Ivacy VPN Review

As mentioned before, the pricing scheme with Ivacy is a little unusual; however, they do offer one of the most affordable options around. The standard month-to-month fee for a single month is just $9.95, which is not far off from the industry standard of $10.50. While not bad, this single-month price is still slightly higher than other services such as Private Internet Access.

When you venture into Ivacy’s long-term plans, that’s where their deep discounts start to appear. If you look at their one-year program, you will only be paying $3.50 each month. While this is already relatively cheap, they offer an even deeper discount when you subscribe for five years. Their 5-year plan comes out to just $1 each month. Five years might sound like a long time, but for only one dollar a month, there might not be a better deal out there.

If you are interested in purchasing Ivacy, you will have many options to complete your order. Their checkout service offers the standard credit card payments and the option to pay with PayPal, BitCoin, or other cryptocurrency options. The crypto payment methods are great if you are gunshy about providing your name or billing address. While there is typically no cause for concern, privacy is probably one of the main reasons you seek out a VPN service in the first place.

When you sign up for an Ivacy account, you get access to all the included features with their subscription. One of these features is access to connect up to five devices at the same time. While this is right about the industry average, it lags behind many competing VPN services. For example, CyberGhost offers up to seven, and TorGuard has no limit to how many devices can connect. Mostly, companies seem to be heading towards an unlimited model rather than restricting their customers’ connections.

One feature that is worth noting, though, is Ivacy’s split-tunneling feature. This allows you to choose which apps will go through the VPN tunnel and which will be excluded. This is an excellent feature if you are a gamer since it allows you to bypass the typical latency that a VPN service creates, leaving other apps protected.

In the past, setting up a VPN service could be a pain. These days, most companies provide an easy-to-install client that allows you to set up the VPN service with the click of a button. Thankfully, Ivacy covers most of its client base by offering apps for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Firefox, and Chrome.

Many users who stream content on a device are also interested in using a VPN for one reason or another. That is why Ivacy makes a big deal about its VPN service and its compatibility with the Kodi media server. Kodi is software that is free to download and can be used to stream content from a media server on your network.

Besides their support for Kodi, Ivacy does not offer much in terms of other streaming services or devices. They do not have any standalone apps for AppleTV, Roku, or FireTV, becoming more familiar with other VPN services. However, it can still be installed on these devices manually, with little work. While it is not difficult to establish a VPN manually, it may turn off many first-time users who simply want to download an app.

If a standalone app is a requirement for your VPN service, you may want to look at others like NordVPN or ExpressVPN.

When it comes to VPN protocols, there are a few options on the market, and not all are equal. There are dozens of different protocols that are designed to protect data on your network. However, one of the most common options, OpenVPN, is our protocol of choice. OpenVPN is relatively new compared to a standard such as IKEv2, and it is preferred for its speed and open-source platform. The open-source element is essential since it is continually being tested and updated for any vulnerabilities.

As far as Ivacy goes, the Windows client supports the OpenVPN protocol in both UDP and TCP formats. It even allows for some of the older protocols, such as IKEv2 and L2TP. One of the issues with their client is that the app does not distinguish between the OpenVPN UDP and TCP protocols, so it is impossible to tell which is currently running. However, Ivacy features reliable and up-to-date technology at its core.

When searching for a new VPN company, one of the most important things to look for is their server loads and where their servers are located. For the most part, the closer a server is to you physically, the better service you will experience. With that in mind, it makes sense that the more locations a company’s servers are in, the more chances you have of connecting to a server close to your present location.

Ivacy offers 459 servers, which falls a little flat from the 500-server minimum that we typically expect from most other companies. These days, it is more common for companies to have over 700 or even closer than 1,000 servers to meet their growing demand. For example, the current leader of the pack, NordVPN, has over 3,400 servers. Private Internet Access is not too far behind with their 3,275 servers.

What Ivacy may lack in their numbers, they make up for in their server distribution. They offer servers in over 100 different locations, which outshines the just 59 offered by NordVPN and the paltry 22 offered by TunnelBear. While 100 server locations might seem impressive, it still can’t touch the 286 locations in 220 countries that the Hide My Ass VPN offers.

In addition to server distribution, Ivacy does well with the location of its servers. Many VPN companies tend to ignore the continent of Africa; however, Ivacy has a reliable six locations there. Ivacy servers even represent other often overlooked locations such as Central and South America. If that weren’t enough, locations with restricted internet policies such as Russia, Turkey, and China, are even on Ivacy’s server list.

The number of servers alone should not entirely impact your decision to purchase, as this metric can be a bit deceiving. Many VPN companies utilize what are known as virtual servers. These servers are loading with software to make it seem as if they are in a different location. That means a single physical server could host several virtual locations. Some users take issue with virtual servers as they cannot see the precise path their data travels. For example, you might connect to a server in Hanoi that is being routed through a physical server in Shanghai.

