Ivacy VPN Review 2023

In this Ivacy Review, I’m gonna show you everything that you need to know about this VPN provider before deciding if you should get started with it.

I will give you a quick demo of the software and point out the main unique features of Ivacy.

I will also conduct a speed test to find out how fast this VPN really is.

Next, I will reveal to you which streaming services Ivacy is able to successfully connect to.

I will also conduct numerous privacy tests to see how safe and secure Ivacy is, and I will also share with you my experience when I tried their customer service channels.

Lastly, I will break down the pricing structure and help you decide which plan is best suited for you. So make sure to check out my special discount link in the description below where you will receive the best deal currently available.

1. Setup & Features (9/10)

Established in 2007,   to ever pave the way for others to start the competition.

In 2010, it pioneered the famous VPN feature called split tunneling that allows users to choose which apps will use or bypass a VPN connection. Split tunnel is important in cases where VPN is unnecessary to trusted applications like your mobile banking apps, and having trusted apps to bypass the VPN allows for a faster and more stable connection speed to other apps using the VPN.

Currently, it has more than 3,500 servers you can choose from in over 100 locations globally. 

You can install Ivacy very easily in less than five minutes. All you have to do is sign up on their website where you can select the app that you want to download based on your device.

You can download Ivacy on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Android TV, Kodi, FireStick, Router, Xbox, Linux, and browsers like Chrome, Firefox, or Edge. For example, here’s how you can download Ivacy’s Chrome Extension. It is quick, easy, and in no time, I’m already connected to their U.S. server.

If you’re having a hard time deciding which device to download Ivacy first, do not worry because you can still do so with nine more devices. You heard it right, Ivacy allows you to get one subscription and use up to 10 devices at the same time which is a notch above most of its competitors except SurfShark VPN which doesn’t have any limits.

If you want to start with a test drive first, you can definitely sign up for a one-day free trial. The free trial comes with all benefits so you can get a taste of what to expect from Ivacy. However, this trial isn’t that long for you to try the servers and features so make sure your one day is worth it.

You can start trying Ivacy’s features using its desktop app that you can download hassle-free. Once you are in, you will be routed to the Smart Connect page first where basically, you can connect automatically to the fastest server based on your location. You can still choose from all the servers on the drop-down menu and to make things easier for you, you can add a server you desire to your Favorites for your convenience in the future.

If you want to get Ivacy on your mobile phone instead, all you have to do is download it from Google Play for Android users or the App Store for iOS users. It’s pretty much the same with the desktop app, you have an option to instantly connect with the fastest server based on your location through the Smart Connect feature. In about five seconds, I’m already connected to their Hong Kong server.

For its setup and features, I have given Ivacy a rating of 9 out of 10. It has introduced the split tunneling feature which is a massive blessing to those using trusted applications and want to bypass VPN without having to turn it off. However, they lost one mark because their free trial could be longer since I personally think a day won’t be enough to test the waters.

2. Speed (8/10)

In 2019, Ivacy was awarded the Fastest VPN Award by pro privacy dot com, a leading resource for digital freedom. Now, to check if Ivacy really stands up to that reputation, I used Ookla to test the speed of four VPN servers from different countries but before that, I recorded my original Internet download speed first which was 22.9 mbps. Next, I ran the speed test three times for each server to get the average mbps and here are the results. 

First, I tested one server in Australia and got an average speed of 18.4 mbps. This is an excellent speed for gaming, web surfing experience and for streaming HD videos and of course, it is very close to my original speed which is impressive. The server in Canada recorded a speed of 13.8 mbps, 12.1 mbps in the UK and out of the four servers, the U.S. server has the slowest speed which is only at 10 mbps. 

These speeds aren’t the best, but considering my original speed, these results show close relation and low percentage reduction in average. I have recorded only a 19.7 percent reduction in Australia, 40 percent in Canada, 47.2 percent in the UK, and 56.2 percent in the U.S. 

From my speed test reviews with other VPN providers, which you can also watch in my channel, I can say that Ivacy is probably one strong competitor in terms of speed. The average percentage reduction of the speed tests is at 40.8 percent which is actually impressive. Therefore, I have given it an average, passing rating of 8 out of 10.

