I tested every free antivirus I could find against thousands of old and new Windows malware files. I didn’t only look at each antivirus’s malware protection capabilities but also its reputation for safeguarding user privacy, its ability to integrate with recent versions of Windows, and its user interface.
But it’s important to keep in mind that every free antivirus has a few limitations. That’s why I always recommend investing a little bit into premium antivirus software that includes protection against all types of malware — with extra features like a virtual private network (VPN), dark web monitoring, and a password manager (Norton 360 has all of these features, is ranked as the best antivirus software for 2022, and is very affordable).
That said, it’s better to protect yourself with the best free antivirus than no antivirus at all! I found 7 good free antivirus programs that offer improvements over Windows’s built-in protections, as well as features that aren’t offered by Windows Defender.
Quick summary of the best free Windows antiviruses for 2022:
- 1.🥇 Norton — Best Windows antivirus on the market (with a 60-day money-back guarantee).
- 2.🥈 Bitdefender — Advanced antivirus engine & anti-phishing tools with low system impact.
- 3.🥉 Avira — Cloud-based malware scanner with good system optimization.
- 4. Panda — Strong virus protection with good additional features (like a gaming mode).
- 5. TotalAV — Simple free antivirus with an intuitive interface (recommended for beginners).
🥇1. Norton — Best Overall Windows Antivirus in 2022
Norton is my favorite Windows antivirus on the market — and while it doesn’t currently have a free plan, it offers a risk-free 60-day money-back guarantee, which gives you 2 months to try it out and see if it’s right for you. It has an advanced malware engine, a wide range of additional features, and affordable plans that cover up to 5 devices across all operating systems.
Norton provides perfect malware detection against all known and emerging cyber threats. In all of our tests, it was able to identify all malware samples, from simple ones like viruses to sophisticated threats like spyware. It also has excellent phishing protection, a smart firewall with tons of customization options, and online banking and shopping protection.
It also comes with a wide range of quality extras, including:
- VPN (unlimited data) — maintains fast speeds, works with streaming sites like Netflix, and has extras like Tor support and split-tunneling.
- Password manager — generates, saves, and auto-fills logins, audits password security, and has an automatic password changer (it’s the only password manager on the market that offers this functionality).
- Parental controls — filters inappropriate content, limits device usage, and monitors YouTube and Hulu usage (Norton ranks #1 on our list of the best antiviruses with parental controls and #3 on our list of the best standalone parental control apps).
- System optimization tools — removes unwanted files from Windows and web browsers, improves boot time, and defragments hard drive.
- Dark web monitoring — scans dark web forums, data breach databases, and credit reports in real time.
- And much more…
Norton provides the best user experience out of all other antiviruses. It’s very easy to use across all devices and platforms, it doesn’t cause any system slowdown, and it even has a gaming mode, so you can uninterruptedly play games while it runs in the background.
There are several plans to choose from, but Norton 360 Deluxe offers the best value — plus, with our special 54% discount, you can get it for only $49.99 / year. US users can also check out Norton’s LifeLock plans that start at $99.99 / year and add identity theft protection with up to $1M in insurance payouts and legal assistance. All of Norton’s plans are covered by a 60-day money-back guarantee.
🥈2. Bitdefender Antivirus Free for Windows — Lightweight With Advanced Malware & Web Protections
Bitdefender Antivirus Free for Windows’s malware scanner scored a 100% detection rate during my tests, making it one of the best completely free antiviruses you can get. Moreover, Bitdefender uses a cloud-based scanner, which means most of the detection and analysis doesn’t take place on your PC, reducing its system impact. I didn’t notice any slowdowns on my computer even during full system scans.
Bitdefender also provides excellent anti-phishing protection. During testing, it blocked many fake websites that had evaded detection from the built-in protections on the Chrome and Firefox browsers, as well as the anti-phishing tools of other antiviruses. Out of all the brands on this list, only Bitdefender and Norton had near-perfect anti-phishing results.
One of the downsides of the free version of Bitdefender is its lack of extra features. It offers some of the most effective malware, web, and real-time protections on the market, but that’s about it. Bitdefender’s premium plans are where you’ll find all of the extra features, including multi-layer ransomware protection, online banking protection, a VPN, device optimization tools, a password manager, parental controls, and much more.
By upgrading, you’ll also get access to the super handy Profiles feature, which lets you quickly and easily optimize your PC’s performance for different tasks and situations. And you can set it up so that Bitdefender automatically changes your profile depending on what apps you’re using. The profiles you can choose from include:
- Work Profile — Provides better email protections and reduces system slowdown.
- Movie Profile — Prevents pop-up notifications and cuts down on background processes.
- Game Profile — Optimizes system performance for gaming.
- Public Wi-Fi Profile — Activates specific protections to keep you safe while using public Wi-Fi hotspots.
- Battery Mode Profile — Makes adjustments to the software that helps you save battery.
