In its current state, AVG offers holistic security for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices. It also comes with a VPN and other value-added features, making it a compelling security package. But how does AVG fare when compared to other antivirus providers?
AVG Antivirus Short Review
The AVG antivirus package is very similar to Avast. This is not surprising given that the parent company is the same for both. In terms of malware protection, AVG offers real-time scans, an effective firewall, and protection against dangerous websites and downloads. It also packs in some useful privacy features, such as a virtual private network (VPN) and an anti-tracking application. With the most expensive package, AVG Ultimate, you can get a system clean-up utility as well. The software and website are both intuitive to use, with information readily available for new users. Running scans on the app is quite simple and fast with AVG antivirus. That said, its customer support is a little disappointing since there don’t appear to be any live or instant contact options. In 2019, it came to light that AVG’s parent company Avast had been selling user data without consent. While Avast has stopped such activities, it does affect our rating of AVG antivirus. Check out the latest offers on AVG antivirus below.
AVG Antivirus Specifications and Subscriptions
AVG offers three subscription plans. AVG Antivirus Free includes the most basic protection features, such as malware scans and protection against malicious files and websites. However, it lacks more advanced features, such as ransomware protection. These features can be found in the AVG Internet Security package, which also includes anti-hacking and privacy features. Moreover, its starting price of $3.89 /month is more feasible for most users in comparison with the Ultimate Package. The priciest option, starting at $6.67/month, is AVG Ultimate. Unlike AVG Antivirus Free and AVG Internet Security, the Ultimate package includes a tune-up utility, as well as an anti-track tool. It also comes with its own VPN service. An overview of the specifications of all three versions is provided below: To give our readers a comprehensive overview of AVG’s tools, we chose to review AVG Ultimate.
Security: Can AVG Antivirus Be Trusted?
We combined research from an independent testing agency with our own tests to draw conclusions about AVG’s security. Here are our findings:
AVG offers robust security against different kinds of threats. AVG scores very well when it comes to malware protection. A few false positives were detected.
AVG is a satisfactory security program, earning an 8 for security.
Security testing: How does AVG measure up?
VPNOverview uses a quality index to rate the security of antivirus programs. We looked at the test results of the German AV-Test Institute and AV-Comparatives as of February and March 2022 to create this index. AVG performed exceedingly well on both tests. It was one of the few antivirus scanners to successfully detect different kinds of malware in the AV-Test rankings. The detection rate of 100% fares very well against the industry average of 99.5%. It also only had one false positive, making it a reliable antivirus scanning option. Its performance in the tests earned it the “Top Product” label.
These results were backed by the AV-Comparatives results, which show that AVG blocked 99.6% of all detected malware. However, researchers recently discovered vulnerabilities in AVG’s antivirus software. These vulnerabilities went undetected for ten years and affected tens of millions of users. They allowed attackers to modify permissions and disable security products. Avast has made security updates to address the vulnerabilities. However, we felt compelled to lower the final security score from an initial 8.5 to 8.0 due to these vulnerabilities.
Real-time threat protection
The ability to conduct fast yet detailed scans is the hallmark of a good antivirus. AVG Internet Security and AVG AntiVirus Free offer you several scanning options:
Smart scan: A comprehensive virus scan to check your computer for malware, worms, keyloggers, and other threats. Deep Scan: An in-depth scan of your system which allows you to check storage drives and memory for malware. Targeted Scan: Scans specific files and folders chosen by you. This is useful when you suspect a particular file or folder may be infected. Startup scan: Scans your PC at startup, reducing the chances that malware can be activated. A startup scan helps ensure that malware is not able. to damage your computer. External Storage Scan: Scans all removable media connected to your PC, such as USB flash drives and external hard drives. Performance Scan: Scans your system for useless data and other issues that may be affecting your PC’s speed and security. To resolve these issues, AVG Tune UP must be installed (available separately or included in the AVG Ultimate package).
The different scanning options offered by AVG antivirus allow you to adopt multiple strategies to combat malware. For instance, a combination of the smart scan and deep scan with an external storage scan will keep your devices safe from internal and external threats.
