IPVanish VPN vs. Surfshark review

1. Privacy

I’ll start with a comparison of the most important aspect of any VPN - privacy. During review I will consider whether VPN logs anything (IP address, traffic, DNS logs, bandwidth, or any type of timestamps) and the jurisdiction of VPN’s country of origin.

Name	IPVanish	Surfshark
IP address	No	No
DNS	No	No
Traffic	No	No
Bandwidth	No	No
Timestamps	No	No

IPVanish is located in United States which is part of 5 9 14 eyes countries and is part of enemies of the internet countries while Surfshark is located in British Virgin Island which is not part of 5 9 14 eyes countries and is part of enemies of the internet countries.

It’s important to note that If you are like me and you will be using VPN only to unblock GEO-restricted content, privacy will not be that important factor but it’s still essential for any VPN.

2. Features

The next category I want to compare are features of IPVanish and Surfshark such as kill-switch, unblocking of streaming, support of P2P traffic (torrenting). I am a heavy user of various streaming platforms so for me it’s important whether VPN unblocks major streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO or BBC. I don’t do much torrenting but it’s always good to use a VPN while doing so. If this is an important factor for you, definitely look for a VPN which supports P2P traffic.

Name	IPVanish	Surfshark
Kill-switch	Yes	Yes
Streaming (Netflix)	Yes	Yes
P2P traffic - torrents	Yes	Yes

As you can see from the comparison table above, IPVanish has kill-switch, supports streaming services, and supports torrenting. On the flipside Surfshark has kill-switch, supports streaming services, and supports torrenting.

3. Speed

Being hidden behind VPN shouldn’t limit the speed of your connection. I’ve measured the speed of each VPN against a 100mbps connection - which should be sufficient for any activities including heavy streaming in 4K or downloading large files.

In my test IPVanish was more on the below average side while Surfshark had average speed. If there were no limits in speed on a 100mbps connection, I consider VPN a “fast” one. If the speed is limited somehow but still achieving decent values, I categorize it as “average”. The “slow” is usually used for VPNs which limit your bandwidth significantly.

4. Security

I will start by comparing the type of encryption IPVanish and Surfshark use, what tunnelling protocols are available, and finally we’ll test whether it leaks the IP address or DNS.

Name	IPVanish	Surfshark
Encryption	256-bit	256-bit
Tunneling protocols	OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP, IPsec, SSTP and PPTP	OpenVPN and IKEv2
IP leaks	No	No
DNS leaks	No	No

The most important factor of a VPN service is a strong encryption of the traffic which is forwarded through the VPN servers. The most common encryption types in cryptography are SHA encryption or AES encryption which are not really comparable against each other. There might be different lengths of encryptions (eg. 128-bit, 256-bit, 2048-bit) and while usually the higher is the better, for most use cases you will be fine with any encryption. Watch-out if there is no encryption at all. IPVanish uses 256-bit and OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP, IPsec, SSTP and PPTP protocol and Surfshark uses 256-bit and es 256-bit and OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols. I’ve tested both VPNs also for IP and DNS leaks and IPVanish had no IP leaks and No DNS leaks while Surfshark had No IP leaks and No DNS leaks. 

5. Price

Probably one of the most important decision factor for the majority of users will be price. Shocking? Not really. We all love to compare things and I am not different. It’s always good to get the best value for your hard-earned money, isn’t it? So let’s see whether IPVanish or Surfshark is cheaper.

Name	IPVanish	Surfshark
Price	$6.49	$1.99
Trial version	No	Yes

6. Compatibility

IPVanish supports 10 connections at the same time while it works fine on all the platforms below. You can use Surfshark on unlimited devices at the same time with support of all these platforms:

Name	IPVanish	Surfshark
Windows	Yes	Yes
MacOS	Yes	Yes
Linux
Android	Yes	Yes
iOS	Yes	Yes

7. Support

Should you have any problems with IPVanish or Surfshark you can reach out to their support via:

Name	IPVanish	Surfshark
Livechat	No	Yes
Email	Yes	Yes
Phone	No	No

Summary

IPVanish ranked in our list on 32. position while Surfshark. is on 2 position. If you are looking for a better choice, see our rankings here.