Skilled’s Ranking
Professionals
- Highly effective, efficient antivirus and privateness instruments
- Runs quietly within the background
- Limitless VPN utilization
Cons
- No parental controls
- No password supervisor
- Extraordinarily primary ID safety
Our Verdict
Combining sturdy antivirus and malware safety with quite a few different instruments together with a VPN and safe file lockers, Avast One seems to be an incredible product. Nevertheless, it’s very tough to advocate that you simply pay for it when many of the options can be found within the free Important model.
Worth When Reviewed
$29.99 / 5 units I $48.99 / 30 units
Finest Costs Immediately: Avast One
Avast is without doubt one of the massive family names with regards to cybersecurity. The corporate has been creating antivirus software program since 1988 and within the late ’90s, Avast software program powered McAfee’s antivirus merchandise, for a short time.
Extra lately, in 2016, Avast purchased rival antivirus supplier AVG, and in 2017, it acquired widespread PC tune-up instrument CCleaner. Final September, Avast accomplished a merger with NortonLifeLock, which has turned the 2 antivirus giants right into a safety software program superpower.
With a protracted historical past of innovation behind it and now, a member of a giant household, Avast provides subscribers a wide selection of services, from antivirus and malware detection instruments, to a VPN.
When you can obtain totally free and subscribe to many of those individually, Avast gathers all the pieces collectively beneath Avast One, the corporate’s premium safety suite.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
Important, Particular person, Household subscriptions
Avast One subscriptions comprise antivirus software program, privateness safety options, and a few primary clean-up instruments. Supported working methods embody Home windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.
The antivirus software program guarantees 24/7 energetic safety to your units, an electronic mail scanner, and a Wi-Fi community inspector – the identical core providing that Avast provides as a free download.
Avast One provides a number of different safety extras like ID safety, ransomware safety, and stay alerts if an unknown system joins your Wi-Fi community.
These options are additionally out there with the Avast Premium Safety suite, however this solely works out as being barely cheaper when it comes to price. It’s additionally not as beneficiant when it comes to protection, because the entry-level Premium Safety deal solely covers one system (versus the 5 coated with Avast One Particular person) and the costlier model covers ten units (versus 30 with Avast One Household).
On high of that, Avast One comes with quite a few additional options which you gained’t discover inside Avast Premium Safety.
Amazingly, Avast provides a free model referred to as One Important. This has a knowledge cap for the VPN (a beneficiant 5GB per week) and protects a single system. Nevertheless, there’s nothing stopping you from putting in it on different units utilizing different electronic mail addresses…
Options
Avast One contains SecureLine VPN, which makes use of the WireGuard protocol and, for those who pay for the Particular person or Household subscription, permits you to connect with over 30 completely different international locations with no restrict on how a lot you’ll be able to browse or stream. So wherever you might be on this planet, you’ll be able to binge each sequence of Crimson Dwarf on BBC iPlayer. Which it is best to, for those who’ve by no means seen it.
The clean-up instruments seek for junk information, blurry photographs, and duplicate information which are taking over cupboard space.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
Desktop apps
Given the entire options on supply right here, Avast One might simply be overwhelming. Fortuitously, the Home windows and macOS desktop apps are very simple to navigate.
On the left-hand column are shortcuts which take you to a house dashboard, which supplies you an summary of what’s operating. Beneath it is a branching menu of all of the software program choices at your disposal.
A message centre (commonly populated with alerts and ideas and tips) sits beneath this. On the backside is an account web page, the place you’ll be able to handle subscription settings, and verify for software program updates.
The set-up course of includes operating a Good Scan for the primary time. This rapidly searches your system for widespread threats, and takes about 5 minutes. As soon as that preliminary scan is finished you’ll be able to (offered no viruses or malware had been detected) depart Avast One to run within the background when you go about your small business.
Some options, resembling Avast Internet Protect, will spring into motion once they’re wanted. In case you attempt to entry a website flagged as being harmful by means of your internet browser, you’ll be stopped from doing so by a warning display screen, which you’ll be able to select to heed or ignore.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
Different issues, just like the E-mail Guardian, must be enabled manually. E-mail Guardian works with each webmail and devoted apps together with Outlook or Mail. As soon as arrange this, too, works mechanically. Within the Gmail internet app, for instance, Avast will add inexperienced tags to any emails deemed to be ‘secure’ and crimson tags to something it thinks is ‘suspicious’.
There’s additionally a ransomware safety instrument, which by default sees key folders (Paperwork, Photos, Movies, and Music on Home windows and Paperwork and Photos on macOS) given some additional safety. You may select to deliver extra information into the fold, if you want.
Each the Home windows and macOS variations allow you to run a Deep Scan. This combs your total system for any viruses, and customarily takes a bit longer than the Good Scan. You may arrange scans to run on your entire units every day, or you’ll be able to select to run scans manually.
One thing that’s distinctive to the Home windows model of Avast One is boot-time scans. This searches components of your system not out there throughout common scans, isolating threats earlier than Home windows boots up – Avast recommends that you simply solely do that if there’s an issue. It took slightly below 9 minutes to finish a boot-time scan on my Asus Vivobook Professional 16X OLED.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
The Avast One firewall works in an analogous method to the built-in Home windows Defender firewall, in you can assign Wi-Fi networks to be both ‘trusted’ or ‘untrusted’. Avast One’s firewall comes with some options you don’t get on the built-in Home windows firewall, particularly the choice to be notified if there are makes an attempt on a community to steal delicate info or scan your laptop computer for open ports. Mac customers don’t get a firewall in any respect, so must persist with their built-in firewall.
A macOS-only Avast One characteristic is the exterior storage scan instrument, which is able to prolong safety sweeps to any exhausting drives or USB sticks you’ve linked.
Each the Home windows and macOS apps characteristic a easy ID safety instrument, which tells you if something related together with your electronic mail tackle(es) has/have been compromised. As with Norton 360, you don’t get way more element of how extreme any breaches may be, simply which accounts chances are you’ll have to both shut down or change passwords for.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
Cellular apps
The iOS and Android apps replicate nearly each characteristic you get from their desktop counterparts.
When you can’t do issues like run boot-time scans, or scan exterior drives, there’s a neat additional – the safe photograph vault. This allows you to create a non-public photograph gallery which you’ll be able to lock with a PIN or fingerprint, though on the adverse facet, you’ll be able to’t zoom in on or edit photographs when you’ve saved them.
The Android app goes one higher, in that it additionally options an App Lock setting, which you should use to put a PIN/fingerprint lock on particular apps, too.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
Thomas Newton / Foundry
Efficiency
Avast’s antivirus software program has persistently carried out effectively through the years, and provides excessive ranges of safety in opposition to viruses and malware with minimal impression in your methods’ efficiency.
In the newest spherical of testing from AV-Check, Avast One for Home windows scored high marks in all three classes – safety, efficiency, and useability – as did its macOS counterpart.
Solely AVG and Bitdefender scored high marks in each the Home windows and macOS classes, so Avast could be counseled for that.
The Android model additionally scored high marks for cover and efficiency, however misplaced two factors within the usability class, for falsely flagging apps downloaded from Google Play as safety threats.
Likewise, SE Labs gave Avast’s antivirus capabilities (in April 2023) an almost-perfect rating, with a single proportion level being taken away in only one class ‘professional accuracy’ class, once more for a number of false positives. So if something, Avast One is too protecting.
Fortuitously, if it tries to cease you from downloading one thing or accessing a web site which you realize to be secure (in different phrases, you might be 100% positive), you’ll be able to override it, as proven under.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
VPN
The built-in SecureLine VPN permits you to entry the web through servers based in 36 countries, together with the USA, Japan, Eire, and Australia.
