The Good. Excellent protection for all devices: Avast scores well in the independent test labs, making it a safe choice to protect you from online threats.
Avast Mac Security 13.4 - Antivirus app with on-demand scanning. Download the latest. Will Avast Mac Security work good on macOS 10.13.4? See discussion.
Great, and free, protection for Android: Although we would not recommend Avast’s free solution for Windows, for Android it’s great. Exceptional user reviews: Avast has more than 5 million user reviews in the Google Play Store, giving it an average score of 9.1.
The Bad. Will slow down your MacBook: Avast did not do well on the tests for Mac, influencing the operating speed significantly.
Expensive: If you want the full protection for Windows, it comes at a price. There are better and more affordable options, such as. How We Test Using the is crucial. To know whether Avast Internet Security 2019 is for you, we have analyzed it in detail according to 6 categories. As all of them are important, but not equal, they each have a different impact on the final score. In the graph below you can see each category, and the impact it has on Avast’s final score.
If you don’t know what the categories mean, keep reading. We explain each in detail, tell you how Avast scored, and which data sources we have used. Protection from Malware 50% 50%. Impact on Performance 15% 15%. Devices & Features 10% 10%. User Reviews 10% 10%.
Value for Money 10% 10%. False Positives 5% 5%. What is a protection test?
The independent test labs, AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, analyze the best antivirus software several times per year. One of the categories they test, is called protection. In this test, the programs are subjected to a range of challenges that test their entire range of security features. These features can be divided into three segments: 1. Protection from known malware Known are malware that have been discovered before. When a cybersecurity discovers a malware threat, it uploads its digital signature to a huge online database for future use. You can imagine this digital signature as the fingerprint of a burglar.
It is unique to the malware, and can help the antivirus to easily recognize it. Just as the police would use the fingerprint to identify the burglar.
On your device, the antivirus frequently runs system checks. During such a check, it scans for digital signatures to see if there are any malware infections.
This method is the most straightforward of the 3 security segments. It is called signature-based detection, but also often called scanning. Protection from unknown malware More complex are unknown malware samples.
After all, these have never been seen before, so how to detect them? The signature-based method described above it useless against these new threats. Here, a different strategy comes into play.
The antivirus use something called heuristic file scanning. What this means, is that rather than searching for digital signatures, the antivirus search for suspicious behavior. Imagine suspicious behavior as anything a normal program wouldn’t do. For instance, rapid file replication across a network, file deletion, or the hiding of specific files. When an antivirus discovers such behavior, it flags the program executing it as potential malware.
It then moves the malware to a safe environment, called a sandbox, where it can securely analyze the program without it being able to cause damage. Protection from user-focused threats More an more cybercriminals target users directly these days. You have probably been targeted yourself. Common examples are: Ebay.
Imagine you are attempting to sell something on Ebay. Quickly someone, often from Nigeria, contacts you. He or she requests you to first send the product, after which you will receive payment. Just to check the quality of the product, he or she says. Of course, in reality, payment will never come. Imagine an email arrives in your inbox. It says “urgent, verification required”.
It seems to come from PayPal, and it requests you to verify your login details. In truth, however, the email comes from a cybercriminal attempting to trick you into handing over your login details. As these type of attacks are not classical malware threats, antivirus had to evolve their protection methods. These days, they include many advanced features such as anti-phishing, filters, wifi scanners, web advisors, and many more.
Avast 2019: Windows 10 protection score Avast scores a 9.4 in the protection tests for 10. This places it ahead of the industry average, including,. But it still falls behind and, who both have a perfect score.
Avast 2019: Mac protection score Avast, just like and, scores perfect. Avast 2019: Android protection score Avast scores excellently on as well.
Easily surpassing the industry average, and falling online slightly behind and, who achieved a perfect score. What is a performance test? To keep you safe, antivirus operate in the background of your PC or Mac, scanning your system at regular intervals. Although this requires some resources from your device, it is often not noticeable. However, in some cases, antivirus software require too many resources to do their job well. It can then have a severe negative speed impact. The independent test labs analyze the antivirus software for their speed impact on Windows and Mac.
Avast 2019: Windows 10 performance score Avast does fairly well on Windows 10, having only a limited performance impact. It still falls behind and though, which both require less resources to do their job.
Avast 2019: Mac performance score There is no way around saying it: Avast should not be used on MacBooks. The performance impact is simply too great. In both Mac tests by AV-Test since January 2017, Avast had a significant speed impact on Apple’s operating software. What is a supported devices test? We analyze the supported operating software and the security features offered on each. We also compare this to the other antivirus to see which offer the best protection per device.
A note on iOS: Not all antivirus create an antivirus app for iOS. Although it is true that iOS is a safer platform than Windows, Mac, and Android, users could still benefit from a security solution that offers them anti-theft, a VPN, a web advisor, and perhaps some parental controls. Avast 2019: Devices and features score Avast is a little different than most antivirus providers, as it offers its basic antivirus for free.
Outside of that difference though, it follows the same formula as the rest: Extensive security features for Windows, several for Android, a few for Mac, and almost none for iOS. For Windows 10, Avast’s free version offers its antivirus software, password manager, and wifi security advisor. The paid versions add anti-, anti-, a firewall, sandbox, file shredder, webcam protection, and a on top. Overall, the paid versions are definitely worth the upgrade from the free version.
Although we would opt for BitDefender as it offers better protection for Windows at a lower price. For Mac, Avast offers antivirus, wifi protection, and anti-phishing. All for free. Pay a bit extra, and it adds anti-ransomware on top.
It should be said though, that Avast has such a big speed penalty on Macbook’s that we don’t recommend using it here. For Android, its app is for free and a very complete security solution. It comes with antivirus, anti-theft, app-lock, VPN, and wifi speed check. It sadly didn’t have the same protection scores as Norton and BitDefender, but hey, it’s free For iOS, there is no antivirus available. However, Avast does offer its standalone VPN and password manager.
What is a user review test? User reviews play an important role when selecting a product. Sadly, however, they have also become a marketing tool. Used by many product manufacturers and comparison sites alike, to sell products. It is therefore important to select the sources of the user reviews well. In our test, we analyze the user reviews from TrustPilot and the Google Play Store. TrustPilot is the leading independent platform for verified user reviews.
And the Google Play Store being the gateway to apps on Android, simply has the largest amount of user reviews in the world. Avast 2019: User review score Avast has an incredible amount of positive user reviews. In the Google Play Store, it has over 5 million positive reviews, rating it with a 9.1. In TrustPilot, the average comes down a bit. Here around 2500 users rate Avast with a 7.4, which is still a decent score. What is a value for money test? We compare the protection, bonus features, and price, to the offering of the other antivirus software in the market.
Avast 2019: Value for money score Avast offers a few free products, of which the antivirus for Android is highly commendable. It is a very complete security solution with over 5 million user reviews in the Google Play Store. For Windows, it would be better to opt for the paid versions, as the free version is very basic. However, the paid versions are a fair bit more expensive than the competition by BitDefender, Panda, and BullGuard. For Mac, there isn’t really any value for money to speak of.
Avast for Mac has such a significant speed impact, it should simply not be used. What is a false positive test? When an antivirus program mistakes regular software for malware, this is called a false positive.
It is nothing to worry about, but can be annoying when it happens frequently. AV-Test and AV-Comparatives both measure the number of false positives the antivirus software have across the various operating software.
Avast 2019: Windows 10 false positives score Avast does well on Windows 10, scoring before,. Only slightly behind. Avast 2019: Mac false positives score Avast scores a perfect score for Mac, as did all the other tested antivirus. Avast 2019: Android false positives score Avast scored slightly ahead of the industry average, and just behind Norton and BitDefender, who both scored a perfect score.
Data sources we use Protection, performance, and false positives data: Protection, performance and false positives make up the core of any antivirus analysis. That’s why, together, they account for 70% of the total score.
The data comes from and, the two leading IT security test labs. The two European test labs set up several tests per year. For our analysis, we have included each test since January 2017.
This spans over 20 antivirus software, challenged in more than 30 tests. We found BitDefender, Norton, Panda, BullGuard, McAfee, and Avast, to be the best across all platforms.
User review data: Our user review data comes from and the. TrustPilot is one of the largest websites of its kind, having collected more than 45 million user reviews, covering over 200.000 companies. The Google Play Store is the place where Android users, the most used operating system for mobile phones in the world, get their apps.
It has an incredible amount of user reviews. For example, Norton and Avast combined have nearly 7 million reviews there. SoftwareLab.org is operated by Momento Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Disclaimer: SoftwareLab.org is not an antivirus, VPN or hosting service provider and does not endorse the use of the products featured on this website for unlawful means. It is the responsibility of the user to adhere to all applicable laws. We have no control over the third-party websites we link to and they are governed by their own terms and conditions.
SoftwareLab.org is supported by advertisement in order to be a free-to-use resource. We strive to keep the information accurate and up-to-date, but cannot guarantee that it is always the case.
Avast Mac Security offers three shields and on-demand scanning. Our Web Shield and Mail Shield combine to check the vast majority of incoming data from the Internet, while File Shield scans all programs stored and executed from your hard drive. Everything is packed in a brand new GUI. Features:. On-screen alerts. On-demand scanning. Web Shield, Mail Shield, File Shield.
Automatic virus definition updates Please note that Avast will not run properly if you have other antivirus software installed. What's New in Avast Mac Security. Avast Mac Security offers three shields and on-demand scanning. Our Web Shield and Mail Shield combine to check the vast majority of incoming data from the Internet, while File Shield scans all programs stored and executed from your hard drive. Everything is packed in a brand new GUI. Features:. On-screen alerts.
On-demand scanning. Web Shield, Mail Shield, File Shield. Automatic virus definition updates Please note that Avast will not run properly if you have other antivirus software installed.