Aura Antivirus review

Aura Antivirus isn’t among the top names in the antivirus space, but it delivers decent real-time protection and core security features for everyday use. It’s a practical choice if you want something lightweight and easy to manage without diving into complex configurations.

That said, our in-house tests revealed an experience that can feel fragmented. Not all features are available in every app or on every device. For example, antivirus scanning isn’t supported on iOS due to system restrictions. So while Aura covers a lot of ground, it’s not a unified antivirus app across all platforms.

To help you decide if it’s the right fit, I reviewed Aura’s antivirus protection and its performance. I also evaluated how it stacks up in terms of features, pricing, and day-to-day usability.

⭐ Rating:	4.2 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
🥇 Overall rank:	#13 out of #30
💵 Price:	From $35.99/year
✂️ Free version:	No
🖥️ Platforms:	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS
🔥 Coupons:	Aura Antivirus coupon 53% OFF!

Visit Aura Antivirus

Aura antivirus pros & cons

Getting started with Aura: choosing the right plan

Aura has a simple subscription strategy. You can choose one of three plans: Antivirus, Antivirus Plus, or Ultimate. And the starting price of $35.99/year could be fairly good considering the set of tools you get. However, with other reputable antivirus software, like TotalAV, you can have more advanced security for only $19.00/year.

Nevertheless, let’s take a better look at how each Aura’s plan compares:

	Antivirus	Antivirus Plus	Ultimate
Price per year	$35.99	$47.99	$59.99
Devices per account	3	5	10
Identity Protection	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Identity Theft Insurance ($1M per account)	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
Financial Fraud Protection	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
VPN	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Password Manager	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Antivirus	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Parental Controls	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes

Try Aura Antivirus

It is clear that to get the best device security you’d need to invest in the pricest, Ultimate, plan. Comparatively, this does not give Aura any advantage among its competitors.

The main difference with the plans is their price. While the basic Antivirus plan is $35.99/month, the Ultimate plan is almost double that. However, it also offers twice as many features, so you get what you pay for.

Another difference is the number of simultaneous devices – you can get a minimum of 3 with Antivirus plan and a maximum of 10 with the Ultimate plan. On the plus side, every plan includes a VPN, and two out of three plans include a password manager, too.

The Ultimate plan is the only one that offers identity theft, financial fraud, and child identity protection. For those who work from home or simply store a lot of sensitive information on their devices, it’s probably best to invest in a pricier plan to get those features.

Finally, every Aura subscription plan comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee (available through their website or customer support), which you can use as a free trial to test the service before fully committing to it. Unfortunately, there’s no fully free version to use.

Aura security features

It’s becoming a standard for a cybersecurity provider to offer multipurpose protection, and Aura already delivers. Not only does it cover the antivirus market but also financial, network, and personal data security spheres. However, the features you get depend on what subscription plan you choose and the devices you’re using.

Here are some of the main features Aura antivirus can offer you:

• Malware scanner – choose Quick, Full, or Custom scans to detect and remove malware from your computer.
• Real-time protection – stay protected at all times without having to worry about cyberthreats while browsing.
• Identity theft protection (for US residents only) – get real-time alerts if your personal information (like your Social Security or bank account number) is found on the dark web or shows signs of fraud.
• Financial fraud protection – stay updated with any changes in your banking accounts.
• Parental controls – ensure a secure online experience for your children.
• VPN – stay anonymous online and bypass geo-blocks on content.
• Password manager – keep your logins encrypted in one place.

Below is a deep dive into each security feature that comes with Aura.

Malware scanner

Aura allows you to choose 3 types of scans when looking for malware on your device: Quick, Full, or Custom scan.

• Quick scan – it’s a short-term solution for scanning folders where malware is found most commonly. It can be system files or other most vulnerable areas of your gadgets. Even though it’s not the most effective way to fight infections, Aura has impressed me by finding up to 80% of threats within less than a minute.
• Full scan – whether you want to do a preventative overview on your device or have suspicions about being infected, completing a full malware scan is the way to go. Although the scan can take longer, it thoroughly reviews your entire device. When testing, Aura took 17 minutes to detect our given malware samples.
• Custom scan – this is the solution when you need to scan a specific folder or even an external storage device like a USB drive.

Real-time protection

Aura’s real-time malware protection, also known as auto-scan, can be enabled to work in the background whenever you’re on your Windows PC, Mac, or Android devices.

