NordVPN vs. IPVanish 2024: Can Nord Be Beat?

When comparing NordVPN vs. IPVanish, NordVPN is more of a complete product. It’s cheaper than IPVanish, has more servers and country locations, did better with our streaming tests, and wasn’t too far behind on the speed tests. Even better, Nord sticks to its no-logs policy, which hasn’t always been the case with the IPVanish VPN. It's no secret that Nord is one of the best VPNs available.

IPVanish costs about the same as NordVPN ($2.99/mo (billed every two years) vs. $2.19/mo (billed every two years)) and provides unlimited device connections. That’s on top of doing well with unblocking many popular streaming services.

Let’s explore IPVanish vs. NordVPN to see how both of these providers stack up against each other with their security features, speeds, streaming, and customer service.

NordVPN vs. IPVanish at a glance

IPVanish and NordVPN are two popular virtual private networks (VPNs) that are primarily different when it comes to the max number of devices, the server count, compatibility, and their no-logs policies.

• NordVPN: Best overall
• IPVanish: Best for multiple connections at once

How do NordVPN and IPVanish compare?

	Our Pick
Price	From $2.99/mo (billed every two years)	From $2.19/mo (billed every two years)
Max # of connected devices	10	Unlimited
24/7 customer support
Compatibility	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, and more	Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, iOS, and more
# of servers	6,800+ servers in 111 countries	2,400+ servers in 130+ locations
VPN protocol	NordLynx, OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPsec	OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, IPsec
No-logs policy	No logs	No logs
Unblocks Netflix?
Learn more	Get NordVPN Read NordVPN Review	Get IPVanish Read IPVanish Review

NordVPN pros and cons

As one of the most popular VPNs around, NordVPN provides a high number of servers, which could be more helpful if you need access to servers in a specific country. Your performance could be better because you have more servers to choose from, which means you can avoid busy servers that could slow down your internet connection.

NordVPN also does well in the security department, thanks to its audited no-logs policy and its headquarters being based in Panama, a country with good data security laws. This means you can trust that everything you do while connected to NordVPN is not tracked, unlike when you're using your raw internet connection.

That said, NordVPN does limit the max number of connected devices at a time to 10. While this isn't uncommon, other options (including IPVanish) do allow for unlimited connections. 

IPVanish pros and cons

One of the best parts of IPVanish is that it doesn’t have a limit for how many connections you can have at once, which gives you unlimited simultaneous connections for you, your friends, and your family. This makes it a good value for the price.

Though not as much as NordVPN, IPVanish does have plenty of servers to connect to, which gives you a lot of flexibility when you're streaming. 

IPVanish has had one independent audit done of its no-logs policy, which is good, but unfortunately it also had an incident in the past where it revealed user information after stating it didn’t keep user logs. This, combined with its headquarters being in a Five Eyes country, may make it hard to trust for the security-conscious VPN users out there.

Which VPN is the better value?

Overall, IPVanish offers the better value, since it has cheaper plans available and allows for an unlimited amount of connections at once.

		Our Pick
Price range	$2.99–$17.99/mo	$2.19–$12.99/mo
Best value plan	24-month Basic plan for $2.99/mo (billed every two years)	24-month plan for $2.19/mo (billed every two years)
Money-back guarantee	Yes — 30 days	Yes — 30 days
	Get NordVPN Read NordVPN Review	Get IPVanish Read IPVanish Review

NordVPN costs between $2.19–$12.99/mo, with its lowest-priced option being a two-year plan at $2.99/mo (billed every two years). IPVanish also 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).

When it comes to the higher-end price points, Nord offers more packages for higher price points, but they include additional features like a password manager, data breach scanner, and cloud storage. 

Both NordVPN and IPVanish provide 30-day money-back guarantees.

Payment options

NordVPN and IPVanish provide multiple payment options, but you can pay for Nord with cryptocurrency, which could offer more privacy.

