AVG’s free antivirus utility is an Editors’ Choice winner, with perfect lab scores and useful bonus features. If you want more features or use AVG in a commercial setting, you must upgrade to the company's security suite, AVG Internet Security. It doesn’t add many features, though, and those it does add may not be substantial enough to warrant a switch from its free tier. If you’re looking for an entry-level security suite, you’ll do better with our Editors’ Choice winner, Bitdefender Total Security. It builds on an antivirus packed with helpful security features and gets excellent scores from four independent labs compared with AVG’s two.

How Much Does AVG Internet Security Cost?

You pay $77.99 annually to protect one Windows or macOS device with AVG Internet Security. If you upgrade to AVG Internet Security’s $99.99-per-year plan, you can install protection on up to 10 devices. It’s a much better value than the one-device plan. This tier also includes AVG’s mobile protection apps, AntiVirus Pro for Android, and the pro version of AVG's Mobile Security app for iOS.

AVG’s free antivirus programs for Windows and macOS include all the basic protections. AVG has free versions for Android and iOS, which also give you a lot of protection at no cost. But you get a bit more on all platforms when upgrading to a paid subscription.

F-Secure and Trend Micro charge about the same for three licenses as AVG does for one-device protection. You pay $119.99 for Norton 360 Deluxe, which gets you five suite licenses, five VPN licenses, and 50GB of storage for your online backups. With Bitdefender Total Security, you can pay $109.99 per year for five licenses or $139.99 for a whopping 25 licenses. A yearly McAfee+ subscription costs $149, but that gets you unlimited device licenses to protect every Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and ChromeOS device in your household.

At $10 per device, AVG’s 10-license subscription is on the low to moderate side. On a per-device basis, most competitors cost the same or more. At $9.50 and $8.50 per device respectively, ESET Home Security Essential and F-Secure Internet Security are among the few that cost less.

AVG offers a bundle of separate products called AVG Ultimate for $129.99 per year. This suite combines AVG Internet Security, AVG TuneUp, AVG Secure VPN, and AVG AntiTrack. An AVG Ultimate subscription includes protection for up to 10 devices. McAfee and Bitdefender offer similar cross-platform suites with antivirus and VPN components, but their components are more thoroughly integrated.

AVG Upsells

AVG’s interface doesn’t shy away from upsells. For instance, if you want to fix problems found by the performance scan, you'll pay $3.99 monthly for AVG TuneUp. If you decline the upgrade, AVG sweetens the pot with a 60-day free trial of the tune-up utility.

In testing, I found that after the first Smart Scan AVG offered to check for trackers and other privacy issues. Clicking to resolve found issues once again triggered an upsell, this time for AVG AntiTrack, costing up to $2.99 per month. Interestingly, the Store offered these two apps for less—$1.99 per month for TuneUp and $1.29 for AntiTrack.

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If these upsell attempts inspire you to add more AVG apps, be sure to pencil out a price comparison with the AVG Ultimate bundle. It’s probably a better deal. One thing AVG does not offer in this bundle, however, is a password manager. Check out our roundups of the best password managers and best free password managers for your top options. 

Getting Started With AVG Internet Security

On AVG’s website, you can either purchase a subscription or sign up for a 30-day trial. You don’t have to supply a credit card for the trial. If you don’t pay before the trial runs out, your installation simply reverts to the free edition. After installation, the suite encourages you to run an initial scan.

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If you've used AVG's free antivirus, this suite's user interface will look very familiar. It has the same dark background, white and mint-green text, and panels for five feature areas: Computer, Web & Email, Hacker Attacks, Personal Data, and Store. The first two, labeled Basic Protection, are active in the free edition. Only paying customers get the second two, labeled Full Protection. As for Store, it simply displays additional AVG apps that you might want to buy.

To modify how any of these modules work, open them and then click on the gear icon on the right-hand side of the screen. Alternatively, you can access each module’s settings through the Menu tab in the upper-right; you can also manage subscription settings, access more AVG tools, and get support here.

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AVG's Smart Scan (the default option) does a quick scan for active malware but also checks for browser threats, advanced issues, and performance issues. In the free edition, the scan for advanced issues is just an upsell system. If you’re already using the commercial suite, the scan reports those same issues as resolved simply because you’ve paid for the suite-level features.

What Protection Features Are Shared With AVG AntiVirus Free?

Since this suite's basic protection is the same as that of AVG AntiVirus Free, you can read that review for the full details. A précis of my findings follows.

When possible, I enhance my antivirus reviews by examining test results from four independent labs: MRG-Effitas, SE Labs, AV-Test, and AV-Comparatives. All four of them include Avast in their latest reports, while just two of the four include AVG. Both Avast and AVG hold perfect scores from AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, and Avast also has a perfect score from SE Labs. However, Avast fell short of perfection in one of the grueling tests from MRG-Effitas, a test that didn’t include AVG. As a result, AVG has a perfect aggregate score, 10 of 10 possible points, while Avast, with coverage by more labs, comes in at 9.9 points.

Avast, Norton, and Microsoft Defender Antivirus are the only ones appearing in the latest reports from all four labs. Norton holds an aggregate score of 9.6 points, and Microsoft has 9.5. Tested by three labs, ESET matches Avast’s 9.9 points, while Bitdefender and McAfee come close with 9.8

Even when the labs provide plenty of data, I put each antivirus app through hands-on testing. Avast, AVG, and Norton all use the same underlying antivirus engine and earned the same score in my hands-on malware protection test: 97% detection and 9.7 of 10 possible points. Webroot Premium also scored 9.7 points but with 99% detection. Lonely at the top, UltraAV scored a perfect 10 points.

In previous testing with a different collection of malware, G Data, ZoneAlarm Extreme Security, and F-Secure Internet Security matched AVG’s 9.7-point score.

My malicious URL test checks each antivirus utility’s effectiveness against prevalent malware. Starting with a feed of the latest finds from MRG-Effitas, I launch URL after URL, recording whether the antivirus blocks the URL, eliminates the download, or fails to protect the test system.

AVG prevented 93% of the malware downloads, much better than its 79% score when last tested. Even so, almost half of recent competitors scored better. Avira, Bitdefender, Guardio, and Sophos Home Premium all scored 100% in their latest malicious URL challenges.

Phishing websites are another danger, even though they don’t involve malware. These websites try to steal your login credentials by imitating banks and other secure websites. AVG aced my hands-on phishing protection test, detecting 100% of the verified frauds and diverting the browser to safety. Among the other contenders scoring 100% in their own most recent tests are Avira Prime, Guardio, and Surfshark One.

Like Avast, AVG offers a special layer of protection specific to ransomware. Avast calls it Ransomware Shield; with AVG, it's Ransomware Protection. In both cases, this component prevents all unauthorized programs from changing protected files. Bitdefender and Trend Micro Internet Security offer similar protection against unauthorized file changes. Panda Dome Advanced is even stricter, blocking unknown programs from even reading data in protected user folders.

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AVG includes Ransomware Protection in the free edition, so be sure to check out that review for full details. It correctly prevented a custom-built test program from changing protected files. I did find a small window of vulnerability, however. When I set the test program to launch at startup, AVG did not prevent its activity; apparently, protection hadn’t fully loaded. When I tried again after waiting for AVG to start, it correctly detected the program and blocked it from modifying files. To be fair, AVG prevented my actual ransomware samples from launching, even at boot time.

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Those using the free antivirus get a significant collection of bonus features. Prime among these is a full two-way firewall, which protects against attacks from outside and betrayal from within by misbehaving apps. Some features, such as Port Scan Alerts, are labeled Premium but are still present in the free edition. So is the Network Inspector, which checks your network and connected devices for security problems and can notify you each time a new device connects to the network.

AVG Secure Browser is a Chromium-based browser with an emphasis on security. It offers a large collection of features, though many of them are things you could easily handle in Chrome. The AVG Online Security browser extension supplements protection against dangerous websites, blocks ads and online trackers, and marks up dangerous links in search results.

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Other bonus features include Do Not Disturb mode—which postpones scans and suppresses notifications when using a full-screen program—and a secure deletion tool that overwrites files and folders before deletion to prevent forensic recovery. You get quite a lot with AVG’s free antivirus.

Defense Against Hacker Attacks

On the program’s main screen, the Hacker Attacks and Personal Data modules are labeled Full Protection and aren’t available in the free antivirus. The biggest visible benefit of upgrading to AVG Internet Security is gaining access to these modules.

The Hacker Attacks page lets you manage two features: Browser Defense (formerly Password Protection) and Remote Access Shield. Browser Defense simply applies additional protection to passwords stored in your browsers. Rather than put a band-aid on insecure browser-based password storage, I strongly advise using a third-party password manager and deleting those passwords from the browser. The best password managers provide significantly more security than storing passwords in the browser.

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Remote Access Shield is likewise hyper-focused. It very specifically hardens the PC’s Remote Desktop feature against hacking. Note that some Windows versions don’t include Remote Desktop and that you can turn off that feature in Settings for those that do.

Personal Data Protection

Clicking Personal Data from the main window brings you to a page with three elements: Webcam Protection, Sensitive Data Shield, and Fake Website Shield. These are all enabled by default, though Sensitive Data Shield requires some attention on your part.

You may think your webcam is only active when participating in a meeting or letting your kids video-call faraway relatives. You may think that any time it's active, the little light reveals that fact. Not so. Webcam spyware can peer into your bedroom, office, or wherever the cam might reside, and all without that telltale light. Fortunately, AVG is among the security companies offering protection from webcam spyware.

