IPVanish vs PureVPN

There is no polite way to open this one. Both of these companies advertised a no-logs policy, were asked for a customer's data by a law enforcement agency, and supplied it. IPVanish in 2016, PureVPN in 2017. Almost nothing else in this directory has one such episode, and these two have one each.

Two disclosures, and what has changed since

IPVanish received a Homeland Security summons in 2016, replied that 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 Schellman Compliance examined the no-logs claim in February 2025 — recent and by a named firm, though the report sits behind a customer login.

PureVPN supplied a customer's connection records to the FBI in 2017. Its most recent assessment ran in February 2023, and its pages no longer name the firm that carried it out. Its current policy does name the specific record categories it says it does not keep, which is more precise than the industry norm.

So the difference is currency and attribution. IPVanish's evidence is two years fresher and has a firm's name on it. PureVPN's is older and has had a name removed from it. Neither is the same company it was, and neither claim has been tested again by a real demand.

Where each one is actually better

IPVanish places no cap on simultaneous devices where PureVPN allows ten, and adds multi-hop, which PureVPN lacks. Both ship apps down to Apple TV and Fire TV, both have obfuscation, ad blocking and IPv6 protection.

PureVPN's kill switch holds. IPVanish has no first-party Linux app at all. Neither runs servers from memory and neither publishes client source.

Jurisdiction favours PureVPN: a British Virgin Islands company outside every intelligence agreement, against a Florida company applying California law inside the five-country one. On price PureVPN is cheaper on a long prepayment, while IPVanish charges far more after the first year.

Which should you choose?

Choose IPVanish if a recent, named audit is what would reassure you, and you need unlimited devices. Choose PureVPN if jurisdiction and the lower long-term price matter more, and a kill switch that holds is worth the older evidence.

The honest recommendation is neither. Both asked to be trusted, were tested, and failed — and this directory contains services that were tested and did not.