What’s The Best Free Antivirus Program?
Posted by: Timothy Tibbetts on 03/07/2016 06:38 AM
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If I had a nickel for every time I was asked what the best free antivirus was, I’d have thousands of nickels, which wouldn't really that awesome in 2016. I mean, banks don't even like you to bring them your change anymore. You basically have to give up a percentage of your coins at one of those automated machines that count your coins for you. Then they reject some of those making even more of your nickels worthless. Now, what we're we talking about?
The short answer: At least get one. There are a lot of really good free choices so you have the choice of at least 4 or 5 on any given day. From there, it's about how much of your computers resources it uses, if you like the interface and most importantly, how well it works. As far as how well it detects and protects, that can be divided into numerous sub-sections and where the difficulty of "the best" gets blurred and difficult to follow and understand. All the free antivirus programs have their highs and lows over the years so finding one that meets all 3 of these checkpoints is difficult but here're some of our favorites.
1: Panda Free Antivirus protects you while you browse, play or work and has a small footprint because it is cloud based. They had a popup nag issue for a while that drove me away, but that issue is gone and it's been my free go-to antivirus for years now. It ranks up there with the top 2 paid antivirus suites.
2: AVG Free Edition gets the trophy for the most popular antivirus on MajorGeeks. It's been around a long time and has had its ups and downs like the others but is a solid, reliable antivirus.
3: Avast Free Edition is another very popular antivirus. It has a nice interface, solid detection rates. Last I checked I didn't care for the sound effects but that's a small price to pay.
4: Avira Free Antivirus is another very popular free antivirus that has been a solid performer over time.
5: Microsoft Security Essentials had serious performance and detection issues over the years but has finally stabilized. It makes some people feel good to run Microsoft as their antivirus but I've never really been a fan.
The long answer: It's a trick question. Any of these will work for you but the consistently best-rated antivirus programs over time are BitDefender followed closely by Kaspersky and Panda. These 3 consistently beat everyone in the paid and free categories, but only Panda is free.
Now, let's discuss something many people often neglect to bring up when discussing which free antivirus is the best.
The free antivirus programs provide only basic protection. If you are really concerned about your security, you're simply not going to get the best protection with a free antivirus program. Period. BitDefender and Kaspersky are paid products and considered "internet security suites" providing much more than just basic protection with a free antivirus.
How many times have you heard someone say they got a virus or malware but they were running antivirus? For me, more times than I remember. How many times have you heard someone say they got virus or malware but were only running the most basic free protection? That literally never happens.
All of the free antivirus programs offer some sort of upgraded version that you can purchase giving you the "Professional" or "Security Suite". With the paid versions you will get complete protection and in many cases, faster detections of the latest threats.
So, if you asked me to answer the question (about time, right?) my answer would be none of the above, but rather to purchase BitDefender.
They say the best things in life are free. It's just not true here.
The short answer: At least get one. There are a lot of really good free choices so you have the choice of at least 4 or 5 on any given day. From there, it's about how much of your computers resources it uses, if you like the interface and most importantly, how well it works. As far as how well it detects and protects, that can be divided into numerous sub-sections and where the difficulty of "the best" gets blurred and difficult to follow and understand. All the free antivirus programs have their highs and lows over the years so finding one that meets all 3 of these checkpoints is difficult but here're some of our favorites.
1: Panda Free Antivirus protects you while you browse, play or work and has a small footprint because it is cloud based. They had a popup nag issue for a while that drove me away, but that issue is gone and it's been my free go-to antivirus for years now. It ranks up there with the top 2 paid antivirus suites.
2: AVG Free Edition gets the trophy for the most popular antivirus on MajorGeeks. It's been around a long time and has had its ups and downs like the others but is a solid, reliable antivirus.
3: Avast Free Edition is another very popular antivirus. It has a nice interface, solid detection rates. Last I checked I didn't care for the sound effects but that's a small price to pay.
4: Avira Free Antivirus is another very popular free antivirus that has been a solid performer over time.
5: Microsoft Security Essentials had serious performance and detection issues over the years but has finally stabilized. It makes some people feel good to run Microsoft as their antivirus but I've never really been a fan.
The long answer: It's a trick question. Any of these will work for you but the consistently best-rated antivirus programs over time are BitDefender followed closely by Kaspersky and Panda. These 3 consistently beat everyone in the paid and free categories, but only Panda is free.
Now, let's discuss something many people often neglect to bring up when discussing which free antivirus is the best.
The free antivirus programs provide only basic protection. If you are really concerned about your security, you're simply not going to get the best protection with a free antivirus program. Period. BitDefender and Kaspersky are paid products and considered "internet security suites" providing much more than just basic protection with a free antivirus.
How many times have you heard someone say they got a virus or malware but they were running antivirus? For me, more times than I remember. How many times have you heard someone say they got virus or malware but were only running the most basic free protection? That literally never happens.
All of the free antivirus programs offer some sort of upgraded version that you can purchase giving you the "Professional" or "Security Suite". With the paid versions you will get complete protection and in many cases, faster detections of the latest threats.
So, if you asked me to answer the question (about time, right?) my answer would be none of the above, but rather to purchase BitDefender.
They say the best things in life are free. It's just not true here.
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