VIPRE vs. CA Anti-Virus 2009

Choosing the right antivirus software for your PC can be easy (even though it might seem a bit daunting at first.)

When choosing software, you may've gotten some recommendations or read a couple of reviews. After that it often comes down to just a couple of choices.

That's where this section of our site can come in especially handy.

By using it, you can easily compare antivirus software feature-by-feature and see which one is best for your needs. You'll be able to quickly pit today's best antivirus software head-to-head against one another.

This page compares:
VIPRE Antivirus + Antispware vs. CA Anti-Virus 2009.

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$29.95* Vs. $39.99*

Which Has the Best Real-time Protection?

VIPRE	CA
VIPRE's real-time protection (known as Active Protection) comes enabled by default. Independent lab tests revealed that VIPRE antivirus instantly and positively identified about 70% of viruses and malware. The other 30% were deemed "questionable" and were identified for the user to either delete, quarantine, or ignore. A great score for VIPRE. All files, web activity, and email are automatically scanned in real-time.	Real-time antivirus protection from CA is average at best. Their engine will find, detect, and prevent most viruses with no problem. However, no spyware or adware protection is included making CA Anti-Virus vulnerable to non-virus attacks. Files, web activity, and email are all thoroughly scanned, but with no antispyware, CA really misses a lot of dangerous infections.
RESULT: Winner VIPRE With VIPRE combining antivirus and antispyware into one seamless application, they have all their bases covered.

Which is Most Effective Against Spyware?

VIPRE	CA
VIPRE integrates antivirus and antispyware in one package. As you'd expect both work together well. Antispyware definitions may take from 10 to 15 minutes to download right after you install, but all updates after that are smaller and quicker. With VIPRE's antivirus and antispyware combined into one application, VIPRE covers against both viruses and spyware.	Regrettably, CA Anti-Virus doesn't include any antispyware features.
RESULT: Winner VIPRE VIPRE is the clear winner. Not only does VIPRE have antispyware included (unlike CA which has no antispyware capabilities at all), but also VIPRE's antispyware works well.

Which Has the Lowest Resource Usage?

VIPRE	CA
Low resource usage is VIPRE's trademark. VIPRE runs far lighter than any other commercial antivirus application on the market we know of. For starters, manual scanning uses minimal memory. Then, when real-time antivirus protection is engaged, VIPRE utilizes less than 1% of total computer memory. During a normal scan, VIPRE CPU usage was lowest of any software we reviewed. It's hard to beat VIPRE when it comes to resource usage.	Sadly, CA Anti-Virus is at the other end of the spectrum: resource hog. While this version of antivirus is very streamlined and bare-bones, CA Anti-Virus still manages to use far more CPU and memory than VIPRE. Independent testing showed that CA lagged far behind the pack with heavy CPU and memory usage. Heavy resource usage may not seem like an important issue, but when your machine runs slower than should, it's hard to justify such heavy antivirus applications.
RESULT: Winner VIPRE VIPRE easily wins this round because of its famously light-footprint.

Which Has the Best User Interface?

VIPRE	CA
VIPRE's user interface is pleasant to look at and easy to navigate. The central screen shows all the essential information you need to know such as: current risk level feature options previous updates last scan date The scan results section is clearly identified and intuitive as to what to do next. Overall, VIPRE's user interface is easy enough for the average user, yet detailed enough for the advanced user.	The user interface on CA Anti-Virus is relatively easy to use and navigate. While the page layouts are mostly intuitive, you may find yourself clicking back-and-forth to find exactly the right setting you're looking for. We did. We really tend to prefer a layout with the settings and options more easily accessible than we found with CA.
RESULT: Winner VIPRE VIPRE's user interface is clean and simple. It shows you exactly what's going on with out bogging your down with unimportant information.

Which Has the Best Customer Support?

