Microsoft Security Essentials vs Avira vs avast! vs AVG: Best free anti-virus/anti-malware program for Windows [3rd Edition]
December 18, 2011 402
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Without a doubt one of the most popular questions I am asked is “which security software should I use for my computer?” Often times the person asking me the question is looking for a free security solution as opposed to a paid one. To address this question, I have already created a post on best security software. However, now – in this article – I am going to directly address the issue of “should I use Avira, avast!, or AVG?” Of course there are many other free anti-virus/anti-malware software. However, I feel these three are the most popular and most commonly inquired about, hence why I picked them.
Update on December 3, 2010: Because of its growing popularity, and requests made to me by many people, Microsoft Security Essentials is now included in this comparison.
When evaluating security software and trying to decide which one you want to use, there are two main areas which you should look at: Features and performance. So, lets get started.
This review is part of our Best Free Windows Software section. Check out more articles on the best free Windows programs from here.
Table of Contents
Summary of Update
Features Comparison
Performance Comparison
Detection Rates
Malware Removal Effectiveness
Computer Impact
In the 3rd edition of dotTech’s guide on Best Free Windows Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware the following changes have been made:
- Features Comparisonsection has been updated to reflect new features added to Avira Free, avast! Free, AVG Free, and Microsoft Security Essentials since the 2nd edition of this article was written. All four made tweaks and modifications to their existing features; the major new features are:
- Avira Free – “WebGuard”
- avast! Free – Behavior blocker, “Auto Sandbox”, “Script Shield”, “WebRep”
- AVG Free – Largely unchanged
- Microsoft Security Essentials – Behavior blocker, “Network Inspection System”
- Performance Comparison section has been updated to reflect new on-demand and retrospective detection rates for Avira Free, avast! Free, and Microsoft Security Essentials. AVG Free did not participate in the latest retrospective tests so AVG Free’s detection rates have been updated only for on-demand tests.
- Performance Comparison’s sub-section Speed and Computer Usage has been rewritten with a new source and renamed to Computer Impact.
- Performance Comparison now includes a new sub-section, Malware Removal Effectiveness.
(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)
In terms of features, as you can see in the chart above, all four programs provide the necessary fundamental protection. However, it is worth noting that neither of the programs provide full/advanced phishing protection; you will have to cough up money for paid versions to get full/advanced phishing protection. Or, you could just be careful about what links you click; and double-check to make sure the website you are at is who it claims to be since phishing success heavily depends on social engineering and user ambivalence.
Furthermore, while all four programs provide the fundamentals, avast! is the most notable one for going “above and beyond” the basics and providing a little extra bang for the buck (or lack thereof). In other words, avast! provides more “extra” features than the other three, although AVG Free also has some nice extras. It also should be noted Avira Free’s “WebGuard” requires users to install Avira Toolbar, which is powered by Ask.com; and Microsoft Security Essentials has an interesting feature called “Network Inspection System” — a guard against network-based exploits.
Lastly, even though Microsoft Security Essentials is the only one to not prompt users with advertisements it must be noted that the ads in avast! Free are non-intrusive and embedded within the main console window – they are not the popup ads Avira Free is notorious for and AVG Free sometimes displays.
(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)
(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)
When viewing the above test results, keep a few things in mind:
- The On-Demand Anti-Malware Tests are tests done on the security software with all their features enabled (with all settings set to the highest possible). The Retrospective/Proactive Anti-Malware Tests are tests done specifically on the security softwares’ heuristics capabilities; their capabilities to protect against unknown/new malware that have no signatures. It needs to be mentioned that heuristics is not the only feature that security software use against unknown/new malware. Other feature, such as behavior blocking, also help detect unknown/new malware; however only the heuristics feature (and no other features, such as behavior blocking) was tested in the Retrospective/Proactive Anti-Malware Tests.
- For the The On-Demand Anti-Malware Tests
- Microsoft Security Essentials had “very few” false positives; Avira had “few” false positives; avast! had “few” false positives; and AVG had “many” false positives.
- Avira scanned at “fast” speed; avast! scanned at “fast” speed; AVG scanned at “average” speed; and Microsoft Security Essentials scanned at “slow” speed.
- The tests were conducted 1-5 months ago. In other words, Avira, avast!, AVG, and MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) may have improved (or degraded) their performance since these tests were conducted. These are the versions of each program used for both of the above tests:
- The tests were conducted using the free version of Avira (“Avira AntiVir Personal” is another name for Avira Free); free and paid version of AVG, respectively for each test; and free version of avast!. Microsoft Security Essentials, of course, is free by definition.
Because of the above mentioned points,
- The performance of each software today may be different than when the tests were conducted.
- The performance of the free edition AVG may perform slightly differ than what is shown above since paid version for AVG was used for one test.
However, keeping that in mind, for the purposes of a simple comparison these test results work just fine because they give general indications, which is what we are looking for.
That being said, the results are a clear indication of Avira’s detection superiority. Not only does Avira have the highest on-demand detection rates, but it also tops the chart for retrospective tests; all with fast scanning and few false positives. avast! comes in a close second with healthy on-demand and retrospective rates, fast scanning, and few false positives. MSE is fourth in on-demand detection but does very well in retrospective tests and comes out on top when it comes to false positives. (It should be noted MSE’s lower on-demand rates help it do better in terms of false positives: It detects less so there is less chance of it to have false positives.) AVG, in my opinion, is the most disappointing of the lot. It doesn’t do too badly in on-demand but does terrible for retrospective and has many false positives.
Based off just these test results, Avira and avast! are definitely my two top picks, with MSE a close third. However, the tests were conducted in a lab setting for benchmark purposes. In other words, they don’t exactly reflect “real life”. In real-life usage the protection between all four program will be similar because most user activity will fall within areas covered by all four. I may be a bit bold when I say this but the differences between all four software will typically only be felt when conducting benchmarks or tests.
(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)
Being able to detect malware has value in of itself; simply knowing you are infected is worthwhile. However, an anti-virus/anti-malware program that cannot remove malware is probably one you don’t want to have. Hence in the 3rd edition of dotTech’s guide on Best Free Windows Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware we look at the results of a malware removal effectiveness test.
Before we discuss the results it must be noted this malware removal effectiveness test had limited scope — it only used ten samples. It is hard, and frankly not fair or logical, to draw authoritative conclusions based on a test that only used ten samples. However, for the purposes of a non-authoritative indicator, this test will do just fine… as long as you keep in mind the limited scope.
That said, Avira once again tops the charts. MSE comes in a close second with AVG and avast! lagging as distant third and fourth, respectively. As I said, this test used only ten samples so we can’t say avast! or AVG are incompetent at removing malware while Avira or MSE are the best. The results very well could have been different if different ten malware samples were picked. (That is why having a large, randomized sample size is important in any test.) However, I believe it is fair to say with its combined stellar performance on-demand and retrospective detection rates and malware removal effectiveness, Avira more than makes up in performance what it lacks in features.
(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)
(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)
(Click on the chart to view it in full size.)
NOTE: Avira Free 2012, avast! Free v6, AVG AntiVirus 2012, and Microsoft Security Essentials v2.1 were used for the above tests.
Generally speaking, the computer impact of all four software is about the same. True, avast! does come out on top but only by a small margin; and this small margin will only be noticed when benchmarking — not in real-life usage. Really the only test worth noting is opening Word and opening PDF. In this test avast! out shines the other three on the first run (subsequent run they all perform the same). All other aspects of the Computer Impact test end up with results that are too close to draw lines between.
(For those that don’t know, PC Mark is a professional, industry-recognized benchmarking tool. The higher PC Mark score, the better. However, when it comes to PC Mark, few points here and there have no significant meaning. If PC Mark scores were drastically different, such as 50 or more, then it would be worth looking at.)
Note: All tests referenced in all Performance Comparison sub-sections of this article were not conducted by dotTech. They (the tests) were conducted by AV-Comparatives.org, an authority on security software testing. I attained permission to re-publish AV-Comparatives’ results on dotTech when I originally wrote this article.
While there are some noteworthy aspects – such as Microsoft Security Essential’s low false positive count or avast!’s lowest computer impact or Avira’s best detection and removal performance – there is no one “winner” between Microsoft Security Essentials, Avira Free, avast! Free, and AVG Free. To try to determine which one is the “best” is like trying to split hairs; it is hard to do and it hurts. In real-life situations, all four programs will provide users with excellent protection.
However, with that being said, if I were to rank these four I would rank Avira and avast! as my top two picks; Avira for its detection and malware removal and avast! for its features and lowest computer impact. Microsoft Security Essentials and AVG come after Avira and avast!, with each providing one or two unique features that have potential to win over users.
Now, what program you should use comes down to your specific needs and desires. Want the most features? avast! Free is the way to go. Are you looking for the best detection rates and don’t care about anything else? Avira Free is for you. Want a simple anti-malware program that provides great protection without nagging ads? Microsoft Security Essentials beckons you. Worried about network security? Microsoft Security Essentials’ “Network Inspection System” may serve you well. Are you a social network addict? Go with AVG Free for it has “Social Network Protection”. Hate false positives? Avoid AVG and consider Microsoft Security Essentials. Dislike slow scan times? Don’t get Microsoft Security Essentials. Surf the web a lot, besides your frequent websites? avast! Free’s “Web Shield” provides better specialized protection in that area than the other three programs. Download lots of software? avast! Free’s “Auto Sandbox” may be your next best friend.
I have provided you with the facts; now the choice of Microsoft Security Essentials, Avira Free, avast! Free, or AVG free is in your hands. Whichever one you pick, rest assured all four will serve you well.
Avira Free AntiVirus
Supported OS: Windows 2000+
Avira AntiVir Personal homepage [download link]
avast! Free Antivirus
Supported OS: Windows XP+
avast! Free Antivirus homepage [download link]
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
Supported OS: Windows 2000+
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition homepage [download link]
Microsoft Security Essentials
Supported OS: Windows XP and higher
Microsoft Security Essentials homepage
Originally written on February 14, 2010. 2nd edition posted on December 3, 2010. 3rd edition posted on December 18, 2011.
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@Bill3:
Hi friend! :)
Sorry for my late reply. :( I hadn’t visited this web page in a while. My fault. :(
1) No. The Smiley keyboard instructions do not work on all websites.
2)The link I am giving you answers not only point number 1 but will give you keyboard typing instructions for all smilies (other than the 91 which Yahoo uses).
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Smilies
Again sorry for delay in replying
Ramesh :)
One thing not mentioned in the article is AVG’s link scanner/active surf shield.
That feature is the reason I install AVG on all my customers computers.
All 3 programs have a great resident shield, but AVG is the only one I’ve seen put an add-on in the web browser (IE and Firefox) for safer internet browsing. :/
Avast 5.0 For the win
Would not recommend AVG to an ant But it’s new look is kinda confusing also it dies from virus attacks quite easily we are forever removing it here at work to install wait for it…. AVAST 5.0
Cant say i have ever herd of avira
I’m a longtime avast! user, and have nothing but good things to say about it. It’s free, has kept every installed computer well protected (a few dozen computers over the span of my household and my friends’ and clients’ computers), and is generally non-intrusive (after turning off those annoying audio alerts, that is). I recommend it to everyone I meet, and it’s only gotten better over the years.
# eric
active surf shield has incompatibility with some common applications, eg. Jdownloader
So, its not a good idea to have it installed to customers.
I use both avira (to netbooks and light installations) and avast (where I want pop email, msn etc protection).
@ Electromikey:
I’m now into the third month of using Avast! having switched to it from Avira. By coincidence, it’s also the third month of using Online Armor having switched to it from Comodo.
The results have been better than I could ever have imagined.
Not only am I free of the persistent nag screen Avira used to splash all over my monitor, I’m also free of the seemingly endless update failures chronicled by so many Avira users on the ‘Net.
(The one or the other would have been bad enough, but it was clearly time to uninstall Avira when the point was reached where I was being bombarded with the nag screen but denied connection to Avira’s seemingly solitary update server.)
Avast! updates are fast, timely, fuss-free and non-intrusive. So far, there has not been one false positive nor any breakdown in protection.
Teaming Avast! with Online Armor has proved to be one of the best (if inadvertent) decisions I’ve made: compared to Comodo’s clunky obstructiveness and well-nigh impenetrable control set-up, OA has mirrored Avast’s reaction speed and deftness of touch.
Like yourself, I too am now recommending Avast! to friends and family rather than Avira — and, of course, Online Armor in preference to Comodo.
The latest version of Avira is much improved and I seem to get computers in on a daily basis that have AVG installed and are very badly infected with malware. I used Avast previously before I found Avira was more effective at removal and detection, I will test it out again but I find Avira is light loading and quick.
In the table of features above, I saw Avira v.9 provided Phishing Protection.
Be aware that the new version of Avira, v.10 does NOT!
It also doesn’t detect unknown viruses by behavior.
hi
am using avast home edition for more than 2 years
since that time every thing is ok
I have been using all three of the above AVV, but at different times, so a fair comparison is difficult. I like Avira best, but lately there was a report that while Avira outperforms most other AVV in terms of detection its ability to remove the detected malware is somewhat less than, say, Kaspersky.
I’ve been using AVG free since it was version 8.0. The one thing I dislike about the newest version (9.0.801) is you cannot shut it down by right clicking the icon in the taskbar. If one wants to shut it down, one must do so by opening task manager and closing avgtray.exe in processes tab. This was changed 2 program updates ago. I’ve gotten my share of false positives and was having a difficult time with “popcap loader module” an active X used on some websites to play Popcap on-line games. AVG kept deeming it a PUP and although I instructed AVG to ignore, it would not ignore it. This new version of AVG doesn’t seem to care about popcap loader module. For a while (on an older version) AVG declared “Zipinst” from Nirsoft a problem and would not let me access it. Zipinst has been on my computer since I bought it in 2006! The newest version seems to have the bugs worked out and AVG free has stopped more than one bad program in it’s tracks. Since memory is not an issue, I’ll stick with AVG for now as I’m familiar with it and most important, I trust it. Paul AKA magiccrpet
I have used all of them and i stick with avira. AVG missed a piece of malware that almost made me kill myself, and i couldnt stand how slow avast’s scans were. avira scans in around 45 minutes and finds everything thats ever given me a problem. its the first thing i install on clients’ computers.
I have been trying out the 2 anti virus and decided on avira. I have been using Ghost for backup and avast actually decides that the backfiles are trojan files ( and I am under the impression that Aviria has a high incident of false positive)
I downloaded AVAST, when you first posted that you were going to try it.
But now I find it causes my PC to be very slow. The size of it is 163MB.
So I just deleted it from my PC. Hopefully it will start to act faster..
Thank you for all the info on your site.. I always read your reviews, but often find that I really don’t need to download some of the giveaways that sound so great.. Again thank you, I so enjoy all the good and the bad.
Mary
I have recommended and installed avast! free on customers’ computers for about 5 years. Considering the frequency of e-mail infections, an antivirus program that does not scan e-mail before opening them is useless. The programs that perform within a few percentage points of each other may be essentially equal. While some may miss an infection by a definition file, they may stop the infection when it launches by a behavior scan.
False positives
Some antivirus programs have higher detection rates but also falsely detect too. When they break legitimate programs because they delete or quarantine valid files they can be as annoying and disruptive as a real infection.
For users not willing to spend $40 annually for security, I recommend avast! free plus Malwarebyte’s paid version.
1. I use Avira because it has the best detection.
2. It very rarely gives me false positives.
3. You are protected from bad emails even if you have just the free version without the additional email screener (see Avira forums)!!!!!! The email screener simply gives you and an additional layer of protection by getting it sooner. I get an alert as soon as I click on a contaminated letter in my Inbox, at which time Avira immediately gets rid of it for me. Have not had any infections during the years I have used free Avira, although it has warned me of many infected letters!
4. It always updates regularly and quietly (pop-up box in lower r-hand corner of screen tells me it is updating). I have never had any problem updating.
I would Love to see an updated review comparing these with the latest versions. Especially the latest avg version 9.*
In terms of efficacy, basically among major products — including the freebies here — there’s little difference in the rate of false negatives; certainly not enough to guide a usage decision. It’s the rate of false *positives* that is far more important since when this rate gets too high, the temptation is to dismiss the warning. And THAT’S when you get infected.
I don’t see the rate of false positives here but it is much higher among the freebies than the paid programs. While Avast *used* to be quite high on this, Avast 5 (from my experience) has calmed down quite a bit. Avira is still annoyingly high.
The other important factor is system impact and — subjectively — on my machines Avira is much worse than Avast 5 on this measure.
Bottom-line: Avast 5 is a great choice. In fact, the paid version (with a sandbox and an awesome firewall) is only one of two security programs that I would consider (Norton being the other).
I am a user of Avast! 5.0. Please note the full scans for Avast! can be shortened with the activation of the Persistent Cache feature (under Settings in the Full Scan dropdown tab). The first time scan for Avast!5 on my p8400 core2 duo PC with 4gb ram and Windows 7 64-bit took 40 minutes, which is a long time. However, conduct a few more full scans with Persistent Cache turned on, and it dropped to a mere 15 minutes by the 3rd full scan. In fact, this tip has been highlighted in the Avast! Blog here: http://blog.avast.com/2010/04/25/how-to-make-the-full-system-scan-6x-faster-in-10-days/
I’m coupling Avast! 5 with Comodo 4, which has Sandboxing features and Defense+ which I find very useful. With all these features activated, I do not notice an increase in RAM usage. In fact, a mere 1-2% increase is detected.
Hi… man you’ve done a great job…. the details are much valuable not only for me but to all others who are tossing in these free supports …. so thanx a lot … :-)
any conflict with avira as av and
avast as resident in background please?
How to disable the annoying pop-up Advertisement from Avira AntiVir Personal:
http://tipsfor.us/2009/03/18/avira-antivir-updates-to-version-9-make-it-more-usable/
Avast! five Home. It’s great. I even tested it with live viruses in a VM, and it removed/stopped execution of all that I tested. Has a basic firewall, too. I recommend it to everyone, and recommend they don’t have another piece of software for firewall, as Avast! has it covered.
i came by ur website and i love it. but i had a question what about kaspersky antivirus?