Fans of both companies can rest easy years and years later, there's still no plan to merge them into a single product. It's an impressive collection of security tools-especially considering that it's free.Īvast acquired rival free antivirus company AVG in 2016. On top of excellent antivirus protection, it adds a network security scanner, browser protection, and more. Avast Free Antivirus gives you more than many competing commercial products.
But actually, many of the most popular free antivirus tools offer full-scale protection and a ton of extra features. Getting the advanced bonus features would require becoming a paying customer. Avast has shut down its Jumpshot market analytics subsidiary, which was found to be using data about Avast customers’ browsing habits as part of its product, but we’re nonetheless disinclined to recommend handing that information over.ĭespite that spot of dubious data handling, which has now been publicly resolved, Avast remains a lightweight and effective malware protection solution, especially for older PCs.It might seem logical that antivirus companies would offer free antivirus protection as a kind of loss leader, with only the most basic protection. Neither of these is our preferred anti-tracking tool - uBlock Origin is a lightweight and effective alternative.
You do get access to a couple of extra tools in Avast’s Performance section: a software updater and a do not disturb button to keep your antivirus software from interrupting when you’re playing a game or watching a film at full screen.Īn optional anti-tracking and online reputation checking browser extension, Avast Online Security, is also available from Avast, as is the fully branded Chromium-based Avast Secure Browser. These restricted features include webcam protection, a dedicated firewall, a sandbox to run suspicious applications, and a few other tools and features that aren’t available to free users. Click on them, and you’ll be prompted to upgrade. Promotions for Chrome may also appear in Avast’s software updater if you don’t have it installed.Įlsewhere, features that are only available in the paid-for version of the software are marked with a lock symbol. A small “Go premium” button lurks at the bottom of the interface’s sidebar and a bottom bar prompts other avast products. Once you’re running Avast, you’ll encounter a few more promotional messages.
As far as partner promotions go, we were invited to install Google Chrome alongside Avast at installation.
However, if you do register, you can also sign up for free alerts if your email address is included in a breach.Īvast’s free product exists to support its paid-for software, both by sending back data about new viruses that users might encounter and by directly promoting products by Avast and its partners, but this isn’t particularly obtrusive. You don’t need to create an Avast account to use the free service. It also flagged only one benign file as a false positive.Īvast did well in AV-Test’s system performance impact tests, and had less of an impact on software install times than Microsoft Defender, particularly on low-spec systems, although it did slightly worse on website load times, launching software and copying files.
However, it still aced the critical real-time protection test, which tests its ability to defend against malware as it might be encountered in the wild. Unusually, Avast’s performance slipped slightly in the latest (July - August 2021) tests by AV-Test, dropping to 99.9% protection against a reference collection of recent malware samples in August. You also get ransomware protection, which prevents unauthorised changes to selected directories.
However, if you have a slower PC that might benefit from more streamlined software, or if you’re using an older version of Windows (such as 7 or 8.1) that’s no longer supported with updates from Microsoft, Avast is an excellent choice.Īs well as realtime virus detection and on-demand scanning, Avast includes dedicated protection against threats via the web, your local network, local files and attachments received via your desktop email client.
However, Avast provides a more polished interface and a particularly good range of features.įree third-party antivirus suites now primarily serve as an alternative to Microsoft Defender, which is extremely good at realtime malware defence and is built into Windows 10 and 11. The company also owns erstwhile rival AVG, and the two product ranges share the same malware detection engine. Avast provides both free and paid-for security software under a variety of brands, but is best known for Avast Free Antivirus.