Avast helps secure the data present in your computer, browser, mobile, and other devices and tune up device performance by clearing suspicious, unnecessary files.
Today, almost everyone is using the internet daily at home, office, cafe, mall, and so on. This rising number of internet users has also led to an increased number of hackers and spammers.
To stop them from stealing your personal and sensitive data, you need a protection shield that not only can stop them from accessing your devices but also boost the performance of your devices.
Avast is the rescuer of your data, allowing you to use your device, surf the internet, and browse the web without any worries while maintaining the privacy and security of your family.
Let’s discuss Avast, what it offers, and some alternatives to it.
What Is Avast?
Avast is a cybersecurity software that can protect your browsers, computers, firewalls, anti-phishing or anti-virus software, anti-spam software, and antispyware. It works on macOS, Microsoft Windows, iOS, and Android.
Eduard Kučera and Pavel Baudiš founded Avast in 1988, formerly known as Alwil Software, as a cooperative. In 2010, the name was changed to Avast.
Avast appeals to excellent protection against cyber threats. It is one of the biggest anti-virus software that not only scans your browsers or devices but also inspects the online network, blocks suspicious downloads, and protects your webcam.
In addition, it offers a VPN Service for secure browsing and leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Avast’s Capabilities
#1. Anti-virus
Avast anti-virus allows you to stay protected against malware and viruses with its free software. It lets you browse and send emails, run Wi-Fi networks in your home, install applications, and do many things more securely with this secure software. This anti-virus includes the following capabilities:
- Smart Scan: It scans your device to find out vulnerabilities.
- CyberCapture: It sends suspicious files automatically for analysis in the cloud and then gives a suitable solution to users if needed.
- Behavior Shield: It sends alerts immediately whenever any of the applications in your system start behaving suspiciously.
- File Shield: It notifies you about suspicious files while opening them.
- Rescue Disk: It scans your system while your device is in switched-off mode so that you can securely remove malware or anti-virus from your system.
- Quarantine: It stores harmful files and isolates them securely from the rest of the documents in your operating system.
I could find many security and privacy features in the software, such as:
- Wi-Fi network security: Connect with confidence on public or unsecured Wi-Fi networks by blocking intruders and hackers and stopping them from accessing your personal and sensitive files. You will get a Network Inspector and Firewall to block malicious intrusions.
- Safe browsing and emailing: It allows you to stay safe while emailing, browsing, or working online. You can block unsafe downloads and malicious websites and secure your device from hijacking. You will get Botnet Shield, Web Shield, and Mail Shield to protect your device against viruses or malware, malicious websites, and email attachments.
- Ransomware protection: It enables you to stop hackers from changing, locking, or accessing your personal files. You will get Ransomware Shield to keep your information safe, and don’t let your files, documents, and photos become hostage to ransomware.
- Data leak alerts: Get an instant alert if any of your passwords linked to your account have been compromised.
#2. Avast One
Avast One is the all-in-one online guardian that can protect you from viruses and other risks. I could witness powerful performance and leveraged privacy tools like device cleanup and VPN. It can:
- Block malware and viruses
- Enables privacy with its unlimited, fast anti-tracking and VPN technology
- Offers robust anti-ransomware and anti-scam protection
- Speeds up, updates, and cleans up your devices
- Identifies compromised passwords
- Gives alerts on online leaks of financial and personal information
- Identifies theft and gives 24/7 assistance
Pricing:
- Essential: It is a free plan that protects your device and allows you to connect with a free VPN securely (5GB/week).
- Individual: After the discount, it costs you $4.19/month for an individual and $5.79/month for a family. You will get all the premium features with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Platinum: It costs you $9.99/month and protects 6 family members with 30 devices. You will get a 30-day money-back guarantee with premium features.
#3. Driver Updater
Avast Driver Updater enables you to keep your devices and their accessories running smoothly. It helps you update, scan, and fix your computer’s drivers easily. It lets you:
- Scan for outdated drivers automatically
- Experience smoother downloading and browsing
- Get sharper graphics and better audio
- Reduce system or hardware issues
- Experience less crashing and freezing
Driver Updater detects missing, outdated, corrupt, or old drivers, fixes vulnerabilities and bugs, and backs up current drivers. When I updated graphics drivers, I noticed enhanced performance and experienced crisper images in games, multimedia applications, media editing, streaming, and virtual reality.
