Avast vs AVG vs Avira vs Microsoft Security Essentials Review Of Free Antivirus Software

We review which is the best free antivirus – Avast, AVG, Avira or MSE. Updated 4th December 2012 – new test results. Recently I reviewed the best antivirus programs 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 the top four compare to each other.

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. The latest versions of each program (and links to my initial reviews) are:

Avast Free Antivirus 7
AVG Free Antivirus 2013
Avira Free Antivirus 2013
Microsoft Security Essentials 4.1

The commercial paid version of Avira was included in the tests because independent testing labs don’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 against free AVG 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.

Tip: although not as popular, the latest ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus 10.2 is a surprise package that has leapfrogged above all 4 of its free rivals for protection – and is the only one to include a firewall.

PROTECTION – The independent security institute AV-Test publish regular tests of antivirus software. Their latest tests for Sept/Oct 2012 rated the antivirus programs as follows:

AV-Test10

  • Avira falls down a little on usability but this may be because it is the paid version so includes a less user-friendly firewall. Repair abilities are close with AVG and MSE falling slightly behind. When it comes to Protection – Avast and AVG score very well and put many paid products to shame. Avira Free is likely to be a little lower than the paid version tested and MSE is a huge way off the pace – the only one of 24 products tested not to achieve certification.
  • 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 and AVG as top dogs, followed by Avira, leaving MSE trailing in fourth place.

Because these tests were performed on Windows 7, I wanted to see if the results were different on Windows XP so checked the earlier tests from Jul/Aug 2012 (full results here):

AV-Test11

  • MSE has particularly good Usability – perhaps a key factor in its huge popularity. Repair abilities are also close but AVG and MSE fall behind. 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 again falls a long way behind.
  • There’s not much to choose between the top 3 but MSE is left trailing in fourth place.

False Positives

False positives are detections of legitimate software as malware during a system scan. This can be almost as problematic as not detecting malware – if legitimate files are blocked or quarantined, genuine programs may not install/run correctly.

The combined number of false positives in the tests during September and October reveal that Avira and MSE had 1, Avast had 2 but AVG had 10 – and it had 10 in the tests between July and August too.

This is another shocking result from AVG, suggesting that its high position in Protection may have only been achieved by erring far too much on the side of caution – if you flag up almost every new file as malware you may get good protection at the expense of not being able to run/install genuine programs…

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.

My own conclusion from the tests above (and many others I have reviewed) is that Avast takes first place with Avira second – both offer solid virus and malware protection.

AVG takes third (due to its high number of false positives) and MSE is some way behind, providing dire levels of Protection compared to the others.

FEATURES

1. Download size

MSE – 8MB (32bit) or 10MB (64bit)
Avast 7 – 89MB
Avira – 97MB
AVG – online web installer 4MB then download the full package – 118MB (32bit) or 130MB (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 bigger than some full paid internet security suites and its use of a web installer means that you have to download the whole 118MB+ 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 they 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 4th December 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 to 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= AVG 2013 and Avira Free Antivirus 2013
4th – MSE 4.1

Avast has more (useful) features than AVG and is lighter, faster and has fewer problems with false positives – it offers very good protection and repair abilities too.

Avira protection is good but it misses important features that the others include as standard. More than any of the others, it seems to be a hook into the paid version rather than a genuine attempt at a comprehensive free product. Microsoft Security Essentials was the worst choice of all for security.

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 8, Windows 7, Vista (any edition except Starter), XP SP2+, Windows 2000 SP4
RAM: minimum 128MB RAM

AVG Free Antivirus 2013

Operating System: Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista, XP SP2+
RAM: minimum 512MB RAM for XP or 1GB RAM for Vista/7

AVIRA Free Antivirus 2013

Operating System: Windows 7, Vista SP1+, XP SP3 (32bit) or SP2+ (64bit)
RAM: minimum 512MB RAM for XP or 1GB RAM for Vista/7

MICROSOFT Security Essentials 4.1

Operating System: Windows 7, Vista SP1+, XP SP3 Note: not compatible with Windows 8 – see here for details
RAM: minimum 256MB RAM for XP or 1GB RAM for Vista/7

Tip: in my experience all the RAM figures above are optimistic and 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/7/8.

Downloads:

AVAST Free Antivirus 7 – website or direct download from Filehippo

AVG Free Antivirus 2013 – website or full installation file at Filehippo here (32bit) or here (64bit)

AVIRA Free Antivirus 2013 – website or direct download

MICROSOFT Security Essentials 4.1 – website or direct download

33 thoughts on “Avast vs AVG vs Avira vs Microsoft Security Essentials Review Of Free Antivirus Software”

  1. 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!

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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: https://techlogon.com/new-avast-7-free-antivirus-released/

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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 https://techlogon.com/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…

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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

  12. 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?

  13. 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?

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