Free Antivirus Apps and Alternatives

It's common sense to equip a computer with a powerful anti-malware application capable of blocking ransomware, viruses, worms, Trojans, rootkits, spyware and other forms of malicious agents.

Besides basic protection, most paid antivirus products come bundled with extra security features, such as firewall, email scanner, password manager, file shredder, anti-phishing, or sandbox for testing apps in an isolated environment.

Meanwhile, free antivirus tools offer basic protection only: a scanner and a real-time guard against incoming threats. They shouldn't be disregarded, though, because the engine powering an anti-malware utility is shared by all editions of the same product, whether it has "Free", "Professional", "Premium", "Total", "Ultimate" or another similar term in its name.

Whether you're looking for standard anti-malware protection without having to worry about installing additional security features, or you just want to test the antivirus engine of a particular product for free before deciding if it's worth spending your money, make sure to explore this hub.

We handpicked what we think to be the best free antivirus products listed on Softpedia, which are also highly regarded by the community. Only free antivirus tools with a real-time guard were included here (sorry, McAfee Stinger and Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool). Please note that, although free to use, some of these utilities are ad-supported, either offering third-party components during setup, showing banners during runtime, or both.

Furthermore, we've included a cool app called SecureAPlus that uses cloud protection provided by multiple AV engines - it's not free but lets you test its full features for 1 year for free.

If you're interested, you can discover tools in other hubs for portable antivirus, scan for viruses, uninstall antivirus and virus definitions.