Avast VPN Review – is it recommended to use in Canada in 2022?

About Avast SecureLine VPN

Avast is a well-known brand in the antivirus industry, with almost 12% of the global market share. It was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in the Czech Republic. While the government of this region might not be an explicit member of Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, or 14 Eyes, they have collaborated in the past. In fact, they occasionally hand over users’ VPN data to Czech law enforcement. It’s important to know that the country doesn’t make surveillance its number one priority, but their past record of sharing data is rather concerning to us.

Avast VPN Server Locations

Avast SecureLine VPN has only 55 servers in 34 locations, with only three servers in Canada. Most of its servers are located in Europe. However, the good thing is that it has servers in Africa and South America – both regions are usually overlooked by many VPN providers.

But this one good thing doesn’t make Avast a good choice, especially considering the insufficient number of servers in the rest of the world. ExpressVPN, by comparison, offers 3000+ servers in 94 countries. I guess it’s pretty self-explanatory why you shouldn’t go for Avast. Just for your info, NordVPN currently leads the pack with 5500 servers in its bucket.

Avast Security, Privacy, and Logging

The fundamental aspect of any VPN service it’s the level of privacy and security it offers. Let’s see what Avast SecureLine VPN has in store for us:

Will Avast VPN log my Data?

Avast has a pretty transparent and straightforward policy regarding logs and privacy. The company deserves credit for that. It clearly states that the VPN provider doesn’t record your actual IP address, nor does it store any information about your activities online. That’s quite commendable if you ask me.

“We don’t track the apps you use, the websites you visit, or the content you consume, period. If someone asks, we just can’t answer.”

The policy goes on to explain what the company does record. Avast records a timestamp of connection, which it says is important to prevent exploitation. It also logs the amount of data transmitted (not the content) and a section of your IP address for improving your experience.

Moreover, it also stores the IP address of the VPN server you connect to, which the company says helps detect when services are not accessible. However, the company representative claims that all of this information is deleted on a rolling monthly basis.

Does Avast VPN have a Kill Switch?

Yes, Avast VPN does offer a kill switch, which automatically ends your online activity when it detects your connection is about to drop. I tested this VPN in a local coffee shop with notoriously unreliable and spotty Wi-Fi; SecureLine halted my activity when my connection was inevitably lost.

I have seen people underestimating this feature, but I believe it’s a pretty important feature that protects your privacy when something unexpected occurs. In case of a connection failure, your device will likely switch back to your default IP address, exposing your activity to your ISP or other government entities.

Does Avast VPN offer Split Tunneling?

No, Avast doesn’t offer an Internet traffic Split Tunneling facility to its users. Split Tunneling provides you the freedom to select which apps’ traffic you want to get encrypted and which ones you don’t. This feature is great for enhancing VPN speed and performance. Our top-rated VPNs such as ExpressVPN, Surfshark and NordVPN all offer Split Tunneling.

Does Avast have an Ad-blocker?

Apart from the basic VPN protection, Avast SecureLine VPN has little to offer. Other VPN services offer an ad-block facility at the network level such as Windscribe, allowing users to have a cleaner and safer internet experience. But unfortunately, Avast doesn’t offer any of those.

Avast VPN Protocols

Avast uses OpenVPN for its Windows and Android clients and IKEv2 for its macOS and iOS apps. Ideally, both VPN protocols should be available on all platforms. My preferred option is OpenVPN, which is secure and open-source.

However, there’s a new protocol in a town called WireGuard – an heir apparent to OpenVPN – that is considered more secure than the existing options. But you won’t find this protocol in Avast SecureLine VPN.

DNS Leak Test Protection

Avast claims to offer leak-proof protection for DNS. DNS, also known as Domain Name Server, is a more generalized way of organizing IP addresses. If your VPN doesn’t cover DNS data, it can expose your IP or location details to online snoopers. In short, a VPN without DNS leak protection is pretty much useless.

It’s good to see Avast’s claims of keeping your real IP “under wraps over IPv4 and blocking IPv6 requests” turned out to be true, and we found none of such leaks. After connecting to Avast VPN, you can also see your virtual IP address just like in the picture below:

WebRTC Leak Test

Avast SecureLine VPN also provides protection against WebRTC leaks. It is a feature computers use to facilitate communication between browsers, say during a live stream or a video chat. Similar to DNS, WebRTC leaks can also expose your actual IP address without you even noticing it.

Fortunately, Avast VPN has passed our WebRTC test with flying colors, as we didn’t find any leaks in our testing.

Does Avast provide a Warrant Canary?

Yes, Avast indeed offers a warrant canary that includes the prominent assurance that the company has not created a backdoor into its systems that would allow access to encrypted information. That’s quite impressive. It would be great to see other VPN services providing similar assurances.

Streaming – Can Avast VPN unblock Netflix?

Yes! While connected to Avast VPN, I could easily access shows and titles available on American Netflix. The VPN also works great with other streaming services like Hulu live tv network in Canada, HBO Max USA in Canada, and more.

However, we couldn’t access American Amazon Prime Video with Avast VPN. Also, it didn’t have a consistent speed for streaming Netflix shows. So, we don’t think it would be a good choice for streaming. For Netflix streaming though, the best Netflix VPN like ExpressVPN is recommended.

Is Avast VPN good for torrenting?

Torrenting is always a risky business, and there’s nothing more terrifying than receiving a DMCA notice from your ISP. We, obviously, don’t condone illegal torrenting, but legitimate P2P sharing is a nice feature that SecureLine supports. Talking about the technicalities, Avast VPN offers BitTorrent coverage along with P2P connections via data hubs in these locations:

•       Miami, Florida
•       Seattle, Washington
•       London, United Kingdom
•       Paris, France
•       Prague, Czech Republic
•       Frankfurt, Germany
•       Amsterdam, Netherlands
•       New York City, New York

You can also have a look at our top recommended VPNs for torrenting.

Avast VPN Speed Test

Avast showed a pretty decent speed during our testing. However, it’s not as fast as ExpressVPN, but quite reasonable for streaming videos in HD quality or securely browsing the internet.

Since VPNs route your traffic to a faraway server, we expect some decrease in internet speed in most cases. Of course, speed testing also varies significantly, depending on the devices and internet connections we use for our tests and what others might have in their homes.

That said, we tested Avast VPN via Ookla Speed test on a 100 Mbps base connection. Check out the results here: