Avast One Gold Review | PCMag

Like most security suites, Avast One Gold has antivirus protection at its core, and Avast’s antivirus routinely gets scores with independent test labs. To that essential protection, this suite adds privacy protection, performance tuning, a no-limits VPN, and more. Like the company’s free suite, Avast One Basic, it protects devices running Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. The main benefit you get from upgrading to the for-pay Avast One Gold is the lifting of the bandwidth and server limits on the integrated VPN. If that’s not something you need, you might as well stick with the free edition. Norton 360 Deluxe and Bitdefender Total Security are our Editors’ Choice winners for cross-platform security suites. Both come with VPN protection, and both offer a larger variety of security features than Avast, for a lower price.

How Much Does Avast One Gold Cost?

Until recently, Avast’s entry-level security suite was simply called Avast One, and the free edition enjoyed the name Avast One Essential. These two now go by Avast One Gold (reviewed here) and Avast One Basic. The addition of Avast One Silver, with more features than Basic but fewer than Gold, yields a nice metallic progression: Silver, Gold, Platinum.

Avast One Gold comes in two basic editions. The Individual edition lists for $179.99 per year and lets you install protection on up to five of your devices. For $279.99 per year, the Family edition extends that protection to a total of 30 devices. Avast One Platinum adds Family Sharing, meaning you can bless up to five family members with subsidiary accounts. More importantly, the Platinum edition adds full-blown identity protection, along with 24/7 support for any technical problem—not just problems with Avast—for $249.99 per year.

Priced at $79.99 per year for the Individual edition and $129.99 per year for Family, Avast One Silver falls between Basic and Gold. You can choose to receive Premium-level features for any one of Protection, Privacy, or Performance; the other two remain at the free level.

It’s Surprisingly Easy to Be More Secure Online

ESET Smart Security Premium gives you five licenses for $99.99 per year, but if you want 30 licenses in the style of Avast One Gold Family, it’ll cost you $339.99. At the five-license level, you pay $119.99 per year for Norton 360 Deluxe. Both Norton and Avast also give you five no-limits VPN licenses, but Norton goes further with 50GB of hosted storage for your online backups and a more comprehensive security suite on your desktops.

With a $149.99 subscription to McAfee+, you get licenses for every device in your household. For most households, though, there’s probably no appreciable difference between 30 licenses and unlimited.

There’s no denying that Avast One Gold’s new pricing is on the high side. Its five-license price is the highest of comparable products, and its 30-license price is nearly double what McAfee charges for unlimited licenses.

What Does Avast One Gold Share With the Free Edition?

When you purchase an Avast One Gold subscription, you naturally get access to all the features of the free Avast One Basic. You can read my review of that product for full details, and I recap my findings below.

The new Avast One Gold product line has a completely different look from Avast’s past suites. Instead of a dark background, it’s light and airy—no sharp-edged rectangles here, either. Buttons have rounded ends, and cheerful line-drawing images abound, with daubs of pastel colors. When space allows, the drawings include happy people. It’s quite a change from the previous stark appearance.

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Avast One Gold’s home page focuses on whatever security element most needs your attention. Initially, it pushes you to run a smart scan. Once that is done, it encourages you to explore the VPN. When you’ve complied with all its suggestions, it simply reports, “Your security looks good!”

The rest of the home page reports security status in various ways. You see where the VPN is connecting and how long it’s been since the last smart scan. If there are pending activities for PC Speedup, Browser Cleaner, Disk Cleaner, or Driver Updater, those all show here as well. A separate page reached by clicking Explore in the menu at left gives you access to all the program’s features, divided into Device Protection, Online Privacy, and Smooth Performance. Unlike the free edition, which locks away some components of the Explore menu, everything is fully available.

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All four of the independent antivirus testing labs I follow include Avast in their testing, and its scores are almost all top-notch. My aggregate lab score algorithm gives Avast 9.6 of 10 possible points. Among products tested by all four labs, only Norton has a better aggregate score, edging out Avast to reach 9.8 points. Tested by three labs, Bitdefender and McAfee both reached a perfect 10 points.

A deep scan with Avast finished in 2 hours 42 minutes, about an hour longer than the current average. A repeat scan brought that time down to 1 hour 25 minutes. For tough malware that resists removal, you can invoke the Boot-Time Scan, which runs before Windows loads so malware can’t defend itself.

