If you’re particularly worried about somehow landing on a malicious website while browsing the Internet, then this PC World (August 1, 2017) article “AV-Comparatives’ anti-phishing results for 2017 put Avast, Bitdefender, Fortinet, and Kaspersky on top” may be useful.

In previous posts, I’ve noted PC World’s summaries of test results by the independent computer security test organization AV-Comparatives.

All four passing software packages got through the false alarm test without making a mistake. Bitdefender won the top spot for detecting actual phishing sites with a detection rate of 96 percent. Coming up right behind Bitdefender was Fortinet with a 95 percent detection rate followed by Kaspersky and Avast with 93 and 92 percent detection rates, respectively.

You can check out the full anti-phishing results on AV-Comparatives’ website.

Some of my clients use free anti-virus (AV) programs. Pros and cons.

Should I go free or paid for antivirus? But there isn’t a good answer to that question. It really comes down to what you’re willing to put up with. If you just need basic protection then most free antivirus suites are probably fine.

The best way to use AV-Comparatives’ free vs. paid report is as a reference guide for the 15 services it covers.¹

And remember, regardless of your choice for AV, use Malwarebytes Anti-malware also (free or premium version).

[1] The report is available in PDF format here.

Adaware Antivirus Free
Avast Free Antivirus
AVG Antivirus Free
Avira Free Antivirus
Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition
Comodo Internet Security Free
Fortinet FortiClient
Kaspersky Free
McAfee Cloud AV
Microsoft Windows Defender / MSE5
Panda Free Antivirus
Qihoo 360 Total Security Free
Sophos Home Free
Tencent PC Manager
ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall