Battle Free: Avast vs Bitdefender vs Kaspersky vs Others

[jackuars]

1. I know this topic has been done to death, but considering the recent changes in Kaspersky Free and that my subscription for a paid IS is almost ending, I would like to know which is a good choice for a freeware antivirus w.r.t features, protection & performance. I have never tried BitDefender Free or Kaspersky Free even though I have heard great reviews about it

 

[stefanos]

I didn't really notice that during the time of using panda and performed some caching so it became faster
by the way, I just uninstalled panda and installed immunet 6.0.8, fully working version

the system is more responsive

Agree. With immunet my lap top run like ferrari

 

[RoboMan]

I would like to hit with my experience and overall opinion:

Recent free AV are garbage. It's solid garbage.

• Kaspersky Free
• BitDefender Free
• And probably all the Free to come, will be garbage for some years.

Maybe due to limiting the original software functions, or inexpertise on the free market, or hell knows why. Every.single.new.free.av.is.crap.

-Kaspersky Free has broken so many Windows functions on every machine I installed (boot, not recovering from sleep, not recognising printers, not sending mails, all of which got solved after uninstall, with an extra System Restore corruption on every machine where Kaspersky was uninstalled)

-BitDefender literally blocked 3/4 of sites people visited (where I installed the product). CPU consuming on 0% and randomly on 90%.

And I hate to say this, because I really dislike the company, but the only software that offers free protection that hasn't given me a direct issue, is of course, the ones who have been here on the free industry for years: Avast and AVG. Disgusting telemetry, oh yes, but never seen lagging and slowing down a PC, not even on hardened mode, and not a single infection on the systems I installed it.

I will give these "new" free AV's sometimes before even recommending them again.

 

[Brie]

Video - Immunet 6.0 Review | CISCO
detection rate for immunet is 73%. immunet could not stop a new ransomware.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

I would like to hit with my experience and overall opinion:

Recent free AV are garbage. It's solid garbage.

• Kaspersky Free
• BitDefender Free
• And probably all the Free to come, will be garbage for some years.

Maybe due to limiting the original software functions, or inexpertise on the free market, or hell knows why. Every.single.new.free.av.is.crap.

-Kaspersky Free has broken so many Windows functions on every machine I installed (boot, not recovering from sleep, not recognising printers, not sending mails, all of which got solved after uninstall, with an extra System Restore corruption on every machine where Kaspersky was uninstalled)

-BitDefender literally blocked 3/4 of sites people visited (where I installed the product). CPU consuming on 0% and randomly on 90%.

And I hate to say this, because I really dislike the company, but the only software that offers free protection that hasn't given me a direct issue, is of course, the ones who have been here on the free industry for years: Avast and AVG. Disgusting telemetry, oh yes, but never seen lagging and slowing down a PC, not even on hardened mode, and not a single infection on the systems I installed it.

I will give these "new" free AV's sometimes before even recommending them again.

I have a completely different experience with the free av's.

Panda Free is usually one of the lightest, but according to the HUB also on protection
Hate it's toolbar (can be uninstalled to keep web-protection). Adds an annoying extension that wants to change your search-engine.

Second lightest is Bitdefender Free. Had no problems with it on any of the systems of my family members where I installed it.
A true set and forget solution.
But recently my mother in law noticed that the certificate of here banking site was different.
So they now perform a kind of MITM attack for HTTPS scanning.
That's a problem for her because the address bar of IE is no longer green and therefore she didn't feel safe anymore to do online banking.

So my preferred free av is now Kaspersky Free Antivirus where you can exclude EV certificates from HTTPS scanning and my mother in law's problem is solved. KFA is doing great in the HUB and in my personal testing. No bloat and no bugs anymore (Chrome SSL certificate problem is solved by Google). Also because of GDPR you can turn off all marketing.
Kaspersky Cloud Free has some bloat and a bug with firewall settings in windows defender security center.
That's why I prefer KFA above KCF.

No recent experience with Avira Free because of it's launcher, ads and the use of Mixpanel for analytics in their extension.

No recent experience with Avast and or AVG because of ads and shady marketing and telemetry.