Bitdefender’s paid plans are very affordable, starting as low as $23.99 / year, and all of them are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.There’s Total Security, which includes most of Bitdefender’s features (except for the unlimited-data VPN and password manager) for 5 devices, for only $35.99 / year. Premium Security provides access to all features on up to 10 devices for $69.99 / year — it’s the best option if you want to make sure all of your devices are 100% protected against all online threats. Users on a budget can take a look at Internet Security, which covers up to 3 Windows devices for only $32.99 / year.
3. Avira Free Security for Windows — Advanced Cloud-Based Malware Scanner With System Cleanup
Avira Free Security for Windows has an excellent anti-malware engine and operates fully in the cloud. This makes Avira extremely fast, lightweight, and low on system resources. During my testing, Avira’s anti-malware engine detected most of the malware files I previously downloaded to my computer, and I was able to run CPU-intensive programs during scans with almost zero slowdown.
Unlike Bitdefender’s free antivirus, which is highly effective but rather bare-boned, Avira comes with many excellent extra features, such as:
- Safe Shopping browser extension.
- Privacy & performance optimizer.
- VPN (500 MB monthly limit).
- Password manager.
- Game booster.
- Firewall.
- File shredder.
The Safe Shopping browser extension for Firefox and Chrome is really good — it blocks suspicious phishing sites, web trackers, and unwanted advertisements. The extension also automatically recommends links to better deals when shopping online. I was actually able to find a lot of good deals, but it didn’t work 100% of the time (still pretty good though!).
I’m also a big fan of Avira’s privacy and performance optimization tools — they cleaned out my cookies and junk files, and also fixed hidden privacy settings that were leaking personal information on the web. But unfortunately, Avira’s best optimization tools are locked behind a paywall.
Unfortunately, the VPN that comes with Avira’s free antivirus is limited to just 500 MB per month, which is barely enough to watch a couple of really short videos, and it only lets you connect to 1 server location, meaning most users won’t be able to connect to a nearby server to get fast speeds.
If you want a fast and reliable VPN with unlimited data, you should consider upgrading to Avira Prime, which costs $59.99 / year — it’s a bit pricier than some competitors, but it’s one of the best antivirus suites of 2022, and it also includes multi-device support and advanced system optimization tools. Avira backs all yearly subscriptions with a 60-day money-back guarantee
4. Panda Free Antivirus for Windows — Good Virus Protection With Decent Extras
Panda Free Antivirus for Windows is lightweight, secure, and easy to use — during my tests, Panda’s antivirus scanner detected significantly more adware, spyware, and ransomware files than Windows Defender. Panda’s real-time protection also performed really well, blocking most of the malware files I tried downloading to my PC.
I also like that Panda has a gaming mode in its free antivirus — whenever you’re playing a game or watching a video in full screen, Panda automatically suspends notifications. That said, I prefer Norton or Bitdefender (using its Profiles feature) for gaming as they don’t cause any slowdown, allowing for smooth and uninterrupted gaming.
Another thing that makes Panda a good choice for Windows users is the Rescue Kit feature, which allows you to download a bootable version of Panda to a USB drive and then use the USB drive to clean an infected PC and get it up and running again. Very few antiviruses offer this feature, and I’m very happy that Panda includes it in its free version!
Panda’s free antivirus also comes with a secure (but limited) VPN. It provides fast connection speeds, but it only lets you connect to 1 server and has a data limit of 150 MB per day — this is a big improvement over Avira’s 500 MB per month, but it’s still not nearly enough data for streaming or file sharing. If you’re interested in unlimited streaming or torrenting, you’ll need a better VPN (check out our list of the best antiviruses with VPNs here).
You can only get unlimited VPN data (and access to worldwide servers) on the Panda Dome Premium plan, which also offers extra features like a firewall, anti-ransomware protection, anti-phishing protection, advanced system tune-up tools, a password manager, and parental controls, for $66.99 / year. All of Panda’s premium plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
5. TotalAV Free Antivirus — Most Intuitive Free Antivirus
TotalAV Free Antivirus provides excellent virus and phishing protection — during my tests, TotalAV’s cloud-based malware scanner detected and removed more malware samples than most antivirus programs, successfully identifying even very tricky ransomware and cryptojacking files. This isn’t too surprising, considering that TotalAV uses Avira’s excellent malware scanner.
TotalAV’s phishing protection is also very good. It uses a huge blacklist to identify known phishing sites as well as an AI-powered phishing detection system to detect new threats. In my testing, the anti-phishing tool scored a near-perfect detection rate, stopping me from entering more malicious sites than Chrome’s native phishing tool. Out of all the antiviruses on this list, only Norton and Bitdefender blocked more risky sites than TotalAV.
