IVPN: Excellent Privacy and Speed, But Poor for Streaming and Extras

After reviewing its privacy policy, we’re confident IVPN is a true no-logs VPN. This means your activity while connected to IVPN remains private, as it doesn’t store data that could link your online behavior to you.

IVPN is one of only a handful of VPNs with a genuine no-logs policy, and one of the few to have it verified by an independent auditor. By contrast, many well-known VPNs, including NordVPN and ExpressVPN, collect some user logs.

IVPN also supports its no-logging claims with a transparency report. It details how often the company receives requests for user data from law enforcement and other third parties. Because IVPN does not store this information, it reports that it has not complied with such requests.

We appreciate that IVPN goes further by accepting cash payments and allowing sign-ups without an email address. This way, not only can your online activity not be linked to you, but there’s also no record tying your identity to an IVPN account.

When we signed up using this method, we received an anonymous account ID instead of the usual email address and password.

Somewhat surprisingly for a privacy-focused provider, IVPN does not use diskless VPN servers. These servers, used by PIA, Windscribe, and many leading VPNs, have no storage drives, so their data is wiped whenever they’re powered down.

IVPN declined to say whether it plans to roll out diskless servers in the future.

As our data shows, IVPN is consistently fast across locations without any major outliers. The slowest server was Australia, with a 22% speed drop, which is expected given the distance from our US test location.

For context, IVPN ranked 25th fastest on local connections and 21st on international connections—slightly above average.

It was faster than PIA, CyberGhost, and many other popular VPNs, but it didn’t match the very fastest, like Hotspot Shield. That service recorded a maximum download speed loss of 0% across all tested servers.

While fast download speeds are ideal for streaming geo-blocked HD or 4K video, IVPN is blocked by most major streaming services. As a result, its impressive speed feels underutilized for everyday web browsing.

We found IVPN has the third-fastest local ping times of any VPN. At just 5ms on a local connection, it offers lower latency than other high-quality VPNs like NordVPN and PIA.

This low latency meant that while protecting our IP address from DoS attacks in fast-paced games like CS:GO, we noticed no meaningful impact on FPS or on the precision of enemy hitboxes.

Added latency was only an issue when connecting to regions like Brazil for easier lobbies. Even then, IVPN’s 114ms ping in Brazil was comparable to other VPNs on servers in that area.

Using Wireshark while connected to IVPN, we analyzed our network traffic to evaluate the strength of its encryption. We were impressed with the results.

By default, the VPN uses WireGuard with ChaCha20. You can switch to OpenVPN with AES-256 in the app’s settings, but we recommend staying with the default since it’s more modern and equally secure.

Regardless of the option you choose, your online activity will remain private and secure.

In our tests, IVPN did not leak our IP or DNS addresses, both when the connection dropped (thanks to its kill switch) and during normal browsing (thanks to its built-in IP and DNS leak protection).

As a result, our true IP address was never exposed to the websites we visited, and our browsing activity was not visible to our ISP.

Disappointingly, IVPN’s kill switch is only available on Windows, macOS, and Android. After discovering that iOS’s built-in kill switch leaks some traffic to Apple’s servers, IVPN removed the feature entirely in August 2023.

Still, it would have been helpful if the app clearly labeled this limitation on iOS and let users decide whether they were comfortable trusting Apple.

Thankfully, all of IVPN’s apps include IP and DNS leak protection.

Rarely for a VPN service, we were able to inspect IVPN’s codebase because all of its apps are open-source. You can visit GitHub to review the code and documentation yourself.

By providing access to its code, IVPN is transparent about how its clients work and how they protect privacy and security. This is a strong move, and we hope more VPN services follow its lead.

During our initial review of IVPN in 2019, we criticized the VPN’s limited server network. Disappointingly, it has made minimal progress since then, adding access to only one additional country.

In the same period, Proton VPN has expanded to 58 more countries, while Surfshark has added 33.

We’re pleasantly surprised to see 12 server locations spread across the US.

On the other hand, there’s only one server location in Australia. We expect coverage on both coasts and hope to see Perth added soon. For this reason, Australian readers should consider using NordVPN instead.

IVPN also offers just one server in South America (Brazil) and three in East Asia (Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong).

