You need antivirus protection on all your devices, whether you’ve budgeted for it or not. If ready cash is a problem, you can choose one of the many effective free antivirus tools on the market. Avira Free Security takes free protection to the next level, offering VPN, password management, ad blocking, and more. It’s not a typical security suite, though. You won’t find firewall protection, backup, spam filtering, or other common suite components. Its wealth of components will delight the right user, but its scores, both in our own tests and independent lab tests, are down since our last review.
In years past, Avira offered both a free standalone antivirus and a free suite. The current product, Avira Free Security, replaces both. The previous suite at times resembled a loose confederation of separate Avira products, along with plenty of nag screens suggesting an upgrade to paid editions. The current product is significantly more integrated, which is a big improvement. It’s a lot more friendly to the non-techie user now, though the upsell screens are still around.
The closest comparable product to this suite is Kaspersky Security Cloud Free. Kaspersky’s free suite is a feature-limited version of the company’s commercial Kaspersky Security Cloud. Even with its limitations, it’s more of a full security suite than Avira.
Note, too, that Norton acquired Avira at the end of 2020. The company has stated it intends to retain the Avira brand, and there’s no sign yet of the Avira by Norton branding that’s been bruited about.
The product’s main Status screen just displays oversized icons for Security, Privacy, and Performance. A simple menu down the left lets you dig into these three feature areas or return to the Status home page. Finally, you can click a button to run the all-in-one Smart Scan. If you don’t run a Smart Scan immediately after the quick, simple installation, the product will keep reminding you until you do.
Smart Scan checks for active malware, of course, but it does a lot more. It analyzes your settings to find privacy problems, looks for ways to improve performance, identifies apps that need updating, and checks the network for possible security problems. More about Smart Scan later.
Antivirus Lab Results Down From Perfect
To supplement my hands-on testing of antivirus products, I turn to reports issued regularly by four independent labs around the world. The mere fact that a given product appears in a report means that the lab’s experts thought it significant enough to merit the effort of testing and reporting on it. The more lab results the better, and, of course, high scores are important. When last reviewed, Avira had perfect scores from all four labs. It still has four lab scores, but at present they’re not perfect.
Researchers at AV-Test Institute evaluate each antivirus product on three distinct criteria. Naturally, they measure its ability to protect against malware. They also score products on how well they avoid erroneously flagging legitimate processes as malicious, an index they call usability. And they ensure the product does all this without dragging down performance. A product can earn up to six points for each of the three criteria. A third of the products tested, among them Avast, Kaspersky, and Norton, earned sixes in all three categories.
Avira had perfect scores when last reviewed, but in the latest report it came in near the bottom, with 5.0 for protection, 5.5 for performance, and 6.0 for usability, for a total of 16.5. Only eScan, PC Matic Home, and Vipre Antivirus Plus scored lower.
Of the many reports coming out of AV-Comparatives, I follow three. This lab doesn’t use numbers. Rather, a product that passes the test earns Standard certification. Those that go beyond the basics can earn Advanced or Advanced+ certification. Bitdefender is the only product I follow that managed three Advanced+ ratings in the latest tests. Like Panda Free Antivirus, G Data, and several others, Avira earned one Standard, one Advanced, and one Advanced+ certification this time around.
With SE Labs, certification comes in five levels: AAA, AA, A, B, and C. Like almost all the tested products, Avira earned the top level, AAA.
As you can see, most of the labs offer a range of scores to reflect a range of capabilities. Tests by London-based MRG-Effitas are scored differently. In this lab’s reports, a product either exhibits near-perfect protection or fails utterly. I follow one test that focuses on banking Trojans and another that tests all-around malware defense. Out of 11 tested products, only Bitdefender, ESET NOD32 Antivirus, and Norton passed both tests. Avira passed the banking Trojans test but failed the all-around protection test.
Since all the labs use different scoring systems, I’ve devised an algorithm that maps the scores onto a 10-point scale and generates an aggregate score. When last reviewed, Avira held a perfect 10 points. This time around, its aggregate score is 9.0. That’s decent, but it’s still quite a drop. Kaspersky holds the current top score, 9.9 points. Like Kaspersky and Avira, Avast appears in reports from all four labs. Its scores combine into an impressive 9.5-point aggregate.
Poor Malware Removal Scores
Lab results notwithstanding, I always perform my own hands-on tests. I start by opening a folder of malware samples that I’ve curated and analyzed myself. Avira immediately started quarantining those that it recognized. It eliminated just 66 percent of the samples on sight, which is pretty low. Kaspersky and Bitdefender both wiped out 86 percent of the samples at this stage. On the plus side, Avira eliminated every ransomware sample except one less-worrisome screen locker type. After recording Avira’s initial reaction, I launched the samples that made it past this initial culling.
When Avira’s real-time protection detected malware attempting to install, it popped up a notification and opened a tiny progress meter labeled Luke Filewalker, representing the product’s progress in cleaning up any malware traces that may have landed on the system. Avira has used this whimsical name for more years than I can count. Apparently, George Lucas doesn’t mind.
In the end, Avira detected 87 percent of the samples and scored 8.2 of 10 possible points. Among products tested with the current malware collection, only Heimdal Premium Security Home scored fractionally lower. And unlike when I last reviewed it, Avira doesn’t have perfect lab scores as a counterweight.
Among other current products, Malwarebytes did best, with 100 percent detection and a perfect 10 points. McAfee and Webroot were close behind with 9.9 and 9.8 points respectively. Tested using my previous sample set, Sophos Home Free also detected every sample and scored a respectable 9.8.
A full scan of my standard clean test system took an hour and three minutes, just slightly faster than the current average. Clearly this first scan performed some optimizations, as a repeat scan finished in just 15 minutes. As for the quick scan, it finished in less than half a minute.
Avira offers several browser extensions for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera. These include a password manager, a shopping helper, and the security-centric Browser Safety extension. Among other things, Browser Safety aims to head off any possibility of malware infection by steering your browser away from malware-hosting URLs. To test this feature, I start with a feed of URLs recently discovered by researchers at British lab MRG-Effitas. I launch each URL, discarding any with errors, and note whether the antivirus blocked all access to the URL, eliminated the malware download, or did nothing.
I give equal credit for blocking the URL and for eliminating the download. Avira achieved 78 percent protection, almost evenly divided between blocking all access to the malware-hosting URL and eliminating the malware immediately after download. That puts it near the bottom, score-wise. McAfee AntiVirus Plus achieved 100 percent protection in this test, while Bitdefender, Sophos, and G Data all managed 99 percent.
Decent Phishing Protection
Coding a Trojan horse or other malicious program that can steal passwords while evading antivirus utilities is a tough slog. Fooling unsuspecting consumers into innocently handing over their login credentials is a lot easier. Phishing fraudsters simply create a website that’s visually identical to, say, PayPal. Sometimes they manage a URL that’s close to the real thing, like pyapal.login.com. When an unwitting web surfer logs in, the fraudsters capture the username and password, and that unfortunate netizen is hosed.
Avira’s web protection extends to detecting and averting these phishing attacks as well. To test it, I first scraped hundreds of reported phishing URLs from websites that track such things, including both verified frauds and reported pages that were too new to be blacklisted. I launched each URL in a browser protected by Avira, and simultaneously in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, relying on each browser’s built-in protection. I discarded any that didn’t load properly in all four browsers. I also discarded any that didn’t clearly fit the profile of a phishing fraud. When I got enough data points, I ran the numbers.
Avira detected 91 percent of the verified frauds, down a couple points from its last test but still in the top half of current products. Chrome and Firefox had a good day; both beat Avira by four percentage points. F-Secure Anti-Virus and McAfee top the list of phish phighters, with 100 percent detection, while Bitdefender and Norton come very close with 99 percent.
Phishing is completely platform independent. If you can browse the web on your internet-aware lawnmower, you can give up your login credentials there just as easily as on your computer. However, third party phishing protection isn’t necessarily the same from platform to platform. Some products earn wildly different scores on Windows than on macOS. Avira shields you from frauds in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera, regardless of the operating system. Tested at the same time, Avira Free Antivirus for Mac earned precisely the same score.
While it’s good to use software that protects you from phishing, you should also know what to do to protect yourself. For tips on how to do so, you can read How to Avoid Phishing Scams.
See How We Test Security SoftwareSee How We Test Security Software
Security Features
The Security page is your go-to for launching and scheduling antivirus scans. In addition to the expected quick and full scan, you can schedule fine-tuned choices such as just scanning for rootkits or just scanning the My Documents folder. To see all the malware Avira has caught, click to view Quarantine. Here you can permanently delete found threats or, in the very unlikely event of a false positive, restore legitimate programs that got quarantined.
You can also click to configure protection options on this page, but there’s little point. In the free edition, only System protection is enabled. If you try to enable Web protection, Email protection, or Ransomware protection, you trigger a page advising you to upgrade to Avira Prime. If you decline, Avira offers a 60-day Prime trial to tempt you. Do note that Web protection is a browser-independent component, completely distinct from Browser Safety.
It’s worth noting that Kaspersky’s free suite does include ransomware protection. In testing, it handled not only the typical file-encrypting ransomware but also the less-common screen-locker and disk-encrypting types.
When ne’er-do-wells discover security holes in popular programs, they exploit them to the max, knowing that the program’s maker will soon release a security patch to close those holes. If you don’t install available patches, you put yourself at risk. The Software Updater component scans your installed apps and flags any that have outstanding security patches. You’ll find buttons to update each app, or update all of them, but these trigger an upsell page.
To be fair, it’s not hard to just open each app that Avira reported as out of date and check for updates manually. Avast’s product line has a similar app update feature, even in Avast Free Antivirus. But here again, you don’t get automated installation unless you spring for the top-of-the-line Avast Premier suite.
I mentioned earlier that this free suite doesn’t include a firewall, so you may be surprised to see a Firewall button on the Security page. Avira’s firewall controls simply let you turn Windows Firewall on or off, and you can also change whether it treats your network as public or private. If you click for Advanced settings, it diverts you to the complex and confusing Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security page.
Privacy Features
The Privacy page includes a button panel that installs Browser Safety in your default browser (provided that your default is Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Opera). We’ve already discussed that feature’s ability to steer users away from malicious and fraudulent sites, but that’s not all it does. Every time you visit a website, Avira watches for tracking ads and other third-party trackers, and actively stops them from tracking you. This active Do Not Track is effective, not like the toothless Do Not Track header supported by most browsers. It also blocks ads in general. A numeric overlay on the browser extension button shows the total items blocked, and you can click that button for a breakdown. However, you don’t get the option to exempt certain trackers or certain ads. You can choose to also block social media trackers, and to share anonymous tracker details with Avira. Both these settings are off by default.
Avira also installs its password manager (discussed below) and the Safe Shopping extension. Safe Shopping doesn’t aim to protect you from online pickpockets or sleazy merchants. Rather, it aims to keep you from paying too much. I spent about 20 minutes randomly visiting online retailers and searching for popular items without seeing much activity from Safe Shopping. On a couple of the sites, Avira popped up with a collection of handy coupons. In exactly one case, it offered a “better” price at another merchant—$516 for a Google Pixel 4a, when the original merchant had it for $349. I don’t see a lot of value in this feature.
The VPN component is a feature-limited version of Avira Phantom VPN, which connects with servers in 28 countries, most of them in North America and Europe. In the free suite, you don’t get to choose a location; the VPN just hooks you up to the nearest location. In addition, the free VPN caps your bandwidth at 500MB per month. Removing those limitations costs you $10 per month or $78 per year. Paying for the all-inclusive Avira Prime is another way to get VPN protection without limits.
Antivirus tools from Bitdefender and Kaspersky both include a similarly limited VPN, with a more generous limit of 200MB per day. Breaking free of Bitdefender’s restrictions costs you $6.99 per month or $39.99 per year, while Kaspersky goes for $4.99 per month. Both Bitdefender and Kaspersky license VPN technology from Hotspot Shield VPN, while Avira developed its VPN in house.
The password manager installs as a browser extension in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera for Windows or macOS, and offers apps for Android and iOS. It handles basic tasks like capturing login credentials you enter, replaying them as needed and syncing across all your devices. You can enable two-factor authentication, which functions by texting a code to your smartphone. But it doesn’t offer form-filling, secure sharing, digital inheritance, or other top-tier features. See our review of Avira Password Manager to learn more.
When you delete a file, it just goes to the Recycle Bin. That’s handy in case you deleted the wrong file, but not so good if you’re trying to wipe out sensitive data such as the plaintext original of a file you encrypted. Even if you empty the Recycle Bin, forensic software can often recover deleted files. To delete files beyond the possibility of forensic recovery, just drop them on Avira’s File Shredder.
When you use it on an SSD, the shredder invokes the TRIM function to clear out old data. On a traditional hard drive, Avira overwrites the data once before deletion, which is sufficient to prevent software-based forensic recovery. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, McAfee, Vipre, and Webroot offer a similar feature. Webroot can overwrite files seven times and wipe all traces, foiling even forensic hardware.
Privacy Settings Check
The most significant component on the Privacy page is Privacy Settings. This feature incorporates the functionality of the separate Avira Privacy Pal, which is no longer in development.
If not configured correctly, Windows and popular apps can potentially leak information about your computer and browser usage. Avira puts you in control of over 140 settings in 17 categories, among them: Sharing data with Microsoft; Telemetry and user experience; Edge configuration; and OneDrive. A single click can align all your settings with the recommendations of Avira’s experts. Alternatively, you can dig in and customize the settings, or just view exactly what those settings are.
Curious users will want to choose Custom settings and view the many dozens of privacy settings. Who knew that by default you were subject to “Microsoft experiments,” for example? In the Custom view you can see what settings Avira marks as Recommended, and what additional settings it changes when you switch to Enhanced.
The Privacy Shield component of iolo Privacy Guardian performs a similar service, though it manages only about 30 settings. It also lacks expert recommendations for proper configuration, leaving the user to turn everything off, leave it all on, or laboriously consider items one at a time.
Performance Features
People sometimes blame their security software for performance problems. Avira works to head off that kind of thinking by including a collection of features designed to improve performance. Clicking Performance at left reveals a page with five button panels: Optimizer, Battery saver, Driver updater, Duplicate finder, and Advanced tools. This is a bit misleading, as three of the buttons (Battery saver, Duplicate finder, and Advanced tools) just launch the corresponding components within the separate Avira System Speedup application. Even more than the rest of this suite, System Speedup is loaded with locked Pro-only features, scans that find problems but won’t fix them without payment, and other upsell attempts.
The simple Optimizer aims to free up space by removing junk files, speed up your device’s performance, and clean up things like cookies and erroneous Registry data. On my sparsely populated test system, it found 325MB of junk files and one slow startup app. One click cleaned up the junk files, but said nothing about that slow app. The results page offered to unlock my “full cleaning potential.” Clicking the Unlock button I learned that I could pay $57.99 per year for Avira’s Optimization Suite, or just get it all as part of Avira Prime.
Driver updater is similar in purpose to the Software updater described above. However, rather than finding missing security patches it scans your system for device drivers that could be updated for better performance. In testing, the scan went quickly, reporting just one driver requiring update. As with the software updater, clicking to update all outdated drivers took me to an upsell page. However, clicking Update next to a single driver caused Avira to take care of the update even in this free edition.
Selecting Battery saver launched Avira System Speedup with the energy management component open. Of course, the virtual machine test system has no battery, but it still let me choose from five modes ranging between best energy saving and best performance. Or rather, it offered me three of those modes, as choosing either of the extremes triggered an upsell attempt.
Storing useless temp files and other junk wastes space on your hard drive, but so does storing more than one copy of documents and other files. Clicking Duplicate finder opens the corresponding component in System Speedup. In testing, Avira quickly found groups of identical files, in each case marking all but one for deletion. However, clicking the button to delete those redundant files just brought up an upsell screen. If you don’t want to pay up, you’ll have to reference Avira’s report while performing deletions manually.
Clicking for Advanced tools once again opens System Speedup, this time with the Startup optimizer page selected. After a quick scan, the utility listed apps that may slow down the device. I wasn’t at all surprised to find that full use of this feature required an update to System Speedup Pro.
I ran through the other features of System Speedup, with similar results. Quick Optimizer did a partial cleanup job but pointed out that its Pro edition could do more. Power Cleaner located almost 5GB of items that should be cleaned up but wouldn’t perform that cleanup without payment. The app’s many pages are riddled with orange Pro-only flags. At least when you see those, you know the feature’s not available before you spend time scanning something. All in all, I found the preponderance of Pro-only features in the separate System Speedup component to be seriously annoying.
Smart Scan
Now that I’ve run through this suite’s many features, I can spell out just how Smart Scan puts them all to work. You click the button to start the fun. Smart Scan checks for privacy issues and performance issues. It runs a quick scan for malware and checks for outdated apps. Finally, it runs a scan for network threats. That last item refers to any times you’ve connected to an insecure Wi-Fi network. The whole thing just takes a few minutes.
When the scan finishes, it summarizes its findings, broken down into Security, Privacy, and Performance issues. You can click a button to fix everything or choose to view detailed results. Well, fix everything may be the wrong phrase. Avira fixes Registry problems and frees up some disk space. If you want to fix the rest, including outdated apps, privacy settings, and more wasted disk space, you’ll have to pay for an upgrade.
Improved Integration
Avira Free Security’s Privacy and Security components are thoroughly integrated, though most of the Performance features rely on the separate Avira System Speedup. With this wealth of features available at no cost, it only makes sense that Avira stopped promoting the separate free antivirus. When last reviewed, Avira earned perfect scores from four independent testing labs. This time around, its scores are down, though still plentiful, and it turned in a mediocre performance in our hands-on tests. While it’s bursting with features and utilities, it doesn’t cover the full range of expected suite components, and many of the features it does boast aren’t fully functional without payment.
Kaspersky Security Cloud Free also comes with broad set of suite components, among them ransomware protection, a bootable rescue disk, a feature-limited VPN, and a file shredder. Even though it’s not called a suite, Avast Free Antivirus packs in a lot more features than most antivirus products. These two are our Editors’ Choice picks for free antivirus protection. Of course, when you’re looking at free antivirus tools you have the luxury of evaluating as many as you want to pick the one that suits you best.
