Best Antivirus 2013 - Best Antivirus Software 2013

Internet Security Suite and Antivirus vendors are now starting to release their Antivirus 2013 solutions.  Most of the solutions being shipped are still Antivirus 2012.  Below are the rankings of a few antivirus solutions that have been reviewed by PC Magazine.  The stars are out of 5. Norton (Symantec) and AVG Technologies received Editors' Choice designations from PC Magazine for their paid and free versions, respectively. This    document won’t be static.  It will be updated as other releases occur.

Paid Antivirus

4.5 - BitDefender Antivirus Plus 2013 Editors' Choice 

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2406906,00.asp
4.5- Webroot SecureAnyWhere Antivirus 2013 Editors' Choice  
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410545,00.asp

4.5 – Norton Antivirus 2013 Editors' Choice http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2409388,00.asp

4.0 - Kaspersky Antivirus 2013   http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2409056,00.asp

4.0 – Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus 2013 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2409578,00.asp
3.5 - Avira Antivirus Premium 2013   http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2411315,00.asp
3.5 - F-Secure Antivirus 2013  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2409673,00.asp
3.5 - BullGuard Antivirus 2013   http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410871,00.asp
3.0 - Viper Antivirus 2013  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410465,00.asp

2.0 - Panda Cloud Antivirus Pro Edition http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407426,00.asp

For Free Antivirus

4.0 - AVG Anti-virus Free 2013 Editors' Choice
 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2391931,00.asp
3.5 - Avira Antivirus Free 2013
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410666,00.asp

Neil Rubenking of PC Magazine reviews antivirus and internet security suites in depth.  People looking for a solution should look at these individual reviews.  They contain detailed   (and extremely knowledgeable) qualitative data about the products as well as results of malware tests that were done by Rubenking.  Check out Rubenking’s Malware Blocking charts!  Most internet security firms seem to have a basic antivirus package, an internet security suite, and then one or more ultra or uber internet security suites.  People can also go to CNET to read reviews of these products. Avast and AVG Technologies have typically been trading off the first and second positions in CNET's weekly free antivirus security downloads. For the week ending September 9, 1.18 million for Avast and 1.00 million for AVG Technologies.

Trend Micro has released their Titanium 2013 set of consumer products 

http://www.trendmicro.com/us/home/products/titanium/index.html

PC Pro Excellence Awards 2012 -  Product of the Year, Best Free Antivirus

AVG Antivirus Free 2012 (yes, 2012)  recently  won UK publication  PC Pro’s  award for Best Free Antivirus.    This wasn't  a product test. Readers voted on it. There are advantages to having a lot of Facebook fans! For details, and to see what other products won PC Pro Excellence Awards 2012, go to

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/376954/pc-pro-excellence-awards-2012-the-full-results

From CNET

5.0 - AVG Antivirus 2013
5.0 - BitDefender Antivirus Plus 2013
4.5 - Kaspersky Antivirus 2013
4.0 - Norton Antivirus 2013
4.0 - Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus Plus 2013

5.0 - AVG Antivirus Free 2013
5.0 - Threatfire Antivirus Free Edition
3.5- Ad-Aware Free Antivirus



In the end though, isn’t it protection that rules?  How well does the product stop malware?  How well does the product protect your identity and protect you while you are on the internet?  An install is done once.  A complete scan can be done in the evening or while you are aware from your laptop.  Would you rather have a product with a 5-minute install that stops 90% of malware, or a product with 15 install that stops 99.99% of malware.  Why install and scan times are important metrics is debatable

Despite “the wisdom of crowds”, what is irrelevant is how many “likes” these products have.  Many Facebook fans have never met a like button they couldn’t click “like” on.  Fear the “like” count!  Fear any comments that begin “Best product ever!”

The major test sites such as Virus Bulletin, www.virustbn.com, AV-Test, www.av-test.org , and AV-comparatives www.av-comparatives.org   haven’t begun their testing yet with 2013 versions.  You should still visit these sites to review 2012 performance.

 Note how the freemium and paid antivirus solutions promote basic protection.  You do need a firewall.  Depending on your own situation, you may or may not need family protection, for example.  There are then the up sells to internet security, uber security, total protection, and more (!) depending on the vendor (subject of a future blog).

  

Best Antivirus Software 2012

  

The link below will take you to reviews and rankings of  Antivirus 2012 software solutions.

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-antivirus-software-2012-pc.html

Best Antivirus Software - Readers Choice Awards 2011 – Antivirus.about.com

Mary Landesman and About.com have announced their Readers Choice Awards for Antivirus, Internet Security Suites, and Free Antivirus. The complete text and link to the article is below. These are popularity contests and don’t reflect the ability of the software to actually stop anything (though one would think that that’s what readers are interested in). For example, Rubenking of PC World tends to like Norton for their internet security suite. Comodo did win a www.download.com popularity context. The folks at Avira have to be pleased with the results below. No details on the number of participants, whether people could vote more than once, etc.

http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/ss/Best-Antivirus-Software-Winners_2.htm

Best Windows Antivirus for 2011

• GFI VIPRE Antivirus: 44%
• Avira AntiVir Premium: 28%
• ESET NOD32 Antivirus: 18%
• ZoneAlarm Antivirus: 6%
• Norton AntiVirus: 3%

Best Internet Security Suite for 2011

Some surprises in this table.

• Comodo Internet Security: 42%
• Panda Global Protection: 26%
• ESET Smart Security: 25%
• Kaspersky Internet Security: 4%
• Norton Internet Security: 3%

Best Free Antivirus

• Avira AntiVir Personal: 62%
• Avast! antivirus: 13%
• Microsoft Security Essentials: 10% (how did they do this?)
• AVG Free: 9%
• Panda Cloud Antivirus: 6%

People looking at the above, may want to look go to www.virusbtn.com , www.av-test.org, and www.av-comparatives.org prior to making a purchase decision or downloading. Alternatively, look at relevant blogs on this site! Go to www.kensek.blogspot.com to view results from these blogs, including tables showing the rankings of the antivirus and internet security suite products for 2012 that PC World has tested and reviewed, cross tabbed against some of the test organization's results. It is well worth reading Rubenking's reviews after looking at the rankings. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-internet-security-suites-2012-pc.html . There are also reviews on www.download.com by Rosenblatt.