Avast SecureLine VPN vs NordVPN

Many VPN providers are available, and they aren’t all created equally. Many use fancy jargon to make their service seem better. Others outright lie about being the fastest or most secure. This is hugely confusing for people who don’t know much about VPNs.

To help netizens choose the best VPN for their needs, we have compared Avast SecureLine VPN and NordVPN. We reviewed each service across 10 different categories, testing each VPN’s security, performance, and other useful criteria. Now, we have put all our findings in one place – so you can decide which VPN is better for you.

Highlights

Pricing and discounts

When it comes to pricing, both these VPNs are affordable. However, in our opinion, one service offers better value for money.

If you only need a VPN for a single month, NordVPN will cost you $11.95. This is perfect if you only need a VPN to go on vacation or while traveling for work. Unfortunately, Avast SecureLine VPN does not provide a monthly plan; so you will need to subscribe for a whole year. This gives NordVPN subscribers more options, which we prefer.

An annual NordVPN plan costs $68.85, which reduces the monthly price to $4.59 per month. With Avast SecureLine VPN, an annual subscription will set you back exactly the same price.

Although they are similarly priced, we would have to recommend NordVPN because it offers a much wider feature set.

As you can see in the image above, purchasing a 2-year or 3-year subscription reduces the cost of Avast VPN to $4.39. That is a discount of just 20 cents per month, which is really very stingy compared to the savings you get with many other popular VPNs (Surfshark, for example, costs just $2.39 when you subscribe for 2 years).

Admittedly, with NordVPN, the two-year plan costs $3.99 per month, which isn’t hugely different to Avast VPN. However, it does come with three extra months for free, and it is a much, much more impressive deal than Avast VPN when you also compare just how feature-rich and versatile the VPN is.

The only thing that Avast VPN can really flex about is that it provides a 60-day free trial. Anybody can avail of this trial by providing their card details and opting for a plan. You won’t be charged until the trial is over, at which point the money for the subscription will be taken from your account unless you cancel. This is pretty cool.

With NordVPN, all users get a 30-day money-back guarantee irrespective of which plan they choose. If you aren’t entirely happy, you can ask for your money back and get a full refund. This may be shorter than the trial you get with Avast, but realistically still gives you plenty of time to test it with your favorite streaming services.

BEST DEAL FOR NORDVPN:Save 51% when you choose NordVPN’s two-year subscription and get 3 months FREE.

BEST DEAL FOR AVAST VPN:Get 46% off with Avast’s introductory prices.

Winner: NordVPN

Features

When it comes to features, NordVPN completely eclipses its Avast SecureLine VPN. Both services have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. NordVPN supports Firesticks, VPN-compatible routers, Linux machines, and browser extensions (Chrome, Firefox, and Edge).

In terms of features, Avast VPN has a kill switch, an auto-connect feature that connects you to the VPN on untrusted wifi networks, and a choice of protocols (WireGuard, OpenVPN, and Mimic). It has split tunneling, but only in its Android app. This is a pretty basic feature set.

With NordVPN, by contrast, users get a kill switch, DNS leak protection, obfuscated servers, DoubleVPN (multi-hop connections), DNS-based ad blocking and malicious site filtering, Tor over VPN, split tunneling, and a free Smart DNS service to unblock US streams on devices that won’t let you install a VPN directly (such as consoles).

Ultimately, considering you can get NordVPN for a lower price, it seems hard to recommend Avast VPN in terms of features.

Winner: NordVPN

Streaming and unblocking

Most people nowadays want a VPN to access their favorite streaming services on vacation. Unfortunately, the vast majority of VPNs have already been blocked by popular streaming services such as Netflix, iPlayer, Hulu, HBO Max, etc. So, how do NordVPN and Avast VPN fare?

The good news is that NordVPN is extremely good at staying ahead of streaming blocks. In our tests, the VPN worked to access around a dozen different Netflix regions (including Netflix US), Hulu, HBO Max,  ESPN, YouTube TV, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, Peacock, DAZN, and many other popular services. This makes it one of the best VPNs for streaming on the market.

Unfortunately, Avast VPN doesn’t spend much time and effort providing access to streams. It does work to access Netflix US and Netflix Germany, but no other regions. It can stream CBS, ITV, Hulu, and NBC, so it is not all bad news. However, in our tests, it failed to unblock Prime Video, DAZN, HBO Max, ABC, and BBC iPlayer.

Winner: NordVPN

Do these VPNs work in China?

China doesn’t let its citizens access many popular websites that are available in the West. Things like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are all blocked there, and even many news websites can’t be accessed, making it hard to escape the bubble of propaganda imposed by the ruling Communist Party.

To get around these government restrictions, some Chinese citizens (and most people visiting the country) use a VPN to be able to talk to their friends and family using services like Facebook Messenger, Gmail, or WhatsApp.

