IPVanish Pushes Beyond VPN With Next-Gen Antivirus and Three New Subscription Tiers

The company said the new malware protection sits inside the existing VPN client rather than requiring a separate download or a second dashboard. Its device protection feature runs full malware scans on internal hard drives and external devices, either on demand or on a schedule. A real-time protection layer, which IPVanish describes as AI-driven, is designed to guard against ransomware, watch downloaded files for unexpected changes, block software exploits and stop hostile background tasks. A web protection component blocks ads, trackers and malicious websites and continues to monitor network activity for threats even when the VPN connection is switched off.

Subbu Sthanu, general manager of consumer cybersecurity at IPVanish, framed the expansion as a response to what a VPN cannot do. "A VPN was never meant to be the whole answer," he said. "It protects your Internet connections and your privacy, but does not shield you from malicious downloads, fake login pages, and other threats."

The antivirus runs on the same engine used in VIPRE-branded antivirus products. According to the announcement, that engine, VIPRE Advanced Security, recorded a 99.91% protection rate against 10,000 recent malware samples in the Malware Protection Test carried out by the independent testing lab AV-Comparatives in March 2026, and received the lab's highest Advanced+ rating with three stars.

Alongside the feature changes, IPVanish has reorganized its subscriptions into three plans. Essential is the traditional VPN package, starting at $2.39 per month, and includes the core VPN service plus threat protection. Complete, the mid-tier option, adds the new antivirus to the Essential feature set and costs $3.09 per month on a two-year plan, about 70 cents more. Advanced, the top tier, includes everything in Complete and adds 1TB of cloud storage and the company's own Secure Browser.

The company has tied the expanded lineup to a new tagline, "Control your digital world," describing the move as bringing high-tier antivirus and cloud backups under the same product as its VPN so users can manage their digital security from one place. The changes cover desktop clients on Windows and macOS; the report did not specify availability dates for every market, nor did it give details on mobile platforms or on how existing subscribers will be migrated to the new tiers.

Editor's Summary

IPVanish has integrated a next-generation antivirus into its Windows and macOS apps and restructured its subscriptions into Essential, Complete and Advanced tiers, with the mid-tier plan adding malware protection for about 70 cents more per month on a two-year term. The move marks a shift from VPN-only service toward a bundled digital security offering that also includes cloud storage and a proprietary browser, with the antivirus engine drawing on the VIPRE Advanced Security technology that scored 99.91% in AV-Comparatives' March 2026 malware protection test.