Choosing good antivirus for your PC applications is essential if want your computer to last. The best free antivirus for PC that’s available on the market right now is almost as good as its paid counterpart. When you use one of these in conjunction with a reliable VPN provider, you will have nearly complete online security and privacy.
Free antivirus for PC: Avast Free Antivirus
The Avast Free Antivirus software has been merged with AVG after Avast purchased AVG last year. This merger has brought on a noticeable improvement in Avast’s malware detection engine.
With it you will also enjoy:
- Very user-friendly interface
- Minimal impact upon your PC’s performance
- A password manager
- Network scanning
Nearly everything that Avast does in the online security world is flawless. With the recent acquisition of AVG, and the merging of their free antivirus software, they have gotten even better. They are listed at the top because they are simply the best.
Free antivirus for PC: AVG Antivirus Free
Yes, Avast and AVG did indeed merge. AVG’s Free antivirus still exists though, likely just for the brand name recognition. Unfortunately, the AVG Antivirus Free software is not as good as it’s big brother.
Things to note include:
- A wide range of customization options.
- Protection against basic malware.
- Blocking of unsafe links.
- Unfortunately, you will be bothered to upgrade to the paid software often.
I’m not one for conspiracies, but I almost feel like Avast has intentionally made AVG Antivirus Free less appealing than the flagship software they have provided all along. This could be an effort to phase out AVG and move everyone to Avast over time.
Free antivirus for PC: Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition
While this may indeed be free antivirus for PCs, it does not feel like a scaled-down version of Bitdefender’s full antivirus suite. You still have all of your basics covered with Bitdefender. It also has very low impact on the performance of your PC.
However, they do not have the best interface on the free version, and there are few options. An option to schedule your next antivirus scan would be useful, but it is not included with the free software. If you want free antivirus software for your PC that you can just set up and not worry about, this can be a good choice. Advanced users who want control will not enjoy it.
Free antivirus for PC: Avira Free Antivirus
This is listed near the bottom as it has not improved as much as Avast or AVG. It is also very system heavy performance-wise. Things to note about it include:
- Wide variety of customization.
- Many options right from the interface.
- Free add-on features that can help you customize further.
- A password manager.
If you truly want to experience their antivirus in full, you have to use the paid version. This is certainly meant as a lead up to it.
Free antivirus for PC: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free
Right off the bat it must be noted that this is not an antivirus program. You cannot protect your PC from infection’s like WannaCry. What it does is clear malware off of your system. You can use it as a backup to other antivirus software that is already installed, it will not interfere.
Simply install it and any other of the best free antivirus for PC that we mention.
The worst free antivirus for PC: Panda Free Antivirus
Panda’s free antivirus software has improved from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Unfortunately, they have a high number of false positives where files are flagged as malware when they are not.
They have also eliminated their customizable interface. Oddly, it now taxes your PC more than before… Even though you get less. It also hijacks your web browser settings, and does not let you opt out of system data collection. Panda free antivirus sucks.
Windows Defender
This is the free antivirus for PC that everyone gets with Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. It also has a problem with false positives. And while it’s getting things wrong, it also taxes your system more than it should. It is especially bad during full scans.
For those that like to use non-Microsoft browsers, it offers you no protection. As far as free antivirus for PC goes, you’re better off with almost anything besides Windows Defender.