Best Free Antivirus Software

We all like getting free stuff, but when it comes to digital security, is it a good idea to rely on free antivirus software? After months of testing free antiviruses, our team reached this consensus: premium antiviruses are usually better on account of all the extra features and protection they provide. However, free antivirus tools should suffice for those who are looking for a more economical way to protect themselves from digital threats. We also agreed that some free antiviruses are better than others, and so we put together this list of the best of the best. Keep on reading to find out which free antivirus software made our list and why.

List Statistics

We feel confident about our top two picks— TotalAV and Kaspersky— but the whole point of this review is to give you, our readers, options. That’s why we also included four other antivirus programs that performed strongly during our tests. They are Bitdefender, Avast, AVG, and McAfee. So while going through this list, please feel free to examine and decide which of these five free antiviruses suit you the best.

What Goes Into Our Review Process

Before anything else, let’s get one thing straight: we knew we were testing free software, so we made sure to keep our expectations realistic. However, that didn’t stop us from setting a standard. We set out to do our tests with the goal of finding free antivirus tools that provide the bare minimum virus and malware protection we require. And if they offer extra protection in the form of additional features? Even better! That said, here are the factors we considered during our review process.

Free Trial vs. Free Version

If you Google “free antivirus,” you’ll find dozens of companies offering free trials and free versions. Subjectively, we prefer free versions because they can be used indefinitely whereas free trials have a time limit. We want to give our readers options that they can use for a long time and not just for seven or 30 days.

With that being said, we didn’t completely eliminate free trials from our tests. Free trials often offer features similar to the full version and that’s good for those looking for better features. On the other hand, free versions are usually limited feature-wise. Some free versions also have a stricter limit to the number of devices or operating systems they support. So here’s the bottom line: we recommend free versions of antivirus tools to those who are in for the long haul and are okay with a limited set of features. But for those who want premium features for a limited time only, we suggest getting a free trial.

Priority Number One: Virus Detection

Now onto our actual review process. All of our top picks meet the minimum virus and malware protection we expect from antivirus software, which we verified through our virus detection test.
First, we downloaded (but didn’t open) five viruses posing as regular files. They were in the .xlsx, .exe, .doc, .xlsm, .xls file formats. Pretty inconspicuous, right? Well, that’s how most viruses operate, so we expected our top picks to detect at least three of the five. We then proceeded to scan our computer using each antivirus tool. Out of the roughly 40 antiviruses we tested, only our top two picks, Bitdefender and Kaspersky, detected all five viruses. Meanwhile, Avast, AVG, and McAfee all detected three out of five, which is still a strong showing compared to some that managed to detect only one or two.

Scan, or Scan’t?

Next, we checked which methods of virus and malware detection each antivirus can and can’t do. We focused on three main methods: on-demand, on-access, and behavior-based detection.

• • On-demand scans: On-demand scans are user-initiated. If you have to click on a “Scan” button to start the process, then that’s definitely an on-demand scan. Most antivirus tools offer the option to do a full scan (all files and folders), a quick scan (most important files), or a custom scan (files you choose).
  • On-access scans: On-access scans take the load of initiating scans off the user by automatically running in the background whenever the antivirus software is open. So if the antivirus detected threats even though you didn’t scan your computer, it most likely has an on-access scan.
  • Behavior-based detection: Behavior-based detection doesn’t just scan your files for suspicious codes that might indicate malware infestation. It also looks at how each file behaves and flags suspicious activities. One example is if a seemingly innocent .doc file tries to change your computer settings. Because of its way of detecting threats, behavior-based detection excels at finding new malware not yet added to antivirus databases.

All three detection methods are important, which is why we looked for antivirus tools that have them all. In addition, since an updated virus and malware database is required for on-demand and on-access scans, we made sure that our top picks can all push automatic updates of their virus and malware database regularly. That will ensure that their ability to detect threats is always optimal.

Privacy 101

Of course, data security is important to us, so we looked into each antivirus company’s background to search for past privacy-related issues. Believe it or not, most if not all of the companies we checked have had breaches in the past. What’s important, though, is how quickly and efficiently they resolved those issues, and we’re glad to report that our top picks in particular have a history of acting immediately when security breaches arised.

We also checked each company’s current data collection policies, and most of them complied with the industry norms. However, note that the types of data antivirus companies normally collect might be more than what you’re willing to give up. It might include:

• • Personal information (name, email address, contact details)
  • Payment information (card numbers, bank account numbers, billing information)
  • Device information (IP address, MAC address, IMEI number, O.S version)
  • Usage statistics
  • Technical reports
  • Web usage statistics.