Best IPVanish Alternatives in 2024

When we tested IPVanish, we were left feeling underwhelmed. It crossed off almost all of our boxes we use to test VPNs, but it didn’t go above and beyond in any category. And, we found better all-around VPNs than IPVanish, too, so it’s not the best overall VPN, either. That’s not to say it’s a bad VPN — it’s simply not the best.

We put together a list of our three favorite IPVanish alternatives that give you everything that IPVanish does and more for comparable prices. Let’s get started.

Comparison Between the Best IPVanish Alternatives

System	NordVPN	Surfshark	Private Internet Access VPN
Ranking	1st	2nd	3rd
Ratings	9.7/10	9.5/10	9.4/10
Server count	6,300+	3,200+	35,000
Server locations	111	100	91
Subject to an International Surveillance Alliance?	No	Yes	Yes
Price	Starting at $3.39 per month	Starting at $2.19 per month	Starting at $1.98 per month
Read Review	NordVPN Review	Surfshark Review	Private Internet Access VPN Review

Best IPVanish Alternatives

1. NordVPN

SecurityScore:

9.7 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multihop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	Yes
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

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Why Choose NordVPN Over IPVanish?

We recommend NordVPN over IPVanish for nearly every use case. It offers stronger protections for your privacy, more robust streaming capabilities, better bundling options, and a bigger server network.

The only drawback we saw when testing and comparing both was the simultaneous connections limit of 10. We got nowhere near that limit, even when we ran the VPN on all our devices. It didn’t bother us, but if you’re trying to get your whole household under one subscription, we could see how that limit could get in the way. Aside from that case, we think NordVPN is an overall better alternative.

VPN Speeds

A VPN only protects your privacy if you turn it on. If you’re like us, a VPN that slows down your internet speeds makes you want to turn it off. That’s why we put a high priority on VPN speeds. NordVPN tends to take the top spot in our favorite VPNs because it consistently gives us great speeds.

We ran VPN speed tests on a MacBook Pro and an Acer Aspire 5 to see how much it slowed down our connection on macOS and Windows. Here are the results:

	MacBook Pro	Acer Aspire 5
Ping difference	10% higher	3100% higher
Upload speed difference	20% slower	67% slower
Download speed difference	24% slower	8% slower

As you can see, NordVPN slowed down our connection, but every VPN does that. It wasn’t as bad as most. It beat IPVanish in upload speeds and ping, which makes it better than IPVanish for playing video games. Even though IPVanish has slightly faster download speeds on Macs, NordVPN was still fast enough for us to stream French Netflix in 4K from the U.S. And it was a lot faster on Windows. On the other hand, IPVanish slowed our speed by over 60 percent.

Streaming Capabilities

Speeds are just one part of the puzzle for streaming with a VPN. Sure, it needs to be fast enough to let you stream videos without buffering. But most streaming services try to ban the use of VPNs. That means if they can tell that you’re connected through a VPN server they know about, they’ll block you from logging in.

That’s why we appreciate NordVPN’s dedicated obfuscated servers. When these dedicated servers send data packets to the websites you connect to, it masks them so that the website can’t tell you’re connected to a VPN. This helps get around those VPN firewalls that Netflix, Hulu, and most other streaming sites use.

Pro Tip: Your internet service provider can tell you’re using a VPN in the same way as streaming services can. Obfuscated servers can help prevent this type of detection.

Bundled Protections

NordVPN offers three tiers of protection, with its Basic plan only including its VPN. From there, you can get additional tools with NordVPN’s Plus and Ultimate tiers. Here’s a quick overview of NordVPN’s plans:

	Basic	Plus	Ultimate
Full VPN capabilities	Yes	Yes	Yes
Online malware protection	No	Yes	Yes
Password manager	No	Yes	Yes
Data breach alerts	No	Yes	Yes
Ad and tracker blocker	No	Yes	Yes
Identity theft protection	No	No	Up to $1 million
Cyber ransom protection	No	No	Up to $100,000
Price	Starting at $3.99	Starting at $4.99	Starting at $6.99

We thought the Ultimate tier gave solid coverage for an individual, as the identity theft protection is only for one person. Our favorite identity theft protection services offer $1 million in coverage for each adult. So, as an individual, that $1 million of coverage for an extra $3 per month is a great deal.

Otherwise, we recommend going with the Basic plan, since the malware protection isn’t actually antivirus software. It only scans files you download and helps you avoid phishing sites. For antivirus bundled in with your VPN, we recommend Surfshark.

2. Surfshark

SecurityScore:

9.5 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multi-hop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	Yes
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

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Why Choose Surfshark Over IPVanish?

Sometimes you need unlimited connections. Whether you have a big family and therefore a lot of devices or you like to multitask, those unlimited connections can come in handy.

Did You Know: Most VPN connection limitations are not how many devices you can install the VPN app on. Instead, they limit how many devices you can connect to the VPN simultaneously. So, if you have a two device connection limit, that usually means you can install the VPN on your laptop, tablet, and phone. You just can’t connect them all to the VPN at the same time.

Surfshark pairs unlimited connections with one of our favorite software bundles with Surfshark One, which combines one of our favorite antivirus softwares with a top-tier VPN. IPVanish lets you connect to unlimited devices, but it’ll slow down your Windows devices significantly and its antivirus software is nowhere near as effective.

VPN Speeds

Every time we test a Surfshark product, we enjoy that they take a lightweight approach. They always keep their software’s impact on our devices minimal and Surfshark VPN is no exception. We ran the same speed tests on Surfshark that we ran on NordVPN, with the same MacBook Pro and Acer Aspire 5. Here are the results:

	MacBook Pro	Acer Aspire 5
Ping difference	2% higher	2742% higher
Upload speed difference	9% slower	56% slower
Download speed difference	31% slower	17% slower

The speeds we got with Surfshark were comparable to that of IPVanish, aside from Surfshark’s much better download speeds on Windows. We still liked NordVPN more for overall performance.

Streaming Capabilities

Similar to NordVPN’s obfuscated servers, Surfshark offers Camouflage Mode. This mode lets you connect to Surfshark’s obfuscated servers automatically. Just turn on the switch, and all the servers you can connect to will hide your use of a VPN.

Another aspect of streaming we like with Surfshark is its use of native apps. This makes it easy to set up on any device you stream on, like your Apple TV. NordVPN hits this point too, and IPVanish is close. Here’s a quick overview of platforms that Surfshark has native apps for:

Windows
macOS
Linux
Android
iOS
Chrome
Firefox
Edge
Apple TV
FireTV
Android TV

Bundled Protections

When it comes to getting a VPN and antivirus software, it’s hard to beat Surfshark’s value. In both categories, they offer a premium product. And bundled together, Surfshark’s prices get as low as $2.69 per month. That’s only 50 cents more than its VPN or IPVanish’s VPN. Most antivirus costs about $1.50 per month when paying for two years up front. And it doesn’t matter much that Surfshark wasn’t originally an antivirus company. We tested Surfshark One and know it can go toe-to-toe with the best of them.

3. Private Internet Access VPN

SecurityScore:

9.4 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multihop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	No
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

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Why Choose Private Internet Access Over IPVanish?

As the name implies, when you want completely private access to the internet, Private Internet Access maintains one of the strongest “no-logs” policies in the industry. This means they keep a privacy policy stating they cannot record any of your browsing activity. So, when you connect to Private Internet Access’ servers, it never records your IP address or the websites you visit. IPVanish says the same thing.

What makes these two providers different is Private Internet Access’ RAM-based servers. All of their 35,000 servers use RAM instead of hard disk drives. Why does this matter? When we connect to Private Internet Access’ servers, even if they had our IP address at one point, it gets permanently deleted any time the server shuts down. Hard disk drives can maintain data and some data can get scraped off them even if it gets manually deleted. IPVanish has yet to make the switch to RAM-based servers.

VPN Speeds

Shortly before we tested Private Internet Access, we upgraded our devices. We don’t have results for that MacBook Pro and Acer Aspire 5 we used for IPVanish, NordVPN, and Surfshark, but we still tested it on a macOS and Windows device. This time we used a MacBook Air and an Asus Vivobook. Here were the results of our speed tests:

	MacBook Air	Asus Vivobook
Ping difference	0% higher	33% higher
Upload speed difference	30% slower	5% slower
Download speed difference	65% slower	15% slower

Private Internet Access is the only provider to match IPVanish’s results for ping. That makes Private Internet Access a solid alternative if you use your VPN for gaming. When playing video games online, a high ping causes delays between you taking an action and the game registering that action.

By minimizing the impact on our ping, we could still hit our shots while playing Apex Legends through Private Internet Access’ servers. Well, at least our latency wasn’t the issue.

Streaming Capabilities

We can’t point to obfuscated servers as the technology that separates Private Internet Access from IPVanish like we could with NordVPN and Surfshark. So, streaming services can more easily tell when you’re using a VPN. With so many servers though, it’s easy to swap servers if a service notices you’re using one. During our tests, we were always able to find a server that got us into our Netflix, Hulu, and ESPN+ accounts.

FYI: Most streaming services look for VPNs by identifying servers owned by VPN companies and banning them from connecting to their service. This is to help your account’s security, since malicious actors also use VPNs to hide themselves when hacking into accounts.

For speeds, Private Internet Access optimizes all of their U.S. servers for streaming. That means we were always able to stream our favorite series with minimal or no buffering at all, even when we traveled out of the country. We just connected to a U.S. server and then we could access the U.S. version of our streaming services.

Bundled Protections

When it comes to bundled services, Private Internet Access falls short of NordVPN and Surfshark, but they still offer more than IPVanish. You can add antivirus software to the three year Private Internet Access plan for one dollar per month. But that makes it more expensive than Surfshark’s two year plan for lower-quality antivirus and a VPN that’s on par. Still, it beats IPVanish, since IPVanish doesn’t offer antivirus software at all.

Final Recommendation

Overall, we like IPVanish. It’s a solid all-around VPN. While testing it, we never ran into any major issues and it beat out most of the competition when it came to the things we care about most, like speed and security. But we still think there are better options out there, namely NordVPN, Surfshark, and Private Internet Access.

FAQs About IPVanish Alternatives

What’s the best alternative to IPVanish?
The three best alternatives to IPVanish are:
- NordVPN — Best Overall Alternative
- Surfshark — Best Alternative with Digital Security Bundles
- Private Internet Access — Best Alternative for Privacy
Should I buy IPVanish?
Buying IPVanish definitely isn’t a mistake even though we think a few competitors are a bit better. We’d recommend NordVPN, Surfshark, or Private Internet Access instead, but IPVanish gets the job done at competitive prices.
Is there a free alternative to IPVanish?
There are no free VPNs that are comparable to IPVanish. If you need a free VPN, we recommend Hotspot Shield since it does not limit the privacy it provides or the amount you can use it. But you’ll need to sit through some ads every 15 minutes or so.
What makes NordVPN better than IPVanish?
We like NordVPN more than IPVanish because it offers more servers, obfuscation that makes streaming easier, and its RAM-based servers provide more privacy.
Can I get IPVanish for free?
You can get a free trial of IPVanish by downloading it through your Apple or Android mobile device. But the trial only lasts seven days. There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee with the two-year plan.