What are the best free anti-viruses for windows?

14

Options
Considered

61

User
Recs.

Jul 14, 2018

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

12 Options Considered

12 Options Considered	Price	Last Updated
-- Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition	-	Jul 14, 2018
74 avast!	-	Jul 13, 2018
-- Windows Defender	-	Apr 11, 2018
-- Malwarebytes	-	Dec 4, 2017
-- Microsoft Security Essentials	-	Sep 1, 2015

avast!

Add Video or Image

Top Con

Tries too hard to sell you the paid version

Top Pro

Decent anti-virus protection

Top Con

Opt-out installation of Google Chrome

These advertising tactics are simply unacceptable See More

Top Con

Detection rate isn't too solid

Avast! is not the sort of antivirus product to give you peace of mind. In practice, it does miss some malware every now and then. You'll need backup virus protection, which raises the question why you should get Avast in the first place. See More

Top Con

Too noisy

Avast! has sounds turned on by default. It also has a lot of blinky features of questionable use. See More

Top Con

Expires after a year leaving computer exposed to new viruses.

Expires and stops updating after a year after which the user's computer may become infected by new viruses not covered by existing patterns. See More

Top Con

"Smart Screen" feature

When running an unknown application, avast will run it wrapped in a sandbox environment first for scanning, then kill the process and re-run it again. A lot of applications do not like this. See More

Malwarebytes

Add Video or Image

Top Con

Free version lacks real-time protection

Premium version is required to enable real-time protection. See More

Top Pro

Achieved a perfect score in a test performed by AV-TEST

In 2014 AV-TEST tested 7 different cleaning tools (along with 10 antivirus solutions) Malwarebytes was the only tool that was capable of completely removing and restoring the system. It was concluded by AV-TEST to be the best tool for removing malware from infected computers. See More

Top Con

Free version lacks scan scheduling

Premium version of the software is required to schedule scans in advance. See More

Top Pro

Updated frequently

MalwareBytes has a very strong detection rate and will rarely miss anything. It updates at least daily to stay on top of new threats. See More

Top Pro

Light resource usage

Top Pro

Simple setup

Top Pro

Doesn't ignore adware and toolbars

Malwarebytes removes toolbars that get bundled with software and adware that some other products keep. See More

AVG Free

Add Video or Image

Top Con

No rootkit protection

Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Solid spyware and virus detection rates

Ad-Aware is a well known veteran in battle against adware and spyware and today still counts as a solid piece of security software on that matter. For virus protection, it gets similar scores as the most trusted paid antivirus solutions without having many false positives. See More

Top Pro

Real-time protection

This is one of the few good free antivirus solutions that offer real-time protection, stopping malicious processes on your computer at any given time. Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ also scans downloads for malware. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Ad Aware Free Antivirus+ has a clean, well designed user interface that's easy to use for anyone. It features a game mode, so that you're not disturbed by any kind of notification or not have your computer's performance weighed down by background scans while gaming. See More

Panda Free Antivirus

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Excellent protection

In benchmark tests done by av-test, Panda Antivirus got a perfect score. See More

Top Con

Below average performance

While easy to use and never requiring updates, it does slow down the loading of programs. The rate of slow down ranks it below average performance for launching applications. See More

Top Pro

No more updates

Cloud antivirus means users no longer have to update their system or see dialogue boxes annoying them. Every year or two it prompts you to install major updates to the application, but that's it! See More

Top Con

Popups asking you to buy

When you start your computer you will get a small ad for a moment asking you to upgrade to the paid version, if you are using the free version. See More

Top Pro

Hassle free protection

Runs in the background and silently quarantines viruses with scaring the user. See More

Comodo

Add Video or Image

360 Total Security

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Has multiple scanners

Includes Avira and Bitdefender engines. See More

FortiClient 5.0

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Best known for it's FortiGate network security appliance

Detects phishing easily, local malware blocking test, etc. Fortinet is best known for its FortiGate network security appliance and other enterprise-level network security products. A local client running on the company's desktops communicates with the FortiGate device for fully managed security. It turns out that this client, FortiClient 5.0, can function on its own as an effective and free antivirus with some interesting bonus features. See More

Kaspersky Anti-Virus

Norton AntiVirus

See flagged products

59 Community Recommendations

+36

Request recommendations from the community

InfluentialBrea

Contributor for 3 months

1

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

3 months ago

"ui failed to load" message. the avast service is often stopped for unknown reason (check google)

Contributor for 3 days

1

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition

Recommended 3 days ago

SensibleGelos hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

CommunicativeFlidais

Contributor for 5 days

1

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

Recommended 5 days ago

CommunicativeFlidais hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

CromulentEkkeko

Contributor for a month

1

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

Recommended a month ago

CromulentEkkeko hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

Contributor for 7 months

114

Total
Recs.

3K

Total
Karma

Recommended 2 months ago

Tries too hard to sell you the paid version

SpontaneousPeitho

Contributor for 3 months

3

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition

Recommended 3 months ago

SpontaneousPeitho hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

SpontaneousPeitho

Contributor for 3 months

3

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

Windows Defender

Recommended 3 months ago

SpontaneousPeitho

Contributor for 3 months

3

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

3 months ago

Tries too hard to sell you the paid version

HarmoniousPoludnica

Contributor for 3 months

2

Total
Recs.

0

Total
Karma

Recommended 3 months ago

HarmoniousPoludnica hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

Currently displaying 9 out of 59 total recommendations.

Explore Related Questions

Help millions of people make better decisions.

Each month, over 1.7 million people use Slant to find the best products and share their knowledge. Pick the tags you’re passionate about to get a personalized feed and begin contributing your knowledge.