Aura Antivirus 2025 Review — Is It As Good As Other Antiviruses?

Aura Antivirus Pricing & Plans

Aura has multiple security services, and offers different subscription tiers for each one. For the antivirus, the service offers the following tiers: “Antivirus,” “Antivirus Plus,” and “Ultimate.” Each subscription tier only includes an annual plan, and the price renews after the first year.

Here’s an overview of the pricing options for the antivirus tiers:

The renewal price is steep, as there’s an almost 50 percent increase, but this is usually the standard with antivirus pricing. If you’re on a very tight budget and wouldn’t mind dealing with certain limitations, try one of the best free antivirus services in 2025 instead — for example, Bitdefender supports real-time protection via its free version (most free antiviruses don’t offer this).

Each Aura antivirus subscription tier covers a different number of devices, and includes additional security services. Here’s a table for reference:

We think the “Antivirus” tier is great for single users who are primarily interested in the antivirus. “Antivirus Plus” is a good pick for small families or people who want additional online security on top of the antivirus, including basic identity theft protection. We’d only recommend “Ultimate” for large families and users who want enhanced identity theft protection and basic financial fraud protection in addition to the antivirus.

Aura also backs its annual plans with a very generous 60-day money-back guarantee. We believe this should give you enough time to decide if the antivirus is right for you.

Aura Antivirus Features

Aura’s antivirus is overall basic, but its features work very well according to our tests. The antivirus offers the following features:

• Real-time protection
• Web protection
• Malware scans

Real-Time Protection

This means the antivirus continuously scans your device for signs of malware, while running quietly in the background. It operates as you download from the web, launch apps, or open files and folders. If it detects anything suspicious, it automatically flags and quarantines it. It also sends you an alert every time. We’re happy to see real-time protection, as we consider it to be an essential antivirus feature. It’s convenient because it eliminates the need to regularly scan your computer.

We subjected Aura’s real-time protection to multiple antivirus tests and it performed well. For example, we tried downloading the EICAR malware test file1 while Aura was running — this is a file that’s not malicious, but is used to test the effectiveness of antivirus software. Aura stopped us each of the ten times we tried downloading the file.

In addition to testing the antivirus on desktop, we also ran AMTSO malware detection tests2 on Android, and Aura passed. AMTSO stands for Anti-Malware Standards Testing Organization, and it’s a non-profit organization that has been developing anti-malware testing methodologies for over 15 years.

Web Protection (“Safe Browsing”)

Aura’s antivirus offers protection against online threats, like malicious links, shady websites, and phishing sites. It does so via “Safe Browsing,” an in-app feature and a browser extension that provides AI-powered filtering.

To see how good Aura’s web protection is, we tried accessing test malicious links available via EICAR, AMTSO, and WICAR3 (a collection of online tools for testing anti-malware software). In addition, we tried connecting to a few HTTP websites as well. Aura’s antivirus successfully stopped us from accessing all links.

Our only complaint is that Aura’s web protection was a little inconvenient to use. It’s built into the Aura app but as part of the VPN service, not the antivirus. So, you’d need to connect to the VPN to enable it. Most top antiviruses don’t bundle their web protection with their VPN services.

On the plus side, desktop users can get around that issue by using the “Safe Browsing” browser extension. It’s available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, and doesn’t require you to be connected to Aura’s VPN for it to work.

Malware Scans

Aura allows you to manually run scans. Like most antivirus services, it offers three types of scans:

• Quick Scans. This is a type of scan that searches folders where most malicious threats are usually found, like temporary and system files. When we used it, Aura scanned roughly 1,100-1,300 files, and the whole process took just two minutes.
• Full Scans. This scan is more in-depth, as it checks all files and folders on your device for signs of malware. In our tests, Aura’s full scan took around two hours and 15 minutes, and it scanned over 250,000 files.
• Custom Scans. This is perfect for targeted scans, as it allows you to scan only selected files, folders, and external drives (like USB flash drives).

We found it very easy to run all types of scans — even setting up a custom scan only took a few seconds. The devices we used to test Aura also didn’t experience significant slowdowns while we ran the scans (including the full scans). We were able to browse the web, watch online videos, install apps, and play games without our devices freezing, lagging, or experiencing crashes.

The only thing we don’t like is that Aura doesn’t let you schedule scans, which is something most top antiviruses offer. For example, TotalAV lets you schedule scans every day, week, two weeks, or month — it also lets you pick the day and time when the scan takes place.

>> Read More: TotalAV 2025 Review

What Is Aura Antivirus Missing?

While Aura has all the essential features we’d expect from a good antivirus, it is missing some extra tools that most top antiviruses have.

For example, it doesn’t have a system clean-up feature, like you get with TotalAV. This is a tool that scans your device for junk files and removes them, improving device performance. TotalAV’s feature even optimizes startup programs to make your operating system run smoother.

Aura’s antivirus is also missing a firewall, which you get with Norton 360. This is a security tool that helps secure your device against suspicious network traffic that could compromise your device.

Aura also lacks webcam protection, which Surfshark Antivirus offers. This tool prevents apps from accessing your webcam without your permission, preventing malicious apps and actors from spying on you through it.

Aura Additional Security Services

On the plus side, Aura bundles its antivirus with extra security services. Depending on which subscription tier you choose, you could also get access to:

• Identity theft protection
• A VPN
• A password manager

Aura Identity Theft & Fraud Protection

Aura’s “Antivirus Plus” tier adds basic identity theft protection via dark web monitoring, which alerts you if your personal information, SSN, or online accounts are breached.

The “Ultimate” tier adds more protections against identity theft, and also offers protection against fraud. You can monitor auto and property titles for signs of fraud, and get alerts if criminals steal and use your identity. You also get up to $1 million in identity theft insurance, one-bureau credit monitoring, and a credit lock.

However, the antivirus plans ultimately provide basic identity theft and fraud protection compared to Aura’s main identity theft protection service. Consider switching to it if you’d rather get three-bureau monitoring, an instant credit lock service, AI-powered protection against spam calls and messages, and investment account monitoring.

>> Related Reading: The Best Identity Theft Protection Services in 2025

Aura VPN

All antivirus plans include access to Aura’s VPN (Virtual Private Network), which is available in the same app as the antivirus. The VPN protects your online data and privacy. It encrypts your internet traffic, making it unreadable, so that cybercriminals can’t spy on it. It also changes your IP address, preventing websites and malicious actors from using it to find your approximate location.

Aura’s VPN is decent, though overall basic. It uses military-grade encryption, it has servers in over 80 countries, it maintains good speeds, and it has apps for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

If you’re mainly interested in the antivirus, then Aura’s VPN is enough for protecting your privacy. But if you’re looking to pair the antivirus with a high-end VPN, Aura isn’t as good as the best VPN services in 2025. For example, NordVPN has servers in over 110 countries, much better speeds, apps for smart TVs in addition to desktop and mobile devices, and better streaming and torrenting support than Aura’s VPN. It also has an antivirus-like feature that protects against malware-infected downloads.

Aura Password Manager

The “Antivirus Plus” and “Ultimate” tiers add a password manager, which is a service that securely stores your logins in an encrypted vault. It also protects you from phishing sites by auto-filling your login credentials on legitimate websites.

Aura’s password manager made our list of the best password managers in 2025. We found it user-friendly, especially during setup because it syncs passwords across all supported devices, and also allows you to import logins from other password managers.

>> Read More: Aura Password Manager 2025 Review

Aura Antivirus User Experience

Aura’s antivirus covers three to ten devices, depending on which subscription tier you choose. It also has apps for Windows, macOS, and Android. If you’re interested in also using an antivirus on your iOS device, we recommend trying TotalAV or Norton 360 instead.

>> Related Reading: Do iOS Devices Need Antivirus Protection?

Aura Antivirus Setup

Installing and setting up Aura’s antivirus is very straightforward. Just download the installer from your account dashboard or the Android app store, and wait one or two minutes for the installation process to finish.

We noticed that Aura didn’t provide us with any options to configure during the installation process. This makes the installation much more user-friendly, though advanced users might not like the lack of customization.

Once the app is installed and set up, you’ll get a prompt to run your first scan — we recommend doing this. While the scan takes place, you should read Aura’s antivirus tutorials to familiarize yourself with the service.

Aura Antivirus Ease of Use

Aura’s apps have a very sleek design, and we find the interface overall intuitive. It’s simple to run scans, and also easy to customize them. The quarantine tab also makes it very simple to whitelist files that are not actually malicious.

We also like how all settings and features come with quick, helpful explanations. What’s more, the desktop and Android apps share the same design — this made it very easy for us to switch between the apps. It’s also good that the antivirus and VPN are available in the same app, as having to install a separate VPN app would have been inconvenient.

There are only a few minor drawbacks, really. For example, you can’t adjust the app’s user interface. You’re also stuck with the app’s light theme, which could be a bit annoying if you’re accustomed to dark themes.

Aura Antivirus Performance

Aura’s antivirus didn’t significantly impact device performance when we used it. Our tests show that the antivirus only uses up 15 to 18 percent of CPU power while running full scans. For reference, other antiviruses we tested used up to 25 percent of CPU power, so Aura is definitely very lightweight.

While we ran scans, we were able to use our desktop and Android devices like we normally do. We didn’t experience freezes or crashes while playing games or streaming videos. And our Android device’s battery usage only increased by around two percent while the antivirus was performing scans, which isn’t bad.

Aura Antivirus Customer Support

Aura offers very good customer support. We like how it offers dozens of support channels, including in-depth tutorials, helpful FAQs, live chat support, and 24/7 phone support.

We followed Aura’s setup guides when we installed its app on our devices — we found them easy to follow thanks to the reader-friendly structure. We also checked out its FAQs, which helped us familiarize ourselves with how the service works.

We also tried out Aura’s live chat support over the course of a week. Live chat is available daily from 8 AM to 8 PM EST. It usually took less than a minute to get connected to an Aura rep. Most of the reps we talked with were knowledgeable and helpful. However, we also came across three live chat reps who took very long to answer our questions, and who also didn’t provide detailed answers.

We tested Aura’s phone support a few times too, and we were really happy with it. It usually took less than 30 seconds to start talking with a phone rep. Plus, all the reps we talked with were very friendly, and were also able to accurately answer all of our questions.