EDIT: So you should always try them yourself to see if you like them and if they work on your system.
It seems everybody can have a different experience with the same av's due to different hardware and/or software configs and personal preferences.

 

[Brie]

i got bitdefender TS free for 6 months from the giveaway section. so far, so good.

 

[RoboMan]

I have a completely different experience with the free av's.

Panda Free is usually one of the lightest, but according to the HUB also on protection
Hate it's toolbar (can be uninstalled to keep web-protection). Adds an annoying extension that wants to change your search-engine.

Second lightest is Bitdefender Free. Had no problems with it on any of the systems of my family members where I installed it.
A true set and forget solution.
But recently my mother in law noticed that the certificate of here banking site was different.
So they now perform a kind of MITM attack for HTTPS scanning.
That's a problem for her because the address bar of IE is no longer green and therefore she didn't feel safe anymore to do online banking.

So my preferred free av is now Kaspersky Free Antivirus where you can exclude EV certificates from HTTPS scanning and my mother in law's problem is solved. KFA is doing great in the HUB and in my personal testing. No bloat and no bugs anymore (Chrome SSL certificate problem is solved by Google). Also because of GDPR you can turn off all marketing.
Kaspersky Cloud Free has some bloat and a bug with firewall settings in windows defender security center.
That's why I prefer KFA above KCF.

No recent experience with Avira Free because of it's launcher, ads and the use of Mixpanel for analytics in their extension.

No recent experience with Avast and or AVG because of ads and shady marketing and telemetry.

EDIT: So you should always try them yourself to see if you like them and if they work on your system.
It seems everybody can have a different experience with the same av's due to different hardware and/or software configs and personal preferences.

I refuse using a free AV that won't even let me disable components LOL (KFA)
As for BitDefender it seemed effective on protection, but really, CPU random at 90% (not always) and blocking sites was driving me mad.
As for Panda, I didn't include it in my rage comment. I only meant "new Free AV's". Panda has been on the free industry for a while, hence why it had its time to adapt and evolve. Probably KFA and BFA will improve within time, I'll just stay away for a while, and make sure nobody gets it installed near me.
Avira remains a mystery...

 

[oldschool]

I have a completely different experience with the free av's.

Panda Free is usually one of the lightest, but according to the HUB also on protection
Hate it's toolbar (can be uninstalled to keep web-protection). Adds an annoying extension that wants to change your search-engine.

Second lightest is Bitdefender Free. Had no problems with it on any of the systems of my family members where I installed it.
A true set and forget solution.
But recently my mother in law noticed that the certificate of here banking site was different.
So they now perform a kind of MITM attack for HTTPS scanning.
That's a problem for her because the address bar of IE is no longer green and therefore she didn't feel safe anymore to do online banking.

So my preferred free av is now Kaspersky Free Antivirus where you can exclude EV certificates from HTTPS scanning and my mother in law's problem is solved. KFA is doing great in the HUB and in my personal testing. No bloat and no bugs anymore (Chrome SSL certificate problem is solved by Google). Also because of GDPR you can turn off all marketing.
Kaspersky Cloud Free has some bloat and a bug with firewall settings in windows defender security center.
That's why I prefer KFA above KCF.

No recent experience with Avira Free because of it's launcher, ads and the use of Mixpanel for analytics in their extension.

No recent experience with Avast and or AVG because of ads and shady marketing and telemetry.

EDIT: So you should always try them yourself to see if you like them and if they work on your system.
It seems everybody can have a different experience with the same av's due to different hardware and/or software configs and personal preferences.

Very nice summation, counselor!

 

[Moonhorse]

Video - Immunet 6.0 Review | CISCO
detection rate for immunet is 73%. immunet could not stop a new ransomware.

But probably gets higher, since new build has behaviour blocker

 

[Pat MacKnife]

A nice note from TomsGuide, also for this topic

Kaspersky Free Anti-Virus: Lean and Mean

 

[Jake Miguel]

Although I don't use Bitdefender anymore now.. but I think its a lot better than Avast.. but reviews on the internet states otherwise. So it really depends on the functionality the user is looking for. Some security programs are heavy on machines like Kaspersky.

Read Bitdefender vs Avast full reviews before going for any security program. MT is the best place to find such reviews.