Score Breakdown
Performance 8/10Security 7/10Customer Support 5/10Usability 8/10Value 7/10Features 8/10
Pros
- Free version available
- Performance-improving tools such as the Software Updater for Windows and Junk Cleaner for MacOS
- Fast, efficient antivirus scans
Cons
- No identity theft features and minimal dark web protection for users outside of Germany
- VPN majorly reduces internet speeds, even when set to fastest server
- Privacy policies leave lots of room for abuse of your data
- Customer service is inconsistent
Avira is a cybersecurity company known for its freemium antivirus softeware and safe browsing tools. Its consistently high performance in third-party testing has earned it places on both our best antivirus software and best free antivirus software lists. But how good is it really?
I tested Avira’s Prime license for usability and performance, focusing not just on how Avira’s programs work, but how well they run alongside other common software. I also analyzed Avira’s third-party lab test results for security, evaluated the company’s privacy policies and spoke to its customer service team about Avira’s security protocols. I found that while the antivirus and performance tools were efficient, Avira’s VPN, privacy policies and customer service were disappointing.
Avira antivirus features
Avira’s core antivirus software offers real-time protection, manual scanning and scheduled scans for Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android. The Smart Scan feature also identifies potential security problems with your operating system and programs that need to be updated. However, the software updater and some other performance-enhancing features only work on Windows devices.
Avira offers several other features that are limited to one operating system. The firewall, web protection and email protection tools are Windows-only features, while the Junk Cleaner only works with MacOS.
Other Avira tools include a VPN compatible with all major operating systems, a password manager and a safe browsing extension that works with Chrome and Firefox. You can also use Avira to set up alerts when your accounts are compromised. However, identity theft protection isn’t available for folks outside of Germany, and dark web monitoring is limited to one email address for international users outside of Germany.
Overall features score
With all this considered, I give Avira an 8/10 features ranking. That’s worse than top-ranking antivirus tools like Bitdefender and McAfee, but somewhat better than similarly priced AVG.
Avira antivirus plans and pricing
| Plan | Features | Who it’s best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avira Free | Antivirus, some device optimization tools, browser safety extension, password manager, VPN with 500MB bandwidth; protection for one device | Folks who want more robust security tools than Microsoft Defender but don’t have the budget for paid software | Free |
| Avira Internet Security | Software updater, advanced device optimization tools, unlimited VPN bandwidth, anti-tracking and ad-blocking features for the browser extension, safe browser; device number varies | Folks who want more advanced device optimization tools or more advanced browser security | Starts at $35 for the first year ($71 per year after) for the first device, three- and five-device plans cost more |
| Avira Prime | Account alerts when your data is compromised, additional device optimization tools, price comparison extension for popular browsers; device number varies | Folks who want more robust personal protection and device optimization | $60 for the first year ($110 per year after) for five devices, 25-device plan costs more |
There are three levels of Avira: Avira Free Security, Avira Internet Security and Avira Prime. The first tier, Avira Free Security, includes the core antivirus, device performance optimization tools, a VPN with 500MB of monthly bandwidth and a password manager. You can also download the Avira browser safety extension for free.
Avira Internet Security features more advanced performance optimization tools, including a software updater and unlimited VPN bandwidth. It also unlocks the anti-tracking and ad-blocking features of the Avira browser safety extension. This tier starts at $35 a year for a single device and $71 a year after. There are also Avira Internet Security plans for three and five devices, respectively priced at $84 a year and $97 a year.
Avira Prime’s main benefit is account alerts, which tell you if a site you have an account on is infected with malware or otherwise compromised. Avira Prime also includes a PC Cleaner, Junk Cleaner for MacOS, Cookies Cleaner for MacOS and a price comparison extension for popular browsers. Avira Prime’s lowest-cost plan covers five devices and costs $60 for the first year, renewing at $110 a year. You can also get a 25-device plan for $135 a year. This is notable since most antivirus software plans cap out at five or 10 devices.
