AVG Secure VPN Review: More Than Simple Protection

If you’ve heard about AVG before, I think you’re probably familiar with its antivirus service. That’s not the only thing they specialize in; they’re offering their own top-notch VPN. AVG Secure VPN supports torrenting, unblocks some streaming websites, and is pretty fast.

To know everything you need to know about AVG Secure VPN, we’ll tell you all about it.

AVG Secure VPN Speed

This section checks how AVG Secure VPN fares against its competitors regarding speed tests, servers' number, geographic distribution, and the fastest available protocol.
 

1. Speed tests

AVG Secure VPN had mixed results in our speed tests. The speed was amazingly fast in some particular areas, while it was extremely slow on other servers.
 

2. Number of servers and geographic distribution

Short explanation: AVG Secure VPN has 700+ servers distributed over 37 countries in 50+ locations.

Long explanation: Server locations and numbers are important, as these allow you to pick different IP addresses as needed, without much traffic congestion. AVG Secure VPN has you covered in this area; they have over 700 servers in more than 37 countries.

The good news is you can use the service for torrenting and streaming, but we’ll get into the details later.
 

3. Fastest available protocol

Short explanation: IKEv2 is the fastest available protocol by AVG Secure VPN (recommended to use).

Long explanation: In the VPN world, many protocols exist, with differences between protocols making the difference in how secure a VPN is, how fast, and whether it can bypass geo-censorship. It is noteworthy to mention that it's more oriented towards mobile devices, though.
 

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Security and Privacy

AVG Secure VPN provides high-quality security protocols in order to protect your information. They publish regular independent security audits to provide their users with insight into its policies and security protocols.

The most important features regarding security and privacy include:
 

1. Encryption and protocols

AVG Secure VPN provides AES-256-bit encryption, which is the standard for the industry. It is so secure to the point that governments, militaries, and banks utilize this type of encryption to secure their data.

Are you new to VPNs?

For AVG Secure VPN, use IKEv2 protocol for speed, use OpenVPN protocol for security. Unfortunately, AVG isn't so good at bypassing geo-censorship (obfuscation).

Pro mode: The protocols available for AVG Secure VPN include:
 

 

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2. Logs policy

Short explanation: AVG Secure VPN keeps certain logs for 30 days before deleting them.

Long explanation: AVG Secure VPN admits to logging some information. As described by them, they log information on bandwidth, connection, actual IP address, and time stamps. However, all this information is stored for 30 days only. Afterward, it will be deleted.
 

3. Kill switch 

Short explanation: AVG Secure VPN has a fully functioning kill switch feature.

Long explanation: AVG Secure VPN comes with a kill-switch feature, a feature that turns off the Internet if the VPN is disconnected to avoid any IP or DNS data leaks.
 

4. RAM-based servers

Short explanation: AVG Secure VPN doesn’t have RAM-based servers.

Long explanation: A RAM-based server means that the data, instead of being saved to SSD drives, is saved on RAMs. This is advantageous to security because RAM-based servers are wiped clean every time the servers reboot.
 

5. VPN based country

Short explanation: AVG Secure VPN is based in Czechoslovakia.

Long explanation: AVG is based in Czechoslovakia, which is outside the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliance. VPN companies based inside the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliance are considered a possible security threat as these countries are known to spy on their citizens and share information internally. (Read more What Is the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliance).
 

6. Warrant canary

Short explanation: AVG doesn’t have a warrant canary system.

Long explanation: A warrant canary is an indirect method to warn customers of governmental attempts to subpoena where the presence of the warrant on the company’s official website means the local government hasn’t tried anything yet.

If the warrant canary is removed from the company’s page, it means they were asked for logs. I would have felt much more secure with a warrant canary system in a company with such a logging policy.
 

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AVG Secure VPN in Practice

In terms of the applications of VPN in the real world, we dive further into how AVG Secure VPN fares against the rest in the following categories:
 

1. Streaming

One of the most sought-after functions of a VPN is its ability to unblock geo-restricted content, and the most important of which would be Netflix; and in our test, AVG VPN managed to unblock Netflix US, which was surprising to us since most antivirus associated VPNs tend to work more as protective VPNs.

In addition, AVG VPN managed to unblock Netflix UK and BBCiplayer. However, since there is only one UK server at the time of writing this article, there would be no other alternative in the event it is blocked, which sounds a bit risky.

You can access the optimized streaming servers using the left-hand side filter for a better streaming result, which is nice. However, the fact remains; it is quite limited.
 

2. Torrent

Short explanation: AVG Secure VPN allows torrent. Furthermore, AVG Secure VPN has specialized torrenting servers.

Long explanation: AVG Secure VPN allows torrenting via P2P networks. Protecting your connection while using a VPN is essential since many torrent websites host pirated and illegal content. Keeping your IP masked also protects you from any malicious content with viruses, malware, or any other threats.

