well, my understanding is that f-secure uses avira engine and sigs, so you'd expect them to be similar. however, in the last lab I checked they were a bit different: f-secure actually scored a higher detection than avira. but, with closer scrutiny, i saw that f-secure also had a far higher false-positive ... meaning, they are using avira but are just cranking up its protection level, giving the higher detection and fp (which you could do within avira settings as well). i like f-secure, but I do wonder at the logic of paying for it when I could just use avira free. f-secure does have banking protection, but ... it's kinda useless. i am impressed at with how light f-secure is (not crazy light, but pretty good) and i do like that they are less of an arse than avira (cuz i like to run supplemental security programs, and avira refuses to let me ... but f-secure doesn't seem to care). at the end of the day, it's hard to say that someone that uses someone else's tech is better, but if they limit avira bloat, it might be lighter. so better might be in the eye of the beholder. myself, i like f-secure, but I couldn't justify paying for it with avira free being available. but as long as they keep giving me free give-a-ways, I'll use it, heheh.