Avira doesn’t offer family plans at any level. If you want antivirus protection for multiple people, consider choosing Bitdefender or McAfee.
Avira antivirus usability
I signed up for Avira Prime and analyzed the account dashboard to see how intuitive it is for the average person to navigate. I also installed and explored all of Avira’s programs to assess their usability. My experience was largely positive, though I had some concerns about linking issues and secondary software installed without my permission.
Account management
After activating my Avira plan, I logged into the account dashboard, where I found prominent links for installing the antivirus software and activating dark web monitoring. There are also clear links to the account and customer support areas, which aren’t always easy to find in other antivirus account dashboards.
The sidebar is also straightforward, with quick links to your devices, products (other software you can download), password manager and identity assistant. A slider at the bottom lets you switch the website to dark mode, a great feature for people with light sensitivity (or who, like me, just prefer the aesthetics of dark mode).
Installation and setup
Avira’s installation process starts with choosing your operating system, which I expected. You’ll then have to choose a license, which seems odd since most users will only have one license, but it only takes one more click, so it’s not a big deal.
From there, you can download the installer and unpack Avira on your computer within a couple of minutes. Avira then directs you to run your first smart scan, which looks at security settings, performance and viruses right away.
Overall, the setup process is very similar to setting up other antivirus software tools. The only disappointment is that scan scheduling isn’t readily visible when you open the software. You’ll have to go to the settings to find it, but this is true for many popular antivirus software tools, including Bitdefender and McAfee.
Avira’s Android app was also easy to install and start using. The scan scheduling feature was somewhat easier to find, located within the Smart Scan — Configure Scan Settingssection.
Additional tools
With the core software installed, I moved on to setting up the additional tools, starting with the browser extension. I was initially thrown off by the link in the software, which sent me to the Chrome extension page even though my default browser is Firefox. I ended up Googling the extension rather than trying to find it in the Avira account dashboard.
The setup itself was straightforward. The ad-blocking and anti-tracking tools are automatically enabled, and there are only two settings to manually enable: a price comparison tool and data reports that send Avira information it can use to improve the extension. The price comparison tool is an odd thing to include in a cybersecurity tool, but I don’t see any harm in it. What I really appreciate is the information sharing option. Most companies just assume they can gather product improvement data and do so by default, so Avira asking for permission stands out.
I also tested the safe browser tool, which you can install from Avira’s Privacy section. It took a full five minutes to install, longer than other safe browsers like Norton’s. Once opened, it was pretty much the same as any browser, with the most obvious difference being the use of Avira’s safe search rather than Google. The browser also includes a security center where you can enable security features like the Web Shield, an AI-powered malware and phishing detection tool.
A password manager is built into the Avira safe browser and can be added to other browsers like Chrome and Firefox. The website is easy to navigate, with prominent links to download the extension, add individual passwords or import passwords.
You can access the dark web monitoring through Avira’s website. Tracking for your email address is automatically enabled. I couldn’t find tools for adding other trackable information, like your address or phone number, so I reached out to customer support, who informed me that most Avira subscriptions only provide dark web monitoring for email addresses. Moreover, the subscription it’s connected to — Avira’s Identity Assistant service — is only available in Germany, and the agent wasn’t able to confirm when it would become available internationally.
I found most of Avira’s other tools easily. The VPN is built right into the Privacy section of the software, and it’s simple to toggle on and off or change the server location. The driver updater and optimizer are easy to find in the Performance section.
Accessing the Startup Optimization feature opened System Speedup Pro, an entirely different Avira program. While I understand the desire to separate the program dashboards instead of overcomplicating the core antivirus software, I disliked having a secondary program I didn’t ask for — or give permissions to — installed on my computer alongside the antivirus software. That said, I did appreciate how intuitive the System Speedup Pro dashboard is, allowing me to quickly move between various optimization tools.
