Avira Prime for Home windows evaluation: Complete and user-friendly AV

Greatest Costs Right this moment: Avira Prime

Tucked inside Home windows are completely different utilities to guard and handle your PC — however not all are simply discovered, a lot much less in a single spot or in an instantly comprehensible format. 

Impartial antivirus software program suites attempt to capitalize on this weak spot, however Avira Prime stands out within the area for its strategy. Rivals normally go together with both a simplified or superior strategy to controls and utilities. In the meantime, Avira mixed an especially pared-down, newbie-friendly interface with a boatload of PC utilities that go startlingly deep.

Not all these instruments work out fairly in addition to marketed, however if you wish to have PC upkeep demystified for you, Avira Prime can get you began — whereas nonetheless offering sturdy menace safety.

Learn on to study extra, then see our roundup of the perfect antivirus for Home windows PCs for comparability.

What does Avira Prime embrace?

On the core of this safety suite are its malware, community, and internet defenses. The antivirus engine scans repeatedly for real-time threats, together with ransomware, shady web sites, and malicious downloads. In the meantime, the firewall blocks potential community intrusions and suspicious app site visitors. The subscription additionally comes with two providers that defend towards on-line risks: a password supervisor and an infinite VPN. Rounding out the safeguards is darkish internet monitoring, which retains watch on your info in knowledge leaks and breaches.

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Avira Prime consists of PC efficiency instruments as effectively, however not like different antivirus suites, it’s distinctive in what number of it gives. You get utilities to hurry up your pc, save your laptop computer’s battery life, maintain your apps and drivers updated, enhance sport efficiency, discover duplicate recordsdata hogging storage, and shred delicate knowledge. Avira Prime additionally has a wealth of backup choices that transcend simply recordsdata—you possibly can again up and restore your Home windows registry and grasp boot file, too.

Surprisingly, Avira Prime doesn’t include any parental controls—in reality, the Avira web site factors customers to Home windows’ personal set of content material filters, app controls, and deadlines.

How a lot does Avira Prime value?

For those who purchase from Avira instantly, the Avira Prime subscription prices $60 for the primary yr, then will increase to $110 afterward. A free 60-day trial exists, although you have to put down cost data at sign-up.

There’s a separate 60-day money-back assure for annual plans, and a 14-day refund window for month-to-month plans. Avira mechanically enrolls subscribers into auto-renewal at sign-up.

Avira Prime (5-devices)

• $60 for the primary yr
• $110 per yr thereafter

The default plan for Avira Prime consists of 5 units, however for those who want extra, you possibly can improve to the 25-device plan for $135 per yr. Your system restrict may be shared as you see match, and throughout Home windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Nevertheless, not like a real household plan (which helps you to share throughout separate accounts), you’ll have to make use of your one account to log in to every system.

In contrast to with extra in style antivirus suites, you possibly can’t purchase Avira Prime subscription codes at a reduction from third-party retailers.

Key options of Avira Prime

Set up and person interface

Upon set up, Avira Prime reveals a immediate to start out a sensible scan—which you’ll proceed with or select to be reminded about later. (It’s suggested to carry out the scan.)

The app has an easy-to-navigate interface, with a darkish gray-and-black theme because the default. (You’ll be able to swap it to a light-weight theme by going into the settings.) Like many different antivirus applications, the structure is break up between a left navigation bar and a major panel. Avira’s tackle this customary feels cleaner and extra trendy, although—partially as a result of simplicity of its options and settings.

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The left navbar has simply 4 major choices. On the prime is Standing, which reveals the standing display you’ll see at any time when reopening this system. Nevertheless, as a substitute of serving as a dashboard, it solely enables you to run a sensible scan or see Avira’s newest evaluation of your PC. To run different scans you have to head to the Safety tab, which has choices for full, fast, or customized virus scans. The safety tab additionally offers entry to safety settings, quarantine, the software program updater software, and the firewall. Extra safeguards just like the password supervisor and VPN dwell beneath Privateness, together with the file shredder, privateness settings, and hyperlinks to the Avira Secure Purchasing browser extension, Avira safe browser, and darkish internet monitoring within the Avira internet portal. 

As for the various PC utilities bundled with Avira Prime, you’ll find these in Efficiency, which both pops you over to built-in Home windows instruments or to the Avira System Speedup Professional app.

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For those who need assistance with Avira, wish to search for data in your account, or change the software program’s settings (together with tweaks to how scans run), you’ll discover these choices as small icons on the prime proper of the app. It could really feel somewhat cluttered (and I’ve greater than as soon as minimized the window when aiming for the assistance choices), nevertheless it’s clear sufficient.

