AVG Secure VPN Review: Let’s See If It’s Worth Your Money

AVG is one of many companies devoted to developing cutting-edge security suites for computers, tablets, and smartphones. Conversely, it’s also one of many companies that decided to cross the line and extend its tentacles into another branch of the industry – Virtual Private Networks. With the inception of AVG Secure VPN a few years back, the company’s valiant efforts seemingly came to fruition, although the provider received lukewarm and somewhat disappointing reviews.

Knowing that AVG is owned by Avast who also developed a VPN, I knew this review would be interesting. The company claims to offer everything you get in other services, such as the ability to browse privately, secure your WiFi, and enjoy unrestricted worldwide access to sites. Moreover, the provider brags about advanced security, fast servers, and apps for various platforms.

In today’s AVG Secure VPN review for 2024, I’ll put these claims to the test and see if the provider has what it takes to compete with the big boys. Before we start, I invite you to check my Avast SecureLine VPN review first, as Avast owns AVG.

Some of the features of these two providers are overlapping and we’re going to see a similar level of performance if we compare the two side-by-side. Now, without further ado, let this AVG Secure VPN review start, as we go through multiple sections and test the provider thoroughly.

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The 3 best alternatives to AVG Secure VPN:

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AVG Secure VPN User Experience & Device Support

Okay, so to start this AVG Secure VPN review, we first need to go over its device compatibility and user experience. Of course, device compatibility is more important, because, before buying it, you need to know if the device you’re using as your primary device is compatible with it.

Thankfully, AVG Secure VPN will support platforms like Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS. You noticed that I haven’t mentioned Linux because this platform isn’t supported and unfortunately, there aren’t any workarounds to make it work. If this is important to you, check out our list of VPNs that support all major Linux distributions.

This is common for this type of VPN – a corporate VPN, as I call it – which supports only “standard” platforms with not many deviations. On the good side, AVG apps are streamlined and elegant-looking, making them a joy to use – more about that later.

You’ll now ask about the number of simultaneous connections. Much like its parent company Avast, AVG decided to include 10 simultaneous connections per subscription, letting you protect up to 10 different devices at the same time.

I’ll mention that the best VPN (ExpressVPN) gives you 5, so it looks like AVG Secure VPN can compete with a giant like this… at least for now. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, as this review will take a turn for the worse, I promise!

Desktop and Mobile Apps

Before we take turns for the worse, let’s take one great turn and that’s AVG Secure VPN’s application suite. It has apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android but I use it on my Windows PC and my iPhone 13 Mini. Might I add that its apps look gorgeous?

This gradient color with beautifully crafted drawings in the app definitely gives it a vibrant feeling. The app is smooth, bug-free, and lets you connect to a server by clicking on the connection button. If you click on Change Location, you’ll open the server list.

On the left side, you’ll see the continents plus dedicated streaming/torrenting servers which you can use for these purposes. If you take a look at Avast SecureLine VPN, you can see that the apps are very similar but in a good way, because finding the server you want is extremely easy.

Do you want a French IP address, for example? Well, just click on Europe and you’ll find it easily. Click once on it and AVG Secure VPN will connect you to a French server in no time. If you click on the Menu in the top-right corner of the screen, you’ll get access to additional settings.

Here, you can see your installed AVG products, get support, and enjoy a free mobile app. However, if you click on Settings, you can tweak the behavior of the app and enable/disable the features you want. The Settings menu is rather simple and comprehensive – mainly because there aren’t many features.

The iOS app follows the same workflow and it’s even simpler to use. The connection button in the middle lets you quickly secure your connection and the server list looks the same, with countries assigned to their respective continents.

Although you get streaming servers in this app as well, you get no other features and only two protocols to choose from. More about that is in the Security section of my AVG Secure VPN review.

Does all this make AVG one of the best VPNs on Android or iOS? Not quite. Now its app is pretty satisfying, that’s for sure.

TV Apps

When it comes to TV applications, AVG Secure VPN won’t impress you. I mean, it supports Android, which means installing it on Android TV should be possible. On the other hand, you get no support for Amazon Firestick TV and the app isn’t available on Amazon for download.

Given its poor device compatibility, don’t expect it to work on other types of TV operating systems. You won’t be able to set it on systems like WebOS, Tizen, and other popular systems from LG and Samsung, for example.

To avoid wasting time with AVG VPN, if you need a provider that you can comfortably use with your TV, I recommend going for ExpressVPN. It supports every TV system and works flawlessly with manufacturers like Sony, LG, Philips, Xiaomi, HiSense, and many others.

Gaming Apps

If you’re a gamer, you’ll most likely want to enjoy VPN protection against DDoS attacks, swatting, and other annoying stuff gamers go through. Well, with AVG Secure VPN, I can’t say that would be possible if you play games on consoles.

As you can guess, no gaming consoles are supported, although, with support for Windows, iOS, and Android, you could technically use the provider for gaming on these devices. Later in this AVG Secure VPN test, we’ll see how fast and reliable it is for this purpose.

Router Support

Finally, if you’re after a VPN for routers, AVG will disappoint you again. This provider sticks to its formula strictly, allowing you to use it only on the four aforementioned platforms. But again, if you’re looking to fully secure your router with a VPN, you can try ExpressVPN.

This service supports a broad scope of routers and firmware, letting you install it on routers from Asus, PfSense, DD-WRT, and other popular and less-popular models. I also suggest checking out CyberGhost, a cheaper alternative with solid router compatibility.

Is AVG Secure VPN Safe & Secure? All Security Features Examined!

I said this AVG VPN review would take a turn for the worse and I wasn’t lying. Why? Well, simply because I’m going to talk about its security features, and if you scroll down a bit, you’ll see that we don’t have much to discuss, as we’re dealing with industry-standard features you’ve seen a thousand times.

AES-256 Encryption

Let’s first talk about encryption. Encryption is the backbone of every VPN, as it allows you to encrypt your connection and make it untraceable and unreadable by your ISP, hackers, or anyone else. Much like Avast, AVG uses 256-bit encryption by default.

For those uninformed, this is great news, as we’re talking about the highest level of encryption. It’s also impenetrable and it would take even the most skilled hacker millions of attempts to breach it. For comparison, this encryption is used by governments, banks, and the military.

If they can protect their confidential information with it, I’m sure you will as well. Mind you, this encryption is applied to all of the protocols, so you won’t sacrifice the level of security by changing from different protocols in the app.

Kill Switch

I always say that a VPN without a kill switch isn’t safe and I’m thankful that AVG offers it. Does that mean it’s instantly safe and secure? Well, not exactly. However, the kill switch in AVG Secure VPN does an amazing job of preventing IP and DNS leaks.

During my time with it, I had only two connection issues, which resulted in the kill switch activation, shutting down my internet connection immediately. This way, my IP and DNS addresses weren’t leaking, which is a relief because I didn’t expose my privacy.

Keep in mind that we have a basic kill switch here. What does that mean? It means that it works on the system level. There’s no app kill switch that will disable the internet connection only for particular apps but for the entire system.

Multiple VPN Protocols

The last security feature in this AVG Secure VPN review is the selection of protocols. As you can see, the provider doesn’t offer split tunneling, Double VPN, obfuscation, or any other special feature. In fact, even an ad blocker isn’t here, which could’ve been a nice inclusion.

But AVG made sure that this feature is available in its other products, which you have to pay for as well. Nevertheless, when talking about protocols, the story is the same as with Avast SecureLine VPN. You get WireGuard, OpenVPN, and Mimic.

OpenVPN and WireGuard are open-source protocols, and while OpenVPN is the “OG” protocol used for years, WireGuard improves upon it in every way. It’s less complex to maintain and upgrade, yet, offers faster speeds, shorter connection times, and rock-solid security.

