Billions of dollars are spent every year on antivirus software alone by enterprise because they know that computer virus can cause a lot of down time and making the company lose money. A computer virus can be programmed to do anything such as stealing sensitive information, locking up or slowing down the computer, data loss through corruption or deletion, and etc. With so many brands around and they all claim to be have the best detection and lightest in system resource, it is certainly not easy determining which is really the best.
As for home users, most antivirus companies also offers a cheaper version that works on Windows operating system and requires an annual subscription. However, there is also a wealth of anti-virus software offered for free with the catch of disabling some of the extra defense system such as firewall, behavior blocking and also only allowing you to use it for personal home use only. After extensive research, we have come up with an up-to-date comprehensive list of free anti-virus programs for your convenience.
1. avast! Free Antivirus
Recently avast! Free Antivirus has gained a lot of popularity and has even taken the first spot in CNET’s Download.com overtaking AVG and Avira. After installing avast! Free Antivirus on our test computer, it didn’t even feel like running a crippled slim down version of an antivirus program because it has all the features from the paid version except SafeZone, Firewall and Anti-spam. The comparison chart displayed on their website says that the sandbox feature is unavailable on the free version but in fact it’s actually still there.
Other than blocking virus and spyware, what we really liked about avast! Free Antivirus is it takes up very little memory usage and comes with extra features such as auto sandbox, boot-time scan, remote assistance, non-annoying browser protection plugins, 8 different real-time shields and cloud reputation service.
Download avast! Free Antivirus
2. AVG AntiVirus Free
The free version of AVG AntiVirus used to be the most popular and well known free antivirus software and they are currently at the second spot after avast! Free Antivirus. AVG has an updated graphical user interface to match the Windows 8 modern UI. It helps protect your computer from viruses, malicious emails, web-based attacks, and identity theft. The anti-spam, firewall and performance fix functions are excluded from the free version. Surprisingly phone support is available to free users but only for certain countries such as US and UK.
We were quite annoyed by the whole installation process because it takes 3 steps to get it completely installed and updated. Firstly we need to download a small 4MB web installer to download the full installation file. After installation, there’s another 60MB of definition file to download. They do have the full distributable setup file buried somewhere deep in their website. Pay attention during install as the AVG Security Toolbar will install by default.
3. Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+
We were eager to test Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ because it used to be a very good anti-spyware program that in recent years has turned into a full fledged antivirus program and taking the third spot. The free version of Ad-Aware uses the Vipre engine but weirdly Ad-Aware Total Security uses G Data’s engine. The user interface looks a bit dated and not very user friendly at first as we had to look a bit harder to find the button to manually check for definition updates.
Most of the advanced protection features that is taking most of the space on the GUI are unavailable in the free version. The installation process wasn’t that bad as the 6MB installer automatically downloads and installs the latest version of program and definition on your computer. There is a gaming mode where you can turn off all notification to prevent you from being kicked out while you are playing a full screen game.
Download Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+
4. Avira Free Antivirus
Avira is well known for its superior detection where it tags everything that moves silently in the Windows operating system. After installing Avira, you should see that most of the features are grayed out and only the button to enable/disable the real time protection against virus, trojan, spyware and malware is accessible.
Avira Free Antivirus used to rank number 1 but has dropped to 4 probably due to them embedding a toolbar and changing the web browser’s default search provider to ASK.com. Although the SearchFree toolbar by ASK.com can be opted out of during installation, it is with a cost of disabling the web protection feature. Moreover the daily notifier popups of recommending you to upgrade is a bit annoying as well.
5. ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall
ZoneAlarm (now owned by Check Point), well known for their firewall applications has added an award winning antivirus engine by Kaspersky. If you didn’t know, Kaspersky has always been a shareware that is at the top spots for independent detection rate tests even if they do not take the first place. Thanks to ZoneAlarm, they made it possible for anyone to use the excellent Kaspersky engine from their ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall product.
Most free antivirus software offers very minimal functionality other than the real time virus detection and protection but ZoneAlarm wins in this area by offering a really good antivirus engine, identity protection and a firewall if you need protection against hackers getting in to your computer. Both the user interface and settings are straight forward and not confusing. The game mode can be enabled from the Tools menu and you can even password protect the application to prevent against unauthorized access to the program.
