NOTE: Article updated 26th April 2012 with latest test results
I have reviewed the best commercial antivirus programs before but one question I keep being asked by customers in my computer repair business is which is the best free antivirus? Specifically, people want to know how they compare to each other e.g. Avast vs AVG or Avira vs Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE).
Those 4 programs are by far the most well known, racking up hundreds of millions of downloads but what’s the best free antivirus? As they’re all free, price isn’t a factor – the most important differences will be in the level of protection they offer – lots of bells and whistles are pointless in a free antivirus program if it doesn’t provide adequate protection. I will therefore review the level of protection first and then look at the other features of each program.
Notes On Testing
The latest versions of each program (at the time of writing) are: Avast Free Antivirus 7, AVG Free Antivirus 12, Avira Free Antivirus v12 and Microsoft Security Essentials 4.0
However, MSE 4.0 was too new to be tested – see my review here for a closer look at its new features.
The commercial paid version of Avira was included in the tests because independent testing labs didn’t test the free version. It is possible to estimate how good the Protection of Free Avira would be – just as when labs test the paid AVG/Avast against free AVG/Avast there is only a slight difference of about half a point (the paid versions simply have more features and a firewall) because it’s the same AV engine being used in both.
PROTECTION
The independent security institute AV-Test publish regular tests of antivirus software.
Their latest tests for Jan/Feb 2012 rated the antivirus programs as follows (full results here):
* Note: Avira was tested with its full commercial paid Internet Security suite which I would expect to perform about 0.5 points better than Avira Free.
- It’s noticeable that all have very good Usability – a key factor in their widespread adoption. Repair abilities are similarly close – MSE is very slightly ahead of the pack. When it comes to Protection – AVG, Avast and Avira score highly (although Avira Free is likely to be a little lower than the paid version tested) but MSE falls a long way behind.
- Protection is always more important than Repair – viruses and malware can do so much damage (e.g. hiding all your documents or disabling your antivirus) before you realize you are infected that it is obviously best not to get infected in the first place. For this reason I rate Avast as top dog, closely followed by AVG with Avira slightly behind, leaving MSE trailing in fourth place.
Because these tests were performed on Windows XP, I wanted to see if the results were different on Windows 7 so checked the earlier tests from Nov/Dec 2011 (full results here):
* Note: Avira was tested with its full commercial paid Internet Security suite which I would expect to perform about 0.5 points better than Avira Free.
- Usability was very close but Avast was surprisingly poor in Repair ability – perhaps Avast 7 is better optimized for Windows 7.
- For Protection levels AVG leads the way, Avira Free likely to be runner up with Avast. MSE continues in fourth with poor levels of Protection.
Because different security research reports may produce different results, I considered other independent tests from AV-Comparatives which showed the following results:
On-demand tests of malicious software – Mar 2012:
Avast 7 and Avira Premium 2012 – Advanced+ 3 stars
AVG 2012 and MSE 2.1 – Standard 1 star
Good showing from Avast and Avira, AVG slipped up due to too many false positives, MSE had by far the lowest detection rate of all 15 products tested.
Retrospective tests of new or unknown malicious software – Nov 2011:
Avira 10.2 – Advanced+ 3 stars
Avast 6 and MSE 2.1 – Advanced 2 stars
AVG was not tested. Good showing from Avira, Avast slipped a bit but this was the older version 6, MSE as expected.
Conclusion – Protection
It is difficult to give an absolute opinion on protection levels – results inevitably differ depending on how the testing is performed and which settings are chosen within each antivirus program.
However, my own conclusion from the tests above (and many others I have reviewed) is that Avast 7 wins on XP but AVG 2012 wins on Windows 7 (although it has more false positives).
Avira 12 offers solid virus and malware protection. However, Microsoft Security Essentials is some way off the pace, providing far lower levels of Protection than the others – it does score well in Repair abilities but this is too late for most people considering how much damage a virus can cause in the first place…
FEATURES
1. Download size
MSE – 8MB (32bit) or 10MB (64bit)
Avast 7 – 72MB
Avira – 79MB
AVG – online web installer 4MB but then you must download the full package – 150MB (32bit) or 170MB (64bit) in total
Download size doesn’t necessarily show how many features a product has or how quickly it will work once installed. However, it can be a useful estimate as to how tightly a product is coded and how many ‘features’ are bundled into it.
MSE is tiny which matches its minimalist look and feature set – an ‘install and forget’ program with few extra features. In some ways that is a good thing but, considering its reduced level of Protection above, perhaps it is also a sign that its lightweight look and feel comes at the expense of security.
Avast and Avira are average sizes and both provide a single download. AVG is even bigger than some full paid internet security suites and its use of a web installer means that you have to download the whole 150MB+ for each computer you want to install it on – to avoid this, I have included links to the full installation files in the Download section below.
2. Basic Features
All 4 programs are free for home or personal use.
All 4 programs offer real-time (always on) and on-demand (scan) protection against viruses, spyware, adware and rootkits.
3. Email protection
Avast and AVG scan incoming/outgoing email for malware.
MSE and Avira do not (available in the the paid Avira Premium).
4. Safe Surfing Browser Add-on
The free WOT (Web Of Trust) is my recommended safe surfing add-on (see review) but free antivirus programs increasingly include their own versions:
AVG Free provides ‘LinkScanner’ whilst Avast uses ‘WebRep’ – both do a reasonable job. I don’t think they are as good as WOT but you could use both for maximum protection. MSE does not include a safe surf add-on.
Avira offers ‘WebGuard’ in the form of an opt-in Ask.com toolbar and search engine redirect which it calls Avira SearchFree Toolbar – personally I find this a little misleading as it is easy to install Ask.com by mistake.
5. Sandboxing
Avast provides an ‘AutoSandbox’ feature which automatically puts suspicious executable files into a virtual state if they are a threat.
6. Gaming/Silent Mode
A silent mode offers the ability to stop all notifications and messages from the antivirus program – typically used when you are gaming or in full screen mode to prevent interruptions from updates and pop-up messages.
Avast and AVG include a gaming mode option.
MSE and Avira do not (available in the the paid Avira Premium).
7. Boot-time Scan
A boot-time scan (as the computer starts up) may remove infections that cannot be removed whilst Windows is running – especially rootkits which are totally hidden in Windows.
Avast includes an option to set a boot-time scan. MSE and Avira don’t.
AVG doesn’t either but AVG do offer a free download of their System Rescue Disk here for CD or USB drive – booting from this provides similar functionality for removing infections via a boot-time scan.
Conclusion – Features
Avast is the clear winner with most extra features and AVG is a close runner up. Avira and MSE miss out on minor extras like Gaming mode (not important to all) but also on major features like email protection and boot-time scans which really should be included to compete with the best.
Conclusion – Overall
Updated 26th April 2012 as a result of the new tests.
All the programs offer useful protection and features for free and it’s difficult to choose a winner – especially as results may change over time as products are constantly updated. To make the decision even harder, not all of the features reviewed will be of the same benefit for every user and the overall level of protection offered may depend on the version of Windows used.
You will likely have reached your own conclusion by now. But if you haven’t, I said at the start that people ask me which I think is the best free antivirus program and they want a specific answer – not me sitting on the fence and saying they’re all good in their own way… So, in my personal opinion, I rate them as follows:
1st – Avast 7
2nd (equal) – AVG 2012 and Avira 12
4th – Microsoft Security Essentials 2.1
AVG vs Avast was hard to call but Avast has better (useful) features and is lighter and faster than AVG.
Avira vs Avast or AVG was not so close – Avira protection is good but it misses important features that the others include as standard. More than any of the others, Avira 12 seems to be a hook into the paid version rather than a genuine attempt at a comprehensive free product. AVG vs Microsoft Security Essentials was the easiest choice of all.