(Credit: Avast/PCMag)

In my own hands-on malware protection test, Avast scored 9.9 out of 10 possible points, the same as AVG. I also challenge every antivirus to protect against 100 recent malware-hosting URLs. Avast’s scores in this test have been all over the map. This time around it protected against just 75% of the dangerous URLs, but the previous three tests included scores of 91% and 98%.

Avast’s Web Shield protection happens below the browser level, so it works with any browser and requires no installation of extensions. That same feature detects phishing websites that try to scam consumers into giving away their login credentials. In a test using the newest suspected phishing URLs, Avast detected 99% of the verified frauds. Tested at the same time under macOS, it reached the same score.

A malware attack that gets past your antivirus is never good news, but in most cases, a malware definition update will quickly wipe out the infestation. However, if it was a ransomware attack, the damage is already done. Removing the malware won’t help restore access to your maliciously encrypted files. Avast’s response to this grave situation lies in added protection for the typical targets of ransomware. Its ransomware protection system prevents unauthorized changes to those targets. On detecting an attempt to modify a target file, it displays a warning and asks you what to do. If you’re just using a new image editor for the first time, you simply mark it as trusted. But if you don’t recognize the program trying to fiddle with your files, block it!

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For ages, Avast offered a network security component called Wi-Fi Inspector. It was never limited to Wi-Fi networks, though, so now it’s called Network Inspector. This component scans your network and connected devices for security problems. You can peruse the list of found devices to make sure they’re all legitimate. For those using the Gold edition, Network Inspector can send a notification when any new device connects. If an unwanted intruder shows up in a notification, you know it’s time to change the Wi-Fi password.

Simple Firewall Protection

You do get firewall protection even with the free edition. Avast’s firewall blocks network-based attacks and adds additional restrictions when you’re on an untrusted network. It lists all programs using the internet, along with the amount of bandwidth they’re sucking down, and lets you manually cut off any program. Be careful using that power; you could really do damage by blocking the wrong program.

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Advanced firewall systems like Norton automatically configure network permissions for known good programs and keep a careful watch on how unknowns use the network. Simple-minded firewalls pop up confusing queries on any new attempt at internet access, forcing you, the user, to make important security decisions. Even at the premium level, you only get program control in Avast’s firewall if you dig into the program list and do the job manually.

Upgrading to premium unlocks the Advanced network security page in firewall settings. The firewall hides things like your computer name from other devices on the network. It warns you if it detects a port scan attack. And it notifies you if it detects evidence of ARP spoofing. It’s worth noting that some hardware-based parental control systems legitimately use ARP spoofing to accomplish their content-filtering tasks. Really, these are just minor enhancements.

Online Safety Score

I mentioned that Avast One Gold uses its home page to guide you toward security tasks you ought to undertake, such as running a smart scan. The Online Safety Score is another way for the program to encourage proper security hygiene. This feature is available to both free and paying customers.

You can find your Online Safety Score on the page reached by clicking the Messages icon in the left-rail menu. It shows a numeric score from 0% to 100%, along with a couple of notes about the good things that raised your score and the yet-to-do tasks that could raise it further, and you can click for more details.

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On the detail page, Avast reported that all my test system’s apps are up to date, Windows update is set to automatic, Avast’s protective features are all on, and there haven’t been any recent visits to dangerous sites. To raise the system’s score by 3%, Avast advises upgrading to Windows 11. Never mind that this virtual machine doesn’t meet the requirements for Windows 11. It’s still a clever way to get users to improve security. Everybody wants a good score, right?

Secure Browser Emphasizes Privacy

Avast offers to install its Secure Browser along with Avast One Gold, whether it’s the free or paid edition. In fact, you can download the Secure Browser without even installing another Avast product. Norton and AVG Internet Security each have their own versions of this tool, but Avast’s tool has more features than the other two. The browser is Chromium-based, so if you know Chrome, you’re already familiar.

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However, many of the features are on the fluffy side, things that you could do in any browser. The standouts are Bank Mode and Privacy Guard. The browser offers Bank Mode when it detects you’re visiting a financial site; you can also invoke Bank Mode manually. Doing so opens a separate desktop with its own instance of Secure Browser, completely isolated from the programs in the regular desktop. Just as with Bitdefender’s similar Safepay feature, you can close the Bank Mode desktop when you’re done or switch back and forth to the regular desktop.

