Avast Antivirus is a popular name in the field of security solution providers. From the past few decades, it has established itself as a trusted antivirus solution because of its advanced features list.
It is equipped with features like Cloud CyberCapture Technology, Web Protection, Behavioral Analysis, WiFi Inspector, and Password Manager, which makes it a complete security solution to fight against the malware programs. It also provides additional help like secured internet payments and protection against encryption viruses, without much bothering the system. But the recent reviews from the users does not match with the reputation the Avast has created for itself.
Let us find out the reason for that.
How is Avast Free Security?
As already mentioned, Avast has a wide range of security features that provides your system with a total safeguard against the threats.
Its free version provides a lot of functionality as compared to what its competitors offer. Instead of just catching the malware on your system, the free version of Avast is also capable of detecting the outdated software, malicious add-ons, password strength, network issue, and more. I don’t remember any other security solution providing such features in their free version.
It is also capable of detecting the code injection attacks, by which malware programs propagate themselves. Avast can prevent most of the malicious programs from getting installed on your system.
Through its behavioral detection, Avast can detect the execution of the malware and quickly acts against it. You can also scan any individual file for malware if you think Avast has missed it. Right-click on any file or folder which you believe are malicious and perform individual scanning.
Avast is also capable of detecting the malware distributing sites. If you attempt to download anything from those sites, Avast will interfere and warn you before the download begins.
What Paid Version provides extra?
While Avast’s free version covers almost all the essential features, its paid version adds some more features for the advanced users. There is a tool that cleans your system’s hard drive. If you want to get rid of any sensitive file or folder, Avast offers a secure erase function that can delete the data and also remove all the traces to get it back. The paid version also comes with a VPN service.
Another advantage of the paid version is the protection against phishing websites. Phishing web pages developers create the duplicate of the social media login or banking login page to capture the username and password of the user. Clearly, they are far more dangerous than the malware sites, so, for the protection against them, you can get the premium Avast antivirus program.
As you can see, Avast does not offer much in its paid version. File cleaning tools like CCleaner and others can clean the system for free. There are many free VPN providers too. So, all in all, Avast’s paid version is not worthy of its cost.
Pros and Cons of Avast Antivirus 2020
Pros
- Adequate safeguard against most malware programs
- WiFi network scanning feature.
- Game Mode suspends the notifications while you are in any game.
- The free password manager in the free package.
- It is lightweight and does not slow down the system significantly.
- A lot of advance features in the free version as compared to other security solutions.
Cons
- It does not provide a firewall in the free version.
- If you connect an external drive to the system, it does not automatically scan it.
- The boot scanning is quite slow.
What is the latest Controversy regarding Avast?
A few days back, Chrome and Firefox removed the Avast’s web extensions from their web stores. It raises a lot of speculations, and it was revealed that Avast is spying and selling the highly sensitive browsing data of its users to the corporates like Google, Microsoft, and Pepsi through its child company Jumpshot. It was investigated and reported by PCMag and Motherboard. According to them, Avast’s extension captures the mouse movements and clicks of a user across the web. It also records the web browsing data like the website visits, the Linkedin page visits, the Google or Bing searches, YouTube videos watched, and even the porn site visits.
However, when the controversy erupted, Avast released a statement and immediately shut down the Jumpshot.
Bottom Line
Avast Antivirus provides a lot of advanced features in its free version. However, it was later revealed that those features were of a cost, and the price was your privacy. Such an unethical practice was not expected from such a reputed brand. Avast has 435 million active users per month. All of them felt being betrayed. And that is the reason, despite having a lot of amazing features, the reviews of Avast have declined rapidly. It is slowly losing all its credibility.
So it is recommended not to go for Avast if you care for your privacy. There are many great alternatives available that you can choose.
