Is Avast! only available for purchase, with no totally free version like AVG? I've been wanting to switch to Avast! for a while, but can only seem to find trial versions that expire, which confuses me because I've heard people talk about using it as if it were free.

I'm not sure if there is free Avast that doesn't have a trial period. Maybe the users who have this kind of Avast have tweaked the registry and fooled the computer that Avast will have endless extension for the trial period.

My understanding is that it is free as well. However, you probably have to look around for it. They may be promoting the fee one instead. I had the same thing happen to me with AVG. Cloud is supposed to be a good alternative as well.