Privacy Guard is an ad and tracker blocker with three privacy levels. At the Basic level—the default—it blocks trackers and egregious ads that disrupt your browsing. If you crank it up to Strict, it blocks everything it can, including attempts at browser fingerprinting.

Premium Device Protection Features

Looking at the list of features on the Explore page, you find 15 items under Device Protection: Scan Center, File Shield, Web Shield, Email Guardian, Ransomware Protection, Firewall, Quarantine, Network Inspector, Bank Mode, Sandbox, Sensitive Data Shield, Remote Access Shield, Web Hijack Guard, and Webcam Protection, and Password Protection. The last half of this group, from Bank Mode to the end, is entirely or partially reserved for premium users. Those running the free edition can use Bank Mode but can’t manage exceptions. The Sensitive Data Shield will locate sensitive files but won’t protect them. As for the rest, they’re simply disabled.

Email Guardian Extended

Those using Avast’s free version get Email Guardian protection for the built-in Mail app. Avast filters out malicious attachments and other email dangers.

Email Guardian in the paid edition goes way beyond that, with non-local protection for your webmail accounts. Once you set it up, it becomes independent of your device. Avast captures and filters your email in the cloud, so it works no matter what device you use to read your mail. No malicious attachments will reach any of your devices.

The first thing you do to enable protection for a web-based email account is give Avast the email address and password for that account. For some, that requirement may be a deal-breaker. Sure, the page says, “Your password will be encrypted—even we won’t be able to see it.” But some users, myself included, just aren’t comfortable giving away passwords.

I signed up using a throwaway Yahoo account that I use only for testing. When I last evaluated this product, that signup failed because Yahoo lacked the ability to link; it worked this time. Email Guardian supports Google, Outlook, AOL, Comcast, GMX, Mail.ru, Seznam, Web.de, Yahoo, and Yandex.

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After that—nothing. Avast reported that it scanned several messages and found no problems. But from now on, all messages to that account go through Avast first. You’ll have to make the decision as to what’s more important. Getting cleaned-up emails on all your devices without having to install software on all of them is convenient. But to do so, you must give Avast full access to read all your email messages and even send messages on your behalf.

Sensitive Data Shield

Chances are good your computer contains documents with sensitive data, information a snoop or thief could misuse. Sensitive Data Shield seeks out such documents and applies an additional layer of protection. Files identified for protection can’t be opened by other user accounts on the PC, and you can limit which apps are allowed to open them.

My test system contains several dozen personal files in its Documents folder to serve as bait for ransomware attacks in testing. I figured the scan would find some files to protect, but it came up empty. My Avast contact explained that this scan specifically checks PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, and XLSX files. It looks for items like email addresses and as many as 20 other identifying factors. I added a handful of files containing that sort of info and scanned again. It finished quickly and found several files to protect.

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I logged in to a different Windows user account and tried to navigate to my main account’s files. However, Windows already protects against this sort of cross-account access, so Avast’s help wasn’t needed.

I expected the application blocking system to work like ransomware protection, with unknown files banned until you, the user, approve them. However, it doesn’t work like that. Any app running under your own Windows account has full access unless you preemptively add it to the blacklist. I’m not convinced this feature significantly adds to your security.

Web Hijack Guard

The Domain Name System (DNS) is what translates human-friendly domain names like pcmag.com into machine-friendly IP addresses like 104.16.21.118. DNS hijacking refers to attacks that subvert DNS, thereby connecting you to a dangerous page. It’s similar to phishing in that you wind up at a fake version of the site you aimed to visit. However, the DNS hijack means the address bar shows the expected domain even when the page displayed is fake. Web Hijack Guard, enabled by default, prevents such hijacking. I assume it works; it’s not something I could test.

Webcam Protection

A malware attack that lets a pervy hacker peek at you through your webcam is perhaps the ultimate form of spyware. This type of software can turn on the webcam without turning on its telltale light, so you have no idea you’re under observation. Like Bitdefender, ESET, and Kaspersky, Avast lets known and trusted applications use the webcam but notifies you when an unknown program tries to gain access. If you’re using a new face-to-face meeting app, go ahead and trust it, but if you didn’t initiate the use of the webcam, slam the peephole shut. You can also set Webcam Protection to require permission even for known and trusted programs or to cut off all access to the camera.

