When deciding on an antivirus program security experts and consumers alike take into consideration a variety of factors other than the software’s protection capabilities. Cost, system impact, compatibility, usability and personal judgment about the company’s practices could all be significant factors that influence a person’s choice of an antivirus tool.

Germany-based Avira is a great choice for anyone in need of an antivirus program that is reliable with test results and the option of monthly billing. This antivirus program has impressive scores in all categories. It also offers an array of useful extras, like a password management tool. Avira scans are light and do not use much of the resources. However, the full-scan speed drop is quite significant at 53 percent which is among the most hefty in our tests.

It’s not easy to determine the best free AV program because some of our top picks come with a few disadvantages. For instance, Kaspersky’s powerful background effect can cause slowdowns of up to 53%, whereas Avast’s slowdown for full scans is slightly less at 44 percent. On the other one hand, Bitdefender has an excellent free version and a strong subscription-based AV solution, which boasts excellent independent lab scores. Its feature set includes the VPN and is large, making it stand out among the competition.

The top-rated paid AV applications include F-Secure, McAfee Total Protection and Trend Micro Internet Security. Microsoft Defender, the built-in antivirus that comes with Windows 10 and 11, is comparatively lightweight, only having an impact on the background of 9%. However, it may avastantivirusreview.com/avast-won-t-open-on-windows-10 cause system slowdowns when running full system scans.