As in previous versions of the review of the best free antiviruses, I draw your attention to the fact that it is not my opinion and does not relieve any subjective preferences. It should also be noted that if previously antiviruses were tested for various versions of Microsoft OS, now it is usually only Windows 10.
- Test results of free antiviruses in laboratories
- Avast Free Antivirus.
- Microsoft Windows Defender or Windows Defender
- Avg Antivirus Free.
- Adaware Free Antivirus
- Panda Free Antivirus.
- Tencent PC Manager.
- Antivirus with the presence of a free version
- Video Overview
- Additional Information
Free antiviruses in laboratories tests
Most antivirus developers provide their paid antiviruses and comprehensive Windows protection solutions for the tests under consideration. And only individual antiviral solutions are tested in the free version, as of early 2021, this is:
- Avast Free Antivirus. - In the tests of AV-Comparatives, AV-Test and Virus Bulletin.
- Microsoft Defender. - In the results of AV-Comparatives and AV-TEST
- Avg Antivirus Free. and Panda Free Antivirus. - on AV-comparatives.
- Tencent PC Manager. and Adaware Free Antivirus. - on Virus Bulletin.
Additional nuance: part of free antiviruses that were previously actively tested and showed excellent results in recent years, they disappeared from tests, among them: 360 Total Security (several years ago was disqualified), Comodo Internet Security (Cause is not clear), Tencent PC Manager (disappeared From the results of two of the three laboratories).
When analyzing the combined antivirus tests for the consumer market of 3 laboratories, the greatest weight will be given the result of the "Real-Word Protection" (protection in real conditions), such parameters as performance and ease of use will be taken into account.
Summary test results as of the beginning of the year from AV-Test are presented in the following table. It contains not only free antiviruses, but also paid products. Sorting is made on the Protection column (protection), the following two columns - productivity and ease of use.
The following table is the result of annual testing from AV-Comparatives. New test sets are added here - Malware Protection (protection against malicious and potentially unwanted programs) and ATP (Advanced Threat Protection, a kind of advanced protection test in real conditions).
There is no similar results table on Virus Bulletin, but the result is close to what can be seen in previous results, with the exception of a wider set of tested antivirus products.
ATTENTION: Many free antiviruses when installing are offered to install additional programs, often browsers. Be careful, read the messages in the Installer dialog box, remove unnecessary marks.
Avast Free Antivirus.
And the best free antivirus in 2021 for the totality of tests is Avast Free Antivirus. A close competitor to which, according to some tests, is submitted by the following Windows Defender (Microsoft Windows Defender).
I ask your attention: Every year I get a lot of comments that Avast should not be submitted in the list. But with the selected method and excluding subjective preferences, I cannot but place it here: if you analyze tests, leave only free antiviruses, Avast Free Antivirus will come first and in your case, as the only free antivirus solution tested in all three laboratories and received the highest scores for most parameters. This is not my opinion and decision.
Free Antivirus from Avast is in the leaders of the rating of antiviruses of all laboratories since 2017, in 2021 the situation has not changed. For the totality of tests Antivirus:
- Provides maximum protection in real scenarios in Windows 10 and a low number of false positive triggers.
- It is convenient to use, although it is not quite clear to me a test method.
- Slightly affects the performance of the system.
If you drop tests and pay attention to the main negative user feedback, they are reduced to the following items: Antivirus can be established "in the load" to any third-party software, regularly proposes to switch to a paid version, in some cases there are problems when removing, cases are possible. Influence on the Internet connection.
Avast Free Antivirus can really be called sufficiently convenient and functional solution: the interface is understandable even to the novice user, fully in Russian, contains a significant amount of useful (sometimes not very) functions similar to those that can be found in comprehensive paid solutions to protect the computer From threats. Of the additional features of Antivirus:
- Creating an emergency disk (flash drives) to download a computer or laptop, viruses check and other threats outside the Windows running OS.
- Scanning browser extensions, detection not only viruses, but also malicious or potentially unwanted programs.
- Optimization tools, cleaning the system, update drivers and programs (some of which are installed as additional modules).
When installing an antivirus, the user can configure a set of additional protection components: perhaps from some will be decided to refuse. You can download free Antivirus Avast from the official site https://www.avast.ru/index
Microsoft Windows Defender or Windows 10 Defender
Built-in Anti-Virus Windows 10 - earlier "Windows Defender", now - Microsoft Windows Defender or "Protection against Viruses and Threats" Windows 10 From the moment of its appearance, a big way from the antivirus of a very middle level to the test leader has passed.
In the past 4 years, Windows Defender demonstrates the level of protection is no worse than the famous paid products, its functionality is expanding from version to version, and work in a combination with other Windows 10 security tools, such as firewall, SMART Screen filters, control records and sandbox Windows 10 is capable of covering most of the security of an ordinary user.