Aura’s real-time protection looks out for every file you download or open and ensures no infected attachment settles on your gadgets. Or at least it should do that. That said, during our in-house tests, the real-time protection tool was able to spot only half of the threats we attacked it with.

If it works like it should, Aura will catch all the infections coming to your devices and quarantine them right away. Yet, keep in mind that this process can take quite a lot of your device’s resources.

Identity theft protection

Aura’s ID theft protection is one of the main reasons to invest in this provider. While this feature is available for US residents only, it noticeably helps slow down an increasing number of ID thefts.

And it’s no surprise, as Aura is one of the market-leading ID theft guard tools. It comprehensively tracks all the activities related to your SSN, monitors criminal and court records, and protects your online accounts that are connected to your provided email.

If any suspicious changes related to your personal information happen, Aura instantly informs you about them. In case you become a victim, there’s also a $1,000,000 insurance policy for Ultimate plan customers.

Financial fraud protection

Being one of the best at credit monitoring is one of Aura’s strength’s, inseparable from a secure online identity. Included in the Ultimate plan is a robust financial fraud protection.

First things first – it monitors all 3 main credit bureaus, including Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Thanks to this, you can rest assured that you’ll be informed about new loans and every added credit card using your or even your child’s name.

In the worst-case scenario, Aura allows you to lock your bank accounts to secure them from any criminal threats.

Lastly, this feature also helps you stay up to date with your financial habits, as you can review your monthly credit scores as well as annual credit reports. However, if you’re from outside the US, keep in mind that credit monitoring is also available for Americans only.

Parental controls

While youngsters are getting better and better with technology these days, online security is what they rarely think about. Luckily, parents can help them stay secure using the parental controls that Aura offers with its pricier plans.

First of all, this feature allows parents to limit the time their children spend online. While time limits are already good protection, during the rest of the time, they can still visit harmful websites.

Fortunately, you can also make a blacklist of dangerous web pages, apps, or video games and restrict your kid from visiting them.

And speaking of video games, Aura’s Windows app even has the Safe Gaming feature. With it, you can stay on track with who is bullying your kid online and ensure that no scammer or other predator attacks them. The monitoring list consists of over 200 video games, so there’s a small chance you will miss out on a threat.

Aura VPN

A VPN is somewhat the core of secure and private online life. As one of the most rapidly growing cybersecurity services, Aura has made a partnership with one of the most popular VPNs on the market – Hotspot Shield. Hence, it’s now available for all Aura’s users.

Even though our IP and DNS leak tests have shown no vulnerabilities, the overall performance of this integrated VPN is quite far from what a reputable VPN provider can offer.

That being said, you get no server list, and the servers that are automatically picked are only located in the US. Consequently, this VPN is unsuitable for streaming foreign geo-blocked content. Moreso, during our tests, the download speed decreased by 90% from the initial speed.

Finally, there are no additional security features that make a VPN a more beneficial tool apart from a kill switch. For instance, other premium VPNs often offer their own threat protection, ad and malware blocker, and more digital security tools.

Password manager

Next to securing your online accounts with the identity theft protection tool, Aura also enhances your security by implementing a password manager.

During our tests, we found that it allows you to autosave your logins from various websites, smoothly autofill the credentials, and indicate your passwords that are unsafe to use.

This feature can be used on mobile devices as well as on Chrome, Edge, and Firefox browsers. Moreover, the vault encrypted with AES-256 cipher is synchronized across all your connected devices.

On the downside, Aura’s password generator lacks customization options, so you only get to use its suggested passwords without being able to make them more or less complex. On the contrary, market-leading password managers allow you to customize the length of a password and what symbols it should include.

Independent lab test results

As of January 2026, Aura antivirus has not been tested or certified by leading independent labs like AV-TEST or AV-Comparatives. There are no published reports or performance scores for Aura in the latest (2025 or 2026) test results from either lab. This lack of third-party validation means there's currently no independently verified data on how well Aura performs against malware, phishing, or zero-day threats compared to more established antivirus brands.

While Aura promotes features like real-time protection and malware scanning, the absence of lab-based evaluations makes it difficult to measure its detection accuracy and threat response against industry benchmarks. For users who prioritize proven, independently reviewed antivirus tools, this is a key consideration.

Our in-house testing results

To evaluate Aura’s malware protection, our research team conducted several hands-on tests using a range of threat types, including ransomware, keyloggers, and adware. For the first test, we downloaded and extracted 10 malware samples directly onto the system and ran Aura’s Quick Scan.

