App Review Avira Free Security 2024

It is advised to take all reviews with a grain of salt. In extreme cases some reviews use dramatization for entertainment purposes.
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Shadowra

Shadowra

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Avira is a well-known antivirus on the market.
Formerly known as AntiVir, Avira has successfully evolved its free solution.
However, the company was acquired by Norton (along with Avast!) to form the Gen Digital group. Developments remain independent.



User interface :

Avira's interface has been redesigned and looks really modern!
Alerts have also been revised.
Avira combines its engine (SDK), its Cloud and a detection of unknown threats called Sentry (inherited from BullGuard).

Web protection: 10/10

The detection rate on the Web is excellent, and Avira blocks all links.
For the free edition, you'll need to install the Safe Shopping extension.

Fake crack : 1/1

Avira perfectly detects fake crack droppers and even SFX packages (with HEUR/APC detection).
Congratulations!

Malware Pack : Remaining 8 out of 856 threats.

Avira's engine is very powerful.
During runtime, Avira managed to catch up with what I was running with its Cloud and Sentry engine, even the scripts!
Just 2 pieces of malware managed to install themselves without detection by the antivirus (1 of which injected RegSvcs.exe, but the computer could be disinfected).

On the other hand, I think it's a pity that Avira doesn't warn you if it only knows about malware via the Cloud. In fact, it only detects via its SDK base. To use the Cloud, you either have to run the program (which can take a long time and use up system resources) or manually scan the file in question... Avast and Norton do this very well, so why not Avira?

Final scan :
Avira : 0
NPE : 0
KVRT : 2 (I ignore a file that is a false positive)

Final opinion:

Avira is an excellent antivirus, complete and consistent in terms of detection.
The engine and Sentry have been much improved.
The machine is infected but can be disinfected.

Nevertheless, Avira's Cloud system is strange to me, as you have to either run or manually scan the file to make it react...
It is recommendable.
 

Bot

AI-powered Bot
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Apr 21, 2016
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Thank you for sharing your detailed review of Avira Free Security 2024. It's great to hear that Avira has evolved its free solution and that the interface has been redesigned to look modern. The improved alerts and combination of engine, cloud, and Sentry for detecting unknown threats are also positive aspects.

It's impressive that Avira has a high detection rate on the web and blocks all links. The inclusion of the Safe Shopping extension for the free edition is a good addition for enhanced web protection.

The fact that Avira detects fake crack droppers and SFX packages is commendable, as it helps protect users from potentially harmful software.

Regarding the malware pack test, it's good to know that Avira's engine is powerful and managed to catch most of the threats, including scripts. However, it's unfortunate that a couple of malware pieces managed to install themselves without detection. It would be helpful if Avira could provide warnings even if it only knows about malware via the cloud.

In terms of the final scan, it's great that Avira, NPE, and KVRT all had low detection rates, with only two detections from KVRT (excluding a false positive).

Overall, your final opinion is positive, highlighting Avira as an excellent antivirus with comprehensive and consistent detection capabilities. The improvements in the engine and Sentry are appreciated. However, you mentioned that Avira's Cloud system is a bit strange, requiring either running or manually scanning files to trigger a reaction. It's good to know that you still recommend Avira despite this observation.
 

ErzCrz

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Nice test! Avira used to be my 2nd opinion scanner some years ago and I paid for it for a year. I don't know what the end result of these Norton Acquisitions will be but good to see it's still good at detecting viruses :)
 

Shadowra

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Thank you for the video.If I understand correctly for the free version the Web protection is not available.But,if you install Avira's extension on all your browsers you still would be protected? Or not?

Yes, on the free version, to get Web protection, you'll need to install the extension.
 

Behold Eck

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Jun 22, 2014
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Thanks again Shadowra for putting Avira free through the hoops. Nice to see improvements since your previous test.

What I like also is how light it is and it`s not too naggy compared to some e.g. Avast/AVG total scareware.

(Just to let you know I think Adaware AV is no more. Tried to download it a couple of weeks ago but got "product no longer available")

Regards Eck:)
 

Fel Grossi

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Jan 17, 2014
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Thanks for the test @Shadowra , good to see that the old Avira is still effective.

The extension was last updated on the Chrome Web Store on October 26, 2022. And for Firefox on April 19, 2022.
In the case of extensions, I want it to be simple and effective, so it doesn't need constant updates (monthly or quarterly), but all this time. Not that this is a problem, but I find it strange.

Bitdefender TrafficLight - November 18, 2023
Emsisoft Browser Security - September 21, 2023
 

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