Which is the best free antivirus, AVG or Avira?
Free antivirus software is not hard to come by, but until you test them all out and have a basic understanding of how they work and what are the advantages of a paid antivirus, it might be hard to choose from the hundreds of good offerings. The most popular free antivirus programs out there are Panda, Avira, AVG, Kaspersky and Bitdefender, but each have their own "premium" versions which offer an extra set of tools and functions which you can use. As the average PC or laptop user, most of these extra functions might not be necessary, especially if you don't navigate Dark Net websites or use suspicious software. I've gone without any kind of antivirus protection, just relying on the Windows Firewall for a year, just to test out a theory about how you make yourself vulnerable to online threats rather than being exposed randomly. Needless to say, I had no issues after a year. One small malware had infiltrated my laptop, but it was entirely my fault for trying to download from an un-trustworthy source. Otherwise, I have never had any problems with viruses, spyware, malware or anything that might harm my computer. Truth be told, a year has passed since I have performed this experiment and a lot has changed since. Nowadays, you need at least a free antivirus software because websites can pull your personal information easily and you are more prone to click on dubious links because you just can't tell which is legit and which is a faux. A small thing like an extension variation or a domain variation can rapidly send your laptop or PC spiraling down the river of viruses, destroying your data. That's why I whole-heartedly recommend that everyone use at least a free antivirus software on their laptop, because most provide basic protection against millions of known threats. They do come with false positives, but you can detect those easily.
This time around, I will be telling you about AVG and Avira, two of the best free antivirus programs you can find online. There are many alternatives to these two, and you should test each out on your own laptop or PC to see which caters to your needs better. Some are optimized for web-browsing, some for gaming, others for remote connections and portable memory units, so the choice really depends on what you need. Both Avira and AVG cater to the average computer-user, providing protection when web-browsing, installing applications, downloading and connecting to various devices. The basic protection these offer should be enough if you don't stray from Google and Facebook, too much, and most people don't in my experience. Trust is a hard thing to earn, and free antivirus software providers know that. Once you have a product that has a history and is known by various generations of people, the level of trust people have in the protection you offer automatically comes easier. Both Avira and AVG have been on the free antivirus market for quite a few years and have come to accumulate a user-base that is content with what they are offering and their premium programs as well. Let's see how the two free antivirus options size up next to each other and try to determine which would be the best choice for the average consumer. First off, let's take Avira and detail what it has to offer. Avira has taken advantage of a few Material Design elements we've seen in Android 5.0 Lollipop and the UI of the software as well as the user Dashboard benefit from a flat, colorful look that it easy to navigate, even though it takes some time to understand the features the software has to offer. The free antivirus doesn't have a lot of tools on hand, but what it has performs as it should and provides for enough protection for the average internet user. Avira comes with a file scanner and a database that is periodically updated with new virus footprints and detection systems. Avira has one of the largest virus databases out of all the free
antivirus offerings out there, which is a huge benefit. Avira has a major drawback, though, which is the lack of tech support. For the average user, having tech support for a free antivirus software might not be necessary, but it may come in handy if you encounter trouble with the software and how it detects (or doesn't) viruses, spyware and malware on your computer. When installing, you might even find that Avira actually disables network connectivity, in which case you are in need of tech support. On the other hand, Avira has one of the best malware blocking algorithms among free antivirus programs, which is definitely a pro and a good reason to choose it over other free options available. One annoying thing about Avira is that even though you have the free version installed on your system, it still shows the options you need to pay for. You get to try trial versions of features like Speedup, which is a system cleaning tool that can analyze and clean your registry, cache, junk files, logs and hard drives. You can only use the feature if you get the Avira Antivirus Internet Security or Ultimate Protection suites. The Pro version of the software only unlocks all features of the antivirus, while the Internet Security Suite includes System Speedup, and the Ultimate Protection Suite adds the Driver Updater tool. The Pro version costs $24 