ExpressVPN vs. IPVanish 2024: ExpressVPN is More Reliable

ExpressVPN has a better history with its no-logs policy than IPVanish. It provides solid download speeds and unblocks streaming content from many popular services, including Netflix and Disney+. Despite its price point, it's still one of the best VPNs available. 

IPVanish is the cheaper option of the two (starts at $2.19/mo (billed every two years) vs. $6.25/mo (billed annually)), but it didn't perform as well on our speed tests and hasn’t always stuck to its no-logs policy. 

We examine the details of our ExpressVPN vs. IPVanish review to compare both services in terms of pricing, internet speeds, security features, and more.

ExpressVPN vs. IPVanish at a glance

ExpressVPN and IPVanish are two well-known virtual private networks. ExpressVPN is a top-tier VPN provider known for its super-fast Lightway protocol, reliable connectivity, and enhanced privacy features. IPVanish is known for its affordability while offering fast connection speeds and strong security protocols. 

ExpressVPN: Best for security

IPVanish: Best for affordability

How do ExpressVPN and IPVanish compare?

Price	Starts at $6.25/mo (billed annually)	Starts at $2.19/mo (billed every two years)
Max connected devices	8	Unlimited
24/7 customer support
Compatibility	Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and more	Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Fire TV Stick, Fire TV, and certain routers
Number of servers	Unlisted in 105 countries	2,400+ servers in 130+ locations
VPN protocol	Lightway, OpenVPN, IKEv2	OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, IPsec
No-logs policy	No logs	No logs
Unblocks Netflix?
	Get ExpressVPN Read ExpressVPN Review	Get IPVanish Read IPVanish Review

Express VPN pros and cons

ExpressVPN has prices that range from $4.99–$12.95/mo, which is more expensive than IPVanish at $2.19–$12.99/mo. 

ExpressVPN is compatible with more devices, operating systems, and apps than IPVanish, including popular browser extensions such as Chrome and Firefox. You can also use the ExpressVPN smart DNS feature (MediaStreamer) to access certain VPN features on devices that wouldn’t typically have access to a VPN app. These could include some smart TVs, gaming consoles, or streaming devices such as Apple TVs. 

Both ExpressVPN and IPVanish have had independent audits done of their no-logs policies. The ExpressVPN audit was more recent (2023) than the IPVanish audit (2022). Plus, IPVanish breached its no-logs policy in the past (2016), whereas ExpressVPN hasn’t had any similar issues that we’re aware of.

IPVasnish pros and cons

The maximum number of devices is how many devices — phones, laptops, tablets, etc. — you’re allowed to connect to your VPN account. ExpressVPN limits you to eight devices, whereas IPVanish has no limit.

IPVanish has an average server and location count of 2,400+ servers in 130+ locations. ExpressVPN doesn’t publish its exact number of servers, but it has servers in 105 countries. You might want more servers to choose from so you can avoid busy servers that could slow down your internet connection. Also, having servers in more countries means you have more opportunities to unblock regional streaming content. 

There’s a point to be made about using the IPVanish SOCKS5 proxy to unblock streaming content, but this is more of an advanced feature and might not be as easy for a beginner VPN user to figure out. It likely makes more sense to go with a VPN that works with streaming content without having to do anything other than connect to a server.

Prices

		Our Pick
Price range	$4.99–$12.95/mo	$2.19–$12.99/mo
Best value plan	12-month plan for $6.25/mo (billed annually)	2-year plan for $2.19/mo (billed every two years)
Money-back guarantee	Yes — 30 days	Yes — 30 days
Learn more	Get ExpressVPN Read ExpressVPN Review	Get IPVanish Read IPVanish Review

ExpressVPN costs between $4.99–$12.95/mo, with its lowest-priced option being a one-year plan at $6.25/mo (billed annually).

IPVanish costs between $2.19–$12.99/mo, with its lowest-priced option being a two-year plan at $2.19/mo (billed every two years). They all include the same VPN features, but the yearly subscription also includes VIPRE Antivirus.

Overall, IPVanish is the cheaper option if you want to save money on a VPN. We’re actually quite disappointed in how much ExpressVPN costs compared with other VPNs. Its lowest-priced option is more than double the cost of the equivalent option from IPVanish. But it may be worth the cost for ExpressVPN if you want its smart DNS functionality or nearly double the number of countries to connect to compared to IPVanish.

For another affordable alternative with smart DNS and more servers than IPVanish, consider NordVPN.

Payment options

It’s easy to pay for either VPN service using their available payment methods, but ExpressVPN provides more options than IPVanish. This includes using Bitcoin as payment. Your personal information isn’t typically attached to a cryptocurrency transaction, which means a crypto payment could offer more privacy than using a credit card or PayPal. However, paying with cryptocurrency doesn’t mean your payment is completely anonymous.

IPVanish provides Google Pay as a payment option, and ExpressVPN doesn’t. This isn’t a huge deal, but it could be more convenient for you depending on how you typically purchase goods and services.

ExpressVPN payment options

• Credit card
• PayPal
• Bitcoin
• Paymentwall

IPVanish payment options

• Credit card
• PayPal
• Google Pay

Which VPN is faster?

We run speed tests before and after connecting to VPNs to see whether the VPN connection significantly slows down our internet. We know that VPNs take bandwidth and typically slow down your internet somewhat. But we want to see if it’s enough of a decrease to affect everyday activities, such as playing online games or surfing the web.

To measure this, we test our internet before connecting to a VPN to get a baseline speed. We then run individual speed tests while separately connecting to servers in different worldwide locations for each VPN service.

	Our Pick
U.S. server	3.64% faster	3.99% slower
U.K. server	9.75% faster	10.55% slower
AU server	3.1% faster	28.61% slower
	Get ExpressVPN Read ExpressVPN Review	Get IPVanish Read IPVanish Review

ExpressVPN maintained better speeds than IPVanish, especially as the physical distance increased. In particular, the ExpressVPN server in Australia actually improved download speeds, whereas the IPVanish server saw a comparable slowdown. It's more common for VPNs to decrease internet speeds when connecting to distant servers, so it's even more notable that our speed improved with ExpressVPN. We've also seen these favorable results with NordVPN. 

But we do how IPVanish shows server load percentages, ping, and the number of servers for each of its locations. This makes it easier to see whether a particular location is experiencing a high server load.

Which VPN is more secure?

Feature	Our Pick
Number of servers	Unlisted in 105 countries	2,400+ servers in 130+ locations
No-logs policy	No logs	No logs
VPN headquarters	British Virgin Islands	New York, U.S.
Encryption	AES-256	AES-256
VPN protocol	Lightway, OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec	OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, IPsec
Kill switch
Split tunneling	Yes (not available for macOS 11 and above)	Yes (Android and FireOS only)
DNS leak protection
Ad blocker
	Get ExpressVPN Read ExpressVPN Review	Get IPVanish Read IPVanish Review

Both ExpressVPN and IPVanish provide strict no-logs policies, kill switches, torrenting support, and high-level encryption. Although both providers offer split tunneling, which allows specific apps to bypass your VPN, IPVanish's functionality for this feature is limited to Android and FireOS devices. We noticed this when we couldn’t find a split tunneling option while using the IPVanish Windows app. ExpressVPN also notes that split tunneling is unavailable for macOS 11 and above, but you can use it on other devices.

It’s likely not a huge deal for the average VPN user, but having more features and functionality across different devices is typically useful for different situations.

For example, you might use your VPN to stream foreign content and split tunneling to bypass the secure connection on an online game you’re playing. This could free up bandwidth to improve your game’s performance while still allowing you to unblock regional streaming content.

Based on our research and the past history of both companies, ExpressVPN is more private and secure than IPVanish. This is primarily because ExpressVPN is headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, had an independent audit of its no-logs policy done in 2023, and has been involved with government agencies but hasn’t revealed any user information.

IPVanish also had an independent audit of its no-logs policy performed in 2022 by Leviathan Security Group, a security firm based in Seattle. But IPVanish was also involved in a privacy scandal in 2016 when it revealed user information to a U.S. government agent. This was shocking because IPVanish has long maintained that it enforces a strict no-logs policy, so it shouldn’t have had those user logs in the first place, much less handed them over to the authorities. IPVanish has since basically washed its hands of the whole thing, citing different ownership at the time.

Maybe IPVanish has changed its ways, but that’s still a tough stain to remove. However, we did test and find that both IPVanish and ExpressVPN don’t have WebRTC leaks, provide DNS leak protection, and can successfully mask your IP address.

The other concern with IPVanish is that it’s based in the U.S., whereas ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands. The U.S. is a Five Eyes Alliance member, a global alliance that involves the surveillance of citizens within the borders of its member countries. The British Virgin Islands aren’t affiliated with the Five Eyes Alliance and don’t have data retention laws, which means ExpressVPN doesn’t have to retain user logs.

