What are the best free and paid antivirus for all devices? 2022 list

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The growth of computer systems and technology has been immense and thanks to this, a large number of programs have emerged that simplify the day-to-day development of its users. However, despite the notable efforts made by security agencies and software development companies, viruses continue to stay in them.

In this way, malicious programs are still a threat to all users, since they can cause damage to their private information, as well as their devices. Taking into account that, There is still no solution with the ability to eradicate the scourge of malware and its fearsome consequences on computers and devices.

However, despite the fact that there is no definitive fix for this, you can make use of other alternatives that allow you to perform your tasks with relative safety and browse the Internet freely. Thus, the most effective alternative, are the antivirus available for all devices and then we detail all the information regarding this.

What is an antivirus and how do these computer programs work?

how does an antivirus work

For many years, viruses and malware, like all threats of this type; lurk Internet users and can be contracted in different ways, taking into account that they manage to enter your computers or devices in a sophisticated and treacherous way. But, in order to avoid this, the famous computer antivirus.

In this sense, an antivirus can be defined as a set of programs that show the ability to protect your computer, your mobile or tablet; from any harm that may be caused by malicious software, programs or applications. Thus, this name has its origin in the fact that it is a tool designed to combat computer viruses, originally.

Now, beyond managing to combat these viruses and eliminate them, antiviruses also are responsible for the maintenance of operating systems and encompass countless functions, today. Taking into account that, today, they are advanced solutions with all the power of detect any malwaresuch as: Trojans, worms, keyloggers, adware, spyware, etc.

On the other hand, regarding its operation, antiviruses they work in the background reviewing each file that is opened on the computer or device where they are installed. Thus, it proceeds to compare these files with a database containing all types of existing virusesto find out if there are any of these threats, in a highly efficient way.

In addition to this, antiviruses also deal with scan entire hard drive of computers and in that way, they are very useful to repair a computer that is already infected and detect properly, what is the fault.

What are the most important features that an antivirus program should have?

What are the most important features that an antivirus program should have

Now, despite the fact that there are countless antivirus solutions on the market, not all of them are so effective. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account the most relevant characteristics that an antivirus must exhibit when choosing it, so that this manage to do a good job, detecting and avoiding all the variety of viruses and malware that appear.

Here are the main and most essential characteristics of an antivirus program:

Ability to detect and react to a new virus: An optimal antivirus should not only be limited to the detection of some types of malicious programs, that is to say, it is important that it manages to search for and exterminate any kind of threat that comes your way.
Guarantee protection in real time: Given that computers are online all the time, it is valuable that antivirus programs manage to protect you from any threat in real time and not only when you are the one who orders the action to be taken.
Systematic update: Although not all of them have this function, the truth is that there are already many solutions with the ability to update systematically, in order to provide you with complete and optimal assistance.
Must have verification options: Verify that the antivirus you are going to use can be configured to perform deep and fast checks at the same time. Additionally, it should offer you options for places to scan.
Minimal memory usage: In order that the other activities can be executed normally even when the antivirus is running, it is important that the solution in question uses little memory and runs in the background without revealing any problems.
email protection: The best virus and malware protection software should be integrated into email management programs, in order to prevent users from being contaminated with threats contained in received messages.

Other features of interest

Minimal detection of false positives or false viruses.
Creation of emergency or rescue disks.
Verification of startup and possible changes in the application registry.
Great disinfection capacity.
Alert about a possible infection through the different entry routes, such as: Internet, email, network and/or floppy disks.
Presence of different detection and analysis methods.

Is it really the best and most useful thing to use an antivirus? Advantages and disadvantages of doing it

On the other hand, much has been questioned about the use of antivirus on computers and for that reason, users do not know if it is really useful to use this computer security tool or not. Given this doubt, it should be noted that it is considered very helpful to use an antivirus, currently; but also depends on the case.

In that sense, if it is a personal computer that is only used by its owner and no other person has access to it, the requirement for antivirus software is not that important. Well, it will simply be necessary if the owner’s usage habits request it.

That way, it will be more relevant than the person use the equipment responsibly and avoid infecting the system with malware. But, in case you have irresponsible browsing habits and do not take into account certain parameters to stay safe from these threats, installing a virus will be extremely decisive and essential.

For its part, it is worth noting that, if the case is based on a shared computer, the use of an antivirus will be a totally essential rule. Since, not all users will perform the same tasks or have the same knowledge about computer security to prevent virus infection. In such a way that, to avoid any risk, the installation of an optimal antivirus is more than useful.

Is it really the best and most useful thing to use an antivirus? Advantages and disadvantages of doing it

Advantage

Among other things, to better understand the usefulness of antivirus software, it is worth specifying what are the advantages that these reveal, mainly.

