Across AV-Test and AV-Comparatives’ tests, system speed with Avast Antivirus Free averaged 91.9% of “bare metal” performance, which is only 2% behind our favourite antivirus package, F-Secure SAFE. In everyday use, however, you’re likely to rely much more on on-access scanning, and here Avast ticks along pretty smoothly. Carrying out a full scan of our test folder proved a slow business, dragging on for more than a quarter of an hour. The other potential area of concern is performance. Again, though, that’s better than Windows’ built-in scanner fared and a mile ahead of Malwarebytes’ terrible performance. There’s a good range of scanning and notification options too, so you can tweak Avast’s behaviour to suit your preferences.Īvast also missed out on a clean sheet when it came to false positives, erroneously sounding the alarm three times while scanning innocuous code samples. That’s still an excellent performance and better than you can expect from the free editions of Avira or Malwarebytes – or indeed Microsoft Defender. During AV-Comparatives’ malware tests, Avast dropped the ball just once: if our protection scores were extended to three decimal places, it would come away with an overall rating of 99.998%. Admittedly, the free website offers the same service, but it’s handy to have the function built into your security software – and it works continually in the background, so you don’t need to keep checking back to ensure your logins are still safe.Īvast Antivirus Free review: Protection and performanceĪvast delivers an impressive level of protection but it didn’t quite perform impeccably. If any credentials connected to your email address are found to have been compromised you’ll be warned immediately, giving you a chance to change your password before someone else does. READ NEXT: Our pick of the best password managersįinally, Avast’s Hack Alert feature extends protection outside of your own network, by monitoring releases of leaked or hacked data from third-party servers. It stands out for its thought-out design, spotless and easy. When an untrusted program tries to write to a protected location, Avast immediately flings up a requester that lets you block or approve the app with a single click, rather than requiring you to rummage around in the settings. Avast has a solid core and can protect your PC from malware, phishing and other malicious attacks. The Avast Ransomware Shield, meanwhile, does the same job as Windows’ built-in Controlled Folder Access feature, but in a much more user-friendly way.
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