Avast Free Antivirus vs Malwarebytes Premium 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

• Standard for 3 devices, 1 year: $59.99 a year; the store cart lists the same amount for the next billing
• Standard for 1 device, 1 year: $44.99 a year
• Plus for 3 devices, 1 year: $79.98 a year
• Total for 1 adult and 3 devices, first year: Intro: $89.99 for the first year, a 50% discount
• Total for 1 adult and 3 devices, renewal: $179.99 a year after the first year; the page says the discount is first year only

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 lists, among the data its software collects, 'artifacts detected as malware, PUPs, or suspicious files' and, for blocked exploits, the exploit payload files and possibly a copy of the exploit executable. It says the content analysis of files, photos and messages runs on the device and the company does not receive the content, 'unless we describe otherwise for a specific feature'; one such feature is text message protection on mobile, which sends the sender and the body of texts from senders not in your contacts and keeps the malicious ones for analysis. It does not say whether the upload of detected files can be switched off separately; the opt-out covers 'threat statistics', which include detection samples.

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 says Malwarebytes does not sell personal data for money, but that it may share limited information with advertising partners such as Meta to measure ads: a hashed email address, online identifiers, ad click identifiers and IP address. Meta and Malwarebytes are joint controllers for data sent through Meta's business tools. The policy offers an opt-out through 'Your Privacy Choices' on the website or Global Privacy Control. It also says the product collects usage and threat statistics, a machine identifier created at install, and IP-based location, but that it does not store the IP address of client requests.

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.

Malwarebytes is based in Santa Clara, California, and its privacy policy gives that address and says Malwarebytes Inc. takes part in the EU–US, UK and Swiss data privacy frameworks. The policy says the company may disclose personal data to government agencies in response to lawful requests, including subpoenas and warrants.

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.

Founded in 2008; co-founder Marcin Kleczynski is still chief executive. In December 2022 the private equity firm Vector Capital closed a $100 million minority investment and two of its managing directors joined the board.