Avast Ultimate Review: What the Bundle Adds, and on Which Devices

Fix it now

Avast Ultimate is four apps on Windows and Mac, three on Android and two on iOS, sold Multi-Device for up to ten devices on the platforms of your choice. The bundle only makes sense if you would have bought SecureLine VPN anyway, because that is the one component present everywhere and the one with a real recurring cost behind it.

1. Buy it if you wanted Avast Premium Security and SecureLine VPN separately. Cleanup Premium and AntiTrack then arrive on top of a decision you had already made.
2. Buy the Multi-Device edition rather than the single-device ones if you are covering a household. Avast publishes it as up to 10 devices, on the platforms of your choice.
3. Do not buy it for AntiTrack on a phone. Avast does not include AntiTrack in the Android or iOS bundle at all.
4. Do not buy it for Cleanup on an iPhone either. The iOS bundle is Mobile Security Premium and SecureLine VPN, and nothing else.
5. Skip it if you already pay for a VPN. That removes the component that justifies the bundle, and Premium Security on its own is the cleaner purchase.
6. Skip it if your reason is a firewall or ransomware protection. Avast puts the Firewall and Ransomware Shield in the free antivirus.

The apps are installed and activated through the Avast One app, so this is a subscription inside Avast’s current line-up rather than a rival to it.

If that settles it you can stop here. If you want the per-platform contents and the device counts, read on.

Why it happens

Avast Ultimate is a subscription bundle rather than a program with four tabs. Avast publishes it as separate applications you install and activate through the Avast One app, and the important detail that most descriptions skip is that the set of applications is not the same on every platform. On Windows and Mac it is Avast Premium Security, Avast Cleanup Premium, Avast SecureLine VPN and Avast AntiTrack. On Android it is Avast Mobile Security Premium, Avast Cleanup Premium and Avast SecureLine VPN. On iOS it is Avast Mobile Security Premium and Avast SecureLine VPN.

Read those three lists against your own devices before anything else. AntiTrack is a Windows and Mac component within this bundle, and Avast notes that the Android version of AntiTrack is no longer available on the Google Play Store. Cleanup Premium reaches Android but not iOS. A household buying the bundle because someone wanted anti-tracking on their phone is buying something the bundle does not contain.

The security component is the one people assume they understand, and it is worth being precise about what it adds. Avast publishes the Firewall and Ransomware Shield as features of the free antivirus. What Premium Security adds on top is Email Guard, Bank Mode, Remote Access Shield, Real Site, Sandbox, Browser Shield, Webcam Shield, Sensitive Data Shield, Data Shredder and Deepfake Guard, plus Leak Protection, Port Scan Alerts and ARP Spoofing Alerts inside the firewall. Real Site addresses DNS hijacking, and Remote Access Shield controls which addresses may connect remotely, which is the route that costs small offices the most money. Those are the paid components with a clear job.

SecureLine VPN is the component that decides whether the bundle is worth buying, because it is the only one present on all four platforms and the only one you would otherwise pay a separate subscription for. If you have a VPN you chose deliberately, the arithmetic collapses: you are paying for a second tunnel you will not switch to, and the sensible purchase is Premium Security on its own.

Cleanup Premium and AntiTrack are the two components most likely to go unopened after the first month. Cleanup has genuine work to do on an older machine that is short of space and full of leftovers, and very little to do on a current one with a large solid-state disk. AntiTrack is a privacy tool rather than a protective one: Avast describes it as keeping your identity safe from online tracking techniques, working by injecting false data into your digital fingerprint and clearing tracking cookies and browser data. That is a real mechanism, and it is also ground that a careful browser choice and a content blocker cover a substantial part of for nothing.

The honest way to judge the bundle is to count how many of the components you would still be opening in six months, on the devices you actually own. For most buyers the answer is Premium Security everywhere and SecureLine VPN on the machines that leave the house. If that is your answer too, the bundle is a reasonable way to buy those two. If it is only the first, it is not.

Full reference

What each platform gets

That table is the whole review in one place. The bundle is described everywhere as four applications, and it is four applications on two of the four platforms.

The editions and their device counts

Seats are counted in devices rather than in components, so installing all four applications on one laptop consumes one of your ten. That is what makes the multi-device edition the sensible shape for a household and the single-device editions a narrow purchase for someone with exactly one machine.

Component by component, and what survives the year

Four applications means four sets of notifications

Each component installs its own service and its own updater, and each has its own default messaging. On current hardware the resource cost is unremarkable. The attention cost is not: four applications reporting on themselves and promoting what you have not bought produces a noticeable amount of noise. Budget a quarter of an hour after installation to go through each one’s notification settings and leave only genuine security alerts switched on. It is the difference between software you tolerate and software you uninstall.

Be selective about what goes where, too. Put Premium Security on everything, the VPN on the machines that leave the house, and Cleanup only where there is something to clean. Installing all four everywhere because you paid for them is how a bundle turns into a performance complaint.

Terms and renewal

Auto-renewal applies unless you turn it off, and the renewal term is priced separately from the introductory one. Get both figures in writing before you commit and set a reminder a month before the date, because the renewal is the point at which a bundle bought for two components and used for one becomes obviously poor value. We are not quoting figures here: they move, they differ by term and region, and a number in a review is not a quotation.

Before you order

• List your devices by platform, then read the per-platform table above against that list.
• Decide the VPN question first. It carries the bundle and it is the component you would otherwise buy separately.
• If AntiTrack was your reason, check that the device you had in mind is a Windows or Mac machine.
• Choose Multi-Device unless you genuinely have one computer and no phone worth covering.
• Do not pay to move up for a firewall or for ransomware protection. Both are in the free antivirus.

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