Key Features Compared
Cloud Backup
Cloud Backup is an important feature that keeps the data secure, lessens downtime, and provides you access to vital information anytime, anywhere. The copies are stored in the clouds to keep the customer on cloud nine.
Amazingly, Kaspersky envelops this feature and gives an extra boost to the security of your data.
VPN
Customers use the VPN (Virtual Private Network) to increase data privacy whilst browsing. Kaspersky provides a bundled VPN with a 300 MB daily bandwidth limit in their 30-day trial version, whereas Avast provides a 7-day free trial of its Secureline VPN services with no data limitations.
Avast provides a free 7-day trial with no data limitations
Kaspersky has a daily 200 MB cap in its free version.
Read More: Best antivirus providers with VPN
Safe Banking
If you are making transactions online, chances are someone might be prying on your activities. With this feature enabled, your connection and data transfer to and from the banking website is encrypted.
Kaspersky and Avast in their premium suites have this feature. Personal financial information such as credit cards and bank account username/passwords will not get compromised.
Kasperksy’s Safe Money option allows you to add safe websites and encrypt your transactions.
Source: Avast Blog
Avast also has a safe banking mode, but you need both Avast Antivirus and Avast Secure Browser to enable Safe Bank mode. Kaspersky takes a lead in safe banking because this feature already comes in their Total Security version.
File Shredder
File shredder allows users to permanently delete all data. The process intelligently occupies the deleted file space by deploying the ones and zeros instead of original data. Although less in number, this feature is a key requirement of the important segment.
Avast does not provide any algorithm, making it simple for a non-techy to permanently delete all data.
Both programs provide data shredding options. However, Kaspersky didn’t provide this feature in its Internet Security package, but it is included in Total Security.
Kaspersky’s Data Shredder provides you with several different algorithms to choose from when shredding files.
Password Manager
Avast does not have a dedicated password manager to store all your passwords. However, it does have a feature that constantly scans all saved passwords across different browsers to ensure no malicious app has access to it.
Avast password protection feature
Kaspersky has a password manager that allows you to safely store your passwords.
Malware Protection Capabilities
We ran some tests to see who will take the win in the malware protection category. This includes data from independent sources such as AV-Test, as well as our findings. Our findings indicate Kaspersky as the best in malware protection.
EICAR-based Testing:
The very first test was about the malware dangers in real-time.. Furthermore, we got the sample malware-infesting files from EICAR (The European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research). The following comparison table shows the EICAR results:
| Anti Virus | EICAR Sample A | EICAR Sample B | EICAR Sample C | EICAR Sample D | Live Sample (Adware) | Live Sample (Trojan) |
| Avast | Allowed | Allowed | Allowed | Allowed | Allowed | Blocked |
| Kaspersky | Blocked | Blocked | Blocked | Blocked | Blocked | Detected |
Kaspersky single-handedly identified and neutralized all EICAR samples by blocking them forthwith. It immediately deleted the malware right after zipping or unlocking. On the flip side, Avast was unsuspected on HTTPS mode, and the malware penetrated the system. Avast blocked all three in HTTP and live mode.
Sneaking into Database
To corroborate the existing data points, we took the latest available record from two trending websites in this genre; AV-Comparatives and AV-Test. Both websites have anti-virus testing labs.
AV-Test
For the May/June – 2021 results, AV-Test analyzed 21,262 samples for Avast; the industry average of protection is 98.9%, following the 100% result of thwarting the widespread malware. For June’s protection against 0-day vulnerabilities, Avast scored 99.3%, better than the industry average.
Avast’s Protection statistics
Kaspersky scored 100% in all tests, taking the crown from Avast in providing ultimate protection,
Kaspersky’s Protection stats.
Source: https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/manufacturer/avast/
AV-Comparatives False Positives
We also looked into the archives of AV-Comparatives. AV-Comparatives runs false alarm tests that counter-checks how precisely an app or file is declared as a threat. The results show that Avast succumbed to 20 false alarms as compared to 0 for Kaspersky.
The test results were from February till May 2021.
These independent tests declare that Kaspersky fares better than the Avast if we go by the archives of independent labs.
Source: AV-comparatives
Best for malware protection: Kaspersky
System Performance
Performance is the key. Efficient software cannot make a good impact and is of zero value if it slows down the system's performance. Hence, both Kaspersky and Avast are individually tested on the merits of system performance.
The results are as follows:
Performance on PC
A viable antivirus not only saves the computer from cyber threats, but it uses the minimum resources to prevent the system from coming to a halt. According to the AV-Test evaluation, Kaspersky and Avast both scored a perfect 6.0 in system performance. However, Kaspersky scored 100% in June 2021 results where Avast lagged behind at just 99.3%.
Kaspersky June 2021 Performance Update
Avast June 2021 Performance Updates
Performance on Mac
The macOS antivirus utility does a good job as the system’s default scanner, to provide a decent level of protection against spyware, malware, and antiviruses. However, there are many strains of viruses that Mac OS may not be able to detect and thwart.
This is where professional antiviruses come in. Similar to exceptional performance on PC, Kaspersky and Avast both provide excellent level of protection in advanced threat detection and removals, with high rates of success.
Before moving on with the performance, both antivirus vendors provide the same set of features for Windows and Mac OS, such as VPN, File Shredding, Sandbox (Avast only) etc. The comparison is more in terms of scanning, detecting and thwarting real-time threats.
According to test results conducted by AV-Comparatives, Avast and Kaspersky both secured 100% in malware detection and blocking rates as illustrated in the following graph of 2021:
Source: AV-Comparatives
However, in detecting PUAs (Potentially Unwanted Applications) on the Mac OS, Avast scored 99% whereas Kaspersky scored 96%.
Source: AV-Comparatives
System Utilization
When it comes to performance, how much RAM and CPU are consumed during scanning is also an important metric to decide which antivirus performs the best.
Based on our own independent tests, Kaspersky consumed only 88.5 MB RAM whilst running a quick scan as well as 12.2% of CPU power.
Kaspersky June 2021 CPU and RAM Utilization Update
In our independent tests of memory and CPU utilization, Avast consumed 114.1 MB, higher than Kaspersky’s 88.5 MB, but the CPU utilization rate was nearly half at 6.8%
Avast Antivirus 2021 Performance Statistics
Avast consumed more memory but 50% less RAM as compared to Kaspersky. Honestly, we didn’t experience any system lags when a quick scan was running for both programs. However, we believe that Avast excelled here as it was more lightweight than Kaspersky.
Source: AV-Comparatives
Both Avast and Kaspersky scored an Advanced+ 3 star rating with the likes of AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, and McAfee. This shows that these products have the lowest false alarms i.e. false positive detection rate.
Scanning
Macs are usually known for improved efficiency and faster speeds as compared to their Windows counterparts. Quick scan times using both software took roughly between 2 to 4 minutes, which is usually the same across all the antiviruses tested on Windows OS.
However, it is deep scanning where Mac OS shines. A deep scan varies from system to system and may take anywhere between 30 minutes to 90 minutes on Windows OS. On the Mac OS, it takes around 15 to 30 minutes for a deep scan.
Both programs provided the option of a custom scan by selecting the drives and folders to scan.
Avast Antivirus - Quick Scan Results. Time to scan approximately 2 minutes.
But it is a deep scan where both competitors shine out with their true malware and virus detection capabilities.
Kaspersky took 37 minutes to scan our system with a single 120 GB SSD only, and here are the results. It detected 3 infections with a total of 11 events.
We did a deep scan on another system with a 256 GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD all full to the brim and it took us around 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete the scan during which Avast detected 51 malware threats:
