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Add to SafariWhen comparing Avira vs TinyWall, the Slant community recommends TinyWall for most people. In the question“What are the best firewall tools for Windows?” TinyWall is ranked 2nd while Avira is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose TinyWall is:
100% free, no ads whatsoever, no annoying pop-ups.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Fast, and free version seems powerful
I've used AVG Free in the past, and it seemed to slow my computer more than Avira does.
Pro Can install more components if you wish.
Optional installs include VPN, System Speedup, a password manager, browser extensions, and a hardened browser.
In the case that you've downloaded the Free Suite (not recomended), you can uninstall the above mentioned additional downloads with Avira's Connect app or any uninstaller utility software. This flexibility to cherry pick your extra software keeps the bloatware down somewhat.
Pro 100% free
100% free, no ads whatsoever, no annoying pop-ups.
Pro Extremely lightweight on RAM
Uses surprisingly low memory, making it the best choice for systems with little RAM.
Pro Manually allowing a program to "go out"
... which hardens security, altough this can be viewed as a con by some. If the user doesn't take an action to allow a program (TinyWall asks before allowing that) to "go out", it won't automatically allow it, as some other firewall programs do. However, this feature is probably the best of it because it will never allow any malicious software to start, even if it was downloaded on the user's computer.
Pro Works on all Windows OS that exist
Pro The user has full control of what it does
Pro Supports Windows Store
Detects and handles all UWP packages automatically.
Pro Stores its settings in the Roaming directory
... allowing the user to store all of their settings and restore them easily the next time they have to reinstall Windows.
Pro Boot-time filtering
Other free firewalls only start protecting shortly before the desktop is loaded, but TinyWall's filters are active from the very beginning the OS starts booting up.
Cons
Con Occasional pop-up ad in the taskbar
The ad is nagging the user to purchase Avira
Con Extras like Browser Safety include offers/deals when you're shopping
This is exactly the sort of behavior users want to prevent when using antivirus and similar security tools.
Con Not open source
Con Can be easily "shot down" by a hacker
Provides absolutely no defense against DDoS attacks and any hacker with a connection above 1 Mbit can easily shoot it down with an excessive traffic to the user's computer.
Con The GUI needs improvement
Examples: The configuration window can't be resized; doing any change in the rules table resets the list's scroll position to top, it does not show new, learnt applications after having used the autolearn-mode.
Con Not available for Linux
Con The easiest way to train Tiny Wall is insecure
If, for example, you have to use a script that might download some tools (e.g. installs Rust), the easiest way is to enable the Learning mode. In that mode any application without rule can connect but it is logged as new rule (for later verification). An option is missing to allow all applications/processes which were launched as the current one, including all child processes.
Con Easy to forget that TinyWall is blocking a certain application
When wondering why some application behaves wrong, it's not easy to remember that the TinyWall might be the reason - because there was no rule yet for the specified application. For firewalls that show a notification, this could be connected more easily.