Additional Premium Features

Gold users get access to several more premium features, including Sandbox, Remote Access Shield, and Password Protection. I’m guessing that few users will take advantage of these.

The Sandbox feature is a kind of virtual environment where you can run suspect programs without allowing them to make any permanent changes to your computer and files. You can right-click any program and choose to run it in the Sandbox for a quick look or always run it in the Sandbox. Shut down the sandbox and all actions by the suspect program vanish. By default, sandboxed programs can access the internet and download files that don’t vanish, but you can remove these privileges.

I turned off File Shield, Ransomware Protection, and Sensitive Data Shield, then launched a ransomware attack in the Sandbox. It visibly encrypted most of the files in my Documents folder without protection from Avast. I reverted the test virtual machine and tried again, launching the suspect program from the Sandbox page within the application. This time, it prevented any changes but also gave me no clue about the ransomware attempt. Surely the best reaction when you have a program you think might be malware is to just delete it.

(Credit: Avast/PCMag)

Remote Access Shield, enabled by default, puts the kibosh on the remote-control protocols used by RATs (remote access trojans) and other long-distance attacks. This is a good thing, most of the time. But if you’re working with live chat tech support and the agent requests remote access to diagnose and repair a problem, you’ll have to disable it.

Password Protection sounds like a fine idea, but it’s not what you think. This feature prevents any outside apps from accessing passwords stored in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox—period. We at PCMag always advise that you avoid storing passwords in the browser and instead use a password manager for protection that’s both more thorough and more convenient.

Full-Scale VPN

The most important component in Avast’s Online Privacy collection is the VPN. Avast’s deep scan roots out any malware infestations on your devices, and real-time antivirus detects and prevents new attacks. Your data should be safe with this protection in place. However, the moment you communicate across the internet, antivirus protection loses its power. To protect your data on its travels, you need a VPN.

The VPN creates a secure encrypted connection between your device and a hardened server managed by the VPN company. No snoop, not even the owner of the shady coffer shop network you’re using, can access your data in transit. The VPN server interacts with whatever site you selected and returns its responses back to you through the same encrypted connection. A side benefit of this process is that your network traffic seems to come from the VPN server. That means a site can’t determine your location based on your IP address. It also can allow you to access content that would normally be restricted based on your location.

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Avast’s free edition includes integrated VPN protection but with limits. You don’t get a choice of servers or server locations—you must use whatever the system chooses. And you’re limited to 5GB of bandwidth per week. To be fair, that’s more generous than most. The free edition of Hotspot Shield VPN allows 500MB per day, a bit less than Avast. With TunnelBear VPN, nonpaying users choke out at 500MB per month. On the other hand, you can use Proton VPN for free with no limits on bandwidth.

PCMag has evaluated the standalone Avast SecureLine VPN and found it to be a decent VPN but not an outstanding one. You can read our review for a full understanding of Avast’s VPN technology. Briefly, it uses recommended VPN protocols and offers a widespread but somewhat sparse selection of servers (about 500 servers in 36 countries). Its privacy policy clearly states what information it collects; our review notes that it gathers more data than is needed and more than most competitors. It doesn’t offer features beyond VPN the way some similar products do, but it earned decent scores in our speed tests.

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With Avast One Gold, the VPN is integrated, not a separate product, but the underlying technology is the same. You choose your country and, when available, a location within that country. Icons identify the fastest servers and ones that are especially good for streaming or torrenting. You turn on the VPN to protect your web traffic. And that’s all you really need to do.

Running on macOS, Avast’s VPN reminds you to turn on protection when you connect to an untrusted network, with an option to just turn on the VPN automatically in that case. You can also set it to either turn on or remind you when you do things like shop online or connect to your bank. The Windows edition reviewed here skips the reminders, leaving you the option to turn on VPN automatically when you connect with an untrusted network or when you are banking, shopping, accessing sensitive content, streaming, or torrenting. By default, it doesn’t turn on automatically.

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There are a few settings beyond those related to connecting automatically. The VPN can notify you when it makes an automatic connection, for one. When you’re connected through a VPN, you’re not on the local network; Avast’s VPN includes the option to retain access to local devices such as network printers. It also offers a kill switch feature. If the VPN connection drops or wobbles, Avast cuts all internet traffic until the connection is restored to make sure no data goes out unprotected. On the Mac, you can choose between the old IPSec protocol and a proprietary protocol called Mimic. The Windows edition doesn’t offer a choice of protocol.

