IVPN

IVPN is a Gibraltar-incorporated privacy-focused VPN operated by **IVPN Limited** (formerly Privatus Limited), founded in 2009 by Nicholas Pestell. The company is independent: no parent company, no private-equity or venture-capital ownership, no other VPN brands operated — a structural rarity in a category dominated by conglomerated VPN consolidators (Kape Technologies, NordVPN parent group, etc.). Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory that maintains GDPR alignment with the EU framework but explicitly sits **outside the 5/9/14 Eyes** intelligence-sharing alliance, which is the headline jurisdictional advantage IVPN markets to its target audience. Compliance and privacy posture are gold-standard. The no-logs policy has been independently audited by **Cure53** — the German cybersecurity firm — three separate times, alongside a comprehensive pentest of apps and infrastructure. IVPN publishes transparency reports on law-enforcement requests, runs all apps as open-source, and is one of only two VPN providers (alongside Proton VPN) on most "best for privacy" 2026 shortlists with both open-source apps AND annual third-party audits. The privacy policy is straightforward: no activity logs, no connection logs, no DNS query logs, no IP-address logs, no timestamp logs. Tor-over-IVPN and multi-hop modes are supported. Pricing is direct and trial-friendly: Standard plan around US$6/month (€5–6 equivalent); a 7-day trial is available; cards plus Bitcoin and Monero accepted. No free tier. Best fit: privacy-maximalist EU and worldwide users who want a Cure53-audited no-logs guarantee under a Gibraltar-Outside-Eyes jurisdiction, journalists, researchers, and anyone valuing independent ownership over feature-bloated marketing. The smaller server fleet vs Proton VPN means slightly lower geo-coverage and streaming-unblock breadth, which is the trade-off for the structurally cleaner posture.