IPVanish review 2025: A great comeback, but can it be trusted?

This is not just another product rundown – this IPVanish review tells a story of redemption. Once mired in a damaging logging controversy, the company has spent years methodically rebuilding its reputation, culminating in a third-party audited no-logs policy and a feature set that’s genuinely hard to ignore.

In 2025, choosing the right VPN is more complex than just finding the fastest one; it’s about finding a provider you can trust with your most sensitive online activity. With standout features like truly unlimited simultaneous connections – a rare and valuable perk – and impressive speeds, IPVanish makes a compelling case for your attention.

As a cybersecurity analyst who has tested and reviewed dozens of VPNs, I’ve seen firsthand how a provider’s history and its response to it impact its trustworthiness. The critical question remains: Can a VPN truly escape the shadow of its past? And how does its US jurisdiction factor into the trust equation in 2025?

Don’t make a decision based on marketing hype. Let me walk you through the facts so you can decide if IPVanish is the right choice for your privacy needs.

1. Quick verdict: Has IPVanish earned back its trust?

Pressed for time? I get it. Here’s my quick verdict on IPVanish after putting it through its paces. While the full story is in the details, this summary gives you the essential takeaway.

IPVanish: Safelyo's Quick Verdict
Overall Rating: 8.0/10

• Value: 9.5/10
• Features: 9.0/10
• Speed: 8.5/10
• Trust: 7.0/10

So, has IPVanish truly earned back our trust? For the average user, my answer is a qualified yes. From my experience, it’s like a friend who made a serious mistake years ago. They have since apologized, taken concrete steps to change their behavior, and proven themselves reliable. You can trust them with everyday things, but you might still hesitate before sharing your deepest secrets. That’s IPVanish in 2025.

• Perfect for: Large families, users with many devices, and Kodi enthusiasts who want great performance and are comfortable with the US jurisdiction.
• Not for: Journalists, activists, or anyone requiring the highest level of anonymity that a non-US-based VPN can offer.

Top Alternatives: For a similar feature set outside the US, I’d recommend NordVPN. For maximum privacy and transparency, Proton VPN is a solid choice.

Now, let’s unpack the history that makes this verdict so nuanced.

2. The elephant in the room: The 2016 logging controversy

Before we talk about speeds and features, we have to address the single biggest issue in IPVanish’s history. For any VPN, trust is the most valuable currency, and back in 2016, IPVanish broke that trust. Let’s look at what happened and, more importantly, what they’ve done since.

2.1. What exactly happened?

In 2016, court documents revealed that IPVanish, which was operating under different ownership at the time, had complied with a request from the US Department of Homeland Security. They provided connection logs related to a user involved in a criminal investigation.

This was a direct contradiction of their advertised “zero-logs” policy. For a privacy tool, this is the ultimate betrayal. It’s like a security guard promising they don’t have a key to your house, only for you to find out they let someone in. This IPVanish logging scandal rightfully shattered the confidence of many users in the privacy community, including my own at the time.

2.2. The comeback: How IPVanish responded

So, how does a company recover from such a damaging incident? IPVanish has taken several significant and verifiable steps to rebuild its reputation.

First, the company is now under different ownership (part of Ziff Davis), which provides a clear separation from the management in charge during the 2016 incident.

More importantly, in a crucial move to regain trust, IPVanish subjected its no-logs policy to an IPVanish independent audit. They hired the reputable cybersecurity firm Leviathan Security to examine their systems and verify their claims. The audit confirmed that IPVanish was, in fact, adhering to its no-logging promises.

As someone who analyzes these audits for a living, this is a night-and-day difference. It’s one thing for a company to say they don’t keep logs. It’s another thing entirely to pay an independent security expert to come into your house, check every room for hidden cameras, and then publicly declare it clean. This is the difference between a simple promise and verified proof.

To add weight to these technical actions, IPVanish leadership publicly stated that the audit was a “public reaffirmation of our unwavering commitment to user privacy and transparency.” This combination of a change in ownership, a successful third-party audit, and public accountability forms the foundation of their comeback story.

3. The trust report card: A analysis

After reviewing the history and the comeback, I’ve created a “Trust Report Card” for IPVanish. This helps to visualize where they stand on the key factors that determine a VPN’s reliability.

Trust Factor	Grade	My Justification
Logging Policy	A	Excellent. Verified by a reputable, independent third-party audit from Leviathan Security. This is the gold standard for proving a no-logs claim.
Jurisdiction	C-	Weak. Based in the United States, a core member of the 5/9/14 Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance. This is an unchangeable risk factor.
Company History	B-	Improving. A major past incident seriously damaged trust, but the company has since taken significant, positive actions to rectify it under new ownership.
Transparency	B+	Good. Publishing the results of their independent audit is a major step in the right direction. They could improve further with regular transparency reports.
Overall Trust Grade	B-	Fair.

