In the same way, Antivirus software protects you against harmful malware, a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, protects your privacy and security while on the web.

A VPN is, in simple terms, a private network extended across a public network which allows the users on that private network to surf the web with information such as their activity logs and IP addresses altered or hidden from people like your internet service provider or in worst-case scenarios hackers.

Headquartered in one of the world’s technological hubs, Singapore, Ivacy has been in business offering VPN services since 2007. Operating under the PMG Private Limited company, Ivacy remains relatively unknown, perhaps on purpose.

This review will take an in-depth look at some of the main features of Ivacy, how you can get Ivacy up and running on your device, comparisons with other major VPN providers, other mentionable features as well as whether or not we think Ivacy is worth the purchase in our ‘Bottom Line’.

Plans and Pricing

One of the better things about Ivacy VPN is their range of available packages. If you do choose to invest into Ivacy VPN and do so intelligently, you can avail some great savings. Below are the three current packages Ivacy VPN is offering.

Here is the breakdown:

Package 1 – Monthly Plan

$9.95/ month and therefore $119.4/ year Savings of 0%

Package 2 – 1 year (with one year free) Plan

$2.25/ month and therefore $27/ year Savings of 77%

Package 3 – 1 Year Plan

$3.33/ month and therefore $39.96/ year Savings of 66%

Regarding savings, it is clear to see that Ivacy VPN offers some of the most affordable and competitively priced VPN packages out there today. On top of that, similarly to many other VPN providers, Ivacy VPN provides customers of all three plans the same services, rendering the average monthly and yearly prices as well as saving opportunities all the more important to us.

An exception to this is ProtonVPN, where they offer a low-cost, basic plan with limited features and servers and then a more expensive plan with a more extensive range of features and servers to choose from.

Payment Methods

If the number of payment methods available was used to tell if a VPN provider was worth it or not, Ivacy VPN would be second to none! The VPN provider offers an exhaustive list of options for the customer to use to pay for their service, including PayPal, Visa and MasterCard, BitPay, CoinPay and much more.

One thing is, we are slowly heading towards a cash-free world and Ivacy VPN has made sure that they are well on the bandwagon! Be wary, however, of their Crypto and PaymentWall options as using these renders you ineligible for a refund policy.

Your Privacy with Ivacy VPN

The main reason anyone opts to install and use a virtual private network is to ensure the retention of their privacy and security without compromising on the quality of the surfing experience or the speed of said experience.

On the surface, Ivacy VPN does seem to have you covered. With over 450 live servers in over 100 different countries to date and unlimited server switching, it is safe to say Ivacy VPN will always have an unsaturated server for you.

Additionally, one of the most impressive features, that would not be so impressive if everyone else only did the same, is Ivacy VPN’s strict, and we mean strict NO-LOG POLICY. The trend of falsified statements regarding a ‘no-log policy’ has risen and become more pervasive.

To ensure the sanctity of Ivacy VPN’s claim, we scoured through their privacy policy (to save you the time from doing so), and found out to our amazement that their claim is legitimate! Not only is it a legitimate claim, but it is one of the best policies out there. Ivacy hardly keeps any of your information, resorting to only saving your name, email address, and your payment method.

A useful parameter to judge from when comparing VPN providers is the number and density of servers provided. Remember, the closer a server is to you, the better it will work. On the surface, Ivacy offers around 450 servers across the world – a comparatively low number when taking into account the 3,400 offered by NordVPN and the 3,000 offered by TorGuard.

However, Ivacy VPN’s servers are well spread out around the world. With over 100 server locations worldwide, Ivacy beats out competitors such as NordVPN and Tunnel Bear in this regard, who have 59 and 22 respectively.

Delving deeper into Ivacy’s locations, it is worth noting that Ivacy VPN has ensured coverage over some of the most VPN-remote areas in the world. Ivacy VPN has six servers located in Africa, a region so often ignored by its competitors.

Furthermore, Ivacy provides server coverage in places which some of the more repressive censorship laws too, such as Turkey, China, and Russia.

Speed and Performance

Before delving into the speed and performance capabilities of Ivacy VPN, it is useful to remember that using a VPN will, most likely, have a detrimental effect on your internet speeds. Using Ookla’s internet speed testing tool we found out Ivacy VPN’s effect on latency and download/ upload speed.

In the tests, we found that Ivacy VPN increased domestic latency by around 2,360%. This figure is remarkably poor once you take into account competitors such as TorGuard reduce latency by about 6.7%.

Going further into the download speeds, Ivacy VPN did not fare much better. Ivacy reduced download speeds by about 19.1%, according to Ookla’s tests. On to the upload speeds, our tests found that Ivacy VPN reduced these speeds by around 32%.

Despite this not being a lackluster score, when compared to all competitors, Ivacy’s upload speeds can also best be stated as mediocre. Unfortunately, too, we believe that the issue of Ivacy VPN’s comparative speed can be solved once the total number of live servers increases.

Device Compatibility

The great news is that Ivacy VPN offers services that are compatible with almost all popular OS platforms. A variety of these devices are listed below.

Furthermore, the applications on all of the above platforms are neatly designed with very few to almost no cluttering problems.

It is also useful to know that the Ivacy VPN is perfectly compatible with various other platforms, including Blackberry, Smart TV’s, Consoles and Linux. Another piece of good news regarding Ivacy is its compatibility with Kodi – the ever-growing, popular and open-share streaming service.

Finally, perhaps something Ivacy has missed out on is their Firefox or Chrome extensions. These extensions did not function at 100% all the time, but we do believe it is something Ivacy is working on. Despite this, we did choose to overlook the minor discrepancy amid all the other platforms Ivacy VPN does support and does so very well!

Beyond the VPN

With a whole host of different VPN providers to choose from, it may be useful for customers to evaluate the different services based on the additional features they offer. One of the most important things to note about Ivacy’s service is their ground-breaking ‘Split Tunneling’ service. This service is one-of-a-kind and initially developed and launched by Ivacy, too.

In short, Split tunneling allows users to choose which bits of data can be logged by their ISPs and which bits of data about their network activity it wants encrypted and invisible.

Often in the cases of more budget-friendly VPN services, such as Ivacy VPN, some aspects of the customer’s experience may be lacking, such as customer service.

However, to our surprise, and despite its incredibly low costs, Ivacy VPN’s customer service left nothing to be desired as they were quick to respond, very helpful and consistent in doing so. The same is not true for other budget VPNs which often sacrifice areas like their post-sales service in favor of competitive pricing.

The Bottom Line

With regards to all of the different aspects we have outlined and reviewed throughout the article, we feel that Ivacy VPN is an affordable VPN service that has been growing and will continue to grow over the next few years.

It can be seen pretty clearly from the comparison table above, that comparatively, Ivacy does have quite a limited number of servers for their customers to choose from – perhaps this has something to do with the unusually low prices!

The software comes with great customer service, especially for the price we are paying, an option for Split Tunneling, a kill switch to guarantee safety and a user-friendly interface.