ClamWin Antivirus Review 2024: Open Source Pearl or Just Another Shell?

If you’re looking for a free and open-source antivirus solution for a Windows PC or laptop, ClamWin can be a good choice if you’re on a budget.

ClamWin is based on the ClamAV antivirus engine. It scans for viruses, malware, and other threats to your Windows device. It offers manual and scheduled scanning of your hard drives, memory, and files including your emails. However, it falls short by not offering real-time scanning, requiring manual intervention to check for viruses, malware, or other threats.

Keep reading our ClamWin antivirus review to find out how it stands among the best antivirus software available.

ClamWin antivirus review at a glance

Price	Free
Malware scans	Manual and scheduled
Real-time protection	No
EICAR test results	1/3
Firewall	No
Phishing protection	No
Compatibility	Windows
Extras	N/A
24/7 customer support	No, forums only
Learn more	Get ClamWin Antivirus

Our experience

Overall, our ClamWin experience wasn't bad. It was actually quite nostalgic and refreshing to see such a simple program do exactly what you expect it to do. It scans your computer for viruses, that's it.

When we first opened ClamWin, we noticed right away that the interface looked dated. However, the toolbar's selection of options was straightforward to navigate.

We liked that ClamWin gave us the option to run a scan on any drive on our device (in this case, our C: and G: drives), including our device's memory or only specific files. We could also scan our emails and set up email alerts to let us know when a virus was found.

You can set up hourly, daily, workday, and weekly scans in the scheduler, which is a nice touch.

We were disappointed that scanning one of our hard drives took more than four hours, which is four times slower than the next slowest software.

That said, the memory scan was much quicker (about five minutes).

During scans, you get a full information on what files ClamWin is scanning, which ones it can't access, and where it's found a virus (if applicable). This was very informative and a good touch when the scans take a long time.

When it finds a virus, it outputs it in red text along with the rest of the updates:

Unfortunately, it doesn't do much else for you. You have to hunt for the file it detected and get rid of it yourself.

Overall, we were impressed by how granular ClamWin got. If you want to make sure that absolutely every single file on your computer is compared against a virus database, ClamWin won't disappoint you.

Who is ClamWin best for?

• Recommended for Windows users seeking basic, free virus protection

Having a computer virus infect your Windows device is never fun. In this age of viruses, malware, and other cyber threats, your PC or laptop should have basic antivirus protection. That is why ClamWin free antivirus makes a good choice for Windows users on a budget — it’s accessible to all Windows users for free.

ClamWin is easy to download, install, and use. This makes it easy for anyone to set up, no matter how tech-savvy they are or how unfamiliar they are with antivirus programs. It's also good for people who don't want antiviruses scanning everything they do. Since it has no real-time protection, you can rest assured it's only scanning what you're asking it to scan.

Thus, ClamWin is a good choice for anyone who is willing to forgo real-time protection for a free antivirus solution that scans and removes viruses from hard drives, memory, files, and emails.

ClamWin antivirus features

ClamWin does not have all the bells and whistles that full-featured antivirus software does. But as a free and easy-to-use antivirus program, its manual and scheduled scanning options and integration with Microsoft Outlook and Windows Explorer can make it a good choice for people on a tight budget who regularly use the internet and check email.

ClamWin isn’t flawless, though. First, it only works with Windows (sorry, Apple and Linux fans). Next, it doesn’t automatically check files for threats as they open or run, which may turn off users who prefer a beefier antivirus solution like Bitdefender or TotalAV antivirus. Finally, its scanning speed is slow compared to other antivirus solutions.

Malware and antivirus scan

ClamWin offers both manual and scheduled scans. The scheduling offers a lot of flexibility, which helps you choose when you want your computer looked after.

ClamWin doesn't offer the usual "quick" vs. "full" scan that we're used to seeing nowadays. Instead you can choose to scan any programs or files that are currently in your computer's memory OR scan a certain file or set of files. The memory scan is equivalent to a quick scan, where scanning your entire drive is closer to a full scan.

Although it may take a while to complete a scan, it thoroughly scans your computer’s hard drive, memory, or files for viruses. It can even check your emails.

Moreover, ClamWin uses the ClamAV virus database to obtain the latest virus definitions. They can also be downloaded manually if you want to be sure the database is up to date.

ClamWin can also scan your Microsoft Office docs for embedded malware.

Phishing protection

While ClamWin doesn't offer general phishing protection, Microsoft Outlook users can scan incoming and outgoing emails as well as any attachments. If the antivirus detects a virus in an email attachment, it replaces that attachment with a report file. As a result, your Windows PC or laptop is safe from any phishing attacks that might otherwise compromise it.

Keep in mind, however, that since ClamWin is free software, it may lack the robust anti-phishing tools found in paid subscription plans.

Firewall

A firewall can protect your device from unauthorized access or prevent malware from infecting it by blocking unauthorized incoming and outgoing connections.

ClamWin does not have a firewall, but if you already have one, this isn’t too big of a deal. ClamWin automatically adds another layer of protection to Windows Defender's built-in firewall or another third-party firewall.

If you don’t have or use a firewall, it’s strongly recommended that you implement one.

Real-time protection

The biggest drawback with ClamWin is that it doesn’t offer real-time protection. This feature, which is available in antivirus programs like TotalAV, protects you in advance by scanning files as you open them.

For real-time protection, you should consider other options like Bitdefender, McAfee, or Norton, our top three picks for the best Windows antivirus protection.

Anti-fraud protection

ClamWin also lacks anti-fraud protection. Practicing safe browsing and taking extra security measures, such as installing security updates and using strong passwords, is important for complete protection. You might also check out identity theft protection services for additional tools like dark web scans, credit reports, and identity recovery.

ClamWin antivirus test results

To make sure an antivirus can actually protect you, we put it through a series of in-house tests. We usually supplement this test with trusted third-party test results, but we couldn’t find any published third-party protection tests for ClamWin.

This isn't entirely surprising though, since most third-party antivirus testing organizations charge a fee to test antivirus programs. As a free program, ClamWin may lack the funds and resources necessary to pay for these tests. Keep in mind, though, that that doesn’t mean that ClamWin is automatically a bad product.

Here's how ClamWin did against our in-house tests.

Scan speed

• Result: Very slow

While it's most important for an antivirus software to do a good job, scans that last too long can be a significant downside for users. At a certain point, waiting for a scan to finish can become demanding and make you less likely to open up your antivirus again.

While ClamWin's memory scan only took about five minutes, the full system scan took over four hours to finish. This is the longest scan times we've documented among all the antivirus software we've tested.

Scan type	Time spent
Quick scan	5 minutes and 32 seconds
Full scan	Over 4 hours

EICAR test results

• Result: 1/3

The European Institute for Computer Anti-Virus Research (EICAR) has published a series of publicly-available tools that allows you to put your antivirus software to the test. These include non-malicious files that are designed to act like viruses as well as webpages that are made to trigger anti-phishing protections.

Test	ClamWin score
Malware detection	Pass
Drive-by malware downloads	Fail
Phishing pages detection	Fail

Test results as of 08/29/2024.

Since ClamWin doesn't have real-time protection, it's not able to block the download of EICAR files. It was, however, able to detect the files as "malicious" once they were downloaded to our computer. So it receives a pass in malware detection.

ClamWin was unable to block the phishing page, which is unsurprising considering it doesn't claim to have anti-phishing capabilities.

ClamWin compatibility

ClamWin only works on PCs and laptops that run Windows; there is no compatibility with macOS. Here’s the complete list of Windows versions that ClamWin is compatible with.

• Windows 10
• Windows 8
• Windows 7
• Windows Vista
• Windows XP
• Windows Me
• Windows 2000
• Windows 98
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 2003

Though Windows 11 isn't listed on their site, we tested the software on a Windows 11 laptop and found it worked just fine.

ClamWin customer support

There is no live chat, phone, or email support for ClamWin users, which is a major drawback. It’s a free antivirus, though, so that's not unexpected.

The app does have support as an option in its main menu, which redirects you to their community-driven user forum to ask other ClamWin users for help or get solutions. ClamWin’s website also has an FAQ section. (At this time, however, the user forums seem to be offline.)

Lastly, ClamWin has help guides available in the program itself should you need help with installation or configuration.

Top alternatives

If ClamWin doesn't have everything you're looking for, here are some of the best antivirus software available:

ClamWin antivirus FAQs

Bottom line: Is ClamWin antivirus good?

As a free and open-source solution, ClamWin antivirus offers useful functions like manual virus and email scanning. However, it lacks premium features like real-time scanning and an integrated firewall. If you can’t afford to pay for an antivirus solution, then ClamWin may be worth it.

But for anyone who can squeeze an antivirus subscription into their budget, we recommend a paid antivirus program for more protection. If that sounds like you, you may want to check out our guide on the best antivirus software for recommendations on what to look for and which antivirus programs to check out next.