AVG VPN allows users to use a VPN on specific servers. However, you won't have to try out every server to figure that out, as you'll find the p2p optimized servers on a separate tab.

Considering AVG keeps logs for 30 days before deleting them, proceeding with care is advised.
 

3. Gaming

Short explanation: AVG Secure VPN doesn’t have specialized gaming servers.

Long explanation: when it comes to gaming, the reason why you would want to use a VPN for games is variable, but one thing is clear, which is that no one wants to lag at all. (Read more on The Uses of VPN in Gaming).

Companies with specialized gaming servers make sure your gaming experience will be smoother than with companies that don’t have specialized gaming servers.
 

4. Dedicated IP servers

Short explanation: AVG Secure VPN doesn’t have dedicated IP servers.

Long explanation: While using a VPN, you would want a dynamic IP (an IP that changes whenever you reconnect to a server). In certain situations, this is not the case. A dedicated server is recommended in the following situations:

• Business security
• Frequent online payment security
• Avoid getting blacklisted on websites
• Avoid CAPTCHAs
   

5. Geo-censorship bypass (obfuscation)

AVG Secure VPN is bad at bypassing geo-censorship.

Instead of using AVG VPN to bypass geo-censorship, we recommend you use ExpressVPN or NordVPN for better results.
 

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6. Split tunneling

Short explanation: AVG Secure VPN lacks split tunneling.

Long explanation: The split tunneling feature means you can selectively use your VPN on a certain type/source of data outgoing from your device.

Split tunneling in certain situations is favorable. For example, you're torrenting while playing a video game or watching a YouTube video.

In such a scenario, you would want only the torrenting to be encrypted. VPN encryption will slow down the connection speed relative to not using a VPN since the encrypted data is larger than non-encrypted.
 

7. Tor over VPN

Short explanation: AVG Secure VPN has Tor over VPN support.

Long explanation: Torrent onion router (Tor) is a P2P program used to enter the dark web. Using a VPN adds an extra layer of anonymity, especially at the entry node, with the addition of data encryption. However, pay extra attention when viewing the dark web; a true no-log policy VPN is preferable.

Compatibility Support

Let’s just start by telling you that AVG Secure VPN is one of those VPNs compatible with Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Unfortunately, if you're a Linux user, then you're out of luck. The same goes for gaming consoles, smart TVs, and routers.

AVG Secure VPN is compatible with:

• Android

• Windows

• iOS

• macOS

AVG Secure VPN doesn't have any browser extensions.
 

User Experience

1. Supported languages

AVG Secure VPN supports the following languages:

• English

• Arabic

• Bulgarian

• Catalan

• Czech

• Danish

• Dutch

• Finnish

• French

• German

• Greek

• Hebrew

• Hungarian

• Italian

• Japanese

• Korean

• Norwegian Bokmål

• Polish

• Portuguese

• Russian

• Simplified Chinese

• Slovak

• Spanish

• Swedish

• Thai

• Traditional Chinese

• Turkish

• Ukrainian

• Vietnamese
   

2. Customer support
 

AVG’s customer support is available whenever you need them. Whether you want to submit a ticket, contact them on live chat, or check their FAQs and their extensive knowledge base. AVG’s live chat will answer you within a minute, and for the price you’re paying, I think that’s more than enough.

The only downside is there’s no phone or email support. But I mean, what do you need it for when you’ve got all these platforms to contact them. Am I right?

AVG provides customer support in the following forms:

• Live chat
• Knowledge base
• FAQs
• Phone call
• Email and ticketing
   

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Pricing and Payment

There are three different AVG Secure VPN plans. Let’s take a look at the plans below:

 

• 1-Year Plan: With the 33% discount you get at the beginning, the price starts at $4.99/month, which means you’ll only pay $59.88 for the first year, but the price renews at $89.99 (yearly price).
   
• 2-Year Plan: With this plan and the 33% discount, the price drops down to $3.99/month, which will cost you $95.76 for the 2 years period. However, it renews at $179.99 (2-year price).
   
• 3-Year Plan: The price for the 3-Year plan and the 2-Year plan doesn't differ when comparing the price per month with a $3.99/month cost and a total price of $143.64. However, this can save you on the renewal price which for the 3 years is $269.99 (3-year price).

The good news is all three plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if it’s not the one you want to use, you’ll get a refund.

Available payment methods include:

• Major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, etc.)
• Paypal
   

If you’re looking for a good bundle deal VPN with an antivirus with a good value for your money, then yes, we do recommend it. However, if you’re using it simply to access geo-restricted content, it’s not the best one for you.

Although AVG Secure VPN can unblock streaming services such as Netflix US and Netflix UK, the number of streaming services provided is minimal compared to other providers.

Other VPNs like NordVPN and ExpressVPN are the best in the market that’ll unblock any streaming service of your choice, and the number and location of servers are much more diverse in comparison.

Give it a try and decide if it’s the one for you; there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee. Plus, at the price you’re paying, I think you won’t even think twice.
 

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