Overall usability score
Avira’s tools are fairly straightforward, even for beginners. Apart from the issue of scan scheduling being hidden, most of the issues I encountered — like the browser extension link leading me to the wrong place and the surprise secondary program — were minor and not connected to the core antivirus software.
However, adding more information to the dark web monitoring proved significantly more difficult, so I can only give Avira a usability ranking of 8/10.
Avira antivirus performance
I spent three days running Avira in the background while I performed various tasks on my computer. I also ran several active scans to determine their speed and the percentage of my computer’s resources they used. Finally, I tested Avira’s internet safety tools, like the browser extension and VPN, to see how they affected my online experience.
Note: I conducted these tests on a Lenovo ThinkPad with an Intel i5 processor. Your own experience may vary, especially if you’re working on an older machine.
Background performance
I ran Avira for three days while performing a variety of simple tasks, like browsing the web (with three to five tabs open at all times) and editing images. Avira had no discernible impact on these activities, and Task Manager showed it used just 0.2% to 0.5% of my CPU’s processing power. Furthermore, Avira used no disk space when running in the background, suggesting that it wouldn’t have interfered with more resource-heavy tasks like video editing or gaming.
Active scan performance
I ran three smart scans over my three days of testing, watching Task Manager while they worked to determine Avira’s resource usage. Each scan used between 1% and 2% of CPU power and no disk space, making them only slightly more resource-intensive than Avira’s background operation. All three scans were completed in three minutes, and when I chose to resolve the issues found, the fixes only took an additional two minutes.
I had similarly pleasant results running three full scans, which used between 1% and 3% of my CPU’s processing power and no disk space. These scans took a bit longer than the smart scans — between five and eight minutes — but still ran faster than similar scans performed by top tools like McAfee and Bitdefender.
Finally, I ran three quick scans. True to their name, these scans took less than one minute each and managed to stay within the same 1% to 3% CPU usage range. This shows that, no matter what type of scan you’re running, Avira is a highly efficient antivirus software that won’t interfere with your regular computer activities.
Additional tools performance
With the antivirus scans complete, I moved on to testing Avira’s performance tools, starting with the driver updater. The driver scan took about a minute and used similar resources to the antivirus scan. It didn’t find any drivers to optimize, which makes sense since I ran these tests only a few days after running similar tests on the AVG software updater. The Optimizer had similar speed and resource usage and found a couple of small optimizations, which it conducted in around two minutes.
Next, I tested the Advancedtools, which opened the System Speedup Pro dashboard. Again, this scan used minimal processing power and took roughly one minute, and it found several programs I could set to launch after startup. Telling these programs to boot up later only reduced my computer’s startup time by a few seconds, but I could see this making a more significant impact on a computer with more active programs.
The Power Cleaner took slightly longer — around two minutes — and found around 1GB of data to remove. Removal took another two minutes. I suspect it will take longer if you’re running it on a computer you’ve used for more than a few months, but these results clearly demonstrate the tool’s effectiveness and speed.
I then tested Avira’s Privacy tools, starting with the browser safety extension. This extension had no impact on my internet speed, but it also didn’t seem very effective. It didn’t flag any of the suspicious links in my spam folder, and its ad-blocking function only blocked ads on a few of the sites I visited.
The secure browser had similar results, operating similarly to a regular browser but failing to block ads on roughly half of the sites I visited. Moreover, it was logged into YouTube and Facebook when I first visited them, despite my not providing login credentials for those sites. This makes me concerned about its data collection tools, though it hadn’t logged me into Gmail, so I don’t know how much information the browser collected from my Avira account.
Finally, I moved on to testing the VPN to determine how much it affected my internet speed. I started by running Ookla Speed Test three times without the VPN to establish my regular internet speed. These tests showed an average ping of 4ms, download speed of 584.45Mbps and upload speed of 703.70Mbps. (Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)
Next, I turned the VPN on, using the server closest to my location in Canada. The results were shocking, with ping going up to 21.33ms, download speed shrinking to 83.18Mbps and upload speed decreasing to 95.50Mbps. These results are atrocious, even compared to the suboptimal results I’ve gotten when testing VPNs from other antivirus companies like McAfee and Bitdefender.
