There has been a lot of debate on which software is the best, which takes the most resources and which is not good at catching viruses. Apart from all of the discussion, I am collecting all the free antiviruses which I have used at one time or the other. I have found all of them to be doing a good job atleast in terms of ROI as they are free. I’m listing top 5 free antiviruses which I have used. If anyone of the readers has used some other good antivirus which is also free, please let us know through comments.
AVG Antivirus
The first one which I would like to quote is AVG as I have used it for a long time and have been satisfied with its performance. Lately I have noticed that it didn’t detect some of the latest viruses but that may be because I don’t update my antivirus frequently. It can be downloaded from here:
[download id=”48″]
Rising Antivirus
I know this will be a new name to many and it is relatively a new antivirus. I got it a few months back and installed it on one of my test systems and then installed it on one of my client’s PC and it has been impressive. I felt save after I installed it as it caught most of the viruses which AVG was not able to catch and it’s security is more stronger than AVG. So I would recommend Rising Antivirus if you’re looking for a good antivirus for your home system which doesn’t take a lot of resources and keeps the system safe.
[download id=”49″]
AVAST Antivirus
I have used AVAST long time back but it’s really good because it’s light weight, doesn’t take much resources and it’s fast in scanning. It has got boot time scanning which makes it less vulnerable to startup viruses and worms. The problem lies in it’s detection of viruses. It’s not as quick as other antiviruses in catching the viruses. It can be downloaded from the following location:
[download id=”50″]
Avira Antivir
Avira Antivir has a very good reputation for it’s low system resources and high detection rates. It can be very reliable in protecting home computers. The confidence in Avira Antivir is built more after seeing it’s user base. It has got about 15 million satisfied users around the globe. The down side of it is that it’s scanning is very slow. It can be downloaded from the following link:
[download id=”51″]
Comodo Antivirus
Last but not the least, Comodo Antivirus is another ultra light weight antivirus with blazing speed scanner. It has a nice user interface. But the problem with Comodo antivirus is that of its detection rate. It’s detection rate is not all the good so one can’t feel safe with Comodo Antivirus. It can be downloaded from the following location:
[download id=”52″]
Conclusion:
I am leaving totally up to you to select which one is the best antivirus for you. Here’s a poll you can rate your choice: If you have any other antivirus which is ofcourse free, please let me know through comments:
[poll id=”2″]
Comments
40 responses to “Top 5 Free Antivirus Software”
NOD 32
I have been using AVG for a long long time, but then USB viruses appeared and corrupted everything and AVG could not do anything about it. Then I moved to Kaspersky Internet Security. I am thinking to try now rising antivirus. Thanks for sharing, anyways.
Ive used Avast and it worked well.
I know alot of users are happy with Avast and AVG.
Thanks for the info.
Its appreciated.
Not all that elegant but TrendMicro have a free option where you maunaully download the definitions files (patterns) that has proved to be fast and reliable. This has proved really useful in getting rid of those USB nasties on non-internet video editing hardware.
(SmartAV was great but…)
Kaspersky is the best. Rising anti-virus is also great. Rising anti-virus also make you feel safe.
I’ll prefer NOD32 any day or AVG. Very lightweight.
Antivirus? What’s that?
Shift to Debian GNU/Linux !!!
Debianized Debian is good but people usually prefer Windows instead of Linux. And as Windows is more popular, there are more hacking and cracking attempts than any other operating system. So as a security measure, we have to use antivirus and firewalls.
Any body know anything about Clamwin? It is a free, open-source scanner that I am looking to check out. I am big on open-source software. I prefer Linux, but at work I manage 10 computers, all Windows, and looking for a free virus scanner that is sufficient to something paid.
KG I also love freeware and open source software that’s why I usually write about free stuff on this blog. The problem with Clamwin is that it doesn’t have real time scanning option. This leaves it far behind the other free antivirus softwares mentioned here.
NOD 32 is the best followed by AVIRA free version. avira premium was the best antivirus of 2008. http://www.av-comparatives.org/
xesh actually I’m used to Kaspersky and I’m very satisfied with it. I have been using NOD32 for a long time but then it was unable to detect some USB viruses and I decided to change. But nowadays it’s working great.
Hi dear, I need some good antivirus which can protect my computer from USB viruse, net viruses and others voiruses and spywares. can somebody share?
Regards,
Khan
Hi Sanix,
Thankx for the recmendation but my security center is deactivated due to the flash virus and I re-installed the Avira anti vrus and updated it. However, it always stays updated but I keep getting messages from the anti virus center to update it.
I also keep on getting error messages from previously installed programms and I currently installed AVG anti virus but I cann’t update it any way.
What should I do?………………
PLEASE HELP ME……………?
hi there,
Please I need immediate backup to save ma files and folders.Ma computer is too slow and keeps giving me error messages and sometimes freezes. All mapreviously installed programmes have self uninstalled themselves.
What am I dealing with here? Please give me a hand here………?
Hi Richard, i have used Avast for more than 1 year, it’s very good and light for gamers, but it’s weak against USB worm and variant (w32/…). So i always combine it with my country local Antivirus maker (it’s free) http://www.ansav.com or http://pcmav-rc.blogspot.com/
But from what i read about your problem, u need to do clean boot with Mini Win XP (go to http://www.hirensbootcd.net/. U need to make USB bootable with Hirens and ANSAV & PCMAV on the USB, then u run it and scan / clean / delete the nasty usb virus/worm at your PC.
OR you can take off the infected hardisk and do scan from clean pc with ANSAV.EXE or PCMAV-CLN.EXE installed at the clean pc.
For future prevention against USB worm/virus u can use PCMAV-RTP.EXE as backround detection for usb and other storage device.
AND IT’s ALL FREE 🙂 [do Donations if u feel it’s worth :)]
I’m successfully doing it on many pc, i hope this can help u and others too.
Regards
Patrik
For all those who recommend NOD32, it’s NOT free. It used to be pretty good but now it misses many viruses and has poor detection rates. The free Avira Antivir has better detection rates. The main downside with the free Antivir is the ad screen that pops up when the updates are downloaded. This screen can be disabled but it’s not very easy for most people to figure out.
Although COMODO antivirus doesn’t detect all viruses if you install the full package I think you’ll be pretty safe.
Rising Antivirus also seems to be a pretty good option.
Richard, looks like your PC got infected with the famous (rather infamous) Win32/Salinity. You can try attaching your HDD along with another HDD with good antivirus preferably Avast 4.8 & fully scan your HDD. It’ll b clean.
need one year free antivirus software
kaspersky and nothan are very good
avast is very useless
thank for free .
my lovely kaspersky
Hi again!!
I would like to have an answer to this question please!
🙂 well, My computer is full of cracks and serial number generators and weird tools that I use for my work…
and I know that most of antiviresus gets paid from major companies to scan and delete the cracks!
so! is the new antivirus “Rising anti-virus” acting the same or not!!
because I dont want to take the risk and loos 2 Terabytes of Data! that will turn to be worthless if i loose my cracks!!!
and mainly thats why i dont use anti-viruses and depend on manual methods!! and I am getting tires of fighting the viruses everythen and when!
Thanks
Avira is the best When you usb devices it detect most of the virus/malware only antivirus should be upadated.
Hey Sanix
Appreciate your interests and helping tendency.. Very good comparison and analysis.. I feel avast hits the bull everytime… I’ve tried comodo a no. of times and its a peach everytime(Only prob is it deletes the system files too sometimes).. I wonder how you missed out “THREATFIRE” which is also one of the best AVs out in the market for free.. Never suggest Kaspersky as it eats a lot of resource.. Even NOD32 fails in my standards.. AVG is very good for Non-techies.. Never heard of rising.. wil try and post my feedbacks here.. Avast is still the best as they give manual download of updates which many dont.. Cheers
Srinivasan, thanks a lot for your feedback. Actually I used to recommend Kaspersky because it used to be on top with a balanced combination of performance and protection. But now it has slipped a long way back. You can see the latest comparison report here:
http://www.technize.com/2009/09/30/latest-antivirus-anti-malware-solutions-comparison-august-2009/
@Debianized
You do realize that the operating systems that boast no viruses is because no one cares to plague 2% of the operating system market share.
If Debian was the #1 market share OS I gaurantee there would be viruses galore plaguing that particular system. Same goes for MAC. I hate when people make those claims as if the tide wouldn’t change when every switches over. You should say “No viruses! For now…”
@soulwake
You’re absolutely right. I agree that Microsoft has a very good Operating System and it’s fighting on all fronts to make it more effective.
arira antivir is best good. I suggest use it. Avira make up little resource.
@from viet nam
Avira is really good for personal use. I also use it at my home computer.
i use bit defender 2010 antivirus…it works good if u have more than 1 gb i prefer must have 2 gb…for slow laptops n system i highly recommend avira antivir virus……light , safe , secure , catchs 90%virus…..most help ful in pendrive scaning.. i rate 8/10 for avira n 9/10 for bitdefender
Comodo CIS, currently V4 in beta, does already a far better job as all others in my experience. Been using McAfee before that, but finally got sick of all probs with mcafee (mcafee even corrupting java when uninstalling!). Comodo CIS V3 (current release) is top ranked in the list of above.
I have using gmail since along time realy it is very good antivir in all.Thanks for its free version.
Hi all,
Rising has proven to be a good antivirus, with more reliability than Avast, i must say, and a LOT less false positives than Avast. At first, it didn’t recognize the EICAR antivirus-testfile, but after i had a little chat with the developers, a new version came out that had this little issue fixed. It’s GOOD and even installs on SERVERS for FREE!
To be sure it detects everything, set the heuristics-sensitivity to high. Do this for all detectors. Rising will generate almost no false alarms, so you can do this safely. Rising is VERY good at CLEANING the caught viruses, so you can safely set all actions to “clean virus” in case something is found.
poktor, very good review of Rising Antivirus. I also highly recommend Rising as I have been very much satisfied when using Rising Antivirus. It was a great news for me that Rising can be installed on the servers for free 🙂
I hate when people make those claims as if the tide wouldn’t change when every switches over.
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johnpeter
really nice article worth reading
I had used most of them and they are all good, few are good in some parts and others very good in others. Like Avast is best in real time protection and overall is good AVIRA
Lagi nyari anti virus dari google, direcommended kemari. Meninggalkan jejak dan terima kasih ^_^
Well I have used sunbelt vipre and it is quite good in detecting many types of viruses. well the new Avast 6.0.1000 is also fine.
mi recomendation goes for Zenok Free Antivirus !! keeping my computer safe since one year hahaha 🙂