Review: Free Antivirus Software

General Topics
1

Another Review of Free Antivirus Software can be found here:
http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/a/freeav.htm

2

In short: AVG has none advantages over avast in this test.
Antivir has some, but some disavantages.

Zoo Detection:
AVAST: 92%
AntiVir: 85%
AVG: 81%

False Positives:
AVAST: 9
AntiVir: 2
AVG: 11

Response Times: AntiVir (5) better than AVAST (2) better than AVG (1). Number of times that were among the first five to release antivirus updates.

Compressed/Archive Types that could scan
AntiVir: 30
AVAST: 28
AVG: 17

Adware and Spyware (remove active adware and spyware installed)
AVAST: 33%
AntiVir: 5%
AVG: none

Disk space: 40Mb or less (better is AVG with 30Mb)

Footprint (did not mention the virtual memory used)
AntiVir: 3 processes
AVG: 4 processes
AVAST: 6 processes

Support Options: online knowledgebase or self-help forum
AVAST: + phone support
AntiVir: -
AVG: -

The Final Scores without adware/spyware removal (possible 125.6 points)
AVAST: 89
AntiVir: 94
AVG: 66

The Final Scores including adware/spyware removal (possible 125.6 points)
AVAST: 66
AntiVir: 58
AVG: 30

avast revision: http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/gr/avastfree.htm

Thanks Bob for posting the test :wink:

3

Yes, thanks Bob, for posting about the test. :slight_smile:

And … thanks Tech, for posting the additional link. :slight_smile:

4

These reviewers still don’t get it (even though this is a good review)

- Support options are limited, but this is increasingly the case with even paid-for scanners.
Then they sort of contradict this by saying.
Alwil Software, makers of AVAST, offers support for the free version via email, online help forums and knowledgebases.
How that can be deemed 'Limited' from the first comment is beyond me, given the level of help available at the forums ;D