The Quick Scan completed in just 26 seconds, processing 131 files, and successfully detected 80% of the threats, instantly quarantining the malicious files. Although the CPU usage spiked to 100%, the scan was so fast that the overall system performance wasn’t noticeably affected.

However, real-time protection was less effective during our testing. Our research team used 10 malicious URLs to simulate active threats attempting to enter the system. Aura blocked only 5 out of 10 threats, showing a 50% detection rate. Once again, CPU usage hit 100%, which could be disruptive during heavier system workloads, though users have the option to pause or stop scans if needed.

In short, Aura’s Quick Scan feature performed reliably at identifying local threats, but real-time protection needs improvement. Based on our testing, Aura currently provides baseline malware defense, but it falls short of top-tier antivirus performance standards. However, with the lack of independent lab tests, it’s impossible to verify how consistent such performance is.

Aura on mobile

How good Aura is on mobile depends on the operating system. While both Android and iPhone apps are equally easy to set up (except for the part where you have to fill in your personal data, such as banking account details, SSN, etc.), Android users have the benefit of getting nearly all Aura’s tools in one place.

Comparatively, due to Apple’s internal systems, the iOS app lacks several features that you can find on Android. In Android phones, applications include ID protection, a VPN, a password manager, and Parental Controls (the latter comes with the Ultimate plan).

Even though Apple users are forced to look for a better iOS antivirus elsewhere, the overall outcome of our in-house Aura’s mobile app testing is gratifying. Both applications function smoothly without requiring the user to have any technical knowledge. And basic Aura’s antivirus features are found in a single app, which ensures better security, as you can pair it with your phone’s OS security systems.

Impact on PC performance

Aura’s desktop apps for Windows and macOS are lightweight and easy to install. The setup process itself is smooth, although it does require entering a fair amount of personal information, including billing details, Social Security number, and account data, to activate identity theft protection features. This upfront step is essential to unlock the full functionality of Aura’s security suite.

Once set up, the interface is clean and user-friendly on both Windows and macOS. The performance impact during regular use is minimal, and most actions, like running antivirus scans or enabling the VPN, can be done directly from the home screen. Aura also initiates automatic scans after installation and during software updates, which ensures routine threat checks without needing manual input.

During our testing, the app caused noticeable CPU spikes during quick scans, sometimes hitting 100%, but the process was short enough not to cause lasting system slowdowns. That said, more demanding tasks like real-time protection may impact performance on lower-end systems, especially if you’re multitasking.

One drawback worth noting is the separation of features across platforms. While the desktop apps handle antivirus and VPN functions, you’ll need to use the web dashboard or mobile app to access services like the password manager and identity monitor. This fragmented approach might not be ideal for users who prefer everything in one place.

Aura’s browser extensions – available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge – are similarly lightweight and focused. They offer ad blocking and autofill password management, both of which performed reliably in my experience. However, there’s still no extension support for Safari or other less common browsers.

Overall, Aura has a small system footprint and won’t slow down your PC under normal use. Just keep in mind that some features require switching between desktop, browser, and mobile platforms to get the full experience.

Customer support

24/7 live chat	❌ No
Email	✅ Yes
Phone line	✅ Yes
Guides or articles	✅ Yes

Even with Aura’s intuitive design, tech issues can still happen, and not always because of user error. Thankfully, Aura offers 24/7 support via phone and email, along with a detailed help center. Phone support is fastest, though it may be stressful during urgent identity threats. Email support gives you space to explain the issue clearly, often leading to quicker resolution.

Aura’s help center includes visual guides on setup, features, and troubleshooting. The only real downside is the lack of live chat, which would offer the best of both speed and clarity, but it’s not available yet.

Is Aura Antivirus any good?

Aura Antivirus is a solid choice if your top priority is identity protection. Its all-in-one subscription includes real-time malware protection, a built-in VPN, credit monitoring, and tools for password and financial data management..

That said, the antivirus still has room to grow. During our tests, real-time protection blocked only 50% of threats, and the VPN, while functional, is limited to US-based servers and may cause noticeable slowdowns for users abroad. Feature availability also varies by platform, with the Android app offering the most complete experience. On desktop and iOS, key tools like password management and identity features are accessed through the web or mobile apps.

Aura is easy to use and beginner-friendly, but its malware detection and VPN features are limited. Still, with a 60-day money-back guarantee, you can try Aura and see if it fits your security needs.

FAQ