Download ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall
6. Microsoft Security Essentials
As you may have guessed correctly, Microsoft Security Essentials is developed by Microsoft themselves and is free for all Windows licensed users. It comes with real time malware protection and automated scheduled scanning. The default scheduled scanning options are configured not to disturb the user because it will only start when your PC is not in use and when it does, it takes up a maximum of 50% CPU usage. You can configure the exclusions of files, locations, file types and processes.
Compatibility and stability are probably the reasons why we will recommend Microsoft Security Essentials to people. However we wouldn’t count on the detection rate as they only achieved a 64% detection rate on the zero-day threats at the recent AV-Test. Windows 8 has Security Essentials integrated into the o/s but under the name of Windows Defender. Although it offers basic security, Defender shouldn’t be relied upon to offer the same level of protection as other more advanced free security packages.
Download Microsoft Security Essentials
7. Panda Cloud Antivirus
Cloud based antivirus differs from the traditional types by putting most of the analysis load on the antivirus infrastructure rather than on the local computer. Panda is the first security company that started offering their cloud based antivirus for free. The free edition of Panda Cloud Antivirus comes with real time antivirus and antispyware, behavioral analysis to check if undetected files are safe, process monitoring and web filtering.
The last time we tested Panda Cloud Antivirus, it was able to detect all virus sample while their competitors missed a few, making it a possible replacement for the traditional definition based antivirus. They even ranked number 1 for usability. However pay special attention during installation where it will be default select to install a toolbar and changing of your default homepage and search engine.
Download Panda Cloud Antivirus
8. Rising Antivirus
Rising Antivirus is from China and it is claimed to have the largest user base from their country compared to their local competitors. The initial versions are in Chinese language and they’ve added English version for international release. They used to publish a comparison chart to show the differences between the free and paid versions but after an extensive research we found that they are actually the same except the InfoCenter tab that shows advertisements and news in the free version. Other than the antivirus module, you can find 6 other defense mechanism to further protect your system. One of their unique feature is the ability to create your own custom Rising AntiVirus installer by running the Rising Installation Package Making from the Tools tab.
Currently if you visit their international website at www.rising-global.com, you will see that they are still providing the 2011 version while their Chinese official site at www.rising.com.cn has already released V16 2012. Although their English site has not been updated for over a year, the virus definitions are still being updated daily.
9. Kingsoft Antivirus
Kingsoft is another China company with its headquarters in Beijing, famous for their office application as an alternative to Microsoft Office. The company has been in the antivirus industry for over 10 years. Kingsoft Antivirus is a fully featured antivirus program that is able to scan and clean viruses from your computer, provides defense to your web browser, instant messaging, watching videos, download files and even USB flash drives. It also comes with an anti-hacker module, not to be mistaken as a firewall. The anti-hacker provides an additional protection against common actions launched from remote access tool (RAT) trojan such as secretly turning on webcam and silently controlling the PC. You can find a vulnerability scanner, scheduler, process manager, silent mode and etc.
We were a bit confused during our research on Kingsoft Antivirus because we can only find the Office product at their official Kingsoft website at kingsoftstore.com. Finally we found kingsoftsecurity.com that has only 1 webpage for Kingsoft Antivirus and a community support forum. Nevertheless, their antivirus are up to date and is claimed to work along with other antivirus software. Something to watch out for is Kingsoft is available in 2 different distro’s, a cloud based and also a locally based definitions version. Although the forum information is slightly confusing, it is known that at least the local definitions version will include the excellent Avira antivirus engine in its upcoming 2013 edition.
10. FortiClient
FortiClient is an endpoint security program developed by Fortinet, one of the leaders in providing network security appliances. FortiClient is free and can be either integrated/registered with FortiGate or simply ran as standalone without the centralized features that is mostly found only on enterprise networks. The unregistered free version of FortiClient comes with basic features such as VPN, two factor authentication, antivirus, web filtering, web optimization, application firewall, vulnerability scanning and client certificate support.
