Avast! Free Antivirus

Bottom Line

Avast! Free Antivirus has no shortage of rivals, including notable software makers AVG and Avira, but remains the most popular free antivirus and anti-spyware program. While it doesn't contain the bells and whistles of its subscription-based competitors, Avast! is "the cream of the crop of free antivirus tools," according to one expert review.

Setup and Installation

Mixed results. Prague-based Avast! has the most downloads of any free antivirus software and is a CNET Download.com Editors' Choice. Setup is fairly easy, and a preemptive scan (called a boot-time scan) wipes out infections before running the full install. Avast! scores well in lab tests at catching malware -- though not as high as paid products -- but there are only a couple of in-depth reviews discussing issues like installation. One was by PCMag.com's reviewer who spent an hour with tech support troubleshooting installation issues on his malware-infested test computer. While the issues were resolved, PCMag.com gave Avast! 2 out of 5 stars for installation because of the time it took and knocked down its rating to "good." On the flip side, AV-Comparatives.org called Avast!'s uninstaller/change wizard "exemplary" (they also praised Avast! rival AVG's uninstaller) for making it easy to update the software, repair the installation and remove components.

Features

Blocks viruses, spyware; warns of phishing scams. Avast! Free Antivirus doesn't have sophisticated features like security for online financial transactions like some of its paid competitors, including our choice for best antivirus software, Bitdefender. However, Avast! Free Antivirus' most recent version, 8, blocks viruses and spyware with an attractive design and clean interface that looks smart on Windows 8 systems. U.K.-based PC Pro calls Avast! "the cream of the crop of free antivirus tools, with great protection, plenty of features and an exceedingly light touch." You can choose to set your interface in 42 languages; there is narration of updates that can be turned off. (In English, the default accent is American.) There are pop-up warnings for phishing scams that aim to get your financial information and passwords, though phishing protection is rated only satisfactory in PCMag.com tests.

Avast! Free Antivirus' sandbox technology tests out suspicious software in a quarantined area that can't harm your PC, and a remote assistance tool allows users to access and troubleshoot someone else's computer. For consumers needing more features, including firewalls, secure online transactions, personal data security and spam control, Avast! offers these features in its paid products.

Performance

Catches most, if not all, threats. While Avast! Free Antivirus doesn't score as well as some paid software providers in malware detection and other tests, many experts say it's the best free antivirus product on the market. In PC Advisor tests, Avast! 7 Free Antivirus scanned more files than any other software the site had ever tested -- it checked over 18,000 files in just over two minutes, or 137 files per second. Running the scans slowed down the system significantly, though, with PC Advisor reporting that a 1 GB file transfer took five times longer when Avast! was checking files. Testing labs AV-Test.org and AV-Comparatives.org certify the software, giving it 14 out of 18 and one of its Top Rated awards, respectively.

Avast! had one of the lowest impacts on system performances in AV-Comparatives.org's tests. The lab calls Avast! "an excellent program in many ways," praising options in the setup and uninstaller and its clean interface. PCMag.com is disappointed in the installation and notes that performance scores could be higher; Avast! was unable to compete with the bigger paid services, scoring 8.5 out of 10 points for malware blocking and performing worse in phishing tests. PCMag.com is by far the toughest on Avast! and instead recommends competitor AVG, a runner up in this category.