⚡ Quick Verdict:
- Pricing: Aura plans start at $10/month. StrongVPN’s Annual Plan costs $3.97/month.
- Best for: Aura for families who want identity theft protection. StrongVPN for people who want a real VPN.
- Key difference: StrongVPN has a kill switch and lets you pick servers. Aura’s VPN does neither.
- Our pick: StrongVPN for most VPN shoppers. It does the VPN job better for less money.
AuraVPN and StrongVPN both hide your IP address.
That is where most of the overlap ends.
Aura is an identity theft protection service with a VPN tucked inside.
StrongVPN is a dedicated virtual private network and nothing else.
So the real question is simple.
Do you need to protect your internet connection or your whole identity?
Overview
This AuraVPN vs StrongVPN comparison covers VPN security, identity protection, speed, and pricing.
We reviewed documentation, pricing pages, and user reviews for both tools.
Our writers also spent hands-on time with each one.
Those notes appear in the “What Our Team Noticed” sections below.
By the end, you’ll know which one fits your needs.
What is AuraVPN?
AuraVPN is the VPN inside Aura’s all-in-one safety app.
It isn’t an add on you buy separately. Every Aura plan includes it.
Aura competes with identity theft protection services like LifeLock and Norton.
It watches your personal information for signs of identity theft.
It also bundles antivirus software, a password manager, and parental controls.
All Aura plans share the same core features, so there are no feature tiers.
This short video walks through Aura’s main tools.
AuraVPN
One app for VPN, antivirus, and identity monitoring. Every plan includes $1 million in identity theft insurance.
AuraVPN Pricing
Aura offers four plans. The price depends on how many people you cover.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Family | $32/month | Up to five adults plus kids |
| Couple | $22/month | Two adults sharing one account |
| Individual | $12/month | One person who wants full coverage |
| Kids | $10/month | Parents who mainly want child safety tools |
Pricing verified October 2026.
Free trial: Yes. Aura gives you a 14-day free trial on every plan. Cancel inside that window and you pay nothing.
Money-back guarantee: Aura backs its plans with a 60 day money back guarantee.
📌 Note: The Family plan covers up to five adults and unlimited kids’ Social Security Numbers. Each adult member gets up to 10 devices, for 50 devices in total.
⚠️ Price check: Some review sites list three plans at $15, $29, and $50 per month. Those usually reflect monthly billing. Confirm the final price at checkout.
Key Benefits of AuraVPN
Here’s what makes Aura worth a look, beyond the VPN:
- $1 Million Insurance: Identity theft insurance covers eligible losses and legal fees. That matters if thieves drain an account.
- Credit Monitoring: Aura tracks your credit reports, bank accounts, and Social Security activity. It claims alerts for credit fraud arrive up to 250 times faster than rivals.
- Instant Credit Lock: You can lock your Experian credit file in one tap. A lock stops most credit inquiries on that file.
- Dark Web Scans: Aura checks your details against billions of data points. It also requests removal from data broker sites.
- Built-In Antivirus: Real time protection blocks viruses, spyware, and ransomware. Detection rates landed between 98% and 100% in lab tests.
- Family Safety: Parental controls add safe gaming, content filters, and screen time limits. Kids get cyberbullying alerts too.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer signed up to test Aura and explored its VPN, alerts, and antivirus. Here’s what stood out from that hands-on time:
AuraVPN Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- $1 million identity theft insurance on every plan
- VPN, antivirus, and password manager in one app
- 14-day free trial plus a 60-day refund window
- Family plan covers five adults and unlimited kids
❌ Cons
- No kill switch in the VPN
- You can’t choose your server location
- No VPN-only plan, so you pay for the full bundle
What is StrongVPN?
StrongVPN is a US-based VPN company.
It has worked in the VPN industry since 2005.
It does one job: it secures your internet connection.
The server network has over 950 physical servers in 30 countries.
Each server sits in the country it claims, with no virtual location tricks.
You get a kill switch, strong encryption, and five VPN protocols.
Every StrongVPN subscription also adds 250GB of SugarSync cloud storage.
Our full StrongVPN review goes deeper, but this video shows the app.
🏆 Winner: StrongVPN
A no-frills VPN with a kill switch and 12 device slots. Free cloud storage comes with every plan.
StrongVPN Pricing
StrongVPN keeps it simple with two plans. Both unlock the same features.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Plan | $3.97/month | Long-term users who want to save money |
| Monthly Plan | $11.99/month | Short trips or testing the service |
Pricing verified October 2026.
Free trial: No. StrongVPN has no free trial and no free version.
Money-back guarantee: Every plan comes with a 30-day money back guarantee.
📌 Note: Payment options include credit cards, PayPal, and Alipay. The only personal information StrongVPN keeps is your email and payment information. It says it never sells that data.
⚠️ Price check: The annual price renews at $89.99 after year one. Some sites also list $10.99 monthly or $69.99 yearly. Confirm at checkout.
Key Benefits of StrongVPN
These StrongVPN features matter most:
- 12 Simultaneous Connections: Cover phones, laptops, and a router on one account. Aura gives each user 10 by comparison.
- Five Protocols: Pick WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, SSTP, or L2TP. WireGuard is the fast default for most people.
- Kill Switch: It cuts your internet if the VPN connection drops. Your real IP never slips out.
- StrongDNS: This SmartDNS service gets past geo-blocks without slowing you down. It helps on TVs that can’t run a VPN.
- P2P Everywhere: Torrenting works on every server. You don’t hunt for special P2P locations.
- Free Cloud Storage: You get 250GB of SugarSync storage at no extra cost. Few other VPNs bundle anything like it.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer set up StrongVPN on a Windows laptop and an Android phone. This video shares what stood out from that hands-on time:
StrongVPN Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Kill switch and AES-256 encryption on every app
- Up to 12 simultaneous connections per account
- 250GB of SugarSync cloud storage included
- P2P traffic allowed on all servers
❌ Cons
- Based in the US, a Five Eyes country
- No independent audit of its no-logs claims
- No free trial or free version
- Smaller server network than big-name rivals
Feature Comparison
These two tools overlap on the VPN, then split in very different directions. Below, we compare nine features plus pricing.
| Feature | AuraVPN | StrongVPN |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $10/month | $3.97/month |
| Free Trial | ✅ 14 days | ❌ |
| Kill Switch | ❌ | ✅ |
| Choose Server Location | ❌ | ✅ |
| Split Tunneling | ✅ | ⚠️ Varies by app |
| Identity Theft Insurance | ✅ $1 million | ❌ |
| Credit Monitoring | ✅ | ❌ |
| Antivirus & Password Manager | ✅ | ❌ |
| Free Cloud Storage | ❌ | ✅ 250GB |
| Best For | Identity protection for families | Privacy, streaming, and P2P |
1. VPN Security & Encryption
AuraVPN: Aura’s VPN encrypts your traffic and blocks known phishing and malicious websites. That gives added protection on public Wi-Fi at airports and cafes. But it has no kill switch, and Aura doesn’t publish its VPN protocol.
StrongVPN: StrongVPN uses AES-256 and builds a proper VPN tunnel for web traffic and browsing activity. Its kill switch blocks the internet if the tunnel fails. TechRadar’s leak tests found no DNS leaks, so the DNS leak protection holds up.
⚠️ Warning: Aura allows P2P traffic, but it’s not safe for torrenting. Without a kill switch, a dropped connection can expose your IP. We strongly advise using a different VPN for torrents.
2. Server Network & Locations
AuraVPN: Aura lists over 100 virtual locations. The catch is you can’t pick one. The app chooses a server for you.
StrongVPN: StrongVPN’s servers number 950+ across 30 countries, and all are physical servers. You pick the server closest to you or any city on the list. It’s still a small server network next to NordVPN or ExpressVPN. Both offer more servers in more places.
Real server locations matter for speed and streaming. A physical server usually beats a virtual one for both.
3. Speed & Performance
AuraVPN: Aura’s VPN is fast for daily use, with little impact on connection speed. Reviewers call it a decent all-rounder. It isn’t built for heavy streaming or torrenting.
StrongVPN: On a nearby server, one test showed just a 5-7% speed loss. Another averaged about a 20% drop. A wider test logged 31% of base download and 13% of base upload speeds. Server distance explains most of that gap.
💡 Pro Tip: Connect to the closest server and choose WireGuard. StrongVPN’s ping is fine for casual gaming, but its higher latency hurts competitive play.
4. Privacy & Logging
AuraVPN: Aura says it doesn’t store your browsing history. It may log your IP address for a short time during a session. Aura also asks data brokers to delete your details and offers spam list removal.
StrongVPN: StrongVPN claims a strict no logging policy. It doesn’t record your online activity, timestamps, or IP addresses. But its US base puts it inside Five Eyes, and no audit backs those claims.
Strict no logging policies only mean something when an outside firm checks them. StrongVPN hasn’t had one, so its claims rest on trust.