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By default, Webcam Protection runs in what’s called Smart Mode. Known and trusted apps are free to use the webcam. An unknown app attempting access triggers a warning that asks you whether to trust the app. If you’re testing a new kind of video call software or something similar, it’s easy enough to allow access. But if the request comes unexpectedly, block it!

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You can also configure this feature to run in Strict Mode, meaning every program requires your permission the first time it tries to peek through that cam. You can also disable all access to the camera and turn it back on if you need it. ESET Internet Security and Bitdefender offer similar webcam protection.

Another option in the Private Data section is the Sensitive Data Shield, which is designed to protect any documents holding important information, such as tax documents and banking details. In essence, AVG runs a local scan on your hard drive to identify such files and then blocks and notifies you of any attempts to open, read, or copy them. By observation, it handles PDFs, Microsoft Office documents, and a few other document types.

Preparing to test this feature, I gathered a collection of official documents related to banking, taxes, retirement accounts, and real estate and copied them to the test PC. AVG’s scan found half of them, all PDF files. Fortunately, since my last review, AVG has added the ability to manually add files to the sensitive list.

I tried to see this feature's protection in action by attempting to edit, copy, and delete files under its protection. I had no trouble performing these actions, leaving me wondering exactly what Sensitive Data Shield does.

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That leaves the Fake Website Shield. This feature promises to protect against DNS hijacking attacks. Normally, you can spot phishing fraud by noticing that the URL in the Address Bar isn’t quite right. But if your DNS has been hijacked, the fraudsters control what you see in the Address Bar. The site is fake; the URL is correct. I don’t know how common such attacks are, nor do I have a way to simulate one for testing purposes.

macOS Protection

If you opted for the 10-license AVG subscription, you can use your additional licenses to install premium protection on your Macs and Android and iOS mobile devices. On the Mac, the suite looks just like the free AVG AntiVirus for Mac, except that all the features are visibly available, not locked away. Please refer to my review of the free Mac antivirus for a run-down of the shared features.

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When you click the Hacker Attacks panel from the main window of AVG’s Windows edition, it displays two features: Browser Defense, which prevents exfiltration of browser-stored passwords, and Remote Access Shield, which hardens the Remote Access features in Windows against misuse. On the Mac, it’s completely different. The two features on the Hacker Attacks page are Network Inspector and Ransomware Protection.

Network Inspector works just as it does in the Windows edition. You click to scan your network for security problems. With the initial scan complete, you can continue to scan all attached devices and confirm they’re properly secured. You can also set it to notify you whenever a new device connects to the network.

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Ransomware Protection also works in much the same way as on Windows, preventing unauthorized changes to protected files. By default, it protects your own Documents and Pictures folders—if you want to protect folders for other users of the Mac you must add them manually. And, of course, you can add any other folders you want protected.

You can also edit the file types eligible for protection, but unlike on Windows, you can’t tell it to just protect every file in the specified folders. If an unauthorized program tries to modify a file, you get a warning with the option to allow or block the action.

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On Windows, the fourth feature panel on the main window is Personal Data, which includes Webcam Protection, Sensitive Data Shield, and Fake Website Shield. That fourth panel is called Payments on the Mac. The Fake Website Shield feature does carry over, joined by a feature called Phishing Net.

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Both these features relate to protection against phishing. Fake Website Shield fends off DNS-based attacks, which, if successful, can put a legitimate URL in the Address Bar even when you’re visiting a fraudulent site. Phishing Net can “user our cloud database to catch the newest phishing sites.” Given that the free edition, without Phishing Net, scored 100% in my hands-on phishing detection test, I’m not sure how necessary Phishing Net is.

Android Protection

Any Android user can install AVG’s free mobile antivirus, which combines a substantial collection of security features with many, many upsell opportunities. The free edition also uses the bottom portion of its window to display advertisements. New since my last review, it also occasionally runs ads that take over the screen for 10-15 seconds.

You Get Lab-Approved Android Antivirus for Free

Upon installation, the app naturally wants to run a scan. I found that even the Deep Scan runs quite quickly. As with the Windows edition, this initial scan found “advanced issues,” which can only be resolved by upgrading to the paid edition.

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The main window features the usual big round Scan button at the top. The four panels below are Hack Alerts, Clean Junk, Check Speed, and Automatic Scan. Below those, the free edition displays advertisements for TikTok, Cash App, and others. Scrolling past the ad reveals many security suggestions, almost all of which involve upgrading to the paid edition or purchasing additional apps. A menu across the bottom of the screen holds icons for Home, Explore, Messages, and Account.

