Avira activation: a licence that follows the login, the code page and renewal

A licence that follows the login

The paid products are sold as subscriptions attached to an account rather than to a code. After a purchase in the maker’s shop the buyer is forwarded to the account and signs in with the email address used at checkout, either creating a password or using a Google, Facebook or Apple sign-in. The subscription appears under Subscriptions, and the installer is fetched from there. When the installed program connects, it logs in to the account and the licence is recognised automatically. That is also how a reinstallation is licensed: the maker says the existing licence “will now be recognized automatically”.

The one page that takes a code

The maker keeps a single page for codes, at avira.com/en/activation. It asks for an email address and an activation code and, once the code is accepted, sends further instructions by email. Its US terms mention licence numbers, one-time codes and logins as the forms its serial numbers take. Its knowledge base does not describe the format of a code, and this page does not guess at one.

Devices and transfers

The Devices section of the account lists every computer, tablet and phone running one of the apps, each with the licence installed on it, and a Protect more devices tile passes an installation link on by email or QR code. Moving a licence to a new computer is done in the account. The old device is removed, the product is installed on the new one from Subscriptions, and the maker says “The license will be automatically transferred with the new installation.”

The free edition and the upgrade

Free Security is the free edition. Registering an account from inside it is free of charge, and the upgrade to Prime is a purchase started from the same app, with no code involved. The maker documents one movement in the other direction: a paid product that can no longer connect securely to its servers may be downgraded to the free version until the connection is restored.

Automatic renewal

The knowledge base says automatically renewing subscriptions are offered only through its online shop. A yearly plan is billed 35 days before it expires, a monthly one five days before, and a trial on its last day. Renewal is charged at the product’s standard retail price at the time, which the terms note may be higher than the first price, and its US terms promise notice at least 30 days before a term ends. The setting is switched off from Subscriptions, in the renewal settings, and the product keeps working until the paid period ends. A renewal creates no new code; the maker says the remaining term is added to the renewed licence.

Refunds and invoices

The refund policy gives 14 days on monthly plans and 60 days on yearly ones, with pro-rated rules for renewals in several countries. Purchases made through an app store, a reseller or a retailer are refunded by that seller rather than by the maker. A refund request quotes the reference number from the confirmation email, and invoices are kept as PDF files in the account’s Payment history.

Phones and tablets

On Android the app Antivirus Security is installed from Google Play and signed in with the account. Once the account’s subscription is recognised, the app appears as Antivirus Security Pro and the phone joins the account’s devices. Prime holders send the installation to a phone from the Devices section by QR code. Subscriptions bought inside an app store are managed and cancelled in that store, and the maker notes that uninstalling the app does not cancel them.

What the maker says about fake messages

Nothing on avira.com lists things the company never does, and no list of its own sender addresses is published either. Two of its publications bear on impersonation. A knowledge-base article asks for scam emails that use its name to be forwarded, as attachments, and notes a rise in fake renewal messages that lure readers to a malicious link. A blog post about a fake “virus protection invoice” sent as an email attachment says it plainly: “Avira will never send an email like this one.”

• spam@avira.comThe address for forwarding scam emails that use the brand, as attachments; it sends no updates.

Because a purchase in the maker’s shop needs no code at all, a message that sells a separate paid “activation” for one of its products describes nothing in its own process.

The account page and an imitation

Each wireframe shows the browser’s address bar above the page it belongs to, and the bar is the part to read first. The right-hand example borrows a domain reserved for documentation, so no real site is implied.

Six terms from my.avira.com

Six expressions from the account and the apps, each explained in a line or two.