The number of VPN servers and their locations can make a big difference in your experience using a VPN - and in recent years, it's become a bit of an arms race among the best VPNs. on December 4, 2024, IPVanish took a big swing and announced a major upgrade to its arsenal of It announced an upgrade.
IPVanish now has servers in 108 countries, placing it among the most well-equipped providers. In comparison, NordVPN has servers in 111 countries, Proton VPN in 112 countries, ExpressVPN in 105 countries, and Surfshark in 100 countries.
This VPN, under the Ziff Davis umbrella, made this a two-pronged announcement by launching a double-hop feature the same day. This allows traffic to go through two servers in series, encrypting traffic twice and providing even better protection.
Having a proper server network is essential to providing good speeds to all VPN users, no matter where they are in the world or to which server they are connected. However, the vast number of boasts by some providers is a one-size-fits-all boast rather than an essential improvement.
Currently, IPVanish has about 2,400 servers in 108 countries. This is a sufficient number - although some, like NordVPN, have several thousand more individual servers and a few extra locations. This small network has not affected IPVanish in our tests for the IPVanish review, and the provider offers good speeds overall.
The number of locations is more important than the number of servers, as this has a tangible impact on the user experience. With this update, IPVanish now focuses on South America and has more locations in South American countries (11) than NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark (10), and Proton VPN (7).
Overall, this is a measurable improvement for IPVanish's overall service, supporting VPN access for more people worldwide.
IPVanish's other announcement, Double Hop, is a bit more niche and will not be a feature everyone will use. In short, it provides more protection by sending data through two servers instead of one and encrypting it twice.
NordVPN, Surfshark, and Proton VPN - the latter touts itself as a “secure core.” However, IPVanish's version is more flexible and offers the option of going through two servers.
While relatively few people will use Double Hop, it is encouraging that IPVanish is investing in the product to offer more privacy-focused features. This is on the flip side of the launch of the Secure Browser and Link Checker, other innovations that demonstrate the company's commitment to helping users.
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