A Comparison of AVG Versus McAfee Antivirus Software

Both AVG and McAfee are popular products. I have used both of these products off and on for many years. The biggest difference between these two antivirus products is that AVG is absolutely free. I have installed many different antivirus programs because I thought there might be something better out there. I have found that both AVG and McAfee run well on my computers.

Recently I installed the newest version of AVG on my computer (version 9) and found that there have been some improvements in performance with this program. Older versions of this software use to cause my computer to bog down when scans were running, but the new version allows me to use my computer and I don't notice much change in performance. If you set your scans to run when you aren't using your computer, you can avoid any conflicts while performing scans. You are able to schedule scans whenever you want with both AVG and McAfee. I have noticed a bit more performance slow down when using McAfee but if this happens I will pause the scan until I'm finished using the computer. Both AVG and McAfee will allow you to pause and then restart your scan.

I have never encountered any kind of problem with the email scanners of either of these programs. Both of them have caught emails that contained viruses. On occasion I have had a virus get through but both programs have been good about catching problems and fixing them. It is important to keep an eye on your scan logs and this is easy to do in either of the programs. With the newest version of AVG I have noticed that my email program runs faster than with older versions of AVG.

McAfee has spam protection and you can configure this section to filter emails and assign a spam filter level. There is also an anti-spam toolbar that will display in Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Qualcomm Eudora, and Mozilla Thunderbird. Microsoft Outlook also has a spam filter. This is the email program that I use. I don't find that I need the McAfee spam filter as I use what Microsoft Outlook provides. AVG, in the free edition, does not have a spam filter. I don't get a lot of spam at my personal email because I use other email accounts when I'm signing up for newsletters, etc.

I have found, though, that McAfee does have parental controls. This is not part of the AVG package. Parental controls can be very useful if you have children. You can configure the parental controls within McAfee. I can see where this part of the program would be a very useful tool. As I don't have any children using my computers this is not something that I need.

McAfee allows you to view your other network computers, but unless you are using McAfee on all of your networked computers it isn't really useful. You can also do computer maintenance through the McAfee software interface and you can access the task scheduler from within their software also. The task scheduler will allow you to set up a time for computer maintenance such as defrag, and the McAfee quick clean. All of these things can be accessed on your computer through Microsoft Explorer programs menu, but it is kind of nice to have all of your computer maintenance including your antivirus tools in one place.

AVG has their free product and two paid subscription products that have more features than the free version. Their basic edition contains an online shield, advanced rootkit protection, game mode protection, phishing protection, and support help. This subscription costs $27.99 per year (a 40% discount). They also have what is called their internet edition which includes identity protection, an enhanced firewall, and anti-spam protection. This subscription is $43.99 annually. McAfee has three levels of antivirus programs to choose from ranging from $30 to $60 per year. These are also discounted prices.

As you look at and compare these two products I don't see a lot of difference. The free product from AVG suits my needs. This is an individual choice depending on what services you need. You can find people with different opinions of each software package. I really like the AVG product because it's free; it does a good job in protecting my computer, and is easy to use.

Sources:

Personal experience

http://home.mcafee.com/Default.aspx

http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage