Do you think paid Antivirus is much better then free Antivirus?

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ricky121

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Jul 13, 2017
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we all are living in the environment of technology and we all use computer, laptop, tablet, phone etc. When we face the problem of virus on our device, first thing we search free.....!!!
 
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It would be wrong to assume that all subscription-based AV is better than any free one.

It depends which free one you choose - - Comodo AV is free but it's as good as any subscription-based antivirus in my experience - I've been using it for six years on three computers and none of them have ever been infected with any type of malware.

On the other hand, I would never put my trust in the free Avira or AVG products.

Avast Free is probably the next best to Comodo where free ones are concerned.

The Comodo & Avast staff don't work for nothing ("no1 works for free") - - they sell other software products (for corporate users etc) and this income allows them to offer free products for the individual home user.

JoshRoss

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Jul 11, 2017
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Paid anti-virus have a lot of features. The basic functionality of virus scanning, detection, cloud detection and probably heuristics are usually part of the free version. What paid versions of software can give you are more thorough and specific defense against major malware groups. Ransomware, Trojans, Viruses, Adware/browser hijackers. Explicitly checking for such issues (They also include bigger and more thorough databases for each group), that leads to slightly better protection. In addition to that, you usually get decent 24/7 support. MUCH better? Not really. Better? Sure.
 
It would be wrong to assume that all subscription-based AV is better than any free one.

It depends which free one you choose - - Comodo AV is free but it's as good as any subscription-based antivirus in my experience - I've been using it for six years on three computers and none of them have ever been infected with any type of malware.

On the other hand, I would never put my trust in the free Avira or AVG products.

Avast Free is probably the next best to Comodo where free ones are concerned.

The Comodo & Avast staff don't work for nothing ("no1 works for free") - - they sell other software products (for corporate users etc) and this income allows them to offer free products for the individual home user.

 
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superninja12

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May 18, 2015
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believe me a secure antivirus doesnt work for free, like mandy sais youre the protection is yourself.
and i know youre not that stupid to fall for everything.

ill stick with with my statement.
 

bloodroses

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Jan 27, 2013
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The biggest thing between most free and paid is the feature set as JoshRoss said.
Kaspersky, Panda, Bitdefender, and other traditionally paid AVs that have a free option on them that use the same scanning engine. The other thing outside missing features that free versions usually have as well is popup ads every so often for purchasing the full suite (Panda I know does that for a fact).

Traditionally free antivirus solutions such as AVG, Avira, Avast, etc, are basically the same way as well in that they offer a pay for suite and have advertisement popups to buy their full suite as well.

Your best bet is just to keep an eye out on reviews when it's time to renew to see what the best AV software is at the time since it changes at a fairly regular pace. At one point McAfee was the best, then Norton, then Trend Micro, then Kaspersky, then ESET, then Bit Defender, then Kaspersky again. And really, unless you absolutely need the best, just find one that you like the best that doesn't cause your machine issues (like massive slowdowns, bootups, connection issues, resource usage) and stick with it until a problem with the software itself arises.

I have Panda on a laptop for low resource usage, my father has Kaspersky full suite on his laptop and desktop due to his bad browsing habits, and I have Microsoft's built in one on my desktop since I don't do enough stuff with it to concern getting a virus on it.
 

Avast-Team

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Mar 3, 2017
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Thanks to those who mentioned us here! I hope I can clear up our options even further.

Both our free and paid versions utilize our core technology and provide protection against old-school threats and ransomware/malware/morphing threats alike. More info here: https://www.avast.com/nextgen

There are benefits to upgrading to paid versions, which I'd sum up like this:

- More protection against ransomware: Paid versions may have Ransomware Shield (depending on which you choose) which is an additional layer of protection against ransomware. It prevents malware from touching your most important files, and works on top of active and behavioral protection.

- More security features: Such as anti-spam, Real Site, firewall, sandbox, data shredder, and more -- depending on what you need.

- Ability to remove ads: Of course, upgrading to a paid version allows you to turn off ads/notifications for other paid products.

You can find a comparison of Free vs. Paid on our website, which is laid out in more detail, as well.
 

Karadjgne

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For me, the difference in free to use and paid subscription is your own habits and paranoia. Me personally, I don't browse much, so my ftu is fine, chances of me getting a virus are extremely slim. My daughter, on the other hand, is a YouTube-aholic, chances of malware are exponential vrs me. And then there's the Mrs., Facebook, recipes, photos, meems, you name it, she surfs it. Yeah, her pc has a paid subscription, but thanks to Comcast, AV is free, but malwarebytes isn't.
 

JoshRoss

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Jul 11, 2017
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Was thinking about this topic. Paid anti-virus adds a ton of convenient tools. You can find all of them from different manufacturers, try to set up like five different specific programs (Potential compatibility issues), sometimes can be a pain. Paid versions usually add/unlock full features at hand, integrate without too much of a problem.
 

zer0c007

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Jun 10, 2017
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I have used avast, avg, avira all free version and now using Kaspersky internet security obviously a paid for protection. In my opinion free antivirus and their function of fighting virus and malware I have found Avg, Avira and Avast excellent protection however they were used on pc without internet connection and periodically updated to keep the antivirus signatures up to date as possible and these antivirus programs provided excellent protection.

The money is in the firewall and other online protection offerings if you have a internet connection on that pc. People saying that Avg, Avira and Avast free offerings provided weak protection are wrong, in fact i would rate them equal to Bitdefender and Kaspersky in finding and removing virus infections. I know I have used them all.

Malwarebytes in my experience found items even missed by avg, avast and kaspersky and this is two free and one paid antivirus programs. Therefore I recommend using malwarebytes as a backup for best protection.

I would look at the firewall capabilities which are offered as paid for protection in Avg, Avast etc, then use this as basis of judgement of how effective they are in protection overall. In finding virus threats already active on PC, I would be bold enough to say that the free antivirus offerings will easily match Bitdefender and Kapsersky etc in finding and removing them looking from my experience.
 

zer0c007

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Jun 10, 2017
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I just remembered my brother used the Avg full internet security package which is obviously AVG's paid for offering and now my brother is using Kaspersky Internet Security and his pc suffered no infections using either one. In fact he moved to Kaspersky because he got a special offer via our ISP so we went with that. Once the AVG expired it was removed and Kaspersky Internet Security installed on the same pc without any format and fresh install of windows, so if any infections was missed by AVG would have been found by Kaspersky, and there was no red flags from Kaspersky which leads to believe AVG did a good job.
 

Karadjgne

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No. What it means is that your brother was smart enough to avoid any websites or downloads that potentially carried any virus files. AVG could have been said to have done a good job if it actually squashed any viruses your brother actually received, and when switching to Kaspersky, the new AV didn't find any more.

Thing about virus, malware, Trojans is that AV is totally reliant on actual abuse. Someone gets a virus, it gets tagged as a possible by heuristics, sent to the company, the company reverse engineers it, adds it to the list and then puts it out in updates. It's entirely possible for AVG to figure out a fix for a virus, and not any other company for a while, it's dependent solely on the amount of users and the spread of the virus. If a Kaspersky user never gets the virus, Kaspersky won't get the chance to make a fix. Or Norton or Panda etc.
What makes or breaks a good AV is the level of diagnosis of the heuristic program. If it's junk, you get a virus that's not quarantined, and then spread it to others, after it's damaged your software. If it's good, the virus gets quarantined, the company gets notified and you luck out.

Any AV can find a virus that's already labeled and known and squash it before it does damage, it's the unknown virus that's a problem. And there's very few original viruses, most are offshoots of others, mutations, and heuristics is pretty good at finding those too. Malware and Trojans are somewhat different as they are not software damaging, but performance affecting and much easier to code, being nothing more than a switch. Turn it on and everyone knows your secrets. Finding those is harder as the program has to recognize that switch for what it is, buried in software you agreed to add.
 
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