Firewall: Protection shields
In addition to manual scans, AVG protects your system by automatically detecting and blocking dangerous files and links on the web or in your email. It does so using a combination of three “shields” — file shield, web shield, and email shield. These three shields work much like an advanced firewall. These shields prevent any malicious or dangerous files from being downloaded or copied to your device. We tested out all three shields and received satisfactory results. For instance, when trying to install a potentially dangerous file, we immediately got a pop-up saying that the download was blocked by AVG due to security reasons. When we tried to access a harmful website, the web shield immediately kicked in and blocked our access. Overall, the three shields work very well together to ensure that no harmful files can enter your device.
Ransomware Shield
Ransomware is a form of malware that locks up your device and doesn’t allow access until a hefty sum, a.k.a. a “ransom,” is paid. It’s increasingly used by hackers to extract money from users. As a result, most modern antivirus scanners include some kind of ransomware protection. AVG antivirus is no different and includes a robust ransomware protection tool. You can identify files and folders that will be protected against any alterations or deletions. As such, a hacker will be unable to gain control over the protected files. AVG’s ransomware shield is really easy to use — you just need to select the folders you want to protect, and it does the rest.
AVG Network Inspector
Public Wi-Fi networks are notoriously unsafe. When connected to public Wi-Fi, your device is susceptible to other malicious actors who may be connected to the same network. Even private WiFi networks can sometimes have vulnerabilities that go unnoticed. AVG’s network inspector does a thorough scan of your network itself and the devices connected to it to identify possible threats. It gives you a report showing the safety of your network and highlights possible threats.
Payments and phishing protection
AVG includes a fake website shield and phishing net to protect users while making payments online. The fake website shield prevents users from visiting fake shopping sites that are known to dupe users into making fraudulent payments. The phishing net is linked to AVG’s cloud database of phishing sites and prevents users from accessing these sites.
AVG TuneUp Premium
Most of us download several files onto our devices every day. Our browsers also store a ton of data and cookies on our hard drives, clogging them up. Clean-up utilities, like AVG TuneUp Premium, help delete less frequently used files and software. Additionally, TuneUp Premium also lets users determine which apps should run on start-up. This could help speed up your boot times. TuneUp Premium also deletes duplicate files and identifies bad photos that can be deleted.
Password protection (Windows only)
Another useful feature included with both AVG Internet Security and AVG Ultimate is password protection. The feature, which is available only for Windows, works with Chrome and Firefox browsers. It secures your login credentials, assesses the strength of your passwords, and warns you about potential leaks — much like any password manager.
Data shredder (Windows only)
It’s vital that confidential files and documents are deleted properly. Simply sending them to the recycle bin doesn’t rule out the possibility of files being misused by miscreants. To simplify the deletion process, AVG provides a data shredder that irreversibly deletes selected files or folders. Be careful about what you shred, though — the files can’t be recovered once shredded.
Privacy: How Does AVG Antivirus Handle Your Data?
AVG Antivirus has a mixed record when it comes to user privacy. Here are our main conclusions regarding AVG Antivirus’s privacy features:
AVG has collected and sold user data in the past. AVG antivirus offers privacy-enhancing features such as webcam protection and a Secure VPN. AVG’s privacy policy states that it collects personal data.
Given our concerns for user data, which we detail below, we rated AVG with a 5 for privacy.
Webcam protection
The webcam protection feature is available with AVG Internet Security and AVG Ultimate. It ensures that no one can use spyware to access your webcam. When webcam protection is enabled, untrusted applications cannot capture images or videos. This feature prevents malware and untrusted apps from hijacking your computer’s webcam.
Sensitive data shield
The data shield’s anti-snooping function protects confidential data from prying eyes. This is a useful feature to allow apps access to only certain files. You choose which programs can or cannot make changes to files. So if you want identity information to be accessible only with Office apps, you can specify that.
