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Should you pay for AVG?

NOTE: This is an older article, please see my latest Computer Security recommendations here.

Over the past few weeks, AVG has been a little more agressive in their attempt to get folks to convert to their paid product by showing advertising screens every 2-4 days that ask to upgrade your security. It is completely your perogative to upgrade if you like, but I still use the free version and recommend you do the same.

Like any business, AVG simply wants to convert more of their of customers to paying customers.  You can see a chart of the extra services that the pay version provides by clicking here.

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8 thoughts on “Should you pay for AVG?”

  1. Matthew Kettlewell

    I’m also one of the “you get what you pay for” advocates…

    AVG is pretty descent though, and if it’s saved you time and hassle, paying for the premium version *might* be a worthwhile effort, or at the very least, a nice gesture to show appreciation for a time that they saved your butt.

    I use Prevx because they were the only AV software that could clean up my machine, and did it in 5 minutes… after spending 2 days with other free and paid AV software…

    So I chose to pay the premium price, as a token of appreciation….

    I think that Free is great, and if a business can support the business model, then it’s even better.

    But if they find that they can’t stay in business with free, then they need to convert to paid, or they’ll lose the entire company, and lot’s of users will be left scrambling for another solution, and will opt for a paid solution anyhow because of being burned by a free solution that abandoned them…

    Anyhow, I use free for 90% of what I do, because it works well, and is available…but not all models can sustain free for very long – maybe AVG is just now realizing it.

    1. Rick

      As a business guy myself, I completely understand your point Matt. However, remember that the power of free is that AVG and other products over the years build their name recognition and get their foot in the door of business by giving away products. I regularly donate money (albeit small amounts) to open source or free products that I benefit from and encourage others to do so as well. In this case, though, AVG provides great protection for home and novice computer users with minimal input from the user.

  4. Pingback: When Free Pushes The Limit | Grand Junction Marketing | Search Engine Optmization

  5. Debbie Dee

    I have always been impressed with AVG free I was wondering about getting the whole thing. Bresnan has CA which is soooo slow so I just use AVG, Malware, Spybot, and I did pay for AVG tune-up. How do you know if this stuff they give you and you have to immunize is true? I bought Exterminate It and it was so bad. It always said the same thing, gosh did they think that I wouldn’t notice? Appreciate this site. Hope for some feed back, thank you Debbie

    1. Rick

      Thanks for your comment…don’t use the CA, and don’t buy the AVG. The free one is plenty. Or, my current recommendations are AVAST for Windows XP or Microsoft Security Essentials for Vista or Wndows 7 (see sidebar links to your right). Thanks again.

  7. Debbie Dee

    Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question. Should I keep Spybot search and destroy and Adware? I also have Malwarebytes. These are all free but was wondering. Dell techs told me to do this.
    Thank you again, wish I had your smarts. I do transcription and don’t know a lot about some of these things. Sincerely, Debbie

    1. Rick

      No need to keep either of the other programs. MalwareBytes and your antivirus should be good enough to keep you protected along with practicing good computing habits. Thanks!

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