Virus, malware, and menace safety

Actual-time safety

Usually, Avira Prime screens for real-time threats to your PC, each on-line and offline. On the internet, it watches for web sites containing phishing hyperlinks and malware, and in addition checks the site visitors going to and out of your pc for suspicious exercise. You’ll be able to customise what websites are mechanically blocked or allowed within the app’s settings.

In your PC, Avira examines recordsdata you open or add, in addition to downloaded emails and hooked up drives (together with community drives). Nevertheless, the software program does not test archive recordsdata (e.g., zipped recordsdata) as a part of real-time scanning—you’ll must flip that on within the settings if that’s the case desired. The app additionally doesn’t lock down particular folders as a part of its ransomware protections. As a substitute, it depends solely on its detection capabilities to cease such assaults from occurring.

Darkish internet monitoring can be included with Avira Prime, although it’s stingier than most rival plans. It solely watches only one e mail deal with (the one related together with your account) when new knowledge leaks and breaches seem on the shady facet of the web.

Scheduled and guide scans

For scheduled scans, two of them are mechanically arrange throughout set up. A fast scan shall be carried out as soon as per week, and an energetic course of scan occurs each day.

You may also schedule your individual customized scans, or add a schedule to the opposite preconfigured scans (Full, Detachable Drive, and Home windows System). You’ll do that from Safety > Virus scans > Handle scans. When making a schedule, you possibly can select solely each day, weekly, or month-to-month intervals. If you would like extra subtle timing, you’ll must go together with a completely completely different antivirus suite all collectively (e.g., ESET House Safety Premium).

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For guide scans, you possibly can select Good Scan on the Standing display, or choose between a Full Scan and Fast Scan on the Safety > Virus Scans display. A Good Scan combines a test for malware, privateness, and efficiency points, whereas a Fast Scan appears to be like for malware in generally focused areas of your pc. A Full Scan is essentially the most thorough (and what we recommend you schedule not less than as soon as a month)—it combs by way of your system recordsdata, energetic processes in Home windows, native drives, and detachable drives. You’ll be able to create easy customized scans as effectively, which allow you to give attention to particular drives and/or folders, after which additionally select a frequency for scheduling if that’s the case desired and the dealing with of suspicious recordsdata.

Scheduled and guide scans solely test over advisable file varieties, and don’t scan recordsdata once more except they’ve modified since final marked as clear. You’ll be able to modify the safety settings so that each one file varieties get appeared over, nonetheless. And you may frivolously tweak what threats get flagged throughout scans. The defaults cowl most bases, however those that have riskier on-line habits might wish to activate a better degree of screening. 

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Firewall

Avira Prime takes over for Home windows’ default safety, screening all site visitors going to and out of your pc. It has a really easy and easy interface, with a structure that’s straightforward to grasp and feels much less intimidating. App permissions are displayed in a easy listing, letting you rapidly inform which Home windows applications and providers are on-line and in addition change how deeply Avira ought to belief them. Extra superior customers can modify what IP addresses are allowed to connect with your PC, too.

Usually the default settings work effectively — most individuals shouldn’t want to regulate them.

Extra options

Avira Password Supervisor Professional

Avira Prime features a password supervisor, albeit one which feels somewhat bare-bones. On PC, the browser extension will get mechanically put in, and it’s the one solution to entry the service — there’s no separate devoted web site.

Setup is comparatively straightforward. Whereas logged into your Avira account, you’ll create a grasp password to safeguard your vault. You completely can not overlook this main password; for those who overlook it, you gained’t have the ability to get better your account.

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The interface is clear however primary, with the power to solely add passwords, notes, and bank card entries to your vault. The quantity of information you possibly can add to every entry kind is proscribed, too, although Avira does permit you to colour code and tag them for higher group. 

When testing the password supervisor, I discovered that the extension picks up new login info effectively, and in addition gives a seamless solution to choose a brand new password for an account signup. For anybody needing a password supervisor (aka everybody), this included browser is an effective, unintimidating begin. In a pleasant contact, Avira cross-checks any vault entries towards Have I Been Pwned’s knowledge breach database for any of your login data, so that you could be alerted and rapidly replace an entry if want be.

The one downside to utilizing this included password supervisor is its settings are additionally simplified. Two-factor authentication is proscribed to simply SMS codes, and you may’t set a passcode to make entry to the vault quicker and simpler. Nor are you able to set it to mechanically clear the clipboard when copying login data. For these sorts of options, you’ll want to decide on a unique password supervisor.

