Best for High Speeds

4.4

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On IPVanish's website

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IPVanish

• Unlimited devices for each plan
• Works with popular streaming services like Netflix
• Kill switch feature not available on iOS

Best for Overall Reliability

4.9

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On NordVPN's website

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NordVPN

• High-quality VPN offering safety and speed
• Loads of servers for multiple connection options
• Works with popular streaming services, including Netflix
• Too many confusing plans

IPVanish barely costs more than NordVPN ($3.99 vs. $3.49 per month), has fast speeds, and provides unlimited device connections. That’s on top of doing well with unblocking many popular streaming services.

But NordVPN is more of a complete product. It’s cheaper than IPVanish, has more servers and country locations, did better with our streaming tests, and wasn’t too far behind on the speed tests. Even better, Nord sticks to its no-logs policy, which hasn’t always been the case with the IPVanish VPN.

Let’s explore our IPVanish vs. NordVPN review to see how both of these providers stack up against each other with their security features, speeds, streaming, and customer service.

IPVanish vs. NordVPN at a glance

IPVanish and NordVPN are two popular virtual private networks (VPNs) that are primarily different in these areas:

• Price
• Max number of devices
• Server count and locations
• Compatibility
• No-logs policies

How do IPVanish and NordVPN compare?

	IPVanish	NordVPN Our Pick
Price	From $3.99/mo	From $3.49/mo
Max # of connected devices	Unlimited	6
24/7 customer support
Compatibility	Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Fire TV Stick, Fire TV, and certain routers	Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, other smart devices, and certain routers
# of servers	2,000+ servers in 50 countries	5,000+ servers in 60 countries
VPN protocol	OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2/IPsec	NordLynx, OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPsec
No-logs policy	No logs	No logs
Unblocks Netflix?
Learn more	Read IPVanish Review	Get NordVPN

IPVanish’s pricing ranges from $3.99 to $11.99 per month, which is similar to NordVPN’s $3.49 to $14.49 per month. Nord has the overall cheaper option, but IPVanish could be cheaper on a month-to-month basis. See more details about prices.

It’s common to have a limit on the max number of devices you can connect to a VPN at any given time. NordVPN limits you to six devices. IPVanish doesn’t have a limit, which gives you unlimited simultaneous connections for you, your friends, and your family.

NordVPN provides a higher total number of servers and server locations (countries) than IPVanish. This makes Nord the clear choice if you want flexibility with your server locations and potentially better connection performance.

Your performance could be better because you have more servers to choose from, which means you can avoid busy servers that could slow down your internet connection.

NordVPN provides increased compatibility with more devices than IPVanish. This is largely due to its Smart DNS feature that allows you to use certain VPN features with devices that wouldn’t typically have VPN access, such as a smart TV without its own app store.

Reviewed by Ben Walker

"We successfully unblocked content from Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer with both IPVanish and NordVPN. We were also able to access Disney+ with NordVPN, but we had trouble using IPVanish with Disney+."

IPVanish has had one independent audit done of its no-logs policy. But IPVanish also had an incident in the past where it revealed user information after stating it didn’t keep user logs. NordVPN hasn’t had a similar occurrence and has had three independent audits done of its no-logs policy.

IPVanish vs. NordVPN: prices

IPVanish costs between $3.99 to $11.99 per month, with its lowest-priced option a one-year plan at $3.99 per month for 12 months.

NordVPN costs between $3.49 to $14.49 per month, with its lowest-priced option a two-year plan at $3.49 per month for 24 months.

Overall, NordVPN is the cheaper option if you want to save money on a VPN.

But note that IPVanish is only slightly more expensive, and its month-to-month rate is actually cheaper than NordVPN ($11.99 vs. $14.49 a month). So if you only need a VPN for a month or two, IPVanish is the cheaper option.

Both IPVanish and NordVPN provide 30-day money-back guarantees.

IPVanish vs. NordVPN: features

Both IPVanish and NordVPN provide strict no-logs policies, kill switches, and torrenting support. You can also use either service to unblock and watch regional Netflix content.

NordVPN has more servers and servers in more countries than IPVanish. A higher number of servers is important because it decreases your chance of connecting to a busy server, which could slow down your internet connection.

And having servers in more countries gives you more opportunities to connect to a specific server based on your needs. For example, you might want to access streaming content from a certain country. For this reason alone, the 10 additional countries offered by NordVPN could be useful.

We also like that NordVPN provides a number of specialty servers, including P2P, obfuscated, onion over VPN, and double VPN servers. These types of servers can help increase your overall anonymity (obfuscated and onion over VPN) and security (double VPN), or they might be optimized for file sharing or torrenting (P2P).

