ibVPN Review

Ideally, a VPN should offer you good security as well as more than decent performance. You shouldn’t be forced to sacrifice any of the two for the other.

Granted, you should always know that a drop in speed is inevitable when it comes to VPNs, regardless of their quality. However, the lesser the difference is the better your overall experience.

With ibVPN, the server and browsing speeds are extremely fluctuating, and not in a good way.

Tests for the EU servers started off with acceptable results. There was only a 20-30% drop in speed.

From a benchmark of 97 Mbps, the resulting download speed dropped to 64.66 Mbps, a speed that’ll let you have a very good browsing and streaming experience.

Things start falling apart when we tested the US servers. The differences were over 70-80%.

Here’s what we found when testing a New York server:

• Ping: 147ms
• Download speed: 15.70 Mbps (84% slower than the 97 Mbps benchmark)
• Upload speed: 13.44 Mbps (75% slower than the 53 Mbps benchmark)

These are definitely not the worst results we’ve seen, and there’s a lot of potential for better, but for now, the speed on the US servers is very bad. They need to do something about this or they’ll start losing clients. Fast.

The good news is that 35 out of the 180 servers support torrenting. This comes as a breath of fresh air because not all VPNs actively support the P2P file-sharing protocol.

While not all files you download off the internet are illegal or break the copyright agreements, some of them are, and it’s good to keep your anonymity intact with a good VPN.

ibVPN goes one step further and makes it so that you can set up the client to automatically connect to torrenting servers every time you use their service.

These are the server locations that support torrenting:

• The Netherlands
• Luxembourg
• Canada
• Bulgaria
• Hong Kong
• Lithuania
• Russia
• Sweden

To sweeten the pot, out of five servers tested, two of them were able to connect to Netflix. Miami and New York, respectively, were able to immediately access the Netflix website as soon as we fired it up.

Chicago, Canada, and the Netherlands… not so much. All of them failed. But having two servers capable of running Netflix is already astounding, considering that the number of VPNs who can do that can be counted on two hands.

57 server locations and a total of 180 servers. This is what ibVPN is all about. Make no mistake, even NordVPN has about 60+ server locations, and we’re talking about the best online security provider on the market.

What’s more, their headquarters are in Romania, operating as a subsidiary of Amplusnet SRL. This is a great thing because Romania has no data retention laws, and it’s not a part of the 14-Eyes Surveillance Alliance.

This means that they won’t be able nor will they have any reason to track your online traffic. The fact that they are out of the alliance means that they won’t contribute to the collective surveillance efforts put together by the rest of the 14-Eyes countries.

In terms of privacy, we’ll start with the fact that ibVPN promotes a strict no-logging policy. But such is the case with plenty of other VPNs who are blatantly lying their asses off.

However, this isn’t the case with ibVPN, as we’ve discovered upon further analysis of their Privacy Policy.

According to the Terms of Use, they don’t collect any type of data or user activity. What more could you want?

OpenVPN + 256-bit encryption? You got it.

ibVPN uses exactly this type of security system. Currently, the AES-256 bit encryption is simply indestructible. No one has been able to crack it or even weaken it.

More than this, the VPN uses the OpenVPN protocol as a default. This is, yet again, a safety procedure recognized by anyone with a say in online privacy matters.

And just in case your device needs a different protocol, ibVPN lets you choose between PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol), L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol)/ IpSec (Internet Protocol Security), and SSTP.

What’s more, if you don’t know how to switch between them, ibVPN has plenty of online guides that will offer a helping hand.

Next up are the ever-so-elusive DNS and WebRTC leaks. A good VPN will create an air-tight security system around your connection with no gap in the encryption.

If and when a leak is exposed, your ISP or any other third party watching over you can track your whereabouts and see what you’re doing on the internet. 70% of all Chrome extensions on the web will leak your DNS, just to put things into perspective.

After testing ibVPN, we’re happy to say that it had no leaks whatsoever:

• https://ipleak.net/ (none found)
• https://www.perfect-privacy.com/check-ip/ (none found)
• https://ipx.ac/run (none found)
• https://browserleaks.com/webrtc (none found)
• https://www.perfect-privacy.com/dns-leaktest/ (none found)
• http://dnsleak.com/ (none found)

No viruses on their installation package either. So everything is good in terms of security.

Something that you might like is that there are DoubleVPN and Tor over VPN features present as well. This adds a nice touch to the overall picture of ibVPN.

The VPN is available on the following platforms:

• Windows
• MacOS
• iOS
• Android
• Sony Smart TV
• Kindle Fire
• Apple TV
• Chrome Cast
• PS Vita
• Xbox 360
• PlayStation 3
• PS4
• Boxee Box
• LG Smart TV
• Samsung Smart TV
• LG WebOS Smart TV

Both the installation and connection processes of the VPN client worked as intended. Fast and to the point, which is always a good thing.

The set-and-forget settings that you can customize during the installation were extremely useful. Setting your killswitch to fire up automatically whenever you open the VPN app makes everything so much easier.

Further settings that will make your life a paradise are:

• Find the fastest servers automatically
• Connect automatically to a UK or US-based server in order to access any geo-locked services in these locations
• Automatically find servers that support torrenting
• Automatically bypass China’s Great Firewall (for Chinese users)

The website itself is very well sorted out, with key information that you can spot immediately, and not many flashy self-centered claims that many other VPNs have. No shameless boastings, in other words. Well, except the section where they list all the things that make ibVPN unique.

But even those features seem to be factual and true, so there’s no reason to blame them for this.

The client itself looks very modern and smart, but you’d best remember that trying to connect to a server while connected to another will often lead to a crash. It’s better to disconnect before trying another server.

To start with, there are plenty of FAQ articles and helpful information-based online sections on the website. For those small issues that don’t require a more in-depth analysis and solution.

For when your problem is trickier and you need personalized support, you can choose between the ticketing system, email, and even a live chat.

When testing the waters to see if there are any crocodiles, the support staff answered in a few seconds on the live chat. After requesting some information over the mail, the reply arrived in a few hours. A very comprehensive and in-depth reply, that is.

Nothing is more pleasing than seeing a customer service that actually helps its customers in due time. And ibVPN doesn’t disappoint.

Take a look at the picture below:

These are all the packages you are offered when subscribing to ibVPN. What I can tell you is that the Ultimate option contains all their servers and features, and it’s the most advantageous.

There are also individual packages that you can purchase, including a Premium Standard VPN, Torrent, and even a combination of these. The prices for these plans start at $4.9 per month, and can even get to $1.54 per month for the annual plan.

You have a 15-day money-back guarantee, and more than 50 international payment options. More than you’ll ever need.

Do we recommend ibVPN?

Definitely.

While it has some slight hitches and downsides, the good things are far more numerous, and this VPN shows plenty of potential down the road. We’ll see how it develops.