Whether or not you agree with the use of virtual servers, they can help gain access in countries such as China or Vietnam that tend to regulate internet traffic heavily. As far as Ivacy goes, they currently host 26 virtual servers in their fleet. Other companies can go either way. For example, most of Hide My Ass’s servers are virtual, while a company like NordVPN uses none. Whether you are looking for a company with virtual servers or not, Ivacy has the right mix of physical and virtual.

One of the biggest reasons to ever use a VPN is to guard your data from the prying eyes of ISPs, hackers, or other nosey agencies. So, it would not make a lot of sense if your VPN service used your data against you. For that reason, it is crucial to evaluate the privacy policies of a VPN company to make sure that your privacy is a concern. In order to give you a brief rundown of the Ivacy privacy policy, we read it in its entirety, so you don’t have to.

Ivacy’s policy is a bit lengthier and confusing than we would like to see, but overall, it is still quite readable. After reading dozens of privacy policies, it became evident that many companies would be better off to benchmark a service like TunnelBear. Their approach is short, sweet, and simple to read. It leaves no questions about their stances and explains complex issues in understandable terms.

In the case of Ivacy, they are clear that they have a policy that does not “log or monitor” any activities from their users, including their connection logs, browsing history, and which IP address is assigned. Additionally, they claim that they keep no records of outgoing traffic, DNS data, or connection times. They will never associate or link any activity to a specific user, which is precisely what you should read in a privacy policy.

Their policy details that they will never sell, rent, or even share a user’s information or details given during the signup process. This is great to hear because it would be unethical for a VPN company to make their money by selling their user’s data. Additionally, they claim that they will never inject any ads into browser traffic.

The policy details the information that Ivacy does collect and precisely what they will do with that information. In most cases, the only information that is retained is the email address and payment method to process the billing function. One important note is that the company purges its inactive users every 12 months.

One of the essential bits of information to consider is where your VPN company is located and what rules they operate under. Specific locations require companies to disclose personal information if requested, so it would be unwise to choose a VPN company located in one of these areas.

Ivacy is in a reasonably safe location under the jurisdiction of Singapore. Singapore has relatively loose policies regarding the retention of information, and it is safe to say that Ivacy is well protected in this jurisdiction. However, we recommend that each user do their research on the privacy laws and locations before buying. What is okay for one user might not work for others.

Keeping in line with the top VPN companies on the market, Ivacy mentions that they make it their goal to keep as little information as possible to protect their users should some agency come knocking. A representative that we spoke to claimed their servers to not store any personal information, so even if they are subpoenaed, they would have no information to turn over. This is excellent news if you are concerned about your private information.

For testing purposes, we installed the Ivacy Windows client on the latest version of Windows 10. Installing the Windows app was a breeze, and we had no issues finding the correct version and installing the program.

While the installation was simple and pain-free, once we opened the client for our initial run, we were less than impressed with the actual design of the app. The app looks a little cluttered, but once you get past the first impressions, you will discover that this small client packs many useful features. If you have never used a VPN client before, it might look a little overwhelming. However, once you start clicking around, things begin to make sense. If you are looking for a simple and straightforward client, you might look into something like NordVPN or even TunnelBear.

Aside from the app layout’s initial confusion, Ivacy offers a similar design to other VPN clients like Hide My Ass and PureVPN. You will find all of the preset you need on the righthand menu, including a Dedicated IP, Unblocking, Streaming, and Secure Download. These presets are great because you can click and go without fussing with different options. The main page’s center lies the Quick Connect button, which will take you to the nearest server based on your location.

The streaming option is excellent, and it is very similar to the one offered by PureVPN or CyberGhost. However, with Ivacy, you have the quick link option to begin streaming from specific servers in the US or the UK. There is also the option to set up new channels if needed. We wish that it was more similar to the CyberGhost setup where you can customize your channels, but the Ivacy format works well.

One of the more advanced options, the Dedicated IP, is quite useful, but it also requires an additional subscription. Another handy feature is the Unblocking preset, which will default connect you to the country with no restrictions on content. The Unblock feature is perfect if you are in a country where the government controls or restricts internet connections.

One function that remains a bit of a mystery is the Secure Connections options. When we clicked on the option, the server connected to Belgium, we are not exactly sure what is more secure about that location, but we will have to take their word for it.

That wasn’t the only oddity that we discovered while using the Ivacy client. When we selected the Fast Connect button, the client chose a server in Germany rather than a closer to our physical location. While this might be the most optimized server choice, someone who has never used a VPN service might become quite confused by choice of location. Luckily, a search box allows users to change the settings to select a country or even pinpoint a specific city.