Adaware Antivirus Review 2024 — Is It Worth It?

The first thing you need to know about Adaware Privacy is that it isn’t a full antivirus suite; it works best when used in tandem with another antivirus. It doesn’t come with a core malware scanner or real-time protection, so it won’t keep you safe on its own.

Instead, Adaware comes with a slew of extra tools meant to help you stay safe online. These include an unlimited-data VPN, an effective ad blocker, and decent data breach monitoring. It also comes with web protection for Chrome, but it’s worse than Chrome’s built-in security, so it’s not worth using.

The ad blocker is easily the best feature. I was impressed with how well it handled ad-heavy sites like Yahoo and YouTube. Some of the best ad blockers struggle to block ads on YouTube, so it was a pleasant surprise to see Adaware work on YouTube ads. It’s easily the standout feature, which is a bit ironic considering it’s free.

Overall, there are things to like about Adaware, but it’s far from perfect. Unlike a comprehensive antivirus like Norton, you can’t rely on it to keep you safe. But it comes with a range of helpful features that work great alongside other security software. The basic version is free and all paid plans are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Adaware Full Review

Adaware’s various features range from good to more or less useless. To start, it doesn’t come with a malware scanner. This means that if you want to stay safe from viruses and many other threats, you’ll need to use a premium antivirus alongside Adaware. It doesn’t interfere with Windows Defender, so you’ll still get basic protection, but far from the level that a reliable third-party antivirus provides.

The ad blocker is my favorite feature by far. It successfully blocked video ads on YouTube in my tests, which is actually pretty hard to do these days. Aside from that, Adaware has some glaring issues it needs to fix before I can recommend it.

Adaware Security Features

At the risk of repeating myself, Adaware does not come with a malware scanner or real-time protection. This means it won’t do anything to protect you from viruses and most other cybersecurity threats. That out of the way, it does have some good things going for it.

Adaware comes with the following features:

• Ad blocker.
• Web protection.
• Email data breach protection.
• VPN.
• Microphone & webcam protection.

I was very pleased with the ad blocker. I compared it to uBlock Origin, which many consider the best free ad blocker. Adware was about equally effective in my tests. It worked to block a majority of banner ads, pop-ups, and even video ads on platforms like YouTube. It is worth mentioning that it took a few extra seconds to load videos, but this is pretty normal.

On the other hand, the web protections are bad — some of the worst I’ve ever tested, in fact. I tested Adaware out by visiting 20 dangerous phishing websites. Chrome blocked 12 of them, while Adaware failed to block a single one. There’s no way to whitelist safe sites or block categories of sites either, something that’s easy to do with premium software like TotalAV.

The email data breach protection wasn’t great either. I have an old email address I use to test this type of feature, one which I used to use on tons of websites. Adaware found a data breach from 2016 but didn’t provide any tools to resolve the breach. Compare this to Norton, which detected 5 breaches involving the same email address and also provided information on steps I could take to clear up the issue.

The free version lets you monitor 1 email address at a time and scan it once per day, but it doesn’t give you alerts in real-time. The premium plan lets you monitor up to 5 accounts and sends you breach alerts when it detects a new leak. It’s worth noting that even the premium plan doesn’t protect anything more than email accounts. Most data breach protection tools, like Bitdefender’s, protect a larger list of personal information, like addresses and financial data.

The VPN is slightly better than a free VPN, but it’s nowhere near the best antivirus-bundled VPN that I’ve tried. It only offers 12 server locations in 7 countries, so depending on where you live, there may not be any near you. There was also a noticeable drop in speed, even from nearby servers. It isn’t great for streaming either — top streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu were able to detect that I was using a VPN service and wouldn’t let me stream.

Since it lacks advanced features like a killswitch or leak protection, it doesn’t stand out from a security perspective either. A big drawback is that unlike ExpressVPN or other top VPNs, Adware doesn’t have a strict no-logs policy. Adaware shares personal information with third-party sources, which is concerning.

I know I’ve been complaining a lot, but there are some features that I like. The mic and webcam protection alerts you any time a new app attempts to access either piece of hardware. You can easily whitelist or blacklist certain apps, which is handy. Adaware also lets you view how many apps have accessed your mic or webcam over the last week, which is a helpful way to detect whether you’ve been spied on.

However, Adaware doesn’t offer a firewall, dark web monitoring, identity theft protection, parental controls, or other extra features that are included in many top antiviruses.

Overall, Adaware is a lightweight app that provides you with some extra privacy protection features. It also comes with a tool to block malicious sites, but this was utterly ineffective during my tests. On the other hand, the ad blocker and the mic and webcam protection are very effective. I like the idea of Adaware, but its features need to improve before I can recommend it.

