Antivirus software is imperative if you want to avoid the latest threats, from info-stealing malware or ransomware that locks up your computer unless you pay a fine. It works in the background, combating these risks and allowing you to go about your day as you normally would.

Some computers have built-in antivirus software, for example, Window's Microsoft Defender. While this is great for baseline protection, if you want something more comprehensive with more customization, that's where the best antivirus software comes in.

To help you find the best antivirus software for your devices, we spent weeks installing, testing, and uninstalling all of the programs below while taking a close look at their features, extras, and design. We even reached out to customer support to see how easily each company was able to solve common and not so common problems.

Based on our extensive testing, research and the results from third-party labs, Norton 360 Deluxe is our pick for the best antivirus software overall. It’s easy to use and provides effective malware protection without significantly impacting your computer’s performance. You also get plenty of extra features you’ll actually use.

However, there are plenty of other great antivirus providers too, and in this guide we'll take your through all the options. Whether you’re looking to secure a single device or ensure your entire household is protected from the latest threats, this is the best antivirus software you can get right now.

The quick list

The best antivirus software you can buy today

The best antivirus software overall

Norton 360 is an antivirus that perfectly strikes the balance between usability and strong protection, with feature-packed plans that cover just about every cyber threat you could want to protect yourself from.

Norton 360 offers varying levels of protection, depending on which plan you go for. Its standard plan is its cheapest. It costs $42 for the first year and renews at $94, coming in a little cheaper than Bitdefender Total Security, which starts at $109. For this price, you can protect one device against malware, viruses, ransomware, and hackers. You also get Deepfake Protection, 10GB of cloud backup, Dark Web Monitoring, and a VPN.

Its most expensive tier, Norton 360 with LifeLock Select Plus, starts at $99 for the first year and renews at $189. For this price, you can protect up to 10 macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android devices, as well as getting access to features including Scam Protection Pro, 250GB cloud storage, Parental Control, Credit Monitoring Coverage, and up to $25,000 in stolen funds reimbursement, amongst some other extras. This includes SafeCam, which protects your webcam and microphone, and its backup tool Time Machine.

In independent testing, Norton 360 performed incredibly well. AV Test’s February 2026 report certified Norton 360 as a “Top Product” with a 6/6 score across Protection, Performance and Usability — the same score as both Bitdefender and McAfee.

Additionally, AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test, Norton 360 scored 90/100 in AVC, 94.7/100 in Procyon, and 5.3 in Impact. The lower the Impact score, the better, and Norton 360 outperformed Bitdefender, which scored a 9.6/10 in Impact. It was outperformed, however, by McAfee, which achieved a 3.3/10 in Impact.

Finally, in its UK April 2026 report, SE Labs awarded Norton 360’s macOS version an AAA rating with 100% protection accuracy, which is the highest possible rating.

On top of this, its low system impact means that you can run its scans in the background without disrupting your computer's performance, even if you're doing something that requires a lot of system load, like gaming. During testing, where I played Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra graphics) with Norton 360 running in the background, system impact was minimal. Frames per second (fps) only dipped from 118 to 105 while doing a Full Scan of almost 900,000 files.

When it comes to its downsides, Norton 360 does have a couple. Some of its protection features (like SafeCam) are Windows-exclusive, while others are paywalled.

Additionally, in testing, I found Norton 360's Ask Genie AI assistant was a lot slower and more inconsistent than the AI assistants offered by competitors such as Avast One and Malwarebytes.

Still, regardless of these (relatively minor) shortcomings, Norton 360 is still one of the most dependable and feature-rich antivirus software suites on the market.

• Read our full Norton 360 review

The best antivirus software for features

Bitdefender is a great option if you want feature-heavy antimalware software, thanks to its range of plans for you to choose from.

Unlike Norton 360, however, it does not offer discounts for the first year of use. Its cheapest Consumer plan, Bitdefender Total Security, starts at $109; Bitdefender Premium Security costs $129; Bitdefender Ultimate Security retails for $159; and Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus costs $189.

These plans all offer different levels of protection, with Total Security having the least security features, and Ultimate Security Plus having the most. Still, Total Security offers protection against malware, ransomware, and network threats, Advanced Threat Defense, which monitors active apps, Cryptomining Protection that fights against apps that you have no knowledge of, Anti-Phishing, Anti-Fraud, Antispam, and more.

For this review, I tested the Bitdefender Ultimate Security plan, which includes all this as well as email protection, Scam Protection Pro that fights sophisticated scams, Digital Identity Protection, as well as a VPN.

Bitdefender's independent testing scores were decent. It achieved 6/6 scores across Protection, Performance, and Usability in AV Test’s February 2026 report, the same as McAfee and Norton.

With this being said, its AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test results were not as good. This test uses benchmarking tools to assess system impact. It scored 85/100 in AVC, 95.4/100 in Procyon, and 9.6/10 in Impact. McAfee performed better with a 90 and 96.7 score respectively.

This was the only test Bitdefender slightly underperformed in, however. SE Labs (U.K.) gave Bitdefender an AAA (highest possible rating with a 100% protection accuracy.

Its protection doesn't hamper your computer's performance, either. I performed a full scan (of over 2.3 million files) while also running Cyberpunk 2077, and it only dipped from 100 fps to 97 fps.

If I could change a couple of things about it, it would be this: adding a Quick Scan option, and allowing its app window to be resizable on Windows. In the grand scheme of things, though, these are relatively minor complaints.

Overall, Bitdefender is a great bit of kit to have in your arsenal for giving you peace of mind against ever-evolving AI and malware threats.

• Read our full Bitdefender Total Security review

The best antivirus software for families

McAfee+ Ultimate is a welcome security package if you have many devices to protect, a big household, and a lot of family members. It does everything you’d want to protect your PC, Mac, or smartphone, and the package doesn’t limit how many devices you can use with your account.

In addition to an extremely powerful antivirus solution, you get features that help protect you (and your family) during your online activities as well. Among the many included features that come with McAfee+ Ultimate is a VPN (with no restrictions to a set file transfer limit), full access to a password manager, identity monitoring, a social media monitoring tool, a text scam detector, and more.

During testing, there were no performance problems during scanning. A full scan of 926K files took 35 minutes, which is the same time as Norton 360 Deluxe, although slightly slower than Bitdefender Total Security. McAfee+ Ultimate also offers options for a quick scan and a five-minute scan if you want to speed things up a little.

Some of the features offered, however, are available in Windows as free tools, like a file shredder and a clean up tool that removes temporary files.

McAfee+ Ultimate's pricing starts out pretty reasonable, usually around $49.99. However, you should keep in mind that after the first year, this price jumps up quite significantly to $149.99. So, if you don’t need many devices covered, it may not be worth the fee.

McAfee+ Ultimate offers an unlimited VPN, which is handy for those who want a VPN along with their antivirus. During testing, we found the unlimited VPN easy to configure and use. Additionally, its features, like the password manager, were easy to install and worked as expected.

McAfee+ Ultimate's antivirus protection scores in independent tests are outstanding overall, achieving a protection rate of 99.5% in AV-Comparatives' tests published in December 2025. Its false positives score was excellent too, on par with Bitdefender Total Security, and better than Norton 360 Deluxe, Malwarebytes Plus, and Avast Premium Security.

The main drawback here is the higher price point, although if you’re covering multiple devices, then you may find it worth it. Still, if you're after a budget antivirus, consider Malwarebytes Plus.

• Read our full McAfee+ Premium review

The best antivirus software for banking

Avast One offers not only excellent antimalware and antivirus protection, but also protection against AI-generated scams, deepfakes, suspicious texts and links, and more.

The biggest plus about Avast One is that it offers a completely free tier, which is great if you want to protect yourself without breaking the bank. This blocks viruses and malware and offers protection against ransomware, as well as allowing you access to Avast’s AI-powered assistant for catching scams.

On top of this, you also get a 60-day trial of SecureLine VPN. Extra features, like Scam Guardian Pro, AntiTrack, and firewall, can be activated from within the app. These are all paid add-ons, but the good news is that you can pick and choose which ones you need, instead of paying for an all-in-one package, such as the tiers offered by Bitdefender and Norton 360.

During testing, I used Avast Premium Security, which includes Wi-Fi protection, WebGuard, which uses AI to block scam websites, and Mail Shield, which monitors your email address for threats.

Avast was rated as a top product by AV Test’s February 2026 report, achieving a 6/6 score across Protection, Performance and Usability. In AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test report, Avast ranked 6th on the list, just under Norton 360, with a 90/100 AVC score, 94.5/100 Procyon score, and a 5.5 Impact score. Finally, it achieved the highest rating possible of AAAwith a 100% total accuracy percentage in SE Labs (U.K.) April 2026 report.

Unlike some competitors (like Bitdefender), Avast One offers a few different types of scans: Smart (quick), Full, Targeted (custom), and Boot-Time. I ran a Full Scan, which took 6 minutes and 12 seconds, which is a lot quicker thanBitdefender's full scan, which took 26 minutes and 23 seconds. However, Avast One doesn’t tell you how many files it has scanned, unlike Bitdefender.

I tested the impact of these scans by running Cyberpunk 2077 while running them and measuring the slowdown. During a Full Scan, Cyberpunk 2077 dropped from 99 fps to 96 fps, meaning the impact was barely noticeable at all.

However, if you're looking for antivirus protection for your family, you may be a bit disappointed to learn that Avast One does not feature built-in parental controls, unlike Bitdefender. Additionally, it can only protect up to 10 devices, meaning if you have more devices than this, it may not be suitable.

Still, if you want antivirus software that offers swift and diverse system scanning as well as modern AI threat analysis, Avast One is a great choice.

• Read our full Avast One review

The best budget antivirus software

Malwarebytes is user-friendly, excellent value for money and includes some great tools like an AI-driven Scam Guard and Digital Footprint Scanner to keep you safe from cyber threats.

As with the other antivirus software providers on this list, Malwarebytes has a range of different plans that cover various needs and requirements. It has three consumer plans, with its Standard plan available for $44 / £29 per year. This plan offers basic protection against malware, viruses, and more on one device only.

The next step up is the Plus plan, which costs $79 / £49 annually. It includes everything offered by Standard, plus a high-speed VPN and anonymous browsing.

Malwarebytes’ most expensive plan is called Ultimate in the U.S. ($279 per year) and Total in the U.K. (£129 per year). Regardless of what they are called, Ultimate and Total feature Advanced Social Media Monitoring as well as $1 million in identity insurance. While these are great features, this plan is pricier than both Bitdefender and Norton 360, although there are also various Family plans starting from $149 / £109 per year.

You don't have to fully commit off the bat, though. Malwarebytes offers a 60-day money-back guarantee — just like Norton 360.

One thing I did find slightly disappointing about these plans was that none of them offer cloud backup and storage or parental controls. If these are features you desperately want, you'd be better off checking out Bitdefender, Avast One, or Norton 360.

In independent testing, Malwarebytes performed decently. In AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test report Malwarebytes scored 75/100 in AVC, 97.4/100 in Procyon, and 17.6 in Impact. The Impact score is a little worrying, however, as it means that (on paper at least) Malwarebytes has a negative impact on your system resources. Bitdefender (9.6), Avast (5.5) and Norton 360 (5.3) all performed better than Malwarebytes in this area.

In SE Labs (U.K.) April 2026 report, Malwarebytes Premium was awarded an AAA rating with 97% protection accuracy. While this bad at all, it should be noted that Bitdefender, Norton 360 and Avast One are all rated 100% for their protection accuracy.

Malwarebytes offers three scan levels —Threat Scan (quick), Deep Scan (full), and Custom Scan (targeted). The quick scan option is nice to see, and gives it an edge over the likes of Bitdefender, which don't offer these options. In testing, its Threat Scan was completed within 22 seconds, having scanned over 176,000 files without detecting any anomalies or threats. Its Deep Scan took 14 minutes and two seconds to finish, and scanned a total of 427,157 files — a little less than Bitdefender, which scanned over two million files in 26 minutes.

To test its impact on system performance, I ran Cyberpunk 2077 while these scans ran in the background. Cyberpunk 2077’s frame rate dipped a fair bit, from 87 to 75. While this isn't the worst impact on performance, especially as I didn’t notice any stuttering or lag while playing the games, with Bitdefender I achieved 97fps in Cyberpunk 2077 with the software performing a Full Scan.

Overall, Malwarebytes is user-friendly and offers a great range of features to keep you and your devices safe and malware-free. However, it is lacking in a couple of key areas, and its system impact does leave a little to be desired.

• Read our full Malwarebytes Plus review

Also tested

We test a lot of apps when searching for the best antivirus software, but only a handful can reach the top spots. If you're after more options, here are some other great antivirus packages that didn't quite make the mark.

How we test the best antivirus software

We test each antivirus program and evaluate its interface, performance, protection, extra features and — above all — overall value.

After timing and rating the installation process’s ease, we looked at whether the interface was simple and straightforward, convoluted and difficult to grasp — or something in between.

Next, we went through all the major and many minor features that each suite provides, including VPN access, file shredding and backup software, if included.

As far as performance goes, we measured how much the system slowed down while the program was scanning for malware using a Lenovo ThinkPad T470 with a 2.5GHz Core i5-7200U processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of solid-state storage containing 43.3GB of files.

To gauge each program’s impact on system performance, we used our custom Excel test which measures how long a PC takes to match 20,000 names and addresses on a spreadsheet. The longer the task takes versus a baseline reading, the more the system performance is impacted.

For malware detection performance, we referred to results from tests conducted by three independent labs: AV-TEST in Germany, AV-Comparatives in Austria and SE Labs in England.

Each lab periodically subjects major antivirus programs to stress tests that include thousands of pieces of malware as well as hundreds of “zero-day” samples that the software has to learn to recognize.

We paid particular attention to false positive readings of safe software deemed dangerous by the program under review as an indication of the precision of the program’s scanning technology.

How to choose the best antivirus software for you

When choosing an antivirus software, the top priority among all other decisions should be how well it performs to keep your system safe from malware and viruses.

To help you determine which of the many options out there will be the best at protecting your devices, we use results from tests conducted by three different independent labs to help us determine which antivirus program excels at finding and eliminating malware threats.

We also perform our own tests to see how much each program slows down your system, and how many resources it will consume to run both while scanning and while running in the background.

You’ll also want to read reviews online to see what other users have to say about their experiences with using the software, how it performed, what the interface was like, and how responsive the customer service was.

Next, consider the needs of your household and what devices you want to protect. How many family members do you have in the home? How many devices does each person need coverage for? What platforms do each of those devices use, and are the features they'll need available on these platforms?

Make a list of what devices and operating systems you need coverage for, as not all antivirus programs will cover all of them, and some will offer bundles for multiple family members or devices.

Narrow down the features you would like to see included in your antivirus program – because most antivirus programs offer so many features, it’s easiest to start out by making a list of what features are most important to your needs.

Do you also need parental controls? Is a VPN important to you? Would you like a password manager or file shredder? What about a hardened browser, a firewall, or webcam protection? Think about what you’d like most as additional security features and list them out, and see what the top antivirus programs offer.