Avira Safe Browser

For those who don’t belief Chrome, Edge, and Firefox to be safe (or don’t wish to configure them to be so), the Avira Safe Browser is another you possibly can set up. Like Google’s browser, it’s based mostly on Chromium, however rather more locked down.

The preconfigured settings make Avira’s personal search engine the default, and mechanically provides an extension that blocks trackers and commercials. Oddly, Avira’s password supervisor extension just isn’t preinstalled, although you possibly can obtain it by yourself. However you do get a coupon extension as a part of the browser, which seems like a battle with defending person privateness.

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Usually, this optionally available browser seems like a personalized model of Chrome. However whereas seemingly extra restricted, it doesn’t really stop downloads of extensions that might compromise your safety. But it surely works wonderful, as long as you need Avira’s guiding hand upon your software program.

Avira System Speedup Professional

Buried inside Avira Prime are a number of sub-programs — secondary apps that solely seem for those who begin them from throughout the Avira software program. Avira System Speedup Professional is one which packs in a number of PC utilities.

Arguably, this assortment of instruments is what units Avira Prime other than its competitors. Rival safety software program normally consists of only a few utilities on your pc, and infrequently complicated. Avira Prime goes the additional mile by imitating or linking on to what you possibly can already do inside Home windows, after which wrapping it in a friendlier interface. It doesn’t simply assist determine space for storing you possibly can reclaim and efficiency enhancements. It goes past battery optimization, too. Dig into System Speedup and you will get a complete overview of what’s occurring together with your PC.

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Want to repair Home windows points? You get a shortcut that jumps you to the Home windows settings menu for that. Suspect one thing’s flawed with one in all your drives? You’ll be able to run Avira’s disk physician scan. Undecided what providers are working in your PC, or what drivers are put in? You’ll be able to open lists that clearly present these particulars.

If something, the one downside to the software is how a lot it covers. The distinction with the principle Avira app’s simplicity could also be an excessive amount of of a bounce for customers searching for extremely ease of use, however but nonetheless wanting greater than the suggestions made by the sensible scan. For instance, Avira’s backup and restore choices embrace backing up the Home windows registry and the grasp boot file. The overwhelming majority of individuals won’t ever (and will by no means) contact their registry or MBR, so particular backups aren’t absolutely essential.

For many customers, the 2 finest utilities will probably be the file shredder (a safe delete software on your recordsdata) and the file encryption/decryption software (which helps you extra tightly guard particular recordsdata from prying eyes). Nevertheless, each are very simple of their interface, which can find yourself feeling too restricted if you’d like extra management over settings. A 3rd utility, the duplicate file finder, may be partially useful in monitoring down redundant recordsdata, nevertheless it’s not subtle sufficient to pick recordsdata similar in knowledge however not in title.

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Browser extensions

When put in on the PCWorld check laptop computer, Avira Prime mechanically added the Avira Secure Purchasing browser extension to Microsoft Edge. It serves a twin operate, performing as an additional set of defenses towards on-line threats whereas additionally looking for procuring offers on the net.

At the least it does for Edge, Opera, and Firefox. On Chrome, Avira Secure Purchasing solely gives the procuring help. However Chrome customers aren’t really disregarded — they’ll additionally set up the Avira Browser Security extension, which handles these on-line protections.

Regardless of which browser you employ, the extension’s utility feels restricted. Its main profit is the addition of visible badges to sign secure hyperlinks in search outcomes — however that characteristic solely works when utilizing Bing. It does additionally block adverts and trackers, as long as you go into the settings and swap it on. Nevertheless, different wonderful extensions (like uBlock Origin) can deal with these jobs as effectively, and achieve this mechanically.

VPN

Accessing the VPN by way of the Avira app is rather less handy than different antivirus suites. To get began, you have to navigate to Privateness > VPN. There you can begin the VPN with primary settings, or open Avira Phantom VPN Professional companion app by clicking on the Superior settings hyperlink.

The Avira Phantom VPN Professional app is the one solution to modify these superior settings. You’ll be able to activate automated web shut-off when the VPN connection drops, auto-connect when on Wi-Fi, launch at Home windows startup, and the blocking of malicious websites and content material. None of those settings are on by default.

Deciding on a location and connecting to it are straightforward in each Avira Prime and Avira Phantom VPN Professional, however I most well-liked the Avira Prime app since you possibly can maximize the window and see extra of the out there servers at one time.

