Avira Phantom VPN Review [2020] – Not In Our A-List

When browsing VPN products, you may find it challenging to choose the best option for you. Today, we’re here to provide you with an Avira Phantom VPN review. Avira Phantom is one of the many VPNs available on the market today. We hope that after reading our Avira Phantom VPN review, you can determine whether it’s the best VPN for you.

What is Avira Phantom VPN?

Avira Phantom VPN is a product that could help keep you safe on the internet. The company says that the product is “Unhackable, Untraceable, and Uncensored.” The product will mask your IP address so that you can keep your private data safe and secure. Avira Phantom VPN works on a wide array of devices, including:

You can connect Avira Phantom VPN to as many devices as you’d like. You can also turn the VPN on or off quickly. Avira Phantom VPN relies on its 38 servers located around the globe. Avira Phantom VPN supports both IPv4 and IPv6 protocol.

The company offers both free and paid-for downloads. No matter which option you choose, the company says that it does not log your web traffic. This is a stark difference from other free VPNs, that will record your data and sell it to third-parties.

Pros

When compiling our Avira Phantom VPN review, there were a few things that stood out. We’ve detailed a few of these “Pros” below.

High Security

Avira emphasizes security, which is first evident upon realizing that it uses AES 256-bit encryption. This is the same encryption standard that the United States government uses to protect sensitive information. Even the most advanced hacking software is unable to crack 256-bit encryption. So, you can trust that when you send or receive data over this VPN, it’s as safe as possible.

Furthermore, during testing, we did not detect any leaks. A leak occurs where there is an issue with tunneling and hackers obtain your original IP address. By doing so, they render the VPN useless, since one of the primary benefits of using a VPN is the fact that you can spoof your location and go undetected.

Compatible with Netflix

One of the primary benefits of using a VPN is the fact that you can access geo-specific Netflix shows. For instance, imagine you’re traveling abroad but would like to watch an American show. Your IP address would show that you’re in a foreign country and Netflix would show you the shows specific to that location.

Connecting to a US server on a VPN would then allow you to access the American shows.

Unfortunately, Netflix caught onto the fact that people were doing this and installed a VPN blocker on its site. However, some VPNs still manage to get around the blocker and work. During testing, we found that Netflix worked on every single one of Avira’s servers.

Ease of Use

One of the last things that stood out to us about Phantom VPN was how easy it was to use. You can download the program instantly. Upon doing so, you’ll find yourself heading to the Avira Dashboard, which is easy to manage.

When in this app, you can switch server locations with the mere click of a button. The Dashboard also shows how much of your monthly data allotment you’ve used.

Cons

Although Avira brings some fantastic features to the table, there are also some areas where it is lacking. Below, you’ll find some of the biggest “Cons” that we identified when testing the service.

Slow Download Speeds

Whenever you’re using a VPN, you can expect your download and upload speeds to be a bit slower than average. However, during testing, we found that they slowed drastically when we connected to Phantom VPN. Before connecting to a VPN, our download speed was around 98 Mbps, and our upload speed was roughly 53 Mbps.

When we tested the EU Netherlands Server, download speeds slowed to about 7 Mbps and upload speeds reduced to roughly 9 Mbps. Results were even worse on the US Server. Download speeds were approximately 4.5 Mbps. Upload speeds were around 2 Mbps. The slower speeds are incredibly frustrating, especially if you paid for the Pro version of the product.

No Customer Support

If you elect to use the free version of Phantom VPN, you cannot access customer support. Customer support is only available to paying customers. If you have a problem, you must try to find the answer yourself in the company’s Knowledge Base.

Perhaps even worse is the fact that if you paid for a plan, customer support is still inferior. During testing, we found it challenging to obtain answers to our questions from customer support. If you’ve invested in a VPN, you should expect to receive top-of-the-line customer support to help you when you need it most.

Lack of Alternative Device Capability

As mentioned, Phantom VPN works with devices such as mobile phones and desktop computers. However, Avira’s device support ends there. You cannot use this product with routers, smart TVs, or game consoles (We dont recommend it for gaming though). Typically, this is something that comes standard with paid VPN services. You also cannot use this VPN service with Linux or alternative operating systems.

Additionally, some customers indicated that they had problems using the VPN service on their Mac. They said that it worked well with Windows but that the product froze immediately upon switching to Mac.

Pricing Info

Although Avira offers its VPN service for free, there are also paid upgrades available. Below, you’ll find a thorough breakdown comparing the various Phantom VPN plans.

Phantom VPN – Free

This product is free, and you can download it instantly. When using this service, Avira places a data cap at 500MB per month. Thus, the free service is likely not useful for large file downloads or streaming videos. The free version of Phantom VPN will encrypt your web traffic and provide you with a private browsing experience. It also comes with DNS leak prevention while providing you access to geo-restricted sites.

Phantom VPN Pro

If you’d like to upgrade your services, you can opt to do so with Phantom VPN Pro. In addition to all of the features that you receive with Phantom VPN Free, you also receive a fail-safe guarantee and dedicated tech support. Avira offers Phantom Pro at three different price points, dependent on how much data you wish to use and the length of time you want to use the product:

Final Verdict

When conducting our Avira Phantom VPN review, there were a few things that stood out. We liked that the company offered a free trial of the service so that you could give the product a test-run before making your buying decision. We also liked that the company was up-front about its logging policies.

However, we also found the product to be incredibly slow and that customer support was considerably lacking. We also were turned off by the fact that Avira Phantom VPN did not come with features such as router compatibility or torrenting capabilities, if you want a good vpn that allows torrenting check out our best VPN’s for torrenting guide.

If you’re going to pay for a VPN, we feel that there are better options available. Avira Phantom VPN is a “middle of the road” option. And nowadays with all the great VPN choices that we have, middle of the road really just does not make the cut.

Have a look at our 2020 updated best vpn list for some really great choices. All the VPN’s on that list have more servers, faster feeds, better prices and generally just are better than anything Avira has to offer.

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