This scorecard tells a clear story: IPVanish has made significant, verifiable efforts to fix its past mistakes, particularly with its logging policy. However, it’s still held back by one permanent factor: Its US jurisdiction.

You might be asking, “Wait, if the audit proves they don’t keep logs, why does the location matter so much?”

This is the crucial distinction. The audit confirms what IPVanish is doing today. The jurisdiction risk is about what they could be forced to do tomorrow. Because it’s a US-based company, it’s subject to laws like the Stored Communications Act and secret government demands like National Security Letters (NSLs). In theory, the government could compel IPVanish to start logging data on a specific user and issue a gag order, legally preventing them from disclosing it.

Think of it this way: The audit confirmed there are no hidden microphones in your apartment right now. But your landlord (IPVanish) lives in a country where the government can secretly force them to install one tomorrow – and legally forbid them from telling you. While the audit proves their current good behavior, the jurisdiction creates a potential future risk that VPNs based in places like Panama or Switzerland simply don’t have.

4. Key features breakdown: What makes IPVanish stand out?

Now for the fun part. Beyond its history, what do you actually get with an IPVanish subscription? In my testing, three things consistently stood out from the competition.

4.1. Unlimited connections: The best value for multiple devices

This is, without a doubt, IPVanish’s killer feature. While most VPN providers, even top-tier ones, limit you to somewhere between 5 and 10 simultaneous connections, IPVanish throws that limit out the window. One subscription lets you connect an unlimited number of devices.

In my own household, this is a game-changer. Between my work laptop, personal phone, my partner’s devices, a smart TV, and a couple of tablets, I easily hit the 5-device cap on other services. It forces you to play a frustrating game of “which device gets left unprotected today?” With IPVanish unlimited devices, that problem disappears. You can secure every single gadget you own, making it an exceptional value for families or tech enthusiasts with a lot of hardware.

4.2. Performance and speed: Fast and reliable

A feature-rich VPN is useless if it grinds your internet to a halt. To get beyond feelings and into facts, I ran a series of IPVanish speed test sessions from my US location using the WireGuard protocol. My baseline speed without the VPN was approximately 300 Mbps. Here are the results:

Server Location	Average Download Speed	Speed Drop	Ping (ms)	My Experience
Baseline (No VPN)	300 Mbps	–	5 ms	–
US (New York)	268 Mbps	11%	28 ms	Excellent. The drop was unnoticeable for browsing, streaming, and gaming.
UK (London)	225 Mbps	25%	94 ms	Very strong performance for a transatlantic connection. 4K streaming worked flawlessly.
Australia (Sydney)	160 Mbps	47%	215 ms	A significant drop, as expected, but still very usable. HD streaming was fine, though latency was high for gaming.

As you can see, the results are impressive. A drop of only 11% on a local server is excellent. But what truly surprised me was maintaining over 200 Mbps to the UK. Even with a nearly 50% drop to Australia, the remaining 160 Mbps is still faster than many people’s home internet connections. For real-world use, this means IPVanish is more than fast enough for 4K streaming, large downloads, and video calls without any frustrating lag.

4.3. User interface: A data-lover’s dashboard

The IPVanish desktop app doesn’t follow the minimalist trend, and for a certain type of user, that’s a huge plus. Instead of just a giant “Connect” button, you’re greeted with a dashboard that feels more like a command center.

The most striking feature is the real-time graph that visualizes your upload and download speeds. You can see exactly which VPN protocol you’re using, your visible IP address, and how much data is flowing at any given moment. If you’re like me and enjoy seeing the nuts and bolts of your connection, this interface is fantastic. It gives you a sense of control that many over-simplified VPNs lack. For any tech enthusiast, it’s a data-lover’s dream.

5. Streaming, torrenting, and Kodi performance

Speed is great, but for many users, a VPN’s primary job is to unblock content from around the world. So, how does IPVanish fare when it comes to entertainment?

I tested its ability to unblock several major streaming platforms from my location in the US.

Streaming Service (Tested Libraries)	Unblocked?	Performance & Notes
Netflix US, UK	Yes	Reliably unblocked IPVanish Netflix for the US library. The UK library also worked, though it required one server switch.
Hulu US	Yes	Worked on the first try. Streaming was smooth with no buffering.
Disney+ US	Yes	No issues whatsoever. Connected and streamed content seamlessly.
Amazon Prime Video US	Yes	Successfully bypassed geo-blocks and streamed in HD.
BBC iPlayer UK	No	I struggled here. Despite trying multiple UK servers, I was consistently blocked by BBC iPlayer. This is a common challenge for many VPNs.