Three of the four testing labs I track run tests on Android antivirus apps, and two of those included AVG in their most recent reports. With a perfect 18 points from AV-Test and a perfect 100% from AV-Comparatives, AVG does very well. It’s only overshadowed by Avast and Bitdefender, which match its two perfect scores and add another 100% from MRG-Effitas.

AVG's Free Android App Comes With Bonuses

Tapping Hack Alerts invites you to enter your email address for analysis. Before using this feature, you must create an AVG account and respond to a verification email. In testing, it found a handful of ancient exposures, from four to nine years old. Similar features in competing programs have reported on dozens more breaches.

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The Clean Junk feature cleans up temp files and such to recover storage. If you tap Deep Clean to clean up more, you install the separate AVG Cleaner app, which is also ad-supported at its free level. Some features of the free AVG Cleaner are visibly locked, and the promised Deep Clean isn’t available without upgrading to a paid version of AVG Cleaner.

Tapping Explore at the bottom of the screen reveals a menu of all the app’s features, divided into sections for Device Protection, Online Privacy, and Smooth Performance.

Under Device Protection, Scam Protection and App Lock are locked and reserved for paying customers. On Web Shield’s page, there’s a link to Scam Protection and an option to manually allow or block certain websites (who’s going to do that?) Scan Center is more interesting. Here, you can deep-scan your Android, checking for vulnerabilities and malware, or just scanning the files present. Network Inspector checks the security of the network you’re using, though it doesn’t check attached devices like the desktop edition.

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The Online Privacy group has a link to the Hack Alerts feature described above and an invitation to purchase AVG’s VPN. App Insights lets you view the permissions assigned to each app on your device or a list of permissions and the apps with them. Privacy Advisor truly is just an advisor, providing notes about protecting your privacy while using various popular apps. Photo Vault stores your most important photos behind an additional layer of authentication, though free users can only protect 10 pics.

I mentioned the Junk Cleaner feature above. You can also reach it by selecting Performance Center in the Smooth Performance category. If your internet connection feels slow, you can use the Wi-Fi speed test to see just how bad it is.

A Premium Upgrade Adds a Few Bonuses

Everything I’ve described thus far is available for free. If you use an AVG Internet Security license to activate the Pro edition, you get access to additional features, but nothing overwhelming. For starters, you won’t see any more advertisements in the app, which is a plus. Going Pro removes the 10-picture limit in Photo Vault, lets you turn on scheduled malware scanning, and enables automatic scanning of each network you connect with. The main window changes slightly, with Scan Wi-Fi and VPN protection (locked) replacing Check Speed and Automatic Scan in the four panels below the big Scan button.

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As a paying customer, you can engage Scam Protection, which promises additional protection against accidentally visiting dangerous sites. This feature requires you to identify AVG as your default browser while leaving your actual default browser functional. In testing with a handful of sites blocked by other AVG editions, it proved effective.

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Like similar features in Android apps from Bitdefender, Avira, and others, App Lock lets you protect specific apps behind a secondary round of authentication using a PIN, pattern, or biometrics. Bitdefender deserves a shoutout here, because its App Lock is extra-flexible about things like re-opening an app you just closed.

That’s about it for the benefits of upgrading to Pro on Android. You still don’t get VPN protection without purchasing it, and if you want premium AVG Cleaner features, you must upgrade that app separately.

iOS Protection

The same built-in security that makes iOS a tough target for malware coders also hinders antivirus developers. Like most competitors, AVG offers significantly fewer security features in its iOS edition. By default, the free edition is ad-supported, but if you allow AVG to track your online activities, you can eliminate the ads. I didn’t allow tracking in testing, but I still didn’t see ads.

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On iOS, AVG’s scan seeks out security issues but doesn’t try to detect malware. It advised turning on Web Shield to help fend off malicious and fraudulent sites. Web Shield works using local-only VPN technology to filter all web traffic. As with the Android edition, you can check your email accounts for exposure and store important images in the Photo Vault.

The main screen prioritizes scan-related information and actions. As on other platforms, some of the found “issues” simply report the absence of premium-only features. Three large panels offer access to important features: Web Shield, Data Breach Monitoring, and Photo Vault. A fourth simply starts the purchase process for the paid premium edition.

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The main benefit of activating premium protection with one of your AVG licenses is access to the VPN Secure Connection feature. At the time of my last review, the only setting for this VPN was an on/off switch. There’s a little more flexibility now because you can choose from about 60 server locations across Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America. Most countries have just one location, but a few boast more, from two in Australia to 16 in the US. In addition, a handful are flagged as best for streaming.

The main VPN page shows your current server location and the virtual IP address that websites will see. A timer on the home screen reflects how long you’ve been connected. And that’s all. This remains a very simple VPN, but it handles the basic tasks of protecting your online traffic and spoofing your IP address. And for once, here’s a feature that iOS has that the other platforms don’t.