ZhengHe
02-12-2008, 10:33 PM
I wrote this little guide over a year ago and posted it at Hi-Tech Reviews. Since then very little has actually changed in the free Antivirus market, so I believe this is still relevant. It will stay quoted for now, but I will unquote it when it is updated. Feel free to use it as a reference.
This is a very fragmented Free Antivirus Review I wrote up a couple weeks back. For the moment I intend to included both my own virus detection test along with a full overview of all relevant characteristics in each program. Just take a look and feel free to leave any comments you wish.
Parameters:
In the interest of those readers and the forum administrators who would likely rather not read through an evaluation involving every single result from all 5 tests I will only be including the top 4 free and top 4 pay-for antivirus programs. Feel free to click on the link to any specific test if you'd like more information from it. Keep in mind these this is only considering antivirus programs as opposed to online scans. Where AVG and Avast free edition are not available I will use pro as a comparison in the section. Newest tests were used where available.
Mega Antivirus Test (http://www.overclockers.com/articles1260/): to start out with this antivirus test used 10,000+ virises, worms, ect... to test a full list of fully updated antivirus programs. The entire test was test was performed on the same platform; with the same setting several times by different people and I for one view it as highly accurate. Do keep in mind that this was performed a year ago though.
Top 4 Paid Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. Trend Micro PC-cillin 2005 - 10,084
2. McAfee VirusScan 10¹ - 10,026
3. Symantec Norton 2005 - 10,028
4. Kaspersky 4.5 - 9,996
*keep in mind that on this test Kaspersky online outperformed everything rated by a comfortable margin.
Top 4 Free Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. AntiVir Personal Edition Classic 6¹ - 10,086
2. Clamwin 0.86.2 - 9,917
3. Avast.Professional.Edition.v4.6.623 - 9,757
4. Grisoft AVG Pro.V7.0.143 - 9,507
Antivirus Programs Test (http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/default.asp?id=82): 147184 were used in this test along with a standard platform. All antivirus programs were upgraded to their most recent extent and tested both fully and heuristically. I found this test to appear highly accurate, especially after reading the more detailed documentation. Test was done with year.
Top 4 Paid Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. Kaspersky version 6.0.0.303 - 99.62%
2. Active Virus Shield by AOL version 6.0.0.299 - 99.62%
3. F-Secure 2006 version 6.12.90 - 96.86%
4. BitDefender Professional version 9 - 96.63%
Top 4 Free Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. BitDefender freeware version 8.0.202 - 95.57%
2. AntiVir Classic version 7.01.01.02 - 94.26%
3. Avast freeware version 4.7.871 - 87.46%
4. AVG freeware version 7.1.405 - 82.82%
*On this specific test F-Prot beta which is technically a freeware application would have come in third at 87.88% had it been considered, but since it was a test program as opposed to full freeware it was intentionally not included.
Antivirus Software Test (http://www.10ts.com/reviews/antivirus-test.htm): 9000 infected files. Each antivirus program was set to its tops setting. I’ve rated this test as moderately accurate, chiefly because of the lack of any other control descriptions. It was also performed over almost a week as opposed to all at the same time. This test was performed in 2004.
Top 4 Paid Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. McAfee Viruscan Enterprise 8 – 93.29%
2. Kaspersky Anti-virus Personal - 93.13%
3. Extendia AVK Pro 11 – 93.09%
4. F-Secure 2004 – 92.87%
Top 4 Free Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. Antivir Personal Edition – 92.96%
2. Bitdefender Free 7 – 92.55%
3. Clamwin – 90.11%
4. Avast Home Edition – 90.05%
Antivirus Comparative (http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2006_08.php): this specific test is actually illegal to post the direct results for, but just to sum them up there were no free antivirus programs tested, so that comparison is useless, but as for the paid versions Antivir still outperformed AVG and Avast. As for the actual test, it did not go into much depth, but based of some of the forum queries it would safe to say that this test was done under a fairly rigirous control scenario. I view this test as moderate to highly accurate, but incomplete.
Top Antivirus Software (http://pcworld.com/article/124475-1/article.html): Although PC World claims impartial and rigorous testing procedures any information to that effect is severely lacking. There’s also the fact that they are a corporate site with advertisers who are the same companies they wind up reviewing. They also didn’t list any statistics as to how many viruses each program caught. You have to question their impartiality. Thus, I found this test to be moderate to low as far as accuracy and it was a rather incomplete picture.
Top 4 Paid Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. Bitdefender 9 - 92
2. McAfee VirusScan - 87
3. Kaspersky - 85
4. F-Secure - 83
Top 4 Free Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. Antivir Classic Edition - 78
2. Avast Home Edition - 77
3. AVG Free Edition - 73
4. N/A
Conclusions:
Taking into account that this conclusion is based off the findings of only 5 tests (that includes numerous past versions of the same test) and the fact that these tests only take into account how well the software performs as opposed to how easy it is to use and various other factors a few common trends come into focus. First in terms of freeware antivirus software Antivir, and Clamwin when it appeared consistently outperformed the aforementioned Avast and AVG freeware programs. Second, as far as paid antivirus software, which took something of a sidenote, since otherwise there would be more tests to compare, the distribution was much more sporadic, though Kaspersky landed itself in the top 4 on several occasions. Third, as far as overall performance the the top paid antivirus programs consistently outperformed free alternatives, though often not by much at all.
This is a very fragmented Free Antivirus Review I wrote up a couple weeks back. For the moment I intend to included both my own virus detection test along with a full overview of all relevant characteristics in each program. Just take a look and feel free to leave any comments you wish.
Parameters:
In the interest of those readers and the forum administrators who would likely rather not read through an evaluation involving every single result from all 5 tests I will only be including the top 4 free and top 4 pay-for antivirus programs. Feel free to click on the link to any specific test if you'd like more information from it. Keep in mind these this is only considering antivirus programs as opposed to online scans. Where AVG and Avast free edition are not available I will use pro as a comparison in the section. Newest tests were used where available.
Mega Antivirus Test (http://www.overclockers.com/articles1260/): to start out with this antivirus test used 10,000+ virises, worms, ect... to test a full list of fully updated antivirus programs. The entire test was test was performed on the same platform; with the same setting several times by different people and I for one view it as highly accurate. Do keep in mind that this was performed a year ago though.
Top 4 Paid Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. Trend Micro PC-cillin 2005 - 10,084
2. McAfee VirusScan 10¹ - 10,026
3. Symantec Norton 2005 - 10,028
4. Kaspersky 4.5 - 9,996
*keep in mind that on this test Kaspersky online outperformed everything rated by a comfortable margin.
Top 4 Free Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. AntiVir Personal Edition Classic 6¹ - 10,086
2. Clamwin 0.86.2 - 9,917
3. Avast.Professional.Edition.v4.6.623 - 9,757
4. Grisoft AVG Pro.V7.0.143 - 9,507
Antivirus Programs Test (http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/default.asp?id=82): 147184 were used in this test along with a standard platform. All antivirus programs were upgraded to their most recent extent and tested both fully and heuristically. I found this test to appear highly accurate, especially after reading the more detailed documentation. Test was done with year.
Top 4 Paid Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. Kaspersky version 6.0.0.303 - 99.62%
2. Active Virus Shield by AOL version 6.0.0.299 - 99.62%
3. F-Secure 2006 version 6.12.90 - 96.86%
4. BitDefender Professional version 9 - 96.63%
Top 4 Free Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. BitDefender freeware version 8.0.202 - 95.57%
2. AntiVir Classic version 7.01.01.02 - 94.26%
3. Avast freeware version 4.7.871 - 87.46%
4. AVG freeware version 7.1.405 - 82.82%
*On this specific test F-Prot beta which is technically a freeware application would have come in third at 87.88% had it been considered, but since it was a test program as opposed to full freeware it was intentionally not included.
Antivirus Software Test (http://www.10ts.com/reviews/antivirus-test.htm): 9000 infected files. Each antivirus program was set to its tops setting. I’ve rated this test as moderately accurate, chiefly because of the lack of any other control descriptions. It was also performed over almost a week as opposed to all at the same time. This test was performed in 2004.
Top 4 Paid Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. McAfee Viruscan Enterprise 8 – 93.29%
2. Kaspersky Anti-virus Personal - 93.13%
3. Extendia AVK Pro 11 – 93.09%
4. F-Secure 2004 – 92.87%
Top 4 Free Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. Antivir Personal Edition – 92.96%
2. Bitdefender Free 7 – 92.55%
3. Clamwin – 90.11%
4. Avast Home Edition – 90.05%
Antivirus Comparative (http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2006_08.php): this specific test is actually illegal to post the direct results for, but just to sum them up there were no free antivirus programs tested, so that comparison is useless, but as for the paid versions Antivir still outperformed AVG and Avast. As for the actual test, it did not go into much depth, but based of some of the forum queries it would safe to say that this test was done under a fairly rigirous control scenario. I view this test as moderate to highly accurate, but incomplete.
Top Antivirus Software (http://pcworld.com/article/124475-1/article.html): Although PC World claims impartial and rigorous testing procedures any information to that effect is severely lacking. There’s also the fact that they are a corporate site with advertisers who are the same companies they wind up reviewing. They also didn’t list any statistics as to how many viruses each program caught. You have to question their impartiality. Thus, I found this test to be moderate to low as far as accuracy and it was a rather incomplete picture.
Top 4 Paid Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. Bitdefender 9 - 92
2. McAfee VirusScan - 87
3. Kaspersky - 85
4. F-Secure - 83
Top 4 Free Antivirus Programs According to Test:
-rated are viruses found. Higher is better
1. Antivir Classic Edition - 78
2. Avast Home Edition - 77
3. AVG Free Edition - 73
4. N/A
Conclusions:
Taking into account that this conclusion is based off the findings of only 5 tests (that includes numerous past versions of the same test) and the fact that these tests only take into account how well the software performs as opposed to how easy it is to use and various other factors a few common trends come into focus. First in terms of freeware antivirus software Antivir, and Clamwin when it appeared consistently outperformed the aforementioned Avast and AVG freeware programs. Second, as far as paid antivirus software, which took something of a sidenote, since otherwise there would be more tests to compare, the distribution was much more sporadic, though Kaspersky landed itself in the top 4 on several occasions. Third, as far as overall performance the the top paid antivirus programs consistently outperformed free alternatives, though often not by much at all.