VIPRE	CA
Sunbelt (the makers of VIPRE antivirus) has a reputation for fast, friendly, and (most importantly) free customer support. VIPRE's customer service reps are based out of the US. Responses to customer issues are responded to quickly and in a professional manner. And, chat email and phone support is free of charge. The usual FAQ pages and knowledge base are easy to find and easy to navigate. All links to support numbers, email addresses and help pages are clearly labeled. You won't have to dig for support like you do with most other antivirus software makers.	CA Anti-Virus offers phone support, but they charge $19.95 per incident. Given that the sticker price is already $39.99, $10 more than the sticker price of VIPRE, adding another $20 on that for phone support, when VIPRE includes it for free is hard to justify in our view. CA does offer free email and chat support, but the links to these options are deeply buried and not easy to find. They offer the usual FAQ pages and knowledgebase, but their customer service options aren't up to stuff compared to the top antivirus software. Without free, direct phone support, CA isn't meeting the needs of most antivirus users. And by burying the email and chat support, it makes us wonder how eager CA is to support their customers.
RESULT: Winner VIPRE VIPRE's free, US-based, phone customer support is hard to beat.

Which is Easiest to Install?

VIPRE	CA
VIPRE install is what we'd expect: fast, easy, and intuitive. Some basic setup questions need to be answered, then the install will be quickly completed. Once the initial installation is complete, the antivirus software will need to connect to the database in order to download the latest antivirus and antispyware definitions. This can take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. All updates after this first connection will be much faster and lighter.	The CA Anti-Virus installation was equally good. The setup wizard walks you through some basic questions then gets on with the install. Some users have experienced a slight hiccup that prevented them from completing the registration, but we believe these to be exceptions to the rule. Other than that, we expect CA installation to go smoothly for most users. As all antivirus applications do, CA will need to connect to their database to download new definitions. This can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes depending on your connection speed.
RESULT: Tie Both VIPRE and CA have fast and easy installations with no real issues.

Which Has the Best Email Virus Protection?

VIPRE	CA
The email protection feature on VIPRE does a good job scanning emails for potential threats. Outlook, Windows Mail, Outlook Express, and all major email clients are all supported. Plus, any email client that supports POP3/SMTP will also work, such as Eudora, Thunderbird, or IncrediMail. In a nutshell, VIPRE's email protection is what you'd hope: solid.	CA's antivirus email scanning is adequate and performs the basic scanning functions. CA doesn't claim to support all major email clients, but it seems at least the major clients are supported like Outlook, Thunderbird, and Outlook Express. Overall, CA's ability to scan and protect email against viruses was average at best.
RESULT: Winner VIPRE Both VIPRE and CA perform well when it comes to email antivirus protection. However, because CA takes more resources to get the job done, you're likely to find yourself waiting longer (and more frequently than you'd like) to open emails, especially ones with attachments.

What's the Best Antivirus Software?

VIPRE	CA
The "best antivirus software" this year is clearly VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware. After comparing all major features, VIPRE has more to offer and costs less. VIPRE is one of the lightest running antivirus applications on the market. The user interface is easy to use and easy to navigate. Their free, US-based, phone support is second to none in the industry. And most of all, VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware works. In test after test, viruses, spyware, and all forms of malware are easily stopped and thwarted. VIPRE is our pick for 2009's best antivirus software without a doubt.	While CA Anti-Virus is a bare-bones, adequate antivirus solutions, it doesn't have enough power or features for us to rank this application very high. The actual antivirus engine does an average job, but modern antivirus applications need more than just an average feature set. With heavy resource usage and no spyware protection, CA doesn't seem to've put the effort in that their major competitors have. Their customer support is buried too deep for out liking making it seem like they really don't want to help their customers. Because of these combined factors, CA Anti-Virus comes in last on our list.
RESULT: Winner VIPRE All around, VIPRE is much lighter, cleaner, faster, and more powerful than CA's antivirus software. VIPRE has better customer service and is far less expensive--especially for how much you get.

VIPRE vs CA: Conclusion

VIPRE	CA
#1 $29.95*	#2 $39.99*
* $19.95 with our exclusive coupon.	* $31.99 with our exclusive coupon.
CONCLUSION: Winner VIPRE