Avast Secureline VPN Review

What is Avast Secureline?

Avast Secureline promises a fast, effective, and easy-to-use service that hides your online activities – and without Avast logging any activity, either. It supports Peer-to-Peer traffic for those that want to share files using torrent applications, and it uses bank-grade 256-bit AES encryption for privacy peace of mind.

You may have seen some news stories recently about Avast sharing its users’ data. This only applies to users of its free anti-virus package, and Avast has confirmed with us that it does not collect customer information from Secureline.

You can use Secureline to secure your connection when you’re using public WiFi, so that you don’t have to worry that the network operator – or another user – is spying and collecting sensitive data. A VPN can also stop governments or nosey corporations from collecting information on what you do online, or to unblock websites or video streaming services that are normally blocked in certain countries. For instance, if you’re travelling or working in Europe, you can’t access your US Netflix library or NBC’s catch-up TV services without using a VPN.

Avast Secureline: The Good

This is a great VPN to pick if you’re not particularly confident with all things technical, and just want an easy piece of software to run.

Simple Service

Secureline is very, very easy to use. You just select a location from the pop-out menu, then click Connect.

There are clear and helpful notifications that let you know when you connect and disconnect.

No Privacy Leaks

Does Secureline protect your privacy? You betcha. Our IP and DNS leak tests didn’t pick out anything that could give away your identity or location.

Streaming Services Unlocked

We found Secureline had no problem unblocking catch-up TV services from NBC or Comedy Central, though Netflix US detected an unblocker and refused to play any shows or movies.

Need to watch Netflix over a VPN? Some services can connect to it successfully – read our roundup of the best VPNs for accessing Netflix.

Decent Speeds

Secureline isn’t as fast as promised, but speeds are perfectly acceptable for everyday use, both over long-distance and short-distance VPNs. If you’re planning to stream video from across the pond, Secureline won’t have any problem giving you the necessary bandwidth.

Avast Secureline: The Not-So-Good

Secureline is a good VPN service, but arguably a little basic.

No Killswitch Option

Secureline doesn’t have the advanced security and privacy protections of some other VPNs, and crucially, there’s no killswitch option to drop all connections should the VPN unexpectedly fail.

A killswitch has become a standard feature in other VPNs – and rightly so. If you are doing anything where anonymity is a real concern, the consequences of such a failure could be serious.

Price Points

Secureline’s pricing is another downside – there’s a fee if you want to connect more than one device at a time, and there’s no free option available.

Pricing – How Much is Avast Secureline VPN?

The PC only and Mac only Secureline plans are very limited – and ask you to pay extra if you want to cover more than one PC or Mac, which makes the $59.99 per year asking price seem pretty steep. The $79.99 five-device plan is better value, but still more expensive than some more flexible VPNs.

Unlike other VPNs, there’s no option to pay monthly. It’s a year upfront or nothing, nada, zilch.

Getting Started with Avast VPN

It’s simple enough to sign-up for the service, but it can be confusing if you need to run Secureline on more than one device.

Most VPNs allow you to connect using any number of different devices running different operating systems, as long as only five are connected at one time. But, Secureline asks you to have different subscriptions for a PC, iOS, or Android device. Alternatively, you can pay for a more expensive option that covers you for five devices of any type.

Once you do sign up, you won’t have any problems installing the applications, as the website guides you through the steps.

From there, a small introductory presentation takes you through the major features, though the app is so simple that there’s not that much to learn.

The Verdict

Ease-of-use is Secureline’s biggest plus point, making it a strong VPN to choose for first-timers, and from a trusted name, too. Some of the plans will seem oddly restrictive for advanced users, while the limited set of features doesn’t do much to impress. Most importantly, though, it’s reasonably fast and solid on security and privacy.