As I was pleasure reading, I came across an article that sparked my attention. It said: “Can free antivirus software protect you?” The answer in this particular article stated the following: “We compared top paid and free products and found the two classes so similar in speed and effectiveness that it comes down to your need for more comprehensive features and customer support. If you can forgo those, consider free. Avast Free Antivirus was tops among free products along with Avira AntiVirus Personal with good ratings. Norton Antivirus and BitDefender lead the paid-software pack, also with superior ratings”.
The source of this article was not published by an IT professional company so as a representative of a professional IT firm that has been in business for over 10 years, we felt obligated to respond:
We advise our business clients to get paid versions for various reasons. One of the reasons is for licensing issues.
Free versions are great but not built to handle multi system networks with multiple users. Free versions are designed as “trial versions” and are less robust than paid versions. Free versions are designed for one user or system. They provide basic protection and options, easier for a home user to just install, schedule scans and leave alone until a threat or infection has been detected.
Paid versions are designed to handle the larger traffic flow of businesses. They require licensing in order to maintain databases and continued protection of critical systems. You also get the “bells and whistles”. For example, internet security or a firewall may be included. We do find paid versions a bit too much for a home user due to excessive options when all the home user needs is basic protection for databases that are updated daily.
Norton’s is not exactly one of our favorites but we do recommend free versions as a cost cutting tool for home users. $60 or more for antivirus is sometimes more than a customer can handle, not to mention the cost of paying for a service call if the need arises. Avira and Avast are great free versions, I also recommend AVG free. Sometimes it’s best to just shop around and read the reviews and then make a decision between paid or free versions of protection. But if you are a business, you want to pay for the robust antivirus software solutions that ensure protection of your critical systems.
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