Compatibility and customer support

	Our Pick
Windows
macOS
Android
iOS
Linux
Routers
Smart devices		Only FireOS devices (Amazon Fire TV Stick, Amazon Fire TV, etc.)
Browser extensions	Yes — Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge
24/7 customer support
Customer support options	Live chat, email, online guides	Live chat, phone, email, online guides
	Get ExpressVPN Read ExpressVPN Review	Get IPVanish Read IPVanish Review

It was simple and straightforward to set up the ExpressVPN and IPVanish Windows apps on our desktop computer. We didn’t do anything more than visit the websites for each provider, download and install the apps, and then log in. 

We didn’t have any glaring issues with either the ExpressVPN or IPVanish apps, but we preferred ExpressVPN. Both apps were generally easy to use and understand, but we enjoyed the minimalistic approach to the ExpressVPN app. It was a much smaller window that would then pop out another window if you wanted to access certain things, such as the settings or server list.

Compare this to the IPVanish app, which provides a larger window with everything in one place. It was convenient, and, again, there was nothing necessarily wrong with IPVanish, but we felt more comfortable using ExpressVPN.

Both VPNs provide loads of compatibility for different devices, but ExpressVPN matches what IPVanish has and then does more with smart devices and browser extensions. This includes compatibility with Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

You can also use the ExpressVPN MediaStreamer smart DNS service to use certain VPN functionality, such as unblocking streaming content, on devices that wouldn’t typically work with a VPN. For example, you can use ExpressVPN on different types of gaming consoles and smart TVs that don’t have access to the ExpressVPN app. IPVanish doesn’t have a smart DNS feature, which limits where you can use its VPN.

ExpressVPN and IPVanish provide customer service options with 24/7 live chat, email, and online guides. It’s typically a good sign if a VPN has 24/7 live chat because this is often the easiest and quickest way to get answers to any of your questions at any time. But keep in mind that, like many live chat experiences, the people you speak with through these support options might not have a lot of technical knowledge. So if you’re asking advanced questions about VPNs, it will likely be hit or miss whether a live chat representative can sufficiently answer your questions.

Having said that, we had good experiences using the live chat features with both ExpressVPN and IPVanish. We asked ExpressVPN about needing to use any specific servers for torrenting (and whether torrenting is supported) and we asked IPVanish about the availability across devices for their split tunneling feature.

We were connected to an ExpressVPN chat rep in 10 seconds or less and they informed us that ExpressVPN does support torrenting and you can connect to any server. This was helpful because it let us know that ExpressVPN doesn’t have specific servers that are optimized for torrenting, so any server should work.

It took a similar amount of time to connect with an IPVanish chat rep. We asked them if split tunneling is available on the Windows app because we couldn’t see an option on our end. Our research showed that IPVanish only provides this feature on Android and FireOS devices. The representative quickly confirmed what we had already thought and then went the extra mile to see if more availability would arrive in the future. They said IPVanish has plans to add split tunneling to more devices, but there wasn’t an exact time frame. Even without a specific date, it was nice to see a customer service rep take the time to find out more information to help.

Surprisingly, IPVanish also provides telephone numbers to contact its support team in the U.S., the U.K., Mexico, Spain, Australia, and Brazil. From our experience, most VPNs don’t provide phone numbers. ExpressVPN doesn’t. This is likely because call centers cost money and the customer base for popular VPNs is often worldwide, which might create certain language barriers.

But if you prefer talking to VPN support over the phone, you have the option to call IPVanish.

FAQs

Is ExpressVPN or IPVanish better?

We recommend ExpressVPN over IPVanish because it has a better history with its no-logs policy, isn’t located in the U.S., and provides superior streaming support. That’s in addition to offering fast speeds, 24/7 customer support, and a more anonymous payment option via Bitcoin.

IPVanish is definitely the cheaper option vs. ExpressVPN, especially considering ExpressVPN is one of the more expensive services out there. And the speed tests with IPVanish were great. But we don’t like that IPVanish is headquartered in the U.S. (because of privacy concerns) and that the company once turned over user logs to the U.S. government. 

There are a few cheaper ExpressVPN alternatives available with comparable security and features, like NordVPN, Surfshark, and CyberGhost.

ExpressVPN vs. IPVanish alternatives