That’s it for VPN configuration options, even in the paid edition. You won’t find the split-tunneling feature (the ability to send less sensitive traffic outside the VPN’s protection) you get with CyberGhost VPN or Surfshark VPN. There’s no option for the added security of a multi-hop VPN connection. You can’t get a static IP address (useful for evading services that try to block VPN usage).

Norton 360 Deluxe also includes full-scale VPN protection, and we rate Norton’s VPN 3.5 stars as a standalone, one notch above Avast’s. Yes, if you’re a VPN enthusiast, you can do better with a top-tier standalone VPN. But having VPN technology integrated with your security suite is a very big plus.

Premium Privacy Features

Those using Avast One Basic do get access to the VPN, though the free VPN is limited in both bandwidth and features. Joining VPN in the Explore menu’s Online Privacy section are: Clear Browsing Data, Dark Web Monitoring, Privacy Advisor, Private Mode, and Tracking Prevention.

Clear Browsing Data, also present in the free edition, eliminates browsing traces such as cookies and cached data from Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera. You can do the same thing in any of those browsers, with finer control, by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Del. Privacy Advisor, also available to free users, offers a host of small instructive videos to help you manage your privacy. There’s nothing automated here, just good advice spelled out simply and visually. 

Simplified Tracking Prevention

When your browser sends a query to a website, the website returns the requested information and then forgets all about you. For ongoing interaction, a site can place a cookie on your computer, a small text file that serves as its memory. What are your preferences? Did you log in? Things like that.

Cookies have been misused by advertisers and others who want to track your online activities. And privacy-centered organizations (including some browser purveyors) have devised ways to defeat cookie-based tracking. Bitdefender Total Security, Avira Prime, and various other security products build in the ability to block such trackers.

Blocking cookie-based tracking has proven successful enough that trackers now rely on a technique called browser fingerprinting. Briefly, the tracking agency gathers a vast amount of data that your browser freely offers and boils it down to a digital fingerprint that uniquely identifies you.

Avast offers a standalone program called Avast AntiTrack, designed to foil the fingerprinters. It tweaks the data returned by your browser so that your fingerprint is always changing. In addition, it prevents cookie-based tracking, clears browser traces of online activity, and helps tune Windows for maximum privacy.

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The premium-only Tracking Prevention feature in Avast One Gold sticks to blocking fingerprinting techniques on your desktop devices. There are no settings; all you need to do is turn it on.

Real-Time Dark Web Monitoring

The feature called Dark Web Monitoring exists in the free Basic edition, but it might better be called Checking Checking. Free users can submit any email address and get back a report revealing whether that address has turned up in any data breaches. Clicking a listed breach gets you a little more info about what happened. When you’ve changed the affected password or otherwise dealt with the problem, you can click to mark the item as resolved.

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That much is available for free. In the premium edition, you can enroll one or more email addresses in real-time monitoring. Doing so requires that you respond to a verification message, proving you own the account. Once you’ve registered an address, Avast will let you know about any new breaches right away.

Private Mode Is No Big Deal

It’s clear why some features are reserved for paying customers. Managing a VPN network requires maintaining server farms and other expenses, so naturally, Avast doesn’t give them away. Running a quick scan for a compromised email address is no big deal, but keeping watch for any new breaches is an ongoing effort. I do wonder why Private Mode isn’t free, though.

Private Mode is very, very simple. When you flip the switch, it turns on the VPN and the Tracking Prevention features (if they’re not on already) and opens your default browser in its Incognito / Private / InPrivate mode. That’s it. There’s nothing here you couldn’t accomplish with a few clicks, but even so, free users don’t get access.

Smooth Performance Features Gain Automation

Tuning up your device’s performance isn’t exactly a security task, but it can’t hurt. Avast One Gold offers six components under the Smooth Performance descriptor: PC Speedup, Software Updater, Do Not Disturb Mode, Disk Cleaner, Driver Updater, and Duplicate Finder.

Free Performance Enhancements

PC Speedup, also available in the free edition, identifies programs that run in the background, drawing resources even when idle. You use this component to optimize those apps, meaning that Avast prevents them from using resources unless they’re actually performing some useful task.

