Avast’s free antivirus program provides the best security against malware. The paid versions, especially Avast Premium Security, provide many additional features to ensure your device is secure. This includes a VPN, Wi-Fi Inspector, and many more. Avast is considered to be among the top products in this category by the AV-Comparatives RealWorld Protection Test.
In our tests, we noticed that Avast was able of detecting a wide range of threats quickly and effectively. Furthermore the entire scan took only 6 minutes and 50 seconds to complete, which is impressive given the fact that it trawled around two million separate files.
Avast’s tendency to flag certain programs as malicious was not what we expected. In our tests Avast identified legitimate applications five times when it detected malicious programs during system scans on Windows and Mac, which is two times higher than industry average. The good thing is that this is not a common occurrence, and you can easily send a file to an analysis to fix the issue should Avast mistakenly flags it.
Avast offers a solid knowledge base that provides assistance for common issues and also direct support via email and phone options available. A paid subscription comes with parental control and password management to the program. Avast also offers a 30 day money-back guarantee for its paid-for services, making it easy to test the program before purchasing.