Unfortunately, the government has made it really hard to use VPNs. It has installed a nationwide firewall that prevents people from accessing VPN websites to take out a subscription and that blocks VPN apps from establishing a connection with VPN servers located abroad. This means you must pick a VPN very carefully.

The good news is that NordVPN provides obfuscated servers for its OpenVPN protocol. Obfuscation conceals VPN traffic as regular HTTPS, which makes it possible to bypass the internet blocks imposed by the government.

Of course, the Chinese government is always looking for new ways to block VPNs. However, NordVPN has proven, time and time again, that it will make every effort to keep finding ways around those blocks.

NordVPN maintains various different mirrors of its website. You can find out about these by emailing NordVPN’s support. This will allow you to purchase a subscription in China, even if its primary website has been blocked by local ISPs.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Avast SecureLine VPN. This service is not equipped with the features needed to provide access to people in China. We even tried connecting using its proprietary Mimic protocol (which is supposed to be good for getting around firewalls) but couldn’t get it to work.

Winner: NordVPN

Setup and interface

During our tests, we found it easy to get a subscription and install both of these VPNs. You can subscribe to either service by following the link in this article. Following that, simply pick the subscription you prefer, and provide your payment information.

Once your payment has been received, you can easily download the VPN apps from the member’s area of the website, or the Google Play and Apple App stores depending on your needs.

The VPN applications only require a small amount of space on your hard drive, and they install automatically using a wizard that places all the essential protocol components in the right directories. Anyone, regardless of their technical knowledge, can get these VPNs working on all their devices.

In terms of useability, Avast VPN is extremely easy, which makes it good for beginners. But its ease of use is actually a result of its lack of features.

NordVPN is also very easy to use, and we never have any issues navigating the menus or finding the features we need. The VPN comes ready to use as soon as you download it, so you don’t actually have to tinker with any of the advanced features if you don’t want to.

Of course, having more features makes NordVPN better value for money, and while there is a little more to learn, we think it’s worthwhile. NordVPN makes using all of its features very easy for even the uninitiated to learn.

Winner: It’s a draw

Servers and performance

If you are the type of internet user who often wants to access many regional TV platforms, game servers – or other global services that require an international IP address – then NordVPN is going to be your favorite service.

Nord operates more than 5000 servers in total, which allows it to easily avoid server congestion during peak times. Its server locations span 59+ countries. This includes servers in 15 different US cities to let you bypass blackout games, or access state-level gambling, for example.

With Avast SecureLine VPN, you can connect to servers in 33 different countries, and it has just 700 in total. That is a much smaller network than what you get with Nord. That said, it is true that Avast has VPN servers in most countries where most users need them. This includes servers in 16 US cities, so it is still a pretty useful VPN!

In terms of performance, we actually found both of these VPNs to be very respectable. NordVPN defaults to its NordLynx protocol, which is a super-fast WireGuard fork. In our most recent tests, the VPN had global download averages of 196 Mbps, which are truly blistering speeds for anybody who likes to torrent, stream, play games, or download torrents.

Avast SecureLine is also fast. In our recent tests, the VPN registered download speeds of 35 Mbps. This is still fast enough for streaming in HD but is considerably slower than the top speeds you get with NordVPN.

Winner: NordVPN

Security

Both VPNs offer the OpenVPN protocol with AES-256 encryption. That means you can trust either of these VPNs to encrypt your internet connection and stop local networks, ISPs, government snoops, or other eavesdroppers from tracking you online.

We tested both these VPNs for IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks and found both services to have a completely clean bill of health. They both protect your data inside of the VPN tunnel as expected.

NordVPN underwent full third-party audits of its apps, network infrastructure, and policies. You don’t have to take the VPN’s claims at face value.

In addition, the entire NordVPN network consists of diskless servers that run in RAM. It can remotely pull the plug on any of its servers to clear them instantly. This increases security for users by allowing Nord to wipe everything in an emergency.

Unfortunately, Avast SecureLine VPN does not have diskless infrastructure, and it has not been independently audited. Plus, NordVPN includes malware filtering, multi-hop connections, and obfuscation: additional features that help to increase your security and that you don’t get with Avast VPN.

Winner: NordVPN

Privacy

In terms of jurisdiction, both these VPNs get a pass. NordVPN is based in Panama, which is a country that lacks mandatory data retention directives or invasive intelligence agencies. This makes it a great place for a privacy service to be based. The same is true of Avast VPN, which is based in the Czech Republic, another country that lacks mandatory data retention directives that apply to communications providers or VPNs.

NordVPN privacy policy

The benefit of NordVPN is that it has a fully audited no-logs policy. This policy transparently explains that NordVPN will never track or keep records of its users’ source IP address, the VPN servers they connect to, or any of the data that passes through their servers, including their web browsing history and metadata.

The VPN does collect device-level identifiers, such as the device advertising ID. This data is used internally to track users for marketing purposes. It is not shared with any third parties and cannot be used to identify what the user did while connected to the VPN.

Avast SecureLine VPN privacy policy

Avast has a single privacy policy that applies to all of its services, including Avast antivirus, AVG antivirus, and Avast VPN. This is far from ideal because the one-size-fits-all policy admits to collecting device-level identifiers and other analytics for marketing purposes. It then shares this information with third-party service providers like Google Analytics and Apps Flyer.

Avast’s policy acknowledges that it stores connection logs, such as total bandwidth usage, connection times and dates, and VPN feature usage. This is a lot of data for a VPN to be collecting from its users.

The only silver lining is that Avast VPN doesn’t store complete IP addresses. Instead, it anonymizes the last octet of the user’s IP address. This should prevent a correlation attack, but there is always a danger that anonymized data could be reidentified at a later date, which is far from ideal. Ultimately, we would prefer Avast VPN not to track IP addresses at all.

Overall, the data collected by Avast seems too invasive and for this reason; we recommend that users seeking watertight privacy stick with NordVPN, or some other no logs VPN.

Winner: NordVPN

Configuration

Both VPNs provide shared IPs for their users. Each IP is used by multiple users who are all connected to the same server, making it difficult to track individual users. This helps to increase your privacy. Both these VPNs proxy your DNS requests within the VPN tunnel and resolve those requests using their own servers. This is the most secure way for your DNS requests to be processed.

Both VPNs offer basic DDoS attack protection by concealing your IP address from websites you visit. This is especially beneficial if you participate in multiplayer game tournaments or online poker games and want to prevent yourself from being kicked from the server.

NordVPN connections include DNS-based ad blocking, tracker blocking, and malicious website filtering that prevents you from visiting a list of websites known to contain phishing or malware. Avast does not offer this additional security feature.

Both VPNs provide NAT firewalls on their servers, which prevents unrequested inbound traffic from making its way to your devices. This provides additional protection against hackers. The only drawback is that this NAT firewall prevents either VPN from allowing port forwarding. So if you want to forward to a torrent client for seeding purposes, you may prefer to shop elsewhere.

NordVPN allows users to purchase a dedicated static IP. This is an IP address that is reserved for one user only. This type of IP address is useful for users who want to host servers, or who require consistent access to certain services using the same IP address every time. Avast does not provide dedicated IPs.

Winner: It’s a draw

NordVPN VS Avast SecureLine VPN for gaming

If you specifically want a VPN for playing online games like Warzone, Fortnite, or Roblox we would have to recommend NordVPN. A suitable VPN for gaming should have fast servers that provide excellent speeds and plenty of global locations.

NordVPN is around four times faster than AvastVPN. For this reason, Nord is the better option. NordVPN also has more servers to avoid congestion and to let you access different game servers from around the world. Nord users get to choose from servers in 59+ countries, which is almost double the locations you get with Avast (33).

Customer service

When it comes to supporting its users, NordVPN is definitely more adept. The VPN’s website is packed with useful setup guides, FAQs, and blog posts that cover the VPN’s features and a variety of internet privacy and online security topics.

NordVPN also has 24/7 live chat support available for both subscribers and prospective buyers. You can get help with setting up or using the VPN at any time of day, and anywhere in the world. The live chat window even has Google translate built in, which means that the agents can communicate with anybody. Nifty!

Avast VPN’s support is pretty decent. It has FAQs on its website, and it provides live chat support. We found the live chat agents to be able to answer our VPN-related questions without issues, which was pretty cool considering this is the same live chat portal for its antivirus customers.

Below you can see the response times for our email support questions:

Winner: NordVPN

The winner: NordVPN

This comparison article leaves no room for doubt. NordVPN came out ahead in 9 out of 11 categories. It was better for Privacy, Customer Support, Servers and performance, Streaming and unblocking, China, Gaming, Pricing, Features, and Security. Setup and interface and configuration were too close to call, so those categories were a tie.

Ultimately, Avast SecureLine VPN lacked features and didn’t represent good value for money when compared to NordVPN. NordVPN is about four times faster, it can access more streaming services, it has better privacy and security features, and it is just as easy to use as Avast VPN.

NordVPN’s privacy policy is more secure, and it has been fully audited by a qualified third party. The same is true of its apps and network infrastructure, which have both been independently verified.

NordVPN’s server network stretches across 59+ countries, and it is made up of highly secure diskless servers that are erased periodically and can be wiped clean in an emergency. This helps to prevent any data from being captured by the authorities if there is a raid.

NordVPN’s NordLynx protocol is impressively fast, making it a great option for streaming in HD, gaming, and torrenting. Nord has more advanced features, including split tunneling, multi-hop connections, a smart DNS service, malware filtering, and ad blocking. These make it much better value for money.

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