In this review, we’ll go through all the reasons why an Aussie should consider it.
How Avast SecureLine VPN Australia Works
The Avast VPN is actually called Avast Avast SecureLine.
To understand how good or bad Avast SecureLine is, we have to talk about what a VPN does. You’ll be able to bounce your connection to a server abroad or in another location in your country. The private network would encrypt your data along the way.
The best alternatives to Avast are ExpressVPN and SurfShark (in my opinion, both are better than Avast).
How it tunnels your connection depends on the protocol it uses. There are quite a few, and some are more secure than others.
Your connection is secure, so your ISP would not be able to track your activity. Hackers wouldn’t be able to tap in either. Only your computer and the server you’ll be connected to will know this.
When choosing a virtual private network, remember to factor in the mentioned points. The encryption, server location choices, protocols as well as privacy are vital.
How Much Does Avast VPN Cost in Australia?
You’ll have to pay to make use of Avast’s services. The program comes with two package types. One of them lets you choose subscriptions for a year, 2 years, or 3, while only being able to connect the VPN to one device.
The other package lets you choose subscriptions for 1, 2, or 3 years as well, but you’ll be able to use it on 5 different devices with your account.
This can be confusing as competitors don’t different packages depending on the number of devices you can use.
With the 1-device plan, you will be paying:
- $3.99 a month ($47.88) – for 1 year
- $2.99 a month ($71.76) – for 2 years
- $2.99 a month ($107.64) – for 3 years
With the 5-device plan, you will be paying:
- $4.99 a month ($59.88) – for 1 year
- $3.99 a month ($95.76)– for 2 years
- $3.99 a month ($143.64) – for 3 years.
You can use the virtual private network on most major operating systems. This would be Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS. Unfortunately, you can’t utilize it for Ubuntu.
If you want to just try SecureLine out, this is possible. They offer a 7-day free trial. You don’t have to include your credit card information. This is a relief as its competitors require you to provide this, charging you automatically when your trial is up. You can only snag the trial on a Windows device, though.
You might be wondering if they’re expensive. Well, they aren’t. You’ll usually find a year subscription for around $70-75.
If you’re unhappy with your purchase, you’ll be pleased to know that they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. They keep their word too; there are countless stories of users who’ve reached out and got their cash back.
Servers
As you can imagine, the more servers available, the better. You would be able to connect to any location of your choice, making use of its perks. For example, accessing their specific Netflix library. Right now, the company offers over 700 servers. It’s not the largest, as names like CyberGhost offer over 5000.
There are servers available in 35 different countries. Its counterparts offer a range of about 50, however. The locations it offers are not the most diverse, but it’s still quite good. You’ll mostly be able to connect to servers in Europe. There are some in South America and Africa, as well. Considering how virtual private networks tend to ignore these locations, we’re pleased.
What’s great about the Avast VPN is that it regularly updates the locations it offers.
Speed
Their site boasts some of the fastest speeds in the game. We don’t think this is true. Their connections are speedy, yet nowhere near the best.
When we ran our speed test, we found that a US server had a:
- 113 ms ping
- 94 Mbps download speed
- 67 Mbps upload speed
If you’re wondering why speed is important, it’s because using a VPN slows your connection down. After all, your data is bounced and encrypted. The best virtual private networks make this less obvious.
Privacy
If you’re thinking of getting a VPN, VPN Australia is one of the countries that collect its citizen’s data, so you need to stay protected. The nation makes it mandatory for internet service providers to track users. This would include monitoring aspects like your location and the time you spend online. They are supposed to keep the information in their systems for two years so that Australian authorities can collect it without a warrant.
Unfortunately, several telecommunication services have handed over their web history when submitting the metadata. Many blame this on the vagueness of the data collection law.
What’s more, the country is a member of the 5-eyes. They are a group of nations that share its citizens’ information with one another.
As a VPN bounces your connection to a foreign location, and not to your ISP, you might think you’re safe. However, some of them keep tabs on the sites you visit. Several high-end names like PureVPN have been caught doing this.
What about Avast’s SecureLine? They collect some user information, but it’s nothing to be worried about. They only collect information such as how long you spent online, as well as the times you went on and offline. They also make note of how much data was transmitted during your connection. The company is transparent about all this, and you can read all about it in their privacy policy.
Speaking of their privacy policy, it’s very thorough. This is one of the most important things to look for when choosing a program to work with. You need to have a clear idea of what they do with your data. Another advantage is that they issue transparency reports. You’ll come across the key information you need to know about the company. Their reports were last updated in the summer of 2019, however.
There have been no rumours about them collecting more than just the basic information. Your privacy is safeguarded if you make use of their services. A thorough encryption would be in place, and we’ll talk more about this below.
Security
The secureness of your connection depends on the encryption in place. The best would be 256-bit locks. They are military level, so they’ll be very hard to infiltrate and SecureLine makes use of them.
We mentioned protocols earlier. Well, they are rules that virtual private networks follow to send your data to the server of your choice. There are 6 main types and OpenVPN is the gold-standard. Avast’s VPN uses two of the most secure protocols including OpenPN and IPSec.
Protocols also differ in speed. OpenVPN is the best when it comes to keeping your data safe. However, it’s sluggish. IPSec is faster, thankfully.
It’s great to know that SecureLine offers two formidable protocols, but you’ll get a more customizable experience if they offered more. It would have been even better to switch between SSTP and IKEv2. The latter is more suited for mobile devices.
As they are so secure, there has been no history of their data being breached. This is good to know, as larger names like NordVPN have had their servers hacked. In Nord’s defense, they claim it only took place as the infiltrated server was being rented out. Sadly for them, it made users lose trust in their services.