Lastly, consider how much you want to spend — some antivirus programs will offer bundles for their suites, or tiers, that will package deals that include numbers of licenses or devices protected for a single purchase. You should also check a company’s website for any trial offers, as many will give you 30 days to try out their program for free before purchasing. Just make sure to cancel before the trialis over, or risk paying for software you don't want.

Free vs paid antivirus software

With so many antivirus programs to choose from, there’s absolutely no reason for your PC or smartphone to go unprotected — especially when there are free programs available to choose from as well. So, why would you bother paying for something that you didn’t have to?

Well, there are lot of reasons to choose one antivirus program over another but if you’re looking specifically at just free versus paid antivirus programs there are a few reasons to choose one over the other.

Free antivirus software will always provide users with basic protections against the most common malware threats, and will block dangerous files and applications. It should also warn you about suspicious websites, offer a cleanup option for infected files or apps and recognize when unknown devices are using your network.

However, a paid option is going to go a step beyond and offer more comprehensive security features — more advanced protections against unknown or upcoming threats, a more thorough feature set including VPNs, password managers, a file shredder that will fully remove deleted files and may cover more devices including tablets and smartphones.

Paid antivirus software also generally includes customer support via phone, chat or instant messaging and email whereas free versions will not. Plus, they add functions like an ability to customize your antivirus service, a feature to block suspicious sites, and a backup service to save data or back up devices.

It might also include features like webcam protection, remote control prevention to keep others from controlling your system, and the ability to run apps or software in a “sandbox” setting.

Paid antivirus software also generally includes customer support via phone, chat or instant messaging and email whereas free versions will not. If just the basics will do, a free version will be enough but if you’re looking for something more then it’s worth looking at some paid options.

Antivirus FAQ

Antivirus software is imperative if you want to avoid the latest threats, from info-stealing malware or ransomware that locks up your computer unless you pay a fine. It works in the background, combating these risks and allowing you to go about your day as you normally would.

Some computers have built-in antivirus software, for example, Window's Microsoft Defender. While this is great for baseline protection, if you want something more comprehensive with more customization, that's where the best antivirus software comes in.

To help you find the best antivirus software for your devices, we spent weeks installing, testing, and uninstalling all of the programs below while taking a close look at their features, extras, and design. We even reached out to customer support to see how easily each company was able to solve common and not so common problems.

Based on our extensive testing, research and the results from third-party labs, Norton 360 Deluxe is our pick for the best antivirus software overall. It’s easy to use and provides effective malware protection without significantly impacting your computer’s performance. You also get plenty of extra features you’ll actually use.

However, there are plenty of other great antivirus providers too, and in this guide we'll take your through all the options. Whether you’re looking to secure a single device or ensure your entire household is protected from the latest threats, this is the best antivirus software you can get right now.

The best antivirus software you can buy today

The best antivirus software overall

Norton 360 Deluxe offers solid, real-time malware protection with plenty of scan options and little impact to performance. It also has more features than you can shake a stick at.

Norton's familiar interface highlights important and common functions, making them easy to find and easy to drill down to find more advanced features.

From a webcam blocker and warning for suspicious websites, to intrusion detection against botnets, brute force attacks, and file and print sharing vulnerabilities, this package has all the features you need to protect yourself while you're online. You'll also get a firewall, password manager, VPN, parental controls, and ransomware rollback.

These features do all come at a price, however, and that is literally a higher price. At $119.99 per year — after the first year, as Norton does offer some introductory prices that can lower this price for your first annual subscription — Norton 360 is one of the more expensive pieces of antivirus software on this list. It also only offers coverage for up to five devices. However, if these features are what you're after, then you might find it worth it. If you're just looking for an antivirus on the cheap, you might be better off going for Malwarebytes Plus.

Additionally, during our testing, we found that the features were a bit of a mixed bag, performance-wise. Some of them were mainly just alert-based rather than solution-focused, and therefore not as useful as they could be. For example, if you use its dark web scanner to see if your sensitive information has been leaked on there, you can’t automatically fix any issues unless you purchase the Privacy Monitor Assistant add-on for $109.99 a year (you could still fix it manually yourself for free, though).

As well as this, Norton 360 does not include a file shredder or file encryption. If these are absolute musts, then you might want to go for McAfee+ Premium.

When it comes to scanning options, Norton 360 Deluxe includes a quick scan, a full scan, or a pre-boot deep scan, all of which ran very fast and none of which impacted overall performance.

Norton 360 Deluxe’s antivirus protection scoring is overall fairly excellent in independent lab testing where they’ve consistently ranked in the top tiers. For example, in AV-Comparatives' December 2025 tests, Norton 360 Deluxe achieved a protection rate score of 100%. It did have a slightly higher false positive rate than that of Bitdefender Total Security and McAfee+ Ultimate, however, its score was the same as Avast Premium Security.

• Read our full Norton 360 Deluxe review

The best antivirus software for features

If you're looking for a straightforward antivirus, look no further than Bitdefender Total Security. It provides great value in terms of protection and extra features, has little discernible impact on performance, and has a straightforward interface that helps you find what you need without any fuss.

It's a little cheaper than Norton 360, with the first year running at $59.99, although the subscription fees rising to $109.99 afterwards. This price includes excellent, real-time antivirus protection as well as features like a free VPN (although it is limited to 200 MB of data per day), a firewall, an anti-spam feature, a secure browser, phishing, and webcam protections.

During testing, we found the included features were all useful, particularly the webcam and microphone privacy feature that blocks unauthorized access, the optimization app that helps speed up your PC by removing unnecessary files, the data protection utility that securely deletes files, and the Safepay browser that protects financial transactions.

Bitdefender Total Security has a range of scans available, including quick or full system scans, as well as custom scans for single files or folders. It's exceptional at isolating files, protecting you from ransomware, and blocking infections before they occur. In our testing, the quick scans took only a few minutes while a full scan of 1.5M files took 30 minutes, making it faster than Norton 360 Deluxe.

During independent testing, Bitdefender Total Security performed exceptionally well, achieving an antivirus protection rate of 99.1% in AV-Comparatives' tests published in December 2025. While this is slightly lower than both McAfee+ Ultimate and Norton 360 Deluxe, it is by between 0.5-0.9%. Additionally, its false positive rate was lower than that of Malwarebytes Plus, Norton 360 Deluxe, and Avast Premium Security.

The software has built-in features that will learn your computer’s file structure, which should improve scan times as well. The Advanced Threat Detection feature is a more proactive scanning feature that monitors for suspicious activity in real-time in order to be able to intercept threats before infections occur. Plus, there’s a Ransomware Remediation feature that blocks intrusive software from infecting sensitive files.

During our testing, we found the interface clear and efficient to use — it even has a customizable dashboard where your most-used utilities can be added (and ones you don’t use, removed). It also includes a VPN map, so you can see where you're virtually connected to.

One of the downsides is the fact that the VPN is limited to just 200 MB per day. With a limit like this, you're unlikely to be able to do any high-bandwidth activities while connected, like streaming movies or TV, or gaming. If you want an antivirus with an unlimited VPN, consider McAfee+ Premium.

Additionally, the password manager included with your subscription is a 30-day free trial version, which is not particularly useful. If you want to continue using the password manager after these 30 days, you'll need to pay $19.99 for an annual subscription. Not the highest price, but not nothing either.

• Read our full Bitdefender Total Security review

The best antivirus software for families

McAfee+ Ultimate is a welcome security package if you have many devices to protect, a big household, and a lot of family members. It does everything you’d want to protect your PC, Mac, or smartphone, and the package doesn’t limit how many devices you can use with your account.

In addition to an extremely powerful antivirus solution, you get features that help protect you (and your family) during your online activities as well. Among the many included features that come with McAfee+ Ultimate is a VPN (with no restrictions to a set file transfer limit), full access to a password manager, identity monitoring, a social media monitoring tool, a text scam detector, and more.

During testing, there were no performance problems during scanning. A full scan of 926K files took 35 minutes, which is the same time as Norton 360 Deluxe, although slightly slower than Bitdefender Total Security. McAfee+ Ultimate also offers options for a quick scan and a five-minute scan if you want to speed things up a little.

Some of the features offered, however, are available in Windows as free tools, like a file shredder and a clean up tool that removes temporary files.

McAfee+ Ultimate's pricing starts out pretty reasonable, usually around $49.99. However, you should keep in mind that after the first year, this price jumps up quite significantly to $149.99. So, if you don’t need many devices covered, it may not be worth the fee.

McAfee+ Ultimate offers an unlimited VPN, which is handy for those who want a VPN along with their antivirus. During testing, we found the unlimited VPN easy to configure and use. Additionally, its features, like the password manager, were easy to install and worked as expected.

McAfee+ Ultimate's antivirus protection scores in independent tests are outstanding overall, achieving a protection rate of 99.5% in AV-Comparatives' tests published in December 2025. Its false positives score was excellent too, on par with Bitdefender Total Security, and better than Norton 360 Deluxe, Malwarebytes Plus, and Avast Premium Security.

The main drawback here is the higher price point, although if you’re covering multiple devices, then you may find it worth it. Still, if you're after a budget antivirus, consider Malwarebytes Plus.

• Read our full McAfee+ Premium review

The best antivirus software for banking

A highly capable antivirus package that focuses on the most serious security threats, Avast Premium Security has a straightforward design intended for those who just want to run antivirus software.

It’s a lower priced security package that doesn’t throw in a lot of bloatware, which means it doesn’t come bundled with a lengthy list of features, but does include some security add-on’s that are helpful specifically for banking safely.

At $79.99 a year, Avast Premium Security is one of the cheapest antivirus options on this list. However, this also means it lacks some of the features available with other antivirus programs. Most notably, it doesn’t come with a VPN or a password manager. If you want these features, consider checking out McAfee+ Ultimate or Malwarebytes Plus.

However, it does include features such as a webcam blocker, a data shield for sensitive documents, a data shredder, an Email Guardian tool, as well as protection against DNS hijacking and remote desktop exploits.

It also includes a banking mode which allows you to conduct financial transactions in a browser that runs on top of Windows for added protection. This is great for added peace of mind during the sensitive transactions. You can also scan your computer for sensitive information, such as a PDF that contains a Social Security number, and block access to those documents. This adds an extra layer of protection to your personal information.

Though it lacks some of the polish of its sister software, Norton 360 Deluxe, Avast Premium Security still has speedy and capable performance during scans. Speaking of scans, it offers a quick scan, a targeted scan which allows you to select specific folders, or a boot sector scan which runs before Windows loads.

In testing, a quick scan took only three minutes, and a full boot sector scan took twelve. This is a lot speedier than the other products on this list, although it didn’t find as many files as competing products.

With this being said, Avast Premium Security achieved the same antivirus protection rate as Norton 360 Deluxe in AV-Comparatives' testing published in December 2025, a score of 100%. It also achieved the same false positives rate, which was decent but still higher than that of Bitdefender Total Security and Mc Afee+ Ultimate.

• Read our full Avast Premium review

The best budget antivirus software

Malwarebytes Plus is for those who are looking for basic protection without a lot of fuss. Though it does include some essential security features, for example, an unlimited VPN, it is a full-featured security suite like Norton 360 Deluxe. Instead, it is a good quality, low-cost tool that has a straightforward interface and a simple goal to protect your system from malicious threats and malware.

Intended as more of a basic antivirus scanner, Malwarebytes Plus' annual cost is only $59.99 a year for three devices, making it the cheapest antivirus on this list. For that, you get options for a quick scan that can be scheduled to run regularly, a manual scan, or a custom scan to select specific folders.

It does still have some features, namely a Browser Guard extension for web browsers that scans for web-based threats in order to block them in real time. It also has some advanced features, for example, an anti-heap spraying feature, and another feature that fights against exploits related to ASLR.

With this being said, there is no boot sector scan option or full scan (if you want these options, consider Avast Premium Security), but the quick scan only took 26 seconds during testing. While Malwarebytes Plus performed fairly well in AV Comparatives' independent tests published in December 2025, achieving an antivirus protection rate of 98.1%, this score is lower than that of the other providers on this list. It also had a much higher number of false positives as compared to every other antivirus on this list, meaning it may incorrectly flag threats, making it less reliable than the other providers on this list, too.

We found that in many ways, the biggest advantage is that there aren’t many features to configure in the software here. For example, it does have an unlimited VPN, though you cannot select a server location. Additionally, Malwarebytes Plus does block ransomware attacks, but does not encrypt or backup files.

Overall, this isn’t an advanced product, although it excels if you need a quick scan to see if a computer or phone is infected.

• Read our full Malwarebytes Plus review

Also tested

We test a lot of apps when searching for the best antivirus software, but only a handful can reach the top spots. If you're after more options, here are some other great antivirus packages that didn't quite make the mark.

How we test the best antivirus software

We test each antivirus program and evaluate its interface, performance, protection, extra features and — above all — overall value.

After timing and rating the installation process’s ease, we looked at whether the interface was simple and straightforward, convoluted and difficult to grasp — or something in between.

Next, we went through all the major and many minor features that each suite provides, including VPN access, file shredding and backup software, if included.

As far as performance goes, we measured how much the system slowed down while the program was scanning for malware using a Lenovo ThinkPad T470 with a 2.5GHz Core i5-7200U processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of solid-state storage containing 43.3GB of files.

To gauge each program’s impact on system performance, we used our custom Excel test which measures how long a PC takes to match 20,000 names and addresses on a spreadsheet. The longer the task takes versus a baseline reading, the more the system performance is impacted.

For malware detection performance, we referred to results from tests conducted by three independent labs: AV-TEST in Germany, AV-Comparatives in Austria and SE Labs in England.

Each lab periodically subjects major antivirus programs to stress tests that include thousands of pieces of malware as well as hundreds of “zero-day” samples that the software has to learn to recognize.

We paid particular attention to false positive readings of safe software deemed dangerous by the program under review as an indication of the precision of the program’s scanning technology.

How to choose the best antivirus software for you

When choosing an antivirus software, the top priority among all other decisions should be how well it performs to keep your system safe from malware and viruses.

To help you determine which of the many options out there will be the best at protecting your devices, we use results from tests conducted by three different independent labs to help us determine which antivirus program excels at finding and eliminating malware threats.

We also perform our own tests to see how much each program slows down your system, and how many resources it will consume to run both while scanning and while running in the background.

You’ll also want to read reviews online to see what other users have to say about their experiences with using the software, how it performed, what the interface was like, and how responsive the customer service was.

Next, consider the needs of your household and what devices you want to protect. How many family members do you have in the home? How many devices does each person need coverage for? What platforms do each of those devices use, and are the features they'll need available on these platforms?

Make a list of what devices and operating systems you need coverage for, as not all antivirus programs will cover all of them, and some will offer bundles for multiple family members or devices.

Narrow down the features you would like to see included in your antivirus program – because most antivirus programs offer so many features, it’s easiest to start out by making a list of what features are most important to your needs.

Do you also need parental controls? Is a VPN important to you? Would you like a password manager or file shredder? What about a hardened browser, a firewall, or webcam protection? Think about what you’d like most as additional security features and list them out, and see what the top antivirus programs offer.

