Best Antivirus programs - Top 10 list
By admin on Jan 21, 2009 in Software, Viruses and Spyware
I have tested many antivirus programs over the last 10 years and I have had good and bad experiences. Some programs performed very well and others disappointed (such as Norton products). In recent years many new programs came on the market and familiar brands changed for better or for worse. Now there are so many to choose from.
I decided to do some research and make a top 10 list of currently available antivirus software. The last 3 on the list are free and others you have to pay for, but you can test some of them for 30 days before you decide to buy it.
Top 10 recommended Antivirus programs:
- Kaspersky - Top performer in almost every test. 98% detection rate. Everyone who uses it loves it! Buy for $39.95
- Bitdefender - I have seen this one in action. It doesn’t slow your PC down. Excellent results. Free trial available.
- Trend Micro - Excellent performance and detection rate. Includes AntiSpyware.
- F-Secure Antivirus - Very effective but the scan can slow down your computer. Buy for £19.95
- Eset Nod 32 Antivirus - Great results and it doesn’t need much memory to run. Free trial available.
- CA Anti-Virus (formerly eTrust) - Blocks viruses, spyware, unwanted sites, spam and intruders.
- McAfee VirusScan - 93% detection rate. Usually very reliable and used by many PC users.
- Avira Antivir - Probably the best free antivirus program. Extremely fast and effective scan. It doesn’t slow down your PC.
- AVG Free - I use this one myself. It’s a solid performer. It detects threats and removes them or at least shows you where they’re located (for manual removal). Scan takes a long time but it doesn’t take up much RAM.
- Avast Home Edition - Includes boot time scanning option and doesn’t take up resources. Very good detection rate.
I have chosen these programs based on my own experience, expert reviews, independent testing results and user reviews. They are not necessarily ranked according to their performance, except for Kaspersky, which is definitely number one! If you are only after free antivirus software, then check out this site. It includes links to 10 free antivirus programs.
I fix a lot of workstations for friends and family and for those that don’t have a pay AV, I install AVG.
It works well.
Mike | Jan 21, 2009 | Reply
In my experience Nod 32 and latest Norton gives better detection rate. About free antivirus, Avira and Rising is found to be good. I tried almost all Free and trial version security software on my PC.
JK | Feb 13, 2009 | Reply
Is there any reason why you didn’t test Sophos? They are the leader in the UK and are making a lot of noise stateside in 2010. I would have liked to see them on here, but I will just assume that you either do not know of them or did not have enough info to rank them. I think if you gave them a whirl you would see that they have a very high quality AV package.
Antivirus | Jan 25, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for the suggestion. I will review it carefully. You were right - I didn’t know about Sophos
admin | Jan 25, 2010 | Reply