Good lab scores. Excellent hands-on malware protection score. Simple ransomware protection. Always on if no other antivirus is present. CONS Poor results in phishing protection test. Awkward scan scheduling. SmartScreen Filter works only in Microsoft browsers.
CONS No test scores from independent labs Mediocre score for blocking malware downloads No protection against malicious or fraudulent URLs Lacks features found in competing free products. Tough, effective two-way firewall. Bonus features. CONS No antivirus lab test results. Lacks some antivirus features. No protection for malicious or fraudulent websites.
Behavioral detection tars good and bad programs in testing. Personal data protection fails in testing. You can bundle up your computers in the warm, fuzzy protection of an effective antivirus without dipping into your funds. The best free third-party antivirus programs handily outperform Microsoft Defender, the antivirus built into Windows. In fact, they rate better than many commercial programs.
With free antivirus tools you get the added benefit of taking several out for a spin before making the final choice. Your antivirus should definitely have the ability to root out existing malware, but its ongoing task is to prevent ransomware, botnets, Trojans, and other types of nasty programs from getting a foothold. All the antivirus programs in this collection offer real-time malware protection.
Some take the fight to the browser, working hard to ensure you never even browse to a malware-hosting site, or get fooled into turning over your credentials to a phishing site. If free antivirus tools are so great, why should anybody pay? For one thing, quite a few of these products are free only for noncommercial use; if you want to protect your business, you must pony up for the paid edition.
At that point, you should probably consider upgrading to a full security suite. After all, it's your business's security on the line. Choose other product version. Thank You for Downloading. Get started with ESET in 3 easy steps:. Click the download file to start installation. Downloading a desktop app on mobile? Check your inbox for the download link What's next?
Open the email on your computer Click on the Download link Start installation and follow instructions. Download for other operating systems Your license can also be used to activate our macOS and Linux products. That said, premium antivirus programs offer extra features above and beyond the fundamentals.
A robust system of parental controls could be a huge win for those with kids, for example. Or a dedicated anti-ransomware layer of protection that only comes with the paid-for product could help catch one of the most dreaded infections and halt it in its tracks.
For more on this, read our full piece on whether free antivirus is enough to protect you. Or just keep scrolling as we reveal today's best free antivirus software providers Paying for a premium service means you get more features like spam filters, parental controls, system scans and advanced firewalls.
This makes them more suitable for power users, those who want a bit of extra security and anyone who needs their system to run as smoothly as possible. It also means you avoid annoying pop-ups that try and tempt you to upgrade to the full version. In fact, these days you can get top quality protection absolutely free, with just about every single major vendor out there offering a free antivirus.
Avira Free Antivirus is today's best free security download If you're determined to get free antivirus, we strongly suggest that you go for our pick of best security downloads - Avira Free Antivirus. We've highlighted its long list of features below, together with information on how well it performs at independent testing labs. A very impressive freebie. That's pretty good for a freebie, and why we have no qualms at all in naming it as our 1 best free antivirus download.
As well as the essential security smarts, we also love the clean, friendly interface and the fact it has a track record of throwing up minimal false positives. In fact, the list of features reads more like a fully paid premium package. It throws in identity protection, a password manager, anti-scam protection to prevent phishing attempts, and even a PC cleaner to keep your system spick and span. If there's one thing we'd change then it's the tad overeager badgering - although popups and advertisements are very common to free products, and that doesn;t prevent us from wholeheartedly recommending Avira Free Antivirus.
Review and where to download: Avira Free Antivirus. Avast and AVG haven't yet fully merged, despite the former formally acquiring the latter in mid The newly combined company says the two free antivirus products will remain separate, although there's apparently a joint AV package on the way soon. Obviously, though, Avast now has a lot more data to work with, having expanded its effective userbase and, therefore, its threat detection network to a whopping million users.
The latest edition of Avast's free antivirus - now branded Avast One Essential - adds an automatic gaming mode to mute popups and reduce system load when you're firing up a processor-hungry game, which is very handy indeed, and the interface has been given a clean new overhaul.
There's a password manager, too, which is an undeniably good addition to your security portfolio. It scores well on AV-TEST's widespread malware benchmark and continues a clean sweep against 0-day attacks — presumably that expanded detection network is really helping.
Less impressive is the slight negative effect Avast has on software launch times, and its slightly popup-heavy attitude. Review and where to download: Avast Free Antivirus. Microsoft Defender formerly Windows Defender was generally seen as a bit of a joke in the not-too-distant past.
