Free Malware, Spyware, and Adware Protection It's fun to buy holiday gifts for your friends and family, but too much of that fun can leave your bank balance low. You might be tempted to let your premium antivirus protection lapse, to save money. Don't do it! Instead, switch to a free antivirus, at least until you built up your cash reserves. The best free antivirus utilities offer very good protection. We've analyzed 17 of these to help you make your choice. Your antivirus should definitely have the ability to root out existing malware, but its ongoing task is to prevent ransomware, botnets, Trojans, and other types of nasty programs from getting a foothold. All of the antivirus programs in this collection offer real-time malware protection. Some take the fight upstream, working hard to ensure you never even browse to a malware-hosting site, or get fooled into turning over your credentials to a phishing site. Free Antivirus vs. Paid Antivirus If free antivirus tools are so great, why should anybody pay? For one thing, quite a few of these products are free only for noncommercial use; if you want to protect your business, you have to pony up for the paid edition. At that point, you should probably consider upgrading to a full security suite. After all, it's your business's security on the line. Even for personal use, most for-pay antivirus tools offer more than their free counterparts—sometimes a lot more. For example, Kaspersky Free doesn't include the paid edition's powerful System Watcher component, which monitors processes exhibiting malicious behavior and, if necessary, rolls back changes made by malware. The paid edition of adaware's antivirus adds a similar behavior-based detection tool, along with protection against malicious and fraudulent websites that the free version lacks. And Panda reserves quite a few features for paying customers, among them firewall protection, application control, and detection of insecure Wi-Fi connections. In addition, many companies don't offer full-scale tech support for users of the free edition. The first time you need extra help digging a particularly stubborn piece of malware out of your system, you might regret the lack of support. Independent Antivirus Lab Test Results Around the world, researchers at independent antivirus testing labs spend their days putting antivirus tools to the test. Some of these labs regularly release public reports on their findings. I follow four such labs closely: AV-Comparatives, AV-Test Institute, SE Labs, and MRG-Effitas. I also take note of whether vendors have contracted for certification by ICSA Labs and West Coast Labs. Security companies typically pay for the privilege of being included in testing. In return, the labs supply them with detailed reports that can help improve their products. The number of labs that include a particular vendor serves as a measure of significance. In each case, the lab considered the product important enough to test, and the vendor felt the price was worthwhile. The labs don't necessarily test a vendor's free product, but most vendors pack full protection into the free product, enhancing premium versions with additional features. We Test Malware Protection In addition to carefully perusing results from the independent labs, I also run my own hands-on malware protection test. I expose each antivirus to a collection of malware samples, including a variety of different malware types, and note its reaction. Typically the antivirus will wipe out most of the samples on sight, and detect some of the remaining ones when I try to launch them. I derive a malware blocking score from 0 to 10 points based on how thoroughly the antivirus protects the test system from these samples. Since I use the same samples month after month, the malware-blocking test definitely doesn't measure a product's ability to detect brand-new threats. In a separate test, I attempt to download malware from 100 very new malicious URLs supplied by MRG-Effitas, typically less than a day old. I note whether the antivirus blocked all access to the URL, wiped out the malicious payload during download, or did nothing. Norton holds the current top score in this test, followed by Avira Free Antivirus. If you're interested in learning more about my testing techniques, you're welcome to read more about how we test security software. Useful Features Just about every antivirus product scans files on access to make sure malware can't launch, and also scans the entire system on demand, or on a schedule you set. Once that cleaning and scheduling is done, blocking all access to malware-hosting URLs is another good way to avoid trouble. Many products extend that protection to also steer users away from fraudulent websites, phishing sites that try to steal login credentials for financial sites and other sensitive sites. A few rate links in search results, flagging any dangerous or iffy ones. Behavior-based detection, a feature of some antivirus products, is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it can detect malware that's never been seen before. On the other hand, if it's not done right, it can baffle the user with messages about perfectly legitimate programs. Any antivirus should eliminate spyware along with other types of malware, but some products include features designed specifically for spyware protection. Features like encryption to protect your sensitive data and webcam control to prevent remote peeping typically show up in commercial products, not free ones. But some free products include features like a simple on-screen keyboard to foil keyloggers. One easy way to keep your PC protected is to install all security updates, both for Windows and for browsers and other popular applications. Windows 10 makes it easier than ever to stay up to date, but there are plenty of security holes in older Windows versions, in popular apps, and in add-ons. Scanning for vulnerabilities in the form of missing updates is a feature most often found in commercial antivirus products, but it does turn up in some free ones. In the chart above you can see which products include these useful features. What's Not Here? What About Windows Defender? This article reports only on free antivirus products that received at least a good rating in our reviews—three stars or better. Among those that didn't make the cut is Microsoft Windows Defender Security Center, with 2.5 stars. All of the independent labs I follow do include Microsoft in testing, but most use it as a baseline. If a product can't do better than the baseline, it's got real problems. Several free utilities devoted entirely to ransomware protection recently joined the party. Cybereason RansomFree, Malwarebytes Anti-Ransomware Beta, and Trend Micro RansomBuster exist for the sole purpose of fending off any ransomware attack that your regular antivirus misses. Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware works by fooling ransomware to think that your computer is already infected. I include them in the blurbs below and encourage you to give them a try. They don't appear in the chart simply because they don't do the job of a full-scale antivirus utility. There are also numerous free antivirus utilities that work solely to clean up existing malware infestations. You bring out these cleanup-only tools when you have a nasty malware problem. When the malware's gone, they have no further use, since they offer no ongoing protection. Our favorite in this category is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and it's definitely one you should try if you've got a malware problem. But since they're free, you can keep trying others if the first one doesn't do the job. When the scare is over, you'll need a full-blown antivirus for ongoing protection. What's the Best Free Antivirus? Our current Editors' Choice products for free antivirus utility are Avast Free Antivirus and AVG AntiVirus Free. Both get very good scores from the independent labs, and in our own tests as well. Both include some useful bonus features. Avast in particular packs a password manager and a network security scanner in its toolkit. If you do have a little cash in your budget for security, the best paid antivirus software does offer more and better protection. If not, try a few of these free tools and see which one you like best. Worried you might already be infected? Check out our article on the signs you have malware. Cybereason RansomFree Review MSRP: $0.00 at Bottom Line: The consequences of a ransomware attack are dire, so a second layer of defense like Cybereason RansomFree is a great idea. It's free; go ahead and install it. Read Review Kaspersky Free Review MSRP: $0.00 at Bottom Line: Kaspersky Free offers full-scale basic malware protection that gets excellent scores from the independent labs, at no cost. Read Review Malwarebytes Anti-Ransomware Beta Review MSRP: $0.00 at Bottom Line: Malwarebytes Anti-Ransomware Beta watches program behavior to thwart any ransomware that gets past your existing antivirus. This lightweight, free utility makes a great addition to your secu... Read Review Sophos Home Review MSRP: $0.00 at Bottom Line: Sophos Home brings the company's sophisticated business-grade antivirus technology to the home user, for free. It scores very well with the independent labs, and in most (but not all) of our... Read Review Avira Antivirus (2017) Review MSRP: $0.00 at Bottom Line: The free Avira Antivirus gets excellent ratings from the independent labs, but in testing its scans were slow, and its browser protection only works with Chrome and Firefox. Read Review adaware antivirus free 12 Review MSRP: $0.00 at Bottom Line: In a complete makeover, adaware antivirus free 12 has a new name and a new look. Under the hood, though, its test results aren't the best, and competing free products have much more to offer... Read Review Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware Review MSRP: $0.00 at Bottom Line: Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware vaccinates your PC against infection by four specific ransomware families, and testing shows that it does the job. But you'll need some other kind of protection t... Read Review Comodo Antivirus 10 Review MSRP: $0.00 at Bottom Line: The free Comodo Antivirus 10 has a new look, and it aced our hands-on malware blocking test. However, it didn't do as well on other tests by PCMag or the few independent labs that have evalu... Read Review FortiClient 5.0 Review MSRP: $0.00 at Bottom Line: Although it's designed to work with a network appliance, FortiClient 5.0 also functions as a standalone antivirus, with parental control and VPN client thrown in. And it's free! Read Review Panda Free Antivirus (2017) Review MSRP: $0.00 at Bottom Line: Panda Free Antivirus boasts an attractive user interface and an unusual USB vaccination feature, but its scores have slipped in both our tests and independent lab tests. Read Review Trend Micro RansomBuster Review MSRP: $0.00 at Bottom Line: It's very good of Trend Micro to make RansomBuster available for free, and its Folder Shield successfully prevents unauthorized changes to your documents. However, the behavior-based detecti... Read Review

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