This is why I recommend that threads with opinionated questions should always be closed as soon as possible. With all due respect to everyone's experience and opinions, all those are subjective and often not even on topic. The OP asked for a FREE ransomware protection solution, and not for which one is the best, not which one you recommend or use, or is lighter.
First of all the main reason for closing, is, if you ask 100 people, you will get 110 different opinions so we are always back to square one. Very few justify their opinions and even less, have objective and not subjective reasons.
We need to keep in mind that the best antivirus is... ourselves. Users that know what they do, and most important know what NOT to do, almost never get a virus.
Dont open mail attachments or files sent to you from people you don't know no matter what they promise.
No, you did not inherit $300 000 000 from a Nigerian prince so don't visit that site and download whatever they tell you
If a site offers software you want that no one else does... guess what it actually is.
Don't insert every USB you find in the wild or from friends without scanning first
No, movies don't have .exe extensions and neither is the latest nudes of that person you searched.
No, porn sites don't need or have "special programs" to give you free access or access to onlyfans (I actually had a client that fall for that).
Using common-sense is the No1 "antivirus"
I said that opinions are subjective because each one experiences, PCs, and what we do with those PCs, is different. Think, for example, 2 people. One has a 2core/2thread CPU and the other has a 16c/32t CPU. The 16core can dedicate an entire core to scanning and they will use only 6.2% of their CPU for that, and they will still have 15 cores and 30 threads left to use. On the other hand, the 2c/2t person will use 50% of the CPU for the same task. If you ask them the same question, one will say the antivirus is very fast, the other will say it's very slow... and both speak the truth.
In the same way, if a person is experienced enough to know what to avoid, and only downloads from trusted sources, every antivirus is good cause you simply never get a virus in the first place.
If you want
free ransomware protection, use Windows defender that has a different type of ransomware protection by denying access to any application that you don't allow when it comes to some specific folders you set like my documents, my images, etc. Not saying it's the best (but according to the tests it actually is one of the best) I just say it's free.
We have the internet, we have search engines, search for independent labs that do Antivirus tests, and read them and form your own opinions.
The Thread will close and I hope you all understand.