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For servers, you get a selection of 35 international locations, with three English-language international locations providing particular cities for choice: Australia (Perth, Sydney), Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom (London, Manchester), United States (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York Metropolis, Newark, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, Streaming, Washington DC).

Buyer help

For assist with Avira Prime, you possibly can lean on the corporate’s data base, group boards, or help group — however discovering every could be a little circuitous. The simplest solution to discover all three is by clicking the query mark icon within the upper-right of the Avira app, then selecting Contact help. The help web page on the Avira internet portal will open, which has hyperlinks to all types of help, together with chat, e mail, and telephone help. Nevertheless, I did run into authentication points with the group boards in Microsoft Edge on a secondary PC, which was solely fastened by deleting cookies and logging into the portal once more.

Updates and upkeep

By default, Avira Prime mechanically checks for virus and app updates each two hours, although you possibly can modify this time interval to be kind of frequent (as usually as half-hour or as delayed as 12 hours). You may also run a guide replace, which is buried within the assist menu. To entry the choice, you have to click on on the query mark icon within the upper-right nook of the app, then selected About.

Efficiency

Avira’s antivirus engine typically protects effectively towards malware. In AV-Check’s zero-day assault and malware analysis for March and April 2025 (essentially the most present outcomes launched), it caught one hundred pc of the 459 zero-day threats. In the meantime, it blocked one hundred pc of the 18,722 samples of just lately found and widespread malware.

AV-Comparatives

Avira carried out equally in AV-Comparatives’ real-world safety check for February by way of Might 2025, which evaluates how effectively an antivirus suite catches threats like exploits and malicious URLs throughout typical on-line actions (e.g., internet looking). It blocked 99.3 % of the 423 check instances, with 5 false positives. When confronted with AV-Comparatives’ March 2025 malware safety check, which checks antivirus software program’s capacity to cease malware from spreading off community, USB, or native drives, Avira Prime posted equally sturdy outcomes. It had a 99.98 % on-line safety, 98.9 % on-line detection price, and 95.8 % offline detection price towards 10,030 samples.

On the time of this replace, Avira didn’t have outcomes for AV-Comparatives’ anti-phishing certification check. Avira additionally didn’t take part in AV-Comparatives’ October 2024 Superior Menace Safety Check, which evaluates a safety suite’s resistance to extra subtle, focused assault strategies like malicious scripts and fileless assaults.

AV-Comparatives

Throughout most common duties on a PC, Avira Prime ought to have a light impact on system efficiency when hanging out within the background. Scores in PCMark 10’s Prolonged benchmark, which simulates internet looking, video chatting, gaming, and picture and doc modifying in free, open-source apps, didn’t budge after putting in Avira Prime. Outcomes additionally barely modified when working our Handbrake encoding check, which converts a big uncompressed video right into a smaller model. Avira goes extra on the offensive when Microsoft Workplace apps are energetic; in UL Procyon’s Workplace Productiveness benchmark, which entails Microsoft Phrase, Excel, and different doc use, the real-time scanning brought about an virtually 9 % lower in outcomes.

Nevertheless, when Avira Prime is absolutely energetic and working a complete scan, it could hammer a PC’s system sources arduous. On our check laptop computer, which is a finances mannequin, a full scan that investigated all recordsdata made benchmark scores plummet. PCMark 10 outcomes dropped by virtually 30 %, whereas Procyon and Handbrake scores nosedived by almost 50 %.

In the actual world, your PC probably gained’t undergo this tough — or not less than, it gained’t must. Our full-scan check is extra of a torture check; it simulates the most important affect an antivirus suite might have in your PC. Most individuals will use default settings that skip over recordsdata marked secure in earlier scans and file varieties that aren’t of concern, which lightens the load on a pc. Usually, for those who run full scans throughout off-hours (like whenever you’re asleep), they gained’t intrude with regular on a regular basis duties and doc modifying. You’ll as a substitute see a efficiency impact extra just like Avira’s real-time scanning state. However for those who often change, add, or edit recordsdata to your system in bulk, it’ll have an effect on your PC proportionately.

Must you purchase Avira Prime?

Avira Prime is among the extra user-friendly apps out there, and arguably essentially the most beginner-friendly at that. Its interface reduces how intimidating digital safety may be, particularly when making an attempt to maintain all the things straight, and its characteristic set amply covers not simply PC safety, but additionally upkeep, too. This software program’s solely actual weak spot just isn’t serving to higher shut the hole between the easy presentation and the expertise wanted to know when to make use of a selected characteristic (if in any respect) — however for the keen, just a few web searches can resolve that difficulty fairly quick.