IPVanish and ProtonVPN represent two notably different approaches to the VPN market, and their overall scores reflect this clearly. IPVanish earns a 49% overall score while ProtonVPN reaches 89%, a gap that becomes easier to understand when examining each category in detail.
On the privacy and security front, the contrast is substantial. IPVanish is headquartered in the United States, a jurisdiction that falls under Five Eyes intelligence sharing agreements, which raises legitimate concerns for privacy-conscious users. ProtonVPN operates out of Switzerland, a country with strong legal privacy protections outside of major surveillance alliances. This jurisdictional difference is one of the more meaningful practical distinctions between the two services. ProtonVPN's privacy audit score is a perfect 100%, compared to IPVanish's 15%, suggesting a significant difference in third-party verification and transparency practices. ProtonVPN also scores 100% in ethics, while IPVanish earns 67% in that category. Both providers offer WireGuard protocol support, kill switch functionality, and P2P torrenting support. ProtonVPN additionally includes split tunneling, giving users more granular control over which traffic routes through the VPN.
When it comes to raw performance, IPVanish actually stands out. Its speeds score is a perfect 100%, compared to ProtonVPN's still-respectable 80%. Users who prioritize connection speed above other factors may find IPVanish performs well in that specific regard. ProtonVPN scores 86% for streaming, compared to IPVanish's 43%, meaning ProtonVPN is considerably more reliable for accessing geo-restricted content across various platforms.
Customer support and the overall user experience also differ meaningfully. ProtonVPN earns a perfect 100% in customer support and GUI scores, alongside an 80% application score. IPVanish scores 50% for customer support, 60% for GUI, and 53% for application quality. These numbers suggest that ProtonVPN delivers a more polished and dependable user experience across its software and support channels.
Pricing information was not available for direct comparison at the time of this review, so it is worth consulting each provider's current website for accurate monthly and annual plan details. ProtonVPN does earn a 73% pricing score versus IPVanish's 45%, indicating that reviewers found ProtonVPN's pricing to offer stronger overall value relative to what is provided.
In summary, IPVanish may appeal to users who prioritize connection speed and are less concerned about jurisdiction or audit transparency. ProtonVPN is the stronger choice across nearly every other measured category, particularly for users who place privacy, ethics, and a well-rounded feature set at the top of their requirements.