NordVPN vs. IPVanish 2024: Nord is Just Better

Best for Overall Reliability

4.9

AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

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On NordVPN's website

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VPN

NordVPN

Up to 66% off 2-year plans + 3 months extra

• Ultra-secure, high-speed VPN complete with malware protection and automatic blocking of intrusive ads and third-party trackers
• Other benefits include a premium password manager, dark web monitoring, and access to IP-restricted content
• 3 plans to choose from for custom protection on up to 10 devices
• Too many confusing plans

Best for Multiple Device Connections

4.4

AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Editorial Rating

Learn More

On IPVanish's website

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IPVanish

• Unlimited devices for each plan
• Works with popular streaming services like Netflix
• Kill switch feature not available on iOS

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.

IPVanish costs about the same as NordVPN ($3.99/mo vs. $2.99/mo) and provides unlimited device connections. That’s on top of doing well with unblocking many popular streaming services.

Let’s explore our IPVanish vs. NordVPN review 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 in these areas:

• Max number of devices
  
• Server count and locations
• Compatibility
• No-logs policies

How do NordVPN and IPVanish compare?

	NordVPN Our Pick	IPVanish
Price	From $3.99/mo	From $2.99/mo
Max # of connected devices	10	Unlimited
24/7 customer support
Compatibility	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and more	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and more
# of servers	6,300+ servers in 91 countries	2,200+ servers in 75+ countries
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	Read IPVanish Review

It’s common to have a limit on the max number of devices you can connect to a VPN at any given time. NordVPN limits you to 10 devices. IPVanish doesn’t have a limit, which gives you unlimited simultaneous connections for you, your friends, and your family.

NordVPN provides a higher total number of servers than IPVanish. This makes Nord the clear choice if you want flexibility with your server locations and potentially better connection performance. However, IPVanish offers a higher number of server locations, 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 provides increased compatibility with more devices than IPVanish. This is largely due to its Smart DNS feature that allows you to use certain VPN features with devices that wouldn’t typically have VPN access, such as a smart TV without its own app store.

Reviewed by Ben Walker

"We successfully unblocked content from Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer with both IPVanish and NordVPN. We were also able to access Disney+ with NordVPN, but we had trouble using IPVanish with Disney+."

IPVanish has had one independent audit done of its no-logs policy. But IPVanish also had an incident in the past where it revealed user information after stating it didn’t keep user logs. NordVPN hasn’t had a similar occurrence and has had three independent audits done of its no-logs policy.

NordVPN vs. IPVanish: prices

NordVPN costs between $2.99–$12.99/mo, with its lowest-priced option being a two-year plan at $3.99/mo. IPVanish also costs between $2.99–$12.99/mo, with its lowest-priced option being a two-year plan at $2.99/mo.

Overall, these VPNs offer the same price for their two-year plans and for their monthly plans. 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.

NordVPN vs. IPVanish: features

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.

NordVPN has more servers 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. 

However, IPVanish offers more server locations than NordVPN. Having servers in more countries gives you more opportunities to connect to a specific server based on your needs. For example, you might want to access streaming content from a certain country. For this reason alone, the 15 additional countries offered by IPVanish could be useful.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

One point in favor of IPVanish is that you can use its VPN service with an unlimited number of devices. NordVPN limits you to 10 devices per account.

NordVPN vs. IPVanish: streaming support

We tested IPVanish and NordVPN to see if they work with different streaming platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+. Our tests were performed by separately connecting to VPN servers with both providers and using a Chrome browser on Windows to open and run popular streaming services.

With each streaming service, we tested whether you could load content with each VPN and whether there were any lag or low-quality streaming issues.

We successfully unblocked content from Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer with both IPVanish and NordVPN. We were also able to access Disney+ with NordVPN, but we had trouble using IPVanish with Disney+.

The issue was we weren’t able to access the Disney+ login screen while connected to an IPVanish server. Instead, we were met with a black screen. This was the case even when we tried different servers and the IPVanish app on our Apple iPhone.

NordVPN loaded Disney+ up just fine and we could tell it was working because we were able to access content that’s not available in the U.S. Disney+ content library. Namely, we could see and watch Star content, which you can’t find in the U.S.

Overall, the test to see if you can watch Netflix with a VPN worked with both IPVanish and NordVPN. But IPVanish came up short with Disney+. You might have better luck using the IPVanish SOCKS5 proxy to unblock streaming content, but we don’t think you should have to use a more advanced feature to do something other VPNs can easily do.

NordVPN vs. IPVanish: internet speeds

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.

NordVPN vs. IPVanish download speeds

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, the speed tests were almost identical when testing London servers with both VPNs.

Note that we did see a significant difference in the download speeds between both services while connected to servers in Australia. We hadn’t seen that much of a drop-off before with Nord’s Australia servers, so maybe they were busier this time during testing.

Either way, you can typically expect a huge decrease in speeds if you connect to servers that are across the world from your physical location. So it’s not a huge concern, though it can be annoying if you do experience a slower internet connection with distant servers.

Reviewed by Ben Walker

"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."

NordVPN vs. IPVanish: compatibility and customer support

NordVPN vs. IPVanish: 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 and smart devices.

The smart device compatibility is mainly offered through the NordVPN Smart DNS feature, which you can’t find with IPVanish. Smart DNS lets you use certain VPN features, such as unblocking streaming services, with different devices that wouldn’t typically have VPN functionality. For example, you could use Smart DNS with an LG TV or Apple TV.

NordVPN vs. IPVanish: 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 sometimes that section doesn’t show up and I wanted to see if there were any other tricks.

The representative recommended using a site such as uNoGS.com (The Unofficial Netflix Online Global Search) to see the available Netflix content by region. Using this or another similar site, you can find content that’s only available in certain regions and then see if you’re able to access that content while connected to an applicable VPN server.

That should help you verify whether your VPN is working correctly to unblock different Netflix content, which isn’t a bad strategy to keep in mind.

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: 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
• AmazonPay
• ACH transfer
• Google Pay
• Cryptocurrency

IPVanish payment options

• Credit card
• PayPal
• Google Pay

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.

Customizable Coverage That is Simple to Use

4.9

AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Editorial Rating

Learn More

On NordVPN's website

VPN

NordVPN

Up to 66% off 2-year plans + 3 months extra

• Ultra-secure, high-speed VPN complete with malware protection and automatic blocking of intrusive ads and third-party trackers
• Other benefits include a premium password manager, dark web monitoring, and access to IP-restricted content
• 3 plans to choose from for custom protection on up to 10 devices
• Too many confusing plans

Author Details

Ben Walker

About the Author

Ben Walker is a writer at All About Cookies with a passion for all things internet and technology, whether it's using VPNs while away from home or organizing his life with password managers.