Avast Free Antivirus vs Bitdefender Total Security Comparison

• Free Antivirus: Free; the mobile apps show third-party ads
• Premium Security for 1 computer and 1 phone, renewal: $77.99 a year, the price the store calls the renewal price
• Premium Security for 1 computer and 1 phone, first year: Intro: $49.08 for the first year
• Premium Security for 10 devices, renewal: $99.99 a year, the price the store calls the renewal price
• Premium Security for 10 devices, first year: Intro: $69.48 for the first year
• Ultimate for 10 devices, renewal: $139.99 a year, the price the store calls the renewal price; $69.48 for the first year

• Individual for 1 year: $109.99 billed yearly at renewal
• Individual, first year: $59.99 for the first year (intro)
• Family for 1 year: $139.99 billed yearly at renewal
• Family, first year: $79.99 for the first year (intro)

The product privacy notice says the desktop app sends samples of suspicious files and detection metadata to Avast's servers through CommunityIQ, and that it may 'directly analyze and maintain these artifacts in our safe environment'. It also lists the URLs of websites visited, 'malicious and non-malicious', and referrers, kept for 36 months for service provision. The support article says file-sample sharing (CommunityIQ) can be unticked in Settings ▸ General ▸ Personal Privacy. On phones, SMS Guard keeps texts that contain links or come from senders not in your contacts, with personal identifiers removed, for up to five years.

The privacy policy says the products send technical data such as IP and MAC addresses and pseudonymized identifiers of devices, files, folders, apps and URLs; with email protection, header data such as sender, recipient and subject. The Windows guide says Quick Scan uses in-the-cloud scanning. Neither says whether whole files are uploaded for analysis.

The Gen Digital privacy notice says 'We do not sell your personal data to third parties', but also that 'Where permitted by applicable law, we may share personal data with third parties for advertising purposes' and that data is used 'to serve you with relevant advertising and content, both on our properties and on third-party properties'. The consent policy says free mobile apps show third-party ads from partners such as AdMob, Amazon, Facebook Audience Network and InMobi, with consent asked at installation and a paid ad-free version. The desktop app uses Google Analytics; the phone apps use Google Firebase, AppsFlyer and Singular. In the free desktop version, sharing app-usage data for Avast's own offers is on by default and cannot be switched off.

Technical data is used for security and, in the policy's words, 'for statistical purposes and improving the quality of our solutions'. The account email can be used for Bitdefender's own marketing unless you opt out. The policy says 'We do not sell your data.' Technical data may be kept for up to 10 years.

For users in the European Economic Area the controller of personal data is Avast Software s.r.o., Pikrtova 1737/1A, Prague 4, Czech Republic, so EU data protection law applies to it. Avast's parent, Gen Digital Inc., has its privacy team in Tempe, Arizona, and the group's general privacy notice says it may disclose data to public authorities and in legal proceedings. In the US case of 2024 the FTC named Avast Limited, a UK company, and its Czech subsidiary.

Bitdefender S.R.L. is registered in Bucharest, Romania, and processes personal data under the EU GDPR. The privacy policy names hosting, support, e-commerce and marketing processors in the EU and the USA.

Avast was founded in Prague in 1988 as Alwil Software. On 12 September 2022 the US company now called Gen Digital, listed on NASDAQ, completed its acquisition of Avast; the Avast website and policies now carry Gen Digital's name.

A privately held company led by co-founder and CEO Florin Talpeș. In December 2017 the investment firm Vitruvian Partners bought about 30% from another shareholder, becoming the second-largest shareholder after co-founders Florin and Mariuca Talpeș; a group of private investors holds a minority stake. The most recent ownership details found date from 2017.