Free Antivirus: Avira really better than Avast? I don't think so

I've been running Avira Personal edition lately because many people recommended it. The reason it's being recommended is the high detection rate. It beats Avast in that aspect.

But I don't really like Avira because:
-it displays an annoying popup every day.
-it's updating process is much slower than Avast.
-it does not have password protection like Avast does.

So what do you think?

 

Avira caught a damn annoying trojan that avast and avg failed to get rid of in my boot sector. They didn't even recognize it was there. After that I trust Avira. The popup is a simple click of the x, not a real hassle.

 

But it gives you better protection, don't you understand?? Avast is rubbish!

 

Really? Please clarify.

 

That's good to hear. I once got into trouble with Avira, it did not even notice the virus. I ran the same virus on Avast, it managed to keep it under control because of the password protection.

I did find a way to disable the popup in Avira: http://www.tipsfor.us/2007/08/15/make-avira-antivir-free-edition-more-usable/

 

I've used Avast, AVG and Avira some while ago. I wasn't completely satisfied with neither of them, but Avira looked much better. Avast stayed on my lappy for 3 days, and after I had to do a clean instal because of all the crap it let go.

I'm using KAV 7 for last half a year and sleep well)

 

Kaspersky has a 1 year free license. And it`s much better than Avast.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=249965
Catch is that it`s only for certain regions...

 

I think if you google, you'll find a fairly recent review of how good avira is vs. all the others. It's ranked among the top.

 

I did read up on it and the two negatives going against Avira are:

1) It's slow updating

2) Annoying pop up asking you to upgrade.

Other than that it ranks as one of if not the best AV program on the market. I decided i'm going to use it instead of Avast. Hopefully it's not as resource heavy as Avast.

 

Yeah me too. I did read that. Avira has a better detection rate.

However, Avast has password protection (highly underestimated feature), faster updates an no annoying popups.

In my experience the password protection (Avast) offers better protection that a slighty higher detection rate (Avira).

 

I followed these instructions and it seems good. Hope it works.

 

I have always used avast and have had no problems what-so-ever. To me avast is the better product simply based on what it offers in a free anti-virus package. Once configured correctly avast doesn't use much resources; remember there is no need to install all components if you have no intention of using say outlook(for email) or don't require IM scanning.

Being that there is no perfect antivirus I don't let the detection rates issue bother me too much. Avast will detect somethings avira doesn't and vice versa.

The big problem I have with the free version of avira (and AVG as well) is that they don't have any web scanner components. To me this is a big disadvantage. Many times the web scanner in avast has stopped a drive-by-download(unsolicited installation) from happening thus saving me from having to remove malware later on. Now you could argue avira would still detect the trojan etc and remove it but avast stops the trojan from even getting onto my computer in the first place. Also now with Avast 4.8 there is also a built in spyware component which only adds to the other spyware detectors currently in use on my notebook.

IMO avast is just a better "all round" product and the support you will get in the avast forums is excellent.

 

Good tip. Thanks.

 

Once my AV subscription ends, I think I'll try them both...so far it seems like avira is in the lead though.

 

Avira I keep around for the great scanner. Avast I keep around for the active protection and solid scanner. I like to have two anti-virus programs and these two work for me. Additionally, I haven't noticed either of them updating faster than the other. Also, as someone already pointed out, you can disable the ads that pop up with Avira. Lastly, I can see how password protecting avast could be useful. I'm guessing that it helps protect the program from being turned off by something. In other words, the malicious whatever has to first break the password. That's not really much of a factor to me since I have a firewall to protect against stuff like that.

So my verdict, use both because they excel at different things.

 

Interesting.

Is it possible to install Avira without having it always running in the background?

Exactly. That's why password protection rocks. I've experienced it in real life.

 

Yeah, you can install Avira without its active protection. I believe it's called Avira Guard. There's the option when you install it. That's what I'm running right now so I don't have two active protection programs conflicting with each other.

If you have a firewall, it should stop all attempts to disable your anti-virus program. At the very least it should ask you whether you want a program to control your anti-virus, which is a NO for me.

Oh and I like these instructions for Avira: http://www.elitekiller.com/files/disable_antivir_nag.htm

 

avira is the most solid among the three big free anti virus. vs avg and avast. ive seen avast and the console display looks horrible as well as a spinning A thing at the bottom. i prefer all my icons static thanks. + the detection rate isnt as strong as avira.

your deal is do u want a stronger antivirus or just a regular antivirus with faster update downloads and password protection?

avira ftw

 

Among the big three (AVG, AVira, Avast), here's what I rank from best to worst:
1. Avira
2. Avast
3. AVG
I have the experience with all. I use thumbdrive all the time and my friends' computer are the source of malware and everything you don't want for your computer. For me the worst is definitely AVG as it never detects everything from my thumbdrive. Then I change to Avast, at least it detects a few. Then I change again to Avira and I think I'm safe.

 

which of the 3 are the lightest on resources? avira?

 

The only thing that crosses Avira off my list is the lack of email scanning-for someone who uses Outlook for e-mail, that's important and it's the reason why I'm still on AVG

 

http://www.elitekiller.com/files/disable_antivir_nag.htm Works for me.

Could you tell me then what this is?



Anyway, I first used Avast! when I got my laptop. But it failed me when I tried to clean my infected USB drive. The virus hit my computer -- and not only did avast not detect it, couldn't clean it up either [of course how can it clean something it has not detected? Duh]. Fortunately it was a minor virus and it was easy to manually destroy.

Then I switched to Avira. Wow. The virus in my infected memory card was immediately blocked as I plugged it in. Same with my USB drive.

I like Avira for having that automatic action function -- when I scan, it automatically does the action I set it to do when it detects something. Quite nifty. What I do miss with Avast! was the boot time scan.

Also, in my experience, Avast! is definitely tougher on resources than Avira. Whether it's booting up or opening a file or program, Avast definitely slowed my system down more than Avira. In fact, I don't notice Avira slowing down my system at all. Barely adds time to my boot up, and programs and files open almost instantaneously *hugs XP*

 

On their site though, it says that you can only get that using an upgraded version of the program (either premium or the security suite)

EDIT: Went to the Avira forums to check-it appears that the section in the dialog box you displayed is for something else.

 

Either AVG or Avira, I forgot. Avast is the most resource extensive.

 

scythie: That's so you can get email notifications from Avira. Here's what it says about email in the help file:

"Avira AntiVir Personal can send messages via email. This is done with the Simple Message Transfer Protocol (SMTP).

The messages can be triggered by various events. Transmission of emails is supported by the following modules:"



McGrady: Yes, Avira is the lightest on the resources.

However, it doesn't have as robust an active protection as avast or AVG. Then again, you can set Avira Guard to scan all files. This will allow your emails to be scanned after they have reached your computer (not for web based email clients like gmail). I've heard that using this setting can slow down your computer. I haven't tried it, so I cannot verify.

 

Not trying yo hijack the thread but I'm not looking for email scanning and other things. Just the basic AV scans, and protection I guess. When you install, does it have a checkbox of things you want installed? I will probably make a thread.

 

Avira has better active protection than AVG and Avast (Antivirus). By default avira scans for smart extensions and that's almost equivalent to all files.

 

Didn't you talk about having windows one care?

 

yeah, i have it now. but its subscription. ends in a few months. im probably not going to buy it again when it ends so just getting some info on others in advance.

 

It's very easy to switch the spinning off in the settings.

The fact that Avira does not have password protection makes it weaker. It's very easy for a virus or trojan to disable an unprotected scanner.

Anyway, I am going to test both. Avast on my desktop and Avira on my portable. I' see which one I prefer.

 

You can change the settings in avira to protect the config from unwanted termiation.

 

I've just checked this. Those settings are available but only work for limited user accounts.

So that is one advantage Avast has. But I do like the smaller footprint of Avira and the better detection rates.

I've now done a clean OS install and installed Avira. I got rid of the annoying popup, and if I am ever going to run a dangerous file, I will do it from a limited user account.

 

I recently did a Vista reinstall so I decided to give Avira a try instead of Avast which I have used for several years now and liked.

So far so good with the basics, I love the clean interface. One of the biggest complaints was the time it took to do an update. Things must be getting better because it took 2 minutes to download and update the program files.

I can't say which has better protection yet because nothing has been found as a threat. I know Avast has warned me many times including a link one of our members posted to a website which Avast detected a trojan threat. That one was weird but I have not had any problems with Avast other than the resources it takes.

Someone had mentioned you can customize Avast and I never knew that. I will look into it if I decide to switch back to Avast. One nice thing about Avira is you don't have to enter a serial number to use the program unlike Avast but again that's just more of an inconvenience.

 

It updates as fast as antivirus programs do. It updates in less than 30 secs for me.

 

Same with me. Seems like it has sped up since my first update with it.

 

I think they need to come up with a new version of Avira which contains newer virus definitions as the update takes ages on my 1 MB DSL. People on dial up will take forever!

And their manual update files.....well....everytime I try to update them manually it says the file is in use and cannot be updated...so I still have to do the regular slow update.

 

I'm using 1M ADSL too. It was really slow during the first few updates(manually). But now it has really speed up.

 

Every antivirus/internet security software need first time a lot to download updates as you got overdated definitions.

 

Sorry to revive this thread but I wanted to point out for anyone reading it that a strong point made about Avast was that it has password protection, whereas Avira does not.

So I wanted to notify readers that Avira DOES have password protection now.

Configuration > Switch to "Expert Mode" > Expand "General"

you'll see an option for password protection, and you can choose which areas to password protect.

Please also note that I'm using Avira Premium, not Personal, and I don't know if this feature does exist in personal.

 

No, it doesn't..

 

The things you don´t like:
- The popups can be disabled, search the threads..
- The updating process is faster than Avast, the difference is that Avast doesn´t show a window telling you that is updating, it´s in the backgroung taking it´s time to uodate.
- Do you really need password protection in an antivirus? You can use other apps..

and believe me.. you´re better protected with AVIRA, and this is the most important thing.

 

the password protection is for protecting the avira, not other things. basically it's good because it prevents viruses or spyware from shuttong down the antivirus, which many do.