Mimic, on the other hand, is developed by Avast to bypass VPN restrictions. It’s by no means obfuscation but something else that the company explains as a “unique way of processing traffic.” Later in this review, we’ll see if this protocol allows AVG Secure VPN to work in China.

AVG Secure VPN IP and DNS Leak Test: No IP/DNS Leaks Found

For now, I’m happy to report that AVG VPN and its small number of security features are safe and secure enough to not produce any leaks. To make sure that was really the case, I connected to a server in the US and I tested the provider on two IP leak test sites.

One site is called ipleak.net, which, when I visited it, showed US-based IP and DNS addresses. Bear in mind that I’m from Europe, and since I didn’t see any of my addresses in the test results, it means my identity is fully concealed.

Moving on, I used the site called browserleaks.net next. This site showed the same impressive results, as AVG Secure VPN successfully prevented me from leaking my compromising information.

Overall, the provider does display a high level of security but don’t expect it to offer more than basic stuff. If you want a feature-rich provider with lots of useful security features, I recommend taking a look at NordVPN – it’s one of the best VPNs you can currently get.

Does It Have a No-Logging Policy?

A VPN that stores logs is immediately discarded by our team. We hate intrusive logging practices and we think – and know – that a service like this should always protect user privacy and not infringe on it. If you’ve read my Avast SecureLine VPN review, you’ve seen that this provider isn’t the most trustworthy.

On top of that, this company sold its free antivirus users’ information to third parties, which violated their privacy and exposed them to multi-million corporations that needed this information. Now, Avast bought AVG in 2017 but AVG as a brand is still used.

This means it shares the same jurisdiction – The Czech Republic. This country isn’t a 5 Eyes member, so it should mean that the company can maintain a no-logging policy as there aren’t data retention laws in the country. Or at the very least, they’re not as harsh as in the US, the UK, or Canada.

Which Information Isn’t Stored?

If we check the privacy policy of AVG Secure VPN, we’ll see a very similar story as with Avast SecureLine VPN. The provider stores no information about your originating IP, DNS queries, browsing history, or transfer data.

By transferred data, the company means your pictures, emails, downloads, and uploads. So far, it sounds like a no-logging policy, especially because the provider uses its proprietary DNS servers to process your requests.

In theory, this should mean no interference from third parties that would infringe on your privacy by tracking your browsing activities. In practice, Avast, the father company of AVG, also has its own DNS servers, yet, its user information still ended up being sold to the highest bidder.

Which Information Is Stored?

Let’s now talk about which information is stored on AVG’s servers. For the start, there is benign and mandatory data such as your email address and billing information, which the company must store for obvious reasons.

Moving on, there’s also this client data, which also sounds benign. This includes application events, crashes, disconnects, failed connection attempts, etc, which serve as a means of troubleshooting and maintaining the application performance.

Finally, we come to service data, which, unfortunately, means connection data. Yes, much like Avast SecureLine VPN, AVG Secure VPN stores logs of the timestamps of connections and the amount of data you transmit.

I don’t like this to be honest, as the most secure VPNs you’ll find on the market steer clear of keeping connection logs for the most part. AVG seems to store them for 35 days but it’s deleted on a rolling basis, which means storing a new “batch” of logs after the initial 35 days expire.

Overall, we can say that its logging practices aren’t too intrusive, and storing connection logs isn’t that alarming. However, compared to ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, and NordVPN, I feel like this provider shouldn’t store connection logs.

Besides, ExpressVPN and NordVPN have security audits from PwC (an audit firm), whereas, AVG Secure VPN has no third-party audits that would confirm everything is true. And with Avast being the owner of this company, I’m sure it uses some of this information for financial benefits if you know what I mean.

AVG Secure VPN for Streaming: Netflix & Other Platforms TESTED

The streaming performance in this AVG Secure VPN is also important. Many people use a VPN primarily for streaming and the majority of them don’t care too much about security. That’s okay, as long as we’re talking about a provider capable of something like that.

