Avira Internet Security Review: Is It Worth Paying for Over Windows Defender?

The review doesn't say Avira fails at protection. Its malware and phishing results were decent to excellent. The problem is value. Most of what you pay for is already in Avira Free Security, and what's left is a short list of conveniences. Here's what those are, what the independent lab data shows, and how it compares with the protection already built into Windows 11.

The price, as PCMag reported it​

PCMag lists these yearly prices at publication time. They're time-sensitive, and Avira's store shows prices dynamically, so check them before buying:

PCMag also notes that McAfee+ starts at $149.99 and covers every Android, ChromeOS, iOS, macOS and Windows device in a household.

Avira's own pitch is that Internet Security bundles three paid products: Antivirus Pro ($64.99), Software Updater Pro ($32.99) and Password Manager Pro ($31.99). Bought separately, that comes to $129.97, so the suite costs a little over half. PCMag's objection is that this is only a bargain if each part is worth its list price. The review argues most aren't.

Section summary: Avira charges more than most rivals. The "bundle discount" only holds up if you'd have paid full price for each part.

What the paid tier actually adds​

According to the review, the paid suite looks almost identical to the free one. It has the same dark-themed window, the same Status, Security, Privacy and Performance menu on the left, and the same Smart scan button. The review splits the features like this:

In both free and paid editions:

• Real-time antivirus, quarantine and every malware scan type
• The Browser Safety extension for Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Opera
• A file shredder, a secure browser and a privacy-settings scan
• A data-capped Phantom VPN (the paid tier doubles the monthly allowance to 1GB)
• A software updater that finds apps missing patches
• The same basic performance tools. Paying for Internet Security adds nothing here. Full System Speedup needs a separate purchase or Avira Prime.
• Password manager basics, including unlimited passwords synced across Windows, macOS, Android and iOS

Only in Internet Security:

• Automatic software updates (Update All and Auto-update)
• Web protection that works at the system level, not only inside a browser
• Ransomware protection, per the review's feature breakdown
• Avira Firewall (free users get basic control over Windows Firewall instead)
• Password Manager Pro extras: breach monitoring, full tech support and a detailed password security report

A caveat on ransomware: PCMag describes it as a paid-only layer, but Avira's own marketing has described some ransomware defense in the free product too. The lines between tiers seem to depend on how Avira describes them at any given time.

The lab picture: AV-TEST, checked​

PCMag says it follows five antivirus labs. Avira used to appear in three of them and now appears in only one, AV-TEST. The review says a weak performance result pulled Avira down to 16.5 out of 18.

AV-TEST's own published results confirm that. In its Windows 11 round, AV-TEST reports that during January and February 2026 it continuously evaluated 16 home user security products using their default settings. Avira Internet Security for Windows 1.1 scored 6 for protection, 4.5 for performance and 6 for usability. AV-TEST's scale is simple: each category is worth up to 6 points, so 18 is the best possible result. A product needs 17.5 or more for AV-TEST's "TOP PRODUCT" award. At 16.5, Avira misses that by a full point, and all of the gap is performance.

The drop is also recent. In AV-TEST's previous round, Avira Internet Security for Windows 1.1 scored a perfect 6/6/6. The weak performance score is new, not a long-term trend. That could reflect a change in Avira's build, a change in the test, or normal variation between rounds. AV-TEST's data doesn't say which.

The comparison Windows users will care about is from the same January–February 2026 table: Microsoft Defender Antivirus (Consumer) 4.18 scored 6/6/6, as did Bitdefender Total Security 27.0 and Norton 360. The antivirus that ships free with Windows 11 beat Avira's paid suite on AV-TEST's performance measure in that round. That doesn't make Avira a bad product. It does make it harder to pay $70.99 a year for protection when the lab data mostly shows extra system slowdown.

PCMag also turns all its lab data into its own 10-point aggregate. Avira gets 7.0, while Avast One Premium, Norton 360 Deluxe and Bitdefender reach 9.8. That's PCMag's own method, not an AV-TEST rating. With only one lab testing Avira, one weak category moves its number a lot.

Section summary: AV-TEST confirms the 16.5/18 score. Protection and usability were perfect; performance slipped. Microsoft Defender scored a perfect 18 in the same round.

