Runna: One minute review

A running coach can be expensive, especially if you want them there every step of the way – so Runna’s app, which launched in 2021, is like a cheaper alternative. Personalized to your running experience, because not all of us are training for a marathon and, like me, just want to achieve a good time on a 5K, it's a great motivational tool for getting you back into the habit, and pushing you that little bit further when you get lazy.

Setting your weekly goals, the app creates a plan to achieve your desired PB or helping you blast those miles if you’re training for something bigger. The app isn’t particularly slick-looking, but gives you the basic direction and stats you need, congratulating you on PBs, and providing you with an in-app community to chat about running. Some more personalized features would, however, be good to see in future versions.

I found the in-ear audio pace prompter really helpful as I completed my weekly runs and it was great to see how far I’d come as I progressed week by week. More audio advice would also be a plus, and any prompts on how I can stay on track when I either give up on a run or just haven’t run in a while.  

Runna: Specifications

Runna: Price and availability

A running coach is probably going to cost you a little bit more than $17.99 / £15.99 per month (the app isn't listed in Australian dollars, but at the time of writing it's approximately AU$30), so you already feel as though you're getting your money's worth, especially if you’re a consistent runner. 

It’s more expensive than other apps like Fitbit Premium in isolation, but also generally more affordable (at least when you consider six months to a year of usage) than some of the best running watches, which also feed information into your ear mid-run. 

However, even though Fitbit Premium and Garmin Connect can give you personalized information on pacing and guided workouts, and you can use Runna with Apple, COROS and even the best Garmin watches, they certainly can’t offer you contact time with an actual running coach.

The app is still in its infancy, so it’s only going to get better and better. 

• Value score: 4 / 5

Runna: Design

• Basic but clear layout
• Broken into tabs 
• Clear workout guides and performance stats 

Well-designed but basic, the app has a clear layout and it’s easy to move around in. When you first log in you’ll be asked what your goal is. I choose to improve on my 5K running times, for example. To make it as personalized as possible, it also asks you to select your running level and how often you want to run a week, selecting days which could work for you.  

Once you’re set up it will show, via the ‘training’ tab, your personalized plan, giving you a week-by-week breakdown. At the top of your weekly plan clearly laid out is your plan overview and three other features, including clearly mapped functions to allow you to rearrange your week’s runs, connect and share data with other apps, and manage your plan.

Every week you also get a message from your coach, where they give you tips on factors such as technique and mobility, while they also reference some of the other articles and videos on the app. After one run I did one of my coaches’ 30-minute full-body stretches, and it definitely helped my sore legs the next day.

Each week, you’ll also see the runs the coach has booked in for you and you can change the days if you need to. Clicking into each run they’ll give you a detailed breakdown of targets to hit such as expected pace and timings, which is something most of us will appreciate. 

Once you’re ready to go, simply press on ‘record workout’ and off you run. Once you’ve started your running the ‘activities’ tab will give you a breakdown of your workouts and performance.

•  Design score: 4 / 5

Runna: Features

• Detailed running stats 
• Weekly plan 
• Community element 

Runna gives you a personalized plan over a few weeks via the ‘training’ tab, with changes every week to help you increase your time. Each run is color-coded, showing you the distance you covered, moving time and average pace. Dig into the run by tapping it in-app to access a wealth of in-depth statistics. 

The statistics for each run are broken down into laps, splits, pace and elevation. The laps also show you how fast or slow each kilometer or mile is compared to the previous, which is helpful to highlight any weak points in your running. I know my last two kilometers always get slower as I’m running out of energy, so I should slow down and aim to conserve energy in the first part of the run in order to increase speed in the second half. It would be great to see these types of personal tips in the app.

