Many companies offer security at three or even four levels: free antivirus, feature-enhanced commercial antivirus, security suite, and cross-platform security mega-suite.
Avast has streamlined that pattern, with just free Windows and macOS protection plus the all-inclusive Avast Premium Security.
This product effectively replaces Avast Premier, while Avast Internet Security simply drops out of the picture.
The full cross-platform suite offers rich protection for Windows and Android, less for macOS, and very little for iOS.
At $89.99 per year for 10 cross-platform licenses, Avast is cheaper than some, more expensive than others.
Avira Prime offers five licenses for $99.99 or a whopping 25 for $129.99.
That's even better than Kaspersky Security Cloud's offer of 20 licenses for $149.99.
Norton 360 Deluxe costs $99.99 for five suite licenses, five no-limits VPN licenses, and 50GB of hosted storage for your backups.
You pay $119.99 per year for McAfee Total Protection, but that subscription lets you install protection on every device in your household.
On Windows, this suite looks almost identical to the free antivirus product.
The main Status page features a big notification saying, "You're protected," with a button to launch a Smart Scan.
A simple menu down the left side lets you switch from the Status page to view features related to Protection, Privacy, and Performance.
The main difference from the free edition is that suite-specific features aren't locked away.
Upsell Opportunities
A few apparent bonus features turn out to be extra-cost add-ons, in some cases revealing the upsell only after you've invested some time in them.
Avast Cleanup Premium scans your system for useless and erroneous file and registry items, with the aim of speeding performance by sweeping this junk away.
But when you go to resolve found problems, it asks for another $2.99 per month.
Driver Updater requires a separate installation.
After you install and run it, you learn that fixing the problems it found costs another $2.09 per month.
Avast SecureLine VPN gives you a seven-day free trial, but continued use of the VPNrequires a separate subscription of $2.89 per month.
Or is it $3.99? When I installed and ran the VPN, I got the $2.89 price at the point I tried to connect.
But when I responded to a prompt warning that my location is not private, it asked for $3.99 to license the VPN, and offered a 60-day trial.
Some of the other prices may also vary.
AntiTrack Premium is based on the technology Avast obtained when it acquired TrackOFF.
This component foils websites that track your activity by creating a fingerprint based on the copious amounts of data available from the browser.
And if you want to use it, you'll pay an extra $1.49 per month.
These subscriptions look small, on a per-month basis, but they add up.
Adding Cleanup Premium, SecureLine VPN, Driver Updater, and AntiTrack Premium for a year would more than double your Avast subscription cost.
I can't help but contrast this with Avira Prime($79.99 For 5 Devices Per Year (20% Off) at Avira).
An Avira Prime subscription gets you the premium version of every Avira product, both existing ones and new ones that may arise.
That's quite an offer.
If Avast's wider product line looks attractive, if you do want all the goodies, you might consider the Avast Ultimate bundle.
For $99.99 per year, you get a single-license subscription to Avast Premier plus the paid versions of Avast SecureLine VPN, Cleanup Premium, and Passwords.
Presuming you wanted them all, that's nearly $200 of products for about $100.
Note, though, that unlike other products in the Avast store, this one doesn't show any discounts for multi-device licenses.
And Avast AntiTrack is still an extra cost.
Features Shared With Avast Free Antivirus
Avast Free Antivirus comes with Avast's full arsenal of malware protection, plus a useful collection of bonus features.
It's one of our Editors' Choice products for free antivirus, and naturally this suite includes all the same protective features.
You can read my review of the free antivirus for a deep dive on the features shared by both products.
I'll summarize my discoveries here.
Lab Test Results Chart
Malware Protection Results Chart
Phishing Protection Results Chart
All four of the independent testing labs that I follow track Avast closely.
It earned 17.5 of 18 possible points in tests by AV-Test Institute.
It achieved an Advanced+ rating (the highest possible rating) in three tests by AV-Comparatives, and Advanced in a fourth.
