Will Avast Free come close to NOD32?

I'm in the market for a replacment to NOD32 v4 and wondered if the free version of Avast will come close to NOD32 in terms of protection and effect on system resources (ie. light). Anyone care to chime in?

From what I can tell, the main thing I'll lose with Avast Free is the ability to configure the software, but will I be able to do any configuration at all? For example, I run Outpost firewall and one essential thing to configure is to have the AV ignore elements of the FW and vice versa.

 

Avast 5 is light Currently happy with it even with Beta2

 

NOD32 v.4 is just epic.... why would you replace?.
I love nod because its just so simple/easy I mean how satisfying is it when your doing stuff and that little reminder about an update pops up and you're just like.... oh nod, you take such good care of me, you never ask for anything, i totally ignore you and yet you keep me so safe.

/me snuggles up with nod32.

 

I also grew to love NOD but with the renewal coming up, the slight incompatibility with Outpost Pro, a snafu with a trojan and the slight decline in NOD32's test scores recently has me wondering if there's life after NOD.

I just installed Avast free version (4.x) and it seems to have a great set of tools, consistently scores well in AV tests and is as light on resources as NOD (despite having 6 processes running to NOD's 2). The UI is absolutely appalling, however, and I cringe every time I have to use it. Honestly, which 7 year old came up with that abomination?! Hopefully I won't be having to use it much.

 

Agree with both your assessment of Avast's effectiveness, complete set of tools, and the goofy default interface. Until Avast 5 comes out of beta later this month, you can simply skin it--go to Avast's website for skins.

 

I run NOD32 since 4 years and will never replace it as it is the lightest, and easiest AV to use. it runs perfect out of the box! and is 99.99999 % safe

 

IMHO, Avast Free is as good as NOD in terms of detection, its effects on system resources and support.

Check out its effectiveness either on av-comparatives or av-test.org; as good as NOD.

The new Avast 5 beta IME is certainly lighter in real-time compared to NOD 3/4 and you can configure a lot of features within the GUI. You can certainly exclude your firewall logs from the real-time Guard in Avast.

And support in the Avast Forum is excellent. It will soon be out of beta but it is very stable even now with just a few bugs to sort out. I have been running the beta on a new laptop for the past few weeks without any problems/slowdowns whatsoever.

 

In my personal opinion:
Nod32 is one of the best on the market.
Never had problems with it one way or the other, and I've been using it for the past 4 years or so.

Still, it's a paying AV (a quality one), and ultimately if you are looking to replace it with something free ... well, I heard Avira is pretty good in what it does.
I cannot comment on Avast as I had no experience with it.
However ... if the v5 (beta) is as good as people claim, then simply wait until your subscription runs out and replace Nod with Avast.

Either way, you likely won't regret it.

 

I have been using avast home for at least 5 years and I never notice a system slowdown or infection. Granted I would prefer SYmantec corporate edition, but then again my company only has an XP license and Im not about to get it for win 7.

 

how would you compare AVG with Avast?

 

avast! is definitely way better than AVG, in terms of performance and detection.

 

I used to use AVG but disliked the way it took control of the machine when updating the virus definition files. Avast does this behind the scenes and feels much less disruptive to me. Besides, it seems to have included several new features before the others did (like anti-rootkit efforts, for example) Been using it for about 2 yrs now and am pleased with it... looking forward to ver 5.