AVG Secure VPN offers dedicated streaming servers but if you take a look at them, you’ll see that they’re located in just 3 countries – the UK, the US, and Germany. You’ll say that the US servers are enough because the majority of streaming platforms are based in America.

That’s true. However, during my extensive testing, I found that AVG can’t unblock any of them, despite having streaming-optimized servers. I also tested US TV channels and tried to unblock the most popular channels but this time, I had moderate success.

More “stubborn” channels still detected my VPN usage, while less popular ones that aren’t so harsh in blocking VPNs worked relatively well. Due to AVG Secure VPN’s average performance, I experienced a bit longer buffering but as soon as everything was loaded, it worked well.

One thing to keep in mind is that the provider has no optimized servers for streaming in Japan or Canada, for example. This will make it very difficult – if not impossible – to unblock channels and streaming platforms in these countries.

If you want, for example, to watch Japanese catalogs of popular streaming platforms, that’s not going to work. But then again, these catalogs won’t work with US or UK IP addresses, so it’s all the same. AVG is not really a great choice for streaming compared to ExpressVPN or CyberGhost.

Speed Tests: Here’s How Fast AVG Secure VPN Really Is

While some users use a VPN for streaming and some for security, we can all agree on one thing – they all hate slow VPNs. That’s why, in this AVG Secure VPN test for 2024, I want to see just how fast it is and whether or not it provides at least decent performance.

To do that, I first need to clarify my testing parameters. As stated earlier in the AVG VPN review, I’m located in Europe, and for this test, I’m using both near and distant servers. Let’s first take a look at my native internet speeds without using a Virtual Private Network.

As you can see, my download/upload speeds are approximately 120/14Mbps. With that result, I tested AVG Secure VPN for 3 days in a row, 3 times a day, all while connecting to 4 different servers in the US, the UK, Japan, and Australia.

I made sure to include the best results out of all locations and one important thing is that I didn’t touch the protocol selection. In other words, it stayed on Automatic all the time, which let the provider decide on which protocol to use according to my needs.

With that out of the way, here are the speed test results:

UK:

US:

Australia:

Japan:

As you can see, the UK server showed decent results, alas, with a noticeable speed reduction. The entire experience was good enough, though, but not so much when I switched to a US server. Here, the ping jumped quite a bit and my download/upload speeds took a hit.

The major hit was noticeable with Australian and Japanese servers, however. With the ping of 300+ ms and severely slowed-down speeds, the browsing experience wasn’t as great. Pages took a longer time to load and when streaming, buffering was very noticeable.

Is AVG Secure VPN Good for Gaming?

Since I’m an avid gamer, I also used AVG Secure VPN on my PC to play a couple of rounds of COD MW2. The experience was great when I used a server in my country and I had no particular increases in ping or connection issues.

However, I noticed that my ping jumped from the usual 15 ms to around 40-50 ms, which was still playable. In FPS games, you don’t want your ping going over 100 ms, which happened when I connected to servers overseas.

For cloud gaming on Nvidia GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming, AVG Secure VPN showed average performance. I noticed increased input lag, which made fast-paced games almost unplayable compared to NordVPN which I often use for this purpose.

But when you think about it, I expected these results having in mind the average performance that this provider produced. Once again, similar to Avast SecureLine VPN which shares the same server infrastructure.

Can I Use AVG Secure VPN for P2P and Torrenting?

It looks like AVG put more work into optimizing servers for torrenting and streaming. Indeed, in this AVG Secure VPN review, I found that it offers several server locations for this purpose. They’re located in countries like:

• The Czech Republic
• France
• Germany
• The Netherlands
• The UK
• The US

Since I’m located near the Czech Republic, I used this server and when I tried downloading Linux using 1337x, I saw that the performance was well-preserved. Sure, the provider isn’t blazing-fast but I had no issues downloading my file in a few minutes.

