AVG AntiVirus is a line of antivirus software developed by AVG Technologies, a subsidiary of Avast. It is available for Windows, macOS and Android. For this study, “malware protection” encompassed all stages of the malicious samples’ introduction to the system — before, during, and after execution. By observing each stage, the lab got a holistic picture of the security capabilities. In some cases, an antivirus didn’t recognize a malware that was inactive, but detected and blocked it once it activated. The test allowed each software product to fully use its resources, including cloud-based detection mechanisms, so that every last line of defense was given a chance.

AVG Free Antivirus performed better than average in every category, protecting against all 20,046 samples and scoring an Online Protection Rate of 100%. Even though the malware samples were new and amped up with the latest sophistication and dirty tricks, AVG left every one of them blocked and neutralized.

False positives occur when an antivirus mistakes a safe file for an infected one. Your antivirus software should have a minimum of these, or else you’re dealing with unnecessary headaches on a fairly regular basis. AV-Comparatives always checks for false positives, and for this one, the average amount each product had was 50. AVG, however, only had nine, proving that it knows good from bad much better than most.

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