Avast adds the Helper to Driver Updater, enabling you to update drivers according to the type of problem’. It works like an assistant to help you solve your driver issues instantly.
Pricing:
- You can download the free trial to experience the application for free.
- You can buy the software at $43.99/year for one Windows PC.
#4. Performance Booster
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Avast Cleanup can boost your device performance, improve battery life, and let you regain your storage space. It can free up space, detox the photo library, tune up performance, and boost battery life.
- Free up storage: You can clean up temporary files, invisible cache files, thumbnails, and old APKs. In addition, you can clean up unused data, such as saved YouTube videos, Spotify songs, and more. Also, it helps you to clean your empty folders, clipboard leftovers, and advertising caches.
- Optimize photo library: It helps you find and get rid of similar, poor quality, old, and duplicate photos automatically. You can optimize the size of the photo and move the originals to the cloud. This way, you can identify the ‘best photo’ out of the group.
- Tune up performance: Stop the applications that steal your phone’s resources by stopping battery, memory, traffic, and CPU draining applications. You can remove pre-installed applications.
- Boost battery life: You can turn off your phone features, such as Wi-Fi, mobile data, Bluetooth, and background sync. In addition, you can optimize your battery usage depending on whether you are in your home, work, or car.
Pricing:
Get your old devices to look like new by downloading the software from the Google Play Store for free for one Android device. You can buy the Cleanup software at $2.89/month for 10 Android devices and get a 30-day money-back guarantee.
#5. AntiTrack System
With the Avast AntiTrack system, you can stop advertisers from tracking you and disguise your online identity by strengthening your privacy. Websites gather information to build your unique online profile that an advertiser can use for many purposes. Avast’s anti-tracking software alerts you when someone tries to track you.
AntiTrack system stops advertisers from using your browser settings and online activities to identify and spam you with advertising. In addition, you can stop advertisers from using price discrimination to increase the cost of everything you are looking at, like healthcare, insurance plans, or plane tickets.
Your browser has all the information, and it can expose this information to data miners, advertisers, or anyone who wants it. You can take your privacy back and keep your identity private with the AntiTrack system. Thus, it allows you to stop online tracking, check privacy status, disguise online profiles, hide browser history, secure browsers, and more.
Pricing:
Get an AntiTrack system at $54.99/year for your single Windows or Mac PC. For 10 devices, it costs you $64.99/year.
#6. BreachGuard Protection
You can protect your online information against leaks, losses, breaches, and collections by third parties on the dark web. BreachGuard knows what steps to take whenever your privacy is under attack.
The software monitors your system 24/7 for data breaches and checks for leaks to protect your information from hackers. In addition, it doesn’t allow any companies to collect and sell your sensitive information. You will get advice on adjusting your privacy settings.
Data brokers or companies create a profile of you to track what you do, including health, financial, and address info in order to sell. BreachGuard removes your personal information from these companies to stop them from collecting your data. It controls the number of private info you share publicly and stops hackers from spying on you.
You can rely on US-based specialists to solve identity theft issues on the go. You just need to inform the specialists of your issues, like suspicious emails, credit freezes, and more, to resolve them faster.
Pricing:
Get BreachGuard at $43.99/year for your single Windows or Mac PC and avail yourself of a 30-day money-back guarantee.
#7. Secure Identity
Avast’s identity theft protection secures your identity by continuously monitoring and sending alerts whenever there is a data leak. It monitors the web, even the dark web, and social media 24/7 to find out the leaks of your personal information like credit card details, passwords, and bank accounts.
In addition, Avast’s Secure Identity software gives 1:1 personal assistance, solving identity theft issues. It also monitors your credit reports for suspicious activity.
Pricing:
Get a one-month subscription at $9.99 and secure your identity. You can choose yearly plans at $7.49/month (for 1 year) and $6.99/month (for 2 years).
#8. VPN Service
Secure your Wi-Fi connection, access the content you love, strengthen your privacy, and hide your IP address wherever you are by downloading Avast’s SecureLine VPN on your Android, iOS, and Mac devices. This one is designed for those who want the freedom of being online.
You can stop third parties from tracking your online activities so that you can access your content without any worry. In addition, you can choose from various speedy servers worldwide to enjoy faster browsing.
SecureLine VPN protects you against network threats, scammers, and hackers with a single click. It uses bank-grade encryption to secure your communication through a safe tunnel. Furthermore, you can stream the shows you are interested in and access websites by avoiding content restrictions.