I performed more tests using servers around the world. These tests resulted in the following averages:
| US | UK | France | Germany | Singapore | Australia | |
| Download (Mbps) | 65.58 | 35.23 | 34.45 | 43.97 | 32.17 | 16.01 |
| Upload (Mbps) | 147.21 | 31.34 | 29.19 | 6.75 | 10.72 | 4.11 |
| Ping (ms) | 29.6 | 168.33 | 181.66 | 197 | 488.66 | 384 |
Like the initial test using a local server, these results were terrible, even compared to the significant slowdowns I’ve experienced when using other antivirus companies’ VPNs. My tests weren’t as extensive as the testing process for full VPN reviews, but they’re more than enough to show that Avira’s VPN isn’t worth the hard drive space it uses.
I recommend Norton if you want an antivirus software that comes with a better VPN, or purchasing a separate VPN if you want fast internet regardless of your server’s location.
Overall performance score
Avira’s antivirus and performance tools are highly efficient and provide more robust device improvement opportunities than even our top-ranking antivirus, Bitdefender, which has no performance tools to speak of.
However, Avira’s safe browsing tools have limited effectiveness, and its VPN is abysmal, so I can only give it a performance ranking of 8/10.
Avira antivirus security
With a firm grasp of Avira’s surface-level functionality, I moved on to assessing the effectiveness of its security protocols. I started by evaluating Avira’s security test results from AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, the top third-party testing labs in the industry, then researched Avira’s security protocols for its password manager and VPN. I also analyzed its privacy policies and searched for past data breaches to determine how well Avira protects your information.
Antivirus security
Avira has received a six out of six security ranking from AV-Test in every round of tests since fall 2023. This is great, though not the best of any company I’ve tested. Bitdefender’s perfect security ranking from AV-Test goes back to 2022, while McAfee’s goes back to 2020. Norton, meanwhile, has perfect security scores going all the way back to 2014.
Avira has also performed well in recent testing from AV-Comparatives, with a 98.9% online detection rate and a 99.98% online protection rate. Even the offline protection rate — how well it protects you from viruses on things like USB keys — is high, at 95.8%. However, Avira also had 28 false alarms, more than most antiviruses I’ve tested. This is likely why Avira only has one star on its most recent malware protection test results, as opposed to the three stars earned by Bitdefender or the two stars given to McAfee.
Additional tools security
Avira’s password manager uses AES-256, an internationally recognized encryption protocol, to keep your passwords safe. Avira doesn’t store the decryption key in its own cloud, so the only way to access it is with your master password. This means Avira can’t give other people access to your accounts, and it makes it more difficult for malicious users to gain access to your passwords. These protocols are pretty standard among password managers.
Avira’s VPN also uses AES-256 encryption and claims to be a no-logs VPN, which means it’s not supposed to track any information about the web pages you visit. However, the VPN section of Avira’s privacy policy tells a different story. Avira tracks your license identifier and IP address, plus “data to monitor compliance with the terms of use.” These terms are incredibly broad and mean that anything deemed suspicious could, in fact, be logged without breaking Avira’s stated commitment to privacy.
Moreover, Avira doesn’t let its VPN undergo third-party audits or provide transparency reports, which suggests it’s not particularly committed to keeping VPN users’ data safe. If you’re specifically looking for a VPN with excellent privacy protections, consider ExpressVPN instead.
Privacy policies and data breaches
Avira’s website has an extensive privacy section, including a general privacy statement and a page listing privacy policies for individual products. The general privacy statement says that much of the data Avira collects is pseudonymized or anonymized, something I’ve only seen in Bitdefender’s privacy policy. However, it doesn’t specify the protocols it uses for pseudonymization or anonymization or which data it protects this way.
Avira then states the instances where it will send your data to third parties. These include provisions for sharing with marketing and communications companies, which may include social media platforms and public authorities. Avira gives a few examples of companies it may share data with, but the list is less extensive than the one Norton offers. In short, Avira’s third-party sharing policies are middling, and certainly have fewer exceptions than McAfee’s, but there are gaps that may be concerning for people looking for high-level privacy.
Similarly, most of the information Avira collects is the same information other cybersecurity suites require: personal data you enter directly, payment and subscription data and identity details for dark web monitoring and identity theft protection. However, the product data it collects goes beyond what other companies do and includes your browser activity, URLs you visit, applications you use and your location. Avira says it encrypts, pseudonymizes and anonymizes your data, but its lack of clarity around these processes isn’t encouraging.
The final concern is Avira’s location in Germany. Germany is part of the Fourteen Eyes Alliance, meaning it will share intelligence with several countries, including the US. Avira states that it will share information with public authorities on request, so you may not want to install it if you’re concerned about government surveillance.
As for data breaches, Avira had one confirmable data breach in 2013 during a series of attacks against popular tools. I found some comments in cybersecurity forums suggesting a second breach occurred in 2016, but I couldn’t find anything to confirm this. I also couldn’t find much information about Avira’s response to these attacks. Still, with both attacks occurring well over five years ago and no recent issues to report, I suspect Avira has improved its security protocols since then.
Overall security score
Avira’s antivirus engine consistently receives high marks in third-party testing, but its VPN security protocols and privacy policies leave something to be desired. As a result, Avira earns a 7/10 security ranking, putting it behind other popular antivirus companies like Bitdefender and McAfee.
Avira antivirus customer service
Avira offers self-serve customer service through a knowledge base and phone, email and live chat support. You can also get community support through a forum. These support options are similar to those that top-ranking antivirus companies like Bitdefender and McAfee offer. And, notably, they’re all easy to find.
I tested everything except for the community forum to determine the helpfulness and response times of Avira’s customer service team. The knowledge base and live chat experience were pleasant, but email and phone support were severely lacking.
Knowledge base
Avira’s knowledge base has a prominent search function, links to resources for the various operating systems it protects and category links for things like recent updates and purchase basics. This is similar to other antivirus companies’ help centers and makes it easy to find the tutorials you need.
Unfortunately, the articles themselves aren’t always great. While most contain step-by-step instructions in beginner-friendly language, they rarely have images or videos for visual learners. They also don’t always answer the questions you’d expect them to. For example, the article about configuring Avira’s Identity Assistant told me what information it could track, but it didn’t tell me how to add that information. This forced me to contact customer service directly to set up the tool.
Direct communication
Avira’s live chat impressed me by connecting me with a person immediately instead of forcing me to request human support from an AI chatbot. The representative took a couple of minutes to pull up my account information, and the chat refused to let me upload a screenshot of my issue, but the representative helped me find a workaround. In total, our conversation lasted 13 minutes, and the agent was able to resolve my issue.
Avira’s phone support page told me the company was experiencing high phone queue times when I first visited. In addition, phone support is only available between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. CET and is only for users with the Prime subscription. It was almost 11 p.m. CET when I checked this page, so I decided to return another day. Unfortunately, the message about higher-than-average wait times was still displayed, suggesting that the true issue is an understaffed customer support team.
I called anyway and was immediately put on hold — which, to my surprise, only lasted for one minute. However, the agent misheard the spelling of my email account and had to be corrected several times. Once we had established the correct spelling, she still couldn’t find my account. I’m uncertain if this issue was caused by something in Avira’s systems or the representative’s training, but the end result is that we weren’t able to resolve my issue.
Finally, I tested Avira’s support ticket/email support system. The email support page requires you to enter some basic information about your problem so it can direct you to the right team. Once you have, a contact form appears, complete with an attachment option so you can add screenshots of the problem you’re having.
