Avast Antivirus 2020: A Review of Products from Free to Ultimate

Overview

Avast is one of our top picks for best antivirus software. It has many useful features for securing your identity across a variety of plans, but it has some concerning customer service reviews.

Our favorite Avast product is Avast Free Antivirus. But your personal needs could make one of the paid plans a better choice for you.

Avast software has five antivirus plans that offer virus protection, malware protection, and a few additional features.

(You won’t see the Avast Pro Antivirus plan on the Avast site table, but it’s still available. Below, we’ve combined the information with the table from the website to make comparison easier for you.)

Avast’s prices are comparable to other antivirus brands.

Avast plan prices:

• $0.00
• $49.99
• $59.99
• $69.99
• $119.99

Bitdefender plan prices:

• $0.00
• $39.99
• $89.99*

Kaspersky plan prices:

• $0.00
• $79.99*
• $99.99*

*New customer pricing for the first year may be up to 50% lower for this plan.

Avast has the greatest variety of plans and price ranges. If you’re looking to scale up or down depending on your needs and financial circumstances, Avast is the best choice. If you want something more robust than the free plan, having all those extra plans gives you more options and lets you be pickier in finding a comfortable monthly price. In contrast, with Kaspersky, if you want something better than the free version, the lowest you can pay is $79.99 a year.

Also, Avast’s pricing is consistent. What you see is what you get. Bitdefender and Kaspersky both offer first-year discounts, but prices increase dramatically in the second year of service. In the long run, Avast pricing is better.

All Avast plans come with the standards of antivirus software, like virus detection and malware protection. They also detect and guard against ransomware (though you’ll get better ransomware protection through the paid plans than Avast Free Antivirus). However, there are also many special features not included with every antivirus software.

• Bank mode—prevents hackers from seeing what you type
• Stealth mode—keeps your browser history from being stored and offloads cookies or web caches from each session
• https encryption—forces sites to encrypt data being sent to and from your device

If there’s a weakness in the network you’re using, whether it’s your home network or a public network, Avast’s Wi-Fi weakness detection will find it and offer help in fixing it. You’ll be less vulnerable to anyone trying to gain access to your network or device.

Data Shredder removes deleted data permanently by overwriting it. If there’s something you’d like to erase from a device, say last year’s tax info, Data Shredder is the perfect tool. It’s especially useful if you tend to resell your devices after use.

Only one of Avast’s top competitors offers a similar tool (Bitdefender’s File Shredder), so if you want this feature, Avast is a leading option.

Avast’s VPN service hides your online activity and keeps your device secure even on public networks. It also boasts speedy connections, content block work-arounds, and safe streaming. Avast Secureline reviews indicate that users find this to be an overall solid VPN.

Secureline VPN is part of the Ultimate plan package, but if you don’t want the Ultimate plan, you can add the VPN to any Avast purchase.

While the reviews on Avast product functionality are generally good, the reviews for interactions with Avast customer service representatives are generally negative.

These reviews indicate that the customer support can be dicey. Both customer complaints and the brand’s responses highlight a couple issues:

• Avast customer services representatives are hard to reach through either phone or email. They seem to be easier to reach through the official support forum.
• Avast outsources some of its customer service functions to partner companies, some of which don’t give the best service.

Avast offers one- and two-year terms of service, paid up front. Service terms are automatically renewed unless you opt out, which is the easiest and most guaranteed way to cancel.

If you sign up for a plan and decide it’s not for you, you can get a refund in the first 30 days through the Avast website.

So how does Avast stack up against our favorite antivirus brands?

When it comes to free offerings, Avast Free Antivirus has the most innovative features, like Avast Secure Browser and the password manager. Kaspersky Free has no such features. However, Bitdefender Antivirus Free has some features you can’t get free with Avast.

Avast Free Antivirus is a great free option, but whether you choose it may depend on how much you need a secure browser, software updater, or password manager.

Data effective 05/03/2019. Offers subject to change.

In terms of least expensive paid plans, Avast Pro Antivirus falls short next to Bitdefender Antivirus Plus—especially since Avast Pro Antivirus is $10 more a year.

Kaspersky Internet Security lacks most of Avast Pro Antivirus’s features and is far more expensive ($79.99) after the first year.

Data effective 05/03/2019. Offers subject to change.

Avast is a competitive option in virus and other malware protection with the best variety in pricing and feature options.

Avast’s plans have a lot of great features, some of which come at lower prices than in competitor plans. We especially recommend Avast Free Antivirus as a leading free antivirus software. If you’re looking for special functionality beyond a secure browser, software updater, and password manager, you can select from one of the paid plans depending on your needs.

One caveat: we’re concerned by the customer service problems highlighted in user reviews. If you choose Avast software, be extra diligent in making sure you’re using the official customer service number (1-844-340-9251) and be ready to champion your case as needed.

If Avast sounds like a good fit for you, try it out.