Cyberghost VPN vs IPVanish: which VPN is better?

CyberGhost vs IPVanish are two popular and trustworthy VPN choices, and it’s no surprise that both lie in a list of the best VPN providers on the market. These providers offer a wide range of top-level security measures and have a selection of features for online safety at all times.

If you are considering which VPN you should go with – we got you! In this review, we’ll compare CyberGhost vs IPVanish. We’ll showcase an in-depth analysis of their streaming possibilities, pricing options, connection speeds, torrenting feasibility, and delve into features, ease of use, and customer support.

CyberGhost vs IPVanish

After a fierce battle, IPVanish wins against CyberGhost. Based on the latest tests, IPVanish offers more security features, easier-to-use apps, and better support for torrenting than CyberGhost. IPVanish also includes more flexible pricing plans. Read along and use the IPVanish coupon below for more savings.

Winner

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Netflix and streaming performance

CyberGhost and IPVanish unblock various geo-restricted streaming provider libraries faultlessly, but CyberGhost struggles with Netflix.

CyberGhost VPN has dedicated servers for streaming sites, and it’s supposed to be easy to unblock any streaming media with this VPN. However, a specialized server for unblocking Netflix had a problem opening the US library. Netflix search and library were also loading very slowly.

In comparison, IPVanish demonstrated a flawless connection while connecting to Netflix US. There was no buffering, lagging, or freezing while streaming the show or exploring the Netflix library.

Although both providers stream shows excellently, IPVanish unblocks fewer streaming services than CyberGhost VPN. For example, with CyberGhost, you can easily access Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and BBC iPlayer. Meanwhile, IPVanish supports 4 streaming services: Netflix, HBO Max, YouTube, and BBC iPlayer.

IPVanish is a better option for streaming Netflix, but if you wish to access more streaming services, you should go with CyberGhost VPN.

Plans and pricing

Both providers offer flexible pricing plans. You have a good deal of options to pick the best VPN plan for an affordable price (with a substantial discount). Of course, for a longer plan, you'll pay less. So, let’s break down pricing and plans to pick a winner for this round.

You may consider a monthly subscription if you’re not a fan of long-term commitments. For 1 month, CyberGhost costs $12.99; meanwhile, IPVanish is slightly cheaper at $12.99. Although one-month subscriptions don’t require long-term commitment, longer plans can save you a significant buck.

Yearly offers are where your wallet can respire because they’re notably cheaper. For only $2.79/month you get a 1-year IPVanish subscription. Unfortunately, CyberGhost offers a 6-month plan instead of a yearly one, costing $6.99. So, you'll pay way less for IPVanish yearly subscription.

However, CyberGhost retaliates by offering a cost-effective 2-year plan, which starts at $2.03/month. IPVanish is slightly more expensive – $2.19/month when picking a 2-year plan.

CyberGhost falls to the opponent – it only offers 7 simultaneous connections cap. By contrast, you can use IPVanish on unlimited simultaneous connections, which means absolute safety for you and your family on all devices. Additionally, CyberGhost offers a 45-day money-back guarantee, and IPVanish provides a standard 30-day money-back guarantee.

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Wrapping up

IPVanish wins this battle because it's cheaper than CyberGhost. It also offers more flexible for shorter-term and 1-year commitments and offers unlimited devices that can connect to your VPN account.

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CyberGhost vs IPVanish: which is more secure?

Infrastructure

Differently from the opponent, CyberGhost VPN’s servers are RAM-only. Instead of keeping your data on hard discs, CyberGhost VPN stores it using volatile memory.

So, if someone tries to break into a facility where servers are located and unplug them, they will be deeply disappointed. RAM servers erase all the data without the possibility of restoring it. Therefore, it wraps your data in an extra layer of security.

Meanwhile, IPVanish doesn’t run on RAM-only servers and loses a point to CyberGhost VPN. However, IPVanish’s servers don’t save any of your traffic, information, or data that passes through the VPN either. It automatically self-destructs after every session; therefore, no one can access the data because it doesn’t exist.

Privacy

Both providers go hand in hand to ensure the utmost security for their users. Therefore, each uses unbreakable encryption and adds extra security features, such as kill switch and protection against DNS leaks.

CyberGhost and IPVanish use 256-bit AES encryption – the most robust standard on the market today, which is nearly impossible to crack.

But regarding account authentication, IPVanish gains an advantage against the opponent. This VPN processes account authentication with SHA-512 hash functions. Simply said, it muddles your login information to indecipherable hashes and makes it impossible to replicate your data, as it is completely unreadable.

CyberGhost loses, as it relies on the SHA-256 hash function. Although it’s a good partner function for AES encryption, it’s not as advanced as SHA-512.

Logging

IPVanish has a rigorous no logs policy and promises to treat your data with the utmost respect. Leviathan Security Group independently audited it in 2022. Such an audit assures IPVanish’s claims that the company doesn’t record how and where you connect to the Internet, your browsing activities, IP addresses, and DNS inquiries.