However, each program has its own strengths and weaknesses that may make it more suitable for your own specific requirements so I have given the system requirements and download links for all of them below:
Minimum System Requirements:
AVAST Free Antivirus 7
Operating System: Windows 7, Vista, XP SP2 (or SP3), Windows 2000 SP4
RAM: minimum 128MB RAM
AVG Free Antivirus 2012
Operating System: Windows 7, Vista, XP SP2 (or SP3)
RAM: minimum 512MB RAM
AVIRA Free Antivirus v12
Operating System: Windows 7, Vista SP1 (or SP2), XP SP2 (or SP3)
RAM: minimum 512MB RAM for XP or 1GB RAM for Vista/7
MICROSOFT Security Essentials 2.1
Operating System: Windows 7, Vista SP1 (or SP2), XP SP3
RAM: minimum 256MB RAM for XP or 1GB RAM for Vista/7
Tip: in my experience all the RAM figures above are optimistic absolute minimum requirements i.e. the antivirus will work but your computer may become very slow. Whether you use free or paid antivirus, my own recommendation is a minimum of 1GB for XP and 2GB+ for Vista/7.
Downloads:
AVAST Free Antivirus 7 – website or direct download from Filehippo
AVG Free Antivirus 2012 – website or direct download (web installer only) – full installation file at Filehippo here (32bit) or here (64bit)
AVIRA Free Antivirus v12 – website or direct download
MICROSOFT Security Essentials 4.0 – website or direct download
Related posts:
I think Avast is slightly preferable to AVG because it’s more lightweight and boot scan can save your bacon but i wish they would get rid of the need to register it, it’s free so why need ‘activation’ like that?
Just noticed that the result order is in the title of the story
Coincidence?
I use MSE and it is lightweight and never been infected, can’t see a reason to change now
I find AVG to be really bloated – the huge download does give an idea of how big and slow it is going to be – it’s even bigger than paid av like kaspersky which include firewall and spam filter, no reason why AVG should be more than twice the size of the others unless its coded badly?
thanks for the review, i webt right off avira when they started including ask toolbar and moved to avast. The sandbox has saved me a couple of times but it’s very slow when updating itself – any idea if avast 7 is out soon? Avast 6 seems to have been around a long time
Great Message are share to this website,i hopely enjoy reading time,thanks for your information,i’ll use anti virus of avast its really awesome software,its detect virus quickly and remove the virus quickly,i think avast best one software in antivirus list.if u think refer about software testing and QTP to see qtp book that would made yours a complete one.
I use MSE at home and I find that its good – it doesn’t show much false positives. Both Avira and Avast shows up a lot of false positives.
According to the AV Comparatives tests, MSE shows ‘very few’ false positives whereas Avira and Avast show ‘few’ so MSE is slightly better in this respect.
However the same tests show that Avira has 99.5% detection rates, Avast has 97.2% whereas MSE is third from bottom (out of 20) detecting just 92.1% of malware.
MSE is quick, easy to use and lightweight – if you practise safe browsing, keep software up to date and rarely encounter malware it may do a good job for you but I can’t recommend it for people looking for the best free protection.
I would have always put Avast ahead of AVG (which got bloated and poor detection in recent years) but the new 2012 version seems a big improvement, may have to give it a try.
BitDefender and Panda should be included in this shootout. Right now I’m using Panda Cloud Free AntiVirus along with McAfee which is included free with my AT&T Internet subscription (Norton AV is free with Comcast). Recently I was infected twice by the Win 7 Antispyware 2012 virus. The first time it happened I used FixNCR.reg, then RKill, then MBAM to get rid of the virus. The 2nd time it happened which was last night, I just ran ComboFix.
