AVG, Norton Antivirus, Trend Micro: Which is the Best?
Frequently we have people ask which antivirus software is best to protect their computers. Well, as you can read elsewhere in our Free Advice area (such as here), we highly recommend Norton Antivirus. This article details why we have such high regard for it.
Every week, we have clients bringing in their machines who say, "The computer acts like it's infected but I have [some random antivirus package] installed, so why didn't it protect me?" The only answer is that not all antivirus solutions are created equal. The following chart bears out this fact quite plainly. For ease of comparison, I have highlighted in bold red the results that show 1500 or more missed infections.
| AVG | Avast | McAfee | Sophos | TM | None |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1415 | 3000 | 64 | 530 | 1380 | 649 |
| 3539 | 870 | 831 | 1502 | 188 | |
| 4101 | 77 | 278 | 562 | 1927 | |
| 3395 | 387 | 2781 | 201 | ||
| 339 | 333 | 240 | |||
| 831 | 36 | 1444 | |||
| 1874 | 39 | 1046 | |||
| 119 | 469 | 50 | |||
| 1002 | 189 | ||||
| 77 | |||||
| 406 | |||||
| 334 | |||||
| 318 | |||||
| 360 | |||||
| 1145 | |||||
| 1256 |
Now, to give our opinions on each of the software packages. AVG and Avast, as you can see, clearly are the worst of the lot, especially considering the fact that AVG has four highlighted results whereas everyone else has only one. They miss so many infections that we are not sure that anyone could actually consider them of any use despite what the radio show hosts, online review sites, magazines, and so many others seem to say. Further, since they are so far above other antivirus software misses, it does tend to make one wonder if they are actually only removing infections. After all, the software in both cases is free, so how do they obtain the money and expertise to find and remove new infections and improve their programs? An easy but unscrupulous way which others have done in the past is actually use their program to remove "unauthorized" infections and either leave alone or intentionally install other infections that have been sanctioned by the software publisher. We cannot say whether AVG or Avast do this and do not wish anyone to infer that we are implying they do. This is only a question that is raised in our minds given the statistics above.
McAfee was once the big name in antivirus software, albeit about 15 years ago. After McAfee Associates merged with Network General and became Network Associates, it seemed that they lost their way and their software quality degraded quickly. Since that time, they have played catch-up but have not yet regained their formerly high status. While McAfee is better than the two biggest losers, it is not strong enough for us to feel confident in recommending it to our clients.
Sophos is a relatively small company about which most people have never heard. However, they do have big clients, such as the University of Kansas. KU uses their product on ResNet, the network for the dorms, Greek houses, etc. Most who live on campus are able to obtain cheap or sometimes even free service from KU, so it is not often that we see a machine with Sophos. However, while we still prefer Norton Antivirus, Sophos is a good second choice. Over the years, the number of infections missed has been relatively small with the above statistic of 530 missed infections being the highest we have ever seen from a Sophos-protected machine. The only concern that we have with Sophos is the removal procedure. Even though the software states that it is fully removed, there are often still a few remnants that must be manually removed. While BDC is a proud reseller of Sophos products, we hope that Sophos improves their removal tool.
Trend Micro (abbreviated TM in the above chart) is a newcomer to the scene, at least here locally. A couple of stores are pushing it hard and, as such, we are starting to see their results. It seems that Trend Micro is quite a bit better than McAfee but still leaves much room for improvement. As the statistics we have are so few (this being the first year that we have seen the software), we shall not yet pass judgement but will say only that we are not impressed so far. However, given the choices of Norton Antivirus and Sophos, we cannot see why one would want to consider this package.
Now oddly enough, those machines which had no antivirus software on them when we were asked to clean them actually scored better than machines supposedly protected by AVG, Avast, or McAfee. Trend Micro was only marginally better than having no protection at all (and, thus, part of the reason that we are keeping our eyes on them with a hope that they will improve). In this day, we do wonder why anyone would want to run without antivirus software but there are still a few who choose to operate without the "inconvenience" or "expense" of a good antivirus, so we will keep on cleaning them up and making our clients happy.
I can already hear some people saying, "Oh, what about Panda or Avira Antivir or..." All we can say is that we have had such little experience with other packages that they did not make the editorial cut for being included in this review. We wished to present the information that was collected in sufficient quantity to justify our reasons for our recommendations. In fact, in the past we have had only one experience with Panda (Panda Platinum specifically) and found it to be such a mess that the only way to fix the client's machine was to reformat. Avira, on the other hand, was a software package that we used to recommend for those who were averse to Norton Antivirus or who could not run Norton due to having too old an operating system. However, we have found other better choices, so we now rarely see a need for Avira. If you have an antivirus package that you wish us to consider, then let us know. Email us at jbevan@bdcusa.com and tell us about your preferred software.