NordVPN and IPVanish are both well-known providers with a lot in common. Today, we’ll be scratching beneath the surface and seeing how these two VPNs compare on security, speed, streaming ability, customer support, and more. This way, you’ll have a better idea of what you’re paying for and ultimately, whether NordVPN or IPVanish is better for your needs.

To provide the fairest possible comparison, we spent hours testing these VPNs for ourselves and noting down every feature they had to offer. Here are a few of NordVPN and IPVanish’s major strengths:

If you’re having trouble deciding between NordVPN and IPVanish, we’d suggest giving NordVPN a try first. It offers significantly more security features than its rival and works with just about every streaming service we’ve tried, plus it has a steep discount at the moment. IPVanish is still worth your time, though, especially with the discounts it’s currently offering. We’d recommend this VPN to anyone who values performance or the ability to connect all of their devices at the same time.

Summary: NordVPN vs IPVanish

NordVPN vs IPVanish: VPN price comparison

These services are fairly evenly-priced with pretty similar prices points, regardless of how long users subscribe for. That said, IPVanish is slightly cheaper across all of its plans, even when taking NordVPN’s steep long-term discounts into account.

NordVPN

  • High-speed connections
  • Large number of servers
  • Several advanced security options
  • Exceptional unblocking ability

IPVanish

  • Allows unlimited connections
  • Fast and reliable
  • Strong focus on security and privacy
  • Excellent multi-platform support

Both services come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. This gives you time to test either service out on all of your devices and decide whether you’d like to continue using it or not. If not, just cancel for a full refund.

Best Deal for NordVPN: Save 68% with a two-year subscription.

Best Deal for IPVanish: Get a 76% discount with an annual plan.

NordVPN vs IPVanish features

Both IPVanish and NordVPN have strong multi-platform support but there are a couple of differences between the two. NordVPN, for instance, offers a command line-based installer for Linux. IPVanish, on the other hand, has to manually configured.

That said, IPVanish allows users to connect any number of devices at once (compared to NordVPN’s six-connection limit). This means it might be the better choice for people looking to share their account with family, or simply for those with lots of devices to protect. You can even choose to allow certain applications through the VPN, which lets you conserve bandwidth by only encrypting potentially-sensitive traffic.

NordVPN includes a few extra features that give it the edge here, however. For instance, it can block ads and scan for malware automatically, and there are specific servers designed for accessing Tor. There are also browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox (IPVanish lacks Firefox support) though it’s worth noting that these only encrypt your browser traffic and don’t allow protect P2P networks or other internet-facing apps on your device.

Streaming and Netflix comparison

NordVPN is famous for its ability to bypass stubborn geo-blocking. While IPVanish works with a decent selection of regional streaming platforms, it struggles to bypass the more stringent geo-restriction measures used by larger, more popular services. As shown in the table above, NordVPN can not only securely access a wider range of services, it also enables users to access a wider range of country-specific Netflix libraries, a feature which is highly in-demand.

China

China poses a particular problem to VPN providers. Recent updates to the country’s Great Firewall have made it especially difficult to browse privately, and IPVanish admits that its service is unlikely to work in China. It does, however, offer installation guides for users willing to try regardless.

NordVPN worked in China until very recently. Currently, the developers are working on a fix that should see this VPN back up and running shortly. It’s important to note that most VPN websites (including NordVPN’s) are blocked by China’s firewall, so you should plan to install and setup the service before you actually arrive in China.

Setup and interface

Both of these VPNs have clean, easy-to-use desktop apps. NordVPN allows users to choose their server either from a list or on a map, and includes a quick-connect button on the main page. There’s a separate tab for settings, and these are neatly organized, making it easy to find whatever you need.

IPVanish’s desktop app gives you slightly more control, but still doesn’t overwhelm the user. It recently revamped its main page, and now features a large map instead of a list of every server. If you’d prefer to choose manually, you can just click the locations tab on the left-hand side. There aren’t as many advanced options, but this does mean that IPVanish is easier for novices to use.

These services both offer exceptional mobile apps. NordVPN allows you to access your favorite servers, as well as those designed for Tor over VPN and file-sharing, right on the home screen. There are fewer options to choose from than in the desktop app, but the ability to obfuscate your traffic, protect wifi, and connect automatically remains.

IPVanish’s mobile app is similarly easy to use. Its home screen is simplistic, with a large quick-connect button and server selection menus, while its settings page maintains most of the functionality present in the desktop app. This includes split tunneling, LAN blocking, and automatic connection abilities.

Servers and performance

NordVPN has a significant advantage here. It boasts a very large network, with over 5,300 servers globally. This ensures that users can obtain a fast, low-latency connection regardless of where they are in the world. Notably, NordVPN has a presence in a few more countries than its rival, including places like Vietnam, Georgia, and Indonesia.

IPVanish has a lot of locations to choose from, with servers in more than a dozen US cities. That said, it covers fewer countries overall — around 53 total. That’s still a respectable amount, though, and with 2,000 servers worldwide, you shouldn’t have any issues finding one nearby.

Take a look at the table below to see where each of these VPNs have servers:

Now for the interesting part. IPVanish actually outperformed NordVPN in our speed tests, averaging 488 Mbps as opposed to 369 Mbps. It’s clear that neither service is slow (you only need around 25 Mbps to stream 4K video), but if you’re after raw speed, IPVanish is the clear winner.

