Independent testing lab AV-Comparatives performed two more of their objective product studies recently: one on malware protection and the other on performance. We are pleased to report that Avast Free Antivirus withstood the trials and the scrutiny, and in each case we walked away with the highest accolade possible.

Malware protection test

The malware study pitted twenty leading brand security suites against more than twenty thousand malware samples, collected from real-world attacks as recent as August.

Also under scrutiny was each system’s detection ability, which is just as critical as its protection. According to the report: “Malware authors are constantly searching for new methods to bypass detection and security mechanisms.”

Avast Free Antivirus scored among the top grades, coming in with a 97.5% detection rate offline, a 99.3% detection rate online, and a 99.99% protection rate online, earning it AV-Comparatives’ highest achievement, the “Advanced+ Award.” As one of the few companies to submit the “Free” version rather than a paid version for testing, this means, even our Free version can compete with the “paid for” versions that our competitors submit.

Performance test

Antivirus software, while essential, does add more load to your CPU. But every brand impacts computer performance to different degrees, so you want to find one that keeps your computer safe while having minimum impact on performance speed.

The performance test graded the various brands as “slow,” “mediocre,” “fast,” or “very fast” while performing certain tasks with AV software running in the background.

Avast came in as “very fast” in tasks such as browsing websites, downloading files, launching apps, and more. AV-Comparatives again gave Avast Free Antivirus its “Advanced+ Award” for its ability to run its full security protection on a system while still allowing that system to function not just quickly, but “very fast.”

In addition to publishing the test results for consumers’ education, AV-Comparatives offers these tips to keep your system performance optimal:

• Keep all your software up-to-date.
• Clean up content on hard disks and make sure you have at least 20% of your disk space free.
• Defragment your hard disks regularly, unless you have a solid-state drive (SSD).
• Use fingerprinting, a feature that ensures already-scanned files are not rescanned for some time.
• Be patient – don’t sacrifice security in favor of faster performance.

We agree with all of these suggestions, particularly the last one. Instead of foregoing security to keep your system performing fast, just go with the faster-performance AV software! Download Avast Free Antivirus and experience the best of all worlds with next-gen cybersecurity.