However, the company is based in Dallas, US. This country is part of the 5-eyes alliance, which monitors the online communications of citizens and foreign governments. We understand it may raise a concern, but an independent audit ensured that the company complies with its privacy policy.

Like IPVanish, CyberGhost also doesn’t log any of your traffic data or connection logs. Deloitte confirmed this statement after running an independent audit in 2022.

CyberGhost VPN is located in Romania, a privacy-friendly place for a VPN. Next to a private location, it doesn’t partake in any surveillance alliances, so you don’t have to worry about anyone surveilling your online activities.

Speed comparison: Cyberghost vs IPVanish

In this section, you can go through a thorough speed comparison of CyberGhost vs IPVanish. We measured the speed of WireGuard protocol across 6 countries: the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, France, and Japan.

• Baseline: 1 ms ping/ 470 Mbps download speed/ 462 Mbps upload speed

CyberGhost is an undeniable winner in this battle for a faster VPN title. This provider retained 93% of the initial Internet download speed, which is an excellently fast result. IPVanish wasn’t so lucky – it demonstrated a dramatic 54% drop in the initial download speed, giving a point to the opponent.

Then, we tested an average upload speed. IPVanish showcased better results – it dropped 29% from the initial Internet upload speed. However, it wasn’t enough, as CyberGhost’s upload speed was 10% faster.

Wrapping up

CyberGhost is a winner in this battle. CyberGhost is much faster than IPVanish. It demonstrated faster download and upload speeds, which weren't so favorable for IPVanish.

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Cyberghost vs IPVanish features

It’s no secret that if you choose IPVanish or CyberGhost as your VPN provider, you’ll get a bundle of notable features to empower privacy and anonymity online. Both providers have a great variety of features, but IPVanish offers a more extensive suite. So, let’s look at their features.

Winner

IPVanish offers better features than CyberGhost. IPVanish wins this battle because of functional add-ons, such as SugarSync, SOCKS5 proxy, and traffic obfuscation, which CyberGhost lacks.

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SugarSync

If you’re deciding whether IPVanish is the right option, then let us introduce you to SugarSync. It is a cloud backup service that provides storage, sharing, syncing, and backup. That’s very similar storage to Dropbox or Google Drive.

Cherry on top? IPVanish users can store up to 500 GB of files in SugarSync, and the uncrackable AES-256 cipher encrypts the storage for a small fee. It’s a noteworthy fact because this modern and unbreakable encryption will shield your storage to the same standard as your IPVanish VPN.

This feature earns IPVanish an extra point, as CyberGhost VPN doesn’t offer similar functionality.

SOCKS5 Proxy

While picking the right VPN provider, the SOCKS5 proxy tips the scale to IPVanish’s side. SOCKS5 proxy is an intermediary server that removes your IP address and is a free addition that comes with every IPVanish subscription. SOCKS5 proxy can increase your download speeds, and many users use it for torrenting.

It’s worth mentioning that the SOCKS5 proxy doesn’t encrypt your data – it only hides your IP address. However, it’s a relatively helpful add-on that minimizes the risk of your IP address becoming accessible to someone with pesky intentions.

So, if you are looking for a torrenting VPN, then the SOCKS5 proxy on IPVanish is a great catch.

Traffic obfuscation

Traffic obfuscation hides the fact that you’re using a VPN. It’s useful if you want to access a heavily restricted country or avoid bandwidth throttling.

Unfortunately, CyberGhost doesn’t offer such a function, but you can easily use it on IPVanish. It works very simply: in IPVanish settings, you can tick a box and enable XOR cipher. This process modifies already encrypted traffic and puts an extra layer of cipher that conceals any evidence of your VPN usage.

Split tunneling

IPVanish offers split tunneling on Android, which isn’t very flexible. Meanwhile, CyberGhost doesn’t offer split tunneling as a separate feature, but you can single out websites using Smart Rules, which is available on macOS and Windows. Also, you can access a split tunneling feature on the Android app.

Imagine – you’re in the US, enjoying some Spanish movie you accessed through your VPN. Suddenly, you get hungry and want to order pizza. This is where split tunneling steps in: it divides your Internet traffic, and you choose which app goes through an encrypted tunnel.

This way, you can enjoy foreign content, but order your favorite local pizza, instead getting suggestions for Spanish takeouts.

Server locations

Server count might not be the most essential security feature. Still, it will help you avoid traffic congestion and have a consistent Internet speed if the server is not overcrowded.

CyberGhost VPN has over 11500+ servers across 100 countries. Some of this VPN’s servers are virtual. It means they aren’t located in a country physically but running virtually, and, for example, is the case with Egypt, Portugal, Argentina, and Indonesia.