IPVanish doesn’t have specialty servers like Nord, but it’s nice that you can see the ping, server load, and the number of servers associated with different locations. This might be helpful if you’re deciding between multiple cities in the same country and want the fastest connection possible.

NordVPN is the more private and secure VPN provider because of its location in Panama and multiple independent audits of its no-logs policy. Panama isn’t a member of the Five Eyes Alliance or the Nine or Fourteen Eyes global surveillance alliances. And Panama has no mandatory data retention laws, so Nord isn’t required to store any user logs.

But IPVanish is located in the U.S., which is a Five Eyes Alliance member. This might not seem like a big deal, but IPVanish, which has stood by a zero-logs policy for years, was once involved in a privacy scandal in 2016 that involved giving private user-related information to the U.S. government.

IPVanish has since changed owners multiple times and has washed its hands of the scandal, but it still happened and is something that will always blot the IPVanish reputation and history.

It’s nice to see that IPVanish has recently (in 2022) completed an independent audit of its no-logs policy by Leviathan Security Group, a security-consulting company based out of Seattle.

And we’ve tested both IPVanish and NordVPN and found they don’t have WebRTC leaks and sufficient DNS leak protection. They can also successfully mask your IP address from prying eyes.

But NordVPN has had three successful independent audits done of its no-logs policy, indicating a large commitment to user privacy. The first two audits were performed by PricewaterhouseCoopers AG Switzerland and the third audit was done by Deloitte.

This commitment to privacy is further demonstrated by the NordVPN warrant canary, which shows Nord stays true to its no-logs policy.

One point in favor of IPVanish is that you can use its VPN service with an unlimited number of devices. NordVPN limits you to six devices per account.

NordVPN vs. IPVanish: streaming support

We tested IPVanish and NordVPN to see if they work with different streaming platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+. Our tests were performed by separately connecting to VPN servers with both providers and using a Chrome browser on Windows to open and run popular streaming services.

With each streaming service, we tested whether you could load content with each VPN and whether there were any lag or low-quality streaming issues.

We successfully unblocked content from Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer with both IPVanish and NordVPN. We were also able to access Disney+ with NordVPN, but we had trouble using IPVanish with Disney+.

The issue was we weren’t able to access the Disney+ login screen while connected to an IPVanish server. Instead, we were met with a black screen. This was the case even when we tried different servers and the IPVanish app on our Apple iPhone.

NordVPN loaded Disney+ up just fine and we could tell it was working because we were able to access content that’s not available in the U.S. Disney+ content library. Namely, we could see and watch Star content, which you can’t find in the U.S.

Overall, the test to see if you can watch Netflix with a VPN worked with both IPVanish and NordVPN. But IPVanish came up short with Disney+. You might have better luck using the IPVanish SOCKS5 proxy to unblock streaming content, but we don’t think you should have to use a more advanced feature to do something other VPNs can easily do.

IPVanish vs. NordVPN: internet speeds

We test internet connection speeds with VPNs to see if using a certain service significantly eats up our bandwidth and slows down our internet connection to the point where everyday activities would be affected, such as web browsing or gaming.

To measure this, we use internet speed tests to see whether our speeds are dramatically affected before and after using a VPN. This means we start with a baseline speed without connecting to a VPN and then check speeds while connected to different VPN servers.

Here’s our baseline speed:

IPVanish vs. NordVPN speed test results

We tried to make this a fair comparison by connecting to servers from both VPNs in the same locations. This included servers in Los Angeles (U.S.), Vancouver (Canada), London (U.K.), and Sydney (Australia).

IPVanish generally had better speed test results than NordVPN, but the results were mostly similar, so you likely wouldn’t expect much difference in overall performance. In fact, the speed tests were almost identical when testing London servers with both VPNs.

Note that we did see a significant difference in the download speeds between both services while connected to servers in Australia. We hadn’t seen that much of a drop-off before with Nord’s Australia servers, so maybe they were busier this time during testing.

Either way, you can typically expect a huge decrease in speeds if you connect to servers that are across the world from your physical location. So it’s not a huge concern, though it can be annoying if you do experience a slower internet connection with distant servers.

We also recorded the latency (ping) of our VPN connections during our speed tests. Latency generally measures the speed of communication between networks, with lower latency numbers indicating faster connections.

Communication tends to take longer with more physical distance between networks, which is why you can see the latency increased as we connected to servers that were farther away from our U.S. location.

Reviewed by Ben Walker

"IPVanish lets you see the ping, server load, and the number of servers associated with different locations. This might be helpful if you’re deciding between multiple cities in the same country and want the fastest connection possible."

