note: Download speed is the ratio at which data is passed from the server to your device.
Upload speed: The ratio by which data is passed to the server from your device. This is evaluated in megabytes per second (mbps) and a large number is considered better.
Ping (or latency): Examined by “pinging” the server, it’s the time duration it consumes to collect and process your request. This is evaluated in milliseconds (ms) and the least number is better.
We ran speed tests evaluating each of these metrics at different server locations around the world. We conducted test without using the VPN to have a clear baseline to compare the VPN speeds. The baseline examination was achieved using a 100mbps internet connection in San Francisco.
Speed results
These were the result of our baseline test:
So the average baseline score was:
- Download speed: 81.4mbps
- Upload speed: 12.1mbps
- Ping: 10ms
Next, we connected to an IP Vanish United States server
- Download speed: 52.5mbps (35.5% slower)
- Upload speed: 11.5mbps (4.7% slower)
- Ping: 34ms (240% longer)
Next we tested Europe:
Europe’s averages were:
- Download speed: 37.7mbps (53.6% slower)
- Upload speed: 9.8mbps (19% slower)
- Ping: 113.8ms (1038% longer)
Here’s Asia:
Asia’s averages were:
- Download speed: 22.6mbps (72.2% slower)
- Upload speed: 1.9mbps (84% slower)
- Ping: 424.4ms (4144% longer)
South America:
South America’s average was:
- Download speed: 19.9mbps (75.6% slower)
- Upload speed: 9.4mbps (22% slower)
- Ping: 152.4ms (1424% longer)
As for Africa, the servers weren’t working at the time of the test.
These numbers won’t bother you if you’re a pro in speed. So, let’s compare them against some other VPNs to have an idea of how IP Vanish works against the competition.
First up, how did download speeds compare?
| VPN | US | Europe | Asia | S.America | Africa |
| IPVanish | -36% | -54% | -72% | -76% | n/a |
| NordVPN | -40% | -99% | -69% | -58% | -75% |
| ExpressVPN | -71% | -58% | -64% | -95% | -67% |
| Avast | -45% | -63% | -72% | -66% | -77% |
| Windscribe | -44% | -57% | -80% | -98% | -73% |
| Average | -47.2% | -66.2% | -71.4% | -78.6% | -73% |
Download speeds were more than average for the US and Europe, just a little above average in the case of South America and just below average for Asia. A. Actually, IP Vanish had the best scores for the US and Europe.
Now let’s take a look at upload speeds:
| US | Europe | Asia | S.America | Africa | |
| IPVanish | -5% | -19% | -84% | -22% | n/a |
| NordVPN | -13% | -46% | -26% | -16% | -70% |
| ExpressVPN | -9% | -24% | -34% | -72% | -42% |
| Avast | -13% | -42% | -78% | -70% | -77% |
| Windscribe | -6% | -17% | -52% | -97% | -53% |
| Average | -9.2% | -29.5% | -32.4% | -55.4% | -60.5% |
Upload speeds are well above average for the US, Europe and South America, but well below average for Asia, with an 84% reduction in speed.
And finally latency:
| VPN | US | Europe | Asia | S.America | Africa |
| IPVanish | 240% | 1038% | 4144% | 1424% | n/a |
| NordVPN | 34% | 1278% | 2328% | 1560% | 2696% |
| ExpressVPN | 98% | 965% | 2122% | 1545% | 2461% |
| Avast | 33% | 1133% | 2465% | 1556% | 2815% |
| Windscribe | 310% | 1018% | 1904% | 2042% | 2782% |
| Average | 143% | 1086.4% | 2624.5% | 1625.4% | 2688.5% |
IP Vanish doesn’t perform great with latency. An above average speed for South America, just a bit high for Europe, below average for the US and extremely slow in Asia.
Speed (Summary)
IP Vanish proves its forte in high speeds, especially for download and upload, However, Africa servers were down in our testing.
Performance & Features
Till now, we got to know about the speed of this software, let’s now focus on the main features that IP Vanish offers to its users.
Number of Servers
It has 1,100 active servers in various locations around the globe.
However, 1,100 is reason enough for most average users.
Number of Countries
The servers cover more than 60 countries, regardless of how many are located in a single country.
Though some other VPNs provide more, like Pure VPN’s140 if you need some particular countries.
Number of Connections Allowed
You can connect 10 concurrent devices to a server with the help of this VPN. Isn’t that awesome?
IP Vanish is quite impressive in this case; most VPNs only provide 5 connections. This is one of the great distinguishing features that it offers to its users.
Torrenting Allowed
Yes, it is allowed for all servers. With IP Vanish, unlike a single server, you can download and share files on a peer-to-peer or P2P network.
It enables torrenting to every server. There are many VPNs who have some limitations on torrenting which is another plus point for IP Vanish.
IP Vanish openly supports torrenting which is visible on its website.
Not only this, but IP Vanish also provides different protocols for torrenting: SOCKS5 proxy which results in incredibly faster speeds (however, it’s less secure, but still conceals your IP address).
This is the reason behind IP Vanish’s claim – ‘the fastest VPN for torrenting.’
Kill Switch Available
Yes on both – Windows and Mac! IP Vanish gives you the liberty to disable your connection to the network the moment you disconnect from the VPN server. This protects your IP address from being exposed.
However, as with good comes something bad as well – It enables kill switch only with Windows and Mac, very news of disappointment for mobile users.
Though most VPNs don’t even provide any kill switch feature.
Performance and Features (Summary)
IP Vanish beats most of its competitors in this section and rocking with a whopping 10 connections, and provides enormous torrenting access with its SOCKS5 proxy. The only downside is – IP Vanish misses the kill switch feature for mobile.
Privacy & Security
There’s an entire host of vulnerabilities VPNs are conditioned to, also you’ve to keep an eye on their policies which are in most cases seems ambiguous. So, this makes us ask the usual question – How secure is your VPN?
First up, we analyzed the following possible vulnerabilities:
Protocols/Encryption: IKEv2, OpenVPN, L2TP, IPSec, SSTP, PPTP protocols with AES-256 encryption
Usually, a VPN conceals your information with applying various encryption processes and protocols; let’s not indulge in it as this is quite a technical stuff!
IP Vanish provides a plethora of protocols, with having Open VPN and IKEv2/IP Sec, which are regular and extremely secure. They also provide PP2P and LT2P. Not many VPNs give this leverage. Also, the encryption is AES-256, which is also first-rate and used by the US government.
Leave a comment