Avira vs. Avast

I'm currently using Avast and I'm thinking of switching to Avira. My programs seem to 'lag' when I open them, as if there is a delay whilst they are being scanned ... even Norton wasn't that slow

How would you compare them? I'm interested in:

- Memory usage
- Scan speed (@ quick / full)
- Update frequency
- Virus detection rate
- Pop-ups
- Startup times
- User-friendly menus

I know this is about personal experience, but I was told to try Avast and I am not very impressed - especially with the overall skin (appearance)! I am hoping to hear nice things about Avira!

 

I am also interested in this. I am using Avira because i found Avast a little too intrusive. Though, if Avast is more powerful and is overall better by statistics i'd switch back.

 

Avira seems to be the best antivirus I have used. Besides the pop up, it is basically nonexistant and does not slow down my system at all. Avast was annoying, especially if you forgot to turn off the audio updates and it updated in middle of the night..thats a wake up call!

 

On Vista Ult 32bit using Avast Pro and all fine this side of town.
Still heard good report on Avira but never used it. I do manual updates.
As or the skin you can select Switch to Enhanced User Interface if you not happy with the default skin.

 

The free Version of Avira does much less than the free Version of Avast.

 

That is only available in the Pro version, the free home version does not have the enhanced user interface.

Personally I have never found Avast to cause any lags on any computer I have used it on.

 

I'd go for Avira.

 

If you don't provide any facts and details then your opinion is useless.

 

I haven't used Avira, but it does score better than Avast on these tests:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/index.html?http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/comparatives.html

 

I've instaled Avast and I'm not sure if it's just a massive coincidence, but my internet has become really slow and giving me bad lag problems. Does Avast somehow control the inbound / outbound traffic? I'm used to Norton that used to cause no such problems, but Avast does seem to have this "On-Access Protection" or resident protection, whatever you want to call it. What does that actually do and could it be interfering with my connection speed?

 

If your going to pay for an Anti-Virus, I'd go for Nod32 instead. Otherwise Avast better choice for free versions.

 

Hmmm... just going back to the 'On Access' or 'Resident' protection system with Avast ... there are shields such as Network, Web and Standard Shield. I'm noticing slower program loading and website loading - and when I look at the activity log for this resident protection system it seems to be scanning every single image on the website.

Now I'm really confused how Norton Internet Security 2007 could load programs and websites in a flash, even though it's meant to be such a resource hog, whereas Avast takes longer!?!

So should I leave this protection on? What do people think? Have they had any problems with it, such as slowing network connection down?

 

Personally Avast works without any lag at all for me on my machines which run 1GB or above. BTW .... What your specs? That could be part of the problem. I myself never ran Avast on anything under 1GB or below P4.

 

When i had avast installed (specs in sig) i noticed that my system was "lagging". Now that i have it uninstall-ed, my system is faster (back to normal).

 

I switched from Avast to Avira due to the 6 months free Premium version. I had no issues with Avast, and still run it on another two machines. I like the interface of Avira versus Avast. For programs/internet loading, I found no issues with either one. I think Avira is a bit better on resources, but Avast has better features comparing free vs free. (I don't belive Avira free scans email, which I think is a necessity)

 

Which other features are missing from Avira then? Avast surely has a smaller footprint than Norton though, so I must be better off compared to before!?

When I tried Avira, I simply couldn't update. It wouldn't seem to do anything when I clicked!

 

Having the same problem...just put Avira on my new Lenovo with vista and it wont update. I did a fresh OS and didnt put on norton but I dl'ed the tool to remove it anyway. I had Mcafee on here...not sure why it wont update.

 

I ran Avast on a P4 2.8 GHz with 512 mb RAM and Windows XP Pro for a couple years. Performance was ok... Avast did seem to slow things down slightly (compared to running with no AV software), but not all that much... I considered it tolerable.

What are your system specs, dannywanny?

 

I will admit to Avast slowing down boot up time a bit, but I can bare with 30sec of a unresponsive desktop right after boot. That's the only lag I have ever experienced from Avast.

 

Well i can't. I like how Antivir uses up barely any memory but it's working full time to protect me.

 

How many times are you booting up a day?

Besides the free version lacks some important key features that the free version of Avast already includes. I like to be fully protected. (Don't take that literally)

Maybe overall Avira is the better premium AV. But if I'm going to pay, then I would go Nod32 as it beats all.

 

Around once. Maybe a few more if i'm installing software to test. But for me, who doesn't need email scanning, web scanning, and such. And just want a powerful antivirus to catch viruses already on my system. Antivir does an awesome job.

 

- ATM Avira uses about 10 MB of Pagefile on my P4 2.8 ghz XP desktop (less than Avast)
- if you read the pdf description of the testing on av-comparatives.org, they have a scannning speed test. Avira is among the fastest, and can scan about 50Gb in about 30 min on my desktop
- Avira updates roughly once a day; Avast is probably more frequent
- Avira as an AV is more accurate than Avast as far as most testing. Avira free detects the same as Avira Premium, however Premium also detects spyware/other malware in addition, and in this miscellaneous category Avast would probably be better.
- Avira free has a popup whenever it updates or finds a threat but otherwise it doesn't popup
- Avira doesn't usually have a slow startup (same as or faster than Avast) and has less services than Avast to start at once, so is potentially faster
- well I find the UI easy to use

Both Avast and Avira are good free products, and you are probably fine if you just pick the one you prefer. Most people would choose Avast over Avira, but more testing shows Avira being more accurate than Avast. In the security business, a surprising amount is simply preference.

 

Thanks for the help guys.

Yes I did use the Norton Removal Tool and then I used CCleaner to remove some of the odd bits of registry (there were loooads!).

I have an Acer 5920G, 2GB RAM and 2GHz Core2 Duo. Boot times are still really fast. I think I'm getting along with it better now - doesn't seem to be as bad as previous few days, so maybe it was just my internet having a problem.

I have no idea why Avira wouldn't update though (also Vista).

 

avira. imo it has higher hits with scanning for a virus. avast didnt detect the recycler virus i had in one of my usbs. avira fixed that. mcafee fixed it too with my laptop. i highly suggest avira or mcafee.

 

what's about avira antivir update problem, is it really a problem?

 

I've never had a problem with it. I'm not sure how he got it.

 

Well the only "problem" that I can say about it is the pop up that comes up after every update. It takes up almost the entire screen on mine and tries to convince you to upgrade to the pro version. I must admit that some of the ads are quite funny lmao.

 

That sucks then, I hate nag screens. Like a Valley girl would say "That's so yesterday".

 

It's actually small on my system. But if you turn off auto-start then you won't get auto-update and the auto nag screen when it updates.

 

I just installed Avira for the 3rd time (downloaded it twice directly from them, and once from download.com), and it still wont update. It shows the cursor going in a circle but nothing happens. I installed this on my Dell with xp pro with no issues. My new laptop only has Lenovo software +office 2k7 on vista business...weird.

 

Weird indeed. If you don't even have a firewall like comod pro firewall then we can't blame it. This problem comes from somewhere though. Just try and think what would cause this.

 

I installed and used CC cleaner to no avail...very odd. Time to install AVG.

 

The only problem I have had is ads also with Avira. I dont need email scanning or web scanning, so that is a non issue for me too. It seems like Calvin and I probably have a very similar security setup.

 

No, get Avast instead. AVG doesn't do anything.

 

Done. I'll report back if I have any issues.

 

thanks for replies, so, i'm using Avast, frankly i don't like it's interface, also i don't need those diffrent scanners. i'm going ti install Avira.

 

Hope you like it.

 

If one pop-up a day means that the software stays free, that's fine with me. It's really not a big deal at all.

 

I agree. It's not a problem.

 

I pay $10 a year for Webroot anti-spyware.... i feel its better than other free anti-spyware & great GUI.... it has helped me under multi-trojan attacks & removed Trojan downloaders much effectively than any other Anti- Spyware SW

On the other hand Free AV's are good enough ... Norton hasnt been useful under Virus attacks..so i removed & kicked it out of my system..

 

I vote for Avira

 

Folks, i've just installed Avira, and i don't understand how to make update..
i click start update, but nothing happens.

 

The update window pops up after a little while and updates. What could go wrong?

 

but update window doesn't pop up in my variant.. virus def. file and serch engine are dated september 2007.

 

Check to make sure your firewall isn't blocking the program. Avira should have downloaded the latest updates when you installed it, which I don't think was in September.

Other than that, maybe a corrupted install? Try uninstalling and then reinstalling and see if everything works.

 

i have turned off all firewalls.. ok, i'll try unistalling then installing again.

 

didn't help.
but i downloaded AntiVir incremental VDF update (IVDF) (Unicode
http://www.avira.com/en/support/vdf_update.html
and updated manually.
also there is Beta-VDF and Beta-Engine, what is it?

P.S: during the installation of Avira i got the message to generate serial number, but i didn't get it. thus, i have problems with update cos of i didn't registered Avira?

 

Yeah, they have a lot of solutions to problems people experience on their forums.

 

thanks, i've searched their forum and found the solution:
http://forum.avira.com/thread.php?threadid=33168
http://www.avira.com/en/support/faq/details.html?id=213

it was caused by damned, fuc.... Norton.