This is because crypto transactions don’t typically have your name or other personal information attached, unlike using a credit card or other common forms of payment. Keep in mind that using cryptocurrency doesn’t mean your payment is completely anonymous, but it can help.

NordVPN payment options

• Credit or debit card
• PayPal
• Google Pay
  
• Cryptocurrency

IPVanish payment options

• Credit card
• PayPal
• Google Pay

Which VPN is faster?

Overall, NordVPN was the much faster service in our tests. It was night and day.

Server location	Our Pick
US	+45% faster	-4% slower
UK	+32% faster	-11% slower
AU	+12% faster	-29% slower
	Get NordVPN Read NordVPN Review	Get IPVanish Read IPVanish Review

We test internet connection speeds with VPNs to see if using a certain service significantly eats up our bandwidth and slows down our internet connection to the point where everyday activities would be affected, such as web browsing or gaming.

To measure this, we use internet speed tests to see whether our speeds are dramatically affected before and after using a VPN. This means we start with a baseline speed without connecting to a VPN and then check speeds while connected to different VPN servers.

We tried to make this a fair comparison by connecting to servers from both VPNs in the same locations. This included servers in Los Angeles (U.S.), London (U.K.), and Sydney (Australia).

NordVPN had significantly better speed test results than IPVanish. In fact, it actually made our speeds better in all locations. This is usually because our ISP is throttling our connection, or NordVPN is able to make our connection more efficient.

IPVanish lets you see the ping, server load, and the number of servers associated with different locations. This might be helpful if you’re deciding between multiple cities in the same country and want the fastest connection possible.

Which VPN is more secure?

Overall, NordVPN is the more secure option, thanks to having a better history with its no logs policy and a better headquarter location.

Feature	Our Pick
Number of servers	6,800+ servers in 111 countries	2,400+ servers in 130+ locations
No-logs policy	No logs	No logs
VPN headquarters	Panama	United States
Encryption	AES-256-GCM	AES-256
VPN protocol	NordLynx, OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPsec	OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2/IPsec
Kill switch
Split tunneling
DNS leak protection
Ad blocker
	Get NordVPN Read NordVPN Review	Get IPVanish Read IPVanish Review

Both IPVanish and NordVPN provide strict no-logs policies, kill switches, and torrenting support. You can also use either service to unblock and watch regional Netflix content.

Servers

NordVPN has more servers and server locations than IPVanish. A higher number of servers is important because it decreases your chance of connecting to a busy server, which could slow down your internet connection. Having servers in more countries gives you more opportunities to connect to a specific server based on your needs. 

We also like that NordVPN provides a number of specialty servers, including P2P, obfuscated, onion over VPN, and double VPN servers. These types of servers can help increase your overall anonymity (obfuscated and onion over VPN) and security (double VPN), or they might be optimized for file sharing or torrenting (P2P).

IPVanish doesn’t have specialty servers like Nord, but it’s nice that you can see the ping, server load, and the number of servers associated with different locations. This might be helpful if you’re deciding between multiple cities in the same country and want the fastest connection possible.

Privacy

NordVPN is the more private and secure VPN provider because of its location in Panama and multiple independent audits of its no-logs policy. Panama isn’t a member of the Five Eyes alliance or the Nine or Fourteen Eyes global surveillance alliances. And Panama has no mandatory data retention laws, so Nord isn’t required to store any user logs.

But IPVanish is located in the U.S., which is a Five Eyes alliance member. This might not seem like a big deal, but IPVanish, which has stood by a zero-logs policy for years, was once involved in a privacy scandal in 2016 that involved giving private user-related information to the U.S. government.

IPVanish has since changed owners multiple times and has washed its hands of the scandal, but it still happened and is something that will always blot the IPVanish reputation and history.

It’s nice to see that IPVanish has recently (in 2022) completed an independent audit of its no-logs policy by Leviathan Security Group, a security-consulting company based out of Seattle.