Lastly, consider how much you want to spend — some antivirus programs will offer bundles for their suites, or tiers, that will package deals that include numbers of licenses or devices protected for a single purchase. You should also check a company’s website for any trial offers, as many will give you 30 days to try out their program for free before purchasing. Just make sure to cancel before the trialis over, or risk paying for software you don't want.

Free vs paid antivirus software

With so many antivirus programs to choose from, there’s absolutely no reason for your PC or smartphone to go unprotected — especially when there are free programs available to choose from as well. So, why would you bother paying for something that you didn’t have to?

Well, there are lot of reasons to choose one antivirus program over another but if you’re looking specifically at just free versus paid antivirus programs there are a few reasons to choose one over the other.

Free antivirus software will always provide users with basic protections against the most common malware threats, and will block dangerous files and applications. It should also warn you about suspicious websites, offer a cleanup option for infected files or apps and recognize when unknown devices are using your network.

However, a paid option is going to go a step beyond and offer more comprehensive security features — more advanced protections against unknown or upcoming threats, a more thorough feature set including VPNs, password managers, a file shredder that will fully remove deleted files and may cover more devices including tablets and smartphones.

Paid antivirus software also generally includes customer support via phone, chat or instant messaging and email whereas free versions will not. Plus, they add functions like an ability to customize your antivirus service, a feature to block suspicious sites, and a backup service to save data or back up devices.

It might also include features like webcam protection, remote control prevention to keep others from controlling your system, and the ability to run apps or software in a “sandbox” setting.

Paid antivirus software also generally includes customer support via phone, chat or instant messaging and email whereas free versions will not. If just the basics will do, a free version will be enough but if you’re looking for something more then it’s worth looking at some paid options.

Antivirus FAQ

Norton 360 is one of the best antivirus software suites you can buy today, and it’s worth (nearly) every cent. Boasting a plethora of protection and security tools, Norton 360 protects you and your devices from AI scams, ransomware, and even deepfakes. What makes Norton 360 a sublime choice is the 24/7 customer support, user-friendly interface, and 60-day money-back guarantee. Low system impact is a boon too.

But the software isn’t perfect, as some features, like SafeCam, are restricted to Windows only. Norton 360’s AI assistant which checks links for malware is a little slow as well, especially when compared to the ones offered by its competitors.

For the complete breakdown, read my full Norton 360 review.

Norton 360 review: Specs

Norton 360 review: Costs & what’s covered

Norton 360 offers different plans offering varying levels of protection, depending on whether you’re a consumer or the owner of a small business. If you’re buying a subscription for yourself and/or your family, Norton 360’s cheapest plan, fittingly named Standard, costs $42 for the first year and renews at $94. This is a little cheaper than Bitdefender Total Security which starts at $109.

Naturally, prices jump up the more advanced the plan is. Norton 360 Deluxe for consumers starts at $52 for the first year and renews at $124, and Norton 360 with LifeLock Select Plus starts at $99 for the first year and renews at $189. Norton 360’s most expensive plan costs the same as Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus — one of the biggest differences, though, is that Norton 360 offers a lower price point for the first 12 months.

If you own a small business, there are two plans to choose from for up to 10 employees: Norton Small Business starts at $59 for the first year and renews at $119 (for three employees), and Norton Small Business Premium starts at $199 for the first year and renews at $299 (for five employees).

It’s important to note that Norton 360 offers different plans for American and non-American customers. For instance, Norton 360 with LifeLock requires a valid Social Security Number so it can’t work in the U.K. or elsewhere outside of the States. Due to this limitation, I tested the Advanced plan, which is the highest tier available outside of the U.S.

Before you commit to a plan, it’s worth reading the fine print and going through all its features. Happily, Norton 360 offers a 60-day money-back guarantee for its consumer and business customers alike. Even better, Norton 360 says that if your device catches a virus its software can’t detect, you’ll get your money back (terms and conditions apply, naturally).

Norton 360 review: Protection

As I mentioned before, Norton 360 offers varying levels of protection depending on the plan you choose. Norton 360 Standard, the cheapest plan for consumers, protects one device against malware, viruses, ransomware and hackers, and offers Deepfake Protection, 10GB of cloud backup, Dark Web Monitoring, and a VPN.

The most advanced plan for consumers, LifeLock Select Plus, protects up to 10 macOS, Windows, iOS and Android devices from all the aforementioned, while including Scam Protection Pro, 250GB cloud storage, Parental Control, Credit Monitoring Coverage, and up to $25,000 in stolen funds reimbursement, amongst some other extras.

As with other antivirus software we test, I referred and compared testing results from three independent labs who test antivirus software twice a year (for the most part). The first thing I looked at was AV Test’s February 2026 report which certifies Norton 360 as a “Top Product” with a 6/6 score across Protection, Performance and Usability. Bitdefender and McAfee also received the same scores.

In AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test, Norton 360 performed better than Bitdefender. This test uses benchmarking tools to assess system impact. Norton 360 scored 90/100 in AVC, 94.7/100 in Procyon, and 5.3 in Impact. The lower the Impact score, the better, and Norton 360 outperformed Bitdefender which scored a 9.6/10 in Impact. McAfee, on the other hand, achieved a 3.3/10 in Impact, making it better than both its competitors.

As for the SE Labs (U.K.) April 2026 report, Norton 360’s macOS version was awarded an AAA rating with 100% protection accuracy, which is the highest possible rating.

Norton 360 review: Performance

Once you’ve bought your subscription, it’s time to download and install Norton 360 on your computer or smartphone. On Windows and macOS, you’ll need to log into My Norton with the registered email address and find the Download button on the dashboard. If you can’t see it, you may need to enter your 25-character unique license key and the Download button should then show up. It took under five minutes to get Norton 360 up and running on our testing rig on which I ran the majority of the tests.

On iOS and Android smartphones, you’ll need to download Norton 360 from the respective app store and sign in with your registered email address. The app should then automatically pull your subscription details. It takes mere seconds — the process couldn’t be smoother.

The first thing I did to test the antivirus software was to run a system scan — most users will be doing the same, I’m certain. There are a few types of scans available. You’ve got your classic Quick and Full scans, and in addition to those, you get access to Targeted (custom) and even a Startup scan which, as the name suggests, scans your files when you boot up the computer. Startup scan is something I haven’t seen other antivirus software suites offer, including Bitdefender and Malwarebytes.

To start with, I ran a Quick Scan which took three minutes and 33 seconds to complete, and it scanned 96,054 files without detecting any threats. The Full Scan took a bit longer, as expected, and it took just over five minutes to scan 896,544 files. Again, no anomalies were detected. Norton 360 didn’t scan as many files as Bitdefender, which scanned over two million files in 26 minutes.

The Quick and Full scans were conducted without any other heavy-duty apps running in the background. To see if Norton 360 has an impact on system performance, I ran in-game benchmark tests on two games: Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon 5. With Norton 360 running in the background, Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra graphics) achieved 118fps which dipped to 107fps with the Quick Scan running, and 105fps with the Full Scan running.

Similarly, with Forza Horizon 5 running on High graphics, the game achieved 125fps with Norton 360 running in the background. With the software performing a Quick and Full Scan, the frame rate dropped to 123fps in both instances. This goes to show that Norton 360 doesn’t have a detrimental effect on your system’s performance, and that you can continue gaming as usual even with the software running in the background.

After finishing the in-game benchmark tests, I ran a few tests at speedtest.net to see how Norton 360 impacts internet speeds. As you can see from the table above, upload speeds dropped a fair bit with the Quick and Full Scans running — though the latter’s were faster than the former’s (surprisingly).

Norton 360 review: Features

In addition to system scanning, Norton 360 packs other goodies too, all of which ensure your device and online identity remain protected from threats. I tested the Advanced plan which comes with extras like Deepfake Protection, Parental Controls, Dark Web Monitoring, and Social Media Monitoring which notifies you of suspicious activity, like changes to your account settings and risky links.

I put a few of those through their paces, starting with Ask Genie, which is Norton 360’s built-in AI assistant. It helps you assess links and images to determine whether they’re safe to open or believe. I’ve seen AI assistants in Malwarebytes and Avast One too, so I was looking forward to testing Norton 360’s.

Unfortunately, I found Ask Genie to be quite slow to respond. I started off by asking it to check if a YouTube link was safe to click on. I got texts back that it was working on the thumbnail, content and more and to come back in a few minutes. Ask Genie never completed the task and said to try again later — which was disappointing.

I then asked it to check whether a security alert from Microsoft was legitimate (I knew it was). It asked me a number of questions to figure out what exactly I wanted to know. I was surprised by this, as I didn’t have to do so with Malwarebytes and Avast One. Both those suites’ AI assistants were quick to answer. Similarly, I had to tell it thrice what to do with a TikTok link I shared to check its legitimacy. I felt frustrated by Norton 360’s AI assistant, truth be told.

On to the good things now. Norton 360 comes with a Secure VPN, depending on the plan you purchase but it’s included in the Advanced tier I tried. You don’t need to download a separate app for the VPN, which is great, and it lets you connect to 2,000 servers across 65 counties — a little less than Bitdefender where you can connect to one of 4,000 servers globally, but still good.

Norton 360’s Advanced plan features a handy File Cleanup tool too, which detects unneeded files on your machine, and determines whether they’re safe to delete. This is good for those who have many, many files on their computer, as it gives you an at-a-glance view of files eating into your storage and hampering system performance. You can then go through the files and choose which ones you want to get rid of.

Though Norton 360 offers robust protection thanks to features like Credit Alerts and Dark Web Monitoring, I’m surprised one of its features is paywalled. When I opened Norton 360, it told me my computer was at risk and that “6,553 issues” were slowing down my PC. When I clicked on it to fix the issues, I was told to purchase Norton Utilities Ultimate. It isn’t expensive, with the add-on costing £29 for the first year, but still disappointing that you have to buy it separately.

Also worth noting: some features are available to Windows users only. SafeCam, which protects your webcam and microphone, and Cloud Backup aren’t compatible with non-Windows machines, including MacBooks. This isn’t a massive drawback, per se, as macOS features reliable built-in privacy tools to protect your webcam, and Time Machine is a powerful backup tool, too.

And to top it all off, Norton 360’s Advanced plan includes advanced security measures like AI agent protection. If you use, say, Claude Code, Cursor or OpenClaw, you can integrate Norton 360 into it to keep your AI tools secure while they work.

Norton 360 review: Interface

I’m yet to test an antivirus software that doesn’t sport a clean, accessible interface, and Norton 360 is no different. My Norton, the online dashboard, serves as the central hub for managing your subscription and activating it on different devices. There are no intrusive pop-ups or ads, so it’s a joy to navigate the dashboard.

The software itself is extremely user-friendly, and everything is well-signposted for new (and returning) users to understand. It’s important to note that you can’t make the window full-size — but this is a common occurrence with antivirus software suites. I’ve seen it with Avast One and Bitdefender, and the only software suite that doesn’t follow this convention is Malwarebytes.

Norton 360’s mobile app is just as intuitive to use. It’s available on both iOS and Android. I tested it on my Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, and found the activation process super quick — all I needed to do was login with my registered email address. I found the mobile dashboard easy to understand, and I also liked that I didn’t need to download a separate app for the Secure VPN.

Norton 360 review: Support

Regardless of how smoothly an app runs, you may run into some issues that can’t be solved by a simple Google search. Norton 360 offers extensive support for consumers and businesses alike. The support center features detailed help pages and troubleshooting guides, and there’s an active community of other users who discuss issues and solutions on Norton 360’s official forums.

If the guides fail to enlighten you, Norton 360 happily offers 24/7 email, chat and text support — just like Bitdefender, Avast One and McAfee. To get started, you must type in your registered email address, after which you’ll be asked to select the topic you need help with. Norton 360 will then suggest contact methods, but if you don’t want to speak to a human being over the phone, you can ask to be connected to the live chat.

The AI-powered chatbot is useful and quick to answer your questions. I asked it for help with two separate things and it quickly presented the solution to me. I then asked to speak with a human being and it took just under five minutes for the chatbot to connect me with another person.

Norton 360 review: Verdict

Norton 360 delivers a comprehensive security suite that strikes a balance between strong protection and ease of use. Its top-tier plans pack in nearly every feature you could want: malware and ransomware defense, Dark Web Monitoring, Parental Controls, Secure VPN, and more. Its low system impact is a standout advantage, as the software can run without seriously disrupting gaming or day-to-day performance.

However, there are a few niggles standing in the way of Norton 360 achieving the perfect score. Some features remain limited to Windows machines, including SafeCam, and Norton’s Ask Genie AI assistant feels slow and inconsistent compared to offerings from Avast One and Malwarebytes.

But even with these shortcomings, Norton 360 remains one of the most feature-rich and dependable antivirus software suites today — and it offers bang for your buck.

Having one of the best antivirus software installed on your devices can protect you from AI-generated scams and viruses. If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution, Avast One is a great choice. It offers robust protection against deepfakes, sophisticated malware, and more. It comes with a built-in AI assistant which can analyze texts, links and images for anything suspicious. With low impact on system resources and an accessible interface, Avast One nearly does it all.

I say “nearly” because, unfortunately, the software has a couple of flaws. A maximum of just 10 devices are protected, and there’s no cloud backup.

Should you still buy this antivirus software suite? Read my full Avast One review to find out.

Avast One review: Specs

Avast One review: Costs & what’s covered

Avast One was relaunched in 2026 and since then, the software can be downloaded for free and paid add-ons can be added from within the software, depending on your needs. Instead of paying for a bundle of features you may never use, you have the option to build the protection with the features you actually need.

The free version of Avast One, without any add-ons, blocks viruses and malware, protection against ransomware, and you even get access to Avast’s AI-powered assistant for catching scams. You also get a 60-day trial of SecureLine VPN. Extra features, like Scam Guardian Pro, AntiTrack, and firewall, can be activated from within the app. These are paid products, but the good news is that you can pick and choose which ones you need, instead of paying for an all-in-one package, such as the tiers offered by Bitdefender and Norton 360.

Avast One is a consumer-focused antivirus software suite, so it doesn’t offer any business-oriented plans. For those, you may want to consider Bitdefender, Norton 360 or even Malwarebytes.

Before committing to any purchases, make sure you read the fine print. Luckily, if you aren’t happy with your purchase, Avast One offers a 30-day money-back guarantee — just like Bitdefender, although Norton 360 offers a longer 60-day guarantee.

Avast One review: Protection

Like I said, you can add extra protection features from within the free Avast One software. I was provided with a review code for Premium Security which already had things like Wi-Fi protection, WebGuard which uses AI to block scam websites, and Mail Shield which monitors your email address for threats. I’ll discuss these in detail shortly.

When we review antivirus software, we refer and compare testing results from three independent labs who test antivirus software twice a year on average. I looked at AV Test’s February 2026 report which rates the old version of Avast as a “Top Product” with a 6/6 score across Protection, Performance and Usability, just like Bitdefender and Norton 360.

After that, I read AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test report which uses benchmarking tools to assess system impact. Avast ranked 6th on the list, just under Norton 360, with a 90/100 AVC score, 94.5/100 Procyon score, and a 5.5 Impact score. The lower the impact score, the better, and Avast was just 0.2 off Norton 360.

