NordVPN vs IPVanish

One of these has had its no-logs promise tested by a real legal demand, and the result is on the public record. That is the fact to start from, because it is the sort of thing a feature table cannot show you.

A promise that was tested, and the answer it gave

In 2016, under previous ownership, IPVanish received an administrative summons from Homeland Security. It first replied that it kept no usage information, then invited the agency to come back with a more detailed demand, and supplied a subscriber's name, email address, home IP address and the times they connected and disconnected. The affidavit is public.

IPVanish has changed hands twice since and Schellman Compliance examined the no-logs claim in February 2025, so the company answering today is not the company that answered then. The audit report sits behind a customer login. NordVPN has been through six outside reviews, most recently Deloitte in December 2025, and its report is also readable only from inside a paid account.

Jurisdiction compounds it. IPVanish is a Florida company, an affiliate of Ziff Davis, and its contract applies California law; the United States is inside the five-country intelligence agreement. NordVPN is in Panama, outside every one.

Televisions against everything else

IPVanish has first-party apps for Apple TV, Android TV and Fire TV, and no cap on simultaneous devices. If the living room is the problem you are solving, that is a real advantage and NordVPN's ten-device limit is a real constraint.

Everywhere else NordVPN is ahead. It has a route into Tor, servers that hold nothing on disk and rebuild on restart, and it is quicker. IPVanish has no first-party Linux app at all — Linux means configuring WireGuard or OpenVPN by hand — and no port forwarding.

On money, IPVanish charges for the first year and then far more for every year after; NordVPN's advertised rate covers twenty-seven months and then more than triples. Neither is kind at renewal.

Which should you choose?

Choose NordVPN unless you specifically need television apps or more than ten devices. Choose IPVanish if you do — and read the 2016 affidavit first, then decide whether two changes of ownership and one audit have answered it.