It throws in identity protection, a password manager - though admittedly with less features than the best password manager can offer - anti-scam protection to prevent phishing attempts, and even a PC cleaner to keep your system spick and span. In fact, the list of features reads more like a fully paid premium package. The introduction of a free security suite to optionally run alongside it – with anti-ransomware and a 500 MB/month free VPN and various speedup promises – just sweetens the deal. That's pretty good for a freebie, and why we have no qualms at all in naming it as our #1 best free antivirus download.Īs well as the essential security smarts, we also love the clean, friendly interface and the fact it has a track record of throwing up minimal false positives. Best paid antivirus software for 2023Īvira Free Antivirus for Windows continues to score highly on AV-TEST's stringent testing program, quashing 99.7% of tested threats, and it generally doesn't put too big a burden on your hardware. By doing so, developers gain access to more devices from which they can collect data, and therefore improve their knowledge and security platforms, so it’s really not in their interest to reduce the amount of protection provided by the free version.

In fact, these days you can get top-quality protection absolutely free, with just about every single major vendor out there offering a free antivirus. It also means you avoid annoying pop-ups that try and tempt you to upgrade to the full version. This makes them more suitable for power users, those who want a bit of extra security, and anyone who needs their system to run as smoothly as possible. That being said, paying a premium for a service typically means you get more features like spam filters, parental controls, system scans, and advanced firewalls. In most cases, paying a premium for a subscription or service will net you more or better features, however, many of the best antivirus offerings have a free counterpart that will do the job just fine for most people. While you may feel safe with whatever standard protection is on your device, you can almost always do better. But in the case of free antivirus – it's pretty close.

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