Last but not least, the SE Labs (U.K.) April 2026 report gave Avast a AAA rating (highest possible) with a 100% total accuracy percentage. All of this proves that Avast is a comprehensive, well-rounded antivirus software boasting excellent performance — on paper, at least, and we’ll get into how it performs in real-world use next.

Avast One review: Performance

Once you’ve bought your Avast One plan, or are opting for the free version first, you’ll need to download and install it on your Windows or macOS machine, or your Android or iOS smartphone. Doing so is straightforward. You need to download the software from the Avast One homepage, or if you already have the free version, you can input your license key via the menu within the already-downloaded app. I installed the software on our testing rig, on which I ran the majority of the testing.

Activating your subscription on your smartphone is just as easy. Download the app from either the iOS or Android store and enter your registered email address when prompted. I did so on my Google Pixel 10 Pro XL and I was up and running in under a minute. The smartphone app offers many of the same features as the PC software.

The first thing I did after installing the software was run a computer scan. Avast One offers a few different types of scans: Smart (quick), Full, Targeted (custom), and Boot-Time. I ran a Full Scan which took 6 minutes and 12 seconds, which is a lot quicker than the time Bitdefender took (26 minutes 23 seconds). Avast One doesn’t tell you how many files it has scanned either, unlike Bitdefender. The Full Scan flagged a few system errors which it then helped me resolve.

Avast One upstages Bitdefender as the latter doesn’t offer any other scan options. The former’s Smart Scan is a handy option when you want a quick check after having downloaded a new file, for instance. I’m sure users will find Targeted and Boot-Time Scans useful too.

To put the software through its paces, I ran Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon 5 to see how the games’ performance was impacted, and you can see the results in the table below.

With Avast One running in the background (and no other apps open except for the game), Cyberpunk 2077 achieved 99fps while Forza Horizon 5 achieved 125fps. With the Smart Scan running, Cyberpunk 2077 achieved 96fps and Forza Horizon 5 topped at 124fps. Full Scan results were nearly identical too. The loss of a couple of frames is barely noticeable in real-world use, and it goes to show that the antivirus software won’t impact your work or gaming experience.

I also ran a few internet speed tests at speedtest.net to analyze how Avast One impacted upload and download speeds, and you can see the results in the table below.

With the Smart and Full Scans running, the internet download and upload speeds were impacted negatively. Antivirus software suites can sometimes act as a detriment in this area as they monitor incoming and outgoing data in real-time, and that could be one of the reasons why. Surprisingly, this wasn’t the case with Bitdefender, and I even got the fastest upload speeds with the software running in the background.

Avast One review: Features

Avast One offers plenty of extras in addition to system scanning and basic protection, like Web and Email Shield, a VPN, dedicated browser, AI Agent Protection, Deepfake Protection, and more. There's also AntiTrack which stops advertisers and other websites from tacking you; BreachGuard Premium which monitors the dark web for your personal data and even sends opt-out requests to data brokers; CleanUp Premium for removing junk files; and Driver Updates to keep device driver up-to-date.

I tested a few of the extras, starting with Avast Assistant, an AI-powered cybersecurity tool which analyzes suspicious messages, images and links. In an age where AI scams are becoming more commonplace (and more sophisticated), having a feature such as this is very useful.

To test Avast Assistant, I copied and pasted an email from Microsoft pertaining to login information. Avast Assistant then asked me a couple of questions, which I answered, and it told me the text looked safe — and I already knew it was safe because the email was a direct result of me logging into a new device.

I then tried Network Inspector which scans home/work and public networks for vulnerabilities. As someone who tends to work on trains and in cafés over public Wi-Fi, I find this tool very useful, as it can protect me from threats I may not have been aware of otherwise. I scanned my workplace’s network and in just five minutes, Avast One told me the network was secure.

You also get access to an Uninstall Simulator which shows you how the system will be impacted without actually uninstalling the app. It temporarily hides the app so you can see if your system runs smoothly without it. This is a great tool for testing disruptions, system errors and breaks in dependencies.

Last but certainly not least, I tested the Avast One SecureLine VPN. The VPN enables you to choose from roughly 700 servers spread across 35 or so countries — that’s a lot less than Bitdefender’s VPN which offers access to 4,000 servers in more than 50 countries. Regardless, it’s easy to connect to an encrypted server in another country. SecureLine VPN features built-in DNS leak protection, and there are plenty of custom settings available to suit your needs.

The only noteworthy drawback in terms of features is that Avast One doesn’t offer Cloud Backup, and it doesn’t feature parental controls either. You’ll need to speak with an expert when you visit the official website if you want parental controls.

Avast One review: Interface

Similar to Bitdefender, Avast One doesn’t feature any intrusive or unnecessary pop-ups, and using it is a delight. The interface is clean and user-friendly, and everything is well-signposted. When you go through the different protection options for the first time, you’re given quick explanations of what each does.

But also like Bitdefender, you can’t make the Avast One window full-size, so it occupies only a small portion of your entire screen. This isn’t a major flaw, but it would have been nice to be able to see all the features and settings. As the window is quite small, you need to scroll quite a bit to go through all of them.

As I mentioned earlier, Avast One is available on Android and iOS, and the Android app that I tested sports a user-friendly design too. The dashboard gives you quick access to all the settings, and just like the desktop app, everything is easily understandable. The app doesn’t take up much space either as it requires approximately 150MB to install.

Avast One review: Support

Similar to Norton 360 and Bitdefender, Avast One offers 24/7 customer support over online chat, text or phone, so if you run into any issues, you can speak to a human to get to the bottom of it. Avast’s support page has comprehensive troubleshooting guides which should be your first port of call. If you can’t find a solution, you can get in touch with the support team via the Contact Us button.

Once you’ve clicked on it, you’ll be asked to answer a few questions pertaining to your issue. When the system has evaluated your problem, it suggests either calling the support team or chatting with an engineer. What I find odd, though, is that you can’t simply choose to initiate web chat — you can only do so when the system determines it. Bitdefender and Norton let you use the online chat function as and when you please.

After answering the questions, I was able to chat with the virtual assistant. It was able to answer my query quickly and correctly when I asked it how to access the VPN. You can also speak to a human by asking the virtual assistant to connect you with one.

Avast One review: Verdict

Avast One delivers strong security and robust protection against the most sophisticated of scams, including being able to identify deepfakes and AI-generated images. Backed by excellent lab scores, it provides top-tier malware defense with negligible impact on system resources. Its standout feature is the AI-powered Avast Assistant which flags text and link scams. Navigating the software is seamless on desktop and mobile, too.

However, Avast One doesn’t feature built-in parental controls, something its competitor, Bitdefender, bundles into its most expensive subscription. Also, the software can protect up to 10 devices only

If you prioritize swift and diverse system scanning, a clean interface and modern AI threat analysis, Avast One is a highly capable software suite.

Looking for the best antivirus software to protect your online identity and offline machines? Malwarebytes is an excellent choice, and it blends robust, smart features with a user-friendly design to deliver a comprehensive package. With its recent software refresh, Malwarebytes offers an expansive suite of features, including an AI-powered Scam Guard, Digital Footprint Scanner, and more.

The premium protection comes at a premium price, though, especially for businesses. Malwarebytes may have a detrimental impact on your system resources too, as I experienced in my testing. But if those are compromises you’re willing to make, I doubt you’d be dissatisfied with the software.

For the complete breakdown, read my full Malwarebytes review.

Malwarebytes review: Specs

Malwarebytes review: Costs & what’s covered

Just like every other antivirus software provider out there, Malwarebytes offers different plans for consumers and businesses, depending on the user’s needs and requirements. We’ll start with Malwarebytes’ consumer plans, and there are three available. The Standard plan is available for $44 / £29 and offers basic protection against malware, viruses and more on one device only.

The Plus plan is a step-up from Standard and costs $79 / £49 annually. It includes everything offered by Standard, plus a high speed VPN and anonymous browsing. Malwarebytes’ most expensive plan for consumers goes by different names in the U.S. and the U.K. In the States, it’s called Ultimate ($279) and across the pond, it’s called Total (£129). Ultimate and Total feature Advanced Social Media Monitoring as well as $1 million in identity insurance. It’s important to note that Malwarebytes’ top-tier consumer plan is pricier than Bitdefender and Norton 360. There are also various Family plans starting from $149 / £109 per year.

Now, on to the business plans. There are three tiers available. For Sole Proprietors, the plan covering three devices starts at $119 / £99. The Boutique Business plan for 10 devices costs $399 / £306, while the top-tier Small Office plan for 20 devices costs $799 / £612. That’s a lot of dough, especially when Bitdefender’s GravityZone Business Security Plan costs just $444.

As always, I’d recommend reading the fine print and seeing what each plan entails before buying it. But in case you aren’t happy with your purchase, Malwarebytes offers a 60-day money-back guarantee — just like Norton 360.

Malwarebytes review: Protection

The level of protection you get against online and offline threats will depend on the Malwarebytes plan you buy. The Standard consumer plan, for instance, offers protection from viruses, Trojans and spyware, as well as personalized security assessments and advice. The Total (or Ultimate) plan that I tested offers a lot more, including an unlimited VPN, Identity Theft Protection and insurance, Scam Guard (also included in all plans), Digital Footprint Scanner, and Personal Data Remover. I’ll discuss these in detail shortly.

What’s surprising is that none of Malwarebytes plans offer cloud backup and storage or parental controls. The likes of Bitdefender, Avast One and Norton 360 offer these to a degree, making any of these a better choice if these are features you value.

Before diving into Malwarebytes’ performance, let’s take a look at how three independent labs who test antivirus software twice a year (for the most part) rate it, starting with AV Test. Unfortunately, the last time AV Test tested Malwarebytes was back in October 2023, before the software was refreshed and updated, so take this with a grain of salt. The lab rated Malwarebytes as a “Certified” product, with 5.5/6 score across Protection and Performance, and 6/6 in Usability. Bitdefender and Norton 360 received 100% scores across all criteria, though.

AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test report rated Malwarebytes 12th out of the 19 antivirus software suites they tested. AV Comparatives assess system impact, and Malwarebytes scored 75/100 in AVC, 97.4/100 in Procyon, and 17.6 in Impact. That Impact rating is a lot, and it basically alludes to the software having a negative impact on your system’s resources — on paper, at least. Bitdefender (9.6), Avast (5.5) and Norton 360 (5.3) all outrank Malwarebytes here — and it was proven in my testing too, which I’ll discuss soon.

In SE Labs (U.K.) April 2026 report, Malwarebytes Premium was awarded an AAA rating with 97% protection accuracy. While this isn’t poor, Bitdefender, Norton 360 and Avast One are all rated 100% for their protection accuracy.

Malwarebytes review: Performance

After buying your subscription, it’s time to install the Malwarebytes software on your Windows, macOS, Android or iOS device. There are two ways of installing it if you’re on a desktop. You can either register your unique license key in the already-installed free version, or you can redeem the key via the dedicated webpage. Downloading and installing the software on our testing rig took me about five minutes.

On Android and iOS smartphones, you’ll need to download the app from the respective app store — as I did on my Google Pixel 10 Pro XL — and enter your license key or registered email address when prompted. Of course, this will work only if you’ve bought a multi-device plan.

Naturally, the first thing I did after installing Malwarebytes on our testing rig was run a system scan, and there are three available: Threat Scan (quick), Deep Scan (full), and Custom Scan (targeted). The Custom Scan is especially handy if you want something between the speedy and detailed scans. I ran a Threat Scan first, as that’s the default option, and the scan was completed within 22 seconds, having scanned over 176,000 files without detecting any anomalies or threats. It’s nice to see Malwarebytes offer a quick scan option, unlike Bitdefender.

Via the Advanced Settings menu under Scanner, you can access the other scan modes, so I ran a Deep Scan which took 14 minutes and two seconds to finish. It scanned a total of 427,157 files — a little less than Bitdefender which scanned over two million files in 26 minutes. Again, no threats were detected, as I expected as our testing rig is a very clean system.

The first Threat Scan was done with no other heavy-duty apps running in the background, so to assess Malwarebytes’ impact on system performance, I booted up Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon 5, and ran in-game benchmark tests. As you can see from the table above, Cyberpunk 2077’s frame rate dipped a fair bit, from 87 to 75, and Forza Horizon 5’s from 110 to 99. This isn’t bad per se, and I didn’t notice any stuttering or lag while playing the games, but it’s important to note that with Bitdefender, I achieved 97fps in Cyberpunk 2077 and 123fps in Forza Horizon 5 with the software performing a Full Scan.

After finishing the in-game benchmarks, I ran a few tests at speedtest.net to see how Malwarebytes impacted upload and download speeds. You can see the results in the table above. Upload speeds took quite a hit with the Deep Scan running, something I didn’t experience with Bitdefender and Avast One.

My testing goes to show that Malwarebytes has a negative impact on system resources and performance, and aligns with the aforementioned AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test report.

Malwarebytes review: Features

Alongside in-depth and quick scanning, Malwarebytes includes a bunch of extras to protect you against online and offline threats. I tested a few of the goodies included in the Malwarebytes Total plan, starting with Digital Footprint. Digital Footprint basically lets you know of any security breaches, including leaked or stolen passwords. All you need to do is enter your email address and Malwarebytes will search the internet for any anomalies.

I first entered my team’s joint mailing address and Malwarebytes noted that the data from this email address was not exposed — which makes sense, as you can’t individually log into it. So to put the feature through its paces, I used my personal email address, and Malwarebytes found a few concerning breaches. Websites that I haven’t used in years still had my data, and were even involved in breaches.

Happily, Malwarebytes gives you a quick rundown of when the breach occurred to give you an idea of how long your data has been exposed. You can then fix the issues as needed.

Many antivirus software companies are pushing scam protection these days, which makes sense as AI-generated scams are more common than ever, and they can be quite hard to detect by humans. Malwarebytes’ Scam Guard is an integrated AI assistant, and within this tab, you can drop a link and image and ask the software to check if it’s legitimate.

I attached a screenshot of an email I received from Microsoft pertaining to a login on a new device. Scam Guard analyzed it and told me it was safe, and even advised me of next steps. I followed that up with asking Scam Guard to check if a TikTok URL was safe to click on, and it informed me that it was legitimate too, citing the legitimacy of the URL and TikTok’s position in the market.

I also tried the File Shredder tool which enables you to permanently delete files to varying degrees, including overwriting data several times using complex patterns so there’s no trace left of it. I did this with a throwaway screenshot that Malwarebytes promptly got rid of. It’s like using a physical paper shredder… but digital.

Finally, I tested the Malwarebytes VPN which is included in the Total plan. The unlimited VPN allows you to choose from over 150 servers in 60 different locations — a little less than Bitdefender where you can connect to one of 4,000 servers in 50 countries, but still good. The VPN takes around a minute or so to connect and once it’s done, Malwarebytes works to stop sophisticated cyberthreats while still providing fast internet speeds.

Malwarebytes also offers Identity Theft Protection and once you’ve signed up for it by entering your details, it monitors the dark web and alerts you if your data is being illegally traded or sold. It can track and report changes in your credit activity and score too. All in all, Malwarebytes offers a complete protection package — the top-tier Total plan does, at least.

Malwarebytes review: Interface

I really like Malwarebytes’ interface and design. The online dashboard, known as Secure Hub, where you can change account settings is accessible, clean and doesn’t feature intrusive pop-ups — and the same goes for the downloaded software too. Everything is easy to understand, thanks to plenty of signposting. I also like that the software gives you a protection score, depending on the measures you’ve taken and settings you’ve activated to protect yourself.

Another thing I appreciate about Malwarebytes’ software is that the desktop window can be maximized and made full-size to take up the entire screen, unlike Bitdefender and Avast One. This helps you see all the features at a glance and saves some time as you don’t have to keep scrolling to find what you’re looking for.

Malwarebytes’ app on iOS and Android is just as user-friendly if not more, and it also gives you a protection score — mine was 20 before I enabled the various features, like Firewall. The app doesn’t eat into your storage either as the download requires just 60MB of free space.

Malwarebytes review: Support

Since Malwarebytes was redesigned, the software now offers 24/7 customer support via email and online chat, so if you’re ever in a pickle, help is available. This is a similar level of support to what’s offered by Bitdefender, Avast One and Norton 360. Getting help is super easy too. There are plenty of troubleshooting guides available, and they should be your first port of call. Malwarebytes Labs is an extremely active blog too, where the team posts news and updates.

If all else fails and you need to speak with a human, you can first speak with the AI chatbot which can answer simple questions. I asked it how to register my license key and it promptly gave me a solution.

I then asked to speak to a human and it asked me to either sign in or continue as guest, so I chose the latter and I was asked to enter some information and a short description of the issue. It then created a ticket and told me a human agent would get back to me via email, and it took a human two hours to reply to my email.

Easy to do, but it’s worth noting that Malwarebytes doesn’t offer telephone support, unlike Bitdefender and Avast One. As someone who doesn’t like speaking on the phone, I don’t mind it, but it may be an issue for those who need urgent help.

Malwarebytes review: Verdict

Malwarebytes is one of the most intuitive and user-friendly antivirus software suites you can buy today. Packed with robust modern features, like AI-powered Scam Guard and Digital Footprint Scanner, it effectively protects you from online and offline threats. 24/7 web and email support, the unlimited VPN, and an accessible mobile app make this a compelling package.

However, Malwarebytes falls slightly short of perfection when compared to heavyweights like Bitdefender. It has a noticeable impact on system resources, including frame-rate drops in demanding games. Its top-tier business plan carries a premium price tag too, which means its competitors offer better value for money.

But at the end of the day, this is a highly capable and accessible shield against sophisticated, modern threats. Backed by a 60-day money-back guarantee if you aren’t satisfied, Malwarebytes is still an excellent choice for those who value identity protection — as long as you have the hardware to cushion its performance footprint.

With the rise of AI scams and sophisticated malware threats that we may not always see, it’s more crucial than ever to have one of the best antivirus software installed on your devices — and luckily, there are plenty of options to choose from. However, if you use multiple devices or run a business, there’s one antivirus software that’s better than the rest, and that’s Bitdefender.

Bitdefender offers many different tiers for consumers, families and businesses, and having tested the Ultimate Security plan, I wonder how I’ve gone so long without it. Bitdefender offers extensive protection thanks to anti-theft and anti-scam features. It sports a clean interface that makes the numerous settings easy to understand, whether you’re on mobile or desktop. The VPN and comprehensive Identity Protection are cherries on top of the cake.

For the complete breakdown, read my full Bitdefender review.

Bitdefender review: Specs

Bitdefender review: Costs & what’s covered

Bitdefender is one of the most prominent names in the world of antivirus software. The brand offers multiple tiers of protection — depending on whether you’re buying it for personal use, for your small business, or at an enterprise level. For the regular Joe and their family, the cheapest Consumer plan, Bitdefender Total Security, starts at $109; Bitdefender Premium Security costs $129; Bitdefender Ultimate Security retails for $159; and Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus costs $189.

If you own a small business, you can get the Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security Plan starting at $189 for three members. For 25 members, this jumps up to $799. For medium-sized businesses, the GravityZone Small Business Security plan for five devices costs $169 for a year, with the most expensive GravityZone Business Security Plan costing $444. The price will naturally vary depending on the number of devices and the years you buy the subscription for.

Depending on the plan you buy, each tier carries different levels of protection and additional services. It’s worth looking into what each individual plan covers before committing to one — but each tier also offers trial periods as well as 30-day money-back guarantees. I won’t bore you with all the details but I’ll share an example with you. I tested the Bitdefender Ultimate Security Family plan which, alongside basic protection, offers email protection, Scam Protection Pro that fights sophisticated scams, Digital Identity Protection, as well as a VPN.

Bitdefender’s cheapest Consumer plan is a little pricier than Norton 360’s, which starts at $94 for a year. Both brands’ most expensive Consumer tier, though, costs the same. Bitdefender offers better value for money when compared to McAfee, though, as the latter’s cheapest plan starts at $119 and goes all the way up to $119. As you’ll soon see throughout this review, Bitdefender doesn’t give you much to complain about, and you’re getting bang for your buck.

Bitdefender review: Protection

Bitdefender offers varying levels of protection depending on the plan you buy. The most basic tier for consumers, Total Security, offers protection against malware, ransomware and network threats, Advanced Threat Defense which monitors active apps, Cryptomining Protection that fights against apps that you have no knowledge of, Anti-Phishing, Anti-Fraud, Antispam, and lots more. These features are also included in the Ultimate Security plan with some other extras.

For antivirus reviews, we refer and compare testing results from three independent labs who test antivirus software twice a year (for the most part). I looked at AV Test’s February 2026 report for this review. Their results certify Bitdefender Total Security as a “Top Product” with a 6/6 scores across Protection, Performance and Usability. McAfee and Norton also received the same scores.

Bitdefender didn’t perform as well in AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test which uses benchmarking tools to assess system impact. It scored 85/100 in AVC, 95.4/100 in Procyon, and 9.6/10 in Impact. McAfee performed better with a 90 and 96.7 score respectively. Bitdefender did better than Norton’s 94.7 Procyon score, but lagged behind Norton’s 90 AV-C score. Don’t let this put you off, though, as Bitdefender is still an excellent antivirus. And if numbers matter a lot to you, SE Labs (U.K.) gave Bitdefender an AAA (highest possible rating with a 100% protection accuracy.

Bitdefender review: Performance

The first thing you’ll naturally be doing after you’ve signed up for a subscription is downloading and installing Bitdefender — and doing so is extremely easy. You’ll need to login to the Bitdefender Dashboard, where you originally bought the plan, and activate it. You’ll then be able to download the software onto your machine. It took me mere seconds to download the app and get it up and running on our testing rig — on which I ran the majority of the testing.

Also depending on the plan you purchase, you’ll be able to install the app following the same procedure on different devices. For instance, I was provided a code for the Ultimate plan, as I mentioned earlier, so I could download it onto my Google Pixel 10 Pro XL. Once I’d activated the subscription on our testing PC, all I needed to do was login using my registered email on my phone, and I was in. It took mere seconds to get up and running.

Now for the big question: how does the antivirus software perform in regard to scanning? Bitdefender offers a full system scan which, as the name suggests, scans every single file on your machine — even the ones you might not be aware of. Surprisingly, there’s no option for a Quick Scan, as offered by the likes of Norton and McAfee.

It’s easy to start the Full Scan as the button to do so is within the app’s dashboard. I ran a Full Scan of our testing rig and it took 26 minutes and 23 seconds to complete, and it scanned a total of 2,319,256 files (I didn’t even realize there were that many to scan!). As I expected, the scan didn’t flag any viruses or issues.

This was done with no other heavy-duty apps running (I used the first scan’s results as the baseline), but to put the software through its paces, I ran Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon 5 to see how the games’ performance was impacted.

After running the numerous in-game benchmark tests, I’ve noted the results in the table above. With Bitdefender simply running in the background, Forza Horizon 5 achieved 125fps while Cyberpunk 2077 achieved 100fps. I then started a Full Scan which resulted in Forza Horizon 5 achieving 123fps and Cyberpunk 2077 achieving 97fps. This goes to show that the antivirus software doesn’t hamper your gaming PC’s performance. The loss of two or three frames per second is hardly noticeable.

I also ran a few internet speed tests at speedtest.net to see how Bitdefender impacted upload and download speeds. The first test I ran was without Bitdefender installed; the second with it installed; and third while running a Full Scan.

As you can see in the table above, even with the Full Scan running, the internet download and upload speeds remained pretty much the same — and I even got the fastest upload speeds with Bitdefender running in the background, surprisingly.

Bitdefender review: Features

Aside from scanning and other basic protection features, Bitdefender offers plenty of goodies, especially if you get one of the higher tiers. Like I mentioned earlier, the Bitdefender Ultimate Security plan comes with the likes of Web Scam Protection, Anti-Phishing and Anti-Fraud countermeasures, and more, so I put a few of these through their paces, starting with the Vulnerability Scan.

The Vulnerability Scan gives you an overview of any critical updates and settings you can change to better protect your device. Much quicker than the Full Scan, this is a good way to see all updates available at a glance.

There’s also Scam Protection Pro, which many antivirus companies seem to be pushing right now, and for good reason too. With the rise of AI, it’s easier than ever to fall for a scam, no matter how alert we think we are. Scam Protection Pro reads your emails and text messages (if you’re logged into Bitdefender on your smartphone), and verifies any links it finds. It’s very useful, and one feature I’m sure consumers and businesspeople would appreciate.

As you do with many other antivirus software suites, you get access to Bitdefencer VPN too. The VPN allows you to choose from over 4,000 servers in more than 50 different countries. The Ultimate plan includes unlimited VPN traffic, so Bitdefender encrypts all internet traffic, your bank information, passwords, downloads, and everything in between. Having used ExpressVPN in the past, I personally prefer Bitdefender VPN’s interface and clean look. This, combined with the SafePay browser, means you can browse the internet with confidence.

Bitdefender also offers identity theft protection through continuous dark web and surface monitoring, digital footprint visualization, identity protection score, real-time breach notifications, and even security advice from Bitdefender experts. Consumers on the Ultimate plan get this feature bundled in, but if you’re on a lower tier, you’ll need to buy it separately, starting at $129 / £79 annually.

Bitdefender review: Interface

What I really like about Bitdefender is that there are no intrusive or unnecessary pop-ups and ads. The interface is extremely clean, intuitive and user-friendly. Performance-wise, I didn’t notice the software have any detrimental impact on our testing PC either, as all other programs ran smoothly without any lag, even when the software was running in the background.

But the one thing I don’t like is that you can’t make the Bitdefender window full-size, so it occupies only a small portion of your entire screen. This isn’t a massive drawback, but it would have been nice to be able see all the features and settings at a glance rather than having to scroll through them.

The Bitdefender software is also compatible with iOS and Android, and as I alluded to earlier, I tested it on my Google Pixel 10 Pro XL. Similar to the desktop version, Bitdefender Mobile Security on Android is just as user-friendly, with the dashboard giving you quick access to all the settings, such as Scam Protection Pro and System Scan. Unfortunately, you need to download a dedicated app to access the VPN on mobile devices. Luckily, neither app eats up your storage as they’re both under 100MB.

Bitdefender review: Support

While Bitdefender is a sheer delight to use, you may run into some issues — that’s bound to happen with any hardware or software you’re using. If you’re in a pickle, Bitdefender offers extensive customer support — for both consumers and businesses alike.

On the consumer side of things, you get access to a number of troubleshooting guides, but if those fail, you can contact Bitdefender support either via email, 24/7 chat, or over the phone. You must answer three questions pertaining to your issue, after which the website will suggest a few troubleshooting guides, or give you the option to contact support.

When I did this, I had to speak with the Bitdefender Helper AI about my problem, and it was quick to answer a simple question: “How do I activate my subscription?” I found the advice straightforward and helpful. I then asked to speak to a human and after explaining my issue briefly, it connected me to a human being, who was prompt and very helpful. All tiers get a similar level of support, which is fantastic.

For businesses, there’s a dedicated B2B help center offering specialized help. What I love about the support center is that it offers 24/7 support, and a specialized team is available around the clock. This is similar to what Norton and McAfee offer. It’s important to note, though, that local language support is available during working hours only, for all three brands.

Bitdefender review: Verdict

Bitdefender stands out as a premier choice for individuals, families and businesses seeking robust digital security. Having tested the Ultimate Security plan, I can confidently say that it’s a comprehensive security suite. Its protection capabilities are stellar as they protect you against malware, identity theft and scams, which is more important than ever in the age of AI.

What truly impressed me in my testing was Bitdefender’s low system impact as even with full system scans running, it didn’t deter internet speeds or tank the frame rate in intensive games. The interface, on both desktop and mobile, is clean and simply a joy to use. Features like Scam Protection Pro and unlimited VPN on higher tiers add to its value, and make the top-tier subscription worth the investment.

Of course, few things in life are perfect and Bitdefender isn’t one of them, as there’s no Quick Scan option, and the non-resizable app window on Windows can be a little annoying. But these are soft cons, and something you should be able to overlook given the trade-off. If you prioritize peace of mind against evolving AI and malware threats, Bitdefender is, in a word, exceptional.

Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google). The US boasts some of the biggest and most popular tech companies in the world, and their apps and devices are an intrinsic part of everyday life.

But a survey by Proton found that 73% of Europeans think they are too reliant on US tech, with many preferring the option of an alternative.

This was only a snapshot, but plenty of Europeans – as well as Americans, Canadians, Aussies, and more – will be looking to break free from the grips of US tech. So, I've put together a list of some of my favorite privacy-focused alternatives.

From the best VPNs to the best password managers, antivirus to browsers, and even full-blown privacy suites, I'll detail some great non-US privacy apps you can download today. But I'll also explain why where you're based doesn't always correlate with your privacy practices.

VPNs

When it comes to privacy-orientated tech, VPNs are the place to start. It's quite rare to find a VPN based in the US, with many setting up in countries like Panama, the British Virgin Islands, or Switzerland – where data laws have a greater focus on personal privacy.

Four of the five VPNs that feature in our best VPN list are based outside of the US, along with others I'd recommend:

• NordVPN – Panama
• Surfshark – the Netherlands
• ExpressVPN – the British Virgin Islands
• Proton VPN – Switzerland
• Windscribe – Canada
• Mullvad – Sweden

VPNs protect your privacy by encrypting your internet traffic. It can't be seen by your internet service provider or any spying third-party. You can change the location of your IP address to appear as if you're browsing from practically anywhere in the world.

All the VPNs Tom's Guide recommends have strict no-logs policies. This means data such as your browsing information and IP address aren't collected, stored, or shared.

Top VPNs undergo independent third-party audits to prove this and often publish transparency reports, detailing the data requests they receive and what data they hand over – zero.

There are a handful of VPNs we recommend that are based in the US – Norton VPN, IPVanish, and Private Internet Access (PIA). Despite their location, all three operate strict no-logs policies. So, even if the US government demanded data, the VPNs would have nothing to hand over.

Privacy purists would argue a US base still poses a potential risk to your privacy. I asked Norton VPN about this in December 2025.