Many VPNs offer a feature called DNS leak protection, and this is true for Avast SecureLine as well. It ensures that your data does not accidentally get leaked while being tunneled to your server. If this were to happen, your ISP would know what you’re up to. If you accidentally clicked an IP-grabber while there was a data leak, it would be able to trace your actual location.
Another feature that keeps you safe is a kill-switch. Not only could your data leak, but your VPN could completely disconnect, as well. This can take place even with larger names. With a kill-switch, your virtual private network would take you offline, so that your data is not tunneled back to your ISP.
Customer Support
If you ever have an issue with the company, you can easily get it solved. They offer extremely helpful support representatives, who are friendly and will get back to you in no time, so you’re in good hands. You can contact them through tickets or phone calls. The representatives that reply to tickets are fast as well as informative.
We would have loved it if a live-chat was offered. It would allow you to get immediate support. However, the company offers a great blog section. Like their support team, the articles are informative. If that’s not enough, there is a forum too. You can speak to a community of people whenever you want, and get quick replies to any issues you may have. It’s also a great way of reaching out to others online.
Another drawback is that there is no email option available. This isn’t too much of an issue, though, as there are other ways of getting through.
Avast is available on all major social media platforms. If you reach out to them on Twitter, you’ll most likely get a response. Just don’t expect it to be quick, and it might take a while.
In terms of their phone support, you may be wondering what their working hours are. We’re happy to say that they work 24/7.
Streaming Services
Netflix isn’t available across the world, due to copyright laws in certain countries. However, it’s available down under. Unfortunately, the content library Aussies have access to is not the best or most varied. America has the largest library, so connecting to a server in the States would let you access any movie or TV series that you have been looking for.
Not all VPNs allow this, though. The streaming service regularly keeps tabs on the servers people use, black-listing them, if they deem any activity illegal. When it comes to Avast SecureLine, you may be wondering how they fare. Well, they are not the best. You can’t stream content while connected to a server, as you will keep getting a Proxy error. This is risky as Netflix knows what you’re up to, and your account could end up being banned.
It’s not just with Netflix that you’ll face this issue. You won’t be able to stream Disney+ or Hulu, either. They also have different libraries depending on where you live.
Torrenting
Australia has also made torrenting illegal. The country has blocked countless sites, including those that allow pirating. As your connection could be tunneled outside the country, you might think you’ll be able to bypass the block with a VPN. However, this is not so as they will need to offer peer-to-peer connections.
SecureLine allows P2P connections through data centers in the following locations:
- Seattle, Washington
- New York City, New York
- Miami, Florida
- London, United Kingdom
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Paris, France
Should You Use Avast SecureLine?
Now that you have an idea of Avast VPN’s services, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using the service. This would help you decide if it’s right for you.
Pros
First, we’ll be running through the pros. We’ll be summarizing everything in the latter part of our article.
Price
You won’t be spending much when you use their services. They are much cheaper than other VPNs available.
Security
When using Avast SecureLine, you will be as secure as possible. They use a military level lock and offer two secure protocols: OpenVPN and IPSec.
The service has never been hacked, so there’s nothing to fear in that regard. The cherry on top is the fact that they also offer kill-switches and DNS leak protection.
Speeds
Although they don’t offer the fastest speeds in the game, they offer relatively good ones.
Privacy
The company promises that your web history will not be tracked. They have a thorough privacy policy, so you can see what they do with your data. It’s so transparent that you can see how they track basic information like connection timestamps. They even release transparency reports.
Server Location
There are servers in South America and Africa. Unfortunately, their counterparts don’t focus on servers in these locations.
Torrenting
You will easily be able to torrent when using the program. They allow peer-to-peer connections through data centers in multiple parts of the world.
Customer Support
We like the fact that they offer 24/7 phone support. They have representatives who are informative and friendly. You can reach out to them through their ticket system if you’re not a fan of phone calls. SecureLine has a superb blog section too; and you can solve any issue you have. The company has a forum as well, and you can reach out to them on social media.
Cons
Pricing
Their pricing is affordable, but you won’t have access to certain packages depending on how many devices you want to connect to. The most number of devices you can connect to is 5, which is not a lot.
Security
The fact that they offer two secure protocols is great. It would have been better if they offered more choices since there are at least 6 of the best.
Speeds
They offer great speeds. However, the company claims that they are some of the fastest in the game. Considering our speed test, this is inaccurate.
Servers
The company offers fewer servers than its counterparts. Most of them offer servers in the thousands. Although there are some in South America and Africa, most are in Europe.
Privacy
Don’t forget that they track information, such as how long you spend online and the time-stamps of when you connected and disconnected.
Customer Support
They don’t offer a live chat. You would have been able to get immediate help if they did.
Streaming Services
If you’re thinking of using a VPN to unblock Netflix libraries abroad, you won’t be able to. The virtual private network doesn’t work with Disney+, Hulu, or other major names.
Is Avast Australia Good?
We are fans of this virtual private network. However, we don’t think it’s the best option available. To begin with, it doesn’t come with as many servers as its counterparts. Its pricing is strange too. You’ll have to pay a fixed rate for ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, or IPVanish, and be able to use their servers on 5 or more devices.
The private network also doesn’t work with streaming services. In turn, this means that the servers they make use of won’t be able to bypass strict country censorships, like those in China and Turkey. These countries have blocked everyday sites like Facebook. Their citizens have to be careful about the VPNs they use, as they could get into trouble if they’re caught.
As mentioned, the service still offers many benefits. There is a secure connection and excellent privacy. At the end of the day, this is all you want from a VPN.
If you’re thinking of working with them, we recommend the service.