Battle 360 Essential/Total Security Free vs Avira Free Antivirus

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Qihoo 360 Essentials / Total Security
Avira Free Antivirus

videogamer1500

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Apr 4, 2019
57
360 Essential uses the Avira Engine and 360 Total Security uses Avira and Bitdefender. Avira free is well Avira's own engine of course. 360 Essential and 360 Total Security has advertisements and Avira free does but not as intrusive. Which antivirus is the better one overall?

360 Total Security includes "optimization tools" while 360 essential is just the antivirus. Both 360 versions have the same level of security in terms of features.

Even though I can, I feel like living on free trials seems like a waste of time and I rather just use a free antivirus instead of looking for 3-9 month trials.

Reason I am deciding between these two rather than the obvious choices of Kaspersky free and Bitdefender free as because of my good experience with Fsecure, I want to prefer an antivirus which uses the Avira engine. Avast is own by AVG and they sell their customer's data on the web it is a known thing so I refuse to even mention Avast anymore.
 
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pxxb1

Level 9
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Jan 17, 2018
436
360 Essential uses the Avira Engine and 360 Total Security uses Avira and Bitdefender. Avira free is well Avira's own engine of course. 360 Essential and 360 Total Security has advertisements and Avira free does but not as intrusive. Which antivirus is the better one overall?

360 Total Security includes "optimization tools" while 360 essential is just the antivirus. Both 360 versions have the same level of security in terms of features.

Even though I can, I feel like living on free trials seems like a waste of time and I rather just use a free antivirus instead of looking for 3-9 month trials.

Reason I am deciding between these two rather than the obvious choices of Kaspersky free and Bitdefender free as because of my good experience with Fsecure, I want to prefer an antivirus which uses the Avira engine. Avast is own by AVG and they sell their customer's data on the web it is a known thing so I refuse to even mention Avast anymore.

There is no BD sig`s anymore in Qihoo 360, just Avira and their own engine.

As far as i know they both have the same protection so what you should use is up to you. I use Total because its optimizing tool actually works and their cleaner finds things others dont.
The ads can be stopped with the firewall.

If you want extra protection it exists good complements to a basic Av which makes your computer like a small fort.
 

EndangeredPootis

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Sep 8, 2019
461
There is no BD sig`s anymore in Qihoo 360, just Avira and their own engine.

As far as i know they both have the same protection so what you should use is up to you. I use Total because its optimizing tool actually works and their cleaner finds things others dont.
The ads can be stopped with the firewall.

If you want extra protection it exists good complements to a basic Av which makes your computer like a small fort.
PC optimizers are snake oil, they are more dangerous than useful and it does not work alongside another antivirus.
 

Antimalware18

Level 10
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Jan 17, 2014
485
I would have to say neither, When 360 first really started to get attention it had the "hey new program to play with " feel and it was fun to use and had extra strong protection for awhile, now that shines worn off and well people are starting to see it for what it really is a good program that's full of bloat.

Then there is the other side of the coin with Avira, and IMHO anyone who looks at Avira as a first choice nowadays's is stuck back in the "glory" days of Avira when it was king free AV.

If it absolutely comes down to the two.....id say Avira free paired with something like OSArmor or Voodooshield free

Honestly though? there are alot better free alternatives to use nowadays's.
 

Ink

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Jan 8, 2011
22,361
Bitdefender Free Antivirus might a good solution. It has discrete 'Upgrade ad' on the Main UI, which cannot be disabled, but it is by design for Free users.
Re: Q&A - Display notifications with special offers can't be disabled

you know you can use avira free right?
I think Avira still comes with all that extra bloatware, Avira Launcher. I don't know of a solution to avoid it.

