Avira Free Security review

One
of
the
big
concerns
about
choosing
the

best
free
antivirus
is
what
key
features
the
provider
might
have
left
out.

Avira
Free
Security
tries
to
deal
with
this
worry
by
not
only
offering
antivirus,
but
also
adding
a
reassuringly
long
list
of
bonus
features:
VPN,
password
manager,
PC
privacy
tools,
device
cleanup,
anti-phishing
browser
extensions,
and
more.

There
are
still
plenty
of
restrictions.
Browsing
protection
is
limited
to
browser
add-ons,
for
instance.
The
VPN
doesn’t
allow
you
to
choose
your
location,
and
it
only
offers
a
tiny
500MB
data
a
month
(yes;
a
month.)
But
does
Avira
Free
Security
really
give
you
enough
core
protection
layers
to
keep
you
safe
from
harm?
We
ran
the
suite
through
our
intensive
series
of
security
tests
to
find
out.

Avira
Free
Security:
Desktop
and
mobile

Avira
Free
Security
earned
its
first
big
plus
point
before
we
even
installed
it.
Unlike
Bitdefender
Antivirus
Free
and
many
others,
you
can
use
it
without
creating
an
account,
or
handing
over
your
email
address
or
any
other
personal
information.
Avira
prefers
that
you
register,
and
you’ll
get
a
‘Register’
icon
on
the
dashboard
as
a
reminder,
but
that
isn’t
necessary.

With
no
account,
that
means
Avira
can’t
limit
the
number
of
devices
where
you
can
install
its
software,
and
you’re
free
to
use
it
wherever
you
like.
Avira
Free
Security
is
also
available
for
Mac,
and
mobile
devices
can
use
Avira
Antivirus
Security
for
Android
and
Avira
Mobile
Security
for
iOS.

We’re
focusing
on
Avira
Free
Security
for
Windows
in
this
review,
but
if
you’d
like
to
know
more
about
what
other
platforms
can
do,
or
what
extras
you
get
in
Avira’s
paid
products,
check
out
our

Avira
Prime
review
for
an
in-depth
look.

Avira
Free
Security:
Getting
started

Avira’s
Windows
installer
did
an
excellent
job
of
setting
up
Avira
Free
Security
on
our
test
laptop,
walking
us
through
every
stage
and
keeping
us
informed
of
what
was
happening.

When
the
process
was
complete,
Avira
ran
its
all-in-one
Smart
Scan,
checking
for

malware,
privacy
problems,
outdated
apps,
performance
issues,
network
security
problems
and
more.
Although
it’s
covering
a
lot
of
ground,
the
process
is
surprisingly
quick,
and
Avira
displayed
a
report
of
our
device
‘issues’
in
barely
a
minute.

Along
with
telling
us
our
device
was
‘virus
free’,
Avira
also
explained
that
we
had
684
MB
of
disk
clutter
we
could
delete,
five
apps
were
slowing
our
boot
time,
three
‘outdated
apps’
were
missing
updates,
and
there
were
‘21
privacy
settings
to
fix.’
Although
that
sounded
intriguing,
most
of
these
issues
were
either
no
big
deal,
or
we
couldn’t
fix
them
with
the
free
version,
anyway.
Avira’s
Smart
Scan
regularly
teased
us
with
lists
of
‘problems’,
but
then,
when
we
clicked
‘Fix’,
explained
we
had
to
pay
for
an
upgrade
to
resolve
them.

While
that
might
seem
a
little
annoying,
at
least
initially,
it’s
no
great
surprise.
You’re
getting
the
app
for
free;
some
sort
of
advertising
is
inevitable.
And
there
are
ways
to
avoid
at
least
some
of
these
sales
pitches.

Once
we
learned
that
Smart
Scan
was
mostly
about

marketing,
for
example,
we
dialed
down
the
upselling
by
running
ordinary
antivirus
scans
instead.
Quick
Scans
are
just
as
speedy
and
focused
entirely
on
the
information
we
needed
to
know
(‘were
we
malware
free?’),
without
any
unnecessary
extras:
perfect.

Avira
Free
Security:
Protection

Avira’s
paid
products
are
regularly
assessed
by
the
top
antivirus
labs,
giving
a
useful
general
idea
of
how
Avira
compares
to
the
competition.

Avira’s
overall
results
are
a
little
disappointing
right
now,
with
the
company
ranking
7th
out
of
10
in
our
aggregate
score
chart
covering
nine
top
reports.
(Avast,
Bitdefender
and
McAfee
came
equal
first;

Microsoft,
Total
AV
and
Trend
Micro
were
bottom
of
the
list.)

The
aggregate
score
covers
many
areas,
though,
including
Android
effectiveness,
performance
and
more.
If
you’re
only
interested
in
Windows
protection,
the
results
are
much
better.
Avira
managed
an
excellent
third
place
in
AV-Comparatives’
latest
Real-World
Protection
test,
for
instance
(behind
Avast
and
AVG),
blocking
99.8%
of
threats
with
zero
false
positives.