Security comparison

IPVanish enables users to connect via the WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP, and PPTP protocols. NordVPN, on the other hand, only permits OpenVPN and its own Wireguard-based NordLynx protocol (IKEv2 connections must be manually configured). Both services use 256-bit AES encryption which is effectively uncrackable, but since NordVPN’s RSA keys are twice the length of IPVanish’s, it’s slightly more secure.

Both offer a kill switch (in their respective desktop apps) which stops all data transfer should you disconnect from the VPN unexpectedly. They each use their own DNS servers too: this ensures that no third party has access to your traffic at any point.

NordVPN has a selection of obfuscated servers designed for use in countries with strict online censorship. These servers use obfsproxy to reshape your traffic, preventing organizations that use deep-packet inspection from realizing that you’re using a VPN at all. IPVanish has a similar feature which allows you to scramble OpenVPN traffic, but this isn’t as effective in countries like the United Arab Emirates.

Privacy

NordVPN is based in Panama, a country with no mandatory data retention laws, while IPVanish operates out of the United States. As the US is one of the Five Eyes countries, theoretically, details of your activities could be shared between the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. However, if your VPN provider doesn’t keep any logs, this shouldn’t matter since your activities can’t be traced back to you in the first place.

NordVPN keeps no logs whatsoever. Some VPNs log things like your source IP address, timestamps, data volume, sites visited, or the server used, but NordVPN won’t. It even allows you to sign up anonymously, provided you use a throwaway email address and pay via cryptocurrency.

IPVanish has long claimed to be a zero-logs provider, but in 2018, the company provided information as part of a Homeland Security investigation. IPVanish has since changed ownership, however, and underwent an independent audit in 2022 to prove that it no longer keeps any logs. Currently, this VPN does not accept any form of cryptocurrency.

Customer service

NordVPN and IPVanish both provide customer support over 24/7 live chat, although NordVPNs service is run by in-house staff while IPVanish’s is outsourced. We messaged both teams at varying times of day and found that both replied promptly and were knowledgeable about the service and capable of answering fairly technical questions.

Each service has a ticket support system and a searchable knowledge base. While tutorials are usually illustrated with screenshots, short video walkthroughs for solving some of the more common problems are available on the NordVPN and IPVanish YouTube channels.

Usually, the easiest way to get help is over live chat. However, we sent three questions via email (at different times each day) to each service in order to see how quickly they could address more complex problems. Below, you’ll find the questions we asked, how long NordVPN and IPVanish took to reply, and whether they provided a suitable answer or not.

Both of these services replied promptly to email enquiries, although they both used pre-written responses to form at least part of their answers. Having said that, the customer support teams are clearly knowledgeable about their products. IPVanish staff even explained step-by-step how to install the service on OpenELEC devices — a platform it doesn’t officially support.

The winner: NordVPN

NordVPN’s massive network, high speeds, and excellent unblocking capabilities make it a strong choice for those looking to use geo-blocked services abroad. This service puts a major emphasis on your privacy: it allows you to sign up anonymously but even if you don’t, your activities can’t be traced since NordVPN logs no personally identifiable information at all.

Finally, NordVPN is highly versatile. It has a wide selection of security features, allows you to obtain a dedicated IP address, and even works flawlessly in countries like China, where a huge number of websites entirely unavailable. With apps for all major operating systems and in-house support available at any time, day or night, NordVPN proves it’s a reliable, easy-to-use service with a lot to offer.

Methodology: How we compared NordVPN and IPVanish

It’s always difficult to compare VPNs because every service is radically different from its competitors. For us to create the fairest, most balanced comparison possible, we had to personally test NordVPN and IPVanish and see what they had to offer in each of the categories below:

  • Network scale: Server count isn’t everything, but the number of locations available is pretty important. After all, you’ll find that a VPN’s performance gets worse the further away your chosen server is. Paid VPNs tend to offer around 60 locations, though some have as many as 100.
  • Speed: We regularly speed test providers and have seen real improvement in this area over the last few years. As encrypting and rerouting data takes time, your speeds will always be lower when connected. Still, with so many providers offering lightning-quick speeds, sluggish VPNs are no longer acceptable.
  • Security: VPNs must use uncrackable encryption and back this up with a kill switch, leak protection, and a no-logs policy. Of course, that’s simply a starting point — we’d much rather see stealth modes, anti-tracking features, and multi-hop servers included as well.
  • Unblocking: Lots of websites use regional blocking these days, which can cause frustration as users keep having to disconnect from the VPN. We tested these providers against popular platforms such as Disney Plus, HBO Max, and ESPN+ to see which was better at flying beneath the radar.
  • Ease of use: Can a complete novice use this VPN? What steps has the provider taken to make things as simple as possible? We strongly value user-first features like 24/7 live chat, task-specific servers, and descriptive settings menys
  • Value for money: The most important question we have to answer is “is this VPN worth what it’s charging?”. Even then, we strongly prefer providers that offer free trials, money-back guarantees, or periodic discounts, since this lowers the bar to entry and allows you to try the service out with minimal risk.

Still have questions? We break down our full process in the complete VPN testing methodology post.

NordVPN wasn’t too far behind, averaging almost 370 Mbps. For context, that’s fast enough to watch 4K video on 14 devices at the same time. In other words, you shouldn’t even notice a difference unless you’re used to extremely high speeds.