In the free edition, Software Updater seeks out missing security patches for popular applications but doesn’t apply them until you ask it to. Paid users can configure Avast One Gold to apply updates automatically, making the entire process effortless.

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When you turn on Do Not Disturb Mode, it will “mute notifications from Windows, other apps, and even us.” By default, Avast adds any full-screen program to the list of apps that should run in this mode. You can also add any other apps you wish.

Gold-Level Performance Features

The Driver Updater works in much the same way as Software Updater, identifying any out-of-date drivers and offering you the opportunity to update them. It does warn that before applying updates, you should save your work and close all apps and that the process may result in a black screen or interrupted network connection. That being the case, it makes sense there’s no option to run Drive Update in automatic mode.

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The Disk Cleaner component finds junk files and other items that waste disk space. In the free edition, it leaves you to do the cleanup manually. The paid edition lets you check the details of what it found and (if necessary) exempt some items from the cleanup. On my test system, it freed up 1.23GB of disk space.

Duplicate Finder helps you avoid wasting space by storing the same file multiple times. It scans locations such as Documents, Pictures, and Music and reports on groups of identical files. That’s where the process ends for free users—they have to dig in and delete unwanted dupes manually. Premium users can check the groups one by one or choose to retain the newest or all the oldest in each group. Then, clicking the Delete buttons wipes out all the redundancy.

It’s conceivable, though unlikely, that Disk Cleanup or PC Speedup could cause a problem. Avast provides a means to undo those changes, but it’s not easy to find. On the main screen, click the Account icon in the left-rail menu. The item called Rescue Center is where you’ll find those undo capabilities.

Small Impact on Performance

Big, bulky security suites in the dim and distant past used to have a well-deserved reputation for gobbling system resources and slowing everyday PC activities. A security product isn’t much use when the frustrated user turns it off to fix performance problems. Fortunately, security companies learned their lesson. Modern products typically have only the most minor effect on performance. Even so, I run a few simple tests to make sure they’re not backsliding.

Starting a host of security monitors and other processes at startup could slow the boot process. To measure the boot time, I use a script that starts quizzing Windows about overall CPU usage, starting immediately after reboot. Typically, CPU usage spikes as startup programs go through their loading sequences. After 10 seconds with CPU usage below 5%, I consider the computer ready for action. Subtracting the start of the boot process (as reported by Windows) yields the boot time. Averaging dozens of runs before and after installing a suite yields a measure of how the suite slowed the boot process.

When last tested, boot time averaged 13% longer with the suite installed. To be fair, my test system’s boot time hovers around 10 seconds, so you’d hardly notice the small increase. In my latest test, Avast is back to its usual score—zero impact on boot time.

In any case, most users don’t reboot often, so even a product with a big boot impact might not be cause for alarm. On the other hand, if careful monitoring by antivirus and other components slows everyday activities like copying and saving files, that could be a problem. I test for that possibility using a script that moves and copies a huge collection of all kinds of files between drives, averaging the time required with and without the suite. Another test measures the time needed to repeatedly zip and unzip those files.

When I last tested Avast, those scripts ran 10% and 7% longer, respectively. This time around, my zip and unzip test remained at 7%, but the copy and move test rose to 17%. Averaging the three tests, I found that Avast slowed the system by about 8%. That’s not a lot, but only a handful of products have had a larger impact in recent tests. At the other end of the scale, Avira and Webroot Internet Security Complete didn’t stretch the time required by any of my tests. Both caused an average impact of exactly 0%.

Premium-Level macOS Protection

Users of Avast One Gold on Windows gain the most from a premium upgrade, but there are enhancements on the Mac as well. For starters, upgrading removes limits on the macOS VPN. You get unlimited bandwidth, and you can choose whatever server location you want.

The Premium-only Tracker Prevention component draws on technology from the standalone Avast AntiTrack. Advertisers and other trackers use data supplied by your browser to create a unique fingerprint that lets them track your online behavior. Tracker Prevention tweaks that browser data so your browser fingerprint keeps changing.

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The components listed under Smooth Performance on the Explore page are all premium-only, and all of them involve ways to free up disk space on your Mac. Disk Cleaner finds junk files that you can delete, and App Uninstaller helps you find and remove apps that you never use or that are just too darn huge. Photo Cleaner scans your photos and identifies sets of very similar ones, as well as photos that are just plain bad. Finally, the new Duplicate Finder seeks sets of identical files that are wasting space.