Then the older ones worth:

secures virus protection and thus, it will prevent threats such as Trojans, malware and spyware from entering; on your computer or device.
Offers identity theft protectionso you can prevent the illegal use of personal identity to commit crimes.
reveal great comfort, since you won’t have to be worrying about the security of your equipment. Taking into account that, with the appropriate antivirus activated and running, you will simply receive a notification that a virus has been detected and will ask you if you want to eliminate it.
There are antivirus solutions very cheap and even free. So, they allow you to save money while protecting you.
many antiviruses provide parental control and thanks to this, you will be able to protect the little ones in the house by monitoring how much time they spend online and limiting the downloads or the sites they can visit, for example.

Disadvantages

However, the use of an antivirus is not always as effective as it seems and for this reason, it is necessary to know what are the main disadvantages or cons exhibited by this type of tool:

Having antivirus software installed with multiple detection methods is not enough. Therefore, these tools they don’t protect you completely.
In many cases, these programs can decrease the performance of your computer or networksince many use a significant amount of computer memory and hard drive space, thus ending up slowing down the system.
Some antivirus software cannot use all existing detection methods and because of this, reveal limited detection techniques and, consequently, they will not be able to locate all the threats that access the computer.
Wide variety of these solutions no real-time analyticsso its operation can be very tedious for users and it will not offer complete coverage in terms of security.
Various antiviruses are likely to have bugs and point out malicious files when they really are not; thus showing poor performance.

Types of antivirus How are these softwares classified?

Additionally, it is also opportune to identify which are all the types of antivirus that exist and with this, specify how these computer security tools are classified.

Next, we introduce each of the types of antivirus, according to various aspects, with its main characteristics:

According to your category

One of the classifications of antivirus software is based on the category or condition they reveal, which is linked to its way of acting and the place where it is installed:

active antivirus: Although this program cannot perform constant protection, it runs and works based on some kind of action continuously.
passive antivirus: Although it is always installed on the computer, it does not show permanent operation or protection.
offline antivirus: It is installed on the computer mainly for your protection and also for threat detection and to remove any malicious applications.
online antivirus: Performs the analysis directly from the Internet, since it is not installed on the computer. Thus, it is used only to find out if there is a virus on the computer.

according to its function

Because the various functions with which these programs can comply in their fight to identify any computer threat and suppress it, They are also classified according to their purpose:

detectors: They are responsible for notifying users of the presence of a known virus. But, it is only the user who can fix the problem to get rid of the present infection.
Eliminators-repairers: Its objective is based on eliminating the threats from the affected parts of the system and in addition to that, they manage to repair the computer to return it to normal.
heuristics: They are a kind of simulator, because they are responsible for faking the execution of programs in order to be able to see how they behave and from this, they identify suspicious situations.
immunizers: They have the ability to anticipate the entry or attack of any malicious program. In this way, they are in charge of monitoring the execution of the applications, copying the files and formatting the disks.
residents: Its main function is to analyze the software from the first moment in which the user accesses it and with it, it examines whether the file contains viruses or not.

According to your specific objective

This classification is based on the specific tools that are part of each antivirus solution, especially in its full versions for prevent specific threats.

Here are the types that exist:

anti-malware: This is a program that has the necessary functions to block and delete any form of existing malware. Keeping in mind that malwares are malicious programs that infiltrate computers to quickly damage them.
Firewall or Firewall: They are preventive tools that act as a defense wall to be able to block the access of malicious programs to a system. Its most special objective is to control the incoming and outgoing traffic, as well as to stop all mysterious activities.
anti-spam: It is defined as a utility used to avoid the arrival of any junk mail to your email inbox and thus, sends them to the recycling bin. These types of emails are also known as “spam”.
anti-spyware: They have the ability to detect and remove spyware that is installed hidden on your computer, in order to know all the user’s browsing habits and other personal data to proceed to transmit them to an unauthorized entity.
Anti-pop-ups: They identify and prevent the execution of pop-up windows that are displayed when you surf the net. Which often hide spyware.

According to its purpose

Finally, we refer to this category of the types of antivirus that exist. Taking into account that, in this case, the program has certain possibilities to liquidate a certain virus:

Antivirus identifiers: As its name indicates, they are responsible for identifying threats that can negatively influence the performance of the operating system. Therefore, its functionality consists of exploring said system and examining the byte sequences of the codes linked to dangerous software.
Preventive antivirus: Its particularity is based on anticipating the infection to prevent a malicious program from accessing the computer. However, since they are stored in the computer’s memory, they can slow down the computer’s operation and therefore are not as widely used.
decontaminating antivirus: They are focused on ending the infection that has caused the damage to the computer and for this reason, they are responsible for eliminating existing viruses to return the system to its natural state.

What is the most powerful and secure antivirus in the world today?

