Paid vs Free anti-virus

[anniec]

What are peoples thoughts/experience of free vs paid for anti-virus?

 

I've always used free anti-virus without issue and I know the ISP I worked for recently recommends free anti-virus to it's customers. I just wondered what your thoughts were?

[L00b]

Was using AVG free for years and years, defected to MSSE about 2 years ago, as AVG started to get more and more 'nagware/corporate' and MSSE was getting a lot of good marks - even setting standards for a short while.

 

Never had any issue whatsoever (at least, nothing that could not be easily sorted with MBAM, also free, if/as/when something happened - and which has been pretty rare).

 

So long as free products of that caliber remain available, I'd never pay for AV. Most paid-for AV I am familiar with, to an extent or another (work, friends family PCs), do not offer sufficient value-for-money relative to MSSE to justify the expense - and frequently as not, compare very unfavourably in the "resource usage" stakes.

 

All that of course pre-supposes that one is reasonably careful/aware with the sites they visit, as well as browser configuration options (ActiveX and other plug-in default settings, permissions, etc.)

[ccit]

It is entirely a personal choice. As has been said, some of the free ones are persistently 'nagging' to upgrade and that really is a nuisance. Microsoft Security Essentials is light and unobtrusive but I recently read that it's performance in detection is not up to some AVs. I prefer the paid-for Kaspersky ISS for several reasons. I also get it at a reduced price from my bank. Your own bank might have a similar scheme if you do online banking.

[gillybear]

I'm another MSSE user, over the years i've used several free ones and i'm sure i'll move on from MSSE eventually.

 

People praise Anti-Virus software for finding and removing Virusus but ofcourse the ones that arn't found are the ones doing the damage, so praise of any AV for finding Virusus is false praise.

 

The best protection against Virusus and Malware is your own awareness, keep off dodgy sites, only download known software, avoid P2P "free" software. Don't trust any software that says it will improve your PC unless you've checked it out elsewhere (A google search will tell you). Get a software firewall and monitor whats attempting to get internet access. Run Malware bytes regularly, and do a virus scan weekly. (I do quick scans of both MSSE and Malwarebytes before i go on my Internet banking) run CCleaner occasionally and use it to remove cookies (you can keep ones you need). Although not recomended by many sites an Advert blocker is also useful.

[Bladesman]

I use avast and that seems to be ok.

[anniec]

I've always found it to be good. I was having a discussion with someone on fb and he was saying that he thinks paid for is better and if it's free you aren't being given a service and how they are using you yadda yadda yadda. I disagreed.

Edited February 18, 2013 by anniec

[muttley_the_]

ive always gone down the paid for annual update route tbh. ages ago was norton - naff eats your resources, had mcafee internet security and av for last few years and no issues, as for cost its a 3 user lisense and its about a tenner a year so....

 

av and os are the two pieces of software would personally never go down pirate or free route just imo.

[ccit]

The thing that I like about paid-for is that everything is all bundled together in just the one programme - much easier. Kaspersky doesn't slow down my computer and it has additional features such as parental control, vulnerability scanner and Safe Money. IMO it is worth paying for.

[Dardandec]

I've been using BullGuard internet security for over 3 years now and can't fault it. Runs well and is not resource hogging. I buy a 12 month subscription off ebay for about 7 quid, for that I can install on 3 devices and I get free upgrades too.

 

I do prefer bought ones as opposed to free ones because I think you have a "come back" if need be on the bought ones.

[Resident]

I've been using BullGuard internet security for over 3 years now and can't fault it. Runs well and is not resource hogging. I buy a 12 month subscription off ebay for about 7 quid, for that I can install on 3 devices and I get free upgrades too.

 

I do prefer bought ones as opposed to free ones because I think you have a "come back" if need be on the bought ones.

 

Lol! - There's NO guarantees/recompense in the event of infection when using paid-for anti-virus. There are FAR too many variables.

 

All you get with paid-for is a fancier GUI and maybe a few more options like parental controls (which isn't necessary since that feature is built in to windows)