Norton VPN is owned by GenDigital, a company co-headquartered in the US and Czech Republic. The VPN team said a US-base is only a risk "if you have data to give," and they don't see it "as a cause for concern."

Norton VPN believes you should look at the data being collected by a VPN company, with Norton VPN only collecting data "that is absolutely critical and essential." It has significantly reduced its data collection and publishes quarterly transparency reports.

How important location is in deciding between VPNs is up to you. But if it's a non-US VPN you're after, there's plenty to choose from.

Antivirus

Finding an antivirus (AV) company not based in the US is tricky. All five products featured in our best antivirus software guide are headquartered, or co-headquartered, in the US. These are Norton, Bitdefender, McAfee, Avast, and Malwarebytes. All are exceptional AVs products but all have ties to the US.

Tom's Guide recommends ESET as "the best of the rest." It's a slightly more basic package but is headquartered in Slovakia. G Data (Germany) and F-Secure (Finland) are also two solid, non-US antivirus options.

A handful of VPNs bundle antivirus into their plans. While they might not be the best antivirus products out there, the fact they're part of a VPN plan can be reassuring for your privacy.

However, these AVs are often powered by third-party companies. For example, Surfshark's AV is backed by Avira. Avira is German but now owned by US-based GenDigital. PrivadoVPN has AV as a paid add-on, but it's not clear who powers it.

Secure Browser

We're back on slightly firmer ground with secure browsers. If you want privacy-focused, non-US alternatives to Google, Edge, or Safari, there are a couple to choose from.

Vivaldi is my browser of choice. It's run by the employee-owned Norwegian company Vivaldi Technologies. There's ad and tracker blocking, tons of customization, end-to-end encryption, and even Proton VPN Free built-in. Plus, it's completely free to download and features no AI functionality.

Surfshark offers a secure search function, free from ads and tracking. It's included in Surfshark One and Surfshark One+ plans.

Mullvad VPN has the Mullvad Browser. It was developed in conjunction with the Tor Project and protects against ads, trackers, and fingerprinting. It's also open-source and completely free.

Speaking of Tor, the Tor Browser is an option which leans more into anonymity than privacy. It's run by a decentralized network of node operators, stationed all over the world. Your traffic is routed through a number of "hops," and no one node can see the full history of your traffic's journey. Tor is free and open-source.

Password managers & privacy suites

One of the most common extra features bundled into VPN plans is a password manager. Password managers allow you to generate, and securely store, complex passwords.

NordVPN's NordPass, ExpressVPN's Keys, and Proton's Proton Pass, are all VPN password managers with no ties to the US.

In fact, we're seeing VPNs becoming full-blown privacy suites. ExpressVPN plans now include up to five apps in one subscription and Proton VPN is included in the excellent Proton Unlimited.

I use Proton Unlimited every day and it's the perfect anti-Google ecosystem. There's VPN, Drive, Mail, Calendar, Pass, and Wallet. All are end-to-end encrypted and sync effortlessly across all my devices.

A growing anti-US tech sentiment

Proton's research sought the views of people in the UK, France, and Germany. 80% of French respondents believed Europe is dependent on US tech, alongside 65% of Germans and 74% of the UK.

In the UK, 74% also expressed concern over this dependence, as did 85% of French respondents and 90% of Germans.

A majority of respondents from all three countries would choose European alternatives if they were available. As well as this, a majority of respondents from all three countries said protecting their privacy and security was "extremely important."

It's clear there is a growing opposition to US tech and the role it plays in our lives. We can't be rid of it entirely, but there are secure, privacy-focused alternatives out there to start fighting back.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Surfshark's limited time February deal means you can grab antivirus for $0.30 per month, alongside one of the best VPNs.

Two-year Surfshark One plans, with three extra months free, work out at $2.29 per month ($61.83 upfront pre-tax). This is Surfshark's second tier of plan and sees the inclusion of antivirus, data alerts, and scam protection. The offer is running from February 2-23, 2026, so you'd better act fast.

For a full rundown of why we rate Surfshark so highly, you can read our Surfshark VPN review.

VPN plus dedicated antivirus

A 27 month Surfshark One plan costs $2.29 per month ($61.83 upfront pre-tax) and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

You can protect your data with the best cheap VPN out there. You'll benefit from unlimited device connections, a simple and easy to use VPN, and blistering speeds of up to 1,615 Mbps. There's 4,500+ servers worldwide, covering 142 locations in 100 countries.

Surfshark is one of the only leading VPNs to offer dedicated antivirus. It's backed by Avira and allows you to run a full device scan or opt for a quick one. Surfshark updates its threat list regularly and any suspicious code is sent to its lab for analysis. You can enable real-time protection, with vulnerable areas of your device being checked.

Surfshark Antivirus isn't quite as good as big names like McAfee or Norton 360. However, the best antivirus software will cost you more per month than most VPN plans. So being able to pick up Surfshark Antivirus for an extra $0.30 per month is a great deal.

Alongside antivirus, Surfshark One brings an email scam checker and data alerts. Alerts cover personal data, ID, and credit card leaks, plus personal data security reports. You'll also get access to Surfshark's Web Content Blocker and secure search – providing organic search results, free from ads and trackers.

Surfshark's other plans

Surfshark One is the VPN's best value plan but it has two others. Surfshark Starter is its entry plan and it costs $1.99 per month ($53.73 upfront pre-tax) for 27 months of protection.

There's no antivirus, but you'll see fast speeds and powerful streaming unblocking, along with unlimited device connections and class-leading security and privacy. Surfshark has an audited no-logs policy and it is now post-quantum secure. There's also unique features like Alternative ID, which allows you to create a fake alias online.

Surfshark One+ is its most expensive plan. You get everything included in previous plans and unlock ID theft protection and the data removal service Incogni.

ID theft protection is only available to users in the US (except New York state) and provides up to $1 million of ID theft coverage. Incogni data removal service will send data deletion requests to numerous data brokers, reducing the amount of spam and scam emails you'll receive.

Surfshark One+ costs $4.19 per month ($113.13 upfront pre-tax) for 27 months of protection. All Surfshark plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

If you haven't yet renewed your antivirus program, you're actually in luck. It turns out that many antivirus manufacturers still have some stellar deals on some of our favorite software programs that make it easy to cover the devices in your household for roughly what it costs to subscribe to Netflix's top tier for a year.

Skipping antivirus coverage on (all) your devices is a risk you shouldn't be taking, mostly because getting malware is going to cost you much more than any one of these subscriptions — some of which are only $14 on sale. Each of these programs can keep you safe from all manner of malware, viruses, spyware or phishing attacks. Each also offers a useful array of features like a VPN, password manager or identity protection.

There are great deals on some of the best antivirus software that support as many as 10 devices, like Norton 360 Premium, McAfee Total Protection and Bitdefender Total Security, which all offer excellent real-time protection. They can cover a variety of operating systems, protect your devices when you're online and include thoughtful features like webcam protection, hardened browsers, ransomware rollback and more.

Quick Links

• Norton Antivirus Plus 2026 (1 Device): was $49 now $14 @ Amazon
• Norton 360 Premium 2026 (10 Devices): was $00 now $29 @ Amazon
• Bitdefender Total Security (5 Devices): was $89 now $29 @ Amazon
• McAfee Total Protection 2026 (3 Device): was $99 now $26 @ Amazon
• ESET NOD32 Antivirus (1 Device): was $39 now $24 @ Amazon

Antivirus package deals

More from Tom's Guide

• Check your inbox: These companies were the most impersonated in phishing attacks in 2025
• People are the password problem: How you're creating your biggest security risks
• New California regulations help delete your personal information off the internet – here’s what to know

For the last few hours left in Cyber Monday, make sure you don't miss out on the great sales in antivirus coverage. One of our top choices among the best antivirus software, Malwarebytes, has a 50% off sale today on all its plans. That means you can cover three devices against malware, spyware, infostealers and ransomware for a whole year for just $30 and still get a wide array of extra features.

All three tiers of Malwarebytes plans offer safe web browsing with scam and ad blocker, security assessments and advice, and a data breach notification feature. The malware protection is solid, and scored well in independent testing when it came to identifying and blocking threats and viruses. When we tested it, we found that the quick scan options worked well, ran fast and had little impact on system performance.

When we tested Malwarebytes we liked how it ran light and fast while providing great malware coverage without a lot of extra fuss. It's clean, straightforward interface made it easy to find the features and functions we needed fast, and the scans rans quickly without bogging down our system.

Though it doesn't include all the features you could wish for, the ones that it does provide will help keep you safe online from the unlimited VPN to the firewall and the identity threat protection that's included in the upper tier level. The majority of the features are related to virus protection like the anti-heap spraying protection which is an exploit related to code injections.

Malwarebytes has three available tiers, Standard, Plus and Ultimate, and each will protect up to three devices. Each tier is currently half off for Cyber Monday and will cover your devices for a full year.

For more great discounts be sure to check out our Cyber Monday deals live blog right now.

For Black Friday, Norton has deals on all its antivirus software, including Norton Premium which provides both excellent real-time malware protection and extensive list of features. Norton Premium will cover up to 10 devices and has online protections like a VPN, parental controls, a password manager, dark web monitoring, and scam protection.

It's also currently available on discount for Black Friday for 68% off, making it just $44 a year or less than $4 a month. That means you have coverage for your computers, tablets and smartphones, all year, from scams, phishing attacks and malware – especially important during holiday shopping seasons when scammers and hackers are just as busy as you are.

The best antivirus programs will protect you whenever you're online by scanning for malware in real-time, alerting you to phishing scams and provide you with additional protection like a VPN. Norton does all this, and includes dark web monitoring, deepfake protection and cloud backup.

Norton has scored well in independent antivirus tests. In AV Test's Jan/Feb 2025 Report it scored a 6 out of 6, and in AV Comparatives March 2025 Protection Test, the company scored a 99.96% which means Norton excels at detecting and blocking malware.

With several tiers of protection available, Norton has an antivirus software that can help keep your devices safe online. Each one will include excellent anti-malware protection and all of them are currently discounted for Black Friday. When we tested Norton's software, we liked the privacy and identity theft features that were included – especially the features like the dark web monitoring that searches for your personal information, a check that can see if your computer's software needs to be updated, and the Safe Search feature that warns you if you're visiting potentially iffy websites.

In all, this is one of the best antivirus programs you can get — and at 75% off, it's a real steal.

For more great discounts be sure to check out our Black Friday deals live blog right now.

Shop today's best Black Friday deals

• Amazon: 50% off Ring, Ninja, AirPods and more
• Walmart Plus: 50% off @ Walmart
• REI: half-off Arc'teryx, Patagonia, more
• Dell: monitors from $69, laptops from $299
• Nectar: 50% off mattresses + bundles
• Best Buy: laptops from $149
• Lenovo: doorbuster deals from $319
• Wayfair: up to 80% off home decor
• Lululemon: top picks from $9
• Newegg: Doorbuster deals from $6
• Walmart: holiday gifts from $15
• Birkenstock: deals from $20 @ Nordstrom
• Saatva: luxury mattresses from $1,099

While you may be prepping for the holidays, the bad news is so are the scammers, hackers and bad actors. The good news is that our best overall antivirus program is on sale, and can keep you protected while you shop all the best deals.

Norton is offering deals on all its antivirus software, including Norton 360 Deluxe, which is our best overall antivirus choice for its excellent real-time malware protection and extensive list of features. Right now Norton 360 Deluxe is discounted 75% and will cover five devices all year for just $29. That gets you features like a VPN, parental controls and a password manager — all of which usually costs $120 annually.

Lots of people are looking forward to all the Black Friday deals, but no one wants to get taken advantage of. A quality antivirus program can help keep you stay protected when shopping online by scanning in real-time for malware, alert you to phishing scams and provide you with additional protection like a VPN, browser protections that will alert you if you visit a suspicious website and even cloud backups that secure your data.

Norton offers several tiers of protection, and each one will include the excellent anti-malware protection that 360 Deluxe has. All of them are currently discounted for Black Friday, but not all of them include the wide array of features that 360 Deluxe has.

Norton scored well in independent antivirus testing, with a 6 out of 6 in AV Test's Jan/Feb 2025 Report and a 99.96% in AV Comparatives March 2025 Protection Test. That puts them among the top in being able to detect and block malware.

When we tested it, we also liked the privacy and identity theft features that were included – 360 Deluxe will scan the dark web for your personal information, check to see if your computer's software needs to be updated, and has a Safe Search feature that warns you if you're visiting potentially iffy websites.

For more discounts, check out our Black Friday deals live blog right now.

Shop today's best Black Friday deals

• Amazon: 50% off Ring, Ninja, AirPods and more
• Walmart Plus: 50% off @ Walmart
• REI: half-off Arc'teryx, Patagonia, more
• Dell: monitors from $69, laptops from $299
• Nectar: 50% off mattresses + bundles
• Best Buy: laptops from $149
• Lenovo: doorbuster deals from $319
• Wayfair: up to 80% off home decor
• Lululemon: top picks from $9
• Newegg: Doorbuster deals from $6
• Walmart: holiday gifts from $15
• Birkenstock: deals from $20 @ Nordstrom
• Saatva: luxury mattresses from $1,099

I've seen a lot of Black Friday VPN deals, and it's exceedingly rare that they drop below $1.50 per month – and most VPN prefer to stay above the $2-per-month mark.

Not PrivadoVPN, though. This Black Friday, it's going for just $1.11 per month. That's not the best part though. It's also throwing in full, unlimited antivirus for free.

Admittedly, PrivadoVPN isn't the most polished VPN. More established, premium brands like NordVPN do provide a more well-rounded experience. But in our PrivadoVPN review, our expert testers found it toally safe to use, and remarkably good at unblocking streaming sites to boot.

This 27-month deal costs $30 up front, and when it comes to Black Friday VPN deals, there's nothing cheaper than PrivadoVPN.

Cheap and cheerful, with hard to ignore extras

PrivadoVPN's antivirus typically costs an extra $1.99 per month but it can be yours – to keep – for free. I'll be honest, PrivadoVPN's antivirus isn't foolproof and one of the best antivirus softwares is going to perform better. However, as a free extra with an already exceptional value VPN, it's hard to ignore.

In October I asked if we should be taking PrivadoVPN more seriously and we should. It boasts speeds more than fast enough for the average user – 800+ Mbps in our latest tests – and it's designed for streaming.

There's a kill switch, unique features such as GPS location spoofing and parental controls, plus protection for up to 10 devices.

Its apps aren't the most intuitive, but for $30 up front I can forgive this. PrivadoVPN says it has a strict no-logs policy but, while I have no reason to think this is a lie, the provider hasn't undergone an independent audit. An audit would seriously improve the provider's credibility and bring it inline with its competitors.

PrivadoVPN is a secure, streaming orientated VPN. It's the cheapest premium plan you'll get this Black Friday and free antivirus is a massive bonus.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Antivirus software is imperative if you want to avoid the latest threats, from info-stealing malware or ransomware that locks up your computer unless you pay a fine. It works in the background, combating these risks and allowing you to go about your day as you normally would.

Some computers have built-in antivirus software, for example, Window's Microsoft Defender. While this is great for baseline protection, if you want something more comprehensive with more customization, that's where the best antivirus software comes in.