The app connects to Strava, automatically logging your run within the Strava app once connected, while other compatible devices include the best Apple watches, COROS and best Garmin watches. I’m a Fitbit user, so I’m hoping Runna is able to integrate with the Fitbit ecosystem soon. The app has also just launched a treadmill integration feature after their customers asked for it: the treadmill has to be a compatible Bluetooth treadmill, but it will work just like running outside: if connected to a compatible smart treadmill, you can even change your speed or incline via the app. 

I really like the idea and execution of the community section, which can be found at the bottom of the page. It could be a replacement for Fitbit’s old community features, Groups and Challenges, which have been axed despite massive protests from the Fitbit community. Just as you can imagine runners share their highs and lows when it comes to their running, allowing you to react and comment. Some runners ask some interesting questions, with the answers applicable to everyday running. The support section is also insightful, with guides on training for a goal, nutrition for runners and even injury management.  

• Features score: 4.5 / 5

Runna: Performance

• In-ear audio for pacing
• Easy to follow
• Personalized audio advice missing

The app is easy to navigate and I enjoyed how two runs were automatically set up for me every week. I didn't necessarily stick to the same days that the app planned for me, but getting the reminder notifications (which can be turned off) did help me.

If you haven’t synced the app to a watch, like me, you’ll have to click into the run you want to start and press record. The first couple of times I used it I just pressed record, so it didn't record it as one of my weekly runs, while another time I left it on in the background for six hours (easily done) so my stats and time were obviously completely off. Syncing to a watch via the  

Once I finally got to grips with it I loved the Pace Prompter, which records your speed and tells you to slow down or speed up depending on your pace. I normally record my pace on my Fitbit but this was a good, in-ear, reminder when I was slacking or running a little too fast - and it really was like having a running coach in your pocket. 

On my first 6K run, I was surprised to see that they started me on a slower pace than normal for the first 3K, but they gradually built my pace over the subsequent 3K, meaning it was a great warm-up for the harder training later. In running terms, a run in which the first half is slower than the second half is known as a ‘negative split’, and is a common strategy used to improve performance and win races. 

Over the weeks the pacing got a little faster, while the interval training was a great addition to my workouts for general fitness and for helping me smash some PBs. I liked how the app also showed your PBs, whether it was from the full run or just a single kilometer segment

I’d like to see some other additions to the app, such as personalized advice when it comes to mid-run posture, ground contact time, and stretching before and after your run. I love Peloton’s audio-only guided runs, and although they don’t give you as much personalized coaching as Runna, the instructors talk to you throughout the run, giving you positive affirmations and advice on everything from warming up and nutrition through to running technique. As the app grows, it should take a more holistic view of running.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

Runna: Scorecard

Runna: Should I buy?

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Also consider

Avira originated more than thirty years ago, started by an electrical engineer Tjark Auerback and his business partner who formed an IT company called H+BEDV Datentechnik.

Its HQ is located on the German shores of Lake Constance along with other offices in San Jose in the USA, Bucharest in Romania and another German site in Munich.

It launched its first antivirus product within two years for MS-DOS systems, and also branched into business security.

Now it employs some 500 staff and has an enviable reputation for delivering reliable and secure solutions for both home and business deployment.

Today we’ll be looking at Avira Prime, a holistic solution for home security which offers a suite of functionality that includes antivirus scanning, web security, a VPN and computer performance enhancements.

But before we cover the mechanics of this tool, you might want to know what sort of investment is required to install and use Avira Prime.

Avira Prime: Plans and pricing

Avira security comes in three distinct flavours; Avira Free Security, Avira Internet Security and the focus of this review, Avira Prime. 

As the name implies, Avira Free Security is free to download and use. The Internet Security option is the first paid level, offering licenses for one, three or five devices.  

Prime, reviewed here, offers licensing for five or twenty-five devices, VIP customer support, and free upgrades. It includes Avira's Antivirus Pro, Password Manager Pro, Phantom VPN Pro and Software Updater Pro.