3. Streaming & Torrenting (9/10)

Ivacy can also unblock Netflix and other streaming platforms. In fact, Ivacy has streaming-optimized servers for different channels. With Netflix alone, you can already unblock and stream on all content-rich regions including the United States with the largest library content, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, and Japan without experiencing any lag!

You can also successfully unblock and stream many channels in different countries such as Hulu, BBC, Amazon Prime, NBC, Fox Sports, Bein Sports, and many more.

Now, if you are a torrenter, this next feature is good news for you. Ivacy supports P2P-optimized servers that you can use in torrenting or watching peer-to-peer based sites. You will be confident knowing that you will receive the bandwidth you need to download or upload contents without being monitored by anyone on the Internet. 

Since Ivacy can absolutely unblock Netflix and a wide range of streaming platforms, as well as it allows torrenting, I think it deserves a whopping 9 out of 10 rating here. Good job, Ivacy!

4. Jurisdiction, Security & Privacy (8/10)

In case you’re wondering if Ivacy has ever been hacked before, the answer is no.

One reason they are confident about is having a “no logs policy”. Ever since the beginning, Ivacy has sworn to keep you secure and anonymous so you can sleep at night confident that none of your user activities are logged.

Additionally, Ivacy is based and operating under Singapore. While Singapore is actually known to help the U.S. and its Five Eyes Partners conduct surveillance, it is still not a member of its alliance, even the Nine Eyes or Fourteen Eyes. In short, they don’t have any mandatory law for data retention, keeping you confident that none of your Internet activities and data are being stored.

Going back, Ivacy uses a 256-bit encryption to protect your traffic and make security penetration almost impossible, the standard and currently the longest encryption for website security.

It also has a selection of protocols that helps VPN safely send your data through the Internet. It offers IKEV, TCP, UDP, and L2TP. Each protocol varies in speed and you can also let Ivacy automatically choose the best protocol for you depending on your location.

Now, in cases where your VPN connection drops unexpectedly due to unstable internet connection or unexpected server and networking failure, Ivacy will save you with its kill switch feature. Most of the time, the VPN will try to reconnect you after a disconnection, but leaks could already happen within these few seconds so the kill switch is designed to overcome this vulnerability. It protects you from all possible leaks by stopping all Internet activities immediately until the VPN connection is reestablished. 

Unfortunately, if you’re looking for Double VPN to add an extra layer of security since your data will be encrypted twice, Ivacy doesn’t recommend it hence they lack this feature.

Instead, they offer a Dedicated IP that you can purchase as an add-on. Unlike a shared IP, a dedicated IP can only be used by no one else but you which means your Internet footprints are solely private and aren’t hidden among other users of the shared IP. A dedicated IP also lets you avoid annoying CAPTCHAs and it makes online payments easy. Not all VPN providers offer the option for a dedicated IP, but you can absolutely avail it with Ivacy for $1.99 per month.

Another add-on that you can purchase for a buck per month is Ivacy’s Port Forwarding feature which activates a strong firewall on the server’s end to fight and kill your enemies giving you a virtual protection shield when connected to the VPN.

Now, I will do some testing to check if Ivacy is really secure. Let’s start off with the IP Leak Test. Here, I used an IP leak test tool from ip leak dot org and as you can see, we got a positive result here as it shows no leak detected.

Next, the DNS Leak Test. I will use a simple DNS leak tester in Google. Now, I’m connected to a US server. You will see that the DNS leak tester already identified our VPN location. I clicked on the standard test and it showed my IP address. Only our Phoenix VPN showed up here, that means that we don’t have a DNS leak. If the results showed other servers not provided by Ivacy, then we’re in trouble. Ivacy passed this test then with no DNS leaks.

Moving on, we will check the exposure of my browser to WebRTC leaks while using Ivacy. You will see this box with red warning texts that say WebRTC is not protected and my IP address is exposed to sites that I visit. I can conclude from here that Ivacy app alone doesn’t make the cut to secure me from WebRTC leaks. Instead, what they suggest is installing plugins or extensions to prevent WebRTC leaks depending on your browser.

