Study names Avast Free the most popular antivirus

[Matthew DeCarlo]

A new study by OPSWAT suggests that free antivirus applications outrank paid versions in popularity among users. While not shocking, it's an interesting discovery considering the fact that most large system builders ship their machines with Symantec or McAfee preinstalled, leaving smaller companies to rely on after-market installs. It's unclear what percentage of the usage is consumers and how much is enterprise-based.

Avast Free is supposedly the most popular software, taking 11.45% of the pie. Avira AntiVir Personal follows with 9.19%, AVG Free has 8.6%, and Microsoft Security Essentials has carved out a handsome 7.48% since debuting late last year. Below the freebies is Avast (paid) with 5.4%, Kaspersky had 4.48%, Norton at 4.24%, and ESET NOD32 claimed 3.84%.

OPSWAT combined different version numbers for each application, but most vendors have a few separate products, which makes the antivirus software chart a bit confusing. That said, things don't change much when you look at vendors. Avast leads with 19.14%, Avira has 11.39%, Symantec takes 10.06%, Microsoft claims 9.29%, while AVG is just below that with 9%.

The research firm also graphed the location of antivirus vendors. Apparently, 52% of those in the study are European, including Avast, Avira, AVG, ESET, Panda, BitDefender, G Data and Sophos. Meanwhile, 31% are located in the US, including Symantec, Microsoft, McAfee, PC Tools and Sunbelt. Numbers aside, what's your preferred antivirus and why?

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https://www.techspot.com/news/39614-study-names-avast-free-the-most-popular-antivirus.html

 

[dustin_ds3000]

Avast free and Pro version is the best AV you can have. i have had Avast Pro in the past, its well worth the money. when it came time to renew my subscription i didn't have the funds. so i switched to the free. I haven't had a virus on my PC in years.

 

[raybay]

The trouble is that it seems to be no longer free for very long... I know lots of users who are getting a request from Avast for payment after 90 days... it is good but so are Avira and a few others.

 

[Route44]

The trouble is that it seems to be no longer free for very long... I know lots of users who are getting a request from Avast for payment after 90 days... it is good but so are Avira and a few others.

That is interesting. I'll have to keep an eye on my daughter's laptop and our second PC because we have the latest free from Avast and it has been 90+ days but no pop-ups here asking for payments.

 

[Guest]

it would be a shame if Avast started charging for the free version. I recommend it to my friends all the time..

 

[OneArmedScissor]

raybay said:
I know lots of users who are getting a request from Avast for payment after 90 days...

Are you sure you don't just know lots of people who have confused payment with registration?

 

[dustin_ds3000]

raybay said:
The trouble is that it seems to be no longer free for very long... I know lots of users who are getting a request from Avast for payment after 90 days... it is good but so are Avira and a few others.

If you get the free version then you need to register it, this will get rid of the request to buy it

 

[princeton]

I used to use AVG but it's garbage. Switched to kaspersky internet security and haven't had a virus since.

 

[captainawesome]

Avira Personal... never missed a thing! Very good and the least resource intensive one i found.

 

[tipstir]

Don't know about that MSE is the best and it's free as long as you are using a genuine copy of Windows.

 

[yowanvista]

Avast lacks support for x64 systems
Many features such as boot scan don't work in x64 Win7
I'm for KIS

 

[dustin_ds3000]

yowanvista said:
Avast lacks support for x64 systems
Many features such as boot scan don't work in x64 Win7
I'm for KIS

your right there, i do miss boot scan but i have heard from a developer that it will be in the avast 5.1

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=53717.msg455670#msg455670

 

[Guest]

this data does not show an accurate result of anti-viruses.

It may show the favoritism among the users of the anti-viruses but it doesn't show the best of how well the anti-viruses perform.

The only way avast or avira is popular because its free to everyone.

 

[SSaywell]

I use MSE but about 2 months ago my computer decided to go un-genuine, seeing as I was going to get a new laptop (hopefully coming today) I just carried on as I was. I download at lot of crap but in the 2 months I have not had a single Virus or anything, so I am currently finding it hard to see how people get them and if you have Anti Virus software there should be no reason at all to get them. I will be installing MSE on my new laptop because I have used a lot of programs and think it is the best.

 

[treetops]

Iv tried a lot of free anivirus programs throughout the years and avira is my favorite, however you get a daily popup to buy it. Avg seems to miss alot and seems to get infected after a while. Avast just stopped working when I had xp, it started to have never ending scans.

 

[Reloader2]

Eset Internet Security. Doesn't take a lot of resources or bandwidth, works without interrupting me and has kept me from getting a handful of Trojans.

 

[Gars]

its about free AV soft, ESET is not
MSE both on work and home - works fine for me

KIS is too heavy and im too sensitive when it comes to resource hogs
i dont have pc only to run av ....

 

[gobbybobby]

Used to use AVG, switched to Avast, its much better and the newest version has a very nice UI. It is free as long as you register with your email address, you can register as many times as you like, registering will get rid of the popups.

 

[LightHeart]

Over the years I have used, Avast, Avira, AVG, McAfee, Microsoft, Symantec, and Trend. I have tested a handful of others however they didn't last long before I removed them.

I'm currently running Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) and I really like it. It can be updated through itself and/or via Windows Updates. It takes up little resources, the least amount compared to the other ones I tried. When it discovers something it gives you some very good details on the malware so you understand what's going on and what actions you can take. My understanding is that it doesn't just do a signature scan but looks for programs behaving oddly. If it has information on the malware it will act and if not it checks an online database. This is the real power as the database is updated from all users, so if several users get new malware, it will report it to the database, a solution will be entered and the next users that comes across the malware will be able to get the solution.

 

[Guest]

I used AVG a long time ago, then it got screwed, forcing me to switch to Avast4, then 5. It's a good one, last to this very day. It normally lives longer than my OS, which I have several. I'm very happy I have found it. And I did recommend it to many of friends.

 

[n0real]

I like Kaspersky Anti Virus tbh, it costs some $$ but is great, KIS / KAV

 

[UglyChild]

Guest said:
this data does not show an accurate result of anti-viruses.

It may show the favoritism among the users of the anti-viruses but it doesn't show the best of how well the anti-viruses perform.

The only way avast or avira is popular because its free to everyone.

Duhh.. thats the point of the article.

Ive been using Avira Free, after my NOD32 ran out. Now i have Avira on 3 computers and it does the job well.

 

[9Nails]

It's funny how many "best" products are mentioned here. I've tried many of them; with AVG I didn't like the frequent program updates (not virus updates) and how the program advertises itself, but it was good protetion. With McAffee I didn't like it's miss rate which seems higher than others. With Sophos, I didn't care for the false positives. With Norton/Symantec I didn't like the sluggish feeling it puts on a computer. The one that I've stayed with is Microsoft Security Essentials. And I've been very happy with it in every category.

 

[TuesdayExpress]

I used Avast for about 6 years, and recommended it to friends and family alike. However, about a year ago I began to notice increased system load and nag screens, neither of which I welcome on systems under my care. I've switched to MSE on my home systems and on the other systems as the 1-yr free Avast licenses ran out. Couldn't be happier with MS on this one. Great & effective little app.

 

[mattfrompa]

I've been using Avast 5 for about 2 months now (along with PC tools Threatfire) and I am impressed with both. Both have blocked a couple things (I was testing it) I would highly recommend the free version, at least check it out because it does provide a P2P shield, network shield and good scanning options. You can even have it scan whenever the computer goes to screen saver mode.