Avast SecureLine VPN Review

Avast has had a long line of security products since the 1980s, and a VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a part of that collective for a few years. This is great for long-time users of the company’s products and services. But what about those who are yet to become one? What sets Avast SecureLine VPN apart from hundreds of competing products in the industry? How does it fare against the top choices in terms of features, price, speed, ease of use, and compatibility? That’s what we’ll find out as we get down to the nitty-gritty in our Avast SecureLine VPN review.

What is Avast SecureLine VPN?

Avast SecureLine is yet another antivirus VPN from an industry giant, Avast RSO. On the plus side, the VPN is beginner-friendly and easy to use. However, it is a basic VPN with lots of advanced features missing. First off, the provider offers a proprietary protocol, Avast Mimic, which is undoubtedly fast, but it lacks in other areas, especially streaming, as it can only unblock a handful of streaming services.

And while the VPN claims to employ a no-logging policy, it sure does record a substantial amount of data and falls under the EU data retention laws, which is a cause for concern. The VPN does offer a decent VPN network of 500 to 700+ servers across the globe, which is enough to ensure decent connection speed and tasks such as hiding IP addresses and spoofing virtual locations. However, there is no further information on these servers, leaving us in the dark regarding things such as priority servers or exclusive servers that allow special web traffic like P2P.

Lastly, the VPN is stand-alone, and you can also try it for free without any credit card details. But $4.39 for the 3-year plan, which is undoubtedly costlier than some of the best mid-tier VPN providers.

Avast SecureLine VPN Features

The following are some primary features of Avast SecureLine VPN:

Base Country

Its parent company, Avast SRO, has headquarters in the Czech Republic, which is ideal. The country is not a member of the Five, Nine, and Fourteen Eyes Alliances.

Logging Policy

Avast SecureLine VPN has a no-logging policy, which is true for your online activity, apps you use, or content you consume. However, they’re also open and honest about collecting some connection history logs for 30 days. They also log the amount of data transferred during each VPN session.

Server base

Avast SecureLine VPN has 700 VPN servers in 55 locations and 34 countries. Be sure to frequently update SecureLine to get more servers.

Speed

The VPN provider stated that it supports speeds of up to 2 Gbits/s (250 MB/s). We didn’t have such a powerful infrastructure for testing, but connecting from a country in Europe using the “Optimal Location” feature only reduced our speed by 2%. The download speed depletion was identical in the UK and when connecting to the top VPN server in the United States. In the latter case, the ping tripled, and upload speed went down by 45%, but streaming was unimpacted. Connecting to a server in Germany demonstrated a download speed reduction of 33%. Other tests showed similar results, except for the Australian VPN server. In our test, the download speed shrunk by nearly 95%.

Bandwidth and Data Usage

Avast SecureLine VPN has no bandwidth or data consumption limits on its network. However, the free version or trials might have them. For more info, check the Avast SecureLine VPN data limit.

IPv4, IPv6, DNS, webRTC Leaks

When we used Avast SecureLine VPN with the best VPN test sites to check a VPN, we found no IPv4, IPv6, webRTC, or DNS leaks.

Simultaneous Connections

Avast SecureLine VPN only allows 1 VPN connection per user account on its base plan. However, its Multi-Device subscription allows up to 10 concurrent devices. So, if your Avast VPN is disconnecting frequently, make sure that only 1 connection is active at a time.

Encryption

The VPN provider has bank-grade encryption, which is the industry gold standard, 256-bit AES encryption.

Unblocking Streaming Services

Avast SecureLine VPN bypassed VPN blocks on the following streaming services:

• Netflix
• Amazon Prime Video
• HBO Max
• BBC iPlayer

Security Protocols

Avast SecureLine VPN supports OpenVPN (UDP only) with OpenSSL libraries on Windows and Android and IPsec on Mac and iOS.

Does Avast SecureLine VPN work in China?

Avast SecureLine VPN doesn’t work in China dependably. This is because of the Great Firewall of China’s efficiency. It’s quite effective at detecting OpenVPN connections without obfuscation (such as Stealth VPN mode in our Windscribe VPN review).

Additional Features

In the continuation of our Avast SecureLine VPN review, these are some of its extra features:

Kill Switch

Their desktop apps offer an automatic kill switch feature, which will terminate Internet traffic if your VPN connection drops, and reestablish it automatically.

Smart VPN

Smart VPN feature allows you to configure when to automatically connect or skip connecting to a VPN in these situations:

• Trusted Network. Only connect to a VPN automatically when using an untrusted network such as public Wi-Fi.
• P2P Sharing. Whenever a P2P service is active, you’ll get connected to a VPN server that supports torrenting.
• Online Browsing. Different settings for things such as unsafe websites, online banking, shopping, streaming, etc.

Customer Service

Avast SecureLine VPN offers Customer Support in multiple ways:

• Help Section that is searchable and includes FAQ
• Written guides/blog posts at Avast Academy
• Contact form
• Phone call (consultation is free, fixing technical problems costs additionally)

Avast SecureLine VPN Installation and User Interface

Avast SecureLine VPN apps have a simplistic but eye-pleasing Graphical User Interface (GUI). They are easy to navigate and well-suited for first-time users, including the ability to connect to a VPN with one click. The app will automatically find the fastest server (“Optimal Location”) or respect your connection rules (“Smart VPN”). The Settings menu is designed so that you can put or remove checkmarks to enable/disable features. We also like that VPN servers with P2P traffic support are clearly marked.

What is Avast SecureLine VPN compatible with?

Avast SecureLine VPN has apps for Windows, Android, macOS, and iOS, as well as Android Smart TV, Nvidia Shield TV, and Mi Box. We didn’t find manual configurations for other devices, but they do offer VPN browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox.

Avast SecureLine VPN Pricing

Here are the prices of Avast SecureLine VPN:

• 1-year plan – $3.99/monthly with 33% discount (1 Device) / $4.99 monthly with 33% discount (10 Devices)
• 2-year plan – $2.99/monthly with 35% discount (1 Device) / $3.99 monthly with 47% discount (10 Devices)
• 3-year plan  – $2.99/monthly with 33% discount (1 Device) / $3.99 monthly with 47% discount (10 Devices)

As you can see, the subscription is on par with the affordable leading VPN providers such as NordVPN and CyberGhost. They also offer a VPN free trial for 7 days without a credit card and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Verdict

To conclude our review of Avast SecureLine VPN, we’ll say that it’s a great choice for the general populace. The speed is up to par, there are enough VPN services, it does a good job with streaming and torrenting, and is very useful for public or untrusted Internet connections. Also, because of its free trial, affordable price, and plenty of time to get a money-back refund, users can test it thoroughly and change their minds without consequence. We’d like to see them introduce some features we mentioned as cons. That would label them as something more than a “basic“ VPN provider.