I won’t waste the first paragraph here preaching at you about the importance of virus protection. You know as well as anyone that you can’t just ignore the problem. However, there’s a tendency for a lot of people to look at nothing but the bottom line: How much does this antivirus program cost?
To be fair, there are some good antivirus programs for cheap out there, but let’s be honest, can you really expect the best protection available for ten bucks?
On the other end of the spectrum, there are, of course, some pretty crummy virus programs in the price range of about fifty bucks and up (we won’t name any of them, because we don’t want to be sued for litigation or anything, but if you browse some forums on the subject you’ll probably be able to learn which ones to avoid pretty quickly).
You don’t have to spend every dollar in your budget to get great protection, but you shouldn’t make price the only determining factor, either. Even the free ones can at least get the job done, but in the end, you get what you paid for. While Avira may well be the best free antivirus protection out there, there’s no denying that their top priority is always going to be their paying customers.
So here’s our take on it: Shop for quality first, and price second.
Make a list of everything you want from an antivirus program, and then see how cheap you can get it for without making any compromises. Here’s what we suggest as the bare minimum of what you should be getting…
Full coverage
As in something that kills Trojans, worms, viruses, malware, adware, spyware, everything.
Wide, constantly updating database
The best antivirus protection is always going to have daily updates. A few actually have better than daily updates.
SPAM and popup blockers
Self explanatory, really.
My own personal favorite is McAfee. I make sure to install that on any new system I get my hands on. But, it’s a little pricy at fifty bucks for the full package. If you want to spend a little less, you can upgrade to the full versions of Avira or Avast! Home Edition for around twenty bucks a year.
Whichever one you go with, don’t sacrifice quality for cost. In the end, it’s only a bargain if you’re getting something for what you pay. A ten dollar antivirus program is usually only going to be worth… well, about ten dollars.
