Avira Phantom VPN protects your private information from prying eyes, thanks to the fact that it supports strong encryption. The service can also help you to avoid being tracked and it changes your IP address, allowing you to conceal your identity. With Avira Phantom VPN, you can get around geographical restrictions and enjoy access to international content. While all these are appealing features, in order to decide if Avira Phantom VPN is really worth considering, we will take a look at the main aspects of this service.
Privacy and security
Avira Phantom VPN uses 256-bit AES encryption, which is a high standard of protection for your data. It combines this with OpenVPN, a protocol known for its reliability and security. This level of security can keep your information safe and it is very unlikely to be cracked, in fact 256-bit is considered banking and military grade encryption, used to protect highly sensitive information. Avira uses OpenVPN protocol for Mac, Windows and Android and for iOS devices, it supports Ikev2. Another advantage in terms of security, is that Avira Phantom VPN offers DNS leak protection. This ensures that your real location is not exposed.
Avira Phantom VPN has a transparent logging policy and while they do keep some records, at least they are upfront about it. They keep logs of diagnostic information in case of any potential bugs and technical issues, but you can opt out from this by adjusting your settings within the VPN client. The provider will also check if you are a premium or a free users and will monitor the amount of data that you are consuming, to link it back into their own network costs. Apart from that, Avira Phantom VPN promises not to keep logs of the websites that you visit or of your IP address. In summary, the provider won’t keep logs of your activities. While this is good news, many people will be disappointed to find out that Avira Phantom is based in Germany, which is part of the Fourteen Eyes spying alliance.
Features
Avira offers easy to use software and once you download it, you can access the dashboard. In order to keep your privacy protected, you can disable the option to send diagnostic data to Avira. The VPN client allows you to switch between servers without hassle and it is not even necessary to disconnect from the server you are currently connected to. All you have to do is to select the server you want to connect to and the client will connect you to a new one, automatically. Avira supports the main platforms including Mac, Windows, Android and iOS, and there is also a Chrome extension available. However, it is not possible to set the VPN on routers, gaming consoles or Linux. Although this is a downside, it is worth highlighting the fact that Avira allows up to five simultaneous connections on its free plans. Premium costumers can connect to as many devices as they want with a single account.
Avira Phantom VPN may lack advanced features, but it offers good performance and it is easy to use. You won’t experience leaks and the paid plan includes a kill switch that shuts down all internet traffic to prevent that your IP address and activities become exposed, in case the VPN connection fails at some stage. However, there are less than 40 servers available, which affects the speeds that you get with the service. The goos news is that the list of locations supported covers many countries that offer access to popular content such as the United States and United Kingdom. Other countries in Avira’s network include Netherlands, Japan, France, Mexico, Sweden, Czech Republic, Poland, Brazil and Australia. Back to the speeds, we have to say that in this category, Avira is quite disappointing. The performance of some servers is painfully slow and even the “fastest ones” are not good enough to help you to stream or download content without hassle. Speaking of which, it is not clear if torrenting is allowed, but considering the slow speeds, it wouldn’t even be practical to use it for this purpose.
Plans
There is a free plan that allows you to enjoy all the features supported and that lets you use the service in up to 5 devices at the same time. However, it comes with a limit of 500mb per month. You can upgrade to a paid plan if you want to get unlimited bandwidth. The monthly plan costs $10 per month, the annual plan is priced at $78, meaning that the price per month is reduced to $6.50. If you only want to use the VPN on your mobile devices, you can go for the Android and iOS plan that costs only $4.99 per month. The annual plan offers the best value for money and it comes with a 30 day money back guarantee, in case you find out that the service is not really for you. One thing to note is that Avira doesn’t accept cryptocurrency as method of payment and the payment details are associated to your email and other personal data in their system.
Customer Support
Unfortunately, if you are a free customer, you won’t get any support from Avira. The only option for free users who need some assistance is to check the knowledge base on the website. There are also forums available, but the community is not very active. If you have a paid plan, you can reach out to the customer support via email and phone. The problem is that they don’t provide prompt responses and the worst part is that the information provided is not detailed or even helpful in some cases. Overall, it seems like the support team is not very knowledgeable, which is concerning to say the least.
Conclusion
Avira Phantom VPN offers a convenient free service that allows you to check the service before you get a paid subscription. While the VPN is easy to use, it doesn’t offer many features and the limited selection of servers, as well as the slow speeds will prevent you from enjoying a good experience while streaming content. The provider is not recommended for torrenting and the customer support is not very professional. Overall, this is not a VPN that we can recommended.