New Antivirus Shootout by Virus.gr

Virus.gr has released the results of Antivirus shootout conducted on June 21, 2008. Forty-nine antimalware products were tested by them using 246705 virus samples. This test was conducted by virusp, a private virus collector.

Top 5 single-engine Premium Antivirus products :

4. Kaspersky version 8.0.0.357 – 97.95%
5. eScan version 9.0.742.1 – 97.44%
6. The Shield 2008 – 97.43%
7. AntiVir version 8.1.00.331 Premium – 97.13%
8. Ashampoo version 1.61 – 97.09%

Top 4 single-engine Free Antivirus products :

10. AntiVir version 8.1.00.295 Classic – 95.54%
11. AVG version 8.0.100 Free – 94.85%
13. Avast version 4.8.1201 Professional – 93.78% (virus.gr claims avast free uses the same engine hence would have identical result)
16. BitDefender version 10 Free – 91.32%

Top 3 multi-engine Antivirus products :

1. G DATA 2008 version 18.2.7310.844 – 99.05% (Avast and Kaspersky Engine)
2. F-Secure 2008 version 8.00.103 – 98.75% (Kaspersky extended base engine, Hydra, Gemini and Blacklight engines)
3. TrustPort version 2.8.0.1835 – 98.06% (Norman, AVG, Ewido and Dr. Web)

Results of some other notable antivirus products :

14. Nod32 version 3.0.650.0 – 93.36%
20. McAfee Enterpise version 8.5.0i – 86.57%
21. McAfee version 12.0.177 – 86.39%
23. Norton 2008 – 83.34%
33. Trend Micro Antivirus+Antispyware 2008 version 16.10.1079 – 67.28%
34. Panda 2008 version 3.01.00 – 61.41%
39. Quick Heal version 9.50 – 47.97%

The worst performaer :

49. Abacre Antivirus version 1.4 – 0.00%

You can view the full test results here. Click here to download the detailed test report (requires registration).

My favourite antivirus products Kaspersky and Avira again made it to the top ten. In fact The Shield is also powered by Kaspersky. Avira Antivir Classic’s performance was slightly worse than the premium version, due to the absence of antispyware engine. Still, it managed to do better than AVG and Avast. Hence, I stick to my previous reccomendation – Avira and Kaspersky are the best overall antivirus products available, and Avira Classic is the best freeware option available.

It’s worth noting that the top three performers were multi-engine antivirus products. This goes to show that while no antivirus can give total protection, using multiple engines can enhance the detection rate.

Always, take these results as a general guideline and not as the absolute truth. I find Av-compartives and Av-test results much more in line with my personal experience, and would place a lot more trust in those shootouts. Finally, don’t forget to check my previous article – Six Premium Antivirus Software for Free. Many of the offers I mentioned are still available.