IPVanish Adds Antivirus: New Complete Plan From $3.09/Month
IPVanish now bundles a VIPRE-powered antivirus for Windows and macOS in a new Complete tier at $3.09/month. What the antivirus covers, how its engine tested at AV-Comparatives, and whether the $0.70 upgrade is worth it.
Table of contents
IPVanish has added a full antivirus to its lineup and reorganised its plans around it. The new middle tier, IPVanish Complete, bundles the VPN with IPVanish Antivirus for Windows and macOS for $3.09 a month on the 2-year plan, $0.70 a month more than the VPN-only Essential plan. The pitch is that IPVanish is now a security suite rather than a VPN. Whether that holds up depends on where the antivirus comes from, what it actually covers, and what the bundle costs once the introductory term ends.
The new three-tier lineup
| Essential | Complete | Advanced | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What's included | VPN + Threat Protection | Essential + Antivirus | Complete + 1TB cloud storage + Secure Browser |
| 2-year plan, per month | $2.39 | $3.09 | $3.59 |
| First 2 years, billed up front | $57.36 | $74.16 | $86.16 |
| 1-year plan, per month | $3.89 | $4.79 | $5.39 |
| Monthly plan | $14.99 | $15.99 | $17.99 |
| Renews at | $99.99/year | $109.99/year | $129.99/year |
All figures are from IPVanish's pricing page. Two details are easy to miss. First, the 2-year plans renew on a yearly cycle once the first term ends, not for another two years. Second, the gap between Essential and Complete shrinks at renewal: $16.80 over the first two years, then $10 a year after that.
Essential is the plan we covered when IPVanish cut it to $2.39 last month; that price hasn't changed.
Read about the $2.39 Essential repricing
What IPVanish Antivirus actually does
The antivirus lives inside the IPVanish desktop app, so there is no separate download or dashboard. According to IPVanish, it covers four areas:
- Device scanning: on-demand and scheduled malware scans of the computer and external drives.
- Real-time protection: anti-ransomware, monitoring of downloads and file changes, exploit prevention, and blocking of hostile background tasks.
- Web protection: blocks malicious websites, ads and trackers, and keeps working when the VPN is switched off.
- Network protection: watches for suspicious network activity, currently Windows only.
That last point about the VPN being off is the real difference from what Essential already includes. Threat Protection, which every plan has, blocks known malicious domains, ads and trackers only while the VPN is connected. It's a DNS-level filter. The antivirus works at the level of files, downloads and processes on the machine itself, so it catches things a domain blocklist can't: an infected file from a USB stick, a malicious attachment, ransomware that's already on the disk.
The limit is platform coverage. The antivirus is Windows and macOS only. On Android, iOS and Fire TV, an IPVanish subscription still gives you the VPN plus Threat Protection, not antivirus.
Where the engine comes from, and how it tested
IPVanish is owned by Ziff Davis, which also owns the VIPRE security brand, and IPVanish says its antivirus is "powered by the VIPRE antivirus engine". VIPRE in turn is listed by the independent test lab AV-Comparatives as one of the products that use the Bitdefender engine. So the detection core is one of the most widely licensed engines on the market, not something built from scratch for this launch.
IPVanish's headline claim is that VIPRE earned AV-Comparatives' top Advanced+ award in the lab's March 2026 Malware Protection Test, with a 99.91% protection rate against 10,000 recent malware samples on Windows 11. We checked the published report, and both numbers are accurate. The context matters, though:
| Product (selection) | Protection rate | False alarms |
|---|---|---|
| F-Secure / TotalAV | 99.98% | 19 |
| Avast / AVG / Norton | 99.97% | 9 |
| Bitdefender | 99.94% | 4 |
| Microsoft Defender | 99.93% | 3 |
| VIPRE | 99.91% | 4 |
| Malwarebytes | 99.59% | 23 |
Twenty products took part, and ten earned Advanced+. VIPRE is one of them, but its 99.91% is the lowest score in the top group: 9 misses out of 10,000, against 2 for the leaders. Where VIPRE does well is false alarms: 4, tied with Bitdefender and behind only Kaspersky and Microsoft. Several products with higher protection rates were marked down to a lower award for flagging clean files.
The fair summary is that this is a top-tier engine with a low false-positive rate. The test doesn't show it beating the market. It also doesn't cover macOS: the March test ran on Windows only.
Is Complete worth the extra $0.70 a month?
The honest comparison isn't Essential vs Complete. It's Complete vs Essential plus whatever antivirus you'd otherwise run.
Complete makes sense if:
- You use Windows or Mac and don't pay for an antivirus today. $16.80 over two years is less than almost any standalone paid antivirus.
- You want one app for the VPN and device protection, especially for less technical family members.
- You already rely on IPVanish's unlimited simultaneous connections for a household, since one subscription then covers the antivirus across every computer.
Stick with Essential if:
- You're on Windows and happy with Microsoft Defender, which scored 99.93% in the same test with only 3 false alarms, and costs nothing extra.
- You already pay for a security suite. Two real-time scanners on the same machine is a recipe for conflicts.
- Your devices are mostly phones and tablets, which the antivirus doesn't cover.
Advanced, at $3.59, adds 1TB of cloud storage and the Secure Browser, which runs browsing in an isolated cloud environment. It's worth it only if you'd actually use the storage. Existing Advanced customers get the antivirus at no extra cost.
VPN vs antivirus vs password manager: which tool you need
What hasn't changed
The VPN underneath is the same product we reviewed: unlimited simultaneous connections, WireGuard, an independently audited no-logs policy, and US jurisdiction, which puts IPVanish inside Five Eyes. The new tagline, "Control your digital world", and the suite positioning don't alter any of that. If US jurisdiction was a dealbreaker for your threat model before, the antivirus doesn't fix it.
Full IPVanish review: speeds, audit and jurisdiction
FAQ
Does IPVanish Essential include antivirus?
No. Essential includes the VPN and Threat Protection, which blocks malicious domains, ads and trackers while the VPN is connected. Full device antivirus requires Complete or Advanced.
Which devices does IPVanish Antivirus support?
Windows and macOS, through the IPVanish desktop app. Network protection is Windows only. There is no antivirus on Android or iOS.
What engine does IPVanish Antivirus use?
IPVanish says it is powered by the VIPRE engine. AV-Comparatives lists VIPRE among the products using the Bitdefender engine.
I already have IPVanish. Do I get the antivirus?
Existing Advanced customers get it at no extra cost. Essential customers can upgrade to Complete or Advanced. Customers who subscribed through an app store need to contact IPVanish support for upgrade options.
What does Complete cost after the first two years?
$109.99 a year, billed yearly. Essential renews at $99.99 and Advanced at $129.99.
Bottom line
IPVanish Complete is a sensible bundle rather than a breakthrough. The antivirus is built on a proven engine with a strong false-alarm record, it closes the real gap in Threat Protection by working when the VPN is off, and $0.70 a month undercuts nearly any standalone paid antivirus. But it's Windows and Mac only, its test score is solid rather than class-leading, and Windows users already get comparable protection from Defender. Choose Complete if you'd otherwise pay for an antivirus; otherwise Essential remains the better buy.
Sources and further reading
Sources
- IPVanish: Pricing and renewal terms ipvanish.com
- IPVanish: Antivirus with VPN protection ipvanish.com
- AV-Comparatives: Malware Protection Test March 2026 av-comparatives.org
Prices are IPVanish's US web prices as of October 7, 2026; app-store pricing, taxes and regional prices can differ.