When 360 first really started to get attention it had the "hey new program to play with " feel and it was fun to use and had extra strong protection for awhile, now that shines worn off [..]
It was the same for Kingsoft Antivirus 2012. It was great, until it wasn't.
 

videogamer1500

Level 2
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Verified
Apr 4, 2019
57
Bitdefender Free Antivirus might a good solution. It has discrete 'Upgrade ad' on the Main UI, which cannot be disabled, but it is by design for Free users.
Re: Q&A - Display notifications with special offers can't be disabled


I think Avira still comes with all that extra bloatware, Avira Launcher. I don't know of a solution to avoid it.


It was the same for Kingsoft Antivirus 2012. It was great, until it wasn't.
I am currently using Kaspersky free and I am looking to see if Comodo Firewall or Zone Alarm is a good free firewall now to use with it. I will update my security config when I established all my programs of choice.

Comodo Firewall won't even install so it is a conflict with Kaspersky Free so should I use Windows Firewall Control for me to modify Windows Firewall easier or use Zone Alarm's firewall?
 
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roger_m

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Dec 4, 2014
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360 may be lighter than Avira. In the past I've found that sometimes Avira decides to run multiple scans at once, which causes noticeable slowdowns. I've been using 360 Total Security for two years and it one of the lightest antiviruses there is. This may be the longest I've used I've one antivirus on my main computer.
PC optimizers are snake oil, they are more dangerous than useful and it does not work alongside another antivirus.
The speedup and cleanup modules in 360 are safe to use, because they will never delete any needed files, so they are most definitely not dangerous. As well as that, the cleaner in 360 TS in one of the best junk cleaners there is and finds more junk than a lot of other cleaners because it can clean junk from hundreds of third party programs.
people are starting to see it for what it really is a good program that's full of bloat.
While it does have bloat, it is one of the lightest antiviruses there is. I'd much rather use a bloated antivirus that is extremely light, than one without bloat that slows down my system.
 

videogamer1500

Level 2
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Apr 4, 2019
57
360 may be lighter than Avira. In the past I've found that sometimes Avira decides to run multiple scans at once, which causes noticeable slowdowns. I've been using 360 Total Security for two years and it one of the lightest antiviruses there is. This may be the longest I've used I've one antivirus on my main computer.

The speedup and cleanup modules in 360 are safe to use, because they will never delete any needed files, so they are most definitely not dangerous. As well as that, the cleaner in 360 TS in one of the best junk cleaners there is and finds more junk than a lot of other cleaners because it can clean junk from hundreds of third party programs.

While it does have bloat, it is one of the lightest antiviruses there is. I'd much rather use a bloated antivirus that is extremely light, than one without bloat that slows down my system.
That is true, I might go to 360 essential which is Just 360 Total Security without the bloat because I want to integrate Comodo Firewall into a free av to make my own free internet security software.
 
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TairikuOkami

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May 13, 2017
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I would say Essential is very essential. It was last time updated in 2019 and Kupeng engine was added in March 2020, so I guess it does not have it?
TS is not that heavy, only 150MB RAM, hardly any CPU/Disk activity. It is definitely a worthwhile replacement for a slow Avira. Added to recommended!

P.S.: Install and uninstall were a very pleasant experience, not to mention, without a restart! I do not know any AV, that can do without either. :unsure:

EDIT: Essential is taking the same amount of RAM, so it is not lighter and no Kupeng engine. I would say, it is an unwanted child. Keep it orphaned. 😅
 

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RaduGL

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Aug 3, 2017
58
I would say Essential is very essential. It was last time updated in 2019 and Kupeng engine was added in March 2020, so I guess it does not have it?
TS is not that heavy, only 150MB RAM, hardly any CPU/Disk activity. It is definitely a worthwhile replacement for a slow Avira. Added to recommended!
The free version hasn't been updated since December, which is a bit concerning.
The paid version gets updated every month...
 
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TairikuOkami

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The free version hasn't been updated since December, which is a bit concerning.
The paid version gets updated every month...
They are both free, but the free version of TS displays ADs and some premium features are locked, like fileless or antiransomware protection.
 
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davisd

Level 3
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Well-known
Jan 27, 2019
107
360 may be lighter than Avira. In the past I've found that sometimes Avira decides to run multiple scans at once, which causes noticeable slowdowns. I've been using 360 Total Security for two years and it one of the lightest antiviruses there is. This may be the longest I've used I've one antivirus on my main computer.

The speedup and cleanup modules in 360 are safe to use, because they will never delete any needed files, so they are most definitely not dangerous. As well as that, the cleaner in 360 TS in one of the best junk cleaners there is and finds more junk than a lot of other cleaners because it can clean junk from hundreds of third party programs.

While it does have bloat, it is one of the lightest antiviruses there is. I'd much rather use a bloated antivirus that is extremely light, than one without bloat that slows down my system.
Didn't know you were one of the 360 TS users here, got it as well, for some reason UI is glitching for me even tho animations are turned off, delay between moving through options makes me feel like it slows down, still haven't figured out the cause, I thought for a minute it may be after I enabling Aviras engine, but not sure..
 
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Cortex

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I would choose neither, unless you are totally skint there are far better options that don't cause headaches - KIS for example, I've evaluated 360 & Avira not a million years ago & certainly not for me - No such thing as a free lunch - Ever o_Oo_Oo_O You don't need cleanup modules...
 

ChoiceVoice

Level 6
Verified
Oct 10, 2014
280
just because they use avira, doesn't mean they have avira detection. you see this with iobit using bitdefender, where bitdefender kills in all labs and iobit dies. i would go with avira.

and if you're worried about avast/avg collecting data, then why would you consider 360? there is nothing protecting privacy on that front. now avira is in germany which has very robust privacy laws.
 
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roger_m

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Dec 4, 2014
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I would choose neither, unless you are totally skint there are far better options that don't cause headaches
360 TS works fine for me, with no issues and is lighter than most other antiviruses. While it receives very regular bug fixes, which would suggest that it is a very buggy product, I've actually never found it to buggy. It has minor issues with false positives, which is not a big deal, as it's very easy to whitelist files, unlike with most antiviruses. If the realtime protection detects a threat, I am given the option to whitelist the file. If I download something suspicious, it is automatically quarantined. But, I receive an alert, which gives me the option to restore the file from quarantine and whitelist it. I really wish that more antiviruses made it easy to whitelist files.

The only major con for me with 360 TS is the ads in the free version (although they can be blocked). This is why I am a paid user.

Yes, the cleanup modules are not needed. But at least they are safe to use and work very well. When 360 TS was first released I didn't like its cleanup functions, as I found it to be too aggressive in what it wanted to disable. For example, it would want to disable the scheduled task to create Restore Points. However over time the it's become less aggressive with regards to what it wants to disable.
just because they use avira, doesn't mean they have avira detection. you see this with iobit using bitdefender, where bitdefender kills in all labs and iobit dies. i would go with avira.
I've got both IObit Malware Fighter 8 and Bitdefender installed on my test computer. When doing a manual scan with both a very large collection of malware and a large collection of PUPs, IMF detects more threats in both cases. If tested against new malware, quite possibly Bitdefender will do better and I'm sure the behaviour blocker in IMF is terrible.

While 360 may not do as well as Avira itself, its own signatures are excellent. If you have a look at Virus Total scan results for threats tested in the Malware Hub, usually 360 is one of the very first antiviruses to detect new threats, along with ESET and Kaspersky for example.
 

Evjl's Rain

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Apr 18, 2016
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I would say qihoo360 offers more features and level of protection than avira free although there is no direct comparison
Avira Free is extremely bad at protecting against malwares delivered via scripts, almost none existent while Qihoo is good at this one
qihoo is >>> avira against ransomwares + qihoo has an antiransomware tool which helps to recover data after a ransomware attack (free to download for everyone)

between the 2 (only), I pick qihoo (regardless of their Privacy issues = the reason I'm not using it)
 
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