Aura

An identity protection suite with a VPN inside

Aura is not sold as a VPN. It is an identity theft and family online safety subscription, and the VPN is one feature among many: credit monitoring across the three major credit bureaus, identity and dark web alerts, identity theft insurance, data broker removal, antivirus, a password manager and vault, spam call protection, and parental controls. The about page says the company was founded in 2017 as iSubscribed, rebranded as Aura in 2019, and is led by its founder and CEO, Hari Ravichandran, whose letter on that page says he created Aura after his own identity was stolen. The same timeline says Aura acquired Pango, FigLeaf and PrivacyMate in 2020 and Circle Media Labs in 2021, and that in 2024 it split into two companies, Aura and Point Wild, which the page says was formerly known as Pango. The about page also reports 1.3M+ customers and $140 million in Series G funding in 2025.

Who can buy it: the site's pages point to the United States. Prices are shown in US dollars, support is described as "24/7 U.S. based support", the phone number is a +1 number, credit monitoring covers Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, and identity alerts cover Social Security numbers. The about page says MetLife became Aura's exclusive U.S. employer distributor in 2022. The refund footnote mentions purchases through Aura's websites, through customer support and through Amazon, which it excludes from the money-back guarantee. The insurance footnote warns that coverage "may not be available in all jurisdictions". The site does not list the countries where the service is sold, and it does not say whether the VPN or apps can be bought outside the US. The homepage says the service works across Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and popular browsers, and mentions an official Aura app, but the site does not name app stores.

Audits, certifications and what is said about data

The site does not name an independent audit of its VPN's logging policy, and none of its product, about or data security pages sets out a logging policy for the VPN. There is no statement of what the VPN records about connections, IP addresses or browsing.

What the data security page does say is broader and company-wide. It states that Aura "has earned an ISO 27001 certification and has successfully undergone third-party audits for the SOC 2 Type II standard". It also lists "Regular third-party audits", saying independent security experts routinely verify its protections, but it does not name the firm or firms that carried out any of this work, and it does not say whether the VPN was in scope. These are information security management standards for the company, as the page presents them, not an examination of VPN logging. The homepage adds the promise of "Certified data security and privacy" using "the same security standards as banks and military", and the data security page says Aura will never sell a family's data to third parties, calling this a permanent commitment, and that sensitive data is encrypted in transit and at rest.

For parents, the data security page says Aura never shows parents raw messages or private content, only insights about potential concerns, but also that "limited raw content may be provided to parents" in serious safety concerns or emergencies. It says parents choose which data types to provide.

Ownership and jurisdiction: the pages name the founder and the corporate history above, but they do not name the legal entity that sells the subscription or say where it is incorporated. The insurance is, per the footer, underwritten by American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida, which the footer calls an Assurant company, and the cyber insurance by Houston Casualty Company, a Tokio Marine company.

The VPN and the blocking features

The homepage describes Aura VPN as protecting the connection with "military-grade encryption" and says it "also blocks known scam and phishing sites". It lists 100+ virtual locations. The site does not name the VPN protocol, a server count, a kill switch, split tunneling or a per-plan connection limit. The areas of expertise page says Aura blocks "intrusive trackers" as part of its privacy features, alongside sending removal requests to data brokers, and the homepage describes a separate Safe Browsing feature that blocks malicious or phishing websites before a click, with real-time threat detection. How the tracker blocking works, whether it runs inside the VPN, a browser extension or the app, and whether it also blocks ads, is not explained. Beyond a line about accessing global content, the pages name no streaming services and do not mention torrenting.

The rest of the suite is where the site spends most of its words. Parental controls, available on Family and Kids plans only, include Bedtime, Focus Time, content filtering and Pause the Internet, plus a Digital Wellbeing Score. In-game voice and text monitoring for over 200 PC games is provided through a partner, Kidas. Antivirus is listed for Android, PC and Mac. Spam call protection and a call assistant screen calls and texts. The homepage says Aura's credit alerts were up to 650x faster than competitors in a 2025 study, and its footnote discloses that the study firm, ath Power Consulting, was compensated by Aura.

Price, trial, refund and support

The homepage says plans start at $10 per month but does not say which plan that is or whether it is billed monthly or annually, and the plan list sits behind a quiz. The site does not state renewal prices. There is a 14-day free trial, which the footnote says can be redeemed once per customer, with full access depending on identity verification and credit eligibility. The 60-day money-back guarantee applies only to annual plans bought through Aura's websites or its support team, not through Amazon, and refunds are requested by phone. Every adult member gets $1 million in identity theft insurance, and the areas of expertise page says up to $5 million for families. The customer service page says every plan includes 24/7 support and "White Glove Resolution Specialists" for fraud victims. The homepage also lists affiliate and influencer programs, and the areas of expertise page offers referral partners up to $65 on qualified enrollments. Payment methods are not listed.

What stays unanswered, and who it suits

For a reader choosing a VPN, the gaps are large. The VPN has no published logging statement, does not name the protocol or servers behind the 100+ locations, and does not say which plan the $10 figure buys or what it renews at. The company certifications it lists are stated without the auditor's name. The legal seller and its home are not named, and the site does not say where outside the US it sells.

Aura suits a US household that wants identity monitoring, fraud help and parental controls in one account and treats the VPN and tracker blocking as extras. It is a poor fit for anyone buying mainly for VPN privacy, streaming or torrenting, or anyone outside the US who needs to know first whether the service is sold where they live.