For example, you can install a free plugin called WebRTC Network Limiter when using Google Chrome, it will prevent any WebRTC or Chrome Extension leaks.

In this category, I have given Ivacy an average rating of 8 out of 10. They almost have all the security features that a VPN provider should have, however, they lost two marks because they lack the Double VPN feature and one thing to really think through is the fact that they are based in Singapore which somehow helps the Eyes alliances.

5. Support & Reliability (6/10)

It is important to commit to a provider that can ensure support to you whenever you need it. Unfortunately, Ivacy doesn’t have phone support but it has a 24 7 email and live chat channels that I have both tried multiple times. Let me share my experience with you. The average response time before someone says “hi” to me is three minutes. For instance, I had this chat with Oscar and he was able to answer my question about log policy directly and after a minute or two, he was able to provide a reference about my inquiry.

When it comes to their email support, I got a very detailed response with references on it after roughly 24 hours. Not the fastest response so if your concern is urgent, might as well opt with the live chat support to get immediate answers.

So far, I am satisfied but not very impressed with the customer support, though they have an excellent rating in Trustpilot which is 4.8 out of 5 from thousands of reviews, feeding dust to its competitors like SurfShark with only 4.3 and NordVPN with 4.4.

In general for its support and reliability, I have given Ivacy a rating of 6 out of 10. Their response speed on both my chats and email inquiries really affected my decision as they are probably the slowest customer support I have ever dealt with to be completely honest.

6. Pricing (9/10)

Now, let’s talk about the pricing plans. Ivacy offers a one-month subscription for $9.95. The monthly price will be heavily discounted if you choose to subscribe for a longer period. If you pick up a one-year plan, you will only pay $42. Technically, the monthly fee has now reduced to only $3.50. If you choose the five-year plan, you will only have to pay $60. Now, this really decreased the monthly price down even further to just $1! So if you have the budget and are happy with the performance within 30 days of testing out Ivacy, I always recommend you to buy the longest plan as this will save you so much money.

Currently, you can pay via credit card, Paypal, bitcoin if you prefer the cryptocurrency method of payment to become even more anonymous, and other payment methods that you can check out on their order page.

But if you don’t think Ivacy is for you, you are liable for their 30-day money-back guarantee. Regardless of your subscription, you can get a full refund within 30 days if you’re not satisfied with Ivacy. All you have to do is contact them through chat or email and request a refund.

Ivacy is definitely one to consider if you are looking for a cheaper VPN provider. Overall for its pricing, I have given it an outstanding rating of 9 out of 10. There’s no doubt in saying it offers the cheapest plan out there for only a buck per month if you choose to get the five-year plan. But that’s if you are in for a long drive with Ivacy. We all know so much could change in that span of time, your needs and wants could change and updates could call for better or worse experience. You really have to think about committing with a VPN provider and with that being said, you can check my other articles for comparison to help you decide which VPN is best suited for you when it comes to plans and pricing.

Summary (8/10)

As a summary, I gave Ivacy a rating of 8 out of 10. Ivacy started as an innovator of the split tunneling feature and it was able to beat their main competitors like NordVPN and ExpressVPN for the most number of connected devices allowed simultaneously. While it already proved me that its speed is on the top tier, Ivacy needs improvement with their customer support channels and it also lacks a great security feature which is the Double VPN. If you’re looking for a well-balanced VPN for long-term use with a budget-friendly price, Ivacy will be a great choice.

In general, I recommend ExpressVPN as the best overall VPN software because of its top-tier features and benefits. If your sole purpose for getting VPN is streaming, then I believe you and NordVPN would make a perfect match with their blazing fast speeds. And lastly, if you want to begin with the cheapest VPN and get the most bang for your buck, then SurfShark will be your best choice. More information on these 3 VPN providers is in the description if you are interested.

If you are already confident in starting today, feel free to click the link in the description to select your Ivacy package with the best discount. But if you think Ivacy is not right for you, then this VPN alternative would definitely be the one I recommend you strongly consider. I’ll see you over in that next article.