# AVG Vs. Avira



## strongbad8500

Hi guys ive used both Avira and AVG (currently AVG) and their both good but i really dont know enough about antivirus software to tell which one is better so could you guys give me some opinions, Thanks.


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## jonmcc33

AVG is decent but Avast! is much better. That's from personal experience.


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## strongbad8500

Ok so what are the pros of avast! over AVG


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## jonmcc33

strongbad8500 said:


> Ok so what are the pros of avast! over AVG


As you can see in my little experiment on another thread, Avast! clearly scanned more files than AVG did.



















It also has more specific scanning modules. There is a dedicated scanner for P2P, IM, internet mail, web traffic, network and Outlook.


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## strongbad8500

Ok ill give avast! a try.


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## jonmcc33

For being free it is clearly the better of the two.


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## MysticEyes

jonmcc33 said:


> For being free it is clearly the better of the two.


Well let's see what PC World said when they tested them.

_*Alwil Software Avast Home Edition 4.6*
Though the best looking of the free antivirus products, Avast performed the worst.

Alwil Software's Avast Home Edition 4.6 is free and sports a slick media-player style interface, *but its performance scores were bottom-of-the-barrel.*

It produced *the worst performance scores among the ten products tested *for "The New Virus Fighters." Avast performed poorly in heuristics tests, ranking third from the bottom. And its scan times were the slowest_

AVG is about the same:

_In our performance tests, *AVG Free Edition ranked second to last.* (Alwil Software's free Avast Home Edition ranked last.) While AVG Free Edition caught nearly 100 percent of bots and zombies in our collection of zoo malware, it caught a disappointing 65 percent of Trojan horses. It ranked second-to-last in our heuristics tests--detecting just 11 percent of worms and 8 percent of backdoor programs using one-month-old virus data._

Avira (AntiVir) tested out a bit better.

_*AntiVir Personal Edition Classic 6.32*
This free antivirus program provides the basics but not much more.

Of the three free antivirus programs we tested for "The New Virus Fighters" AntiVir's Personal Edition Classic 6.32 performed the best and got the best overall rating. But when compared with the whole set of paid and unpaid programs, what you get is pretty average._


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## guitar

i've been using avg for 10 years no probs


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## jonmcc33

MysticEyes said:


> Well let's see what PC World said when they tested them.


You can see for yourself between the two which scanned more files. Would you use AVG if it missed 20,000 files? This is just also IMO between these two.

In regards to PC World, I'm using their chart based upon a review last year: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130869/article.html

Again, rated above AVG like I said.


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## avengeda7x

Avast..!!!!!


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## smeegle

In spite of its low grades in some areas AVG seems to be the program that is always compared to others.


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## Gizzy

alright I thought this thread was about avira or avg? not avast and avg,

anyway since it turned into avast or avg I would say avast is better in that review against the three av's it said avast did poorly in heuristic tests but thats because avast doesn't really have a heuristic engine they will be putting one in the 5.0 version though,

avast from what I've seen seems to have a better detection rate lately and thats pretty good since it doesn't really have heuristics.

and if I go with the thread tite avg vs. avira I would go with avira it has a great detection rate it's what I'm using though I'm using the paid version not the free version.


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## MysticEyes

jonmcc33 said:


> You can see for yourself between the two which scanned more files. Would you use AVG if it missed 20,000 files? This is just also IMO between these two.
> 
> In regards to PC World, I'm using their chart based upon a review last year: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130869/article.html
> 
> Again, rated above AVG like I said.


Unfortunately your link is not testing the *FREE* versions.


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## avengeda7x

lol yeah this is getting a bit on the avast Vs avg side.

but if your looking for a free av then why bother discussing avg and avira, when you can just as easily download and install avast free.? when it is much better.? confusses me lol

but i would say avast is the better of the 3 then avira and then avg out of free av.

but everyone has ther opinion.


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## calvin-c

I've noticed before that PC World seems to be biased against free software. Natural, I suppose, as they get their income mostly from advertising-and companies rarely spend money advertising free software.


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## jonmcc33

MysticEyes said:


> Unfortunately your link is not testing the *FREE* versions.


Fortunately the Pro versions of AVG and Avast! are no different than the free versions at *detecting viruses*.

Avast! Pro adds only a better GUI interface, script blocking (negligible) and updates pushed to you as opposed to scheduled updates: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_professional.html

AVG Pro only adds anti-spyware, anti-spam and firewall: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/frt/0

They don't make their free versions worse.


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## worf51

i have had no problems at all from avg free in 2 years


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## strongbad8500

ok i installed avast! to try it out and it seems to be working good but how does it compare to Avira and AVG in real time protection


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## Gizzy

well avast has a web scanner which scans every website for virus's as they load so you'll get a warning if you browse to a website that has a virus so the virus won't have a chance to get to your computer,

avg and avira don't have web scanners,

I'm not so sure how the rest of it's real time scanning works I know that avira scans files on read and writes by default.


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## Hughv

I've used AVG exclusively for many years, and installed it on 30-40 friend's computers.
None of those computers have ever gotten a virus infection of any kind.


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## bruinator

http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/bitdefender-review.html

http://www.av-comparatives.org/


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## jonmcc33

strongbad8500 said:


> ok i installed avast! to try it out and it seems to be working good but how does it compare to Avira and AVG in real time protection


It's much better than AVG in every way. I've never used Avira.


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## MysticEyes

bruinator said:


> http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/bitdefender-review.html
> 
> http://www.av-comparatives.org/


_#8 AVG Anti-Virus also has an Advanced Interface that gives you a nice view of the tests you can run, scheduled tasks, test results and more. The software received the ICSA 2007. AVG Anti-Virus also* passed* on demand and on access scanning level 1 and level 2 from West Coast Labs but did not recieve or enter the VB100%.

#12 AVAST 4 *didn't *receive the West Coast Labs Checkmark level 1 or 2 or the VB100%. *AVAST wasn't as effective *as some of the other products reviewed. *For better virus protection refer to some of our higher ranked products*

_


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## Gizzy

isn't the first site a scam site? http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/bitdefender-review.html

when some people posted sites that looked similar to that link on wilders they were removed for being scam sites,

I'm not trying to defend avast by the way I don't even use avast I use avira antivir


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## MysticEyes

Gizzy said:


> isn't the first site a scam site? http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/bitdefender-review.html
> 
> when some people posted sites that looked similar to that link on wilders they were removed for being scam sites,
> 
> I'm not trying to defend avast by the way I don't even use avast I use avira antivir


Well there is no arguing their top 3. Which are certainly the cream of the crop.

I don't now exactly what you mean by scam site, it's actually nicely organized with a lot of links to news, music, movies and general information.


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## Gizzy

MysticEyes said:


> Well there is no arguing their top 3. Which are certainly the cream of the crop.
> 
> I don't now exactly what you mean by scam site, it's actually nicely organized with a lot of links to news, music, movies and general information.


well by scam I think it was meant more like they don't really test the anti-virus's or anything they have a lot of sites that look almost identical and so it's more like advertising for the anti-virus's.


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## jonmcc33

Gizzy said:


> Well by scam I think it was meant more like they don't really test the anti-virus's or anything they have a lot of sites that look almost identical and so it's more like advertising for the anti-virus's.


I concur. They don't even post numbers or statistics, just features of each and basing their ratings on whatever levels of certification that the AV program has gotten. :down:

Just look at why they gave BitDefender the highest rating in Effectiveness:



> BitDefender's customizable settings make the program effective for a variety of users. For example, if you receive legitimate commercial email, you can set BitDefender's spam filters to allow specific or all emails.
> 
> Virus Bulletin rated BitDefender a VB100%, the highest honor for anti-virus software.
> 
> The VB 100% logo is awarded to anti-virus products that detect all current "in the wild" viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning in Virus Bulletin's comparative tests.
> 
> Additionally, BitDefender passed the ICSA 2007-a similar test that certifies the software can detect viruses, prevent virus replication, and doesn't generate false positives.


Not a single mention of them actually running the software. 

Edit- You can, however, see that I indeed did run AVG and Avast! on a scan on my hard drive. Between the two Avast! was found to be better by scanning 20,000 more files!

http://forums.techguy.org/5549667-post20.html


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## Goblin072

I finally bit the bullet and dumped AVG 7.5. I had been using for years but its changed. Its slower, more bloated and lets things sneek by it. 
I have triad AVAST, Norton, McAfee, Panda. All pigs and slow.
Avira seems much faster than AVG at scanning and does not chug my slower single cpu laptop. It found 7 backdoors, 5 trojans. (Porn sites). That AVG let slide on by.
Goodbye AVG it was a fun ride.


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## tacoman359

I don't trust things that don't have statistics to prove them. Take a look at AV-Comparatives and you'll get a better idea of which one to use.


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## Goblin072

Thanks Tacoman, I looked at some of the comparatives. Avira ranked very well among users. Not sure how accurate those stats are. So far I like the speed and my laptop is faster without the backdoor connections stealing my bandwidth and more.

Its too early to tell if I like it, but so far I do.


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## worf51

hi guys,from my numerous threads you all must of read that i was a number 1 fan of avg,well due to the free version elapsing in a few months,i have now gone to avast,i was shocked,immediately after i installed it and did a computer scan,it found 1 trojan and 2 adware that avg didn`t find,my pc is running a lot better now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Goblin072

People probably don't notice the lag with dual and quad cpus. I have a single cpu 1.6mhz laptop and avg slowed it up. I am liking avira so far.


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## MysticEyes

Goblin072 said:


> People probably don't notice the lag with dual and quad cpus. I have a single cpu 1.6mhz laptop and avg slowed it up. I am liking avira so far.


Does Avira (free) scan email?


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## tacoman359

The reason that AVG isn't scanning as many files is because the default it set to only scan infectable files.


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## Goblin072

It appears that Avira in the standard free form does not scan emails. Either have to do a full scan after you get the virus in the emails or purchase the version that does check.

There is no free lunch. No wonder it seems faster.


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