5. Identity Theft Protection
AuraVPN: This is where Aura shines. It scans the dark web and data breaches for your sensitive information. If identity thieves strike, Aura helps with U.S. fraud specialists.
StrongVPN: StrongVPN’s “identity protection” means hiding your IP address online. It doesn’t watch your SSN, credit, or online accounts. You’d need a separate service for that.
⚠️ Warning: Aura’s identity theft protections are reactive. They alert you after a threat appears, not before it happens.
6. Credit Monitoring & Financial Fraud
AuraVPN: Aura watches your financial accounts for suspicious financial transactions. It adds investment account monitoring, home title monitoring, and address monitoring. The credit lock freezes your Experian file in seconds.
StrongVPN: StrongVPN has no credit or fraud tools. It protects the connection, not your credit file. Pair it with a free annual credit report check if you want basic coverage.
💡 Pro Tip: Aura shows its own credit score. Lenders may use other credit scoring systems, so numbers can differ.
7. Antivirus & Malware Protection
AuraVPN: Aura antivirus runs on Windows, Mac, and Android. Its real time malware protection caught the vast majority of test files. Most malware never ran. With Aura installed, safe browsing alerts also warn you about dangerous sites.
StrongVPN: StrongVPN has no antivirus or malware blocker. Its security features stop at the VPN tunnel. You’ll need a separate antivirus app.
⚠️ Warning: Aura’s antivirus lacks a firewall, Wi-Fi scanning, and tune-up tools. You can’t schedule scans or view scan logs either. Norton and Bitdefender offer more.
8. Streaming & Censorship
AuraVPN: Aura isn’t made for unblocking streaming libraries. It also lacks obfuscation tools. Aura doesn’t support use in China or parts of the Middle East.
StrongVPN: StrongVPN gives you access to major streaming platforms with minimal buffering. Results for BBC iPlayer vary by reviewer. StrongDNS helps smart TVs skip geo-blocks with no bandwidth usage hit.
For TVs and consoles, SmartDNS is often easier than a full VPN app. Here’s how StrongDNS works.
9. Apps, Devices & Extras
AuraVPN: Aura runs on Android, iOS devices, Mac, and Windows. Aura’s password manager flags breached passwords and syncs across apps. A digital vault stores your files, and a browser extension handles autofill.
StrongVPN: The Windows app and mobile apps are simple to use. Android apps install from the Google Play Store on most Android devices. Native apps also cover macOS and Amazon Fire TV. Setup guides handle routers and Chrome OS, but there are no browser extensions.
💡 Pro Tip: Do both offer split tunneling? Aura does. StrongVPN’s support depends on your device, so check the settings menu first.
10. Pricing & Cost
Here are both price lists side by side.
| Plan | AuraVPN | StrongVPN |
|---|---|---|
| Entry Plan | Kids: $10/month | Annual Plan: $3.97/month |
| Single User | Individual: $12/month | Monthly Plan: $11.99/month |
| Two Adults | Couple: $22/month | ❌ |
| Household | Family: $32/month | ❌ |
| Free Trial | ✅ 14 days | ❌ |
| Refund Window | 60 days | 30 days |
AuraVPN: Aura costs more, but you’re buying a full safety suite. Its pricing is premium next to cheaper rivals with fewer features. If you’d buy antivirus and credit monitoring anyway, Aura can save money.
StrongVPN: StrongVPN is far cheaper for pure VPN use, especially on the annual plan. Watch the renewal price after year one. The free cloud storage adds real value.
Different Scenarios
| If You Need… | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest VPN | StrongVPN | Lowest monthly cost on annual billing |
| Identity theft coverage | AuraVPN | $1M insurance plus credit monitoring |
| Torrenting | StrongVPN | Kill switch and P2P on all servers |
| Family protection | AuraVPN | Family plans cover five adults and kids |
| Streaming abroad | StrongVPN | Real server choice plus StrongDNS |
| Try before paying | AuraVPN | 14-day free trial |
💰 Your Budget
If you only need a VPN, StrongVPN costs far less. Aura makes sense only if you’d pay for its other features anyway.
🔌 Your Devices
StrongVPN covers routers, Fire TV, and more mobile devices. Aura sticks to the four main operating systems.
🛡️ Your Main Worry
Want to stay safe online on café Wi-Fi? Either works, but StrongVPN protects better. Worried about stolen identity? StrongVPN offers no identity protection services.
🎓 Your Experience Level
Aura has almost no VPN settings, which suits total beginners. StrongVPN’s user-friendly app still gives other users protocol and server options.
🆓 Free Trials and Demos
Aura’s 14-day trial lets you test everything risk-free. StrongVPN has no trial, so lean on its 30-day refund window.
