Aura Antivirus Review (2026): Is it the right choice?

Full Review

Aura provides strong antivirus protection and excellent identity theft safeguards, especially for U.S. users. During our testing, Aura’s malware detection was effective, although the scanner lacks customization compared to leading competitors.

The identity theft protection features are a standout, offering comprehensive monitoring of bank accounts, credit reports, and social security data, with alerts for any suspicious activity.

However, Aura falls short in areas like its VPN, parental controls, and password manager. It also lacks essential tools such as a firewall, Wi-Fi monitoring, and system tune-ups—features included in more affordable alternatives like Norton and Bitdefender. Additionally, parental controls are only available in family plans.

Anti-Malware

Aura’s malware protection performs at a near-top-tier level, detecting about 97% of malware samples in independent testing. It relies on a vast database of known threats and advanced machine learning algorithms to recognize both common and emerging forms of malware. Real-time protection is highly effective on Windows systems, successfully preventing infections from viruses, spyware, trojans, and ransomware. However, its macOS performance is less impressive, as its real-time protection struggles to detect new threats consistently.

Users can initiate three scan types: Quick, Full, and Custom. The Quick Scan targets system and temporary files where malware often resides, the Full Scan reviews all files and folders on the device, and the Custom Scan allows users to select specific locations for analysis. While these scanning options offer flexibility, Aura lacks advanced management tools like scheduled scans and detailed scan logs — features that competitors like Norton and Bitdefender include as standard.

The inability to automate scans can be inconvenient, especially since full system scans may slow device performance. Additionally, the absence of scan logs limits visibility into long-term security trends or recurring threats. Despite these drawbacks, Aura’s malware detection and removal capabilities remain reliable and comparable to leading antivirus solutions, making it a strong though not flawless choice for malware defense.

Anti-Phishing

Aura includes multiple layers of phishing protection through both its Safe Browsing extension and integrated VPN features. The Safe Browsing extension works on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers to automatically block access to known phishing websites, malware-hosting domains, and fraudulent pages. This feature offers proactive web filtering at the browser level, ensuring users are protected even when the VPN is turned off.

The VPN also provides phishing defense by blocking suspicious websites attempting to steal user credentials or distribute malicious content. Testing revealed that while Aura’s phishing filter successfully blocked several verified phishing URLs, it allowed a few to pass through, suggesting its detection database may not be as extensive as that of top-tier competitors. Still, the integrated ad and tracker blocker performed well, eliminating around 80% of intrusive ads, including embedded video ads on major platforms.

Together, Aura’s phishing safeguards create a reasonably secure browsing environment for most users. The dual browser- and network-level protection ensures that even if one layer fails, another remains active. While Aura’s performance could benefit from more robust threat intelligence updates, it provides competent protection against the majority of phishing attempts users encounter online.

Password Manager

Aura’s password manager integrates directly with its identity protection tools, creating a unified experience for securing credentials, financial information, and other sensitive data. It supports auto-fill for login credentials, addresses, and credit card details across major browsers and mobile platforms. While auto-fill performance is strong, the auto-save function occasionally misses address information, requiring manual entry.

Migration from other password managers is simple via CSV import, and users can generate email aliases for online registrations, preserving privacy by forwarding messages to the main inbox. Aura also monitors stored passwords for breaches and alerts users in real time if their data appears on dark web forums or data broker sites. The password auditing tool highlights weak or reused passwords, encouraging users to maintain better security hygiene.

Despite these positives, Aura’s password manager lacks several advanced options. It supports only email-based two-factor authentication, lacks biometric login support, and restricts password sharing to family plan members. It also doesn’t allow multiple vaults or separate master passwords. These omissions make it less powerful than dedicated managers like 1Password or Dashlane, though it remains functional and secure for basic users who value integration with Aura’s ecosystem.

VPN

Aura’s VPN provides fast and reliable encryption with access to servers in more than 110 locations worldwide. It includes essential features like a kill switch and split tunneling, ensuring privacy during browsing, streaming, or torrenting. Speed tests showed minimal performance degradation — connection speed dropped by only about 5%, allowing seamless 4K streaming and quick loading of content-heavy websites.

