Avast ye matey! Did you know that Avast
antivirus is the only antivirus supported by Davy Jones himself? That's right,
the pirate with the locker at the bottom of the ocean and the…stuff...on his face!
Do you get it? Because pirates say Avast? And Davy Jones is a pirate?
Yeah let’s just stick to antivirus reviews. That would probably be good.
Everyone seems to know, or at least know of, Avast. It is one of the world's
most well-known antivirus softwares. You might not know it’s NOT an A-tier
security system like Norton. Instead, it's on the B-tier with companies like Malwarebytes or AVG.
You hear a lot of "not the worst, but not the best'' sort of discussions about Avast. But,
there is some evidence that Avast actually can compete with the top dogs. And... there's also
some evidence that Avast is a flaming dumpster. So, is Avast worth your money? Let's find out
together in this review. We will be testing this antivirus software based on five factors:
Pricing Security
Features Performance
and Additional Concerns We will rate each criteria
section out of five pirate hats, with five being the best and one being the worst.
Now, that last one, additional concerns, needs to be brought right to the top.
Why? Because Avast has a bit of *history* as an antivirus provider. That history is in selling
user data to third-party companies like IBM, Intuit, and Home Depot.
For a company that sells security products, that's not a good look.
This data gathering was the result of their marketing analytics subsidiary: Jumpshot.
Avast responded that "users have always had the ability to opt-out..." They tried
initially working on a more explicit opt-out clause. But it wasn't long before Jumpshot was
shut down because of this backlash. So, whatever rating we give them,
they score a one out of five on public reputation. Now, Avast might've changed their ways since then.
Who knows? But for many people watching this review, selling user data is irredeemable. If
this is the case for you, you might try an antivirus that doesn't sell your user data,
like Norton. You can find discounts for Norton in the comments below.
But if you still think Avast is worth consideration,
then the remainder of the review is for you. So let's dig into it by analysing the: pricing.
Why did we start with pricing? Well, because Avast has both a paid and a free version of
its software. So, it's important to compare the free and paid versions.
To start, the free version comes with some good features. Namely,
those features include virus scanning, real-time protection, app monitoring,
and an advanced firewall. While most other software includes the scanner,
Avast takes it further with an excellent free version. This means you can consider it
a suitable replacement for Windows Defender. The other two plans are also cost-effective
if you want to pay for one year upfront. Avast One offers the best deal at $2.50
per month if you have fewer devices and up to $3.50 per month if you have 30 devices.
Premium Security takes out some features for $3.33 per month but covers more devices. You can also
limit it to one type of device for... $2.50, which is like throwing money directly in the garbage.
The biggest problem Avast has with pricing is the hidden optional features. For example, if you want
to get the full privacy browser or unlock the bandwidth on your VPN, you'll have to pay a few
extra dollars. Because of this, Avast tends to be more expensive if you want the total package.
So, on pricing, they get about three out of five pirate hats. The hidden costs are frustrating but
entirely optional for this antivirus. But most people end up paying more than they expect.
Before we move on, you can also get a better deal by downloading Avast using our discount
links in the description box. We did not however factor that in our evaluation for this section.
Next, we look at arguably the most critical aspect of this review: security.
After all, if your antivirus software doesn't have good security, why are you bothering with it?
To find out how they do on security, we need to look at AV-Test, a reputable antivirus testing
group. So, what do they have to say about Avast? Well, Avast is a regular feature on the list
of their top products. This has been fairly consistent since June 2018. This
means they regularly meet or exceed the industry standard for catching viruses.
They fell off of this list in December of 2021. They fell .1 percentage points
below the industry average regarding protection against day-zero malware attacks.
Day zero refers to newly developed malware. Antiviruses that can identify this type of
malware can identify viruses based on perceived behavior. You know, suspicious individuals...
So, rather than wait for the system to get wrecked, Avast is primarily good at
identifying a problem before it becomes one. It also doesn't identify problems that
aren't there, as it isn't known for false positives, falling below the
industry average according to AV-Test. But AV testing is mainly concerned
with free scanning tools. What about other preventative security measures?
Well, here's a breakdown of what Avast has They block apps from accessing your webcam
when they have no business doing it. They have a list of dangerous websites
to support their anti-phishing tools, so you don't give away personal information.
And they provide a ransomware shield that blocks untrusted programs from
modifying files in protected folders like Documents, Pictures, or Desktop folders.
Just know that these features come exclusively with the paid version of Avast.
Because of this, they get a four out of five pirate hats, falling short of on-screen perfection
because of their December AV-Test results. Next, we take a look at: Features.
Now, we've already gone through some of these in our last two areas. The free
version is barebones but comes with more than the average free antivirus. Also, you get a
series of security tools that we just reviewed. But what other features do you get with this
antivirus? The best optional features come with Avast One, which includes many optional things.
Here's a quick breakdown of what those things are: A VPN, or virtual private network,
that has support for 55 worldwide locations to protect your traffic and connection logs.
A dark web monitoring feature lets you know when your online accounts
are at risk of being breached. A tool that will help update your
drivers automatically, as out-of-date drivers can cause security faults.
A vulnerability scanner lets you know when your computer has bad security settings.
Another tool that helps clean and speed up your device because... why not?
And finally, a cookie-blocking tool, or browser extension, prevents advertisers from tracking you.
The one thing it doesn't include in its product list is Secure Browser Pro, which is a privacy
browser that you have to pay for. But why would you bother with it when you have free
privacy browsers like Tor or Brave? Also, the VPN is bandwidth-limited,
making it less than helpful. If you want a good VPN, we recommend either NordVPN or SurfShark;
both are proven, fast, and don't have limited bandwidth. You can find discounts for these below.
So, while it has many handy features, most of the included tools are somewhat
disappointing. So not bad, but not great, giving this one a three out of five hat score.
Now, we need to look at the last criteria section: performance.
The good news with this one is that the performance bar is set low. After all,
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet exist in this universe.
According to results from AV-Test, Avast hits the industry average for performance
ratings. Their worst month was in December of 2021, when it slowed the performance of both
standard and high-end PCs during testing. Avast also has a history of struggling with
slow boot-time scans. While these tend to be deep scans, there are antivirus software in
the world that can perform them quickly. Because of this, Avast gets a four out of
five on the performance scale. They aren't known for causing any significant slowdowns.
So, when we look at all of these together, Avast gets an honorable three out of five
stars. Ignoring the one time when they sold your data, Avast is a respectable antivirus provider.
They have good security performance and don't slow down your computer
often during that security performance. They also have some excellent features.
The most significant issues that shoot them in the foot come down to the pricing,
as there are a lot of extra charges that crop up when you want everything they offer.
But, you might think that having a history of sold data means they aren't worth your time. In
that case, check out our other antivirus reviews. But let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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