To help you find the best antivirus software for your devices, we spent weeks installing, testing, and uninstalling all of the programs below while taking a close look at their features, extras, and design. We even reached out to customer support to see how easily each company was able to solve common and not so common problems.

Based on our extensive testing, research and the results from third-party labs, Norton 360 Deluxe is our pick for the best antivirus software overall. It’s easy to use and provides effective malware protection without significantly impacting your computer’s performance. You also get plenty of extra features you’ll actually use.

However, there are plenty of other great antivirus providers too, and in this guide we'll take your through all the options. Whether you’re looking to secure a single device or ensure your entire household is protected from the latest threats, this is the best antivirus software you can get right now.

The quick list

The best antivirus software you can buy today

The best antivirus software overall

Norton 360 is an antivirus that perfectly strikes the balance between usability and strong protection, with feature-packed plans that cover just about every cyber threat you could want to protect yourself from.

Norton 360 offers varying levels of protection, depending on which plan you go for. Its standard plan is its cheapest. It costs $42 for the first year and renews at $94, coming in a little cheaper than Bitdefender Total Security, which starts at $109. For this price, you can protect one device against malware, viruses, ransomware, and hackers. You also get Deepfake Protection, 10GB of cloud backup, Dark Web Monitoring, and a VPN.

Its most expensive tier, Norton 360 with LifeLock Select Plus, starts at $99 for the first year and renews at $189. For this price, you can protect up to 10 macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android devices, as well as getting access to features including Scam Protection Pro, 250GB cloud storage, Parental Control, Credit Monitoring Coverage, and up to $25,000 in stolen funds reimbursement, amongst some other extras. This includes SafeCam, which protects your webcam and microphone, and its backup tool Time Machine.

In independent testing, Norton 360 performed incredibly well. AV Test’s February 2026 report certified Norton 360 as a “Top Product” with a 6/6 score across Protection, Performance and Usability — the same score as both Bitdefender and McAfee.

Additionally, AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test, Norton 360 scored 90/100 in AVC, 94.7/100 in Procyon, and 5.3 in Impact. The lower the Impact score, the better, and Norton 360 outperformed Bitdefender, which scored a 9.6/10 in Impact. It was outperformed, however, by McAfee, which achieved a 3.3/10 in Impact.

Finally, in its UK April 2026 report, SE Labs awarded Norton 360’s macOS version an AAA rating with 100% protection accuracy, which is the highest possible rating.

On top of this, its low system impact means that you can run its scans in the background without disrupting your computer's performance, even if you're doing something that requires a lot of system load, like gaming. During testing, where we played Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra graphics) with Norton 360 running in the background, system impact was minimal. Frames per second (fps) only dipped from 118 to 105 while doing a Full Scan of almost 900,000 files.

When it comes to its downsides, Norton 360 does have a couple. Some of its protection features (like SafeCam) are Windows-exclusive, while others are paywalled.

Additionally, in testing, we found Norton 360's Ask Genie AI assistant was a lot slower and more inconsistent than the AI assistants offered by competitors such as Avast One and Malwarebytes.

Still, regardless of these (relatively minor) shortcomings, Norton 360 is still one of the most dependable and feature-rich antivirus software suites on the market.

• Read our full Norton 360 review

The best antivirus software for features

Bitdefender is a great option if you want feature-heavy antimalware software, thanks to its range of plans for you to choose from.

Unlike Norton 360, however, it does not offer discounts for the first year of use. Its cheapest Consumer plan, Bitdefender Total Security, starts at $109; Bitdefender Premium Security costs $129; Bitdefender Ultimate Security retails for $159; and Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus costs $189.

These plans all offer different levels of protection, with Total Security having the least security features, and Ultimate Security Plus having the most. Still, Total Security offers protection against malware, ransomware, and network threats, Advanced Threat Defense, which monitors active apps, Cryptomining Protection that fights against apps that you have no knowledge of, Anti-Phishing, Anti-Fraud, Antispam, and more.

We tested the Bitdefender Ultimate Security plan, which includes all this as well as email protection, Scam Protection Pro that fights sophisticated scams, Digital Identity Protection, as well as a VPN.

Bitdefender's independent testing scores were decent. It achieved 6/6 scores across Protection, Performance, and Usability in AV Test’s February 2026 report, the same as McAfee and Norton.

With this being said, its AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test results were not as good. This test uses benchmarking tools to assess system impact. It scored 85/100 in AVC, 95.4/100 in Procyon, and 9.6/10 in Impact. McAfee performed better with a 90 and 96.7 score respectively.

This was the only test Bitdefender slightly underperformed in, however. SE Labs (U.K.) gave Bitdefender an AAA (highest possible rating with a 100% protection accuracy.

Its protection doesn't hamper your computer's performance, either. We performed a full scan (of over 2.3 million files) while also running Cyberpunk 2077, and it only dipped from 100 fps to 97 fps.

If we could change a couple of things about it, it would be this: adding a Quick Scan option, and allowing its app window to be resizable on Windows. In the grand scheme of things, though, these are relatively minor complaints.

Overall, Bitdefender is a great bit of kit to have in your arsenal for giving you peace of mind against ever-evolving AI and malware threats.

• Read our full Bitdefender Total Security review

The best antivirus software for families

McAfee+ Ultimate is a welcome security package if you have many devices to protect, a big household, and a lot of family members. It does everything you’d want to protect your PC, Mac, or smartphone, and the package doesn’t limit how many devices you can use with your account.

In addition to an extremely powerful antivirus solution, you get features that help protect you (and your family) during your online activities as well. Among the many included features that come with McAfee+ Ultimate is a VPN (with no restrictions to a set file transfer limit), full access to a password manager, identity monitoring, a social media monitoring tool, a text scam detector, and more.

During testing, there were no performance problems during scanning. A full scan of 926K files took 35 minutes, which is the same time as Norton 360 Deluxe, although slightly slower than Bitdefender Total Security. McAfee+ Ultimate also offers options for a quick scan and a five-minute scan if you want to speed things up a little.

Some of the features offered, however, are available in Windows as free tools, like a file shredder and a clean up tool that removes temporary files.

McAfee+ Ultimate's pricing starts out pretty reasonable, usually around $49.99. However, you should keep in mind that after the first year, this price jumps up quite significantly to $149.99. So, if you don’t need many devices covered, it may not be worth the fee.

McAfee+ Ultimate offers an unlimited VPN, which is handy for those who want a VPN along with their antivirus. During testing, we found the unlimited VPN easy to configure and use. Additionally, its features, like the password manager, were easy to install and worked as expected.

McAfee+ Ultimate's antivirus protection scores in independent tests are outstanding overall, achieving a protection rate of 99.5% in AV-Comparatives' tests published in December 2025. Its false positives score was excellent too, on par with Bitdefender Total Security, and better than Norton 360 Deluxe, Malwarebytes Plus, and Avast Premium Security.

The main drawback here is the higher price point, although if you’re covering multiple devices, then you may find it worth it. Still, if you're after a budget antivirus, consider Malwarebytes Plus.

• Read our full McAfee+ Premium review

The best antivirus software for banking

Avast One offers not only excellent antimalware and antivirus protection, but also protection against AI-generated scams, deepfakes, suspicious texts and links, and more.

The biggest plus about Avast One is that it offers a completely free tier, which is great if you want to protect yourself without breaking the bank. This blocks viruses and malware and offers protection against ransomware, as well as allowing you access to Avast’s AI-powered assistant for catching scams.

On top of this, you also get a 60-day trial of SecureLine VPN. Extra features, like Scam Guardian Pro, AntiTrack, and firewall, can be activated from within the app. These are all paid add-ons, but the good news is that you can pick and choose which ones you need, instead of paying for an all-in-one package, such as the tiers offered by Bitdefender and Norton 360.

During testing, we used Avast Premium Security, which includes Wi-Fi protection, WebGuard, which uses AI to block scam websites, and Mail Shield, which monitors your email address for threats.

Avast was rated as a top product by AV Test’s February 2026 report, achieving a 6/6 score across Protection, Performance and Usability. In AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test report, Avast ranked 6th on the list, just under Norton 360, with a 90/100 AVC score, 94.5/100 Procyon score, and a 5.5 Impact score. Finally, it achieved the highest rating possible of AAAwith a 100% total accuracy percentage in SE Labs (U.K.) April 2026 report.

Unlike some competitors (like Bitdefender), Avast One offers a few different types of scans: Smart (quick), Full, Targeted (custom), and Boot-Time. In testing, we ran a Full Scan, which took 6 minutes and 12 seconds, which is a lot quicker thanBitdefender's full scan, which took 26 minutes and 23 seconds. However, Avast One doesn’t tell you how many files it has scanned, unlike Bitdefender.

We tested the impact of these scans by running Cyberpunk 2077 while running them and measuring the slowdown. During a Full Scan, Cyberpunk 2077 dropped from 99 fps to 96 fps, meaning the impact was barely noticeable at all.

However, if you're looking for antivirus protection for your family, you may be a bit disappointed to learn that Avast One does not feature built-in parental controls, unlike Bitdefender. Additionally, it can only protect up to 10 devices, meaning if you have more devices than this, it may not be suitable.

Still, if you want antivirus software that offers swift and diverse system scanning as well as modern AI threat analysis, Avast One is a great choice.

• Read our full Avast One review

The best budget antivirus software

Malwarebytes is user-friendly, excellent value for money and includes some great tools like an AI-driven Scam Guard and Digital Footprint Scanner to keep you safe from cyber threats.

As with the other antivirus software providers on this list, Malwarebytes has a range of different plans that cover various needs and requirements. It has three consumer plans, with its Standard plan available for $44 / £29 per year. This plan offers basic protection against malware, viruses, and more on one device only.

The next step up is the Plus plan, which costs $79 / £49 annually. It includes everything offered by Standard, plus a high-speed VPN and anonymous browsing.

Malwarebytes’ most expensive plan is called Ultimate in the U.S. ($279 per year) and Total in the U.K. (£129 per year). Regardless of what they are called, Ultimate and Total feature Advanced Social Media Monitoring as well as $1 million in identity insurance. While these are great features, this plan is pricier than both Bitdefender and Norton 360, although there are also various Family plans starting from $149 / £109 per year.

You don't have to fully commit off the bat, though. Malwarebytes offers a 60-day money-back guarantee — just like Norton 360.

One thing I did find slightly disappointing about these plans was that none of them offer cloud backup and storage or parental controls. If these are features you desperately want, you'd be better off checking out Bitdefender, Avast One, or Norton 360.

In independent testing, Malwarebytes performed decently. In AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test report Malwarebytes scored 75/100 in AVC, 97.4/100 in Procyon, and 17.6 in Impact. The Impact score is a little worrying, however, as it means that (on paper at least) Malwarebytes has a negative impact on your system resources. Bitdefender (9.6), Avast (5.5) and Norton 360 (5.3) all performed better than Malwarebytes in this area.

In SE Labs (U.K.) April 2026 report, Malwarebytes Premium was awarded an AAA rating with 97% protection accuracy. While this bad at all, it should be noted that Bitdefender, Norton 360 and Avast One are all rated 100% for their protection accuracy.

Malwarebytes offers three scan levels —Threat Scan (quick), Deep Scan (full), and Custom Scan (targeted). The quick scan option is nice to see, and gives it an edge over the likes of Bitdefender, which don't offer these options. In testing, its Threat Scan was completed within 22 seconds, having scanned over 176,000 files without detecting any anomalies or threats. Its Deep Scan took 14 minutes and two seconds to finish, and scanned a total of 427,157 files — a little less than Bitdefender, which scanned over two million files in 26 minutes.

To test its impact on system performance, we ran Cyberpunk 2077 while these scans ran in the background. Cyberpunk 2077’s frame rate dipped a fair bit, from 87 to 75. While this isn't the worst impact on performance, especially as we didn’t notice any stuttering or lag while playing the games, Bitdefender achieved 97fps in Cyberpunk 2077 with the software performing a Full Scan.

Overall, Malwarebytes is user-friendly and offers a great range of features to keep you and your devices safe and malware-free. However, it is lacking in a couple of key areas, and its system impact does leave a little to be desired.

• Read our full Malwarebytes Plus review

Also tested

We test a lot of apps when searching for the best antivirus software, but only a handful can reach the top spots. If you're after more options, here are some other great antivirus packages that didn't quite make the mark.

How we test the best antivirus software

We test each antivirus program and evaluate its interface, performance, protection, extra features and — above all — overall value.

After timing and rating the installation process’s ease, we looked at whether the interface was simple and straightforward, convoluted and difficult to grasp — or something in between.

Next, we went through all the major and many minor features that each suite provides, including VPN access, file shredding and backup software, if included.

As far as performance goes, we measured how much the system slowed down while the program was scanning for malware.

To gauge each program’s impact on system performance, we fired up Cyberpunk 2077 with ultra graphics and Forza Horizon 5 with high graphics and tested how much the frames per second slowed down when also running a scan.

For malware detection performance, we referred to results from tests conducted by three independent labs: AV-TEST in Germany, AV-Comparatives in Austria and SE Labs in England.

Each lab periodically subjects major antivirus programs to stress tests that include thousands of pieces of malware as well as hundreds of “zero-day” samples that the software has to learn to recognize.

We paid particular attention to false positive readings of safe software deemed dangerous by the program under review as an indication of the precision of the program’s scanning technology.

How to choose the best antivirus software for you

When choosing an antivirus software, the top priority among all other decisions should be how well it performs to keep your system safe from malware and viruses.

To help you determine which of the many options out there will be the best at protecting your devices, we use results from tests conducted by three different independent labs to help us determine which antivirus program excels at finding and eliminating malware threats.

We also perform our own tests to see how much each program slows down your system, and how many resources it will consume to run both while scanning and while running in the background.

You’ll also want to read reviews online to see what other users have to say about their experiences with using the software, how it performed, what the interface was like, and how responsive the customer service was.

Next, consider the needs of your household and what devices you want to protect. How many family members do you have in the home? How many devices does each person need coverage for? What platforms do each of those devices use, and are the features they'll need available on these platforms?

Make a list of what devices and operating systems you need coverage for, as not all antivirus programs will cover all of them, and some will offer bundles for multiple family members or devices.

Narrow down the features you would like to see included in your antivirus program – because most antivirus programs offer so many features, it’s easiest to start out by making a list of what features are most important to your needs.

Do you also need parental controls? Is a VPN important to you? Would you like a password manager or file shredder? What about a hardened browser, a firewall, or webcam protection? Think about what you’d like most as additional security features and list them out, and see what the top antivirus programs offer.

Lastly, consider how much you want to spend — some antivirus programs will offer bundles for their suites, or tiers, that will package deals that include numbers of licenses or devices protected for a single purchase. You should also check a company’s website for any trial offers, as many will give you 30 days to try out their program for free before purchasing. Just make sure to cancel before the trialis over, or risk paying for software you don't want.

Free vs paid antivirus software

With so many antivirus programs to choose from, there’s absolutely no reason for your PC or smartphone to go unprotected — especially when there are free programs available to choose from as well. So, why would you bother paying for something that you didn’t have to?