The reason why i’m here is because I’m looking for an alternative. While I like Panda Cloud Antivirus, it slows down boot time and shutdown. It also did not protect me from the virus mentioned above…TWICE! AVG, while good takes too much RAM and it’s huge. I think the free version of Avira should have been used for the shootout. Which means Avast is the winner for me.
BitDefender isn’t free (but I have reviewed it as part of paid AV comparisons and it’s highly rated). Panda isn’t as well known as the ‘big 4′ (yet) but will hopefully include next time if it continues to progress. Unfortunately most labs only test the paid version of Avira – perhaps because the free version lacks so many features it isn’t taken seriously?
Using Panda and McAfee together (or any 2 AV programs) may conflict with each other and/or slow pc down. McAfee did badly in all my reviews of paid AV last year – well below even free versions AVG and Avast…
Avast was top of this review until the latest results a month ago made me change it to AVG 2012 – but if you find AVG bloated then Avast is a great alternative with more useful features.
To avoid further infections, see http://techlogon.com/2011/04/08/how-to-avoid-virus-infections/
And if Avast is still not good enough then you’ll need to consider a better paid AV like Kaspersky or BitDefender – both offer far better protection than any of the free programs…
What was the point of this review?
You rated COMMERCIAL software in a FREE software review. Why are you posting results about a product that doesn’t belong?
Also what is this “usability” junk? It’s antivirus software. You get it because it protects you from viruses, and cleans them up. Not because someone who has 0 computer experience can use it easier. They all seem to be high in that department anyway, so throw those results right out the door. You can include them in commentary, but you skewed the AV cleanup / detection results with that useless bit of info.
The Avira scored highest in both the detection and cleanup. BUT YOU REVIEWED THE WRONG PRODUCT.
Thanks for a terrible review.
1. The ONLY place where the commercial Avira was included was in the Protection section – because independent testing labs didn’t test the free version. This was clearly stated.
It IS possible to judge from that how good the Protection of Free Avira is – just as when labs test the paid AVG/Avast against free AVG/Avast there is only a slight difference (the paid versions simply have more features and a firewall) – because it’s the SAME AV engine being used! This was also clearly stated and taken into account in the conclusions.
2. Usability did not skew the results at all as they were so similar.
3. You may not consider usability of software to be important but most people would disagree – there’s little point having a program if you need to be an expert to configure and use it.
Avast 6 > any version of AVG because AVG is bloated and not as user friendly. Speed is one of the biggest issues with AV’s, and AVG does not match up. As for boot time scans, I know Avast has one, and that is a big plus for me.
Avast 7 has just been released too. That may shunt it back to the top of the list, though I feel that it should never have been removed from #1, because it’s really that good.
Avast 6 has better (useful) features and is lighter and faster than AVG – but the newer AVG 2012 offers better protection… It depends which factor is most important to you but in my ranking I erred on the side of Protection.
I agree it will be interesting to see if Avast 7 can retake the lead – from my initial review it looks very promising: http://techlogon.com/2012/02/24/new-avast-7-free-antivirus-released/
In my opinion, Avast is really great. Though I’m using Avast! Internet Security, I may say that the free version is a complete, tough protection for pc and laptops.
In terms of paid versions, I once switched to Kaspersky Internet Security and it really does well but takes too long for updates. I then turned to Avast again because it’s light and doesn’t consume much memory even when scanning.
no
I prefer using MSE after trying Avast and AVG, but it is good to know that it is not as good at detecting the malware.
Have you done a similar comparison of free anti-virus apps for android tablets/phones? I would be interested in knowing how they stack up in terms of performance vs bogging the system down and using up the battery.
See the group test of 41 Android antivirus apps – 7 of the top 10 were free apps http://techlogon.com/2012/03/07/what-is-the-best-android-antivirus-march/
after having used almost all anti virus protection since ive had my first computer back in 04, i would have to say that avast is now the only company i trust to run my household computers…
It’s super light weight unlike all other anti virus protectors and detects and prevents a virus from even trying to touch my computers
GO AVAST!