Panda Free Antivirus - The Pro's and Con's

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jackuars

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Jul 2, 2014
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With respect to the Best Free Antivirus 2015 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/internet security software and why they think it is a contender or not for the Best Free Antivirus.

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

Related Threads:
Avast Free Antivirus - The Pro's and Con's
Avira Free Antivirus - Pro's and Con's
Comodo Internet Security Premium - The Pro's and Con's
Qihoo 360 Total Security - The Pro's and Con's

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THE PRO'S
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Good Detection rate
2. Low memory usage
3. Web protection

4. Collective intelligence
5. Good program configuration
6. Good behavioural analysis
7. Improve handling of hardware resources

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THE CON'S
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1. Slow scan
2. Some removal issues
3. Dependant on internet connection (weaker offline protection)
4. Heavy on system for a cloud program
5. Some false positives despite information available in the cloud
 
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Kate_L

in memoriam
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Pro's : Good detection, good protection, low memory usage.

Con's: Slow scan, some removal issues, dependent on internet connection.
 
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Pat MacKnife

Level 15
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Jul 14, 2015
725
Pro's : Good detection rate , webprotection

Con's : Very heavy for a cloud program, buggy -> had several Issues with windows fail to boot (BSDO) since last version 15
not using this anymore
 
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L

LabZero

PRO'S

-good detection rate
-collective intelligence
-good program configuration
-good behavior analysis
-improved handling of hardware resources

CON'S

-It depends on internet connection
-some false positives despite the information available "in the cloud"
 

XavierGaming

Level 3
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Oct 18, 2015
102
I've tried Panda free AV on my laptop and its cpu usage was 0 and the memory usage was 0.1 to 0.5 MB. How is Panda free AV "Heavy" ?
 
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XavierGaming

Level 3
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Oct 18, 2015
102
For further proof, here's an task manager image of Panda free AV while browsing with more than 8 browser tabs (I used Google Chrome x64 beta)
new
 
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Kuttz

Level 13
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May 9, 2015
625
From my experience the only Negative about Panda Free is its weaker Offline protection, otherwise its a solid, high detection rate with good Zero day capability all with low system resource usage free anti virus.
 

uninfected1

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Jan 28, 2016
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I've been using Panda Free AV for over year and I've been more happy with it than any other antivirus I've used, and it's the only one I've had no issues with, unlike all the other AV's I've used. For instance:

Avast stopped updating automatically and was a nightmare to uninstall despite using both the official and unofficial removal tool.

AVG, now that really is a resource hog (at least it was when I used to use it).

Comodo Internet Security Premium (including firewall). Great protection but an even bigger headache than Avast to clean install. Finally had to give up on it when security agent would not start and caused multiple BSODs.

Panda's total memory usage for all processes is typically around 18MB and it was very straightforward to remove when clean installing last year's new version. It's pretty much fit and forget, and just gets on with things quietly and efficiently, updating when it's supposed to and requiring virtually no input to keep it running smoothly, so great for basic users. I understand there was an issue for some last year when it identified some of its own files as malware but i was unaffected. The only slight negative I've noticed is scanning is slow, but I tend to use other on demand scanners anyway so this isn't really an issue for me.
 
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mrwhoopee

Level 1
Mar 7, 2014
7
Panda is my current favorite for my senior citizen clients. It is free, simple, effective and keeps its head down and mouth shut unless there is an actual threat. The only exception is the daily popup promoting the paid version. Alerts about sludge in your browser or framowitz drivers that need to be updated are the kind of crap that make my phone ring but don't make me any money.
 
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Parsh

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Dec 27, 2016
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Alright, Panda is a light and intelligent cloud protection. However, I won't invest on it only for it being that light or for cloud.
Overall, Panda has weaker offline protection, sluggish cloud protection against some stubborn malware or rogueware and a weak (or may I say a non-dedicated) RW protection in free version.

For me, it will be BD free/360TS (360 is great if privacy is not an issue) or Avast (if lockdown/WL is important to the user).
 

Rolo

Level 18
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Jun 14, 2015
857
Alright, Panda is a light and intelligent cloud protection.
It's web filter is extremely heavy and can cripple both your network and your PC. I can reliably bring down my 60Mbps connection and my 4.2GHz, 24GB RAM PC with Panda Free...why I had to abandon it.
Panda using 32*Giga*bytes: http://i.imgur.com/X37mMuW.png

It also can't scan archives and will just stop scanning when it encounters various zips and exes. Support had no fix.

Wait--I just noticed this is an old thread.
 
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Parsh

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It also can't scan archives and will just stop scanning when it encounters various zips and exes. Support had no fix.
That's a famous issue too. Evjl Rain has tested it thoroughly.
"Alright.." that's one of the circumstances and I mentioned its lightness as an overall property people tag it with and in general it is light (web filter aside) .
Yet, it has problems like delays in decisions over some file sizes and fails terribly in processing huge data, zips etc. It may take forever too.
 
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Rolo

Level 18
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Jun 14, 2015
857
Yet, it has problems like delays in decisions over some file sizes and fails terribly in processing huge data, zips etc. It may take forever too.
It doesn't take a long time; it doesn't finish (I've left the stuff running overnight) because it just stops without warning.

Panda support knows this but is unable to address the problem.

I can't endorse an unreliable product; it has known common, recurring failures.
 
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