The quickest servers, and those most fitted for video streaming and peer-to-peer connections are all recognized by icons, so it’s simple to rapidly discover one thing to fit your functions. There aren’t any knowledge limits, even for streaming.
You may have the VPN mechanically flip itself on once you’re banking on-line, torrenting, or purchasing, and there’s a kill change, to cease any delicate knowledge leaking ought to the VPN connection fail.
Whereas the VPN doesn’t preserve a log of browser classes, DNS queries, or originating IP addresses, it does collect some information. That features timestamps of your VPN connections, and the quantity pf knowledge transmitted throughout your session, which might – doubtlessly – be used to establish you. This info is deleted after 35 days, but when privateness is extra vital to you than something with regards to VPN use, search for a VPN that doesn’t acquire any connection logs in any respect.
Whereas it was doable to look at BBC iPlayer from France, I wasn’t in a position to entry US Netflix from the UK, no matter which US server I picked. It’s typically the case with VPNs {that a} streaming service will be capable of detect that you simply’re utilizing a VPN, and are attempting to idiot it, and can stop you from accessing content material.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
Worth & availability
Avast One is obtainable as an Particular person or Household plan, masking 5 and 30 units, respectively. When it comes to options, each tiers are in any other case the identical.
Costs are discounted for the primary 12 months.
| Avast One Particular person | Avast One Household | |
| US | $50.28/12 months for the primary 12 months ($99.99/12 months thereafter) | $69.48/12 months for the primary 12 months ($139.99/12 months thereafter) |
| UK | £39.99/12 months for the primary 12 months (£79.99/12 months thereafter) | £54.99/12 months for the primary 12 months (£109.99/12 months thereafter) |
| Australia | $70.68/12 months for the primary 12 months ($139.99/12 months thereafter) | $95.88/12 months for the primary 12 months ($249.99/12 months thereafter) |
Worth-wise, Avast One competes effectively with McAfee Complete Safety Premium, which prices £39.99 for the primary 12 months, and £109.99/12 months after that.
They provide comparable options and ranges of safety, however a key distinction is within the variety of units they will shield directly – McAfee Complete Safety Premium permits you to shield as much as ten units.
One other distinction is that McAfee’s ID safety characteristic is extra superior: it proactively displays electronic mail addresses, moderately than simply telling you about previous leaks.
Whereas the primary 12 months low cost isn’t as beneficiant because the one you at the moment get with Norton 360, long-term, Avast One is kinder to your pockets, and the Household tier’s system protection beats Norton 360 Superior – which solely covers as much as ten units. Once more, although, Norton 360 provides extra options, together with cloud backup and a password supervisor.
One other various is ESET Web Safety, which is at the moment priced at £34.99 / US$49.99 / AU$69.99 per 12 months for one system, and allows you to add cowl for extra units an additional £5 / US$5 / AU$5.
For extra, see our roundup of the perfect antivirus software program.
Verdict
Boasting high scores from impartial testing labs and an easy-to-use interface, Avast One provides people and households good safety from malware and doable scams, and an honest VPN.
The issue, nevertheless, is that you simply get just about all of this totally free for those who obtain Avast One Important. Plus, whereas paying removes the information restrict on the VPN and opens up entry to all of the servers, you continue to don’t get a password supervisor, parental controls or different additional options.
The ID safety instrument is okay totally free however it’s disappointing that you simply don’t get proactive monitoring once you’re a paying buyer – one thing you do get with McAfee Complete Safety Premium.
The flexibility to safeguard information is sweet, however once more, you get this with the cheaper Avast Premium Safety. The tune-up instruments are all nice-to-haves, however not important, particularly when you may get CCleaner totally free as effectively.
Avast One is usually superb at what it does and is a genuinely nice choice for those who’re after a free safety app. Nevertheless it wants additional options if the paid variations are to be advisable alongside McAfee Complete Safety and Norton 360.
