IPVanish vs. NordVPN — Comparing the Fastest VPNs

Don’t you just hate it when your internet is so slow you can’t even load a single YouTube video? Do you know what’s even worse? Investing in a fast internet connection only to end up with a sluggish VPN. That’s why we always test the speed of VPNs we recommend.

IPVanish and NordVPN are two snappy VPNs in particular. They ranked second and third, respectively, in raw internet speed. They notched low download and upload speed losses while maintaining minimal latency spikes when we tested them on Australia servers. And when we factored in reliability and overall performance, they still came out in the top five of the fastest VPNs.

This time around, we’re putting IPVanish and NordVPN head-to-head to see which of them is the better VPN overall. We tested them side by side, taking into account their online data privacy, app performance, streaming and unblocking ability, IP address protection, and more. Our tests lasted more than three weeks. These two VPNs sure are fast, but we took things slow to make sure we cover everything you need to know. Let’s start!

Specs Comparison: IPVanish vs. NordVPN Servers

Starting with the easiest aspect to compare VPNs in, let’s talk about IPVanish versus NordVPN server networks.

Simply put, the bigger the better. NordVPN has far more servers than IPVanish in slightly more locations. That is big because a VPN’s server network plays a major role in determining its potential and performance.

Think of it this way: Having more physical servers means a VPN can handle more traffic from more users without bottlenecking. At the same time, offering more locations means it can serve a wider selection of IP addresses. And getting a U.S. IP address becomes easy. Almost all VPNs we’ve tested have servers in the U.S. But if you need an IP address from a country other than the U.S., definitely go with a VPN that offers more server locations. In this case, NordVPN is the clear winner.

Price Comparison: IPVanish vs. NordVPN Subscriptions

There are a few decent VPNs that are free, but the simple fact is the ones that offer the best online protection cost money. It’s up to you to find a VPN that offers great value for your hard-earned buck.

We assessed IPVanish’s pricing and NordVPN’s pricing and found that both offer good price-to-feature ratios. But it’s better if you see their pricing for yourself. Keep in mind, these are VPN-only subscriptions. NordVPN has pricier bundles that include its other products like the NordPass password manager and NordLocker cloud drive. IPVanish doesn’t offer similar bundles, so we’re sticking to their VPN-only plans.

Even with NordVPN’s special deal, it’s clear that IPVanish is cheaper in the long run. But does the $20 to $30 difference over the course of one to two years really matter that much? Not if you get more features. With that, let’s compare IPVanish and NordVPN features.

Feature Comparison: Split Tunneling, Multihop, and More

All VPNs do the same basic functions. They encrypt online traffic from your device and then route the encrypted data through a VPN server. But most VPNs also offer extra features to improve the overall function, and some VPN stealth-mode features vary from one service to another.

We saw that variance clearly when we compared IPVanish and NordVPN. Here’s what features each VPN included, and afterwards, we’ll talk about them in greater detail:

Kill Switch

You’re browsing with your VPN and then out of nowhere, it disconnects. That happens. What’s important is that your data stays private even after the sudden disconnection. That’s where the kill switch comes in. When your VPN disconnects or when you manually disable the VPN, the kill switch disconnects your device from the internet. This ensures you never go online without VPN cloaking.

Both NordVPN and IPVanish had a kill switch, but how their respective kill switches worked differed slightly.

NordVPN applied a system-wide kill switch to our iOS, Android, and Linux devices. That meant the entire system or device got disconnected. But for Windows and macOS, we had a choice between the system-wide kill switch and application-based kill switch. The latter let us choose which apps to apply the kill switch to. This meant we were able to set it up in a way that it turned off the internet for Chrome but left our Spotify app playing in the background.

On the other hand, with IPVanish, it was a system-wide kill switch all around. There was no option for an application-based kill switch.

Split Tunneling

Split tunneling is another nice feature to have. It lets you create exemptions. Exempted apps and websites bypass the VPN so you can use them without encryption (faster speed) and without changing your IP address. That can be useful in a number of situations — from accessing apps that are not VPN-friendly to improving your gaming experience with a VPN. That’s why our favorite VPNs for Fortnite always offer split tunneling as a feature.

IPVanish and NordVPN both had split tunneling, but IPVanish’s split tunneling was more customizable. It let us exclude both apps and URLs, whereas NordVPN only let us exclude apps.

Does that really make a big difference? It did for us when we tested their split tunneling features ourselves.

We wanted to exclude Security.org from our VPN traffic. With IPVanish, we simply entered “www.security.org” in the Domain Split Tunneling section. Whatever browser we used, our traffic to Security.org was never encrypted. With NordVPN, we had to exclude the entire browser app. That meant all the other tabs we had open at the time also didn’t receive encryption. Plus, we had to exclude the exact browser app we were using.