Adaware Plans & Pricing

Adaware offers a free plan and a premium plan. The free plan, Adaware Privacy, includes the ad blocker, web protection, mic & webcam protection, and data breach monitoring for 1 email account (limited to 1 scan per day and no automatic alerts). Since it’s free and comes with a great ad blocker, Adaware Privacy earns my recommendation.

Adaware Privacy Pro starts at $29.99 / year. It includes all the free features, plus a VPN and expanded data breach monitoring. It starts with 1 device license, but you can add more for a small fee. You can pick up a 1-month, 6-month, or 1-year plan (the 1-year plans are the cheapest per month).

Adaware Ease of Use & Setup

Adaware is extremely easy to install and use. It took me about 10 minutes to purchase and install, but both Chrome’s built-in protection and Windows Defender tried to reject it at first. You’ll have to accept the warnings. Don’t worry, it’s not malicious. Windows falsely flags it, perhaps because it doesn’t have a ton of downloads yet.

The interface is highly intuitive (albeit lacking in customization options). To view most of your features, click on the My Protection tab on the left of the dashboard. From there, click on the feature you want to use.

Even if you’re a beginner, you’ll find it easy to download and use. Experts, on the other hand, might be put off by the lack of customization in any feature. For example, unlike Norton or Bitdefender’s web protection tools, you can’t even create whitelists of websites using Adaware.

Adaware is extremely user-friendly, but its features are so lacking in depth that it might put some users off. Still, credit where it’s due, it’s a lightweight and simplistic app that anyone can use properly.

Adaware Customer Support

Adaware has decent customer support. It offers a community forum, email support, and a live chatbot.

The community forum isn’t great. When I opened it and flipped through entries, I found that most posts went completely unanswered for months or even years at a time. If you have a specific problem, you’ll have a much better time reaching out to support rather than using the forum.

Speaking of which, the email support is good. Response times are about average (1–2 days), but the automated email you receive to confirm they received the ticket comes with links to answers that might help solve your problem. It’s free, but since it requires you to get an email activation code to make a ticket, you’ll still have to give away some personal information.

Finally, I liked the live chatbot. I typed in a few questions and it immediately pulled up relevant answers to my problems. It can only show you what’s already on the website since it’s not a real person, but it’s a convenient way to find information that might have been buried under a dozen unanswered community posts.

Is Adaware Privacy worth it?

Adaware is hard to recommend, but it’s not without redeeming qualities. The ad blocker performed about as well as uBlock Origin, and the app itself is extremely easy to use.

But these benefits are overshadowed by Adaware’s faults. The web protection is abysmal, failing to block a single dangerous website. In contrast, even Chrome’s built-in security caught 12 of the 20 malicious sites I visited.

The VPN is pretty slow, lacking in extra features, and doesn’t have an extensive server network. Finally, the data breach monitoring only found a single data breach from 2016 as opposed to Norton, which found 5 breaches involving the same email.

Finally, Adaware lacks any core malware protection. This is just a bit of a public service announcement on my part because Adaware doesn’t claim to be an antivirus. It’s a supplementary tool that’s effective in some areas that many antiviruses don’t cover. Still, not all of these features are effective.

Adaware’s free version is well worth a download, if only for the ad blocker. The premium version is harder to recommend. At the very least, you can use the 30-day money-back guarantee to decide whether it works for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Adaware free?

Adaware does have a free plan, and it’s not half-bad. The free plan gets you access to the ad blocker, mic & webcam protection, email data breach checking for 1 email, and web protection. While I have issues with the web protection, the ad blocker is great.

The premium version gives you data breach monitoring and live updates for up to 5 email accounts, plus it throws in a VPN. It also comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it out without a commitment.

Is Adware a good antivirus solution?

I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, but it has a few positives worth highlighting. The ad blocker is pretty good and can even bypass ads on YouTube. It’s highly customizable and worth installing.

That said, the rest of its features aren’t great. The web protection is the worst of any antivirus that I’ve tested and it’s missing an on-demand malware scanner or real-time protection. The VPN only has 12 server locations and it was pretty slow during my tests. Overall, there are much better antivirus solutions on the market.

Does Adware come with a malware scanner?

No, Adware does not come with a malware scanner. It used to, but current Adaware plans are made to complement another antivirus, not replace it. Adaware offers other features, like protection from malicious websites, a VPN, and email data breach protection, plus a surprisingly good ad blocker. The only drawback is that you’ll need to BYOS (bring your own scanner). While that’s not a deal breaker to me, the fact that its cost is comparable to many of our top fully-featured antiviruses for Windows is a big drawback.