🛟 Support Options
StrongVPN offers live chat, phone, and email support. Aura gives you U.S.-based fraud specialists when identity theft hits.
Switching Guide
Already using one of these tools? Here’s what changes if you switch.
🔄 Switching from AuraVPN to StrongVPN?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- A kill switch and full server choice
- Five VPN protocols, including WireGuard
- 250GB of free cloud storage
❌ What you’ll lose:
- Identity theft insurance and credit alerts
- Antivirus and the password manager
- Parental controls for kids
📋 How to switch:
- Export your saved passwords from Aura first.
- Buy StrongVPN and install it on each device.
- Cancel Aura only after you set up new credit monitoring.
🔄 Switching from StrongVPN to AuraVPN?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- Dark web and credit monitoring
- $1 million identity theft insurance
- Antivirus with real time scanning
❌ What you’ll lose:
- The kill switch and manual server picks
- Safe torrenting and StrongDNS
- Your SugarSync cloud storage space
📋 How to switch:
- Download your files from SugarSync.
- Start Aura’s 14-day free trial.
- Add your SSN, cards, and bank details for monitoring.
What Our Review Didn’t Cover
This comparison focused on everyday users and US families. We didn’t file an identity theft insurance claim with Aura. We also didn’t test StrongVPN inside China or on routers. Our notes reflect the October 2026 versions of both apps.
Final Verdict
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| 💰 Pricing | StrongVPN |
| 🔒 VPN Security | StrongVPN |
| 🌍 Server Choice | StrongVPN |
| ⚡ Speed | StrongVPN |
| 📺 Streaming | StrongVPN |
| 🪪 Identity Protection | AuraVPN |
| 🦠 Antivirus & Extras | AuraVPN |
| 👶 Ease of Use | AuraVPN |
| 🏆 Overall Winner | StrongVPN |
🏆 WINNER: STRONGVPN
StrongVPN wins 5 out of 8 categories.
Best for: Budget VPN users, streaming, and safe P2P
If you came here for a VPN, pick StrongVPN. It has the kill switch, real servers, and protocol options Aura lacks. It also costs a fraction of Aura’s price. Reviewers do call it reliable but basic next to NordVPN.
Aura is the better buy only when identity theft is your main fear. Its unique features, like insurance and credit alerts, have no match in StrongVPN. Just know the VPN is the weakest part of that bundle.
The best VPN for you depends on what you’re protecting. For privacy and streaming, StrongVPN is a good VPN at a fair price.
More of AuraVPN Compared
Here’s how Aura stacks up against dedicated VPN brands:
AuraVPN wins on: identity theft insurance, Experian credit lock, and family parental controls.
NordVPN wins on: a far larger server list, a kill switch, and audited no-logs claims.
AuraVPN wins on: credit monitoring, bundled antivirus, and a 14-day free trial.
ExpressVPN wins on: manual server picks, streaming unblocking, and RAM-only servers.
AuraVPN vs ProtonVPN
AuraVPN wins on: fraud specialists, dark web scans, and a built-in password vault.
ProtonVPN wins on: a free plan, Swiss privacy law, and Secure Core routing.
More of StrongVPN Compared
Here’s how StrongVPN stacks up against brands that top most best VPNs lists:
StrongVPN wins on: 12 device slots, bundled cloud storage, and a simpler app.
NordVPN wins on: independent audits, obfuscated servers, and a built-in ad blocker.
StrongVPN wins on: a cheaper first year, phone support, and free SugarSync space.
ExpressVPN wins on: servers in far more countries, audits, and a base outside Five Eyes.
StrongVPN vs Surfshark
StrongVPN wins on: all-physical servers, phone help, and 250GB of storage.
Surfshark wins on: unlimited devices, audited no-logs claims, and browser extensions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Aura VPN do?
It encrypts your connection and hides your IP address. It also blocks known scam and malicious sites. It comes bundled inside every Aura identity protection plan.
Is Aura a good VPN?
It’s fine for public Wi-Fi. But it has no kill switch and no server choice. Dedicated VPN services handle streaming and torrenting better.
Is StrongVPN free?
No. There’s no free plan or free trial. You can still ask for a refund within 30 days.
How many devices can you have on StrongVPN?
You can connect up to 12 devices at once. The devices StrongVPN supports include phones, laptops, Fire TV, and routers.
Is paying for Aura worth it?
Yes, if you want identity theft insurance, credit alerts, and antivirus in one place. If you only need a VPN, a cheaper dedicated option makes more sense.
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