The Best Free Antivirus You Need Today
When it comes to enterprise security, it is necessary to safeguard your office network and devices with the most sophisticated anti-virus applications possible. However, it isn’t necessary to make the same type of investment for personal computers, as there are many anti-virus applications available that work well, and are completely free to use. These anti-virus applications may not be suited for the type of attacks that enterprise networks have to defend themselves against, but they are more than enough to ward off the type of viruses and attacks that affect personal computers.
Most Personal-Use Antivirus applications are free
The availability of free anti-virus software has increased in the past decade. Those of us who have been using and maintaining computers for decades will remember the anti-virus suites that were available for personal computers a decade or two ago. The applications weren’t just expensive; they were also a major resource-hog. The anti-virus applications took a long time to install and made the computers slower.
A new business model
The anti-virus applications of today are more sophisticated, less resource-intensive, and deliver more features without charging anything. A major reason for the availability of anti-virus applications without any cost is a new business model that has become common. Almost all the anti-virus applications we will list also have enterprise editions available for sale. The free anti-virus applications are given for free for personal use, with the hopes that satisfied customers will then purchase enterprise editions of the applications for use in their offices.
Ranking the 3 best free anti-virus software available
When assessing the different applications available we took note of how effective they were at catching harmful files and attacks, how resource intensive they were, and how much of an impact they had on system processing during scans. This allowed us to come up with the three best among the many applications available.
Avira
Avira is very easy to install and use, has a great interface, does not cause undue stress on your processor, and it has an excellent rate of virus detection. It has everything that a user will need to protect their personal computers. There are many add-ons available for Avira as well, that further increase the options and features of the application.
Sophos Home
Sophos Home is a relatively new entrant in the anti-virus market, but it has an impressive set of features. The one thing which immediately differentiates Sophos Home from other anti-virus applications is that it allows you to manage other computers on your network. This comes very handy if you have other people in your home with their own devices, and you want to ensure that their computers are protected, without requiring them to be tech-savvy enough to do it on their own.
Bitdefender
Bitdefender’s free home version was mediocre for a long time, but that is not the case anymore. They have completely overhauled their scanning engine recently, and the upgrades are easily noticeable. Bitdefender is one of the least resource intensive applications we have seen. Its scanning times are significantly lower than the competition.
The Difference between Home Security and Enterprise Security
All three of these applications will serve you well for home use. We wanted to highlight one big difference in enterprise security and home computer security when it comes to these applications. One thing which enterprises need is immediate action and support. That is where these anti-viruses will fail you. If there is a problem specific to your computer or system, or if you need some professional help in combating a virus, the enterprise editions will allow you to access help from their support staff immediately. If you use the home versions, you may have to spend a lot of time searching for solutions on line, something which is not viable for business users.
