Avast One Individual Review: Powerful Solutions with Too Many Buying Options

Avast One Individual Review

Most of the time, I don’t even think about Avast. That is a good thing. It sits in the background, monitoring my devices for malware, viruses, ransomware and other threats. It rarely finds any. An occasional visit to a sketchy website or the receipt of a virulent e-mail evokes its wrath as it blocks me from clicking through or cautions me from doing so. In hotels, I sometimes turn on the VPN if I’m doing something that will expose data. I don’t use it if I’m just watching a movie on Netflix.

Avast One is a good choice for data protection, as it protects all aspects of data, including data on disk, e-mail, browsing data, and identity data (depending on the active tier purchased). I don’t like their current bundles and upsells. It’s not that they hawk them incessantly, but that they exist. Most buyers need a solution that works for them in a situation, say, a family or a small business. Any offer that doesn’t land with a clear value proposition to those buyers adds confusion and time and reduces trust in the veracity of the solution.

What we like

Pros

• Solid malware, ransomware, and virus protection
• Easy to install and uninstall
• App for iOS and Android
• VPN included
• Basic may be good enough for many

I don’t use Avast One on Windows laptops. I cycle several laptops in and out for review. They come with whatever anti-virus software they come with, usually Norton or McAfee, sometimes Acronis. I leave these in their default configuration during reviews. For Windows laptops that I continue to use beyond the software’s trial protection window, I turn on Microsoft’s tools, which keep Windows protected. On some devices, like those from HP or Lenovo, extra security measures in their architectures also add protection.

While Apple has some chip-level protection, the company doesn’t include security features like Microsoft does. So, my experience with Avast has primarily focused on macOS. Installation is easy. Unlike past experiences with anti-virus software, Avast does not require codes. Installation and de-installation is easy. Activation occurs by signing into Avast, which can be via password or by signing in with Google or Apple credentials. At a basic level, cloud storage users should turn on two-factor authentication and create a way to backup their cloud files locally or in a secondary, secure, cloud-based storage service.

Avast One Features include:

• Malware scanning
• File scanning upon access with automatic threat mitigation
• Rapid website scanning
• Ransomware protection
• Traffic monitor to see where apps send data and how much
• A file quarantine that allows users to delete suspected files. Avast will analyze files sent to them, but will not return results.
• DNS Highjacking and fake site blockers
• A network inspector
• And e-mail guardian that scans Mail or Outlook for suspicious incoming mail
• A disk cleaner removes “junk,” including logs, caches, and downloads.
• A VPN of various levels to protect traffic on open networks
• Data breach monitoring checks on compromised and leaked e-mails.

Those are the features of Avast One Individual. Since I received my review copy, Avast has updated its plan. They now offer Basic, Silver, Gold and Platinum plans. According to the iPhone app, the One Individual is now Gold. Here is a screenshot of the latest Avast One tiers.

Note that, per the footnote, no Silver tier is currently available for the Mac. For a more extensive feature list on the Mac, click here. Clicking on the platform on the full list of features will display the platform-specific offers. Besides the tiers, Avast further breaks down its offers by individual and family. Within the Silver tier, bundles include device protection, privacy, and performance. The business solutions also have tiers and types.

I do feel like my Macs are protected with Avast running. The occasional pop-up that warns me of a bad link. I don’t see much. I scan my Macs to clean them up. I don’t do this often with Safari because there is some goodness in keeping cookies and other items active to allow easier sign-in to sites commercial sites with their own interest in keeping their users protected, like QuickBooks.

I don’t want to blow away all of my caches and then sign in again. I’m on a firewalled network. While I might not be completely protected, I feel protected enough to keep the cookies I want active active. (and yes, Grammarly, that is what I meant to say).

I also use my download file as a working area, so I don’t ask Avast One to delete those files either.

Avast also offers Avast One apps for iOS and Android. Early in my work with Avast One, I had an issue turning off the VPN on my iPad. I have since left it uninstalled. Again, on a walled network, I’m not overly worried about my iPad.