One thing to mention is that you’ll get reduced performance on servers overseas, but you won’t use these servers for torrenting either way. Plus, AVG has P2P servers in a few locations, allowing you to choose the one closest to you more easily.

Albeit, I still prefer CyberGhost in this regard. It offers torrenting servers too but in 20+ countries across different parts of the globe, making the process of finding the fastest server for downloading that much easier.

Is It Working in China & Other Censored Countries?

AVG Secure VPN offers a decent selection of protocols and with its Mimic protocol, it should help you bypass firewall restrictions. However, China has this Great Firewall, which makes many VPNs crumble before it and fail to bypass its harsh measures.

For example, I often mention CyberGhost as one of the best providers but even it can’t bypass the Great Firewall. ExpressVPN and NordVPN work in China, for example, but these providers offer obfuscation, which is crucial for this country.

As said, Mimic isn’t obfuscation but it does make your VPN traffic look like ordinary traffic. When I shared my subscription with a friend who lives in China, however, using Mimic didn’t yield any results. In other words, the provider didn’t work.

He switched to OpenVPN and WireGuard just to test it out but, as expected, these protocols aren’t optimized for bypassing censorship, so they didn’t work. At least the provider works in other countries like the UAE and Russia, which isn’t so impressive considering these aren’t very censored countries.

As said, you’ll enjoy ExpressVPN and NordVPN in China more, as these providers work flawlessly 10/10 times.

Servers and Server Locations: Here’s How Big AVG Secure VPN Is

If you’re used to big VPN services with thousands of servers, you’ll be very disappointed with this provider. Why? Well, because it offers servers in 30+ countries and about 50 worldwide locations. As for the number of servers, the company keeps it under wraps.

However, if we were to look at Avast SecureLine VPN with around 700 servers across the planet, we could approximate that this service has no more than that. By no means this is impressive if we take a look at ExpressVPN with 3,000 servers in 160+ locations.

On the brighter side, the provider has the aforementioned streaming and torrenting servers, so you do get some variety. Plus, there are servers in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, which also adds to the variety and makes the server list more useful.

I like that there’s a VPN server in South Africa, for example, but also in Brazil, and Japan, and two servers in Australia. Streaming and torrenting servers, as said, aren’t impressive, although I found torrenting servers faster and better optimized.

Important to mention is that these probably aren’t RAM-based servers and I think this isn’t a 10 Gbps server infrastructure given its subpar performance. Besides, AVG doesn’t brag about any of these features, so it’s safe to assume they aren’t there.

Customer Support: How to Contact AVG Secure VPN for Help?

One thing I liked in this AVG Secure VPN review is customer support. I think it’s better than Avast SecureLine VPN in this regard, as the support team is easy to reach through several means. You get 24/7 live chat support, email support through the ticketing system, and phone support.

Premium tech support is here too and you can get it via three phone numbers, all of which are toll-free for users in the UK, Australia, and the US. AVG Secure VPN is fast to respond and you won’t have any issues getting help regarding your particular issues.

The support team is also quick to issue a refund if you’re not satisfied. I can’t say the same about Avast’s support which bombarded me with offers before finally giving me my money back. Other support means include the Help Center and FAQs.

These are littered with useful articles and answers to frequently asked questions, which are, in many cases, enough for fixing issues. Overall, AVG does a solid job in terms of support, and for a premium VPN, that is to be expected.

AVG Secure VPN Pricing: Is It Affordable?

As we approach the end of this AVG Secure VPN test for 2024, it’s time to talk about how much this premium provider will cost you.

As you can see, the provider doesn’t offer a monthly plan, which means you’ll have to commit for a longer period to use it. The shorter plan you can get is the annual plan at $4.49 a month, which isn’t too expensive but not very affordable either.

Then, we have 2 and 3-year plans that cost the same $4.39 a month and make no sense. You save nothing by going for the 3-year plan, so you might as well go for the 2-year subscription, as it makes no difference.