Tools like these previously were available for download individually, but as of December 2021 Avira retired support for these and other Avira Business products, pointing out that these features were incorporated into Avira Prime subscriptions. The company also promises to provide at least one year's notice before discontinuing supports for products or operating systems. This is an important heads up, as Avira Prime isn't compatible with Windows Server, whereas previous products were.   

While we're talking operating systems, if you want to run the version of Avira Prime for Microsoft Users, you'll need Windows 7 SP1 or higher. If you're an Apple user, any version of MacOS from 10.15 (Catalina) is compatible. 

Avira Prime is more flexible when it comes to mobile devices : Android users only need to have version 6.0 installed, meaning any Android smartphone or tablet released since 2015 should support the software. Avira Prime will also work with portable Apple devices running iOS 11 or later, meaning any device released since 2018 should be compatible.  

Avira Internet security costs $34.99 per annum for one device, $70.99 for three devices and $83.99 for five devices.  

Avira Prime is currently offered for up to 5 devices at $9.99 per month. Annual subscriptions are currently being offered at a special discount of $59.99 for the first year (down from $99.99). There's also a 2-year license for $189.99.

If your organization's a little larger, a 25 device license for Avira Prime costs $12.99 per month or $129.99 for the year. A 2-year license at this tier costs $249.99.

At those prices and with all the functionality included, Avira Prime looks like a bargain. But are all the features of this product equally useful, and how does it compare to the other security suites available?

Avira Prime: Design

For Windows users, Avira tries to look like a single solution with a single master interface, but the functionality is split into modules that you can ignore or embrace at will.

They are grouped under three sub-sections labelled Security, Privacy and Performance.

Security includes the antivirus solution, software updater and firewall controls. Privacy is all about browser safety and includes the VPN, and Performance has all the system optimising elements that make sure your system is the best it can be.

Rather than having to navigate around these to find trouble, Avira has a top-level status screen that alerts you to potential problems, and also allows a smart scan to be run that will seek out all security, privacy and performance issues.

The Apple Mac version only contains the Antivirus and VPN technology and leaves out the maintenance, password manager and software updating features of the Windows installation.

These ommissions are also true of the Android and iOS installs, although they both contain the VPN and Password Manager.

The password manager isn’t part of the main software bundle on PC but instead operates through a browser extension. If you don’t like extensions, you can decline to have these placed on your system.

While password managers are useful, as most browsers have this functionality inbuilt, it isn’t something that is a necessity.

But these extensions aren’t the only things that come along with Avira. During our initial tests in 2020, once we’d completed the installation and ran our first ‘smart scan’, we noticed that it found a few things it wanted to fix, including issues with Opera browser.

As we'd never installed Opera, this seemed odd. It turns out that Avira installs it for you, and we didn’t notice it doing that.

Our most recent tests in 2023 were much more promising. Although scans still reveal issues relating to outdated apps and cookies which can leak personal information, Opera was noticeably absent from our Windows 11 device. 

However, Avira Prime does include its very own secure browser, which you can install via the 'Privacy' section. The program is based on the open source 'Chromium' browser but contains a number of security features such as 'Privacy Guard' for blocking unwanted ads and trackers, as well as 'Web Shield' for detecting malicious URLs. There's also a built-in browser password manager but users can choose to use Avira's instead.

Avira Prime: Antivirus

Undoubtedly one of the strongest parts of this offering is the antivirus tool. This module allows for basic quick, full, and scheduled scans in addition to having live file scanning. But if you want you can set it to scan just for rootkits or removable drives, there are lots of options.

Compared with the Windows Defender tools, Avira is quicker and less obtrusive.

Any files it doesn’t like can be quarantined or deleted, and logs of all scanning are automatically created.

We also noticed that a full Defender scan looked at about 52,000 files on our tests system, where Avira examined a whopping 3.8 million using full scan setting. And, even while it performed the full scan that took a couple of hours,  we could use the system without noticing any significant performance impact.

Avira Prime can also run 'Quick Scans', which focus on areas more likely to contain malware like the 'Downloads' folder. By default these are set to run weekly. You can also specifically exclude folders from scans through configuring Avira's settings.

In order to put Avira Prime through its paces, we tried to download a test computer virus from the good people of EICAR. The good news is that when we tried to download the virus itself directly via Microsoft Edge, Avira detected and blocked the download. 

We were able to download the virus inside a 'ZIP' file however. After doing this we ran a virus scan but Avira failed to detect any threat. When we tried to extract the compressed virus however, Avira Prime immediately spotted and quarantined the file. 

The 'Quarantine' page is well laid out and allows users to select and delete/restore suspicious files. 

In our previous review in 2020, we had reservations about the ‘Security’ part of this product, as it had a dedicated firewall section, which seemed to suggest that Avira Prime included a dedicated firewall. 

But when we went into the advanced settings, it took us to the Windows controls for the built-in Windows Defender Firewall. 

The program did allow us to disable the firewall and switch between Public and Private network modes, but this was simply a glorified frontend for settings that are built into every copy of Windows.

We were much more impressed for our more recent review in 2023. Avira Prime boasts a 'new' firewall, which is indeed an actual part of the security suite. Should you choose to enable it, the 'App Rules' section contains a very clearly laid out list of internet programs, which you can choose to 'Block' or 'Allow' via individual drop down menus. We were especially impressed to see a 'Remove All' option to allow users to block all internet apps in case they're overwhelmed.

The 'Intruder Protection' section allows you to set up 'Allow' or 'Block' rules for specific IP addresses or ranges of IP addresses. This means Avira's firewall still doesn't offer much above and beyond Windows Defender but at least users can now manage all their security tools from one app. 

What impressed us more was that all email is scanned, both outgoing and incoming. All this is done through the network, handling both installed desktop clients and web interfaces.

This feature is fully configurable, allowing whitelists for email addresses and custom handling of alerts. The only disappointment is that it doesn’t include any spam elimination, but it does catch more dangerous attachments, critically.

Avira Prime: VPN

For many reasons have access to a VPN can be an especially useful tool, in both protecting your laptop on public Wi-Fi networks, or enabling access to regionalised content.

We often use them to see the pricing of products in different countries, as websites usually show only those currencies that are local to the surfer.

Phantom VPN Pro is a deceptively simple but effective VNP that masks your location quite effectively and allows you to choose one of forty different global locations that your traffic appears to originate. Admittedly, thirteen of these are different cities in the USA and two in the UK, but with the exceptions of Africa, China, Korea (North or South), Taiwan, Vietnam, and some smaller South American countries, you can still be in plenty of European and Asian locations.

Being able to redirect out of Russia, Brazil, Japan or Australia is useful, but the lack of any servers on the Africa continent needs addressing. 

In our original tests, we tested the VPN using DNS Leak it announced that we are Parsippany, USA, when the author was based at least 3,442 miles away.

And, we went to a range of geo-locked sites, including HBO Go, and they worked fine from our computer in Europe.

For our most recent tests, we allowed Avira Prime to select the nearest server, which happened to be in Seattle and tested it for DNS leak once again, where it passed with flying colors. We had some trouble signing in to Netflix though, which may be because they had a record of the VPN server we were using. 

The 'Advanced Settings' for the VPN are well thought out. You can choose to automatically connect to Phantom VPN if you're connected to WiFi networks. We were pleased to see there's also a built-in VPN kill switch, which you can activate to block all internet activity if the connection drops for any reason. The VPN connection can also be programmed to launch when the system starts.  

Avira Prime includes the 'pro' version of the VPN, so data traffic is unlimited. If you’d like to read an in-depth review of Phantom VPN product in isolation, we’ve covered that here. 

Avira Prime: Performance

Windows isn’t a solution with a sterling record of accomplishment for maintaining itself. Failed installs, cookie abuse and a myriad of other dynamic changes can easily reduce performance over time, and some intervention is often needed.

