Avira Antivirus Review

Avira is one of the best-known names in the free antivirus world. The software has been updated for the 2019-2020 editions. Is it still worth it? The review below details how Avira fares in the modern cybersecurity climate:

Avira At a Glance

Avira is actually a leading internet company based in Germany. The brand offers a number of tools to safeguard desktops, mobile devices, and smart products at home. There are products on offer for both business and personal users. Avira, though, is best known for its free antivirus which is available mainly for Windows computers. Avira offers both paid and free antivirus software for personal users. All versions, regardless of how much they cost, are built upon the same malware detection engine. The paid versions offer more features to properly safeguard your computer. The free version can block malware in real-time as you use your device. It offers a web extension to prevent phishing attempts on Chrome and Firefox. It even offers a password manager and a limited VPN. These are all excellent perks considering that you are not paying anything. Given that the free version of Avira is quite comprehensive, is it worth paying for a package? You can add coverage for more devices with a paid package. With Avira Pro and Security Suite, you can cover up to 5 devices. The Avira Prime package offers support to an “unlimited” number of devices. What’s more, the paid packages offer extra password protection, software update tools, and some system optimization features. The Prime subscription comes with system cleanup, a premium mobile app, and a full-service VPN (the free version VPN is quite limited). Avira’s paid packaging prices range from roughly $30 to $100, which is highly budget-friendly. Keep reading to learn about what makes Avira worth it, and what might concern potential buyers.

The Pros

Avira offers pretty neat benefits to users. Here’s an overview:

Free Version is All You Need

Avira’s free version contains more features than what some paid antivirus suites offer. You get neat tools like limited VPN, browser protection, online transaction guard, and so on. These are not stripped-down versions of the paid package. Rather, Avira has paid packages that add extra features to the free version. So if antivirus and malware protection is all you need, Avira’s free version should do just fine. There is no need to actually pay for anything.

Solid Performance Scores

For a free antivirus program, you may not really expect Avira to perform well. Surprisingly enough, Avira’s anti-malware performance scores are at the top. It once got a perfect score on an independent AV test run by a German lab. That is not to say Avira is free of faults and errors. There are certainly irritating factors. Regardless, the core malware protection engine is top-notch regardless of what you pay (or don’t pay).

More Device Support than Competitors

Most antivirus programs charge a fortune to offer support for multiple devices. If you want antivirus support for all the internet-connected gadgets in your home, you would have to dish out hundreds of dollars a year for a premium family package. Avira is different. Its Prime package, which roughly costs a $100, offers “unlimited” device support. You can actually support up to 25 devices at least, which is a lot more than what competitors offer.

Privacy Protection Tool

For all paid Avira antivirus products, you get a privacy protection tool called Privacy Pal. It offers additional tools to keep your data private. Privacy Pal is particularly suited to Windows 10 users who get bombarded with ads. Privacy Pal can prevent Cortana tracking you, for example. While privacy protection isn’t comprehensive, having this tool can protect your data significantly than not having it.

Low System Impact

Avira, even with a transaction tool and a VPN, doesn’t clog up the operating system. This is one of the best low impact antivirus tools out there.

Performance Enhancement

Avira comes with a free system cleanup tool that will free up disk space and make your computer run faster. You get an enhanced version of this with Avira Prime. It purports to block apps that overuse your system’s resources. Using an antivirus can slow down operating systems, so a tool like this is an essential addition.

The Cons

Some concerning things about Avira:

“Unlimited” isn’t Exactly Unlimited

The most premium version of Avira promises users that an “unlimited” number of devices can use one antivirus package. However, what Avira really means is about 25 devices per household. It doesn’t actually support hundreds of devices as “unlimited” indicates. This is a false marketing claim, so buyers beware.

Limited Premium Features

Avira’s free software largely covers everything you need. So when you actually pay for it, it’s natural to expect more. However, Avira’s premium editions don’t offer a lot in terms of features compared to the free version. Getting access to exclusive mobile apps, as the Prime version offers, isn’t exactly why people spend money on premium malware protection. Avira can certainly do more in terms of offering features to justify the prices on paid packages.

Choosing the Right Avira Product for You

Avira is definitely one of the best antivirus programs to have on your devices if performance tests are an indication. It’s quite incredible for free antivirus to perform as well as expensive brands like Norton. You can easily get Avira for free and have it on your computer and smartphone. The best part is that even the free version comes with features usually reserved for paid packages. It’s hard to find a better bargain considering this. If there’s a downside to Avira, it’s that you don’t really get much with the paid packages. The pricing is budget-friendly, but the features on offer don’t really justify the cost. You would mostly get enhanced versions of some of the extra perks offered with the free version. Some people might want to upgrade to the paid version for tools like the email spam filter. But most users won’t get a real benefit from it. Avira is probably the best if you are looking for a free or low-cost antivirus program. It’s a reliable and solid performer that makes online browsing as secure as possible. You can quite effectively guard against modern threats like ransomware. It hardly gets better than this.