AVG Secure VPN is a reliable VPN service in Canada that’s great at safeguarding your actual IP address, offering robust encryption, and providing user-friendly apps for most devices.
However, the fact that AVG only offers a few servers doesn’t work in China, keeps user logs, and barely works with Netflix in Canada is quite offputting. Moreover, it comes at an expensive cost of CA$6.05/mo.So, the question is: Is AVG Secure VPN in Canada worth spending on?
Following a comprehensive evaluation of AVG VPN in Canada, our hands-on experience revealed the service to be average. While AVG VPN is user-friendly, leakproof, and operates at a satisfactory speed, we recommend considering one of the best VPNs for Canada, such as ExpressVPN.
Now, shift your attention to peruse our in-depth review of AVG Secure VPN in Australia.
Ranked #24 out of 56 VPNs
We have spent thousands of hours and days testing 160+ VPN services using our carefully curated testing process to recommend you the best VPN. Here are a few statistics:
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Total Hours of Testing1000+
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Weekly Speed Tests110
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VPN Services Reviewed160+
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Streaming Platforms Tested Daily50+
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IP & DNS Leak Tests Performed100+
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How Much we have spent on testing$30,000+
Total Hours of Testing1000+
AVG VPN Review in Canada – Here Are Our Key Findings
At the time of writing this AVG VPN review in Canada, we tested the service on the rating criteria described below:
- Pricing in Canada – Per our tests, AVG VPN’s prices are on the higher end, costing CA$6.18/mo on its annual plan.
- Servers – Our findings concluded that AVG VPN offers only 700+ servers in 36 countries, which is less than most VPNs.
- Security – We discovered that it lacks multiple features offered by most VPNs, like split tunneling.
- Speed – AVG Secure VPN offered good speeds on its local servers. But, we faced a significant decrease on its faraway servers.
- Streaming in Canada – Per our tests, AVG VPN isn’t a good choice for streaming in Canada, as it doesn’t unblock platforms like Disney+, US Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime.
- Torrenting in Canada – Our AVG Secure VPN torrenting tests came out positive. This means that AVG is reliable for downloading P2P files in Canada.
- Compatibility – It only offers compatible apps for Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS. There’s no support available for Linux or routers.
- Installation and Ease of Use – Per our tests, the VPN is easy to install on multiple operating systems.
- Bypassing Censorship – AVG Secure VPN couldn’t bypass the censorship of China. However, we could use it in Russia and Turkey.
- Customer Support – This VPN offers a ticketing system, knowledgebase, and community forums for customer support.
Pros & Cons – AVG VPN Review in Canada
- User-friendly app
- OpenVPN protocol
- Speeds are good
- 60-day free trial
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Offers P2P support
- AES 256-bit encryption
- Doesn’t lack too many features
- No Linux support
- No live chat option
- Doesn’t offer a kill switch on iPhone
- Pings are high
Pricing & Plans – How Much Does AVG Secure VPN Cost in Canada?
AVG VPN price is quite expensive to other VPN providers in Canada. There are three pricing options available to you, but there isn’t a way to pay for just one month. The same product features are included in all subscription lengths
However, the good news is that AVG VPN in Canada comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee on all of its subscriptions, giving you ample opportunity to test it out and request a refund if you’re not happy. The only reasonable thing is that there is an AVG VPN in Canada free download that can be used on a single device.
| Plans | Pricing |
|---|---|
| Free Trial in Canada (60 days) | CA$0.00 |
| 1 Year | CA$6.18/month (CA$74.20 for the first year, CA$137.69 afterward) |
| 2 Year | CA$6.05/month (CA$145.09 for the first two years, CA$268.51 afterward) |
| 3 Year | CA$6.05/month (CA$217.63 for the first three years, CA$406.22 afterward) |
You can see that all AVG plans are pretty expensive.
Free Trial Policy
If you don’t want to commit to this service in the long run, you can also avail of the free AVG VPN trial which has a validity of 60 days. We guess that’s the only appealing thing about its pricing plans!
Moreover, it also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can get your money back within 30 days without any kind of deduction if you cancel your AVG Secure subscription in Canada within 30 days.
Payment Methods
You can make payments for AVG plans in Canada using 4 payment methods including American Express, Paypal, Master Card, and Visa
While this is enough for most users, some people actually prefer making anonymous payments through Cryptocurrencies. Disappointingly enough, AVG accepts none of that.
Servers and Locations – AVG VPN Review in Canada
AVG Secure VPN’s server network is seriously small. especially when considering the Canadian region. This provider keeps its server count confidential. However, as per their live chat representative, AVG VPN offers 700+ servers in 36 countries and 50 locations. In comparison, ExpressVPN offers over 3000 servers in 160 locations across 94+ countries, including 4 servers in Canada. For a more extensive and reliable network, consider ExpressVPN for seamless and secure online experiences.
