And really, how happy would you be paying for tech support to fix a system problem caused by a free product? That would really be a crummy installation experience. Avira does offer an "Experts Market" where users can contact (and pay) experts for help, but of course reaching the market requires an Internet connection. Finally, on one test system Avira never did manage to install, not even after a full scan by the Rescue System.Īs noted, there's no tech support for the free edition, so the average user would have needed to seek help elsewhere. The Rescue System partially solved this problem, but it left the test system with no network connectivity. In addition, the system kept spontaneously rebooting, perhaps due to partially-removed malware. In theory it should only pop up once for a given threat, but on one test system it detected the same items over and over, making quite a racket. When Avira detects active malware, it pops up a notification and makes an alert noise using the PC Speaker. A full uninstall and reinstall solved that one. After installing the antivirus I got a message that one of its services wasn't working correctly. Malware on another system actively terminated Avira's installer every time it launched. With no option for active tech support, I relied on the bootable Avira Rescue System to solve this problem it did! Trouble with Installation, Scanning Ransomware on one of my test systems blocks access to the desktop, so getting antivirus protection installed is always a challenge. Of course the real-time protection, system scanning, and update components are ready and available. Hovering over grayed out controls gets a tooltip explaining that an upgrade is needed in order to use this component. Features that aren't actually available are simply disabled and grayed out. That can be a problem if malware cleanup causes system problems, as I discovered in testing.Įvery feature that's present in other Avira products, right up to the top-of-the-line "ultimate" suite, is represented on the free product's main window, making it a bit busy. The free product lacks some features of the paid edition, and users aren't entitled to any direct help from tech support. Avira Free AntiVirus (2014) doesn't quite go that route. Some vendors go all in, making their free antivirus a showpiece. Getting thousands or millions of non-paying users is only practical if the mindshare and reputation that's created results in sales of higher-end for-pay security solutions. Best Hosted Endpoint Protection and Security SoftwareĬompanies that offer antivirus protection for free are taking a bit of a gamble. ![]() One benefit compared to Avira’s free-to-use competitor Avast is that while Avast advertises quite intrusively for the paid version in its free version, Avira is much more moderate with its advertising. A 2016 review of Avira Free Antivirus by AV-Comparatives gave the program good grades overall, while a May/June 2022 review of macOS security products awarded high marks to Avira Antivirus Pro. The paid version of the product–Avira Internet Security– received top marks in a September/October evaluation from AV-Test for protection, performance, and usability. But when I tried to open the file, Avira caught and quarantined it. It didn’t scan the eicar.zip file when I downloaded it. The program easily caught and quarantined the different EICAR test files that I tried to download, including the file and the eicar text file. To improve your Mac’s performance, Avira Free Security lists a junk cleaner, application uninstaller, and startup manager, but only the junk cleaner is accessible in the free edition.,Īvira was effective at detecting and stopping malware. ![]() All of these features pop up in the program’s dashboard, but only a few are actually accessible in the free product.įor alternatives, see our roundup of the best antivirus software for Mac. Free for home use, Avira Free Security starts off with antivirus protection but then lists a VPN, password manager, browser cookie cleaner, junk file cleaner, application uninstaller, startup manager, and PC performance booster. Such is the case with Avira Free Security for Mac. But when you dig deep, you find that most of those extra, advanced options actually require a paid subscription. Some free security programs appear to offer an array of features beyond just basic antivirus protection. But most actually require a paid subscription, so the product’s overall usefulness is limited. The VPN severely limits the amount of encrypted trafficĪvira Free Security for Mac seems to offer a lot of features for free. ![]() A smart scan promises to boost your PC’s performance, but there’s little you can do in the free version.Offers several different tools via its dashboard, but only a few are available in the free version.
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