Just as on Windows, Email Guardian on the Mac expands to protect your webmail accounts, and Network Inspector for paying customers gains the ability to notify you when a new device connects. You also get data breach notifications. For a full rundown of the Mac-specific benefits of updating to a paid subscription, please see my review of Avast One Gold for Mac.

Android Enhancements

Even when you pony up the cash for a subscription, Avast One Gold doesn’t offer the once-expected anti-theft for Android devices. That’s a style that’s becoming more common as Android’s built-in anti-theft becomes more and more effective. Norton and McAfee are among competitors that have dropped anti-theft.

(Credit: Avast/PCMag)

Avast’s Android malware-fighting technology receives perfect scores from three independent antivirus testing labs. With a paid Avast One Gold license, you can schedule regular scans for malware and vulnerable Wi-Fi networks and automate the junk cleanup feature. App Insights lists your apps and the permissions they require or lists permissions and the apps that require them. If you find an anomaly, like a flashlight app with Contacts permission, you can tap to uninstall it.

As on Windows, free users can manually scan for compromised email accounts, while paying customers get to set up real-time monitoring for new breaches. Other free features include the now-familiar Network Inspector, Junk Cleaner, Privacy Advisor, and Online Safety Score. Photo Vault lets you move sensitive photos to encrypted storage, protected by a special PIN, pattern, or biometric authentication, and premium users drop the 10-photo limit imposed in the free edition.

As on other platforms, upgrading to a paid account removes the bandwidth limits on the VPN and lets you choose whatever server you want. On Windows and Mac, icons represent servers that are fastest or optimized for streaming or torrenting. By observation, the Android server list is sorted by speed, with notes for good streaming servers but not for torrenting ones.

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Upgrading also lets you enable App Lock. This feature puts selected applications behind a secondary PIN. That way, if you hand your phone over to calm a crying kid, there’s no chance they’ll order a thousand lollipops or send an incomprehensible Insta post.

Email Guardian isn’t limited to one device. Rather, it filters your web-based email at the source. But you can manage it from your Android device. With Email Guardian, Avast has your webmail username and password, allowing it to filter out malicious mail. It all happens in the cloud; all you do on a local device is manage the process.

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Premium users also get the relatively new Scam Protection component. To use this feature, you must officially make Avast your default browser so it can get ahead of your actual browser to check links. Now, when you tap a link in a text, a social media post, or a messaging app, Avast checks it first. If it’s safe, Avast passes it along to your preferred browser; if not, you get a warning.

Less for iOS

As with almost every cross-platform suite, Avast offers the least when installed on an iOS device. The same OS-level security that foils most standard malware attacks also interferes with typical techniques for preventing those attacks. As on other platforms, Avast’s iOS edition includes a Smart Scan, but malware detection isn’t part of the scan.

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VPN protection is valuable on any platform, and paying for it removes the bandwidth and server location choice limitations on iOS, as it does on other platforms. On the desktop, the VPN server list appears in alphabetic order, with icons marking servers that are fastest and those best suited for streaming or torrenting. As noted, the Android edition lists the servers from fastest to slowest, with a note for streaming-tuned servers. On iOS, you see the server locations organized by continent, with a “Best for streaming” note where appropriate.

(Credit: Avast/PCMag)

Paying for Avast lets you manage active Dark Web Monitoring on your iOS device and Email Guardian, too. But both these features do their work in the cloud, not on any individual device. Customers who upgrade can put any number of photos into the Photo Vault, where for free users, it’s capped at 40. That’s about all.

Main Upgrade Benefit Is No-Limits VPN

Avast One Gold brings you the company’s award-winning antivirus protection, along with a no-limits VPN, a basic firewall, and a selection of security, privacy, and performance tools. However, the free edition already includes most of the important bits. The one big benefit of upgrading to Avast One Gold is the removal of VPN limits. As a standalone product, Avast’s VPN lists for $99.99, but this suite costs $179.99. You might be better off sticking with Avast One Basic and buying the VPN separately. Better still, pick one of our Editors’ Choice suites, Norton 360 Deluxe or Bitdefender Total Security, both of which include VPN protection, get excellent lab scores, and offer a dizzying array of useful security features.