Security-wise, Aura’s VPN encrypts all internet activity, concealing the user’s IP address and preventing data interception on public networks. It can automatically activate on unsecured Wi-Fi connections, enhancing protection while traveling. However, Aura omits advanced options found in premium VPNs, such as multi-protocol support, leak protection, and specialized servers for streaming or obfuscation.

While Aura’s VPN successfully accesses Netflix and Paramount+, it struggles with other major streaming platforms like Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Disney+. Its phishing and ad-blocking features only function when the VPN is active, limiting convenience. Overall, Aura’s VPN delivers excellent speed and essential functionality but falls short of the flexibility and depth provided by leading standalone VPN solutions.

Other Security Features

Aura’s identity theft protection is one of its strongest offerings, covering a wide range of monitoring and remediation tools. It tracks credit reports from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, offering near real-time alerts and monthly reports. Users can lock or unlock their credit profiles directly to prevent unauthorized inquiries. The service also monitors bank and investment accounts, 401(k)s, auto titles, and home deeds for signs of fraud or misuse.

Data privacy protection is comprehensive — Aura automatically submits data removal requests to over 130 data brokers and people-search platforms, tracking completion within the online dashboard. Dark web surveillance continuously scans for exposed personal details such as Social Security numbers, gamertags, or financial credentials, and issues alerts when breaches are detected. Each alert includes clear recovery instructions or direct access to Aura’s live fraud resolution team.

The service includes up to $1 million in identity theft insurance within the U.S., covering legal fees, lost wages, childcare, and other recovery expenses. This safety net adds significant value, especially for families or professionals managing sensitive information. Dedicated fraud resolution agents assist victims in restoring compromised accounts and reclaiming assets.

For families, Aura’s parental controls allow web and app filtering, screen time management, and cyberbullying protection across up to 50 devices. The Safe Gaming feature detects toxic behavior and sends reports on gaming activity. However, missing elements such as location tracking, YouTube monitoring, and uninstall protection limit its competitiveness compared to more advanced tools like Qustodio or Norton Family.

Altogether, Aura’s ecosystem of protection tools—spanning anti-malware, identity monitoring, VPN, and parental controls—provides broad, user-friendly coverage. While some features lack depth or automation, the platform remains an effective all-in-one solution for digital and financial security management.

Test score comparison

We conduct in-house anti-malware tests and review the results from AV-Test, a German lab renowned for its objective evaluations. Below is the average of the last 10 AV-Test results for Windows. Their scoring criteria are:

• Protection (1-6): Effectiveness in blocking malware.
• Performance (1-6): Impact on system speed.
• Usability (1-6): Frequency of errors like false alarms.

We calculate a final score using this formula:

Final Score = 60% Protection + 20% Performance + 20% Usability.

While these results influence our choice of the best antivirus for Windows 11, other factors like privacy and identity protection also play a key role. For a similar analysis for Android or macOS, visit our other comparisons:

• The best antivirus for Android.
• The best antivirus for Mac.

Note: Brands not listed in the table either do not participate in AV-Test trials or are tested too infrequently, such as Surfshark Antivirus.

Source: AV-Test (Last updated: November 2025).

Price comparison

We’ve compared the prices of the top antivirus products for Windows. To make it a fair comparison, we looked at what it would cost us, to protect a  single Windows PC with the most essential features:

• Anti-malware
• Anti-phishing (web protection)
• Firewall
• Password manager
• Unlimited VPN (no data limit)

A few notes:

• Some brands are missing features, lowering their value for money.
• Prices are second-year prices in the USA, without first-year discounts.
• Prices are rounded up for readability (e.g., $99.99 becomes $100).

Brands have different prices outside the USA. See those on their website.

User reviews

We’ve compared the user reviews of all antivirus brands. We’ve used the scores and review count of TrustPilot, a leading user review platform. 

We consider scores above 4.0 very good. Lower scores indicate that the brand might have a poor product or customer service. McAfee’s scores, for instance, are worrying.

Source: TrustPilot. Last Update: November 2025.