IPVanish vs Surfshark: Which ISP is Better?

IPVanish vs Surfshark: Which ISP is Better?

In this IPVanish vs Surfshark review, we ran a lot of tests on both VPNs to see which one is better. IPVanish is a popular VPN service, but Surfshark is one of the fastest VPNs on the market with tons of features. We ran our tests and you are about to find out which VPN deserves your attention. This guide will help you decide which of the two VPNs you want to explore in more detail.

Before doing an IPVanish vs Surfshark analysis, you need to start from the very beginning. For example, by definition, IPVanish is a secure VPN, thanks in part to its top-notch security features. It is one of the leading VPNs and is preferred by more users.

This is mainly due to the number of countries in which this service can be found. Users choose this service because it has great functionality and wide opportunities to ensure user anonymity.

Company and Jurisdiction: IPVanish vs. Surfshark

You are using a VPN to protect your online privacy. A secure VPN will do this because its system will securely encrypt your data so that no one else can read it. But you need to make sure the VPN will not spy on you or do anything suspicious in the background. To do this, you need to know the company and the jurisdiction in which it is located.

Surfshark and jurisdiction

Surfshark LTD is based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The British Virgin Islands is a great jurisdiction for a privacy company like Surfshark. We can see that it is home to Surfshark and ExpressVPN, among others.

Thanks to strict privacy laws, independence from the United States and the European Union, and not being a member of any international surveillance alliance, your personal information is safe here. Surfshark LTD was incorporated in 2018. The company has no history of privacy or security issues.

 SurfShark VPN   passes background checks and is in excellent jurisdiction.

IPVanish Company and Jurisdiction

IPVanish has changed several owners over the past couple of years. They are currently owned by J2 Global. IPVanish is based in the United States, a founding member of the Five Eyes surveillance alliance. US privacy companies may (and have) been forced to register user data for US agencies and other authorities.

IPVanish has been caught registering data for the US authorities in the past, and there is no guarantee they won't do it again. IPVanish VPN does not pass data verification.

Data validation and jurisdiction winner: Surfshark as the best service for the job!

IPVanish vs Surfshark Speed ​​Tests

When it comes to IPVanish vs Surfshark speed tests, the results speak for themselves.

With their upgrade to WireGuard VPN protocol, Surfshark is now one of the fastest VPNs in the world. IPVanish hasn't updated to WireGuard. They still use the standard OpenVPN protocol, which tests much slower than WireGuard. WireGuard generally outperforms OpenVPN, as we've seen in the NordVPN versus IPVanish comparison. So let's see if the same is true here.

Surfshark is several times faster than IPVanish locations in the US and Europe. From the three locations we tested, it's clear that Surfshark has the  Best VPN   speed test scores. Speed ​​test winner: Surfshark.

IPVanish and Surfshark Features

If a VPN doesn't offer the features you want, nothing else matters. This section provides a quick overview of the most important features of each VPN. While we choose a winner based on their overall feature set, you have the final say.

Surfshark Features

The killer feature of Surfshark is the high speed it gets from the WireGuard VPN protocol. Not only does it offer lightning fast download speeds, it also allows you to connect faster and better supports mobile connections.

Surfshark currently boasts a network of 3,200 VPN servers in 65 countries. The network includes fast and reliable industry standard VPN servers. Plus servers with dual VPN protocol, which encrypt traffic twice for added security, and servers in camouflage mode (hidden), designed to protect against censors.

Surfshark offers a large collection of handy VPN apps for Windows, Mac OS, iOS and Android devices. They even support Smart TVs and gaming systems (see our VPN setup guide for gaming). All VPN apps include a kill switch to prevent traffic from leaking to the Internet if the  VPN connection   fails.

Surfshark offers CleanWeb, a feature that blocks ads, trackers, and malicious domains from ruining your day or worse. This goes beyond the standard VPN ad blocker. Surfshark also offers several paid additional features:

Surfshark Alert lets you know if your personal information has been stolen and published anywhere on the Internet.

Surfshark Search is a private search engine that rules out another possible location where enemies can spy on your online activity.

Connections. Surfshark has another feature you might like: support for unlimited concurrent connections. Most VPNs, including ExpressVPN and NordVPN, support five or six concurrent connections. And while this is enough for most people, Surfshark gives you even more.

