Are you looking for an updated IPVanish vs PrivateVPN comparison?
While both IPVanish and PrivateVPN are able to deliver great connection speeds, they are very different in terms of other features and capabilities like streaming and torrenting support.
In this PrivateVPN vs IPVanish comparison today, we are going to compare these two vpns along the lines of the privacy policies, torrenting and other security features like ad blocking and split tunnelling.
I hope that by the end of this IPVanish and PrivateVPN comparison you’ll be able to choose between these two vpns.
So let’s get started.
Here is a quick summary.
| IPVanish | PrivateVPN | |
| Website | ipvanish.com | privatevpn.com |
| Servers | 1,400 | 150 |
| Jurisdiction | United States | Sweden |
| Streaming | Netflix US, Hulu, Amazon | Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iPlayer |
| Speed | 4.2/5 | 4.3/5 |
| Torrenting | P2P servers | P2P servers |
| Kill Switch | YES | YES |
| Works in China? | NO | YES |
| Devices | 10 | 6 |
| Pricing | $ 6.49/month | $ 2.55/month |
About
IPVanish is a VPN service provider that enables you to access the internet anonymously and securely using military-grade encryption and connection protocols.
Here is a detailed IPVanish review.
PrivateVPN is also a VPN company that provides high download speeds as well as the ability to access geo-restricted content on streaming platforms like Netflix.
Click here for a detailed PrivateVPN review.
Server Collection
In order to be able to spread loads evenly, a vpn needs to have a large collection of servers.
It also means that the more widespread a vpn servers are, the easier it will be to get a nearby server in most of the countries that you’d like to connect to.
IPVanish, at the time of writing this IPVanish vs PrivateVPN comparison has a total of 1,300 servers that are based in 75 different countries.
PrivateVPN, on the other hand, has a paltry collection of only 150 servers that are spread over just 60 countries.
From this comparison, it is clear that IPVanish not only has a larger collection of servers but that it also covers a larger geographical region than PrivateVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn that has servers in more countries then I recommend IPVanish.
Streaming
How about the streaming capabilities of both IPVanish and PrivateVPN?
Will you be able to stream content on popular platforms like Netflix using either IPVanish or PrivateVPN.
Most streaming platforms that provide geo restricted entertainment content will detect and ban vpn IPs and proxy servers that are used to circumvent their content restriction blocks.
A good vpn should therefore be able to replace blacklisted IPs as soon as they are blocked.
IPVanish, currently, is able to unblock Netflix using their servers that are based in the United States.
Once connected to their servers that are based in the US, you’ll be able to stream and watch your favorite tv shows that are available for the US audience.
Since the US has the largest collection of tv series, most people would be satisfied with Netflix US unblocking.
However, I was not able to use IPVanish to unblock content on other streaming platforms like Hulu, Amazon Prime or BBC iPlayer.
All of their IPs are blocked on these platforms.
PrivateVPN, on the other hand, is also able to unblock content on Netflix using their servers based in the US, UK and Germany.
In addition to Netflix, PrivateVPN is able to stream content on other platforms like Hulu, Amazon Prime and iPlayer.
In order to use PrivateVPN to access streaming platforms, you first need to connect to their servers that are optimized for these platforms.
In the server list, you’ll find labelled servers for each of the platforms that you’d like to unblock.
From this comparison, it is clear that PrivateVPN even though a quite small vpn company is able to unblock more streaming platforms than IPVanish.
If you are looking for a vpn with great streaming capabilities then I recommend PrivateVPN instead of IPVanish.
Speed
Which vpn is faster between PrivateVPN and IPVanish?
In order to test PrivateVPN vs IPVanish connection speeds, I used speedtest.net to measure both download and upload speeds.
I connected to three different servers based in three different countries i.e. the US, UK and Hong Kong.
Using speedtest.net by Ookla, I then measure the ping, download and upload speeds before and after connecting to their servers.
IPVanish was able to give connection speeds that were 84% on average of my initial download speeds.
PrivateVPN, on the flip side, has an average connection speed of 86% on average of my original connection speeds.
It is therefore clear that PrivateVPN, again even though a pretty small vpn company, has servers that are much faster than those by IPVanish.
If you are looking for one of the best vpns for speed then I recommend PrivateVPN.
Torrenting
If you want to be able to torrent safely, you should use a vpn.
This is because a vpn will hide your IP address so that your torrenting activities cannot be traced back to you.
So how does IPVanish vs PrivateVPN compare in terms of their torrenting support?
IPVanish and PrivateVPN both allow torrenting on their servers.
However, in order to download torrent files on either PrivateVPN or IPVanish servers, you first need to connect to their dedicated P2P servers.
This is because torrenting is not supported on all their servers.
Since all the torrenting optimized servers are labelled, you can easily find them in the servers lists and choose the one to connect to.
In addition to that, neither PrivateVPN nor iPVanish keeps logs of your IP address…
… so your torrenting on these servers is completely private and anonymous.
If you are looking for a vpn for torrenting then either PrivateVPN or IPVanish will do.
You’ll however get better download speeds while on PrivateVPN servers.
Privacy Policy
Your internet access through your ISP is not private because your ISP sees and logs all your internet history forever.
This gives your ISP a lot of power because they have your entire internet history than can easily be used against you, even if you think you have nothing to lose.
A vpn makes your internet access private and anonymous but this is only the case if they keep as little information about your internet activity as possible.
Let’s now compare IPVanish vs PrivateVPN and see which one of them offers the best privacy online.
IPVanish, being a vpn company that is located in the United States, in definitely located in a country that is not great for privacy.
It is because the US is a founding member of the 14 eyes surveillance alliance countries.
That notwithstanding, IPVanish keeps a no logs policy that does not keep any information that can be used to identify you.
PrivateVPN is also located in Sweden, which also forms part of the 14 eyes countries alliance that surveille their citizens and then share their personal information amongst themselves.
Just like IPVanish, though, PrivateVPN promises a no traffic logs policy that does not keep any data that could be used to identify you.
Clearly, both IPVanish are not located in privacy friendly jurisdictions.
Secondly, just saying we do not keep logs is not good enough… it’s rather vague.
I would appreciate if both vpns could come out clear on what logs exactly they keep and which ones they don’t.
If you are looking for a vpn that has a no logs policy, then both IPVanish and PrivateVPN currently claim to keep a no logs policy.
Encryption and Data Protection
If you want your data to be secure, you should ensure it is encrypted.
And not just any kind of encryption… you should use an encryption technology that is impossible to crack.
It is for this reason that most vpns employ the use of the best encryption technologies to guarantee the security of your personal information.
IPVanish, at the time of writing this IPVanish vs PrivateVPN comparison, supports NSA recommended 256-bit encryption technology.
PrivateVPN, on the other hand, supports both 128-bit and 256-bit encryption technology that are both impossible to hack.
In addition to encryption technologies, vpns also use connection protocols for secure data transmission.
IPVanish supports OpenVPN, L2TP, SSTP and PPTP protocols.
PrivateVPN also supports OpenVPN, L2TP, IPSec, PPTP and IKEv2 connection protocols.
Both of these vpns supports secure encryption and connection protocols that will guarantee the security of your personal information.
If you are looking for a vpn that guarantees your security online then either IPVanish or PrivateVPN are great options.
Ad Blocker
An ad blocker enables you to block ads and enjoy an ad free browsing experience when visiting most websites.
You might need to disables ads if you don’t want websites tracking you and following your around with particular ads on every websites that you visit.
Apart from tracking you, some websites are also very aggressive with their ads.
This makes them very intrusive and annoying, for the most part.
So how does PrivateVPN vs IPVanish compare in terms of their ad blocking capabilities?
IPVanish and PrivateVPN, unfortunately, do not support ad blocking in any of their desktop or mobile apps.
Their apps are also conspicuously missing in malware blockers that can protect your form malware infected phishing websites.
If you are looking for a vpn that has an ad blocker then you’ll have to look elsewhere as none of these vpns will work.
Dedicated IPs
If you want to always connect to the internet using the same IP address then you need to a dedicated IP address.
This because a normal vpn connection will assign you a shared IP address.
Because this shared IP address changes depending on the server that you connect to, some sensitive websites will block you when you try to login using a different IP.
You therefore need a dedicated IP that you can whitelist in your apps.
IPVanish, unfortunately, does not support any dedicated IPs.
So you won’t be able to get an IP address that you can always use when connecting to the internet.
PrivateVPN, on the flip side, has a dedicated IP feature.