Overall FortiClient is a great free antivirus program that comes with additional features that’s easy to use and configure. In VB100 tests, they’ve passed 10 out of 11 with only 1 failed due to 1 false positive. One bug that we experienced very often is the constant tray notification popup telling us that the antivirus is out of date and asking us to click to update even though the program and definitions are up to date. Do take note that FortiClient 5.0 runs up to 11 different processes by default.
I have used Avast Antivirus Pro, Version 5, 7 and 7 in the last 4 years and i have been very satisfied with these products. But after the update to version 8 i’m thinking about to change to another product. I got so many trouble with my computer, that i have reinstalled the old version 7, which license is valid until Juli this year.
Another thing is that i don’t want to use cloud based products, because i think, i got tracked by the Antivirus software and i don’t want to know them, which pages i’m visiting.
Me too used avast free antivirus edition for 2 years…….. but avast 8 doesn’t seems to be great ….
I just now installed bidefender free antivirus this is great awesome its light lighter and lightest ……. Bidefender has top virus engine so far , so i feel protected but i still use an firewall for an additional protection you can compare the free editions of firewall in this website itself
Thank you
Great Article. Thanks For Sharing.
If what Carbonize says is true – that Bitdefender deletes any file it thinks is a virus without asking and without recourse – then Bitdefender is a no-brainer NOT-ON-MY-COMPUTER download. That is totally untenable and the programmers should be violated. The very idea that an app that is well known to produce false positives be given free reign to delete possible critical files and potentially destroy and corrupt one’s system bespeaks of utmost arrogance and stupidity.
That behavior needs to be verified and highlighted in the review. Anything less is irresponsible and borders on malfeasance.
Yes it is true, BitDefender will delete the file without asking, also it lacks of any setting to prevent this behavior.
OK so I have a zip file containing 12 files that I have created that are either PHP, CSS or just plain TXT and all are clean. I had Bitdefender Free scan it and it claims to have scanned 4954 files and found 41 infected files but apparently 0 files known to be clean :-/
I contacted them about this and their response was that this was due to a faulty scan by the free version of the product. Does make you wonder what other problems the free version may have then.
OK had a better look and it basically does a quick scan every time you tell it to scan a file and the 41 ‘infected’ files were tracking cookies from Internet Explorer.
OK so I switched from MSE to Bitdefender because Bitdefender has the better engine. But Bitdefender’s lack of options is frustrating. Dates are all shown in US format of mm/dd/yy and you have no option to specify folders/processes to ignore. More importantly if it finds a file it thinks is malicious during a scan it deletes it without making a backup in quarantine and having no options you cannot change this behaviour.
Welcom back raymond….
you have left out an important player infact a new comer into the Free A.V Market….Bit defender has launched its free version with its real time protection etc…..
Hi govind,
Thanks for notifying me about the newly launched free version of Bitdefender. I’ve updated the article to include it.
As always ,you have help me getting through some of the daily problems ,much appreciated all your and your associates hardwork to keep this site running.
Happy Noel and wish you all a 2013 full of hapiness and joy
Nice list! There are some free products I didn’t know about. Thank you!
The information about ZoneAlarm having the antivirus engine by Kaspersky is very useful information but I would like to ask if you know what version of the Kaspersky AV it has.
Hi Craig. I’ve done some comparison on the files and believe that ZoneAlarm is using the latest Kaspersky engine that is the same with Kaspersky Antivirus 2013.
And what is your oppinion? Can ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall as efficient as KIS 2013?
There’s a difference between using the same engine and having the same effectiveness because how the engine is implemented makes a big difference; that’s why the same engine in different products has different rates of detection.
Who uses what isn’t as important as what the test result show. Personally, I’d go with BitDefender; it gives awesome protection with almost no impact on the system. Avast would be my second choice.
Chapeau! Looking forward to see your test results about detection. Thanks, Raymond.
sir raymond
great post,
hope to see more…
I like avast! Free Antivirus.
thanks you Raymond i like it is..sucses always for you
Avast Free seems to do all I need-brill-but I have recently had a prob with their WebRep part which crashes when using Chrome 23.0.1271.97 m. Easily disabled and not necessary -using WOT anyway.Lots of comments about folk having the prob if you do a Google search. Thanks Raymond for your articles.
Thanks Raymond. But there is one thing you forgot. Its Rising AV(2011) doesn’t support Windows 8. And actually Avira full version can be used for free. They release 6 months/3 months license regularly. And Avira is the only AV that can be used with MSE efficiently without any conflicts. Please update the post.
Its nice to see you again after along time
Great
Raymond, good to see an updated article! And on all the good anti-virus’ out there! And I agree with someone else…make one for firewalls :)
I’ve tried various A/V’s on different computers but always come back to MSE. Alongside MalwareBytes, MSE runs unobtrusively and does a pretty good job at protecting one’s computer. Found it to be the most reliable of the freebies and has never broken down on me, unlike some the others. Additionally, I use Tren Micro Home Call for that little bit extra. So, Thanks Raymond – I’ll be putting this info in a safe place for future referenece. Agree with John – would like to see something similar for firewalls. Keep up the great work…
I really like Security Essentials as well. It just does its thing and you hardly know its even running. This product is a straight-up antivirus, not a feature-stuffed suite wannabe.
Dear Raymond,
Great, I’m grateful to receive your email notification about a new post. I have kept constant faith in your efforts and work. I always know you would send word about anything new.
Anyway, as feedback to this article, I have continuously deployed complete Kingsoft Antivirus 2012 (Cheetah) real-time protection without any issues side-by-side along MS Security Essentials (+ TinyWall) on my Windows 7 x64 Pro desktop since last July. But that’s all I can say! A marginal day-to-day wage-earner, I haven’t gotten enough time to peruse other blog readers’ comments so far.
I sincerely wish you all the best, man — being an audiophile freak and a proud Asian of partly Western and Sino-Malay descent, I’m very interested to hear about your music genre too!
By the way, I’ll gladly extend any more help (in one of those little ways I can) when you really need it.
Your supporter,
Fish in TinyTown, USA
Hy Raymond,
Thanks for you post but I think a one week is not enough time for reliable test of so many products!
I’am very satisfied user of free Comodo Internet Security product!
I tested a lot of AV product and find NO ONE that is better than Comodo in protection and this is most important thing!
Comodo is not for beginners in their strongest Proactive security configuration becouse Defence+ is actually a very strong HIPS modul who ask users interaction, however Comodo’s defoult configuration ( Internet Security) is good choice for beginners!
Tip: when instaling, choose “custom installation” and then check/uncheck what you want!
Regards
Good one Raymond, nice to see you back.
Perhaps now you could do an up-date on firewalls which would then complete the overall picture?
Cheers,
John
Great to hear from you Raymond.Thanks for this read :-)
Thanks for your new Anti-Virus article. Always happy to receive your notifications in my email inbox.
Does your new website format allow you to include among the pagination choices at the bottom of each part of the article, a choice for showing all parts in one, long page? Thanks.
Thanks for the summaries.I have enjoyed your blog for many years.Nice to see your blog.Th@nks for this long time no hear merry xmas
.
Welcome RAY………………..
Thank You Raymond for the time you spent putting this list together. Your site excels in the details you provide in you reviews. Thank You very much for Raymond.cc
Hi, Raymond welcome back. I read the post and see that you have written very good.
Regards,
hassan
Morning from the East Coast of the United States of America!
I Love MSE! I have it working alongside Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and the Comodo Stand-Alone Firewall to make up for what MSE lacks! These separate systems seem to work beautifully together!
(I also do a anti-virus check to make sure that MSE is on the job by visiting the eicar.org site for testing)
My second favorite Free Anti-Virus program in the whole-wide world is of course, Avast!
Welcome Back Raymond!
I missed you especially.
I wake up each day checking my inbox for your knowledge and wisdom.
Regards,
TheRube
Hy,
Bitdefender also has free solution:
bitdefender.com/solutions/free.html
And a question: as you mentioned, Ad-Aware Total Security uses G Data’s engine, but G Data uses Avast and BItdefender engine, so how this is working exactly?
forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=43250.0
Hi, didn’t want to include Bitdefender Free edition because it is version 2009 which is really old and may not be that effective in today’s threat.
That’s right. Ad-Aware Total Security uses G Data’s engine which is equivalent to Avast and Bitdefender. This would mean that Ad-Aware did not went through the trouble of integrating both of the antiviruses together and make sure they run properly without conflicts but rather depended on G Data to do it.
Hi,
Bitdefender free antivirus actually doesn’t work with Vista SP2 and higher
Hey Ray, welcome back.
Thanks for this article. Actually I had also planned to write a similar one in my site but that has delayed for long.
Bkis Free
bkav.com.vn/home/DownloadE.aspx
Ad Aware Free
lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
CMC Internet Security [English GUI is available]
cmcinfosec.com/San-pham/CMC-Internet-Security/12.epi
Hey Sujay, thanks! Wasn’t really easy writing this as it took nearly the whole week because every antivirus had to be installed on my test system for a quick review.
I didn’t include BKAV and CMC because they don’t really have an English site for people to get more official information about them. Ad-Aware is already on the list :)
Thanks for the summaries, Raymond. I use both Avira (Win7, 64) and Avast (Win XP). I prefer the Avira, and the nag screens can easily be disabled. The only issue I have with Avast is if you do not enable all the add-ons, you get the warning sign in the sys-tray that your machine is not protected, which is not accurate. I simply do not need those components of the software on that machine. Used AVG years ago, but quit when it became, in my opinion, bloated and did not work well with my machines.
I appreciate the list and will go through it more thoroughly this week-end and perhaps change things up a bit.
Very comprehensive list. Some more can be found from our security list:
techsupportalert.com/content/probably-best-free-security-list-world.htm?page=0,1
Using free avast and works very well
Th@nks for this long time no hear merry xmas
Hey Raymond.. Comodo also has Comodo Internet Security Premium which contain antivirus + defense+ + firewall and completely free
Hi g24r, Comodo Antivirus is listed in page 2 of this post ;)
Hi Raymond. I have enjoyed your blog for many years, learned much from them, and gotten free Pro versions of a few programs thanks to you (ie Advanced System Care Pro and Malwarebytes Pro). Nice to see your blog in my mailbox again after many months of absence.
You should check out Qihoo 360. It have 5 engines and is super light. Detection and protection is on parr with Kaspersky. The downside is only available in Chinese. Most Chinese in Malaysia uses it.
Another one is Roboscan. It uses Bitdefender engine. And is free.
This post is split into 3 pages. Check out the pagination at the end of the post. Definitely not visible enough and we’ll look into improving it.
Hai! Raymond, Happy to hear from you after long time dude, thank you very much for the post and it’s very very usefull, You Rocks Buddy!!!!!!
Comodo FTW
Thanks Raymond , we realyy appreciate
Hey Raymond.., Thanks very much.., ur tips do work.., Thanks for all ur tips n tricks .., n thanks for this anti-viruses u provide , Regards ., A$hw!n
Ray my man – you so totally rock dude!!! :-D
Avast is one of the very few really antivirus programs that offer real-time protection for home PC security. Czech guys did a great job! AVG and Avira seem to be the only competitors. Finding a full-featured free antivirus is tough these days, most of the so-called “free” programs are either time-limited trials, or simply on-demand scanners without real-time monitoring. To my mind, avast! has the best interface of all free AV’s available for personal PC security.
U ROCK RAYMOND. anyway what do u work as! as u are so free!!! im not telling u to stop
Hello Rayond,
Thanks for so many details about antivirus software. It really helped me a lot in selecting perfect antivirus for my system
I don’t worry too much about risks like zero-day protection. The antivirus software and antispyware program that I run keeps about 98% of the garbage out of my computer and away from my home network. Most people run a multitude of different programs in order to remove threats and others to keep them out.
Sadly the majority of these apps just don’t live up to their hype. You guys aught to check out the program I use. It’s currently available as a Free Antivirus download. I can’t tell you how convenient it is to have just one program that takes care of everything for me.
Sigh…we should really define what “free” means…COMODO’s got it right.
Thanks Raymond!!!
Your listings really helped me out!
thank u very much, now i can complete my article about free antivirus .
Comodo Antivirus is really very good. I can recommend it.
I used Avast for years with great results.
Ive been using Bitdefender for about 2 years now. Its my first all-in-one.
Thanks Raymond
This is a great list, Some of the AntiViruses are free i never knew of it. Thanx a lot for sharing :)