IVPN review

Founded in 2009 by Privatus Limited, IVPN is based in Gibraltar - considered to be a privacy-friendly jurisdiction. 

This makes IVPN an appealing proposition, however as of the time of this review, the company only has a very small number of VPN servers: 77 spread across 44 different locations. This is significantly fewer than the industry average, and tiny in comparison to ExpressVPN, which has more than 3000 servers spread across 94 different countries.

Pricing & plans 

Unfortunately, this service isn't suitable if you're looking for a free VPN as they don’t offer any free trial. This also means there is no way to test the software, which is disappointing given that most VPN services on the market provide this. There are two tiers offered by IVPN, IVPN Standard and IVPN Pro:

Standard Plan

1 week: $2.00

1 month: $6.00

12 months: $60.00 ($5.00 per month)

All protocols, two simultaneous connections, and an anti-tracker.

Pro Plan

1 week: $4.00

1 month: $10.00

12 months: $100.00 ($8.33 per month)

Seven simultaneous connections, all protocols, port-forwarding as a feature, and a multi-hop option.

IVPN has a 30-day money-back guarantee for all customers, which means you can get a full refund if you request it within one month of account activation. 

Although there are no international options, such as Alipay or UnionPay; you can pay for your plan with Bitcoin, Monero, PayPal, or credit cards. Bitcoin is the most private payment method available. IVPN also accepts cash payments but payment processing can take up to 10 days. To pay with cash, you must sign up for an annual plan.

Privacy & encryption 

Like ExpressVPN, IVPN's privacy policy is carefully written and extremely readable. They go into great detail about the specific data the company has and why it’s needed. IVPN claims to keep absolutely no log of the content of your traffic, connection timestamp, DNS requests, user bandwidth, IP address, or even cookies. The only thing they will store is your username, password, and payment information on their encrypted servers, so be sure they won't sell your information to third parties.  IVPN does not even collect contact information, however anonymized crash logs are sent with user approval on desktop devices and can be opted out on mobile devices. 

The company makes it clear that it will only respond to legal information requests from Gibraltar authorities. Like NordVPN, IVPN claims that being offshore protects it from intrusive information requests. The company states that since they don't log your information, there isn't much to divulge even in the case of legitimate requests. In their transparency report it appears to be true that IVPN has provided no information to law enforcement. This is an open and honest way for a VPN company to operate.

The service also undergoes a yearly VPN audit with Cure53, a reputable and trustworthy cybersecurity testing company. The auditors used a white-box strategy and had access to their open GitHub code repositories as well as a special test environment for backend services. 

The full report on the audit was published in April 2022 and is as follows:

 "A total of 8 vulnerabilities (1 high, 6 medium, 1 info) were discovered. All except one issue has been resolved, the remaining issue (IVP-04-014 WP, Medium) is complex to resolve without significantly affecting the user experience. The issue relates to how the daemon authenticates requests (from the user interface), which could lead to a malicious app being able to manipulate the VPN tunnel e.g. disconnect. We believe the probability of this being exploited is low, but are committed to finding a solution. 

12 miscellaneous issues were discovered, 9 of which have already been resolved, and 3 of which we deemed to be very low risk and have accepted it." 

Since not all VPNs can be this transparent, we appreciate the effort IVPN has made. 

According to the website, they use AES-256 encryption with 4096-bit RSA keys. This is top-of-the-line, military-grade security. No one can crack it, and no one has been able to use a brute-force attack to defeat it either.

IVPN uses three VPN protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN, and the IKEv2. IVPN's Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows apps currently support WireGuard and OpenVPN, and IKEv2 is also supported by the iOS app. WireGuard is the latest VPN protocol craze. Because this protocol is open source, potential vulnerabilities can be identified. 

The VPN service should function across all of its servers as a torrenting VPN as is the case with many VPN providers. Additionally, due to several restrictions, IVPN is inoperable in China. 

Streaming 

Streaming is one area where IVPN really falls down. On its website, the company is very clear that while some unblocking might be effective, it cannot be guaranteed.

When we tested it, IVPN was unable to access BBC iPlayer, which is restricted to the United Kingdom. it was also unable to access any of the top streaming sites like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and more. If you are looking for a streaming VPN, try ExpressVPN or NordVPN. 

