CyberGhost vs IPVanish

These two compete for the same buyer: somebody covering a living room rather than a laptop. Both do that job. Both also carry something the marketing does not mention.

Bucharest against Florida

CyberGhost is a Romanian company and Romania sits outside every intelligence-sharing agreement. IPVanish is a Florida company, an affiliate of Ziff Davis, whose contract applies California law, and the United States is inside the five-country agreement.

That looks like a straight win for CyberGhost until you ask who owns it. Kape Technologies has owned CyberGhost since 2017 and its site does not mention it, while Kape sells two other VPNs as independent brands. IPVanish's ownership is stated.

The histories differ in kind. In 2016, under previous ownership, IPVanish told Homeland Security it kept no usage information and then supplied a subscriber's name, email address, home IP address and connection times; it has changed hands twice since and was audited by Schellman Compliance in February 2025. CyberGhost's Deloitte report is limited assurance covering the servers on 31 October 2025 — one date rather than a period.

Streaming from two directions

CyberGhost sells servers picked for particular streaming services plus a Smart DNS for devices that cannot run an app. IPVanish ships first-party apps for Apple TV, Android TV and Fire TV with no cap on simultaneous devices, where CyberGhost caps you.

The practical separator is obfuscation. IPVanish has it; CyberGhost has none at all, so any network filtering VPN traffic stops CyberGhost outright, and there is no setting that changes it. IPVanish also has multi-hop, which CyberGhost lacks, and both protect IPv6. Neither offers port forwarding, and IPVanish has no first-party Linux app.

Which should you choose?

Choose IPVanish if you need unlimited devices, might be on a filtered network, or want multi-hop — and you have read the 2016 affidavit and accepted it. Choose CyberGhost if a Smart DNS for a device that cannot run an app is the specific requirement, and Romanian jurisdiction outweighs an undisclosed owner.

Neither is a comfortable recommendation. For a living room without either complication it is worth looking further down this directory before settling, because both of these ask you to accept something before you have even compared the features.