Avira vs. AVG – Comparison review

Avira is a German antivirus software company starting his history in 2006; recently, it joined NortonLifeLock Company – a leader in Cyber Safety products. Nowadays, it has more than 80 million users worldwide, allowing it to block millions of threats and phishing attempts every day with more than 1000 patents.

Avira protects all online activities from scams, financial losses, identity thefts, and PC performance optimization. For online protection, the proposed tools are antivirus protection, a firewall, automatic software and driver’s updates, and anti-scam protection; for identity theft – a password manager, safe shopping, and a VPN; for performance optimization – PC cleaner, battery saver and speed booster. With one click of downloading the program, the surf can be secure, private, and fast.

Even a free version includes numerous robust features – antivirus, VPN, a password manager, and an update scanner; with paid prime versions, you will get all other features. The key features, such as user-friendliness and high system repair performance without slowing down the devices, are available with all subscriptions for smartphones, PCs, and tablets.

AVG (Anti-Virus Guard) s antivirus software from AVG Technology, now part of Avast Company. The first release was in 1992 in Europe, and in the USA, it appeared in 1998. Even though it is still named AVG, it received some features from Avast software.

AVG proposes users file and behavior shields, ransomware protection, network inspector, and web and email protection in the basic free antivirus version. It has six layers of security and has received more than 160 awards.

Unfortunately, the free version has a lot of misleading advertisements to upgrade to the paid version to protect from online risks. But even AVG free version can find up to 99.85% of prior knowledge and no prior knowledge (“zero-day” attacks) of viruses on PC. AVG free version has all the required features for robust protection of your devices.

In contrast, the paid version has sophisticated security features for advanced protection – for example, anti-theft, sensitive data shield, artificial threat detection, and many more. AVG promises to make a full refund if they can’t fix the infection on your device.

Avira is ready to perform a smart scan immediately after installation, including privacy issues, performance issues (advice on how to speed up the performance), viruses, outdated applications, and network threats. Avira has three options of scans – full, quick, and managed (customized type) – all of them can be scheduled.

AVG, like any other antivirus, has several types of scans for ransomware, viruses, malware, and other threats. For example, a quick turbo scan can take less than 30 seconds by skipping already analyzed files established to be safe. You can scan portable devices as USB or DVD drives as well.

Avira has many features to provide advanced protection – real-time protection, web protection, email protection, ransomware protection (only real-time protection is provided in the free version), a firewall (only for Windows), and software updates.

For suspicious and infected files, Avira creates a quarantine. Real-time protection has low, medium and high sensitivity levels that can be chosen. For example, a medium level of protection allows to find a lot of malware but with some false positives. The Firewall can block all incoming connections, and send notifications when a new application is blocked or disabled.

In addition to standard detection of viruses and malware, the user can choose protection from other threats – games, double-extension files, fraud software, phishing, etc. (in free version limited number, in paid unlimited). All categories are listed; the selected type can be enabled or disabled.

Avira runs about nine processes (applications) in the background to protect your device. Detailed reports can be prepared automatically for all scans and other antivirus activities.

AVG has multiple layers of protection – malware protection, blocking and deleting suspicious programs, detection of malware-hosting URLs, advanced firewall to protect from ransomware, system scanning for threats, phishing protection, and real-time protection.

The behavior shield function is responsible for sending alerts for suspicious installed software on your PC; if you are going to download an application with a virus CyberCapture tool will automatically block its upload after quick analysis. The real-time protection feature is responsible for checking all installed software on the PC and automatically fixing bugs.

In the paid version, there is also an artificial-based machine-learning threat detection system for a more profound analysis of Internet threats, including analyzing metadata, tokens, and visual elements of suspicious websites to check their safety. Also, you will get a Smart Firewall from its side that monitors all incoming and outcoming connections, preventing hackers from accessing your private files, videos, or photos.

Avira has a phantom VPN with 1400 servers in 37 countries to unblock websites for geo-restriction and censorship to access favorite news or streaming services, to secure communication on public Wi-Fi with encryption, to surf anonymously without ISP tracking and annoying pop-ups and adds with changing location hiding actual IP address.

Based in Germany, this VPN service does not store the logs of the users. The speed is from 500 MB in the free version. Inside the premium antivirus packages or billed separately (10$ per month for multi-devices) you will get a kill switch and DNS leak protection.

AVG offers a 256-bit AES encrypted VPN for online privacy from cybercriminals, changing actual IP location, passing geo or censored restrictions, buying on the marketplace from an exact country, and accessing favorite content worldwide.

All public Wi-Fi will be safe with this VPN; your activities will be private. You will receive access to choose from out of 50 servers worldwide. It is possible to purchase this VPN out of paid AVG subscription for ten devices (4.49$ per month for one year) with a 30-day money return guarantee.

Avira optimizes PC free space with its power cleaners and has tools to prolong battery life, boost startup, update drivers, and find and delete duplicate files. For Windows users, the startup time decreases by up to 25% to save time! It also allows optimizing RAM usage to reduce lags for gaming software. This tool helps to use any devices as new ones preventing overheating; also, it can repair all corrupted files, backup and recover essential photos, files and documents, and clean the system register and cache for valuable personal sensitive information.

Like most other tools, it is available as part of antivirus packages and separately in a free limited version or Avira Advanced speedup pro version (31.99$ per year).

The advanced version also includes a driver’s manager, network traffic manager, disk defragmenter, context menu manager, registry cleaner, easy uninstaller, MBR backup, network repair, file shredder, this wiper, and numerous other essential tools for PC optimization. Optimize your PC regularly for a smooth run. This Pro Version is included in the Avira Prime Antivirus package. Avira also has a free Avira Software Updater for Windows users to update software and drivers automatically and optimize hardware.

AVG has a built-in system optimization feature for paid versions, and it can be separately bought – AVG TuneUp (previously AVG TuneUp Utilities) for 1 device for 29.99 $ per year, 34.99 for 10 devices. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Android users. This tool boosts up old software to work like new one by uninstalling unused software, removing trails, junk files, and programs (Software Uninstaller is used), automatic update programs, cleaning registers, cookies, cache files, and other leftovers keeping the space (only with your permission).

In addition, tuneUp can clean up to 20 browsers – Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Microsoft Edge, and others. This tool also has a special “sleep mode” to stop draining the CPU for programs in which tasks can be scheduled later; the background programs will be automatically enabled at a convenient time.

It can also help to change a laptop’s working profile when you want to minimize battery use AVG also has an AVG driver updater to automatically update drivers to prevent crashes, better graphics, audio, browsing, etc., for 43.99$ per year for 1 Windows PC.

A lot of built-in features ensure privacy with Avira. Avira blocks tracking in Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and Opera. Privacy settings recommended by Avira secure your data from tracking and collecting personal information (more than 200 settings in one click can be optimized in one click). To increase the safety of your PC from your kids or other relatives, with Avira, you can set a password on protected areas that can be chosen from the list (configuration files, quarantine, etc.).

To delete safely, there is a File shredder; by dropping the file in this shredder, you may be sure that it is gone forever. Finally, Avira has a free browser extension – Safe Shopping, to compare prices and display the best deals on the market without scam sites and trackers (available only with Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera).

Avira has a recommended free Chrome add-on to secure surfing and protect privacy. It stops malicious and phishing websites, prevents tracking, and blocking ads, detects harmful software during downloading, and can find the best deals during shopping. In addition, it is fully customizable with individual features and is informative.

AVG includes powerful online protection for users from viruses and malware. It guards the computer against hacker attacks, secures your data safety, ensures the security of payment operations from banking accounts, and has spam and phishing protection of emails on visited websites and for emails. You can be safe even using public Wi-Fi; you will get an alert if it becomes insecure. If your email address is found by antivirus to be stolen, you will receive an alert, but dark web monitoring is not promising.

AVG checks links, stops redirection links to fake resources and websites for hidden malware, and removes unnecessary and potentially dangerous toolbars and extensions from the browser. The PC web camera is protected from hacking and ensures all applications send a request for permission to use it. The data shredder feature provided by AVG allows the totally delete files without the possibility of recovering.

For safe surfing, AVG has a free AVG Secure Browser that blocks ads, has HTTPS encryption, hides your digital fingerprint, and works perfectly with other paid AVG proposals faster than regular browsers.

Avira has a free extension Avira Password Manager for storing login credentials for all accounts with one master password. It can generate new solid passwords and synchronize them for all devices. Access to this vault can be set with two-factor authentication.

AVG has a built-in feature for protecting passwords from changing, deleting, and reading in your used browsers. Unfortunately, this protection is limited compared to significant competitors of AVG, especially Avira.

Avira proposes paid mobile protection services for iPhone, iPad, and Android. This application can be downloaded separately (Prime for 3.99$ per month) or inside the Prime Antivirus package. Mobile antivirus versions have almost all the features of PC devices – protection against malware, phishing, and spam, VPN service, smart scans for viruses and increasing performance speed, a password manager, identity protection with a check of email leakage in real-time, web protection for malicious websites and phishing attacks, and privacy manager.

Also, they have unique tools for mobile owners – anti-theft protection that secure the content on the stolen device, blockage of spam and scam calls, Wi-Fi network scanner, and photo cleaner to delete duplicate ones.

In addition, a mobile application will cover all vulnerabilities of installed applications and browsers. Android users also will get a tool for camera and microphone protection.

AVG includes paid version protection for mobile devices and a separate free mobile version for Android, iPhones, iPads, and tablets. It helps to stay safe online without viruses, malware, ransomware, and scams, visit websites without threats, lock personal data, and find lost devices.

There is also a function for scanning vulnerabilities on devices, including searching for infected or suspicious already installed malware and removing it quickly. The user can use VPN from AVG to change the actual address. All available Wi-Fi connections are checked quickly for weaknesses.

Some features are developed especially for mobile users – photo vault to protect photos from leakage; protection-sensitive application with two-factor authentication (Password, fingerprints); removal of junk files and free disc space for maximum performance (this feature is available meanwhile for PC users only with additional subscription).

Avira has a special mode for gamers that allows all applications to be muted and stopped to maximize CPU performance; for gaming applications, you will receive only antivirus alerts in case of dangerous attacks.

AVG doesn’t have a specific game mode, but it has a “do not disturb mode” to temporarily stop all notifications and pop-ups. At the same time, you are gaming, working, watching a video, or doing any other activity. Another solution to focus and maximize CPU performance only on one program is “silent mode” to postpone scans and updates, preventing slowing down and interruptions.

Avira has three versions – free and three paid plans (Pro, Internet Security, and Prime). The paid plans differ in the number of features included and supported devices. The free version includes limited real-time features for blocking online threats and repairing damaged files, such as safe shopping, bank, and surfing protections. The Pro version has advanced antivirus protection from malware.

Internet Security plan adds to these features a password manager with the protection of online accounts, automatic updater of programs and drivers, and fixing software bugs. Prime package has additionally advanced software optimizer tools, premium mobile applications, unlimited Phantom VPN subscription, and free access to new Avira products.

AVG has a free version and two paid premium plans (Internet Security and Ultimate) for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android users. The paid plans are determined by the number of devices you want to protect. The free version includes only basic protection from viruses, ransomware, and malware. The Internet Security package protects all types of viruses for devices, links, emails, and downloads, Wi-Fi, has an enhanced firewall, webcam protection, and protection for backing activities (features are not free). The ultimate version includes all features of the Internet Security plan plus Secure VPN, AntiTrack, and TuneUp.