IPVanish comes with 2400+ servers in 55 countries – a more modest offering than CyberGhost’s servers fleet. IPVanish offers far fewer servers than CyberGhost and doesn’t use virtual ones. They’re all owned by a company, therefore, come with security benefits.

Wrapping up

CyberGhost offers four times more servers and countries than IPVanish. 9700+ servers in 91 countries earn CyberGhost a winner's title in this battle.

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Torrenting

If you’re looking for VPN for torrenting, CyberGhost and IPVanish can surprise you with some torrenting-tailored features. However, some features might not work as well as they claim.

For example, CyberGhost offers dedicated servers for P2P file sharing. But recent tests have shown that it is relatively slow even while using a torrenting server.

The opponent – IPVanish – is a safe and decent option for torrenting. Unlike CyberGhost, IPVanish doesn’t offer specialized servers for torrenting. But it isn’t such big of a problem because when it connected to all of the peers, the download speed was 7-8 MB/s, meanwhile, CyberGhost’s speed was 6.5 MB/s on the US server.

In addition, the IPVanish subscription includes a free SOCKS5 Proxy, which is a significant consideration for those who look for a bundle of fast speeds, security, and anonymity.

Wrapping up

IPVanish wins over CyberGhost due to a free SOCKS5 proxy and quicker download speeds.

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Platforms, interface, and ease of use

IPVanish and CyberGhost are supported on the most popular software and devices.

IPVanish provides advanced settings and very detailed statistics about your connection. In addition, you won’t have to limit your devices with IPVanish, because you can connect to one account with unlimited simultaneous connections.

In comparison, CyberGhost offers compatibility with more software and devices, such as Smart TV, but it has 7 simultaneous connections cap, which is very limiting. Even though this VPN supports more software and devices, they differ in functionality and can make the navigation experience very frustrating.

Wrapping up

IPVanish is a better VPN provider in this round than CyberGhost because it offers connection stats, advanced settings, and unlimited simultaneous connections.

Winner

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Desktop apps

CyberGhost and IPVanish offer neat apps, especially for Windows and macOS, and ease of navigation creates an excellent user experience (even if you don’t have much experience with VPNs).

If you look at the IPVanish Windows main screen, you can instantly see the intuitive navigation. You can choose servers in a list or easily switch to a map view.

Next to it, you can filter servers according to their latency and proximity and see their stats. So, your surf on the Internet doesn’t get disrupted by slow speeds or ping. On the IPVanish desktop app, you can activate a kill switch function and see what protocol the VPN has connected to.

The macOS version appears to be less customizable, but the navigation experience remains equally great. For example, macOS kill switch function is less customizable than on Windows. The interface is very similar to Windows and doesn't have much difference.

CyberGhost’s macOS and Windows desktop apps are also very similar in design. But macOS has slightly more improvements, such as a data compression feature to reduce download size. Also, if you want to stream and download, CyberGhost has dedicated tabs for this purpose. However, kill switch function on macOS could work better. Other than that, both apps are almost identical.

Mobile apps

IPVanish Android app maintains a simplistic design and offers variety of features, such as split tunneling and obfuscation toggle.

The user interface of an Android app is easy to navigate and is less cluttered than a desktop version. Therefore, IPVanish maintains a tidy look across apps.

iOS version also contains a comfortable interface and On Demand feature. However, neither Android nor iOS apps have a kill switch function.

In comparison, CyberGhost VPN maintains a minimal design on its iOS and Android apps. You can surf at good speeds on both apps, because you can pick OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols on Android and WireGuard and IKEv2 on iOS.

Customer support

If you encounter a problem, IPVanish and CyberGhost offer excellent customer service, but IPVanish has more contact options.

Both providers constantly update their FAQ sections. You can find detailed guides, troubleshooting, how-tos, and articles on the most common issues you might encounter.

You can use email or 24/7 live chat support. Beware that if you send an inquiry via email, you have to wait a few days to receive an answer. However, you can always use their 24/7 live chat and get human assistance.

For urgent cases, IPVanish has an open phone line if you need to solve more complicated cases as fast as possible. Also, the status on their Support Center page will show you whether there are any ongoing issues with the VPN, so you can be sure it’s not on your end.

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Cyberghost vs IPVanish – which one wins?

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To summarize, IPVanish is a better VPN than CyberGhost and therefore wins this rivalry.

Although IPVanish gave away some points to CyberGhost in speed, and server locations, it scored back as a more functional, feature-richer VPN, suitable for streaming Netflix. It offers flexible pricing and an intuitive user interface.

Meanwhile, CyberGhost is compatible with more devices and has more servers. It also has dedicated servers for streaming. However, it’s not enough to outperform the rival, which demonstrated excellence in pricing, features, torrenting, ease of use, and customer support.

If you want to test if IPVanish is your winner too, get a generous discount via our IPVanish discount coupons page. Both providers offer a money-back guarantee, so it’s an excellent chance for you to also try CyberGhost VPN with a discount coupon.

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