Is it possible to do the built-in Windows 10 protection. It is quite possible if:
- The user does not disable the UAC account control and understands why account monitoring may request confirm the actions and permissions when they need to be given, and when it is not worth it.
- Includes displaying file extensions in the system and can instantly distinguish the image file from the executable file that mimicries under the image.
- Checks files in which not confident on Virustotal.
- Restricts the use of unlicensed games and programs, especially those, the instructions for installing which begins with the words "Disconnect your antivirus".
- May complement the proposed list of many more points.
However, the same will be true and when using any other antivirus - paid or free.
The author's author uses Windows Defender on all its devices with Windows 10 without any third-party antiviruses over the past few years.
Avg Antivirus Free.
A few years ago, the AVG developer was acquired by Avast and today these two antivirus products, inherently, and in the results of tests associated directly with anti-virus protection, are not much different. The reason why in this review AVG Free Antivirus in the third place is that the free version of this antivirus was tested only in one of three laboratories.
Differences of AVG AntiVirus Free from its fellow I would have born to a different interface and a smaller number of additional modules that are not directly related to the protection of the system. Perhaps for someone from users this option is suitable to a greater extent.
Otherwise - a clear and user-friendly interface, all major functions, such as virus protection and malware, scanning removable drives and others are present in the free version and work without complaints.
Download AVG Antivirus Free You can from the official site https://www.avg.com/ru-ru/installation-files
Adaware Antivirus Free.
Starting from this antivirus there is ambiguity of the results: in this case, it is tested only in Virus Bulletin, where they showed close to excellent results.
Adaware Antivirus FREE The product relatively little-known product, the official website does not have a Russian language, although the antivirus itself is in Russian. The free version does not contain firewall and some less important functions, the rest is a full-fledged antivirus with the module included to detect malicious and potentially unwanted programs.
Download Adaware Antivirus Free You can from the official site https://www.adaware.com/free-antivirus-download
Panda Free Antivirus (Panda Dome)
Free Antivirus from Panda in previous years showed maximum points on most tested parameters, but this year the score was reduced despite 100% of the threats detected, the number of false positives was also higher than the critical one.
Panda Free Antivirus has a good reputation, available in Russian (there is no site in Russian), in the free version available: real-time protection, monitoring of processes and USB drives, the ability to create a boot disk with antivirus, as well as a built-in VPN (limit - 150 MB traffic in the free version).
Official site for download Panda Dome - https://www.pandasecurity.com/en/homeusers/Free-antivirus
Tencent PC Manager.
Tencent PC Manager is a free Chinese antivirus, which escaped forward after another kind of conorganist - 360 Total Security was disqualified from the rating of the best antiviruses. Both products have a noticeable similarity between themselves. This year, the considered antivirus was tested only in Virus Bulletin (the results are close to the maximum), although until 2019, his study was conducted in AV-comparatives.
In addition to its own anti-virus "engine", the Tencent PC Manager connects the detection system from the BitDefender - the long-term leader among antiviruses, any unnecessary functions, in addition to the protection in real time, the correction of the problems of the system after threats and scanning on demand is not here. It is also the only one of the free antiviruses in the review, where there is no Russian interface language.
You can download the international version of Tencent PC Manager from the official site https://www.pcmgr-global.com/
Free versions of the best paid antiviruses
As noted earlier, most of the developers of antiviruses provide their paid comprehensive security systems for testing. However, many of them are also available in the free version - limited in terms of available features, but not inferior to the protection of a computer from viruses and malicious programs. And, possibly, if necessary, install Antivirus can be reasonable to pay attention to the following programs for free:
- Kaspersky Security Cloud Free 2021 - From one of the leaders of the antivirus market not only in Russia, but also in the world. Blocks advertising installations, detects not only viruses, but also malicious and potentially unwanted programs.
- BitDefender Antivirus Free Edition - from another manufacturer of antiviruses, from year to year in the top of the ratings and test results.
- Avira Free Security 2021 - A free version of a comprehensive solution to protect against a German developer, also with excellent protection rates and additional modules: VPN, acceleration of the system, search for duplicate files, updating programs on a computer, password manager and others.
Video Overview
Additional Information
Despite the fact that the anti-virus products began to be implemented by the struggle not only with viruses as such, but also malicious or potentially undesirable programs, extensions, replacing browsers and not only, with this task, special programs still do better (for example, ADWCleaner) developed precisely for these purposes. They do not conflict with antivirus when working and allow you to remove those unwanted things that your antivirus does not see. " Read more about such programs - the best means of removing malicious programs from the computer.
This rating of antiviruses is updated once a year and for the previous years there has accumulated a lot of comments with user experience on the use of various antiviruses and other PC protection tools. I recommend to familiarize yourself with them below, after the article - it is quite possible, you will find new and useful information for yourself.