PCMag's own tests: good detection, one worrying drop​

Here are PCMag's hands-on results. They come from its own sample sets and methods, so treat them as one data point rather than a universal rate:

• Malware detection: 97% detected, scoring 9.7 out of 10. That ties Avast, AVG Internet Security and Norton. Malwarebytes Premium Security and Sophos Home Premium each detected 99%.
• Malicious URL blocking (Browser Safety): 92%, split evenly between blocking the URL and removing the downloaded payload. That's down from 100% in PCMag's previous test. Panda is the only recent product to reach 100%.
• Phishing: 100%, which puts Avira among about a dozen recent products that got a perfect score, including Bitdefender, Norton, Sophos and Webroot Essentials.

Web protection: a second layer that caught the same amount​

The paid Web protection filters URLs for any application, not just browsers that run Avira's extension. PCMag tested it in Chrome with Browser Safety turned off and in a basic browser the reviewer wrote himself. It blocked 72% of the roughly 100 dangerous URLs outright. File-level blocking and antivirus quarantine caught another 20%. The total was 92%, exactly the same as the free extension.

In practice, having two layers doesn't hurt. If you use a browser Browser Safety doesn't support, the paid layer covers you there. For the typical Chrome or Edge user, it doesn't add protection.

Ransomware: couldn't be tested separately​

PCMag usually tests ransomware protection by turning off the other defenses and seeing what the ransomware layer catches on its own. Avira's ransomware protection is part of real-time protection, so turning one off turns off both. Avira removed the known ransomware samples as soon as the folder was opened. It also caught all but one of two sets of hand-modified variants. The one remaining sample was caught by the standard antivirus's behavior detection before the ransomware layer did anything.

That means the ransomware protection wasn't proven, not that it failed. The reviewer believes it probably works but couldn't show it.

Software Updater Pro: the most useful upgrade, with a bug​

The strongest reason to pay is automatic patching. It's also where PCMag hit the most notable glitch.

In the free suite, the updater scans for outdated apps. Clicking Update All, turning on Auto-update or clicking an individual Update button mostly sends you to an upsell page, sometimes with a link to update manually. In Internet Security, those buttons work.

In PCMag's test, the updater found an optional Windows update plus updates for Chrome, Firefox, Visual C++ and VMware Tools. The Windows update spun without finishing, and the reviewer had to reboot to get control back. The fix, as the review describes it:

1. Reboot the PC.
2. Open the software updater again and uncheck Windows Update in the list.
3. Run Update All for the other apps.
4. Reboot when Avira asks, to finish the updates.
5. Turn on Auto-update so later third-party patches install without you.

If you run into the same problem, you don't lose anything by leaving Windows patches to Windows Update in Settings. It handles those anyway. Avira's updater is most useful for third-party apps that fall behind.

Password Manager Pro and the firewall​

Avira's free password manager is already more generous than many rivals. PCMag notes that RoboForm, Keeper and NordPass all limit their free plans to one device. Pro adds breach monitoring, full support and a detailed password security report. PCMag's point is that you can find and fix weak or reused passwords yourself without paying $31.99 a year. Secure sharing and digital inheritance aren't available at either tier.

The firewall behaves like Windows Firewall at its core: it allows outgoing connections and blocks unsolicited incoming ones. On top of that, it controls which programs can use the network. Trusted apps get rules automatically. Unknown apps trigger a prompt with just two choices, allow or block, and your answer becomes a permanent rule that you can edit later in the App rules list. You can also add IP-based rules, though most people won't need to work out subnet masks. PCMag calls it simple and says that's a good thing.

Should you pay?​

Most people considering Avira will be fine with either Avira Free Security or plain Microsoft Defender. The paid tier makes sense in a few cases:

• You want third-party apps patched automatically and don't want to update them yourself.
• You use browsers that Browser Safety doesn't support.
• You want Avira's firewall prompts instead of managing Windows Firewall.

PCMag suggests Bitdefender Total Security as the better paid option. That's the publication's editorial pick, based partly on its own lab scoring. AV-TEST's January–February 2026 data does support the broader point: Bitdefender and Defender both scored a perfect 18, and Avira didn't.

Bottom line: Avira Internet Security protects well and costs more than it's worth. The most useful paid feature is the automatic updater, and even that stalled on a Windows update in PCMag's test.