Without a doubt, the best antivirus is the one that provides the most complete functions and truly effective tools with which manages to guarantee complete security in the system, so that your computer can be kept free of viruses. But while most computer security solutions promise this, very few antivirus software actually offer comprehensive support.

In this sense, although it is not easy to classify a single antivirus as the best among the hundreds of proposals that are on the market, there is certainly one of them that shows a remarkable capacity and today, you can consider as the most optimal antivirus of all.

Thus, it is about Windows Defender that has all the tools required to be able to combat viruses and threats, based on one of the best virus definition databases and, furthermore, in real time.

What is the most powerful and secure antivirus in the world today?

Among other reasons why it is considered an excellent antivirus, it is because it is an alternative that does not bother the user at all, thanks to the fact that it runs in the background and does not interrupt your tasks and actions with messages or pop-ups. Also, Windows Defender uses few system resources (such as RAM and CPU) and thus does not interfere with other activities that are carried out on the computer.

Are free antiviruses really 100% free or do they hide something?

One of the biggest doubts that Internet users have regarding antivirus programs is regarding the gratuitousness of these; since it is considered strange and suspicious to receive complete security assistance without paying absolutely and even more so, within the world of computing.

In this sense, it is necessary to emphasize that At the antivirus level, there is no criterion that something can be delivered for nothing. Therefore, free antiviruses are not truly free.

In this way, the companies that develop antivirus solutions design their programs with the aim of allowing their download and installation without the user spending money on it, which they actually end up paying for it somehow.

Well, although people are not fully aware, when they accept the terms and conditions of the antivirus, they are allowing the company to sell the data to companies that engage in advertisingthat is, navigation and tracking data (not personal information).

This means that, when purchasing an antivirus “free”a kind of contract for the provision of a service is created in which, for the fact of obtaining antivirus protection, you will have to pay a price based on receiving advertising on the webwhich is oriented under the criteria of your browsing data.

Being so, an affordable cost, since they will not use your personal information at any time; unless it is a solution of doubtful origin.

In which operating systems can we install protectors against malware on our computers?

Believe it or not, it is not possible to install antivirus or malware protectors on all operating systems and given this clarification, most users will be wondering in which OS they will be able to use these computer solutions to protect their equipment and, of course, safeguard their personal information.

In this way, we limit that all users of Windows, Linux, Mac and Android They have excellent alternatives to install on your computers, smartphones or tablets in order to avoid or eliminate any possible virus.

Either through free or paid software or applications. Taking into account that, on the contrary, Apple’s well-known operating system, known as iOS, does not allow the installation of these tools on its computers and the reason for this, we let you know, below.

Table of Best Antiviruses according to platform or device
antivirus for android	Anti virus for iPhone	Anti virus applications
Antivirus for Windows 10	Antivirus for Windows 8	Antivirus for Windows 7
antivirus for mac	antivirus for linux	Laptop Anti-Virus
portable antivirus	USB Anti-Virus

Why is there no antivirus for Apple’s iOS operating systems?

Is there no antivirus for iOS?

Certainly, there is no antivirus for the iPhone and iPad, since Apple doesn’t accept antivirus apps on the App Store. This is because they ensure that the iOS platform designed by Apple has a very secure core, from which they claim that this operating system is 100% infallible and for this reason, it does not require any antivirus.

In that sense, despite being classified as an extremely arrogant statement by the company, it is worth accepting that said Apple operating system it has been designed to be completely secure.

Mainly, thanks to the fact that its apps they run in their own “sandbox” or secure environments that isolate said applications and keep them away from the data of others, in order to prevent them from corrupting the files hosted on the OS.

Therefore, it is guaranteed that no iOS app will be able to compromise or usurp any user datasince he will not be able to leave his own “sandbox”. This being one of the most useful and best strategies in terms of security in the world of computing.

Taking into account that, apart from that, as another security measure Apple restricts the installation of official apps from the App Store on iPhone and iPad and therefore, it fully controls the code of the applications before making the approval to be able to enter its store.

List of the best free and paid antivirus for Windows, Linux or Mac computers

Clarified all of the above, it is time to start with this list, in which you can find out about the best antivirus for Windows, Linux and Mac computers; taking into consideration free and paid solutions too:

Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition

Compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac OS, this operating system is one of the most recommended, due to its high levels of protection against malware. Thus, a free and paid solution at the same time, with what can be considered as one of the fastest free scanning antivirus software on the market today.

Main features

Offers auto scan on all teams.
Malware detection account based on behavior Or, it analyzes everything based on the potential activity of a process before doing anything.
Provides a complete phishing protection.
Has digital vault and thanks to this, it encrypts all the files that you prefer to keep safe, thus preventing any changes.
Their paid versionincludes: permanent file destroyer, parental control tools, provides online banking protection, has a firewall and advanced ransomware protection.