TotalAV is also the most intuitive free Windows antivirus on this list, with easy-to-use and easy-to-understand features and functions inside a minimalistic, well-designed dashboard. I had no problems navigating TotalAV’s dashboard, and I found it very simple to access and use all of the provided tools. If you’ve never used an antivirus before, TotalAV may just be your best option.
That said, unlike Avira, TotalAV’s free plan for Windows doesn’t come with a lot of features. The biggest drawback of TotalAV Free Antivirus is that it doesn’t have real-time protection, meaning you won’t get notified in case a malicious file attempts to make changes to your PC in real time.
Upgrading to one of TotalAV’s premium plans brings you real-time malware protection as well as useful extras like device optimization tools, a VPN with unlimited data, a password manager, and more. TotalAV’s paid plans start at $19.00 / year, and they’re all backed by a risk-free money-back guarantee for 30 days.
6. Kaspersky Security Cloud (Free) — Good Range of Free Features
Kaspersky Security Cloud — Free is good at detecting and removing malware, and it also comes with plenty of extras — including:
- VPN (200 MB daily limit).
- Password manager (15 entries limit).
- Data breach monitoring (only 1 account).
- Basic system cleanup tools.
- File shredder.
- Virtual keyboard.
Kaspersky’s free antivirus provides good real-time malware protection, but its VPN and password manager are very limited. The VPN provides access to 1 server location and 200 MB per day — more daily data than Panda or Avira — but still not enough for streaming or other data-heavy tasks. And the free password manager only saves a total of 15 entries — this includes both logins and sensitive documents (like credit cards or passport details). Norton’s password manager is also free, but it allows you to store an unlimited number of passwords on an unlimited number of devices.
I can’t say I’m too impressed with Kaspersky’s data breach monitoring either — free users can only check the email associated with their Kaspersky account (and they have to do it manually, unlike paid customers who get automatic data breach checks). In addition, the free system optimization tools are too basic and won’t do much to clean or speed up your PC (unlike the paid tools — which aren’t unique, but they get the job done).
If you want access to all of Kaspersky’s features, then you’ll have to upgrade to one of its paid plans, which start at $29.99 / year. Unfortunately, none of the paid plans come with the unlimited-data VPN. All Kaspersky purchases include a 30-day money-back guarantee.
7. Malwarebytes Free — Minimalistic Virus Scanner
Malwarebytes Free is a good choice for users looking for a simple antivirus scanner that they can install and forget about. Its virus scanner uses a virus database as well as heuristics to catch all types of malware — and it performed pretty well in my tests, detecting around 90% of the malware files I hid on my PC. However, it did miss a few well-hidden files that competitors like Norton, Bitdefender, and TotalAV detected.
Apart from the scanner, you also get a browser extension that protects against a wide range of threats, including malware, ads and trackers, scams, and PUPs. One of the things I like the most about this extension is that all of the protections are turned on by default, so there’s nothing for you to do (but you can easily turn off one or all of the protections).
In my tests, Malwarebytes’s browser extension blocked the majority of risky sites I attempted to visit, scoring a 90% phishing detection rate. However, the extension wasn’t as accurate at blocking ads — I visited dozens of sites filled with ads, and Malwarebytes blocked only around a third of the ads.
To get real-time malware protection, you’ll need to upgrade to Malwarebytes Premium, which provides coverage for up to 5 devices and starts at $44.99 / year. Malwarebytes Premium + Privacy also adds a good VPN for $99.99 / year. Both of Malwarebytes’s premium plans are covered by a generous 60-day money-back guarantee.
How to Choose the Best Free Windows Antivirus for Your Needs
- Malware detection. The main purpose of an antivirus is to protect you against malware, so you want to make sure the program you’re running on your device has a good malware scanner that is able to identify both known and new malware, including trojans, spyware, ransomware, rootkits, and keyloggers. All of my top choices have perfect or near-perfect malware detection rates.
- Minimal slowdown. An antivirus may slow down your system, making it hard to stream content, play games, or even browse the web, especially during a full system scan. But programs like Bitdefender, Avira, and TotalAV are pretty lightweight, so you won’t even notice they’re there.
- Features. While most free antiviruses are pretty limited in terms of features, some free programs include a couple of extras. For example, Avira has a basic free password manager, Panda has a free VPN (150 MB/day), and Kaspersky has data breach monitoring. Paid brands like Norton have all of these features without any limitations, plus webcam protection, parental controls, cloud storage, and more.
- Ease of use. Windows Defender is already pretty easy to use (it’s always running), so a free antivirus has to be very easy to use and offer the same excellent user experience that Microsoft has built into its native PC antivirus. All of the products on this list have user-friendly dashboards, intuitive features, and decent customer support.
- Genuinely free. Many cybersecurity brands try to trick you into purchasing a premium product by offering a free trial and then making you pay to keep using the product. I’ve personally checked to make sure that all of the brands listed here offer free protection. I also included Norton on the list as it comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee, which gives you 2 months to try it out.