AVG Secure VPN
A VPN is now a common offering in most leading antivirus packages. AVG Ultimate is one such antivirus package as it comes with its own Secure VPN. The VPN encrypts your online browsing activity and protects your privacy from prying eyes online. AVG Secure VPN is part of the Ultimate package but can also be downloaded separately. The setup process is pretty straightforward though you have to grant certain network permissions to the Secure VPN app. The app itself is very well designed and has a big on and off toggle in the middle. You can choose from more than 40 different servers spread across the world, which is a decent number, but nowhere near other VPNs’ server networks. The other VPN settings are pretty basic when compared to dedicated VPN service providers, such as NordVPN or Surfshark. While it does have a kill switch and uses the secure IPSec protocol, it lacks other features like Onion over VPN and static IP.
AVG AntiTrack
Another privacy-focused feature in the AVG Ultimate bundle is AntiTrack. It blocks tracking attempts from websites and prevents browser fingerprinting. This helps preserve your privacy from pesky advertisers who are trying to create profiles of users by following their activity across the web. The AntiTrack user interface may seem a little daunting, but it basically shows you the number of tracking attempts that have been blocked and the top tracking sites. It also gives you an overall privacy score and provides tips on improving this score. AntiTrack can also schedule automatic cookie deletions on a weekly or monthly basis.
AVG Antivirus’s privacy policy
AVG’s privacy policy is pretty standard overall. It collects personal data related to billing, the product, and its services. A comprehensive breakdown is provided below. One thing that caught our eye was that personal data can be used to evaluate the quality of products and develop new products without user consent. This opens up possible avenues for the misuse of personal data. Of course, you can access the privacy settings in the AVG Internet Security app and disable data sharing to opt out from this.
Do note that you’ll have to alter the privacy preferences of each AVG app separately. So if you’re using the VPN, AntiTrack, and antivirus, you’ll have to change privacy settings for each, which can be quite troublesome. The AVG SecureVPN privacy policy states that users’ browsing history and originating IP address are never sent to their servers. However, some other personal data is used to optimize their products and offerings. As a result, it is not a real “no log” VPN. If you’re looking for a secure and reliable VPN, we recommend using a specialized provider such as NordVPN or CyberGhost. These VPNs are user-friendly and keep no logs.
AVG privacy scandal: Sale of user data
In 2019, it came to light that Avast had sold millions of personal user data to third parties through a subsidiary. This subsidiary has since been closed, and Avast has promised several times that it will not collect or sell non-essential data. However, we are not immediately convinced by Avast’s apologies and the promise of recovery. After all, nobody can stop the Czech company from repeating the same trick, and then apologizing for violating the privacy of its customers. While we do not assume this will happen, it does influence our final assessment.
Usability: How User-Friendly is AVG Antivirus?
Ease of use is another important aspect of any antivirus program. Our findings with regards to the usability of AVG Antivirus are:
The installation process for AVG Antivirus is quick and self-explanatory. AVG is available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. AVG offers excellent customer service for paid plans but has no customer service for the free plan.
A straightforward installation process but less-than-stellar customer support lead us to giving AVG antivirus a score of 7 for usability.
Installing AVG antivirus
The AVG website is very well designed and is available in more than 23 languages. You will immediately see a button that can be used to download the AVG antivirus Free. However, it is more difficult to find the paid versions, which are housed in the menu towards the top right of the screen.
Downloading and installing AVG Antivirus is very easy. When you open the homepage you will immediately see a green bar with the text “Free download.” On the website, you will also find links to the paid versions for your Mac, PC, and mobile devices. Follow the steps listed below to install AVG Antivirus on your device. AVG is now fully set up and should protect your device against threats!
AVG Antivirus on smartphone
AVG also offers protection for your phone or tablet. The antivirus app on Google Play is used by millions of people. The installation process is very simple and fast: When installed, the app works in the background and protects you from viruses, malware, spyware, unsafe apps, and other nasty threats.
AVG Ultimate software
AVG’s software is well laid out and easy to use. The functions are directly accessible on the home screen, which acts as a central dashboard. You can run scans and access the web and email protection features all from the dashboard. The dashboard looks like this:
While all basic features can be accessed from the dashboard, accessing more advanced features, such as a deep scan, can be a challenge. Another drawback is that each app that forms part of the AVG Ultimate suite needs to be downloaded and installed separately. Not only does this add unnecessary steps for the user, but it also clutters the desktop a fair bit. An integrated interface to control the VPN, AntiTrack, and TuneUp would be a much better approach to facilitate usability.
