Free or Paid Antivirus?

Should (or should I not) pay for antivirus/anti-spyware/anti-malware software. Well everything has its pros and cons.

Pros and Cons of Free Antivirus/Anti-Spyware/Anti-malware software/suites

Pros

• It's free so everyone can get protected
• Usually does a good enough job for the value
• Rivals paid options.

Cons

• Can have lousy detection or removal of threats
• Most only update once or twice a day
• Software can be bloated, or slow
• Help comes at a cost

Pros and cons of Paid Anti-virus/Anti-Spyware-Antimalware Software/Suites

Pros

• Since you pay for it, more protection, and speeder protection are a must
• Competition amongst vendors for dollar value
• Usually comes with free support
• Much faster updates (every min, or every hour)
• Lighter, easier to use
• More protection for users who might not be aware of the dark-side of the Internet

Cons

1. $60-$150 a year can add up
2. More advanced users don't need to pay (a smart user is better then any software)
3. Introduces ransom-ware which pretends to be like known solutions like Norton Antivirus

So overall its up too you and your needs. If you are a technical user (e.g. don't download cracks, view porn, don't click on links in your email, etc) then free a free antivirus/antispyware like Microsoft Security Essentials is what you need.

If you have someone who is less technical, like a child or grandma/grandpa then Bullguard is your option. It has a firewall, spam filter, is an antivirus-antispyware, has free 24/7 support (that's acutually nice), and you get a free 2 month trial. Bullguard is powered by Bitdefender so its frequently updated, and detects pretty much everything.

If you want the all in one package then get Norton Internet Security. It has a firewall, spam filter, network viewer (to view what computers are on your network), cloud technologies (auto reports new files, downloads updates every few minutes), its fast, only scans the files that have changed, can save your log-ins, has website trust levels, identity protection, and even gives you a trust level on the files you see.