IVPN is one of the most efficient and effective virtual private network platforms I have ever seen in the field of Internet privacy and security. You can be sure that the developers of the VPN platform do their best to provide you with the highest level of privacy and Internet anonymity. IVPN was founded in 2009 by Nicholas Pestell with his company Privatus Limited.
He manages a team of 13 employees spread across 8 different countries. Each member of the team is an expert in information security. They were previously students of the Royal Holloway IT security course. Privatus Limited is the company that developed IVPN and is based at 5 Secretary’s Lane, Gibraltar, GX11 1AA, Gibraltar. Read the full IVPN review to learn more about this Virtual Private Network provider.
Features
IVPN offers more than just the usual security and privacy benefits. Pro plan subscribers benefit from
Multi-hop:Â Reroute traffic through two servers instead of one and get double encryption.
Anti-tracking:Â IVPN blocks ads, adware, malicious websites, and trackers.
Obfsproxy: ISPs and government agencies won’t even know you’re using a VPN to bypass censorship (Windows, macOS, and Linux clients only).
Port forwarding:Â By forwarding traffic from one IP/port to another, you can add an extra layer of security to your network.
Wireguard:Â A faster, simpler and easier to use VPN protocol than OpenVPN. Allows you to change the encryption method.
Speed Test
IVPN is fast. It’s impressively fast. We ran these tests with a WiFi connection that is almost always slower than a wired connection, but still achieved streaming-quality speeds from our test location across the Pacific to Portland, Oregon.
IVPN recommends using a firewall in almost all cases, so we ran this speed test with an active firewall. The results were as follows.
| Location | Ping | Download Speed | Upload Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Without VPN |
17ms |
14.73 Mbps |
2.37 Mbps |
|
Seattle, Washington |
31ms |
12.98 Mbps |
2.25 Mbps |
|
Toronto, Canada |
173ms |
7.01 Mbps |
1.93 Mbps |
|
Lisbon, Portugal |
351ms |
5.46 Mbps |
2.10 Mbps |
|
Tokyo, Japan |
234ms |
5.84 Mbps |
2.16 Mbps |
|
Sydney, Australia |
408ms |
5.84 Mbps |
2.27 Mbps |
We also tested some of the same servers with the WireGuard protocol to see if it was really faster (our unprotected speeds are reproduced below for reference). The changes in both directions were small enough to be explained by the usual daily changes to the servers, so it seems that WireGuard is not revolutionizing IVPN for now.
| Location | Latency Speed | Download Speed | Upload Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Portland, Oregon |
17ms |
14.73 Mbps |
2.37 Mbps |
|
Seattle, Washington |
26ms |
10.77 Mbps |
0.97 Mbps |
|
Toronto, Canada |
174ms |
6.98 Mbps |
2.19 Mbps |
|
Lisbon, Portugal |
354ms |
7.38 Mbps |
2.23 Mbps |
In both tests, latency was consistently low for nearby servers, so if you have a server nearby, this is a good VPN to play with. further away, however, speed tests show that latency suffers.
Pricing Plans
The number of devices that can connect to iVPN at the same time depends on the package you choose. iVPN offers two subscription tiers: Standard and Pro
The standard subscription costs $6/month or $60/year. This gives you access to all protocols and features except port forwarding and multi-hop, and allows you to make two simultaneous connections.
Port forwarding is a feature that allows you to forward traffic from a VPN server to a local device on your local network. This can be useful if you are running a server behind a VPN or if you are hosting torrents that require your nodes to be visible on the Internet. However, this poses some security risks, so port forwarding is disabled by default on all accounts that support it.
The Pro subscription costs $10/month or $100/year. And it gives you access to all protocols and features. The Pro subscription allows up to 7 simultaneous connections.
All subscriptions come with a 3-day free trial and a 7-day money-back guarantee. Let’s break it down because it can get a little confusing.
Most VPN providers offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. And while 10 days is more than enough time to test the quality of a VPN service, IVPN still has room for improvement here.
Connection Time Analysis
IVPN’s connection time is 2.74 seconds, which shows its accuracy in predicting the time it takes to establish a connection.
With an average of 8.35 seconds, IVPN provides a very fast, if not instant, connection. This is higher than many other VPN providers, which take more than ten seconds, sometimes even thirty seconds.
Few VPN providers offer this or lower connection time, but it’s great when any VPN client connects in ten seconds or less. Timeliness also confirms that the VPN provider offers a reliable connection.
Now let’s take a look at what multi-hop gives us hope.
Obviously, multi-hops take more time to connect compared to single-hops, which require connecting to another server. In one case, the connection time increased to 17 seconds for several reasons. However, this is acceptable since it occurred only once in 10 iterations.
Server Locations
IVPN has 22 servers in 13 countries
Setting up IVPN is easy, as there are applications for all major platforms. On Linux, however, you have to configure it manually. You can also install it on routers and NAS.
Depending on the device, configuration can take 1-10 minutes. They have 24/7 customer support and you can talk to them via live chat.
The speed is good and you can connect up to 5 devices with one license, which means you can protect not only your own devices, but also those of your family and friends.
Streaming
Unfortunately, IVPN is not the ideal solution for Netflix streaming. You should consider other VPNs that can unblock US Netflix without any issues. I tried connecting to your US servers to unblock US Netflix, but immediately received a proxy error message.
Privacy and Logging
IVPN’s privacy policy is a concise document that is just the right length – enough words to cover the necessary details, but not so long that the most important points are lost.
The document goes into sufficient detail on elements it does not record, such as: Traffic, DNS requests, connection timestamps, session lengths, IP addresses, etc.
The company is very specific about the information it collects. For example, forget the usual vague statements about logging “payment data“; IVPN describes the exact fields it stores and provides examples to make it clear.
The most important message, however, is that IVPN had the courage to undergo this review and is committed to repeating the process every year. More details can be found in his blog post, and if you’re interested in the technical details, there’s a link to the final report.
Customer Support
If you have a problem, who should you call? Unfortunately, it’s not GhostBusters, it’s IVPN customer support. Let’s take a closer look.
Customer support reviews
Unfortunately, IVPN doesn’t have any customer reviews on Amazon, Google or Trustpilot, but I can tell you that when I spoke to a customer support representative via chat, I received a quick and clear response. So, take it with a grain of salt, but I think IVPN has good customer service.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Flexible and affordable pricing
- Unique multi-hop system
- Privacy built into the account system
- Strong commitment to transparency
Cons
- Limited server space available
- Multi-hopping and account IDs can be confusing for some users
Conclusion
We were impressed. The IVPN offers a service where privacy is a major concern – both a clear privacy policy and the strong privacy features offered by open source applications.
How useful a multi-hop VPN is is debatable, and WireGuard is too experimental to recommend in serious situations. But we like that IVPN is willing to use cutting-edge technology.
Speed performance could be better, and IVPN isn’t available if you want to watch BBC iPlayer, but these are really minor issues with an overall excellent VPN service.
It offers rock-solid technical security with great support, and features like port forwarding, obfsproxy obfuscation, and a highly flexible kill switch all work as expected. And it also unlocks US Netflix.
