Free Antivirus Can Keep You Safe
You're careful not to keep sensitive information on your computer. You just use it for web surfing and social media. No hacker or cyber-crook would be interested in such a boring computer, right? Wrong. Your PC would make a great recruit in a bot herder's zombie army, spewing spam, mining bitcoins, or joining in a denial of service attack. And if ransomware locks you away from your social media and cat videos, you'll find out just how much those activities are worth to you. Seriously, you need antivirus protection regardless of how you use your computer. Fortunately, you can get that protection for no cost, and the top free antivirus utilities can beat out some paid ones in testing. We've reviewed 13 free antivirus utilities, and the top 10 are rounded up here. You'll have an easy time picking one that suits you.
Quite a few of these products are free only for noncommercial use; if you want to protect your business, you have to pony up for the paid edition. At that point, you should probably consider upgrading to a full security suite. After all, it's your business's security on the line. And if you've grown beyond SMB status, investing in a SaaS endpoint protection system will let you monitor and manage security across your entire organization.
See Our Top Paid Antivirus Solutions
Your antivirus should definitely have the ability to root out existing malware, but its ongoing task is to prevent ransomware, botnets, Trojans, and other types of nasty programs from getting a foothold. All of the antivirus programs in this collection offer real-time protection against malware attack. Some take the fight upstream, working hard to ensure you never even browse to a malware-hosting site, or get fooled into turning over your credentials to a phishing site.
Independent Antivirus Lab Test Results
Around the world, researchers at independent antivirus testing labs spend their days putting antivirus tools to the test. Some of these labs regularly release public reports on their findings. I follow five such labs closely: AV-Comparatives, AV-Test Institute, Simon Edwards Labs (the successor to Dennis Technology Labs), Virus Bulletin, and MRG-Effitas. I also take note of whether vendors have contracted for certification by ICSA Labs and West Coast Labs.
Security companies typically pay for the privilege of being included in testing. In return, the labs supply them with detailed reports that can help improve their products. The number of labs that include a particular vendor serves as a measure of significance. In each case, the lab considered the product important enough to test, and the vendor felt the price was worthwhile. The labs don't necessarily test a vendor's free product, but most vendors pack full protection into the free product, enhancing premium versions with additional features.
PCMag Free Antivirus Test Results
In addition to carefully perusing results from the independent labs, I also run my own hands-on malware blocking test. I expose each antivirus to a collection of malware samples, including a variety of different malware types, and note its reaction. Typically the antivirus will wipe out most of the samples on sight, and detect some of the remaining ones when I try to launch them. I derive a malware blocking score from 0 to 10 points based on how thoroughly the antivirus protects the test system from these samples.
Since I use the same samples month after month, the malware-blocking test definitely doesn't measure a product's ability to detect brand-new threats. In a separate test, I attempt to download malware from 100 very new malicious URLs supplied by MRG-Effitas, typically less than a day old. I note whether the antivirus blocked all access to the URL, wiped out the malicious payload during download, or did nothing. Norton holds the current top score in this test, followed by Avira Free Antivirus.
If you're interested in learning more about my testing techniques, you're welcome to read more about how we test security software.
Useful Features
Just about every antivirus product scans files on access to make sure malware can't launch, and also scans the entire system on demand, or on a schedule you set. Once that cleaning and scheduling is done, blocking all access to malware-hosting URLs is another good way to avoid trouble. Many products extend that protection to also steer users away from fraudulent websites, phishing sites that try to steal login credentials for financial sites and other sensitive sites. A few rate links in search results, flagging any dangerous or iffy ones.
Behavior-based detection, a feature of some antivirus products, is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it can detect malware that's never been seen before. On the other hand, if it's not done right, it can baffle the user with messages about perfectly legitimate programs.
One easy way to keep your PC protected is to install all security updates, both for Windows and for browsers and other popular applications. Windows 10 makes it easier than ever to stay up to date, but there are plenty of security holes in older Windows versions, in popular apps, and in add-ons. Scanning for vulnerabilities in the form of missing updates is a feature most often found in commercial antivirus products, but it does turn up in some free ones. In the chart above you can see which products include these useful features.
What's Not Here
This article reports only on free antivirus products that received at least a good rating in our reviews—three stars or better. Among those that didn't make the cut is Microsoft Windows Defender, with 2.5 stars. All of the independent labs I follow do include Microsoft in testing, but most use it as a baseline. If a product can't do better than the baseline, it's got real problems.
FortiClient fans may notice that this product doesn't appear in chart. It did get three stars, but it's quite different from the rest. FortiClient is actually designed to work as a client for Fortinet's network security appliance, but is incidentally available as a free standalone.
There are also numerous free antivirus utilities that work solely to clean up existing malware infestations. You bring out these cleanup-only tools when you have a nasty malware infestation. When the problem's gone, they have no further use, since they offer no ongoing protection. Our Editors' Choice in this category is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 3.0, and it's definitely one you should try if you've got a malware problem. But since they're free, you can keep trying others if the first one doesn't do the job. When the scare is over, you'll need a full-blown antivirus for ongoing protection.
What's the Best Free Antivirus
Our current Editors' Choice products for free antivirus utility are Avast Free Antivirus and AVG AntiVirus Free. Both get very good scores from the independent labs, and in our own tests as well. Both include some useful bonus features. Avast in particular packs a password manager and a network security scanner in its toolkit. If you do have a little cash in your budget for security, the best paid antivirus products do tend to offer more and better protection. If not, try a few of these free tools and see which one you like best.
Featured in This Roundup
Avast Free Antivirus 2017
$0.00 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% Avast Free Antivirus 2017 combines a great free antivirus with a surprisingly extensive collection of bonus features. Read the full review-
AVG AntiVirus Free (2017)
$0.00 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% AVG AntiVirus Free has a new look, and some new technology, but our hands-on tests and independent lab tests show that it's just as reliable as ever. Read the full review -
Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition (2017)
$0.00 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition includes precisely the same antivirus technology found in the commercial Bitdefender Antivirus, without the paid edition's many useful bonus features. Read the full review -
Check Point ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus+ 2017
$0.00 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus+ combines a top-notch firewall with antivirus protection licensed from award-winning Kaspersky. This free program can be a good choice if you don't want a full-scale security suite. Read the full review -
Sophos Home
$0.00 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% Sophos Home brings the company's sophisticated business-grade antivirus technology to the home user, for free. It scores very well with the independent labs, and in most (but not all) of our own tests. Read the full review -
Avira Antivirus (2017)
$0.00 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% The free Avira Antivirus gets excellent ratings from the independent labs, but in testing its scans were slow, and its browser protection only works with Chrome and Firefox. Read the full review -
adaware antivirus free 12
$0.00 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% In a complete makeover, adaware antivirus free 12 has a new name and a new look. Under the hood, though, its test results aren't the best, and competing free products have much more to offer. Read the full review -
Comodo Antivirus 10
$0.00 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% The free Comodo Antivirus 10 has a new look, and it aced our hands-on malware blocking test. However, it didn't do as well on other tests by PCMag or the few independent labs that have evaluated it. Read the full review -
Panda Free Antivirus (2017)
$0.00 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% Panda Free Antivirus boasts an attractive user interface and an unusual USB vaccination feature, but its scores have slipped in both our tests and independent lab tests. Read the full review -
Qihoo 360 Total Security 8.6
$0.00 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% The free Qihoo 360 Total Security 8.6 comes with a ton of bonus tools, but its core antivirus protection doesn't measure up to the best free antivirus tools. Read the full review