Surely at some point you probably have seen your computer has been infected by some type of virus or malware. Although normally everyone should’ve a security tool on their computer, the truth is that in a pinch we can always use some free online antivirus that we can find on the Internet.

When it comes to free online antivirus, it is important to know that they are not designed to replace antivirus programs, since online tools do not offer real-time protection. In addition, it is necessary to differentiate between online tools that perform a complete system analysis to detect and eliminate infected files and those that are more focused on analyzing files individually. Of course, we must bear in mind that despite being online solutions, in some of them we will have to download an executable to be able to scan our computer for viruses.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Online Antivirus Tools

An online antivirus tool is an online program or application that we can run directly from our browser to scan our computer or certain files to detect any virus or threat. This means that they offer certain advantages over traditional antivirus:

• Constant Update: the versions available through its official website will always be the latest versions offered by its developer.
• Availability: Regardless of the computer we are using we can have access to any of them since they do not require installations. It would be enough to go to the website of the antivirus tool to carry out any analysis, all we need is a web browser.
• Multiple Results: Many of the online antivirus perform scans with different security tools, this makes the result very reliable since we can check what each antivirus says about the analysis of the file.
• Free: we can find a lot of free antivirus online, like the ones shown below.

But not all that glitters is gold and the use of this type of tool also has certain drawbacks:

• Less Effective: They are not as complete as the antivirus that are installed on the computer.
• No Permanent Protection: They do not offer permanent protection. They allow an analysis or protection to be carried out but this ends when we close the browser.
• They Only Serve To Scan: They scan our computer or certain files in search of viruses but they do not usually protect sensitive areas of the system, nor do they have advanced functions for the control of emails, etc.

Best Free Online Antivirus Tools

1. Google Chrome Antivirus

Although surely many users already know it, others still may not know that Google’s browser has its own integrated antivirus tool. To use it, we only have to write in the Chrome address bar, Chrome://settings/cleanup and press Enter. Next, we will be shown a page where all we have to do is click on the Search button and the process will start automatically.

2. Metadefender

MetaDefender is a free online antivirus tool to analyze a file for viruses or malware, but something more complete, since in this case, it also offers us the possibility of scanning a file, an IP address, a domain, a URL or a CVE. It has an intuitive interface where we will easily find each and every one of the analysis options it offers.

3. VirusTotal

Another free online antivirus that allows you to scan a specific file. In this way, we can know in advance if the file that we have downloaded or that we want to download is trustworthy or not. VirusTotal is one of the most popular online antivirus and has a huge database in which it checks each file to detect if we are dealing with a malicious file or not. VirusTotal allows us to analyze a file of up to 256MB and it has an option to send you the report of the result by email.

4. Panda Cloud Cleaner

Panda Security is one of the benchmarks when it comes to antivirus, and in addition to its different security products, it also has a free online antivirus tool, Panda Cloud Cleaner – an online tool that allows us to eliminate all unnecessary processes before starting the analysis to try to identify any malicious file that may be camouflaged behind other processes.
Panda Cloud Cleaner is very easy to handle, since once the analysis is finished, all we have to do is select the malicious files and click on delete.

5. ESET Online Scanner

ESET Online Scanner is perhaps one of the most complete free online antivirus that we can find. In addition, it has a fairly intuitive and easy-to-use interface. From this online tool it is possible to indicate whether we want to perform a complete, fast or personalized scan or analysis of our PC.
In addition, it also offers the possibility of indicating if we want to quarantine or delete the suspicious files that it has detected. Something quite useful was in the event of false positives.

6. F-Secure Online Scanner

Another interesting free online antivirus is F-Secure Online Scanner. It is perhaps one of the fastest online antivirus tool that we can find, although it is also one of the most basic. It does not offer the possibility of choosing if we want to make a complete, simple or personalized scan, it will always do it completely. However, its speed is the strong point of F-Secure Online Scanner, so we will not have to wait so long for the full scan to be carried out every time we use this free online antivirus. The lack of options actually makes it a really easy tool to use.

7. Kaspersky VirusDesk

We continue the review with Kaspersky VirusDesk, the online solution of one of the best antivirus tool at the moment. Simply drag a file into the search box or enter a URL to scan. In a few seconds we will have the result.

8. Trend Micro HouseCall

Another famous solution comes to us with Trend Micro HouseCall, a free online virus detection scan. It is used to find and remove viruses, worms, spyware and other malicious threats for free.

9. Safety Detective – Known Vulnerability Scanner

The review takes us to Safety Detective‘s known vulnerability scanner solution. It scans the system for viruses and malware in general, giving us the result in a few seconds.
These online antivirus solutions can get us out of a bind by scanning the system or a specific file, but it will always be better to have a complete security solution installed. In the case of Windows 10, the protection of its integrated free antivirus is more than enough, although we can always choose to entrust the security of the system to other advanced solutions offered by the market.

10. AntiScan.me

AntiScan.me is another online service for scanning files for antivirus. Therefore, all we have to do to know if a file is infected or not is to visit the site and upload the file to analyze. AntiScan uses up to 26 different antivirus services to check our file and once analyzed, it offers the result that each one of them has given.

11. Windows Defender

Windows Defender is the antivirus software integrated into Windows 10 and therein lies one of its greatest virtues – it is not necessary to install anything – our computer will be protected from the moment we turn it on.
Other features are that the antivirus defense is always being active without additional costs, the files are protected and you can access them from any of your devices. You can configure your options for location, camera, etc. To manage your privacy. You also have the ability to limit access to adult content, restrict online purchases.