Is avg antivirus any good

It would be nice if you could access each category directly from the large cards on the main screen, but overall, I found that installing and using AVG was a breeze. It also features a great community forum that lets you directly interact with other users to find answers and share notes on existing problems.

The support staff was well-trained and great at answering my questions, but I do wish basic users had some access to the same level of assistance. Even so, I was able to find answers to most of my questions, and all the support agents I spoke to were great at helping me solve my problems. These responses take a few days but usually include information that is helpful for resolving any outstanding issues.

Another thing I really liked about AVG is how fair their pricing is. If you also browse the web frequently and would like more protection, the Internet Security option may be a great deal, since it offers excellent tools to secure your online activities.

Otherwise, Internet Security likely represents the best value for most consumers. You can read more about our decision here. For a list of antivirus companies we do recommend, please see this list of the 10 best antiviruses of Sophie Anderson has spent the last 10 years working as a software engineer for some of the biggest tech companies in Silicon Valley. She now works as a cybersecurity consultant and tech journalist, helping everyday netizens understand how to stay safe and protected in an online world.

Professional Reviews. Affiliate Commissions. Reviews Guidelines. Ranked 61st from 67 antivirus companies. AVG Technologies Coupons. Security The first thing that impressed me about AVG is that the company is always at the top of the list when major labs test antivirus products. Read More. AVG Internet Security. Free Trial. Visit AVG Technologies. Was this article helpful? Please tell us what we can improve This field is required. About the Author Sophie Anderson Cybersecurity researcher and tech journalist.

About the Author Sophie Anderson has spent the last 10 years working as a software engineer for some of the biggest tech companies in Silicon Valley. Share this Review 0. Check the top 3 alternative antivirus programs 9. Show first. English Spanish Italian Russian Polish 9. French 8. Vietnamese 8. German 7. Arabic 6. Dutch 6. Danish 5. Hungarian 5. Bulgarian 4. Czech 4. To test AVG's malware-blocking abilities, I opened a folder containing my current collection of malware samples and tried to execute each one.

It eliminated most of those that did manage to launch before they could fully install. I tested Avast simultaneously and got precisely the same results. Tested against this same malware collection, Sophos and G Data earned 9.

When AVG detects a file that's completely unfamiliar, it prevents that file from launching and sends it to AVG headquarters for analysis. AVG displays a message stating that it has found a suspicious file and promises an evaluation within a few seconds. All my hand-coded testing utilities triggered this warning; all correctly got a clean bill of health. A ransomware sample that was marked as suspicious, on the other hand, wound up in quarantine.

Avast offers precisely the same protection for unknown and suspicious files. The samples we use for the malware blocking test stay the same for months. To check each product's ability to deal with the very latest malware, we start with a feed of malware-hosting URLs supplied by MRG-Effitas. We try to launch each URL, recording whether the antivirus blocked access to the URL, quarantined the malware download, or totally missed the boat. We test using URLs from the last few days, continuing until we have a large enough sample set.

Then we tally the results. Phishing websites don't need fancy coding tricks to infest visitors with malware. Rather than try to evade protection by the operating system and antivirus, they bamboozle the user into giving away secrets. Fraudsters simply create a convincing imitation of a sensitive site, perhaps a bank, or PayPal, and strew links to that fake site around the Web. Any user who logs in, not realizing it's a fraud, has just given away a secure account to the fraudsters. If a thousand smart web surfers spot the fraud and just one sad sack unknowingly logs in, that's a win for the bad guys.

And when the authorities put the kibosh on the fraudulent site, the fraudsters just pop up another one. We test antiphishing using the very newest phishing sites, making sure to include some that haven't yet been fully analyzed and blacklisted. We launch each probable phishing URL in four browsers. The product under test protects one of the browsers, naturally.

The other three rely on protection built into Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. As with my other hands-on tests, we challenged AVG and Avast at the same time. Any code monkey can write a phishing protection module that blocks site found on official blacklists. The best products use real-time analysis to identify frauds that are too new for the blacklists.

AVG clearly has this capability; the company touts its enhanced machine learning technologies. In testing, it proved quite effective. As in other tests, Avast scored just the same. While phishing is completely platform-agnostic, phishing protection can vary between Windows and macOS versions of the same product.

In this case, they fared just the same in testing. AVG is modest about its ransomware protection. You may never realize you have it unless you dig into settings…or suffer a ransomware attack.

This ransomware protection system simply bans all modification of protected files by untrusted programs. Out of the box, it runs in Smart mode, meaning that it ignores known and trusted programs. You can set it to Strict mode, meaning every modification of a protected file will require your permission, but why would you? By default, it protects archive, audio, database, disk, document, picture, and video files, though it warns that selecting all of them may impact performance.

I can report that this feature initially blocked my test utilities from creating log files on the desktop. I tried to edit a file from the Documents folder using a one-off editor that I wrote myself.

Initially, AVG flagged it as suspicious and put it through an initial scan, eventually deeming it harmless. When I tried to save a file, AVG prevented the change, asking me whether to allow or block access. I did find a window of vulnerability.

For testing, I created a simple fake encrypting ransomware program that runs at startup and reversibly encrypts all text files in the Documents folder. When I ran the same program after verifying AVG was fully loaded, ransomware protection detected and prevented the file modifications. But if it comes as a surprise, smack the button to block access, and then investigate the perpetrating program.

AVG's main window features a big Smart Scan button, with a floating tip that nags you until you run your first scan. Clicking the button checks for insecure browser add-ons, runs a fast look for active malware, and scans for what it calls advanced issues. On my standard clean test system, the scan finished in about five minutes.

It reported no malware or browser problems, but it did find some advanced issues. In previous editions, the advanced scan found performance issues like junk files but called for an upgrade if you wanted to fix the problems. Visit AVG.

Visit AVG to learn more about the features. AVG Antivirus is a safe choice for everyone. Purchased by Avast in , it uses the same engine. However, it spotted 20 false positives, which is on the higher end of the spectrum.

You can set it up by enabling the feature and setting up a PIN code. Select which account to allow to make remote changes. If you need, you can erase all data located on the phone from a distance or change the screen lock.

All of this is available for free users. You can set up automatic locking if the screen lock is entered incorrectly eight times. When the phone becomes locked, you can set up additional actions. One of the most interesting features is a secret camera mode that turns on when the phone is marked as lost. The phone sneakily takes a picture of whoever is holding it in its hand and uploads it to my.

You can then take this photo and go to the police station to identify the thief. This feature protects your most important files by controlling which applications have access to them. It means even if a hacker would find a way around other blocks put in place by AVG, he would still have no way to touch them. You can even perform an automatic scan that identifies your sensitive files , then the software marks them as highly personal.

After your confirmation, every single file is limited access to other apps. When an untrusted application tries to access marked files, you get a notification asking to block or allow access.

This paid-user exclusive feature uses machine learning to identify phishing sites. Many of these sites follow similar patterns and use common tactics like registering for similarly sounding domains. Although a typical user might be too inattentive to expect all of them carefully, AVG antivirus can do the heavy lifting for you. AVG will run a check for domain meta information, suspicious tokens, and even visual elements in a blink of an eye. Most of this scanning will happen while the page is loading.

Most importantly, this can be done before the AVG VirusLab team blacklists the site, so you can stay safe even if the phishing scam site is fairly recent. Webcam Protection is another premium feature that acts as a strict software block for your webcam.

With it, you can get much better control of what applications can access your webcam. Some of the processes can be done automatically. AVG File Reputation service scans what services are currently running. So, you have a valid confirmation that the app is safe to use and can get your camera permissions.

Since, on average, there is a relatively limited number of apps that you willingly share your webcam permissions. Although paid-only, this firewall could as well justify the price bump. You can select appropriate presets according to your desired usage or strictness.

This is really the whole ballgame—with insufficient protection, even free antivirus software is not worth it. So how good is AVG Antivirus at its job?