You will find a better VPN service between NordVPN and Avast VPN when you know both of them in detail with comparison to quickly find the best that suits you. šDonāt worry we will cover everything by comparing speed, servers, security, encryption, unblocking streaming services, torrenting, customer support, etc.
Quick Glance at both VPNs
VPN Company Background
Have you ever thought about why VPNs are made? They are to hide your identity & online tracking. But what if a VPN is based in some surveillance country? You will be complete š doomed. This is because the government will force them to leak their user details (loss of your privacy). So, we are looking at their headquarters location first. NordVPN always maintains a clean background as it doesnāt keep any logs and is strictly based in Panama (a good jurisdiction) and not listed under the surveillance groups or any intelligence organization that we knew of. NordVPN company has been there around for more than 2 decades with a good š¤©reputation, to enhance their further with independent audits by third-party companies. Itās completely different when it comes to Avast SecureLine VPN since it is based in the Czech Republic (a European country) and doesnāt come under any surveillance groups. When you just take a breath š¤out with this, still it collects certain information (Your IP without the last four digits, the IP of the server you connected to, and the connection timestamp). This shouldnāt be what a VPN does, this doesnāt bother you much when you are watching youtube. But what if you want to stream or torrent or unblock something, you might get into trouble. š¤NordVPN is the winner here.
Speed Test
Internet speed with a VPN connection depends on various factors. But itās always good to test the general scenarios to know how the VPN behaves in delivering the best it can. To beat the best & get the most out of the VPN we have used the best protocols it offered. For NorVPN NordLynx is the ā”powerhouse of Wireguard. But for Avast OpenVPN (UDP) is the only option. Here are the speeds to check for yourself. šNote: Keep in mind that results might vary depending upon your base internet speed, a server connection, and the protocol used. NordVPN is the winnerš„³
Features Overview
Kill Switch
Kill Switch is a prominent security feature of any VPN to cut off the internet connection when the VPN connection drops to protect your real IP address. Itās š„³lucky to have this feature on both VPNs NordVPN maintains 2 kill switches i) one for the whole internet and ii) for dedicated selected apps. But Avast implements this system-wide.
Split Tunneling
NordVPN offers split tunneling for its Android and Windows application. While avast offers it only for its Android app (a useful feature in various situations). This feature allows you to select the particular application that should use a VPN connection. For example, you can set up your VPN to use its connection when you are streaming Netflix.
SmartPlay
You will find this feature helpful while streaming, itās worth mentioning that this is a NordVPN social feature. This will get activated automatically when you stream geo-blocked content, thanks to SmartPlay for smartly unblocking streaming services without getting blocked. This also broadens your ability to watch movies on a variety of devices that donāt have the NordVPN app.
Specialty Servers
Both VPNs maintain specialty services for torrenting, while avast offers dedicated servers for streaming (which couldnāt unblock Netflix during my test). You can check all the special servers offered by NordVPN in the details review. Meantime, NordVPN offers Onion Over VPN and Obfuscated servers (helpful in countries where VPN is restricted).
CyberSec
This is a NordVPN special feature available for its supported platforms, once you enable this it will block ads & block phishing sites that contain malware, spyware, or any kind of trackers. So when you try to open any blacklisted page āYou will get notifiedā.
Smart Rules
Avast Special feature to set you a bunch of rules to get executed whenever the VPN is connected. For example, you can choose to turn the VPN on while you are torrenting, streaming, or accessing restricted sites. Even though NordVPN offers a similar configuration through SmartPlay (they are not as flexible as Avast).
Security & Encryption
Security will be the most interesting part of a VPN. While No Log VPNs are most suitable for those who want to protect their identity online, providing military-grade encryption with a wide range of tunneling protocols will be a great choice. While NordVPN takes a better stand by offering high-level AES 256-bit security with a couple of the latest VPN protocols like OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, L2TP, PPTP, and SSTP along with a reliable kill switch and DNS leak protection, malware blocker (as advertised). Avast wonāt disappoint you because it also uses AES 256 encryption (current high standard), while it offers only OpenVPN UDP and Avast Mimic (brand new protocol).
Audits
NordVPN owns a clean reputation as itās based in Panama and its no-logging policy is straightforward. Their policies are proven by two independent security audits PWC. But when it comes to Avast SecureLine VPN which is based on Czech Repulic (doesnāt belongs to any intelligence groups). Still, it stores connection logs, we have discussed them in the VPNs company background.
Servers
Everyone has to accept that NordVPN has a huge network than Avast SecureLine VPN (twice many countries). When you look at the server network it is 8 times bigger, in addition to this NordVPN displays you a simple mapš locating the server location (simple & easy). Whereas for Avast you need to select the server from the list. So the clear winner is NordVPNš„³
Device Compatibility & Ease of Use
As you can see yourself that when it comes to compatibility Avast SecureLine is behind NordVPN. Because it lacks other OS supports like Linux and Fire TV Sticks. But still, both VPNs manage to cover various OS. While NordVPN offers a wide range of protocols available in the market with dedicated apps for each platform. Both VPNs have simple & minimal user interfaces. Avast compensates for this by providing 10 simultaneous device connections. But what if someone has only the devices which are not supported by Avast,š¤·āāļø, so itās for NordVPN. š„³NordVPN is the winner.