It’s
important
to
remember
that
these
results
are
measuring
the
performance
of
Avira’s
paid
products.
That
gives
us
a
good
baseline
to
understand
how
the
company
compares
to
the
best
of
the
competition,
but
as
Avira
Free
Security
doesn’t
have
full
web
protection,
it
won’t
block
as
many
threats.

We
tested
this
by
attempting
to
access
50
shiny
new
phishing
URLs
obtained
from
experts
OpenPhish.
The
results
confirmed
that
Avira
Free
Security
really
doesn’t
have
any
web
protection,
as
the
app
couldn’t
block
a
single
site.

Fortunately,
Avira
has
a
separate
free
Browser
Safety
extension
for
Chrome,
Edge,
Firefox
and
Opera.
This
is
more
limited
because
it
only
protects
the
browsers
where
you
install
it,
while
system-level
protection
covers
all
your
apps,
but
it’s
still
a
huge
improvement.
We
tested
the
same
phishing
URLs
with
Avira
Browser
Safety
installed,
and
it
blocked
90%,
as
good
as
a
result
as
we’d
expect
to
see
from
any
paid
antivirus.

Malware
detection
is
more
challenging,
but
again,
Avira
Browser
Safety
made
a
big
difference.
When
we
attempted
to
download
50
malicious
files,
Browser
Safety
blocked
36%
before
we
could
even
access
the
URLs,
and
another
54%
as
the
files
were
saved,
for
an
overall
protection
rate
of
90%.

We’ve
seen
others
score
higher
–

Avast
Free
Antivirus
blocked
94%
of
our
test
threats
in
its
last
review,
Bitdefender
Antivirus
Free
an
amazing
100%
–
but
90%
is
better
than
many,
and
it’s
not
the
end
of
the
story.
If
you
do
run
a
dangerous
file,
Avira’s
behavior
monitoring
layer
detects
and
blocks
most
threats.

Avira
Free
Security:
VPN
and
other
Tools

Although
this
review
is
mostly
about
Avira
Free
Security’s
core
antivirus
features,
there’s
a
lot
more
to
it,
and
we’ll
quickly
run
through
what’s
on
offer
here.
(Take
a
look
at
our
Avira
Prime
review
for
more
detail
or
if
you’re
interested
in
the
extra
functionality
offered
by
the
paid
apps.)

Avira
Free
Security
includes
a

free
VPN,
but
beware,
it’s
about
as
basic
as
you’ll
see.
It
automatically
connects
you
to
your
nearest
location,
with
no
ability
to
change
country.
There’s
no
kill
switch
in
the
free
version
(that’s
a
paid
extra),
and
you’re
limited
to
a
tiny
500MB
a
month.
For
comparison,
Avast
One
Free
gives
you
5GB
a
week.

Still,
the

VPN
works,
it’s
reasonably
fast,
easy
to
use,
and
might
just
about
do
as
an
emergency
backup
for
two
minutes
of
browsing
on
public
Wi-Fi.

Avira’s

Password
Manager
covers
the
basics,
collecting
credentials
when
you
first
type
them
and
automatically
completing
login
forms
when
you
revisit
sites.
Mobile
apps
and
browser
extensions
for
Chrome,
Firefox,
Edge
and
Opera
mean
you
can
use
it
almost
anywhere.
It’s
limited,
with
no
ability
to
create
identities,
save
details
like
addresses
and
fill
in
forms,
but
might
be
handy
if
you
don’t
currently
have
any
password
manager
at
all.

Avira’s
Software
Updater
and

Driver
Updater
tools
scan
your
PC
for
missing
app
and
device
updates,
issues
which
could
leave
you
with
security
vulnerabilities.
These
had
a
little
value
for
us,
finding
three
app
updates
and
one
driver
on
a
new
laptop.
Although
it’s
good
to
know
about
these,
Avira
Free
can’t
install
the
updates
automatically
(that’s
a
paid-only
feature),
leaving
us
to
find,
download
and
install
them
ourselves.

Elsewhere,
Avira’s
File
Shredder
securely
deletes
confidential
files
to
ensure
they
can’t
be
undeleted.
There
are
far
more
configurable
free
tools
around
which
do
something
similar,
but
it
could
be
useful
if
you
regularly
handle
documents
with
sensitive
information.

Avira
Free
Security:
Final
verdict

Avira
Free
Security
has
more
features
than
just
about
everyone
else,
but
there
are
more
compromises
and
limits,
too.
500MB
of
data
a
month
is
one
of
the
lowest
allowances
we’ve
seen,
and
while
Avast
and
Bitdefender’s
free
apps
include
system-wide
web
protection,
Avira’s
is
only
available
for
paying
customers.
It’s
still
a
good
product,
and
if
you’re
a
fan
of
Avira
then
it’s
worth
a
look,
but
everyone
else
will
get
better
protection
from
the
likes
of
Avast
One
Essential
or
Bitdefender
Antivirus
Free.

We’ve
also
listed
the
best
cloud
antivirus.