Serious Discussion F-Secure Antivirus – Solid Finnish Security or Overhyped and Overpriced?

[Divine_Barakah]

DeepGuard is their in-house behavioral engine. This is what you are actually buying, the logic that spots a process acting like ransomware even if Avira doesn't know the hash yet.

I believe DeepGuard is no longer there and it has been replaced by Avira Sentry (formerly Bullguard).

 

[Divergent]

I believe DeepGuard is no longer there and it has been replaced by Avira Sentry (formerly Bullguard).

It has been corrected thank you.

 

[zord]

They recently started integrating the Avast engine, so soon this program will not differ in any way from other Gen Digital products.

 

[Divergent]

They recently started integrating the Avast engine, so soon this program will not differ in any way from other Gen Digital products.

Avira and Avast are now owned by the same parent company, Gen Digital. While F-Secure relies on the Gen Digital ecosystem (via Avira) for signatures, the product remains distinct from the consumer Avast antivirus engine as far as I can tell. If this is not a misunderstanding please link some proof as to this change.

 

[Jonny Quest]

They recently started integrating the Avast engine, so soon this program will not differ in any way from other Gen Digital products.

Hello, as with @Divergent do you have a link of where that has been mentioned? There hasn't been a public post of a new beta release since Nov 24th of 2025, and no mention of any change on the forum. I just checked on my end, and it's still using the Avira engine

 

[zord]

I have information from a friend who is testing the F-Secure beta. Avira also uses the Avast engine and utilizes both. This is probably a transitional period after which the Avira engine will be completely abandoned in favor of Avast.

 

[Sorrento]

Out of Interest I just installed F-Secure as I have a few months left on a license, the extension F-Secure says is needed for some modules, is not available on Brave at all & wont work on Wolf either, unless you have Edge, Firefox or Chrome you can't install the extension, I got it to install on Wolf but as there is no connection between it & the program F-Secure don't believe it exists, so imaged back to McAfee where its extension does work on both browsers, a pity really.

 

[Jonny Quest]

Out of Interest I just installed F-Secure as I have a few months left on a license, the extension F-Secure says is needed for some modules, is not available on Brave at all & wont work on Wolf either, unless you have Edge, Firefox or Chrome you can't install the extension, I got it to install on Wolf but as there is no connection between it & the program F-Secure don't believe it exists, so imaged back to McAfee where its extension does work on both browsers, a pity really.

Even though Brave isn't "officially" supported, use this Chrome Store link and copy and paste it in Brave, and install it from there. The protection is there, you just won't get the site rating icons in a Brave search, but you will when you do a Brave Google search. Phishing pages are blocked, and the Banking protection works as well in Brave.

 

[Divine_Barakah]

They recently started integrating the Avast engine, so soon this program will not differ in any way from other Gen Digital products.

That would be too bad not because of Avast engine, but rather because of the constant deep changes F-Secure has been going through. Just take a look at how many issues were reported on F-Secure Community when they transitioned to Avira SDK.

 

[Jonny Quest]

That would be too bad not because of Avast engine, but rather because of the constant deep changes F-Secure has been going through. Just take a look at how many issues were reported on F-Secure Community when they transitioned to Avira SDK.

Initially, they did have transition issues, especially regarding updates. It seems to have calmed down lately. But, I'm keeping track on the English forum, maybe it's different on the Finnish side?

I'm all for the possible Avast scanning engine, as isn't that a step up from Avira's? Maybe it wouldn't be such a major change, issue wise?

 

[Divine_Barakah]

Initially, they did have transition issues, especially regarding updates. It seems to have calmed down lately. But, I'm keeping track on the English forum, maybe it's different on the Finnish side?

I'm all for the possible Avast scanning engine, as isn't that a step up from Avira's? Maybe it wouldn't be such a major change, issue wise?

Well it depends on how F-Secure implements it. Honestly now I see no point in using F-Secure. I'd ise Avast, AVG or Norton.

I have a feeling that both Avira and AVG will retire soon.

 

[Jonny Quest]

FWIW, I thought this was interesting reply (part of it) from Gemini, when I asked it this. "Will F-Secure ever use the Avast scanning engine over Avira's which it currently uses"?

Avira's Neutrality: While Avira is also owned by Gen Digital, it has a long-standing, specialized business unit (the OEM/SDK division) that exists specifically to license its engine to third parties like F-Secure. Avast does not traditionally operate a large-scale engine licensing business for competitors in the same way.

Why F-Secure Prefers Avira over Avast​

Feature	Why Avira Wins for F-Secure
Performance	Avira’s SDK is famous for being extremely "light," which allows F-Secure to maintain its reputation for low system impact.
Privacy Reputation	Avast faced significant public backlash in the past regarding data privacy (the Jumpshot era). F-Secure, which markets itself on European privacy standards, is more compatible with Avira's German-engineered "privacy-first" branding.
Licensing Model	Avira’s SAVAPI SDK is designed for seamless integration into other products, making it easier for F-Secure's developers to "skin" it and add their own features.

 

[Divine_Barakah]

FWIW, I thought this was interesting reply (part of it) from Gemini, when I asked it this. "Will F-Secure ever use the Avast scanning engine over Avira's which it currently uses"?

Avira's Neutrality: While Avira is also owned by Gen Digital, it has a long-standing, specialized business unit (the OEM/SDK division) that exists specifically to license its engine to third parties like F-Secure. Avast does not traditionally operate a large-scale engine licensing business for competitors in the same way.

Why F-Secure Prefers Avira over Avast​

Feature	Why Avira Wins for F-Secure
Performance	Avira’s SDK is famous for being extremely "light," which allows F-Secure to maintain its reputation for low system impact.
Privacy Reputation	Avast faced significant public backlash in the past regarding data privacy (the Jumpshot era). F-Secure, which markets itself on European privacy standards, is more compatible with Avira's German-engineered "privacy-first" branding.
Licensing Model	Avira’s SAVAPI SDK is designed for seamless integration into other products, making it easier for F-Secure's developers to "skin" it and add their own features.

They can simply change the whole SDK and mainstream it. Instead of it being Avira SDK, Gen Digital makes one SDK for licensing.

 

[stonjean633]

The Avira EPP on Fsec Online Scanner seems persistent. It went auto run on startup but can't be stopped in services,regedit even using revo and unlockers. It acted weird today.

I was able to remove it on safe mode.

 

[Divine_Barakah]

The Avira EPP on Fsec Online Scanner seems persistent. It went auto run on startup but can't be stopped in services,regedit even using revo and unlockers. It acted weird today.

I was able to remove it on safe mode.

Why would you use F-Secure online scanner? EEK seems to be the "cleanest" option.

 

[bazang]

Many, most, AVs subscribe to third party SDK. Back in the day it was Ikarus. Then Bitdefender which remains prominent to this day. Some did Kaspersky. Some Avira.

Using third party SDK has been a part of the industry and product lines for a long time.

With F-Secure's reductions in staff and ongoing consolidation, it is likely that it will never be any better than it is right now. But one just never knows. If it was a good corporate buy (which it is not, it is a dog with fleas) then it could be purchased and see a turnaround or renaissance.

The old F-Secure brand and logo might be F-Secure's most valuable asset at this point. The new one? One has to ask "What were you thinking?"

 

[Trident]

FWIW, I thought this was interesting reply (part of it) from Gemini, when I asked it this. "Will F-Secure ever use the Avast scanning engine over Avira's which it currently uses"?

Avira's Neutrality: While Avira is also owned by Gen Digital, it has a long-standing, specialized business unit (the OEM/SDK division) that exists specifically to license its engine to third parties like F-Secure. Avast does not traditionally operate a large-scale engine licensing business for competitors in the same way.

Why F-Secure Prefers Avira over Avast​

Feature	Why Avira Wins for F-Secure
Performance	Avira’s SDK is famous for being extremely "light," which allows F-Secure to maintain its reputation for low system impact.
Privacy Reputation	Avast faced significant public backlash in the past regarding data privacy (the Jumpshot era). F-Secure, which markets itself on European privacy standards, is more compatible with Avira's German-engineered "privacy-first" branding.
Licensing Model	Avira’s SAVAPI SDK is designed for seamless integration into other products, making it easier for F-Secure's developers to "skin" it and add their own features.

The main reason is Avast does not offer OEM solutions, they suspended these offerings many years ago. The only vendor I remember using Avast was GData.

 

[stonjean633]

Why would you use F-Secure online scanner? EEK seems to be the "cleanest" option.

I use everything. It's about the detection and scan engines