Setup
Itās very simple to install these VPNs on any device. Here we have NordVPN installation guides for Android,Ā iOS,Ā Windows,Ā andĀ macOS. While there were no issues either after installation or during installation. Installation is very simple and takes a few minutes. Check out their website for other platform setup wizards (for quick installation) or you can visit their website for tutorials. But for Avast installation you need to visit the official website and download your device-specific app and then install it regularly. Avast desktop app for Windows & macOS is more like Avast antivirus with the same color pattern and layout. This is very simple to use and quite useful for beginners to find features quickly, Those who love customizations will be disappointed a bit though. While the NordVPNs desktop app is more intuitive with great protection along with some useful features. The Mobile App of Avast is very decent with a minimalistic design and runs very smoothly. Also, there is a split tunneling feature in the android version. But when it comes to NordVPN its android application is top-notch and easy for the eyes (almost identical to the desktop version in terms of features). The Android version š¢lacks a dark web monitoring feature, but you can enjoy it on the iOS version. šNote: Keep in mind that the Linux version of NordVPN doesnāt have a GUI interface. So itās a tieš
Streaming
Unblocking streaming services is quite an important feature of a VPN. Itās not a secret that millions of people primarily use VPN to watch Netflix geo-blocked content like movies, shows, and sports. This means testing VPNās ability to unblock streaming services the more it can šŖdetermines the winner. When we try to unblock Netflix, I faced a little trouble with Avast SecureLine VPN. Though it has some special servers for streaming (UK, US, Germany)š¢ none of them worked for me during my test. There isnāt any prompt that Netflix mentions any issue but it simply displays the international content (not regionally specific). Thank god at least Avast SecureLine VPN unblocks BBC iPlayer, it allowed to me watch youtube geo-blocked content. There is no doubt NordVPN is one of the best Netflix VPNs and a real lifesaver quickly unblocking the streaming services out there. Here we have accessed Netflix & BBC iPlayer, of course, you can do more than that. NordVPN is the clear winner of this roundš„³.
Torrenting
Torrenting is another golden feature that every user expects. Both VPNs are good choices in terms of torrenting but NordVPN is the top-rated VPN for torrenting. While Avast SecureLine offers specialized P2P services to allow torrent traffic. In addition to P2P servers, NordVPN offers special servers called Onion Over VPN for an additional layer of security, and some of the servers offer SOCKS5 proxy so that you can also set up torrenting apps. Itās not mentioned anywhere how many P2P servers Avast SecureLine maintains among 700 servers. So without judging the winner just by numbers we want to try their performance by downloading some torrent files on the browser. NordVPN wins the race downloading the file faster than Avast. Since NordVPN supports most torrent clients available compared to Avast. So, NordVPN is the winnerš¤
Customer Support
Even though you think customer support isnāt necessary at first. You will notice the importance of it in long run or when you take the subscription. NordVPN offers š„best-in-class VPN customer services in the market through its 24/7 live chat support. NordVPNās live chat is a great feature connecting to humans within seconds, even I found it more convenient to describe my issue to a person rather than choosing options provided by a bot. This situation seems to be favoring NordVPN with overall customer support. Thinking from either perspective while NordVPN has 24 live chat support and Avast has phone call support. Itās a tieš
Pricing & refund policies
Though both VPNs have their subscription plans here are the best deals offered by them when you take a longer subscription plan. Also, you can grab amazing deals if you sign up earlier (for a long-term plan). Instead of dealing with refunds separately, we will deal with them here to reduce the headache of getting a refund. š¢Here is the 69% hidden discount links reducing the prices further (grab them before they expire). You can check the pricing plans of NordVPN here. NordVPN is available at $11.95 per month. But it will benefit you more (cheaper than all other VPNs available) when you opt for this VPN for years. As you can see NordVPN is available for $3.67/ month in a 2-year plan along with 3 months š„³free. Thanks to NordVPNās 30 days money-back guarantee program (risk-free) for letting users taste their service for free and get their refund instantly when they donāt like their service. Avast SecureLine VPN is not available for a monthly subscription. So I canāt judge which VPN will be cheaper in the short term. By looking at the plans, here you can see yourself. You will find Avast SecureLine VPN is a bit costlier than NordVPN ($0.32 costlier) even when you take the subscription for years. Though we have to make it a tie keeping in mind that short terms plans are not available. Considering the long-term plans. Even if you opt for a basic package 1-year plan it will cost you $4.99 which is again ($0.07 costlier than NordVPN) šNordVPN is the clear winner.
Conclusion
In the tough comparisons, NordVPN š„wins the battle without breaking a š¦sweat as it is trustworthy, doesnāt log, has better speeds, and offers a broad range of features, while Avast didnāt get that much response compared to NordVPNās performance. It doesnāt mean that Avast VPN is a bad VPN service- it couldnāt compete with the giant VPN service in the market. If you still want to consider some other VPN service providers check out our best VPN services guide. For more š¤comparisons check
NordVPN vs Surfshark NordVPN vs CyberGhost NordVPN vs HideMyAss NordVPN vs ExpressVPN