Speed & experience 

A VPN’s connection speed is essential, and if it causes your internet to lag all the privacy in the world won't matter. We conducted our test using WireGuard in the US and discovered speeds averaging a remarkable 730–810 Mbps. OpenVPN is now an older protocol, so we weren't surprised when we tested with it and got average speeds of 140–180 Mbps in the UK and 180–240 Mbps in the US. Although the connections of IVPN are quick and reliable enough for high-quality streaming, torrenting, and gaming, there are faster VPNs available in the market. 

Customer support 

The IVPN website has a very in-depth library of informative FAQs as well as a range of extremely helpful troubleshooting guides. There is also email support (which is available 24/7) and live chat, but it lacks the 24/7 live chat features that a lot of its VPN competition offers.

Kill switch

The VPN kill switch feature is an essential tool. In the event that your VPN connection drops this blocks all of your web traffic and hides your real IP address.

Multi-hop servers

The Multi-hop feature of IVPN adds an additional layer of security by rerouting your connection through several servers in various countries. Thanks to this feature, your online activity would still be private even if the exit server were compromised.

Split tunneling

The split tunneling feature enables you to route privacy-sensitive apps through the VPN while using your regular internet connection for other apps.

Two-factor authentication

To increase account security and user-friendliness on mobile devices, IVPN has a two-factor authentication to secure your VPN account. 

Apps 

All popular operating systems, including macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android, are supported by IVPN. Unfortunately, since these devices do not support standard VPN applications, IVPN is inoperable on gaming consoles or Smart TVs. Additionally, it doesn't support browser extensions.

Windows

The Windows 10 app is really user friendly, with a dynamic map and location list to help you choose your preferred VPN server. Server latency times are also displayed to help you find the fastest speeds. In the event that the VPN drops, you have a kill switch to shut off your internet connection.

There are many settings to choose from in the windows app including custom DNS servers, the ability to disable ads, select a protocol, stop malware and trackers, split tunneling to allow certain apps to connect to the VPN, and then an option to automatically connect to reliable Wi-Fi.   

Mac 

The Mac app is identical to the Windows app; it has the same dynamic map, same location list, same WireGuard support, switch tunneling, tracker blocking, custom DNS, auto-connect when accessing insecure Wi-Fi, and more. Split tunneling, which comes with Windows but is excluded from Mac, is the only notable exception, however, the Mac app performed well when we tested it. We also had no problems connecting to any servers and privacy tests revealed no signs of DNS or other leaks.

Android & iOS

The mobile VPN app is user-friendly and comes with a map location feature, a list option to see servers with their latency times, and a favorites section so you can save those servers you use regularly.

The mobile apps lack some of the desktop features, so you don't get tracker, or malware blocking. In the Android VPN, you get an extra feature called Mock, which lets you set your GPS location to match your current VPN server. While the iOS app helpfully keeps the tunnel open even when your phone sleeps. Although this is helpful for speed, it can reduce battery life.

IVPN alternatives 

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is one of the more well-known businesses on the commercial VPN scene. It has excellent security and privacy policies, and all of its VPN servers boot from read-only disks. ExpressVPN is quick, secure, unblocks streaming websites, and works in China.

Read our full ExpressVPN review

NordVPN

For all of the major platforms, NordVPN offers native apps. They also have P2P servers that are optimized for streaming. A VPN kill switch, powerful encryption, ad blocking, and DNS leak protection are just a few of the many features they offer that you'll find useful.

Read our full NordVPN review

CyberGhost

CyberGhost is among the best with a user-friendly platform and a wealth of useful VPN features. The software is free, simple to use, and never slows down your computer. It also gives you access to more than 1200 servers located in more than 50 countries and extensive P2P and torrent functionality. Web browsing, anonymous browsing, remote access, DNS leak protection, and other features are included in the software. One account may be used by up to five devices at once. As a result, you can protect both your home computers and mobile devices from intrusion. Your personal information is secure even though this company keeps some records.

Read our full Cyberghost review 

Verdict

IVPN is perfect for enthusiastic privacy beginners who do not care about streaming. It does the basics extremely well, using AES-256 encryption, secure protocols such as OpenVPN and WireGuard, and a no-logs policy that rivals the very best VPN services. If maintaining your anonymity is crucial, then IVPN is a great option.