IPVanish features

IPVanish doesn't offer the rich feature set that Surfshark does. They provide you with basic leak protection in their applications as well as an emergency stop switch. The disconnect switch worked well in our testing, but it would be nice if the app would tell you that the switch was activated instead of leaving you wondering why your connection was dropped.

Traffic encryption

Protect Your Privacy And Security

Anonymous Browsing

They also offer a moderate set of VPN apps, which should be enough if you don't have a particularly exotic device to protect. Below is the IPVanish Windows VPN app, which seems a little awkward and old-fashioned compared to Surfshark's apps.

IPVanish offers a large number of servers (1600+ total) at 75 locations around the world.

Connections - Like Surfshark, IPVanish also provides unlimited connections. Thus, in this area, both VPNs stand out from the crowd.

Overall, it's a decent feature set, but Surfshark comes out on top with a lot more features than IPVanish.

Security and encryption

Surfshark security and encryption

When you use the Surfshark WireGuard VPN protocol, your traffic is protected by ChaCha20 and other advanced encryption technologies. When you use their OpenVPN or IKEv2 VPN protocols, Surfshark uses AES-256 for encryption to keep your traffic secure.

Another security benefit of Surfshark is that all servers run on a volatile RAM disk without hard drives. Since all data is stored in volatile memory, even if the Surfshark server is taken over by hostile forces, it will not have a hard drive to hack into user data.

Further solidifying its position as a secure VPN resource, Surfshark commissioned German cybersecurity firm Cure53 to conduct an independent security audit of Surfshark's browser extensions. This makes it a great choice if you need a VPN for Chrome. You can learn more about auditing in our Surfshark review.

IPVanish Security & Encryption

Unlike Surfshark, IPVanish does not support WireGuard. This resource is the latest in VPN encryption. IPVanish currently supports OpenVPN, IKEv2 and PPTP VPN protocols. The latest protocol, PPTP, has several serious security vulnerabilities and probably shouldn't even be offered.

Privacy and logs

Surfshark Privacy & Logs

Surfshark is a VPN without logs. An examination of their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service reveals that they do not log IP addresses or usage data that could be used to violate your privacy.

Surfshark also publishes a canary warrant to alert users to privacy breaches. As of January 12, 2021, there were no issues with the canary warrant. When it comes to privacy, Surfshark looks good.

IPVanish Privacy & Logs

IPVanish has lower privacy scores. Even though IPVanish today claims to be a no logs service, we have problems crediting these claims for two reasons:

IPVanish has violated its own no-log policy in the past and may do so again at any time.

IPVanish operates out of US jurisdictions where it may be required to register data by US authorities.

Netflix, streaming and torrents.

Netflix and streaming

The ability to unblock Netflix and other streaming services is important. One that can do these things and is fast enough to display HD video ranks first in this category.

Surfshark does all of this, making it one of the best VPNs for Netflix. Surfshark officially supports about 17 different Netflix libraries around the world, including all of the most popular regions such as the US, UK, Canada and more.

IPVanish can sometimes access the US Netflix library. But this access was unreliable during our testing and does not work all the time.

Price and cost

Prices for IPVanish are normal, at least initially. $ 3.49 per month on a monthly plan is good, but after the first month it will grow to $ 9.99 per month. Likewise, $ 27.99 per year is a very good price, but after the first year it jumps to $ 79.99 per year ($ 6.67 per month), which is a very average price.

Surfshark is a low-cost VPN service with longer plans. It has a monthly plan of $ 12.95 per month, a six-month plan of $ 38.94 ($ 6.49 per month), and a two-year plan of $ 59.76 ($ 2.49 per month).

Conclusion: Which Is Better: Surfshark vs IPVanish?

Surfshark is the  Best VPN   service for the job, and won all categories in this IPVanish vs Surfshark comparison. Obviously this is the best product, but it also offers a higher value. In fact, we consider it to be one of the best VPNs in the world.

Frequently Asked Questions

In the comparison of IPVanish and Surfshark, what key factors should users consider based on their individual needs?

Users should consider factors like server coverage, connection speeds, privacy policies, user interface, additional security features, and pricing plans. The choice depends on individual needs such as the number of devices, specific use cases (streaming, torrenting), and budget.