When comparing avast! vs Malwarebytes, the Slant community recommends Malwarebytes for most people. In the question“What is the best antivirus software for Windows?” Malwarebytes is ranked 3rd while avast! is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose Malwarebytes is:
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.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Decent anti-virus protection
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.
Pro Antimalware
Antivirus is a specific term referring to well-known and established malware, meaning that you'll still remain vulnerable to new and unique malware if you use an antivirus. Malwarebytes is constantly updated to find newer and rarer malware.
Pro Free for manual scans
Offers a completely free scan and removal version for personal use.
Pro Light resource usage
Pro Simple setup
Pro Doesn't ignore adware and toolbars
Malwarebytes removes toolbars that get bundled with software and adware that some other products keep.
Cons
Con Tries too hard to sell you the paid version
Con Too noisy
Avast! has sounds turned on by default. It also has a lot of blinky features of questionable use.
Con Makes your system slower than usual
Even though scans are not being run in background, it will slow your system.
Con Opt-out installation of Google Chrome
These advertising tactics are simply unacceptable.
Con Selling potentially identifying user data
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.
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.
Con May interfere with hyper-V
Since avast has its own virtualization engine, it will cause issues with hyper-V.
Con Unable to detect some adware such as FADE adware
Con Blocks or causes issues on apps or games
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.
Con Limited free version
Con Free version lacks scan scheduling
Premium version of the software is required to schedule scans in advance.