With the PrivateVPN dedicated IPs you’ll be able to choose a server to always use when connecting to the internet and you’ll always get the same IP address.
The dedicated IPs are listed together with the P2P optimized servers.
If you are looking for the best vpn dedicated IP then I recommend PrivateVPN.
Kill Switch
Usually, a vpn will provide with secure access to the internet once your connect to their servers.
But this access is only secure and anonymous as long as your remain connected to their servers while accessing the internet.
In case your vpn app disconnects from the server, which happens when your internet connection drops or when you are switching servers.
So you should use a kill switch to ensure that your internet access for your entire device is cut off in case your vpn app disconnects from the server.
A kill switch therefore, ensures that you only access the internet through your vpn tunnel.
Both IPVanish and PrivateVPN have an inbuilt kill switch functionality that protects your IP from being revealed anytime your vpn app disconnects from the servers.
Once turned on, this kill switch will ensure that all your internet traffic is encrypted and channelled through your vpn tunnel.
If you are looking for the best vpn kill switch then either IPVanish or PrivateVPN is a great option.
Split Tunnelling
A split tunnel enables you to exempt certain applications on your device from having their traffic channelled through your vpn.
You might want to do this for example when you want to be able to prevent some of your apps from being by the speeds drops that are caused by vpn connections.
Most vpns have an inbuilt split tunnelling feature that either enable you to whitelist entire apps or websites.
PrivateVPN and IPVanish, unfortunately, do not support split tunnelling.
So you won’t be able to exempt certain applications from your vpn tunnel.
If you want a vpn with a functional split tunnel then look elsewhere because none of PrivateVPN or IPVanish supports split tunnelling.
Works in China?
Most vpns will not be able to work in China?
This is because China has a powerful firewall that is able to detect and either throttle or completely block vpn traffic.
It uses a deep packet inspection technology that detects OpenVPN with very high precision.
If a vpn wants to be able to work in China, it should be able to make its vpn traffic look like normal https traffic in order to bypass China’s firewall.
IPVanish, at the time of writing this IPVanish vs PrivateVPN comparison, does not work in China.
PrivateVPN, on the flip side, is able to work in China without being blocked.
But first, you need to activate its stealth vpn mode in order for it to be able to obfuscate your traffic.
Once activated you’ll be able to use PrivateVPN in China to access both censored as well as uncensored content.
If you are looking for a vpn that works in China then I recommend PrivateVPN.
Pricing
As we near the end of this IPVanish vs PrivateVPN comparison, let’s compare the pricing plans of these two vpns to determine which is cheaper.
Both IPVanish and PrivateVPN offer you great discounts for longer subscription plans.
IPVanish has a 1 year plans that goes for $ 6.49/month while PrivateVPN has a 2 years plan that costs $ 2.55/month.
It is therefore evident that PrivateVPN is cheaper vpn than IPVanish.
If you want a vpn that will save you a few bucks and also offer you a longer subscription plan then I recommend PrivateVPN.
Payment Options
Let’s finish this PrivateVPN vs IPVanish comparison by looking at the different payment methods that these two vpns support.
I believe that if a vpn is serious about your privacy, then they should provide you with anonymous payment methods.
If you use an anonymous payment method like crypto payments, you’ll be able to gives as little identifying information about you as possible because these payments do not require you to provide a billing address.
IPVanish, at this time, only supports payments through PayPal and all the major credit cards.
IPVanish does not support any crypto payments.
PrivateVPN, on the flip side, supports credit card payments, PayPal as well as crypto payments through Bitcoin.
Since PrivateVPN supports Bitcoins, you can sign up with a disposable email address and pay with some Bitcoins and nobody will get to know who you are.
If you are looking for a vpn that supports Bitcoin payments then I recommend PrivateVPN.
In Conclusion
I hope this IPVanish vs PrivateVPN comparison has helped learn the advantages and disadvantages of these vpns.
Are you now ready to make a choice between either IPVanish or PrivateVPN?
If you are looking for a vpn that is cheap, has excellent streaming capabilities and works in China then I recommend PrivateVPN.
However, if you are willing to pay a little more for a vpn with great connection speeds, supports torrenting and covers a larger geographical region then I recommend IPVanish.
Have you used either IPVanish or PrivateVPN before?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
