Avast SecureLine
What is Avast SecureLine?
Run by the anti-malware firm, Avast, SecureLine is a reliable, no-frills virtual private network service with clear policies and a useful selection of endpoint locations. It uses the same backend network as AVG Secure VPN, which is also owned and run by Avast, but the two services have different features and pricing schemes.
Related: Best VPN
Avast SecureLine – Features and usability
SecureLine did well in our European speed tests in particular, with speeds of over 9.83MB/s (77Mbit/s) in our file transfer tests to the Netherlands. Its US performance was a little below average but still decent at 3.22MB/s (25.76Mbit/s), although UK performance was a bit slower than in our last round of tests, at 6.5MB/s (52Mbit/s) via FTP and 5.8MB/s (46.4Mbit/s) for an HTTP download.
Although we’ve previously been able to watch US Netflix with Avast, none of the endpoints we tried was able to connect undetected this time around.
Avast SecureLine – Performance
SecureLine did well in our European speed tests in particular, with speeds of over 9.35MB/s (75Mbit/s) in our file transfer tests to the Netherlands. Its US performance was above average at 2.8MB/s (22.4Mbit/s), and our latest tests showed UK transfer speeds of 7MB/s (56Mbit/s) – a marked improvement on last year’s performance.
We were also able to use the service to stream US Netflix content – something else that we couldn’t do in our previous round of testing. However, BBC iPlayer still detected that we were using a VPN.
Related: What is a VPN?
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ExpressVPN | $99.95/£70.53 per year ($6.67/£5.12 per month)
ExpressVPN | $99.95/£70.53 per year ($6.67/£5.12 per month)
ExpressVPN provides a fast, stable and feature-packed service that did well in our speed tests and proved useful for international media streaming.
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One of the least expensive, most feature-packed services around and has a tested no-logging policy.
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NordVPN consistently performs well in our tests, with an excellent range of features at a low cost.
Why buy Avast SecureLine?
Avast is headquartered in the Czech Republic and has a no-logging policy across its VPN service. The company explicitly states that, although general network performance is monitored, it “does not log bandwidth, URLs, or packet data and we do not gather any personally identifiable information”.
Avast SecureLine provides VPN endpoints in a reasonable number of countries – 34 so far – including some unusual ones: Russia, Taiwan and Brazil, as well as more common locations such as the USA and the Netherlands.
However, it’s expensive, with an annual £49.99 subscription for a single device working out at £4.17 a month. If you want to connect more than one computer or mobile device, you’ll have to pay £64.99 per year for a five-licence account. A free seven-day trial is available, though, so you can see if SecureLine meets your needs before you pay for it.
AVG Secure VPN is also owned by Avast, uses the same backend infrastructure and costs the same for UK users, although it has a smaller range of endpoint locations. Both services keep connection logs for a period of 30 days.
Verdict
Although Avast SecureLine’s performance is adequate for most VPN users, its restricted single-device licence and relatively high cost make it a poor choice when more capable rivals such as Private Internet Access cost less.
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