SE Labs certified it at the AAA level, the best of five certification levels.
This time around, it failed both rigorous tests imposed by MRG-Effitas, but then, many products do.
I use an algorithm to map all scores onto a 10-point scale and generate an aggregate result.
Avast came in at decent 92 points, with results from all four labs.
Of the products tested by all four labs, Avira, Norton 360 Deluxe, and Kaspersky did best, with aggregate scores of 9.9, 9.8, and 9.7 respectively.
Avast earned 8.4 points in my own hands-on malware protection test.
That's just a middling score, but Kaspersky and Bitdefender Total Security($39.98 for 5-Devices on 1-Year Plan at Bitdefender) came in around the same.
When the labs praise products that don't do well in my own tests, I listen to the labs.
Malwarebytes, Sophos, and Windows Defender detected 98 percent of these samples and all scored 9.8.
Webroot SecureAnywhere Internet Security Completedetected 100 percent of the same samples, but not-quite-perfect blocking meant it scored 9.7 points.
To get insight into how well each product handles the very latest malware problems, I start with a feed of malware-hosting URLs discovered by MRG-Effitas within the last few days.
I launch each and note whether the antivirus blocked URL access, wiped out the download, or did nothing.
Avast scored 90 percent in this test, which is decent, but not at the very top.
McAfee, Sophos, and Vipre Advanced Security managed a perfect 100 percent.
Phishing websites don't attempt to plant malware on your system or subvert vulnerable applications.
Instead, they try to trick you, the user, into blithely giving away your precious login credentials.
To this end, they imitate sensitive websites such as banking sites, shopping sites, even gaming and dating sites.
It just takes one unsuspecting victim to make the whole charade worthwhile.
Phishing protection in Avast has two prongs, a browser-independent Web Shield and an Online Security browser extension for Chrome and Firefox.
Both are needed.
Without the browser extension, Avast Free Antivirus scored a dismal 81 percent for phishing detection.
Adding the extension brought that up to 97 percent.
That's very good, though Kaspersky and Trend Micro Internet Security(39.95 3 PCs / 1 Year at Trend Micro Small Business) took a perfect 100 percent.
According to my Avast contacts, the premium product's Web Shield "has an extra layer of phishing protection from the Free product." I dutifully ran my antiphishing test again, this time in Internet Explorer, which gets no help from a browser extension.
The results came in quite a bit better than they did for the free antivirus, and testing again with the Online Security extension helping brought the results slightly higher, but didn't top Avast Free's score.
I let that previous score stand.
See How We Test Security Software
Other Shared Features
Clicking the Smart Scan button on the main window launches a multifaceted system scan.
It checks for browser threats, flags software that lacks security patches, scans for active malware, and warns about "advanced issues".
That scan took about five minutes in testing, while a full system scan for malware ran 34 minutes.
The free edition's scan found three advanced issues, all of them requesting an upgrade to Premium.
Running the same scan in Premium naturally found nothing to worry about.
The Wi-Fi Inspector crawls your network (Wi-Fi or wired) and lists all found devices.
In a modern household, full of Internet of Things devices, the list can be quite long.
It displays its findings visually, with the router at the center surrounded by concentric circles of icons.
Devices that have connected most recently show up in the innermost circles.
And it flags possible network security problems.
This feature works in much the same way as the free and separately available Avira Home Guard and Bitdefender Home Scanner utilities.
Implemented as a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, Avast's password manager component handles all the basics.
It captures credentials as you log in to secure sites, and offers to replay them when you revisit those sites.
It handles multiple sets of credentials for the same site, and two-page login forms don't give it trouble.
Avast doesn't offer a complete form-fill system, but it will fill credit card data in web forms.
You won't find advanced features like secure password sharing or two-factor authentication, but it takes care of the essential tasks of a password manager.
The Online Security feature, also implemented as a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, adds another layer of defense against malicious and fraudulent websites.
It marks dangerous links in search results pages.
You can use it to actively block ad trackers and other trackers from gathering information about your online activities.
Its SiteCorrect feature kicks in when you misspell a popular domain name, keeping you safe from typosquatting sites.
You've heard again and again how important it is to install all security updates.
But keeping everything up to date can be so frustrating! When you launch an app, you want to use it, not spend time on a suggested update.
Avast's Software Updater component works in the background to locate apps with missing security patches; you can also manually run a scan whenever you like.
Just click the button to automatically install all found updates.
Easy! In the Premium product you can make it even easier by turning on Automatic Updates.
With that setting enabled, Avast takes care of updates entirely in the background.
Robust Firewall
So, just what do you get by upgrading from the free antivirus to the full security suite? For starters, the suite adds a robust two-way firewall component.
That's the heart of most suites—antivirus plus a personal firewall.
For firewall testing, I use a physical PC that's configured to connect through the router's DMZ port, which effectively connects it directly to the Internet.
When I challenged the test system with port scans and other web-based tests, it correctly put all the ports in stealth mode, so external attackers couldn't even see them.
This is no great feat, given that Windows Firewall alone can do it.
It's only relevant if a product fails to do what the built-in firewall can.
The other major task for a personal firewall is making sure programs don't abuse their access to your network and internet connections.
The firewall components in Norton and Kaspersky configure permissions for known programs and keep an eye on unknowns, making their own security decisions.
I approve; relying on the user to make important security decisions is a bad idea.
Other firewalls handle unknowns differently.
For example, Panda Dome Complete simply allows outbound connections but blocks unsolicited inbound connections.
For program control, Avast defaults to a mode called Auto-decide, meaning that (like Norton) it makes its own decision about each new program.
For testing, I tried switching to Ask mode.
Doing so didn't result in a spate of popups about internal Windows components, because Avast had already created rules for those components in Auto-decide mode.
When I tried to get online using a browser that I coded myself, Avast first ran a quick analysis on the never-before-seen program.
After vetting the program as safe, it asked whether to allow or deny its access to the internet.
Avast, unlike many competitors, defines five levels of network access, but only a true firewall expert should consider switching away from the default level the firewall suggests.
If you click deny when you meant allow, or vice versa, you can open the full list of applications and correct your mistake.
This list also shows all the application rules that Avast's Auto-decide mode created on its own.
Digging deeper into the firewall's settings, you can find extremely complex rules that even I wouldn't consider editing.
Leave these alone!
Protecting against network-based attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in the operating system or important apps is not precisely a firewall function, but it's often included.
Exploit defense isn't something Avast attempts, as I verified in past reviews.
As part of my firewall evaluation, I check to make sure a malware coder couldn't simply turn off protection.
I couldn't find any chinks in Avast's armor.
It protected its Registry settings against modification, and when I tried to terminate its processes, I got the message "Access Denied." The same happened when I tried to disable its essential Windows services.
Neither could I simply stop the services; doing so triggered a confirmation popup that required user permission.
Although it doesn't block exploits at the network level, this is a sturdy firewall.
If you leave its program control components in Auto-decide mode, it will do the job without a plethora of popups.
Ransomware Shield
Any time malware slips past your security product's real-time protection, it's bad.
However, in most cases the malware doesn't enjoy its freedom for long; the antivirus company quickly pushes out an update to smack down the zero-day offender.
But that's no help if the malware has already encrypted your important documents.
Like many competitors, Avast offers an additional layer of ransomware protection.
The Ransomware Shield component blocks all unauthorized modification of files in protected folders, and you can bet a ransomware attacker isn't on the authorized list.
By default, Ransomware Shield protects the Desktop, Pictures, and Documents folders for all users.
If you keep important files in other folders, add them to the protected list.
By default, Avast protects Archive, Audio, Database, Disc, Document, Picture, and Video files.
Hover over each category to see which filetypes it includes.
You can add any filetypes that don't appear in any category, such as TXT files.
When a program tries to modify any protected file,...
