Avast SecureLine is an easy-to-use VPN from the popular security provider Avast Software, but underneath it's powered by HideMyAss! network (HideMyAss! is part of the Avast group).
SecureLine's network has only 700 servers (major providers have thousands), but they are well spread across 58 locations and 36 countries. P2P support is available from eight locations.
There are apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, while desktop users get Chrome and Firefox extensions.
Avast allows you to use the VPN on up to 10 devices. Sounds good, but keep in mind that this is a device, not a concurrent connection limit. Once you have set up the VPN on 10 devices, you will not be able to install it on others until you disable it on one of the 10 existing devices.
- Avast SecureLine VPN subscription options:
- 36 month plan - €3.50 per month (€126 total cost) (opens in a new tab)
Avast has been busy adding many more features since our last review. The apps don't just support the OpenVPN protocol, for example: there's beta support for lightning-fast WireGuard and a stealthy Mimic protocol to avoid VPN detection and connect even in the least VPN-friendly places. And whatever you're using, a kill switch protects you if the connection is lost.
But the best new features in SecureLine center around ease of use. There's none of the manual configuration hassle you'll typically see elsewhere, for example; once you run the service on one device, a pairing scheme sets it up for others in seconds. And a Smart VPN mode protects you by automatically turning on VPN when you need it most, like when you're accessing public Wi-Fi, torrenting apps, visiting banking websites, or streaming video.
Packages and rates
Avast SecureLine is priced at €4.59 per month on the annual plan (opens in a new tab) (no monthly billing, sadly). You can pay by card or PayPal.
There are two-year and three-year plans (opens in a new tab), but with a very similar price of €4.39 per month, we're hard-pressed to see a reason to choose them.
It still feels like a fair value, but if you're on a budget, there's plenty of money to save elsewhere. Private Internet Access only charges €3.33 a month on its annual plan, for example, and if you sign up for three years, you'll only pay €2.03 a month for the first quarter, one of the best deals on the market.
Avast SecureLine scores points for its generous essay, even though it's presented in a slightly confusing way. The website says there is a "7 day free trial, no credit card required" which sounds good so we clicked on the link. The app eventually asked for credit card (or PayPal) details, but also gave us 60 days to test the service before we were charged. In a world where most VPNs gave up their free trials years ago (if they had any), this is a pretty good deal.
Privacy and registration
Avast's use of the highly secure OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols gives you a head start on privacy issues. A kill switch protects you if the VPN goes down, there's DNS leak protection, and a bonus on WebRTC leak protection with the browser extension.
Avast also deserves kudos for their VPN privacy policy (opens in a new tab). Not only does it contain a lot of detail about what the service logs and what doesn't, but the policy also spells it out much more clearly than most.
The good news is that SecureLine does not log your source IP address, DNS queries, or anything else that might identify the websites you visit, the services and apps you use, or anything else you can do online.
The bad news is that there is some degree of session logging, including connection timestamps and the amount of data transmitted. But that's not enough to link it to a web action and Avast removes it after 35 days. (For example, data recorded on January 3 is deleted on February 7.)
Avast's various apps use standard analytics libraries (Google Firebase, Google Fabric, AppsFlyer) to collect their own basic data: device OS version, actions you take in the app (if you enable one feature, disable another, maybe uninstall and reinstall the client). However, it's also common, and if you're not comfortable with it anyway, you can turn off this type of data collection in the Settings panel of the app.
In general, Avast doesn't say anything very surprising or unusual here. Still, potential customers shouldn't have to accept a VPN provider's words of trust. Companies like TunnelBear, ExpressVPN, and NordVPN have all undergone independent audits to verify their privacy promises, and we'd like Avast to do the same.
windows app
Avast SecureLine VPN's Windows app takes up a little more screen space than most competitors, but it's well-designed and does a great job of talking even VPN novices through the startup process.
If you're a beginner, for example, you may think that running SecureLine VPN is enough, but the app is quick to point out the real situation. “Your privacy online is not protected,” he told us sternly: “Turn on your VPN to encrypt what you do online.”
How do you do that? In case the large button currently marked as "Disabled" wasn't enough of a clue, the app displayed a large arrow pointing at it, with the caption "Start Here."
Press the button and the app quickly connects to your nearest SecureLine server. While other apps usually just show a "Connected" message, Avast is much clearer and more helpful: "Your connection is encrypted and your location is hidden."
It is the same with IP addresses. The app doesn't just display your originating IP and VPN addresses: Hovering your mouse over a help icon brings up a pop-up with a brief but clear explanation of what those numbers mean. Even newcomers to VPNs won't need to look at this more than twice, but it's still a great idea and great ease of use to boot.
The list of locations is a bit more basic. It allows you to filter by continent and view P2P or streaming-optimized servers, but there is no favorites system or recent list to speed reconnection to commonly used servers.
The Settings panel allows you to choose a protocol. WireGuard is now available in beta, OpenVPN is here, and Avast's own Mimic protocol is designed to connect you in non-VPN-enabled environments where other services are blocked.
During the review, a panel appeared at the bottom of the application window displaying alarming information: "We have detected possible attempts to track you," it warned.
We clicked the Repair button while waiting for help, but instead, a few screens tried to persuade us to buy Avast's AntiTrack product, and a third gave us a choice of one, two, or three year subscriptions. We expect clickbait ads to try to scare users away from free products, but not when we pay for a supposedly professional service.
The main features of the app worked well during testing. Connection times were fast, around a second for WireGuard, 5-6 seconds for OpenVPN, even with the most remote locations; some VPNs take 4-5 times longer. There were no connection failures or connection drops: SecureLine proved to be very stable.
(Why? Looking under the hood, SecureLine uses an optimized Wintun driver instead of the bulky TAP adapters required by many VPNs. Keeping it simple should improve performance and reduce the chance of connection issues or conflicts with other VPNs or other software. ).
We used various tricks to forcefully close the VPN anyway, to find out how the kill switch worked. Either way, it successfully locked down our internet, ensuring our data was never exposed, and then quickly got back online.
We noticed a strange issue with WireGuard. If the WireGuard process crashed, the app would hit the kill switch and appear to come back online, but our internet was still dead. We had to close the VPN and reconnect to restore normal operations.
It's boring, but not a disaster. The app always blocked our internet as it should, and our traffic wasn't exposed until we manually closed the VPN, giving us time to close our P2P app or turn off everything we were doing. This is not a bad result, especially when WireGuard is in beta and hopefully the problem will be fixed in the final version.
Perhaps the app's most ambitious feature is its Smart VPN mode, where you can set the VPN to automatically connect according to your preferred rules. You can activate SecureLine whenever you connect to public Wi-Fi networks, stream videos, use torrent apps, or visit banking sites, for example.
We tried opening the top 10 US and banking sites, five streaming apps, and five torrent apps, and the service worked every time. When we launched our Netflix app, for example, SecureLine connected to a location optimized for streaming and automatically turned off when the app was closed; easy.
But we also noticed a worrying problem: Smart VPN mode didn't always know if we were protected. If we visited a banking site when our 10 device slots were in use, for example, SecureLine would first display an "activation" notification. The connection failed because we didn't have a free device, but...