It performed terribly by most measures and was a good advert for why you should really pay for antivirus. But as we explain further up this article, Microsoft Defender has come on leaps and bounds and can now legitimately be mentioned in the same company as Bitdefender, Norton and Kaspersky. As well as very solid virus protection, Defender has extra bits and bobs like a ransomware shield, webcam protection, privacy tools and even basic parental controls and cloud backup.
And the best bit No need to download a thing, just find it in your menu and get protected straight away. Read more and see how to use: Microsoft Defender review. The paid-for version of Kaspersky's Windows security software frequently tops charts of best virus prevention solutions and AV-TEST once again gave it full marks across the board in its latest round of testing.
As you would expect, Kaspersky Free is a scaled down version of the full program - a tool that we really like more on which below.
The free version ditches additional features such as privacy protection and safe payment sandboxes to concentrate on powerful, no-frills and - most importantly - free protection for your PC. The result is a tremendously easy to use and navigate bit of software that does an effective job of keeping you protected from viruses. Using the nuts and bolts real-world scanning engine of the paid-for suite, Kaspersky Free is fiendishly hard for viruses and trojan horses to break down.
And we love that it doesn't constantly pester you with nudges to upgrade to the full version. But, ironically, we will just for a moment, because Kasperksy Anti-Virus isn't expensive to buy and yet affords much better protection to your PC or PCs. Review and where to download: Kaspersky Free. Marketing itself as "business-grade security", Sophos Home does a little more than most free antivirus software, and actually seems better suited to families.
You get standard virus protection and anti-malware protection, along with browser tools like anti-phishing and, most importantly, content control. Combined with central management of up to 10 PCs, this means you can effectively lock down your kids' browsing options.
Although Sophos Home has always had desktop notifications, there was no premium version of the software for it to encourage an upgrade to. That changed in February with the launch of Sophos Home Premium. Review and where to download: Sophos Home. Each entry in this list has been carefully chosen for its business features, such as remote installation and central management.
The best business antivirus software will have enterprise-level protection against threats, but that doesn't mean they have to cost a lot of money, either. The price per installation can sometimes be cheaper than even our recommended best antivirus packages.
Avast Business Antivirus Pro An excellent business antivirus suite, giving you various tools such as virus protection, Firewall, email protection, anti-spam and the ability to sandbox applications for complete security. Avast Business Antivirus Pro as opposed to the standard Avast Business Antivirus also includes Sharepoint and Exchange protection, as well as a number of tools for your servers.
Bitdefender products are loved by the independent testing labs, highly rated for malware detection, removal, performance and usability. The suite even features remote monitoring and management. Kaspersky Internet Security has excellent phishing detection skills. It not only blacklists known scam sites but it can try to figure out newer ones using its heuristic analysis component. The software will even offer to scan through your installed applications and look for potential vulnerabilities.
The parental control system developed by Kaspersky offers everything except remote management, according to PCMag. It not only blocks websites for teens and children but is also clever enough to prevent access to proxy services. It even helps parents control how much time is spent on the computer and has rating-based protection on video games to make sure your child doesn't end up playing a game meant for young adults.
Kaspersky Internet Security will run you Rs. Avira Antivirus Pro The name gives the impression that it's an antivirus program only, but Avira also includes a firewall and parental monitoring for your child's social network activity. The basic firewall allows setting up application rules and profiles so you can have stricter controls when switching from private to public networks.
As for the social networking module, once you identify your child's accounts, the software will monitor them for "suspicious" friends and look out for mentions of things they shouldn't be involved with, such as drugs and alcohol.
Avira doesn't offer a lot of add-ons unlike other products on this list, but if you're looking for an entry-level suite that does an excellent job with viruses and malware and provides basic firewall protection, Avira Antivirus Pro is more than enough.
For what it's worth, Avira has consistently ranked in the top five by multiple lab testers. Avira Antivirus Pro comes in at Rs. Emsisoft Anti-Malware Emisoft Anti-Malware tends to score great across reports, and its biggest strength - as the name suggests - is being really good at blocking malware.
The software is quite intelligent when it comes to blocking deep-level Windows access to new programs. Its blocking attempts are based on community reactions, and if a program is deemed to be safe by a majority of Emsisoft owners, the program is allowed to proceed with installation.
The capabilities of its phishing protection - an additional feature and not necessarily a part of antivirus products - aren't the greatest. And with the time now spent by most users inside browsers at an all-time high, this might well be a deal-breaker for some.
Unfortunately, it's not available for purchase on Flipkart or Amazon. But you can get it on the software's official website.
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