Avast Free Antivirus vs ESET HOME Security Essential 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

• Essential for 1 year: $59.99 for the first year; renewal price not published
• Premium for 1 year: $89.99 for the first year; renewal price not published
• Ultimate for 1 year: $179.99 for the first year; renewal price not published
• NOD32 Antivirus for 1 year: $39.99 for the first year; renewal price not published

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 LiveGrid reputation system compares one-way hashes of scanned files with a cloud list of safe and unsafe files. The separate LiveGrid feedback system, offered at installation, submits suspicious files to ESET's lab by default once it is on, along with the file path, name, date and process; office documents and PDFs are excluded by default. The privacy policy adds that feedback can include IP addresses, website addresses and crash dumps.

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.

The privacy policy for ESET HOME subscriptions says ESET may process 'aggregated statistical data relating to usage of our Services to improve them' and use the account email to advertise similar ESET products unless you opt out. It says 'We do not share your data with third parties', apart from ESET's own affiliates, partners for licensing and support, and cloud and billing processors. Billing records are kept 10 years; licensing data is anonymised within 12 months after the licence expires.

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.

ESET, spol. s r.o. is registered in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, and is the data controller for ESET HOME subscriptions under the EU GDPR. In the United States the plans are sold by ESET North America in San Diego, whose own privacy policy covers the website and purchases.

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.

Established in 1992 by Miroslav Trnka, Peter Paško and Rudolf Hrubý as a privately owned limited liability company. ESET's press kit lists Peter Paško as chairman of the board and Miroslav Trnka as a board member; Richard Marko is CEO.