Avast Free Antivirus - Pro's & Con's (2017)

[jackuars]

With respect to the Free Antivirus of the Year 2017 competition, I'm starting a thread series where users of the various products will be joining together to state the Pro's and Con's of each antivirus software and why they think it was a contender or not for the Free Antivirus of the Year 2017.

In this thread we'll talk about the Pro's and Con's you have found about Avast Free Antivirus. It achieved the Top Spot in the Poll conducted recently.

The first post will be updated by me [or the mods] with what user's think is good and bad about the product, so an informed decision can be made for newcomers.

Related Threads:


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THE PRO'S
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THE CON'S
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[Sunshine-boy]

The pros: fully customizable, best behavior blocker against Exe files, Free, beautiful user interface design
The cons: Buggy GUI, ads, mediocre signature and web filtering, bad support and also useless forum with fanboys and a lot of unfixed bugs.

 

[ForgottenSeer 67480]

The Pro's: Very nice user interface design, powerfull behavior blocker, permissions to increase or decrease protection in settings, Usefull toolbar Avast Online Security and finally fixed performance to make our PC works faster without problems.
The Cons: No free firewall or Anti-Ransomware protection, too much limits in free version, no free VPN or Cleaning system, Buggy GUI, ads, web filtering, really low level of the trust in tech support and developers in time purchasing license, still have too much unfixed bugs, sometimes in Avast we can see signature which make Avast detects himself as a virus or our operation system as a threat, still some functions missing in free version and developers with tech-support must finally start respect they's customers and stop scamming like a FAKE Anti-Virus Software.

 

[jackuars]

Looking for more input from MT members

 

[Tibro]

Pro: Good protection for free, customizable.
Cons: Everytime i can find lot of bugs, sometimes hang my system. Bloatwares, ads

 

[Captain Awesome]

The pros:Fully customizable,Good BB and Hardened mode(Extra),ok support and also very helpful forum members(My personal experience),free so no complaint against AD.
The cons:GUI openning speed(They are working on it should be fix soon),many unfixed bugs.

Note:Always using custom install mode so no bloatwares.

 

[kev216]

Pros: Free; has quite extensive behaviour blocker for a free product; large userbase for new detections
Cons: Nagging ads; needs far more resources since version 8 came out; slows down page loading speed in your browser; much "features" that have a nice name, but doesn't provide any kind of additional protection and so giving a false feeling of having more security than another product (i.e. software updater, wifi protection and things like webcam protection and driver updater that are only available in premier)

 

[Ink]

Over 10 years using Avast Free and upgraded to Avast Premier for 2 years, this is a fair non-biased Pro's/Con's of Avast Free as it currently stands.

Fired up the Hyper-V to experience the latest version of Avast Free Antivirus for Windows 10, following a default installation, I can share these screenshots. Other users' experiences may differ.

Pro's

Always up-to-date
The Web installer finds and downloads the latest version of Avast Free Antivirus

Full Protection is Free
All 4 Core Shields are fully functional; File, Behavior, Web and Mail.

Wi-Fi Inspector: an integrated IoT network scanner to find issues and vulnerable devices on your network

Easy to use Software Updater that can scan for outdated software

Clearly labelled Paid-Protection are displayed a Padlock icon and an Upgrade button

Spoiler

Full Control over Components
Easy to uninstall features from the Settings without needing to access Windows Control Panel

Spoiler

Con's
Potentially Unwanted Programs
Installer automatically opts-in Google Chrome browser for installation

Limited-Trial are NOT Free (£0.00 / $0.00)
60-day trial for Avast Internet Security requires Customer & Payment details

Automatic renewal
If not cancelled within trial period, you will be charged at full price after trial expires

Spoiler

Misleading Privacy and Performance features

• No padlock icon displayed next to SecureLine VPN and Cleanup Premium
• SecureLine VPN and Cleanup Premium require an active subscription and is separate to Avast Antivirus protection license
  
• No Torrent support (See Acceptable Use Policy)

Spoiler

Locked Placeholder icons
Although they are not technically installed, the Paid-Protection and Privacy features displaying the padlock icon cannot be uninstalled, and may be a minor nuisance to a few.

Spoiler

Scan for PUPS
User required to Opt-in to scan for PUPs/Adware-like software

Spoiler

Hidden Browser Integration
Avast browser extensions do not appear in Avast main GUI, but can be uninstalled from Settings

Spoiler

Avast-owned Ad Pop-ups (Forced Notifications)
Occasional pop-up notifications promoting other Avast products may appear for Avast Free Antivirus users and cannot be disabled within the Settings.

Spoiler

Data Sharing with 3rd Parties
Automatically opted-in of sharing your anonymized data with third parties

Spoiler

 

[jackuars]

Summing up the points above (thank you guys for your contributions). Also please take a look at the orange colored comment from our members in the below section that has contrasting opinions. Care to explain what is true? If you do have any more points to add do comment here

THE PRO'S:

• Fully customizable
• Good protection
• Best behavior blocker against .exe files
• Hardened mode
• Light on system
• Extensive features (many components) available in free version
• Large userbase for new detections
• Beautiful UI design
• Permissions to increase or decrease protection in settings
• Useful toolbar Avast Online Security
• Fine support and also very helpful forum members
• Integrated IoT network scanner to find issues/vulnerable network devices
• Real Time Shields: file, behavior, web and mail.
• Easy to use software updater
• Padlock icons to easily depict paid components
• Easy to uninstall unnecessary features from UI

THE CONS:

• Buggy GUI & numerous unfixed bugs
• Ad pop-ups after installation
• Bloatware and offers Chrome during installation
• Resource intensive (since v8)
• Slower browser page loading
• Hangs system at times
• Mediocre signatures (certain signatures depicts itself/OS as a threat)
• Web filtering not upto par
• Tech support not so good
• Opt-out required to stop sharing anonymized data with 3rd party
• Numerous limitations in free version (firewall, ransomware protection, VPN, system cleaning)
• No padlock icons for certain paid features (VPN & Clean-up)
• Paid features with padlock icons cannot be uninstalled
• Opt-in required for PUP scanning
• Enabling trial version requires customer/payment details and charged automatically after expiry

 

[Rebsat]

@jackuars Thank you very much for this helpful thread regarding Avast

 

[Itachi Sempai]

i install avast to users who dont know how to interact with PC-s so in this situation

biggest PRO
it is very customizable (can apply settings)
it has silent mode where all the alerts and popups are blocked

CON
you need to reactivate it once per year
aggressive modes doesnot work properly... i have launched many suspticius files that were not blocked... but its better then nothing