The takeaway here is that IPVanish is a decent, but not perfect, streaming VPN. It’s very reliable for accessing US-based content like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+. However, if your main goal is to unblock international services like BBC iPlayer, you might find it inconsistent. Services like NordVPN or ExpressVPN generally have the edge in unblocking a wider variety of global libraries.

For torrenting and Kodi, IPVanish remains a top choice. It has long been a favorite in the IPVanish Kodi community because of its strong speeds and native app for Android TV and Fire TV Stick. Furthermore, all of its servers support P2P file-sharing, and with a kill switch and solid encryption, it’s a safe option for torrenting – as long as you accept the jurisdiction risk we discussed earlier.

6. IPVanish pricing and plans

So, what does all this performance and protection cost? The IPVanish price structure is divided into a few tiers, with the biggest savings reserved for those who commit to a longer term. Let’s break down what you get and which plan makes the most sense.

Plan tiers and features

IPVanish primarily offers two main tiers: “Essential” and “Advanced.” The key difference is that the “Advanced” plan bundles extra security tools alongside the core VPN service.

Feature	“Essential” Plan	“Advanced” Plan
High-Speed VPN	YES	YES
Unlimited Devices	YES	YES
Audited No-Logs Policy	YES	YES
Threat Protection	YES	YES
24/7 Support	YES	YES
Secure Browser	NO	YES
Cloud Backup/Sync	NO	YES
Telephone Support	NO	YES

As you can see, the “Essential” plan gives you the complete, core VPN experience. This includes the fast speeds, the kill switch, the WireGuard protocol, and the all-important unlimited device connections.

The “Advanced” plan is for users seeking an all-in-one security suite. The “Secure Browser,” for instance, is a cloud-based browsing environment designed to isolate your web activity from your device, adding another layer of protection against malware.

Which plan should you choose?

Here’s my personal recommendation:

• For the vast majority of users, the “Essential” plan is the best choice and offers the most value. You get 100% of the core VPN functionality, which is the main reason you’re considering IPVanish in the first place. This includes the fast speeds, robust security, and the fantastic unlimited connections perk.
• The “Advanced” plan is a nice-to-have, but its features often overlap with tools you might already use (like a secure browser or cloud backup from another provider). Unless you are specifically looking for an integrated security bundle and don’t have these tools already, I would recommend starting with the Essential plan.

Maximizing your value

Regardless of the tier you choose, the pricing model heavily favors long-term subscriptions.

Plan Duration	Approximate Price (Essential)
2-Year Plan	~$1.97 / month
1-Year Plan	~$2.92 / month
Monthly Plan	~$11.99 / month

(Note: Prices are based on the first billing cycle and are subject to change.)

The monthly plan is prohibitively expensive and only makes sense for very short-term use. The two-year plan offers an incredible discount, effectively making the service one of the most affordable top-tier VPNs available. When you factor in the unlimited device connections, the value proposition of the two-year “Essential” plan is simply outstanding.

Finally, all long-term plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. This gives you a full month to test the service risk-free, confirming that it works for your specific needs before you fully commit.

7. FAQ about IPVanish 

Here are some of the most common questions I receive about IPVanish. I’ve provided direct, no-nonsense answers to help you make your final decision.

8. Conclusion

Our IPVanish review reveals a company that has made a commendable and serious comeback. Through a change in ownership, submitting to a public third-party audit, and delivering consistent performance, it has worked incredibly hard to rebuild the trust it once lost. It successfully transformed from a cautionary tale into a redemption story.

Here are the key points to remember from our analysis:

• Trust Rebuilt: The independently audited no-logs policy is legitimate and proves they no longer log user data.
• Permanent Jurisdiction Risk: Its base in the United States remains its single biggest drawback for privacy purists.
• Unbeatable Value: The unlimited simultaneous connections feature offers more value for multi-device users than almost any other competitor.
• Solid Performance: Speeds are fast and reliable, especially with the WireGuard protocol, making it great for streaming, gaming, and downloading.
• Good for US Streaming: It works well for unblocking US-based services like Netflix and Hulu, but struggles with some international platforms.

Ultimately, the decision comes down to your personal risk tolerance. If you are a family, a Kodi enthusiast, or a user with a dozen devices needing a fast, reliable, and affordable VPN, IPVanish is an excellent choice. If your work or activism requires you to avoid any potential government overreach, you should look to a provider outside the 5 Eyes jurisdiction. Here at Safelyo, we aim to provide the most honest Best VPN Reviews to empower your choice.

Ready to protect all your devices with a single subscription? Get the best IPVanish deal here and enjoy unlimited connections.