Either way, both of these plans are expensive considering that CyberGhost and Surfshark give you their 2-year plans at around $2 a month. The silver lining is this 60-day free trial, which, I think, many people will use before shelling out their hard-earned money on this provider.

This free trial requires your payment info, though, but at least you have 60 days of risk-free use, allowing for plenty of time to cancel the subscription to avoid getting charged. As you can guess, that’s what I did because I don’t like this provider.

Available Payment Methods

AVG won’t get fancy when you’re about to pay for its subscription. It offers two basic payment methods such as credit/debit cards and PayPal. No crypto options are present here.

How to Get a Refund from AVG Secure VPN?

Getting a refund from AVG Secure VPN is easy and can be done through the support team. You just need to contact it and say that you want a refund, and if the request is in the first 30 days of your purchase, you’re eligible for a 100% refund on your payment.

There are no hidden conditions or anything similar, which I appreciate. AVG is very compliant and will give you every possibility to entice you to get it, which speaks a lot about its quality, or the lack of it.

What We Don’t Like About AVG Secure VPN?

Speaking of the lack of quality, there are lots of things we don’t like in this AVG Secure VPN in 2024. The provider is simply too underwhelming and offers a basic service at a not-so-cheap price, which is unforgiving when other better choices are still more affordable.

Even a free VPN like Windscribe is a better choice than this one if we exclude bandwidth limits. The provider offers very few security features, its father company isn’t trustworthy, and it handles streaming poorly, making it unable to unblock popular platforms.

Additionally, I don’t like its shallow device support with no apps for Fire TV Stick and routers. To that, we should add its minuscule server network, its inability to work in China and censored countries, and finally, expensive prices that don’t make this VPN worth the money.

How Do Other People Rate AVG Secure VPN?

In this AVG Secure VPN review, we should also see what other people online have to say about this provider. We’ll start with Trustpilot, where AVG has a lot of reviews, although very few of them talk about the VPN.

It has 4.3 stars, which is deemed good and most people are satisfied with the level of security they got from the company. Critiques are usually toward customer support, which is interesting, as I’ve had a pretty positive experience with the support team.

On Google Play, it has 4.3 stars as well, and while most users are satisfied, some are complaining about stability, slow speeds, and inability to unblock restricted websites.

On the Apple Store, users gave AVG Secure VPN 4.7 stars, many praising its good connection quality and security. Those who complain often mention slow speeds, seldom connection issues, and longer page-loading times, which we experienced as well.

Conclusion: Plain, Basic, and Lacking in Features

All in all, this AVG Secure VPN review for 2024 isn’t going to have a happy ending. Unfortunately, we don’t recommend buying this provider, as it brings nothing new and exciting to the table. It’s simply underwhelming, undercooked, and pretty basic for a premium service.

The biggest red flag for me is its price, which is all but cheap for a VPN of this caliber. Some cheaper providers like CyberGhost or NordVPN offer so much more in terms of security, privacy, performance, torrenting, streaming, and everything else. You can read more about them in our NordVPN vs CyberGhost comparison.

AVG Secure VPN isn’t capable of streaming, it has a small server fleet and isn’t particularly trustworthy because it has no third-party audits. Coupled with Avast who is now in control of AVG, it’s clear why we don’t trust this company 100%.

In the end, one question remains. If AVG Secure VPN isn’t good and we don’t recommend it, what are your alternatives? Well, I think you can already tell if you’ve read the article carefully. We recommend ExpressVPN, despite being more expensive.

ExpressVPN is THE best VPN you can get. Then, you can try CyberGhost, NordVPN, or even Surfshark if you’re looking to save a bit of money. All of these providers are way better and it’s just a matter of preference which one to pick.

One thing is sure – don’t waste your time and money on AVG Secure VPN. It has a LOT more to improve upon, unlike the aforementioned choices with nearly-perfect formulas that have worked well for years now.