Overall, the latency numbers were very similar between IPVanish and NordVPN. The largest difference was with the Sydney servers, but the difference wasn’t huge and you expect a higher latency with such a distant server.

IPVanish vs. NordVPN latency comparison

IPVanish vs. NordVPN: compatibility and ease of use

We had no issues setting up the IPVanish and NordVPN Windows apps on our desktop computer. We simply had to download the apps from the IPVanish and NordVPN websites, install the programs, and log in.

Both the IPVanish and NordVPN apps were generally easy to use, but we preferred Nord. This is primarily because NordVPN tends to cater more to beginner VPN users, not worrying about showing different connection statistics across your screen.

Rather, you have your quick connect button, a server map, and then the full server list available on one tab to expedite the process of connecting to the VPN. IPVanish basically has the same information as Nord, but it’s spread across multiple tabs and doesn’t feel as intuitive.

You can also easily click on different servers with the NordVPN map to connect to them. We found the IPVanish map kept having to randomly load and a single click on a server didn’t do anything. But we were able to connect to different servers by double-clicking on cities.

Overall, both VPNs provide plenty of compatibility with different mobile apps, operating systems, and smart devices. But NordVPN generally offers more compatibility, specifically with browser extensions and smart devices.

The smart device compatibility is mainly offered through the NordVPN Smart DNS feature, which you can’t find with IPVanish. Smart DNS lets you use certain VPN features, such as unblocking streaming services, with different devices that wouldn’t typically have VPN functionality. For example, you could use Smart DNS with an LG TV or Apple TV.

IPVanish vs. NordVPN: customer service

IPVanish and NordVPN provide customer service in the form of 24/7 live chat support, email, and online guides. In our experience, 24/7 live chat is typically the best way to get answers to questions with different VPN providers, so it’s nice to see it as an option for both VPNs.

We had good live chat experiences with both IPVanish and NordVPN. We asked IPVanish customer support about torrenting and we asked NordVPN customer support about switching Netflix regions.

We didn’t see any specific torrenting servers with IPVanish, but the customer service representative recommended connecting to servers in these cities for more stability: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Ashburn, New York. We thought that was a useful tidbit.

I spoke with a NordVPN customer service representative about how to tell if I’m actually accessing a different Netflix region within the Netflix app. You can usually tell by seeing if the app displays “Top 10 Shows in the U.K.” or something similar as one of its sections. But sometimes that section doesn’t show up and I wanted to see if there were any other tricks.

The representative recommended using a site such as uNoGS.com (The Unofficial Netflix Online Global Search) to see the available Netflix content by region. Using this or another similar site, you can find content that’s only available in certain regions and then see if you’re able to access that content while connected to an applicable VPN server.

That should help you verify whether your VPN is working correctly to unblock different Netflix content, which isn’t a bad strategy to keep in mind.

In a surprising twist, IPVanish also provides phone support options with numbers in the U.S., the U.K., Mexico, Spain, Australia, and Brazil. This is surprising because most VPNs don’t provide any sort of number to call if you prefer talking to someone over the phone. Case in point, NordVPN doesn’t have a customer service phone number.

IPVanish vs. NordVPN: payment options

IPVanish and NordVPN provide multiple payment options, but you can pay for Nord with cryptocurrency, which could offer more privacy.

This is because crypto transactions don’t typically have your name or other personal information attached, unlike using a credit card or other common forms of payment. Keep in mind that using cryptocurrency doesn’t mean your payment is completely anonymous, but it can help.

IPVanish payment options

• Credit card
• PayPal
• Google Pay

NordVPN payment options

• Credit or debit card
• AmazonPay
• ACH transfer
• Google Pay
• Cryptocurrency

IPVanish vs. NordVPN FAQs

IPVanish vs. NordVPN: which is the best VPN?

We recommend NordVPN over IPVanish because it’s cheaper, generally easier to use, and has a strong history of protecting user privacy. That’s all on top of NordVPN providing top reliability with unblocking streaming content, as well as great speeds during our speed tests.

IPVanish is a decent VPN with excellent speed test results, but it appears a bit shady with its past no-logs policy scandal and for having a headquarters in the U.S. We also had issues trying to access Disney+ using IPVanish.

For a comparison of two of the most popular VPNs, see how NordVPN compares to ExpressVPN.

4.9

Limited-time offer: 69% off + 3 extra months

Learn More

On NordVPN's website

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NordVPN

• High-quality VPN offering safety and speed
• Loads of servers for multiple connection options
• Works with popular streaming services, including Netflix
• Too many confusing plans

Author Details

Ben Walker

About the Author

Ben Walker is a writer at All About Cookies with a passion for all things internet and technology, whether it's using VPNs while away from home or organizing his life with password managers.