These countries include:
| Regions | No. of Countries |
|---|---|
| Middle East & Africa | 3 |
| Asia Pacific | 7 |
| Europe | 22 |
| Americas | 4 |
AVG VPN in Canada also offers specialized servers for multiple activities, like streaming and torrenting. However, the streaming-optimized servers fail to unblock most streaming platforms. If you’re facing any connectivity issues with this VPN in Canada, check out our guide on troubleshooting AVG VPN.
Security and Features in Canada
If you compare AVG Secure VPN to premium VPNs like ExpressVPN in Canada, then you’ll find many features lacking in the provider. There are only a few auto-connect options, a kill switch, and optimized servers available with the VPN in Canada. Let’s get to know them:
AVG Secure VPN in Canada is headquartered in the Czech Republic. Since it’s a privacy-friendly location and has no data retention laws, it makes AVG VPN safe to use in Canada. Moreover, it uses AES 256-bit encryption to keep users’ online activities encrypted at all times.
Apart from that, AVG service includes a reliable kill switch for users – a feature that disconnects you from the internet if your VPN connection is unstable. If you think this VPN is not necessary, then you can turn it off from the app settings. To test it out, we abruptly disconnected from AVG VPN and noticed no popup prompt for the kill switch, which was pretty sad.
This will prevent your ISP from snooping into your activities.
Additionally, there are a few notable auto-connect options available in its Settings. You can use them to either launch the VPN automatically on any connection or only when you connect to public or private networks.
Along with these pros, there’s a drawback to the VPN as well: AVG VPN is incompatible with Tor. We’re not making this up, you will have to opt for other VPNs if you want to browse Tor securely.
Does AVG Secure VPN in Canada keep logs?
No, AVG Secure VPN in Canada does not keep logs. AVG VPN offers a strict no-logs policy, meaning that your browsing would be absolutely secure and ad-free. When we evaluated this VPN’s logging policy, we found out that it doesn’t collect the following data:
- DNS queries
- Your browsing history
- Your original IP address
- Transferred data (emails, images, etc.)
But that does not mean that the VPN collects absolutely nothing. Here is a list of all the information that AVG Secure VPN in Canada does collect:
- Connection timestamps
- Crash reports generated by the user
- Amount of transmitted data
- Connection events (disconnection/connection attempts)
- Application events (auto-connection, uninstallation)
Moreover, you should know that the collected data would be kept on the provider’s servers for a long time. Depending on the type of information, it can be stored for 35 days – 2 years.
What VPN protocols does AVG Secure VPN in Canada support?
AVG Secure VPN in Canada offers the OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols on its Android and Windows apps to form a VPN connection. As for iOS and macOS, it uses the IPSec and IKEv2 protocols.
AVG VPN in Canada also offers a proprietary Mimic tunneling protocol. The surprising thing was that we found the same protocol in Avast VPN when we conducted the Avast SecureLine VPN review in Canada. However, it made sense since both providers are owned by the same organization.
Please note that if you want to be 100% secure, then you should stick to using OpenVPN. That’s because this protocol is secure, fast, and comes with two versions (TCP & UDP). However, the VPN doesn’t mention which one it actually implements.
Leaks – IP, DNS, & WebRTC Tests
No, AVG VPN does not leak IP, DNS, and WebRTC. We ran it through different tests using a variety of online tools and it passed all of them without any issues.
IP leak test
To test for IP leaks, we used ipleak.org while connected to the US server of AVG VPN in Canada. As you can see from the screenshot below, our default IP address in Chicago was instantly altered. So far so good.
This means that you can use it safely.
DNS leak test
As for DNS leaks, AVG passed this too without any issues. Here’s a screenshot only showing the DNS address used by AVG VPN in Canada.
This ensured that you can perform all your favorite activities without issues.
WebRTC leak test
Lastly, AVG also passed our WebRTC leak test and did not reveal our WebRTC information at all.
This VPN will not leak anything you do on the browser.
Virus tests
The VPN also passed our Virus test. When we ran its app, the test showed that there was no malware present in the app.
This means that its app is absolutely safe to download.
Speed and Performance – How Fast is AVG Secure VPN in Canada?
AVG Secure is a remarkably fast VPN in Canada. We were surprised when we tested AVG Secure because the results that it produced were better than what we got the last time. The speeds were good on nearby servers. However, they did decrease when we connected to servers that were far away from our location.
To test AVG Secure for speeds, we used a 100 Mbps connection and measured speeds on several servers, the results of which you can see below:
Speed test on nearby servers
We first connected to its USA – Boston server that’s near our Chicago location. Once connected, we got a download speed of 63.11 Mbps and an upload speed of 47.82 Mbps.
