Introduction
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Antivirus software provides an essential layer of protection from
viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, adware, dialers, keyloggers, and
rootkits. However, don't let the name antivirus confuse you. These days
every good antivirus has good detection rates for all forms of malware,
not just viruses. The term malware includes viruses, trojans, worms,
spyware, adware, dialers, keyloggers, rootkits, and any other software
which performs malicious activities on a computer. Sadly, the amount of malware currently in circulation is so large that no antivirus could possibly detect all of it. Despite vendor's claims, no single antivirus solution can detect nearly all new malware. There are some products out there, including some in this review, which include technologies which are able to adequately protect a computer, but any product which relies mainly on detection is statistically doomed to fail eventually. Also, using more than one real-time antivirus at the same time uses much more system resources, can cause system errors, and can even reduce protection due to unintended conflicts. For my advice on how to compensate for these weakness of antivirus products please see my other article about How to Stay Safe While Online. Having a good antivirus product does go a large way towards adequately protecting your computer, but in this day I would highly recommend that you add additional layers to your security arsenal. Below I have reviewed some of the most effective Free Antivirus products currently on the market. In order to make this review more unbiased, although I do of course admit that my own intuition and experience does affect my judgment as well, I came up with a particular methodology for comparing these products. This methodology is described in the following section.
Recent Changelog:
18-12-2015 - New article editor: Added products to be reviewed
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Methodology For Comparing Products
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The main motivation behind why I came up with this particular
methodology for this review is that I value system protection against
real world threats above all other categories by which an antivirus is
commonly judged. It does not matter to me whether an antivirus protects
the user by detecting malware, blocking dangerous sites, behavioral
analysis, sandboxing, or any other approach. The most important thing is
that at the end of the day your system is safe from infection. Thus,
that is the attitude I have taken towards reviewing these products. My
criteria is entirely based on protection, not cleaning. Therefore, if
you believe your computer may be infected please first see my article on
How to Know If Your Computer Is Infected before continuing to read the rest of this article. I have located reputable Antivirus testing organizations which claim to test products against situations which resemble real-world situations. I narrowed these down by further requiring that the organizations have a relatively long record of producing good, seemingly unbiased, results. The organizations I ended up with, and therefore used for this review, are: AV-Test AV-Comparatives Dennis Technology Labs From here I looked at all tests spanning back over the last two years. However, if there were more than three tests within that range I used only the most recent three. Also, if given the choice between results from different operating systems, I chose that for the most popular operating system. At the moment Windows 7 is the most popular operating system. Also, I only considered results if it was specifically the Free Version which was tested. This is because the results for the Paid Version of the products in this review, with the exception of Comodo Antivirus (which has the exact same protection for its Free and Paid versions), are often quite different from those for the Free versions. Many marketing teams try to cloud this difference, but for the purposes of getting the most reliable information I am strict about this. Unless it can be explicitly proven that every protection mechanism is exactly identical to the free version the results for paid products are not considered in this analysis. In addition, I did not count it against any of the products if they were not tested by multiple organizations. As long as they were tested by at least one, within the above-mentioned period, they were considered. This criteria was chosen because there are many reasons to choose not to participate in a test. Thus, it should not be held against the product if they were not tested by multiple agencies. However, if they were not tested by any, this makes it impossible to compare them in an unbiased fashion. Once this data was collected, I then looked at the overall results for the Free Antivirus products discussed in this review, and ordered them mainly according to the quantitative results. However, my own knowledge of the products, and the reviews and experiences of others, were also considered. The results are presented and discussed below. |
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Discussion And Comparison
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Comodo Antivirus
is my top pick for advanced users, or for Intermediate users who are
okay with an antivirus software which will occasionally ask them for
input. However, if you do not fall into those categories, or for any
other reason find it to not be a good fit for you, then you will likely
find my next pick suitable. Also, for those who prefer a complete
solution, there is always Comodo Internet Security (CIS), which is also
free and includes a firewall in addition to all other components which
already come with Comodo Antivirus.
Firstly, I will note that I am a volunteer moderator (not employee)
on the Comodo forums. However, this is certainly not the reason I chose
this for the number one position. The reason I made this my top pick for
advanced users or users who are okay with a somewhat talkative
antivirus software, is because it is the only product which I feel
confident saying that it will protect you against nearly 100% of
real-world threats. This is because it maintains a white-list of known
safe applications. Then, all unknown applications, which include all
unrecognized malware, will be sandboxed and isolated from the rest of
the system. Thus, this product provides very strong protection against
even zero-day malware.
Comodo Antivirus also uses the cloud to facilitate the detection of
the most recent malware, as do many other Free Antiviruses reviewed in
this article. It will also analyze unknown applications for suspicious
behavior, and alert the user accordingly. However, as mentioned
previously, users who do not want a somewhat talkative antivirus should
continue to my next pick. Also, by default Comodo Antivirus has small
advertisements (which can be disabled as shown here). Also, please see my notes in the Quick Selection guide for advice on how to avoid unwanted software during installation.
Panda Cloud Antivirus is
an excellent choice for average users, who may find Comodo Antivirus
too confusing. It has a simple interface, completely automated features,
access to cloud-based protection, and has been shown to be very good at
protecting a computer. Panda Cloud Antivirus has a behavioral blocker,
web protection, and access to cloud-based protection, all of which will
help increase your security. The protection offered by this product is
very strong. However, do note that it will auto-quarantine files which
it believes to be dangerous.
Avast! Free Antivirus has
very good protection rates. Avast has many different protection
shields, boot-time scanning, a behavioral blocker, an internet site
ratings plugin, script malware protection, and access to cloud-based
protection. It's arguable whether their ratings plugin offers comparable
levels to Web of Trust, but the script malware protection can prevent
certain browser exploits, a feature not available in any of the other
free AV's reviewed.
However, do note that Avast requires a free registration to function
after 30 days, and the default installation installs the Chrome browser
unless you uncheck it. Also, note that the OpenCandy advertising
component is integrated into the Software Updater tool in Avast. More
information about OpenCandy can be read here.
Thus, if a user selects this option during the install they will end up
with OpenCandy on their computer. My advice would be that if you want
to install Avast you should not use the Software Updater tool.
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is
also a good choice for average users. My analysis of the results, as
discussed in the methodology section, does show that it does a decent
job of protecting your computer. However, it appears that the above
Antivirus products tend to do better. Also, it comes with advertisements
(but they can be disabled).
360 Total Security
is also a good choice for average users. Although it has gotten some
very stellar reviews, the results I found from looking at the results
from the testing agencies referenced earlier in this article show that
the protection it provides is roughly the same as AVG, but certainly not
as effective as Comodo, Panda, or Avast. This product uses multiple
antivirus engines to detect malware. It has cloud protection, and also
uses the Avira and BitDefender engines, although these are not enabled
by default. For more information about this antivirus, see the separate
article on this page.
Avira AntiVir Personal Edition is
another product which has a very good reputation. However, the free
version was not tested by any of the three testing organizations I
referenced in my methodology. Therefore, I cannot currently recommend it
above any of the previously mentioned products.
However, other comparative tests do show that it has very high
detection rates for malware. Also, many users have used it and found
that it is very effective. Also, Avira provides access to cloud-based
protection. AntiVir is certainly a good choice for a free antivirus, but
due to the lack of real-world testing, at this time I cannot recommend
it above the other products in this review. Hopefully in the future they
will have the free version tested by these organizations as well.
Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition
is another free antivirus product which has a very good reputation.
However, the free version was not tested by any of the three testing
organizations I referenced in my methodology. Therefore, I cannot
recommend it above any of the previously mentioned products.
The engine for this product appears to be very similar the commercial
product, although there are some tweaks. However, the level of
protection provided has not been shown conclusively to be identical with
the paid version, which is why I did not use the results for the paid
version in my analysis. Bitdefender Free has both local and cloud-based
definitions. Thus, users always have access to the most up-to-date
definitions. It also has an effective heuristics engine, and uses a
component called the Active Virus Control to monitor applications in
real-time for suspicious behaviors. In addition it also has a webshield,
which seems quite effective at protecting users from both malware
infested and phishing sites.
The user interface for this product is very minimalist. Thus, it may
be attractive for novice users, although more advanced users may be
frustrated at the lack of customization. However, it has no offline
installer, and it also requires registration to continue using it past
30 days. Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition is a good choice for a free
antivirus, but due to the lack of real-world testing, at this time I
cannot recommend it above the other products in this review. Hopefully
in the future they will have the free version tested by these
organizations as well. Also, note that if you are having trouble getting
Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition to install in English please follow
the steps in this post.
Please help us by rating this review
End-Note: Please note that I also looked into Forticlient , Kingsoft, and Microsoft Security Essentials.
However, I found that the protection offered by these products is
subpar. Thus, if you are considering using Forticlient or Kingsoft I
would strongly recommend that you instead consider another of the
products reviewed in this article.
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