Avira Prime has six built-in performance-enhancing functions designed to help the PC run optimally. These include discarding temporary files, optimising storage, saving battery life, installing the latest drivers, and finding duplicate files.

The one that we’d recommend everyone using is the 'Optimizer', as it frees up resources and tunes the PC. Getting rid of junk files is just the start, as it can also adjust those applications that slow the system when booting.

During our original review in 2020, we were surprised to see a 'Disk Defragmenter' option, as this isn't necessary for modern SSDs. 

Some new additions include the 'game booster', which is enabled by default. This feature faithfully promises to automatically optimize 'detected games' but provides no information on how exactly this will be done.

If you click on 'Advanced Tools', the program will launch 'Avira System Speedup Pro'. This lists startup apps which may slow down performance, allowing you to choose to stop them launching automatically or only once the OS has fully booted.

You're also offered the option of a 'Standard' or 'Hyper' boost, the latter of which can apparently hugely reduce system startup times but should only be used once every 3 months. We were relieved to see the program creates a restore point before trying to apply any 'boosts'. 

Our problem with optimisation routines is that occasionally it might look inefficient to the code, but duplicate files and other junk are genuinely required for the system to function correctly. Luckily with most of these features, you can create exclusions, so that the system ignores various apps, folders and files from being ‘fixed’ when you’d like them left alone.

This ability is especially useful for those that edit videos and have large temporary files that are created to speed up the editing process, and it would be inconvenient to regenerate them each editing session.

There are many optimisation tools available, but the ones included in Prime appear to do a predictable job and remind you regularly if the system needs a tune.

Avira Prime: Final verdict

Many people just rely on the antivirus tools that come with Windows, but products like Avira Prime demonstrate that spending a modest amount on security products is a wise investment.

If you only want Antivirus, then Avira has that as an independent product, and except for support, the free version is mostly identical to the one in the Prime suite. And, if you only want the Phantom VPN, you can get that as a slightly cheaper standalone solution.

But, and this is the critical point, the price of the Pro versions of either Antivirus or Phantom VPN costs almost as much for an annual license as Prime, and you get both, plus lots of other tools in the price. The difference is so small that you might as well have Prime, and have access to everything.

We found that the Phantom VPN is as good, if not better than some better-known brand solutions that cost more and do less. And, the Antivirus solution is also a far superior solution to that included by default by Microsoft, and comparable with those from other significant brands.

The other features are useful if you are the sort of person that just clicks on anything bright and animated on a web page and end up installing all manner of junk and malware as a result. For those who pay more attention, they’re probably less useful.

As a solution, we like Avira. However, we’re less keen on some of the tactics employed to sell it.

Previously it was possible to download a trial version of Avira Prime directly from the main website. Trials lasted for 30 days, provided you signed up using your credit card information. After 30 days your card was billed for an entire year's subscription. 

The current trial is for 60 days but we were only able to access this in a roundabout fashion by installing Avira Free Security and then signing up using a credit card, where once again we were told we'd be billed the price of an annual subscription at the end of that time.

Call us cynical, but this looks designed to catch people who want to try out this product, and then forget they signed up, and end up with a bill for the next year of service they weren’t expecting. During our original review the amount of the first bill didn’t reflect the offer that Avira was currently making if you sign up from the website, but the undiscounted amount. For our most recent tests though, the amount was shown with the current discount of $59.99 from $99.99. 

For monthly payers, this is a no-obligation system where you can cancel any time, and for more extended periods you can cancel and get a refund in the first thirty days.

But for those using the trial be sure that you test it and then cancel promptly, or you might receive a bill that you weren’t expecting.

This issue aside, Avira Prime is an elegant and effective security solution that’s worth considering for home users with five devices that need to be kept safe. With all the protection and optimisation code included, it represents excellent value for money for anyone with more than one device.

We've also highlighted the best VPN.