Avast is constantly enhancing the performance and speed of the servers so that you can have the online experience you wish. Also, you can stream your favorite shows on your smart TV, Mi Box, or Nvidia Shield TV.
Pricing:
You can install SecureLine VPN software on your iOS, Android, and Mac devices and get a 30-day money-back guarantee.
#9. Secure Browser
You can use Avast’s Secure Browser to do online things securely and strengthen your privacy. It is designed by Avast security experts to allow faster browsing.
It offers unlimited VPN for free so that you can stop hackers and spammers from stealing information and encrypting your IP address, downloads, DNS queries, bookmarks, and browsing data.
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The secure browser blocks online ads automatically to improve the website load time. It includes multiple layers of privacy protection to protect you from online tracking by masking your digital identity. You can sync bookmarks and history between your mobile devices and desktops to experience full encryption.
Pricing:
You can download Secure Browser software for free for your Mac, iOS, Android, and PC.
#10. Online Security and Privacy
Avast’s Security and Privacy browser extension is perfect for browsing or surfing the internet more privately. You can add essential security against phishing and malicious websites and prevent your browsing data with this browser extension.
Online Security and Privacy extensions can handle website cookies easily. It lets you avoid dealing with cookies every time you open a website. In addition, it allows you to keep your activities hidden, get step-by-step advice, and block online snoops. You will get safe searches, secure browsing, and phishing protection with its security features.
Pricing:
The browser extension is free to use.
#11. Avast for Home and Business
Avast offers never-ending options for your personal, family, or business use. I have discussed products that are especially useful for home use, whether you are browsing or using an internet connection for other purposes.
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Furthermore, you can protect your devices used in your small office or home office. Once you set up, you will get 24/7 assistance that helps you monitor and manage security across the company devices. For a wide range of devices used in your small business, you will get Avast’s products – Patch Management, Cloud Backup, CCleaner, Premium Remote Control, and Anti-virus for Linux.
Alternatives
If what you are looking for is not included in Avast, you can check with some alternatives I will discuss below.
#1. Avira
Block suspicious and malicious applications with Avira and clean up your phone. It provides all the necessary security tools you need for a private and Secure digital life.
You will get anti-virus protection, free VPN service, anti-theft, speed booster, identity safeguard, network scanner, permission manager, and more. In the Avira pricing package, you can discover security, privacy, and performance features.
#2. Norton
Get Norton’s easy-to-use cybersecurity and anti-virus protection for advanced online threats. It blocks hackers and spammers from your devices, keeping the online activity private.
You will get different products for your different security needs, including Norton Anti-virus, Norton 360 Standard, Norton 360 Deluxe, and Norton 360 with LifeLock Select.
The price for securing your browsing and protecting your identity with Norton starts at $19.99 for the first year.
#3. McAfee
Get AI-powered protection with McAfee and stop receiving scam texts. It scans the URL and alerts you when it detects any scam link in your text messages.
McAfee blocks suspicious or risky links from texts, social media, and emails if you click the link accidentally. You can protect your personal and family data from breaches and leaks.
You can directly download the McAfee mobile or tablet application or choose any plan for your PC at a starting price of $29.99/year.
#4. AVG
Experience powerful and effective protection from malware and viruses with AVG.
It offers:
- AVG Internet Security: It provides ransomware and webcam protection to ensure no one can access your camera or change files without your permission. It starts at $3.89/month for a single PC.
- AVG Anti-virus: This product is free for Android users and guards your mobile and maintains privacy by giving protection from unsafe apps.
- AVG Tuneup: It makes your system run smoother, longer, and faster. It starts at $29.99/year for one device.
- AVG Secure VPN: It provides 256-bit AES and bank-grade encryption to keep your online activity away from hackers, curious agencies, and nosy neighbors. It starts at $4.39/month for 10 devices.
- AVG for business: You will get the security you need, from anti-virus to file server security, for your small or medium businesses. It starts at $46.99/year/device.
Conclusion
Avast is developed to protect your personal information from being hijacked or leaked. It works with macOS, Android, iOS, and Microsoft Windows, so you never have to worry about security and performance issues.
I discussed Avast products in the above article with their pricing list so that you can choose the best security product for your personal or family use.
Next, check out the best Android anti-virus for better online protection.