But NordVPN has had three successful independent audits done of its no-logs policy, indicating a large commitment to user privacy. The first two audits were performed by PricewaterhouseCoopers AG Switzerland and the third audit was done by Deloitte.

And we’ve tested both IPVanish and NordVPN and found they don’t have WebRTC leaks and sufficient DNS leak protection. They can also successfully mask your IP address from prying eyes.

This commitment to privacy is further demonstrated by the NordVPN warrant canary, which shows Nord stays true to its no-logs policy.

Which VPN has the better compatibility and customer service?

Both options offer great customer service, but NordVPN took the lead with slightly better compatibility. 

	Our Pick
Windows
macOS
Android
iOS
Linux
Router
Smart devices
Browser extensions	Yes — Chrome, Firefox, Edge
24/7 live chat
Customer support options	Live chat, email, online guides	Live chat, email, phone, online guides
Learn more	Get NordVPN Read NordVPN Review	Get IPVanish Read IPVanish Review

Compatibility and ease of use

We had no issues setting up the NordVPN and IPVanish Windows apps on our desktop computer. We simply had to download the apps from the NordVPN and IPVanish websites, install the programs, and log in.

Both the NordVPN and IPVanish apps were generally easy to use, but we preferred Nord. This is primarily because NordVPN tends to cater more to beginner VPN users, not worrying about showing different connection statistics across your screen.

Rather, you have your quick connect button, a server map, and then the full server list available on one tab to expedite the process of connecting to the VPN. IPVanish basically has the same information as Nord, but it’s spread across multiple tabs and doesn’t feel as intuitive.

You can also easily click on different servers with the NordVPN map to connect to them. We found the IPVanish map kept having to randomly load and a single click on a server didn’t do anything. But we were able to connect to different servers by double-clicking on cities.

Overall, both VPNs provide plenty of compatibility with different mobile apps, operating systems, and smart devices. But NordVPN generally offers more compatibility, specifically with browser extensions.

Customer support

IPVanish and NordVPN provide customer service in the form of 24/7 live chat support, email, and online guides. In our experience, 24/7 live chat is typically the best way to get answers to questions with different VPN providers, so it’s nice to see it as an option for both VPNs.

We had good live chat experiences with both NordVPN and IPVanish. We asked IPVanish customer support about torrenting and we asked NordVPN customer support about switching Netflix regions.

We didn’t see any specific torrenting servers with IPVanish, but the customer service representative recommended connecting to servers in these cities for more stability: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Ashburn, New York. We thought that was a useful tidbit.

I spoke with a NordVPN customer service representative about how to tell if I’m actually accessing a different Netflix region within the Netflix app. You can usually tell by seeing if the app displays “Top 10 Shows in the U.K.” or something similar as one of its sections, but it wasn't showing up. The representative recommended using a site such as uNoGS.com (The Unofficial Netflix Online Global Search) to see the available Netflix content by region, which was good advice.

In a surprising twist, IPVanish also provides phone support options with numbers in the U.S., the U.K., Mexico, Spain, Australia, and Brazil. This is surprising because most VPNs don’t provide any sort of number to call if you prefer talking to someone over the phone. Case in point, NordVPN doesn’t have a customer service phone number.

NordVPN vs. IPVanish FAQs

NordVPN vs. IPVanish: which is the best VPN?

We recommend NordVPN over IPVanish because it’s cheaper, generally easier to use, and has a strong history of protecting user privacy. That’s all on top of NordVPN providing top reliability with unblocking streaming content, as well as great speeds during our speed tests.

IPVanish is a decent VPN that offers unlimited simultaneous connections, but it appears a bit shady with its past no-logs policy scandal and for having a headquarters in the U.S. We also had issues trying to access Disney+ using IPVanish.

For a comparison of two of the most popular VPNs, see how NordVPN compares to ExpressVPN.

Top alternatives

If you want to see how more of the best VPNs available compare, here are some more options to consider: