Do you use : No Antivirus , FREE Antivirus , or PAID Antivirus and why?

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Running F-Secure now , Bitdefender was slowing my system down.

 

[harrystam]

I've used MBAM for a few years now and it has blocked countless threats when I visit ...facebook at 3am, with my Jergens out..... Anyway - I always use a proxy. I've never found AV to be useful except for rooting itself so deep into my registry I have burn it out. AV isn't needed unless you're totally reckless and downloading viruses. ...That's what i've discovered with AV.

That's my 2 cents about Privacy and security.

Thanks,
Harry

 

[Maghpoush]

Hello there, My name is Maghpoush, I'm new here. Want to say hi.
I'm using Bitdefender Total security paid version since 2013. I'm using Antivirus for my PC security issue & I have 3 Bank accounts & I'm using online payment method. That's why I'm using BitDefender Antivirus.

 

[jadinolf]

I use paid protection program by Esset and I have been using it for like 4 months now and honestly its the best security tool for PCs and android phones. It protects you completely and for online transactions it offers secured browser. I have recently upgraded my pc to i7 7th gen and for that I had to use ESSET protection. I'd also recommend others to use it.

I have 5 computers and use ESET products on all of them.
Wouldn't be without them.

 

[virat8586]

I don't use an an antivirus as I use windows 10. And windows 10 has an inbuilt antivirus Windows Defender

 

[EvilHamster]

I use free antivir, cause well,... its an antivirus and its... you know free.

I use Bitdefender. I used to use Avast, than they become a malware themselves and installed WITHOUT asking their browser on my PC. That's a big no-no. Especially from a software that is supposed to defend me from things like that. So I uninstalled it and went for the Bitdefender. Also a great product for normal internet use.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Avira Free is decent , great detection engine.

 

[alexander_109]

I personally use Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2016, which is the cheapest paid antivirus they sell. I decided to go for a paid antivirus software due to the absolutely ridiculous marketing that AVG, Avira, and surprisingly Avast were throwing at me to buy their products. I did about 30 whole minutes of research and found that any form of paid Bitdefender was ALWAYS in the top three out of at least 10 to 25 different AV programs tested. I have had no issues with Bitdefender on Windows 10 Pro, and the added functionality of a paid software will always beat the basic functionality of free software. Do not use AVG because in the last year or two they have turned into adware, not antivirus software. Avast is pretty decent if you pay for it, but I found its UI to be relatively un-intuitive and sometimes overly complicated with a marginally high learning curve. Avira was really simple, but despite this it felt like it was too simple and that made it seem like it wasn't offering much protection. I want an antivirus software that has the ability to schedule scans, tells me exactly where issues are found, offers good encryption options, has good support, and is very fairly priced for the quality of protection you receive. Bitdefender is the only option, and I highly recommend its paid version. Unless you have extremely sensitive or classified materials on your computer, I suggest you just get the regular paid version. No issues in the past several months, and it catches everything.

 

[ajack46]

After being hit with the recent wannacrry, I have got Kaspersky now. Hoping it keeps me safe now.

 

[JoshRoss]

As a Windows user, I am using Windows Defender by default. Additionally, I am running anti-malware in form of Malwarebytes Premium. So far no issues. Obviously common sense browsing and everything that comes with that is always applied!

 

[zthomas]

As a Windows user, I am using Windows Defender by default. Additionally, I am running anti-malware in form of Malwarebytes Premium. So far no issues. Obviously common sense browsing and everything that comes with that is always applied!

Windows defender is as basic as you can get.. we all have defender if there is a need.. I have used free to paid services.. couple of months ago I bought a years worth of kaspersky.. I was advised to change out each year.. I used norton for five years.. but for some reason they became all show.. and didn't look after this client..

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

As a Windows user, I am using Windows Defender by default. Additionally, I am running anti-malware in form of Malwarebytes Premium. So far no issues. Obviously common sense browsing and everything that comes with that is always applied!

Malwarebytes Premium is a full protection Suite now.

 

[zthomas]

I checked out Malwarebytes page.. need someone to test this service against the other anti virus services..

 

[JoshRoss]

Yeah, I am aware that it is a full suite. But I only use the free version for regular weekly or daily scans, depending on what I do on the internet

 

[mdd1963]

Windows Defender is horrible , hasn't passed certification in several years.

Could have sworn I just read within the last week where Defender achieved a 100% detection rate in a recent test...; granted, 2.5 years ago, it was a mediocre 80% detection rate at best....
http/chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php?chart=chart2&year=2017&month=Feb_Jun&sort=1&zoom=4

(select June of this year in chart)

 

[SumTingW0ng]

I used Bitdefender Free for more than 4 months, and so far I like it.

---Pros----

No ads

No pop up

No belt and whistle stuff

Easy to use

Install and forget

Good signature protection and zero day protection

Active Threat Control will protect you from exploit and keylogger as well, not just zero day malware.

---Cons---

No way to manual check for update

No manual add exclusions

No Anti-Ransomware

Moderate RAM and CPU Usage which is not good if you running an older system like 2004 PC

Online Forum Technical Support literary doesn't exist at all

 

[SumTingW0ng]

I used Bitdefender Free for more than 4 months, and so far I like it.

---Pros----

No ads

No pop up

No belt and whistle stuff

Easy to use

Install and forget

Good signature protection and zero day protection

Active Threat Control will protect you from exploit and keylogger as well, not just zero day malware.

---Cons---

No way to manual check for update

No manual add exclusions

No Anti-Ransomware

Moderate RAM and CPU Usage which is not good if you running an older system like 2004 PC

Online Forum Technical Support literary doesn't exist at all

Bit defender is good but it slows your machine like anything.

Only if you are using ~2005 PC with 2GB of RAM than of course.

 

[SumTingW0ng]

I used Bitdefender Free for more than 4 months, and so far I like it.

---Pros----

No ads

No pop up

No belt and whistle stuff

Easy to use

Install and forget

Good signature protection and zero day protection

Active Threat Control will protect you from exploit and keylogger as well, not just zero day malware.

---Cons---

No way to manual check for update

No manual add exclusions

No Anti-Ransomware

Moderate RAM and CPU Usage which is not good if you running an older system like 2004 PC

Online Forum Technical Support literary doesn't exist at all

Bit defender is good but it slows your machine like anything.

Only if you are using ~2005 PC with 2GB of RAM than of course.

Nope. It eats your ram like anything. my office pc's are using it and it slows them down insanely.

8 GB RAM, i5 3rd 3.00 Ghz.

Suck to hear that on your side, but on my side even with a low end gaming laptop with duo core i5 7th gen, 8GB DDR4, 128GB M2 SSD, and GTX 950M with Bitdefender Free doesn't feel any slow down at all.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Bitdefender all variants are very light on system resources.

 

[Smagjus]

I stopped using real time anti virus solutions altogether when I noticed that I spend way too much time dealing with problems caused by them. Even Defender is manually turned off because of a bug that exists since Windows 7.

What I do instead is creating regular backups which are protected against unwanted writes, keeping an eye on system resources especially processes, testing untrusted programs in VMs and running a Malwarebytes scan once a month. Works surprisingly well and time efficient for me.

In the future I might give Bitdefender a try though as it is one of a few solutions that didn't fail me directly or indirectly.