IPVanish review

The short answer

IPVanish is a US-based paid VPN owned by Ziff Davis, the US media and software company behind Mashable and Everyday Health. Its record has two parts. In 2016, under a different owner, it gave US investigators connection data that its privacy policy said didn't exist. Since 2022, under Ziff Davis, it has passed three independent no-logs audits and promised to repeat them every year. We rate it Mixed because the audits are recent and real, but a broken promise is the one thing a no-logs VPN can't afford.

Tunnelcheck hasn't tested IPVanish. IPVanish's own website refused our reader, so this review leans on court reporting, Wikipedia, audit coverage and Ziff Davis financial reporting. Everything is listed under Sources. See how we review.

Who owns IPVanish and where is it based?

Wikipedia says IPVanish launched in 2012 under Mudhook Media, a subsidiary of Highwinds Network Group in Orlando, Florida. StackPath bought Highwinds, and with it IPVanish, in February 2017. In 2019 J2 Global bought IPVanish; J2 later renamed itself Ziff Davis. IPVanish sits in its consumer cybersecurity business. CyberInsider's 2025 audit report names the operating company as J2 Global Ventures, LLC.

Ziff Davis's 2026 earnings coverage still lists cybersecurity as a reporting segment and says IPVanish grew year over year. In June 2026 Ziff Davis sold a different business, its Connectivity unit, to Accenture; IPVanish wasn't part of that sale. As a US company, IPVanish is subject to US subpoenas and warrants. See who owns your VPN.

The 2016 case: what IPVanish handed over

In 2018 TorrentFreak reported on court papers from a 2016 Homeland Security Investigations case against Vincent Gevirtz, who later admitted sharing child abuse images. An agent had traced a suspect on an IRC chat network to an IPVanish address. Highwinds, IPVanish's owner then, first replied that it didn't log usage. After a second summons asking about traffic from a specific IP and port, it handed over Gevirtz's name, email address, subscription details, real Comcast IP address, and the times he connected to and disconnected from the VPN and the IRC network.

IPVanish's privacy policy at the time said it would never log any traffic or usage. The court papers appear to show it could produce exactly that kind of record. After the story broke, StackPath's CEO said no logs or logging systems existed when StackPath bought the company in 2017 and that the 2016 disclosure may have been a one-time directed order. TorrentFreak noted that StackPath didn't explain what happened in 2016.

Wikipedia also records IPVanish leaving Russia in 2016, removing Hong Kong servers in 2020 after the national security law, and pulling physical servers from India in 2022 over new data-retention rules.

Does IPVanish keep logs now? What the audits say

IPVanish now says it doesn't log traffic, browsing or connection metadata. Since 2022 it has had outside firms check. Our no-logs explainer covers what these checks can and can't show.

CyberInsider reported that the 2025 audit found no evidence of user activity or metadata logging and that abuse-detection tools worked in memory, keeping only anonymized totals. Its report on the 2026 audit says Schellman found no records of browsing, DNS lookups (the requests that turn site names into addresses) or individual VPN connections in the systems it examined, and that aggregate usage figures are kept for up to 24 hours without customer IP addresses.

Note the scope. The 2026 work checked a sample server and relied partly on developer interviews and a shared server image to cover the rest of the network. Reports are available only to subscribers. Compare providers on our VPN audits page.

Security features and protocols

Press coverage consistently lists three protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2. A protocol is the rule set that builds the encrypted tunnel; see WireGuard vs OpenVPN. TechRadar reported in July 2026 that WireGuard and OpenVPN reached IPVanish's Apple TV app, and that the OpenVPN option includes Scramble, IPVanish's feature for disguising VPN traffic on networks that block it.

Ziff Davis also said in 2026 that IPVanish's Windows and macOS apps now include Threat Protection Pro, a malware and tracker blocker, on some plans. We couldn't read IPVanish's own help pages, so we haven't confirmed kill-switch details here; see our kill switch guide and test with the leak test guide.

Streaming and torrenting with IPVanish

Torrenting. We couldn't read IPVanish's terms or help center, so we can't state its current P2P policy from the source. Check the terms before you rely on it. In any case, a VPN hides your downloads from your internet provider but doesn't make sharing copyrighted files legal. See is torrenting illegal.

Streaming. Using a VPN to watch another country's catalog usually breaks the streaming service's terms, and services block VPN IP addresses. Nothing is guaranteed. See why streaming services block VPNs.

Apps and devices

TechRadar reported when IPVanish dropped its device cap, and later coverage agrees that one subscription covers unlimited devices. Apps exist for the main desktop and mobile systems and for Apple TV, and you can also set it up on a router.

Price and refund

IPVanish's pricing page couldn't be fetched on 2026-11-13, so we have no checked price. See the official pricing page. Press guides report a 30-day money-back guarantee that applies to yearly plans and not monthly ones, but we couldn't confirm the current terms from IPVanish itself. Read the refund terms at checkout. Our checked VPN prices page lists the providers we could verify.

What we couldn’t verify

• Anything on IPVanish’s own site. Its pages refused our reader on 2026-11-13, so price, refund terms, torrenting rules and kill-switch details are unconfirmed here.
• The audit reports. They’re for subscribers only. Our summaries come from CyberInsider’s coverage of IPVanish’s announcements.
• What happened inside Highwinds in 2016. StackPath said it couldn’t speak for the former management, and no fuller account has been published.

Who IPVanish suits, and who should look elsewhere

• Suits: people who accept that the company changed hands twice since 2016 and want a recently audited, unlimited-device VPN.
• Look elsewhere if a past breach of a no-logs promise rules a brand out for you. Private Internet Access, also US-based, has the opposite court record.
• Look elsewhere if you want a provider outside US jurisdiction, such as Proton VPN or Mullvad.