for a year for one user, the Internet Security Suite costs $36 for one year for one user while the Ultimate Protection Suite will set you back $48 for one user for one year. It's not the priciest offer out there, but it isn't the cheapest either. In the free version, you get all the must-have tools and features like real-time protection, system scanning and timely updates. The software's malware removing program works just fine and will remove and alert accurately most of the time. It does encounter problems in detection, but it will reach an average of 80 % malware detected and removed on most occasions. While 100 % would be ideal, there are few free antivirus software (or none, actually) that can do that. But you would have to be severely malware infested with new types of malware in order for Avira to not make a difference. On the other hand, Avira does a great job on a malware-free system, being able to block nearly all incoming malware, up to 97 % of the time. Avira is also good at detecting new malware that doesn't have a signature yet, blocking them instantly, which is a very good feature in a free antivirus. Once you install Avira, it comes with an extension or toolbar which you can use in your browser. I find that it can identify safe websites easily, as well as identify all the trackers that might be active on one site or another. You can easily block or unblock trackers based on what kind of user experience you want on the web. You can block services which track your activity so that they can target ads better, but you can unblock Google+, Facebook and Twitter trackers if you want to have accurate suggestions and recommended articles on social media. It is interesting how Avira offers these options up and I really enjoy having the option to disallow tracking if I don't want ads to be targeted at me. I prefer seeing random ads and then blocking them if I mind them. Anyhow, the browser safety is pretty good with Avira, but not the best. It doesn't always detect a harmful site, but it always detects harmful direct downloads, which is neat. Overall, Avira is good for real-time protection, but if anythings slips past it, you're pretty much a goner.
Now on to AVG. This program is a bit more popular than Avira and has been called the best free antivirus software of the year, repeatedly. No wonder, since it offers quite a lot of tools you can use and the level of real-time as well as scanning protection it offers is top-notch. One annoying thing about AVG (and this is the same for Avira, too) is that it constantly pesters you to try a free trial of the full security suite and prompts you to upgrade to use certain features that are still present in the antivirus, only unusable until you decide to upgrade. You also get a lot of suggestions within the interface, advertising other AVG security products and mobile solutions, most for a fee. This is the case with most free antivirus programs, so you won't be finding a good one that doesn't ask you to upgrade to benefit from additional tools. Alas, we are glad that we have free software at our disposition and we are grateful for it, too, since not all of us can spare $50 a year for antivirus protection only. The user interface on AVG is more packed than on Avira, but it does offer more tools than the latter, which acts in its favor at the moment. Naturally, you get real-time protection and web browsing protection, but AVG is best when it comes to malware prevention and detection. Malware blocking and detection is the best feature on AVG which beats Avira's scores by a mile in various tests. It can also detect new malware which doesn't have a recognized signature, but Avira can do that well enough, too. Still, AVG is better at malware detection and removal than most free antivirus out there, so I would definitely recommend it if you already have a malware infested system or are prone to having one in the end. AVG also adds a toolbar to your browser and offers the opportunity to perform secure searches directly from the toolbar. Much like Avira, AVG reports the safety of each website you visit, but it adds additional information that details why the site is considered to be safe and you have the option of checking out a detailed report about each site. It also lets you block or unblock trackers, like Avira does, depending on your own preferences and views about tracking. Overall, Avira and AVG tie up nicely next to each other, but each has its own drawbacks. With Avira, you get limited information about websites and fewer tools to use, while AVG is annoying with all the promotions and prompts to upgrade, but offers better information on websites and better malware protection. It is up to you and your preferences. If you are not bothered by consistent prompts to buy something, AVG might be the best choice when it comes to free antivirus, since it does antivirus-stuff better than Avira and has a better track record with malware. But if you want a minimalist design
and an easy to use interface, as well as basic protection against known threats, Avira might just do the trick. If you want more information as well as statistics about various free antivirus software, ou can visit AVTest and review most major antivirus programs and their performance, as well as track record.