I submitted an email through this form at 4 p.m. ET on a Friday and hadn’t received a response when I returned to work on Monday. This was incredibly disappointing and suggests a lack of commitment to customer service on Avira’s part.
Overall customer support score
Avira’s knowledge base and live chat were pleasant, but the email support was unresponsive, and the phone support was unhelpful. This leads to a customer support ranking of 5/10 — only slightly higher than our worst-ranking antivirus software, Malwarebytes, and much lower than our top-ranking antivirus software, Bitdefender.
Avira antivirus value
Finally, I compared Avira’s pricing and plans to other popular cybersecurity suites. Here’s a quick overview of how it stacks up against top performer Bitdefender and AVG, another antivirus suite focused on affordability.
| Basic plan cost | Mid-range suite cost and devices | Most expensive suite cost and devices | Standout security features | |
| Avira | Free | $35 for the first year, $71 per year after; coverage for one device | $135 per year; coverage for 25 devices | Software updater for Windows, junk and PC cleaner for enhanced performance, anti-tracking tools |
| AVG | Free | $40 for the first year, $78 per year after; coverage for one device | $60 for the first year, $140 per year after; coverage for 10 devices | Software updater for Windows, anti-tracking tools, device performance enhancement tools |
| Bitdefender | $25 for the first year, $50 per year after | $90 for the first year, $160 per year after; coverage for five devices | $150 for the first year, $250 per year after; coverage for five devices | Scam protection, digital footprint visualization, identity theft insurance of up to $2 million |
I can draw a few conclusions based on this data:
- Avira doesn’t offer introductory discounts on all plans, whereas both Bitdefender and AVG have first-year discounts for all of their pricing tiers. In fact, every other antivirus company I’ve reviewed so far has offered an introductory discount on every plan.
- Avira’s highest-tier plan has an unusually high device limit, a full 15 devices more than AVG’s upper limit and 20 devices more than Bitdefender’s.
- Avira’s features don’t match top cybersecurity suites, but it does provide similar coverage to other low-cost options like AVG.
Overall value score
In short, Avira’s features are reasonable for its low cost, and the free plan is pretty generous, but there’s nothing that really stands out about the paid plans. This nets Avira a value ranking of 7/10.
Avira: Is It Right for You?
Let’s break down how Avira performed in each of our review subcategories:
- Features: 8/10
- Usability: 8/10
- Performance: 8/10
- Security: 7/10
- Customer service: 5/10
- Value: 7/10
These numbers result in an overall ranking of 7.2/10. This puts Avira only slightly ahead of our lowest-ranking software, Malwarebytes, which scored a 7/10. The privacy issues are particularly concerning for software that’s supposed to protect your identity. Your information may well be safer if you stick with Microsoft Defender for free antivirus protection or Bitdefender for a premium cybersecurity package.
Yes, Avira Antivirus is better than Windows Defender (now Microsoft Defender), receiving more consistent perfect security scores from the third-party lab AV-Test. Avira also gives you more control over things like scan scheduling and provides safe browsing tools. The paid version includes performance-improving tools as well.
The main disadvantages of Avira are its inconsistent customer service and significant allowances in its privacy policy for collecting and sharing your personal data. Furthermore, Avira’s VPN has terrible performance, and its dark web monitoring can only be applied to one email address for users outside of Germany. Additionally, its identity theft protection is only available for German users.
Avira costs between $35 and $60 for the first year. Renewal costs range from $71 to $110 per year.
No, Avira doesn’t noticeably slow down your computer.
Norton is better than Avira due to its more protective privacy policies, more advanced dark web monitoring and identity theft protection tools. Norton’s also easier to use and provides better customer service.
Avira provides excellent antivirus protection, but its trustworthiness is limited. Its privacy policies allow it to collect highly invasive personal data and share it with numerous third parties.
Yes, Avira has a free version that includes the antivirus, software updater and safe browsing tools.
Yes, Avira can remove existing malware.
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