The VPN service offers three to five IP addresses per server. This equals a range of IP addresses between 228 and 380.

When installing IVPN on macOS, we had to select the correct app version: Intel or Apple Silicon. Unlike most VPNs that offer a universal app that works for both, IVPN keeps these versions separate, which is slightly less convenient.

The download and installation took longer than expected, as the IVPN app is about twice the size of many other VPNs we’ve used, such as ExpressVPN and PIA.

Logging in required entering a random 12-digit account ID instead of an email address or password. This is manageable at first, but it became cumbersome when setting it up on multiple devices.

Despite its strong reputation in the cybersecurity community, we think IVPN is well-suited for beginners.

Its apps are easy to use and visually appealing. To connect to a server, you simply toggle the On button, which consistently connected us to a nearby server in under a second.

The app seems designed to run quietly in the background rather than being used frequently. It highlights the Network Protection feature, which automatically connects to a VPN server when you join an untrusted Wi-Fi network.

When using the app directly, we immediately noticed how limited the home screen is. It only shows the Connect button and the Multi-hop feature, which isn’t available on the Standard IVPN plan. We’d prefer if this space offered more practical options, such as quick access to a favorite server.

The apps have a consistent design across desktop and mobile, making it easy to remember how to complete common tasks. Despite the similar layout, the interface is well-designed and easy to use on everything from a small phone screen to a large PC monitor.

For the most part, IVPN provides a seamless experience, running quietly in the background with minimal impact on browsing.

However, when interaction is required, it can be frustrating. A recurring issue is the need to manually toggle the VPN connection on, even after selecting a server location. This extra step feels redundant and inconvenient, especially when you’re in a hurry.

Another issue was the app’s habit of logging us out frequently. This is especially frustrating because it requires an account ID, not an email address, to log back in.

Similar to Mullvad, IVPN recently removed its port forwarding feature, citing “large-scale abuse” after an influx of new customers began using the service.

Since the removal, we’ve noticed a slight drop in the number of peers we can connect to, resulting in somewhat slower and less reliable torrent download speeds.

If you’re looking for a VPN that still offers port forwarding, Proton VPN, PIA, and AirVPN are good options.

IVPN is one of only four VPNs in our top 25 that doesn’t offer a dedicated app for streaming devices like Fire TV or Android TV. Instead, it provides instructions for setting it up indirectly on Fire TV using the OpenVPN app and configuration files.

After trying this method, we found it too complex for most users, especially compared to VPNs with dedicated apps.

To use the VPN on devices that don’t support VPN apps, you can install it on compatible routers such as DD-WRT, pfSense, and Tomato. However, this process is also complicated, and we don’t recommend it for beginners.

IVPN’s Windows, Linux, and Android apps support split tunneling, a useful feature if you want to route only some of your traffic through a VPN server. We used it on our Android device to encrypt traffic from apps while still accessing our local Netflix library.

You can choose to include or exclude specific apps from the VPN connection. We recommend including all apps by default to reduce the risk of data leaks due to misconfiguration.

Of the 16 VPNs that include an ad blocker, IVPN AntiTracker blocked the most ads, stopping 100% of intrusive ads in Hardcore Mode. It also outperformed PIA Mace against social trackers, though it was less effective against analytics trackers.

However, Hardcore Mode blocks some legitimate sites entirely, including Google and YouTube. In everyday use, we preferred an ad blocker that blocked slightly fewer ads but still let us use the web normally.

IVPN’s desktop apps include Obfsproxy, a type of obfuscation designed to help users in restrictive regions access the internet.

This is likely sufficient to bypass censorship in countries like Russia and Turkey, but our testing showed that IVPN cannot bypass China’s Great Firewall. It failed to connect to any servers there.

Obfsproxy also significantly slows speeds, reducing ours by 45%. It’s best for accessing blocked text-based apps like X and WhatsApp, rather than media-heavy apps like YouTube or Instagram.

IVPN’s Multi-hop feature adds an extra layer of security by routing your connection through multiple servers in different countries. This means that even if the exit server is compromised, your activity remains private. However, this feature is only available with the more expensive Pro plan.

IVPN lacks several features we expect from a top VPN. Here are the two we missed most while using it: