AVG Free vs Avast One Essential
Which free shield should your PC wield?
EVEN IN THE PRIVACY of your home, you exist in a world where it’s not safe browsing the internet unprotected. Someone somewhere wants to breach your personal information and use your data for monetary gains in some way or another, and it sucks, right? Whether that be through phishing, viruses, spyware, malware, etc, it’s important to have trustworthy antivirus software, and you may not even need to pay for it. It’s just worth having the peace of mind that you’ve got that extra level of security behind you.
We’ve chosen our two favorite webprotection applications to help you stay a little safer the next time you’re browsing the web. With both offerings being bigtime players in this field and providing a range of services to keep you protected, our two contenders for this head-to-head are AVG Free and Avast One Essential. Which one should you opt for?
As of Monday, October 3, 2016, Avast acquired a majority stake in AVG, meaning they operate as one single company, yet they decided to keep both applications separate. Adding more spanners to the mix, another antivirus giant, Norton, acquired Avast in 2020, so they now own both. Confused much? Norton aside, Avast and AVG have been competing for around 30 years, and have different qualities to differentiate them both. Starting things off, we’ll be taking a look at AVG Free.
What AVG nails is a no-frills design. As soon as you open it, you’re greeted by the main dashboard comprised of AVG’s dark grey and green color scheme. Everything you need is right there, although it does a great job of reminding you that you have the basic free edition. Like most free versions of applications, there are plenty of incentives to upgrade to the premium package—for example, the ‘go premium’ button at the top, or showcasing some of the locked features on the home page.
The UI is clean and easy to navigate. All that you need is available from the start. You can run a Smart Scan by hitting the big green button at the bottom, which checks through your operating system and scans for malware and other advanced issues. If you want to do a more precise check through specific areas, hit the ‘run other scans’ icon to the right of the green button. Here, you can do a deep scan, performance scan, boot-up check, or scan through a file, folder, USB, or DVD.
In the center you can see a Computer protection option, and next to that the Web & Email protection. If everything is okay, these will say ‘protected’ and have a green tick. If anything is out of the ordinary or under threat, it will turn red, making it easy to distinguish any issues with your security using AVG. The computer option provides real-time protection, and opening this provides you with four choices: File Shield automatically scans any new files added to your PC; Behaviour Shield warns you if any application is behaving maliciously; Ransomware Protection can wall off specific folders and apps, and Network Inspector checks to see if your internet is prone to any security issues. All of these options provide a sturdy level of protection, and can be toggled off if they’re not needed.
In Web & Email protection, there are four toggled services: Web Shield to block suspicious downloads and web attacks; Email Shield to combat—you guessed it— unsafe emails and attachments; Firewall (which can be optionally installed), and Hack Alerts, which is activated when you sign up to an AVG account.
Furthermore, if you hit the settings icon, you can dive even deeper into each service, such as the sensitivity of the malware detection, toggling the automatic
fix function, enabling site blocking, etc. We loved how simple the application layout was, with all the nitty gritty options kept hidden within the settings so that the rest of the UI remains clean.
Turning over to Avast One Essential, there is a ‘vast’ design difference—bad pun, we know. Opposite to AVG’s dark theme, Avast One Essential features a much brighter theme consisting of a light orange and peach color scheme and a more illustrative design. It works, although the AVG layout is easier to follow.
That’s not to say the Avast interface isn’t user-friendly. It follows a more vertical design, with the most important feature, the Smart Scan, up top. Much like the option on AVG, it checks browser threats, viruses, malware, and advanced issues. It will indicate where you can improve your security, idnetifying any potential threats. To resolve these issues, you’ll have to upgrade to the premium package, again like AVG. What you get for free is essential privacy and protection.
Below the Smart Scan are other features, including a PC Speedup section where you can optimize background apps to help your PC run quicker. Most importantly, you can use to 5GB of VPN access per week to improve your privacy and browse more safely while on public networks. Upgrading to the premium package allows you to gain 24/7 VPN access and change the location. Another feature is the browser cleaner. Clicking on this allows you to choose what data you want to clear. Be aware that this will sign you out of everything, so have your passwords somewhere safe. Disk cleaning and driver updating utilities are available, but only as premium options.
Along the left side of the app below the home section is the explore tab, a more in-depth version of the home screen. Here, you’ll find other device protection features where you can scan more precisely, such as File Shield, Web Shield, Ransomware Protection, Firewall, and Quarantine. These are also found within AVG Free—there’s just a lot of overlap between the two. Underneath the device protection tab, you’ll find the online privacy tools: VPN, clear browser data, privacy advisor, password protection, and email guardian. All of these are handy, but slightly restricted, with more settings being unlocked by the premium package. Below the online privacy tools area is the performance section, where you can optimize background apps, and a software updater to make sure you’re running the latest versions of your applications.
SUMMARY
The main difference is that Avast One Essential offers a better aesthetically designed application in our opinion, with a fresher user interface, although if you want simplicity, AVG is easier to use. It’s clear that they offer similar functionality, but Avast’s software provides you with slightly more fine-tuning options and a free 5GB a week VPN feature. Granted, that’s not a huge amount, but this was great to use in a coffee shop’s public Wi-Fi for that added peace of mind.
The bottom line is that they both deliver in-depth antivirus protection for free, and if that’s all you are after, then you’ll be satisfied with either. As they’re also fairly light applications, hardware strain isn’t an issue, unlike many of the larger antivirus applications of yesteryear. For us, Avast One Essential just had an easier-on-the-eye approach and offered slightly more to the user than AVG Free, making Avast our winner.
VERDICT
8
AVG Free
CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH Handy design with a color identifier; a simplistic layout for ease of use; quick web & email protection.
A WHISKER AWAY No VPN functionality; fewer features than Avast.
Free, www.avg.com
VERDICT
9
Avast One Essential
ESSENTIAL Great illustrative design; very intuitive UI; great protection.
INESSENTIAL Many features are premium locked.
$0.00, www.avast.com