We faced a speed drop of 37% on the US server.
After that, we connected to its Canada – Toronto server and received a download speed of 58.92 Mbps and an upload speed of 33.63 Mbps.
Our speeds dropped by 42% using its CA server.
Speed test on long-distance servers
When testing AVG faraway server, our speeds were found to be pretty average. On its Australia – Perth server, we received a download speed of 43.72 Mbps and an upload speed of 29.13 Mbps.
Our speeds dropped by 57% on its Aussie server.
Streaming – Does AVG Secure VPN Unblock Streaming Platforms in Canada?
Sadly, AVG Secure VPN Canada isn’t a good choice for streaming. When tested, it didn’t unblock the US and UK Netflix libraries – we could only access our own international library. As for Hulu, we weren’t successful in unblocking that either. The only streaming platforms we could access were YouTube and BBC iPlayer in Canada.
Even though AVG VPN Canada offers optimized streaming servers, they failed to unblock most streaming platforms in Canada. We tried 7 US servers of the VPN, yet we couldn’t unblock Netflix with AVG VPN.
We then tested the VPN with Disney+ but failed to even sign in. All we received was a blank screen. The same thing happened when we tried accessing Hulu and HBO Max in Canada. That’s because all these platforms implement robust VPN detection technologies that instantly mask their content if they identify VPN usage.
The same happened when we tried unblocking Hulu and Disney+.
However, we were able to access BBC iPlayer when we connected to its UK – London server. We could stream multiple exclusive shows on the channel without being identified.
We were able to enjoy His Dark Materials without delays using AVG VPN.
Torrenting – Does AVG Secure VPN Allow Torrenting in Canada?
Yes, AVG does support torrenting and offers fast enough speed for quick downloads. But we still don’t recommend it for torrenting in Canada owing to its invasive logging policy. Although it (allegedly) doesn’t log the information you transfer, it does keep track of your connection, the time duration, and how much bandwidth you used.
According to AVG Secure’s official website, the VPN works fine with torrent clients. You just need to change your location and check if a specific torrent site is working fine.
AVG Secure VPN offers a few servers that are dedicated to torrenting in Canada. These specialized servers are present in the UK, France, Netherlands, Czech Republic, and 3 US locations. We used these servers to test out the VPN’s torrenting capabilities for our AVG VPN review in Canada.
We used its US server and started downloading a 1.5 GB file. We were able to fully download it within 12 minutes, and our speeds dropped down by 59%. However, when it came to a non-P2P server, we found the speeds to be better even while downloading P2P files.
Compatibility – Which Devices Can I Use AVG Secure VPN Within Canada?
During this AVG VPN review in Canada, we found that AVG VPN can only be used on limited devices. More specifically, AVG only works with:
- Windows
- macOS
- Android
- iOS
That’s about it. AVG Secure VPN doesn’t offer any compatibility for alternative devices/Oses like FireStick, Linux, and routers. However, you can use AVG VPN with Kodi in Canada and also share an AVG VPN connection on Roku in Canada if you set up a virtual VPN hotspot connection on your Windows or macOS computer. You can also Install AVG secure browser to avoid tracking and enjoy faster browsing speed.
Coming back to AVG Secure VPN’s apps in Canada, it informs that the VPN doesn’t offer too many functions. When you first download the VPN in Canada, you can either sign in or provide your credit card details and use it free for 60 days. Once you’re done, you will find a connection toggle and the ability to change servers on the main window.
Get AVG VPN for Mac in Canada, If you own a Macbook and want to access the settings, you’re required to tap on the menu bar applet > Preferences. However, the Preferences button is available on the Windows app itself.
In both Windows and macOS apps in Canada, there are three Preferences pages:
- General
- Network Security
- VPN Protocols
Within the General page, you can either enable/disable app notifications and select the display of your AVG Secure VPN app in Canada. On Mac, you get to disable third-party apps.
You can customize the settings as per your preference.
Then, there’s the Network Security page that lets you choose whether you want to launch this VPN when you start your device and offers the kill switch feature. On the VPN Protocols page, you can select the protocol you want to use.
You can choose your preferred protocol for the app.
Moreover, this VPN’s mobile applications look exactly the same as desktop apps. Both have extremely simple-looking interfaces. However, the AVG VPN in Canada iPhone app has fewer features than the Android.
Installation of Apps and Ease of Use
It’s pretty easy to set up and download AVG Secure VPN in Canada on multiple platforms. For connecting to the VPN server, you just need to turn the main toggle from Off to On. Moreover, it divides the servers and clearly labels the ones that are optimized for streaming and torrenting within the list.
Even though its apps don’t offer too many options for customization, they are pretty user-friendly. However, if you’re looking for a VPN that offers advanced features to users, you should opt for ExpressVPN in Canada.
Bypassing Censorship – Does AVG VPN Works in China?
No, AVG VPN currently doesn’t work in China. That’s not all that surprising considering the fact that AVG only offers limited servers. Not only that, unlike other VPNs that work in China, AVG doesn’t support obfuscated servers to bypass the Great Firewall.
However, AVG VPN does work in other countries with high censorship, including Turkey and Russia. Even though China blocks various VPNs, the best China VPNs for Canadian users are still able to bypass the Great Firewall.
Customer Support
With AVG Secure VPN in Canada, you don’t get tons of customer service options. If you’re facing any issues, you can search for answers in AVG VPN’s knowledgebase and community forums.
If you’re unable to find the issue and its appropriate solution, then you can ask for help from its customer support representative. AVG Secure VPN comes with a ticketing option that you can find on the VPN’s Support & Help page.
Alternatives to AVG VPN in Canada
Here are some alternatives to AVG Secure VPN in Canada if you’re interested:
- ExpressVPN in Canada: First up, we have ExpressVPN – the best alternative to AVG Secure VPN that offers 3000+ servers, excellent unblocking capabilities, and blazing-fast speeds. Moreover, it’s absolutely secure and offers multiple advanced features like MediaStreamer, split tunneling, and DNS leak protection.
- Surfshark in Canada: Even though it’s budget-friendly, it’s simply great! Surfshark offers servers in 100 countries, all of which are optimized for streaming, torrenting, and gaming. Learn more about it in our Surfshark review Canada.
- NordVPN in Canada: This VPN is not only secure but offers a large network of servers. It comes with unlimited bandwidth and offers features like DoubleVPN, obfuscation technology, and more. Learn more about it in our NordVPN reviews Canada.
FAQs – AVG VPN Review in Canada
Does AVG stop hackers in Canada?
Yes, it does. AVG’s Sensitive Data Shield, along with AVG AntiVirus Free in Canada, safeguards files on your home PC to prevent hackers from stealing your data directly from the source. Still, you need to stay cautious while opening new accounts and services.
Does AVG VPN really work in Canada?
Sadly No, AVG VPN in Canada won’t be working for you if you want it for streaming. We had a hard time unblocking US Netflix in Canada and other streaming services using AVG servers.
How to stop AVG in Canada from blocking a website?
To stop AVG in Canada from blocking websites you have to disable AVG AntiVirus/AVG Internet Security’s “Web Shield” and check the situation.
Is VPN free with AVG in Canada?
No AVG VPN in Canada is not free with AVG Antivirus. You have to pay for its VPN subscription. However, If you’re interested in its VPN service in Canada alone, you can download a 60-day free trial without entering any credit card information.
Is AVG Secure VPN Canada worth it?
Well, we can’t say. AVG Secure VPN Canada does offer robust encryption and user-friendly apps. But, it’s not good for streaming, logs user data, and doesn’t work in China. In short, we don’t recommend it and advise you to opt for ExpressVPN in Canada instead.
Is AVG Secure VPN free in Canada?
AVG Secure VPN is a paid VPN service in Canada that requires you to subscribe to it. However, you can download its app and use its free trial for 60 days once you’ve provided your credit card details.
Does AVG VPN cover all devices in Canada?
AVG VPN in Canada can be set up on 10 devices simultaneously. Therefore, you can use it on 10 devices that can including Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Kodi, and Roku.
Is AVG Secure VPN safe in Canada?
This is debatable. AVG Secure VPN in Canada offers a kill switch and leak protection features that keep you safe. However, it does collect user data for up to 2 years which can be a dealbreaker.
Is AVG VPN good for torrenting in Canada?
AVG VPN is good if you’d like to use it for torrenting in Canada. However, if you’re concerned about your privacy, then it’s not the best choice. AVG VPN logs a lot of details that can be dangerous if you’re a torrent freak.
Final Verdict: Do We Recommend AVG Secure VPN in Canada?
No, we don’t recommend AVG Secure VPN in Canada at all. Even though AVG VPN Canada is easy to use, offers reliable leak protection, and works with BBC iPlayer to some extent, it is still not worth using at all. We read the AVG VPN reviews in Canada on Reddit as well before coming to this conclusion.
Issues like a small server network, slow speeds, a sketchy logging policy, and a lack of support for China are enough for us to not recommend this VPN service in Canada. If you want more reasons to not use AVG VPN in Canada, just consider that it’s quite expensive compared to other VPNs that offer far better features.
All in all, you can get much better VPN services in Canada for much cheaper with better customer support, security features, apps, server, and performance. So, after concluding this AVG VPN review in Canada, we have rated this service 5/10 stars. You can go through our unbiased VPN reviews for ironclad security and incessant protection of your online privacy.
