A couple of years ago, Microsoft released a new free antivirus product: Microsoft Security Essentials.

Many people in the antivirus industry feared that Microsoft would kill off the antivirus market. This hasn’t happened yet, even though Microsoft is performing well in independent antivirus tests.

But Microsoft’s is nothing more than a free antivirus product; there are many other brands as well. What are free antivirus products and can we trust them?

Initially, free software was always associated with open source software: tools made by smart geeks; It’s not very pretty, but it works fine. However, the strength of an antivirus product is in its updates. The most important part of every antivirus company is its laboratory. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, engineers at an antivirus lab work in shifts and analyze current threats on the Internet. How could a free project support such a process?

Today’s free antivirus products are not just open source projects created by open source enthusiasts to improve the world. Large and serious companies manufacture these products and distribute millions of copies.

These are the main antivirus providers that offer free solutions:

avast! – avast! Free antivirus 6

AVERAGE- AVG Anti-Virus 2011 Free Edition

Avira- Avira AntiVir Personal – Free antivirus

Bitdefender- online scanner

Microsoft- Microsoft Security Essentials

Comfortable – Comodo Antivirus

Lavasoft- Ad-Aware Free Internet Security

digital defender – Digital Defender Antivirus Free

emsisoft- Emsisoft Anti-Malware 5.1 Free

PCTools – PC Free AntiVirus Tools 2011

Prevention – Preventon Antivirus – Free Edition

Return – Returnil Safe Deposit System Free

Be careful if you see an antivirus product that is not on this list. It could be fake antivirus software, a nasty piece of malware, that could ask for a ransom or steal your money. If it’s not complete, you can always check the list of providers in the official virus bulletin.

The market shares of these free antivirus products are huge (although very difficult to measure. Most market share measurement technologies measure products being bought and sold). They are very high in Google’s organic results for top keywords, like “antivirus.” They are also spending millions upon thousands on paid Google campaigns and downloading seeds through affiliate networks. Because all of this? Just to give you a nice present?

Of course not. Its business model is to first gain a large share of the market in order to gain a very strong recognition from home users around the world. And then sell them something.

You can visit their sites and see their business models. It’s mainly online sales, so everything is open, with no hidden distribution deals or union contracts. They tell you that “antivirus alone is not enough” to protect your computer and then ask you to buy a “full version of internet security” where you can usually find a firewall, anti-spam features and many different components.

Does it mean that this free antivirus solution is faulty? Most likely not; can still protect you from viruses. Does a paid Internet security solution provide more protection? Most likely, yes; It has more security components. How exactly is one level of protection stronger than the other? It’s really hard to say, because nobody knows what kind of attacks you will see in the future.

In any case, these free antivirus solutions are the real deal from well-respected companies. I hope they do a good job.