How easy is it to cancel an AVG Antivirus subscription?
You can easily cancel your AVG subscription. To do this, follow the steps below: AVG offers a money-back guarantee. If you are unsatisfied with your AVG subscription, you can contact them within 30 days of purchase and request a full refund.
AVG’s customer support
Customer support is an integral part of antivirus usability. Users will inevitably face some problems that they need assistance with. The speed and accuracy with which customer support can resolve your problem become important.
For more advanced issues, you will need to get in touch with AVG’s customer support staff. The most obvious way to do that is by email. However, that requires filling up a tedious form that requires your name, email address, and product details.
It took the AVG team about five hours to respond to our mail request. This is a significant amount of time, especially if you’re facing an urgent problem. While there is live chat functionality, it is very difficult to find. You need to provide your name and email address to access live chat. It took a while for the chat interface to load, slightly more than four minutes. Once we were able to connect an agent, they quickly understood our problem and pointed us in the right direction. However, the difficulty in finding live chat and the unusually long wait times bring down AVG antivirus’ overall usability score.
Speed and System Performance: Will AVG Antivirus Slow Down My System?
AVG has combined excellent scan times with minimal background problems. Some of our major observations regarding speeds and system load are the following.
Smart and comprehensive scans are relatively fast. The software does not slow down the system. An extensive scan does place much load on the CPU.
This performance lead us to giving AVG a score of 8.5 for speed and system performance.
How long does a scan take?
AVG’s smart scan only takes a minute. Meanwhile, a thorough scan took slightly more than 15 minutes in our case. These speeds are commendable and ensure that a scan does not disturb your work too much. Of course, the speed of a thorough scan will normally also depend on a number of other things:
The number of files on your computer Your RAM Type of hard drive Your CPU performance
We tested AVG Antivirus with a laptop with the following specs: MacBook Pro with a 16GB M1 Pro Processor.
How does AVG Antivirus impact my CPU?
If AVG is only running in the background, the software places almost no load on the system. The processor usage is usually between 0.4 to 0.6%. The use of the working memory is at most around 25 to 30 MB, which is reasonable. In idle (passive use), you notice little to nothing of AVG in the background.
A full scan took up about 37.2 MB, which is quite low. The use of the working memory remains more or less the same. These are excellent numbers and compare very favorably with other leading antivirus scanning options. We didn’t notice that a scan was being performed. Also, our computer didn’t get hot. We are very pleased with the system performance of AVG Antivirus.
Final Verdict: Is AVG Antivirus a Good Virus Scanner?
AVG Antivirus is a good and affordable antivirus program. It offers various security options, is user-friendly, and protects your computer against many viruses. AVG AntiVirus Free works fine, but we recommend the paid options, like AVG Internet Security and AVG Ultimate, to make your online activities even more secure. AVG provides strong antivirus protection without slowing down your computer. In terms of security, AVG scores only slightly less than other high-quality virus scanners such as Bitdefender, Norton, and Intego. Are you enthusiastic about the features and quality of AVG, and do you want to take out a subscription immediately? Then click on the button below to go to the AVG site. Would you like to check out reviews of some other leading antiviruses? Then take a look at our antivirus reviews of the different providers, check our list of the best antivirus scanners for Windows, or see how these programs compare against each other:
Sophos vs Avast: Which Antivirus Will Keep You Safer? Sophos vs Bitdefender: Which is the Better Antivirus? McAfee vs Avast: Which Antivirus Takes the Crown?
AVG Internet Security starts at around $149.99 for two years and includes most essential antivirus features, such as anti-phishing and webcam protection. For $127.99 per year, you can get AVG Ultimate, which includes optimization and tune-up facilities, in addition to all the malware protection features. For Mac, AVG can be removed by taking the following steps: However, when it comes to basic antivirus protection, AVG measures up well against Norton and other top antivirus scanners too.