Multihop

Multihop is a feature the most secure VPNs have, but not everybody needs it. Multihop essentially doubles your VPN connection — so that’s twice the VPN encryption and IP address routing. It’s an extra secure connection option for people who need it such as journalists, whistleblowers, and activists. We don’t recommend always using multihop because it severely sacrifices speed, but it’s a good option to have in a VPN’s arsenal.

Between IPVanish and NordVPN, only NordVPN offers multihop. It’s also not that great because it offers only nine server locations. A multihop server location is actually a pair of VPN server locations. The first one is the entry country, which is where your traffic will first be routed. The second one is the exit country, which is what your IP address location will change to.

Ad and Malware Blocking

VPNs and antivirus software are not the same, but there can be some overlap. Some VPNs now offer ad and malware blocking, but only for the websites you visit. They won’t block malware from sources like an infected USB flash drive, bootleg programs, or downloaded files.

We saw ad and malware blocking both from IPVanish and NordVPN, but NordVPN seemed better at it. We ran a little experiment where we visited a site we’ve notoriously known for having lots of ads. While connected to IPVanish, most ads except for a couple of ad banners and a pop-up disappeared. With NordVPN, only the pop-up ad remained. Still, neither compared to the ad and malware blocking we got while testing TotalAV Antivirus, our favorite antivirus software out there.

Performance Comparison: IPVanish vs. NordVPN Speed

So far, NordVPN is slightly ahead. But the speed test is where IPVanish closed the gap. As we mentioned earlier, it ranked second in our raw internet speed test, while NordVPN ranked third.

Here’s how we did that test:

1. We measured the internet speed without the VPN.
2. We connected the VPN to a server in Australia and then ran another speed test.
3. We computed the percentage of the decrease in upload and download speed and the increase in the latency.
4. We repeated those steps 10 times and then averaged the results.

That test, however, measured the VPNs’ performance on distant servers. So we decided to redo the test, but this time connecting both VPNs to the fastest server available instead of Australia. By doing so, we can see their real maximum potential in terms of speed.

IPVanish connected to San Jose, California. NordVPN connected to San Francisco. Here’s how they did.

Both their speeds increased, but not by a lot. That’s a good thing though. It showed us that both VPNs are fast on distant and nearby servers. So whichever server you connect to, there’s a good chance your connection will be fast. And isn’t that what we all really want?

Privacy Policy Comparison: IPVanish vs. NordVPN Logging Policy

IPVanish and NordVPN both have a “no-logs” policy. That means they won’t log any VPN activity, from which websites you visited to what your real IP address was. “No-log policy”  for VPNs is sort of like doctor-patient confidentiality. As the “patient” in this scenario, you’re using the VPN’s server network to hide your activity and stay anonymous from the rest of the internet. As the “doctor,” the VPN company makes a commitment not to log your activity so you can stay private and anonymous even from the company itself.

That’s all that there is to the privacy policy, right? Well, there’s a reason NordVPN made our list of the best “no-logs” VPNs and IPVanish didn’t.

NordVPN is based in Romania. IPVanish is based in the United States. We’re all for homegrown companies, except when it comes to VPNs. There exists an international alliance called the Five Eyes, of which the U.S. is a member. Members of this alliance have rules that give their governments legal power to subpoena any customer data from any company in their jurisdiction. Romania is not a member of that alliance, so NordVPN is safer from such government requests.

That’s not to say we don’t trust IPVanish. It has a “no-logs” policy, so even if the government requests information, IPVanish shouldn’t be able to provide anything useful that would compromise a user’s VPN activity. That’s just something to keep in mind for those who are super-concerned about their privacy.

IPVanish vs. NordVPN: What’s The Verdict?

IPVanish and NordVPN both performed admirably and they are both great options. It all depends on what you’re looking for in a VPN. Based on the factors we compared above, here are our recommendations.

First, let’s talk about IPVanish. Choose IPVanish over NordVPN if you want an affordable VPN that can provide fast speeds and decent features. It has also got a more customizable split tunneling feature than NordVPN, so go with IPVanish if that feature is important to you.

As for NordVPN, choose it over IPVanish if you want a feature-rich VPN that is both fast and secure. The multihop feature is a clincher for NordVPN, being one of the very few VPNs that offers that functionality.

In any case, we strongly recommend reading our IPVanish review and NordVPN review before making your final choice. We delved deeper into each VPNs features, performance, strengths, and weaknesses in those reviews. Also check out our VPN buying guide for tips on how to choose a VPN for your specific use.