The minimal footprint and passive implementation work for me. I find the interface useful and relatively intuitive, though users unfamiliar with the Internet will likely find that some of the options will require research to understand them. I don’t find the use of Avast negative to my Mac performance. Not on an M1 Pro, nor on an M1 standard.

Avast is a reasonable choice for those who want to step up their security, especially frequent travelers or those who have returned to coffee shops and other open networks to work. For most, the free version will suffice.

What could be improved

Cons

• False positives
• Poor support
• Deals confuse the pricing model
• Cloud storage gets left out

I have experienced false positives on websites, such as an event speaker registration site, that I was not allowed to visit. The company’s IT team had to reach out to Avast to get them whitelisted.

Avast offers extensive FAQs and additional material in its support forums, but it doesn’t have a fast response system except for its premium (Platinum) customers, who pay for identity theft protection and other high-end features.

I like Avast One as a bundle. The components, presented as individual deals or sub-bundles, don’t make sense. Yes, for a marketer, breaking up the bundle to sell the value proposition of components to the audiences that just need those features may look like a good idea, but it dilutes the value of the bundle and confuses buyers. Perhaps buyers will think, “I just need something simple,” and stay with the basic version or go with a product that doesn’t offer so many granular choices.

The one thing every anti-virus, anti-malware and anti-ransomware company should strive for is trust. All the bundles and options get in the way of trust because being protected from poor marketing is one of the product’s features,

In an increasingly cloud-first world, some of the features of tools like Avast don’t make much sense anymore. Most of my files reside in iCloud or OneDrive, they never make it to my machine. There is little value to protecting files that live in the cloud. OneDrive and iCloud are susceptible to ransomware, but with 2 terabytes of storage, I don’t have the capacity to put everything I own on the physical disk anymore. Therefore, OneDrive and iCloud remain exposed.

Avast One: The bottom line

For the most part, Avast One just runs. I feel more protected on the Mac with it running. Avast’s current bundle and upgrade deal marketing does them no favors. Unbundling looks like a way to squeeze more money out of consumers in the name of only buying what you need. Most PC and Mac owners don’t know what they need. That’s the goodness of a bundle. And yes, there are issues with features purchased and not used, and those, too, raise issues.

In the case of complex software, users don’t need to choose, even if they want one. Microsoft went through this for years as people complained about features in Word and Excel that they never used. Both became standards and have more features than ever.

Microsoft is now charging for AI-based Copilots. Microsoft’s pay-for-feature action is a valve against the unbridled use of AI when computing remains expensive. It’s also a way to recoup the enormous investment in OpenAI. When it doesn’t get traction, they will need to revisit the tyranny of choice discussion often held by previous Microsoft Office chief Steven Sinofsky. (see the Scientific American article on the tyranny of choice here. (Note that SciAm requires a subscription to read beyond a couple of articles).

Data protection companies should place their marketing emphasis on telling the threat story, with them as the hero. Regular buyers don’t understand the threats until they encounter them, and then it’s too late. If they didn’t buy the right component, then they are screwed. A bundle is a more comforting buy in an uncertain, under-educated world (and I mean under-educated in PC safety and performance here).

The Internet and computing are complex environments being used by many people who don’t understand the details–and even those who do “understand the details” don’t understand ALL the details. Don’t piece-meal a solution. Those who buy data protection should buy all of it, and as note above with cloud files, that may not even be enough. As for performance, just bundle it in.

Computer makes have shirked their responsibilities to make the devices they sell as maintainable as they should be. Windows and macOS should self-manage their junk and optimize disk space. But since they don’t, make sure the purchased data protection software also offers some form of performance management.

Avast One does all of those things and more. Buyers should start with the basic version and upgrade to a higher level bundle if necessary should

Avast provided Avast One for review. Images courtesy of Avast unless otherwise noted.

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