Well, there are lot of reasons to choose one antivirus program over another but if you’re looking specifically at just free versus paid antivirus programs there are a few reasons to choose one over the other.

Free antivirus software will always provide users with basic protections against the most common malware threats, and will block dangerous files and applications. It should also warn you about suspicious websites, offer a cleanup option for infected files or apps and recognize when unknown devices are using your network.

However, a paid option is going to go a step beyond and offer more comprehensive security features — more advanced protections against unknown or upcoming threats, a more thorough feature set including VPNs, password managers, a file shredder that will fully remove deleted files and may cover more devices including tablets and smartphones.

Paid antivirus software also generally includes customer support via phone, chat or instant messaging and email whereas free versions will not. Plus, they add functions like an ability to customize your antivirus service, a feature to block suspicious sites, and a backup service to save data or back up devices.

It might also include features like webcam protection, remote control prevention to keep others from controlling your system, and the ability to run apps or software in a “sandbox” setting.

Paid antivirus software also generally includes customer support via phone, chat or instant messaging and email whereas free versions will not. If just the basics will do, a free version will be enough but if you’re looking for something more then it’s worth looking at some paid options.

Antivirus FAQ

ESET Home Security offers extensive antivirus protection at a bargain price. Now that Black Friday deals are here, the antivirus suite is getting a generous price cut.

For a limited time, you can get 30% off ESET Home Security Essential, ESET Home Security Premium, or ESET Home Security Ultimate. After discount, prices are $41 (was $59) and $62 (was $89), and $125 (was $179), respectively. The sale prices are for 1-year subscriptions and cover multiple devices. For more ways to save, check out our guide to the best ESET promo codes.

In our ESET Home Security review we said that ESET offers powerful antivirus protection and useful features at an affordable price. We like ESET Premium because it offers extensive antivirus protection that goes far beyond the basics. For example, you can perform a quick scan or a custom scan. Unlike other antivirus apps, the custom scan isn’t just for selecting specific files and folders. Instead, it’s where you can choose to perform an “in-depth” scan that searches every last file on your computer including boot sector files.

Premium also scans for any suspicious activity using what ESET calls Deep Behavior Inspection. This is a more powerful form of antivirus scanning because it looks for suspicious activity, as opposed to just comparing files to a database.

After discount, you can get ESET Home Security Essential for $41, ESET Home Security Premium for $62, or ESET Home Security Ultimate for $125. The sale prices are for 1-year subscriptions and cover multiple devices.

As a security editor for Tom's Guide, I know better than most people that having antivirus coverage on all your devices isn't optional, but it doesn't have to cost a fortune either. With these Cyber Monday deals, it's possible to secure a whole year's worth of protection for all of your devices for less than what you're likely paying monthly for all your streaming services.

Ending today there are steep discounts on all the antivirus software and tools that can help keep you safe from malware, viruses, spyware and phishing attacks. Even though we still have some time left until the holiday shopping season officially kicks off, many of our highest rated antivirus programs are currently on sale for as little as $15 for the year, which gets you malware protection, as well as useful features like a VPN, password manager and identity protection.

There are great deals on annual antivirus packages that support as many as 5 devices like Norton 360 Premium, McAfee Total Protection and Bitdefender Total Security which all offer excellent protection overall. They're also designed to cover a variety of operating systems, protect your devices wherever and whenever you're online and have thoughtful features like webcam protection, hardened browsers, ransomware rollback and more.

So why leave your devices unprotected for even a second longer when you can save loads on the best antivirus software right now?

Quick Links

• Norton 360 Deluxe 2026 (3 Devices): was $75 now $17 @ Amazon
• Norton 360 Deluxe 2026 (5 Devices): was $35 now $19 @ Amazon
• Norton 360 Standard 2026 (1 Device): was $70 now $14 @ Amazon
• Bitdefender Total Security (3 Devices): was $30 now $19 @ Amazon
• McAfee Total Protection 2026 (5 Device): was $120 now $19 @ Amazon
• McAfee Total Protection 2026 (3 Device): was $100 now $14 @ Amazon
• Webroot Internet Security Plus (3 Devices): was $60 now $24 @ Amazon

Antivirus package deals

A new banking Trojan has been pretending to be legitimate apps, like digital ID apps or news readers, in order to trick victims into downloading it so that it can take over their devices and steal the logins for their financial accounts. According to researchers at Cyfirma, these Trojan-filled malicious apps are specifically targeting Android users who have banking and cryptocurrency apps installed.

The malware is not only capable of stealing sensitive financial data off infected devices, but it also works quietly in the background like an infostealer, so it can avoid detection and continue to steal data from victims after the initial heist. Once it’s enabled on one of the best Android phones, it can also take over a device and read whatever is on the screen, tap buttons and even fill in forms. Likewise, it uses fake login screens to perform overlay attacks on top of real banking and cryptocurrency apps in order to steal any usernames and passwords that are entered by the victim.

After an initial check to ensure that it’s running on a real phone, it will ask users for special permissions. Like other Android malware it abuses the operating system's which Accessibility Services to do so which it says will help improve the app. However, this actually gives the hackers behind this banking trojan complete control over an infected device while also adding the malware as the device administrator app. This is a common malware tactic which is exactly why we caution against giving apps permissions that they don’t seem to need and why we say that checking the accessibility services section of your Android phone is a good way to detect potential malware.

According to the researchers, this Trojan can also connect to a remote center where it will send information about the phone itself including which banking apps are installed, and the handsets location.

Attackers can even send instructions to the malware and make it perform actions like downloading updates or deleting traces of the malicious activity. The Trojan can also silence notifications and sounds which means that users won't notice any of the malicious activity it's carrying out on their device.

Researchers say the majority of the activity they have seen from this malware is in Southeast Asia, but there’s not reason that these techniques couldn’t be used in any other country or area.

How to stay safe from Android malware

In order to protect your data and your devices from malware, the first thing you want to do is to stick to trusted sources and make sure that you're only downloading apps, especially VPNs and streaming services, from first-party app stores like the Google Play Store or from known developer sites. Never install something from a link in a forum or message sent via social media.

From there, you want to check the permissions requested by an app anytime a new one you've installed asks for control over your device, settings, accessibility services, or if it wants to install other apps. Stop and ask if its necessary. Does it need those permissions and what do you expect it to do with them?

You also want to use layered and up-to-date protection which is why I recommend installing one of the best Android antivirus apps on your phone alongside Google Play Protect. These security apps can scan for malware, dodgy downloads and any suspicious activity taking place on your device. You always want to keep your security software and your operating system up to date because that ensures that all the vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit are patched promptly.

Given that we now handle so much of our finances from our mobile devices, hackers likely won't stop developing new banking trojans and using them in their attacks anytime soon. That's why it's up to you to lock down your devices while also being extra careful online.

More from Tom's Guide

• These 12 malicious Android apps are recording your conversations — delete them right now
• Fake WhatsApp and TikTok apps are trying to fool Android users into downloading spyware — don't fall for this
• Hackers are using Google search results to spread fake apps filled with malware — don't fall for this

A survey conducted by the best VPN on the market, NordVPN, has revealed that a startling number of Americans are unaware of what antivirus software does.

The misconceptions about antivirus capabilities are made more alarming by the fact that 52% of people report that they use the software every day.

Here we take a look at the main misconceptions surrounding antivirus software, other survey findings, and what you really need to protect yourself online.

Common antivirus misconceptions

NordVPN’s survey, which polled over 1,000 US residents aged 18-74, found that many Americans often confuse different online security software.

The survey shows that most people overestimate how much protection they actually have, increasing their risk of identity theft and other cyberthreats. Over a quarter of survey participants incorrectly believed their antivirus software completely protected them from online threats.

Marijus Briedis, CTO at NordVPN, explained the danger this misconception can cause: "People tend to confuse different technologies and overestimate their capabilities to protect them.

"For example, those Americans who don’t think that antivirus software can detect and remove malicious software (although that is its main function) more often believe that antivirus software can protect against identity theft.

"This shows a lack of cybersecurity training and general IT knowledge. It could be rectified by educational information campaigns."

Commonly misunderstood security software also included: ID theft protection, ad and tracker blockers, password managers, firewalls, and VPNs.

By misunderstanding what these products can do and what they are used for, people are actively putting their online security in jeopardy.

The truth about data privacy

Despite a growing fear of data theft, over a third of survey participants reported not using any form of cybersecurity software.

These concerns are warranted, especially considering that the survey also found that approximately 50 percent of Americans have their personal data exposed in a data leak, making the lack of cybersecurity software even more concerning.

Instead of security software, however, most opted to use best practices for online safety, believing that would be enough to protect them.

While using common best practices like avoiding phishing scams by not downloading or clicking on suspicious files or links, or using strong, unique passwords for all your accounts, are definitely beneficial, they may not be enough.

This is especially so in the age of malware that doesn't even need you to click on it to infect your device and increasingly sophisticated data-stealing scams.

Briedis noted that behavior like this “undoubtedly contributes to the concerning cybersecurity situation in the USA."

Those surveyed noted primarily worrying about social security or credit card leaks, but the most leaked pieces of information are email, phone number, and physical address.

While the latter information is often seen as non-identifiable, these secondary forms of information are often the gateway a cybercriminal needs to gather more personally identifiable data. For example, emails are used in data phishing attacks, and phone numbers are used for smishing (text-based phishing) scams.

With personal information, scammers can tailor-make phishing scams that are more convincing to victims. This can result in the loss of even more crucial information, like their Social Security Number, passport details, or banking information, which can lead to their identity or money being stolen.

How to stay safe online

Antivirus is a strong start, but it isn’t a silver bullet for online safety.

Using antivirus software in combination with one of the most secure VPNs, like NordVPN, multi-factor authentication, and strong passwords is better.

Here’s a quick rundown of how these tools can help you keep safe online:

• Using a VPN. A VPN is a cybersecurity tool that encrypts your traffic, making it unreadable and keeping you and your browsing habits completely anonymous online. It also masks your ISP-given IP address, making it difficult to track your digital footprints. VPNs can additionally help protect your connection on public Wi-Fi by encrypting your data and stopping anyone who may want to from snooping on it.
• Enabling multi-factor authentication. Multi-factor authentication (or 2FA) can help prevent unauthorized access to your account by alerting you whenever someone attempts to access your account. Once you log in using your account credentials, you’ll be prompted to perform a secondary form of identification. Multi-factor authentication can be performed via text, biometrics, or email.
• Following password dos and don’ts. All your passwords should use a mix of 8-12 letters, numbers, and characters (e.g., @#$). Never use repeating letters or numbers, sequential letters or numbers, or information that is readily available online (e.g., your name, a pet's name, social media handles, etc.). This makes them harder to crack in the case of credential stuffing attacks, which see hackers input thousands of passwords, hoping one of them will be correct and allow them access to an online account. Avoid using the same password for every account; this makes it easier to hack subsequent accounts if someone discovers your password.

Even if you use the software solutions and best practices mentioned above, you need to remain diligent about the information you share online.

You should also avoid responding to unsolicited or unexpected emails, calls, and texts, especially if they are prompting you to take unexpected action, like sending money or sharing private information.

Why antivirus misconceptions are dangerous

Believing your antivirus can protect against phishing, provide protection on public wifi connections, or prevent identity theft leaves you vulnerable.

In reality, no single security software solution can protect you against online threats; it takes a combination of software, best privacy practices, and educating yourself on current threats and the software you intend to use.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

As someone who covers antivirus and internet security for Tom's Guide, I can tell you two things: one, antivirus coverage – on all your devices – isn't optional, and two, it doesn't have to be expensive. If you know what kind of coverage you need, and pay attention to sale cycles, you can get all the antivirus protection you require while online for as much as 50 or even 80% off.

Already this year, businesses, websites and companies are preparing for Black Friday sales on antivirus software and solutions with big sales and discounts. Even though we still have some time left until the holiday shopping season officially kicks off, thanks to Cybersecurity Awareness Month many of our highest rated antivirus programs are currently on sale for up to 80% off which gets you malware protection, as well as useful features like a VPN, password manager and identity protection.

There are already great deals on antivirus packages that support as many as 20 devices like Norton 360 Premium, McAfee Total Protection and Bitdefender Total Security which all offer excellent protection from malware. These packages are designed to cover a variety of operating systems, protect your devices wherever and whenever you're online and have thoughtful features like webcam protection, hardened browsers, ransomware rollback and more.

So why leave your devices unprotected for even a second longer when you can save loads on the best antivirus software right now?

Quick Links

• Norton 360 Deluxe 3 Devices: was $75 now $20 @ Amazon
• Norton 360 Platinum 20 Devices: was $130 now $35 @ Amazon
• Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 3 Devices: was $60 now $30 @ Amazon
• Bitdefender Total Security 5 Devices (2 year): was $150 now $75 @ Amazon
• Malwarebytes Premium 5 Devices: was $60 now $40 @ Amazon
• ESET Home Security Premium 5 Devices: was $80 now $50 @ Amazon
• McAfee Total Protection 3 Devices: was $100 now $20 @ Amazon
• Webroot Internet Security Complete 10 Devices: was $100 now $25 @ Amazon
• Webroot Premium with Allstate Identity Theft Protection 3 Devices: was $40 now $15 @ Amazon

Antivirus package deals

Black Friday is the ideal time of year to pick up one of the best VPNs, and Surfshark's Black Friday 2025 deal launches today.

There are three tiers of Surfshark plans to choose from, so you're spoiled for choice. We rate the first, Surfshark Starter, as the best cheap VPN out there. Its current $1.99 per month price remains in place for Black Friday.

However, despite technically being the cheapest Surfshark deal, I don't think it's the best choice this Black Friday.

That accolade goes to Surfshark's second tier – Surfshark One. As well as everything you get with the Starter plan, Surfshark One throws in Antivirus, secure search, and personal data alerts.

On the two-year plan, it only costs around $5 more overall than Surfshark Starter. Considering standalone antivirus software often costs upwards of $5 per month, getting two years' worth for that price is unmissable.

The numbers: Surfshark One costs $2.19 per month, paid upfront at $59.13. This is a two-year subscription, and represents a $0.30-per-month saving when compared to its usual monthly price of $2.49. Generously, three months are thrown in for free as well.

Surfshark Starter costs $1.99 per month, paid upfront at $53.73 – although this plan misses out on those excellent extras.

Surfshark One leads the way

Surfshark has three tiers of plans to choose from this Black Friday. All come with three extra free months and a 30-day money-back guarantee:

• Surfshark Starter: $1.99 per month ($53.73 up front) + 3 months FREE
• Surfshark One: $2.19 per month ($59.13 up front) + 3 months FREE
• Surfshark One+: $4.19 per month ($113.13 up front) + 3 months FREE

Right now, Surfshark One is the best value, coming in at $2.19 per month. This is less than $60 all-in for 27 months of protection. Adding Antivirus to your VPN package costs just $0.20 per month ($2.40 extra per year) more than Surfshark Starter – which I think is well worth it.

The Antivirus offered by Surfshark is award winning, having been certified as a "TOP PRODUCT" by AV-TEST last year. It scans your device for threats and harmful files, with quick scan and full device scan options available.

Surfshark has a large database of threats, and any dangerous code found by a scan is sent for analysis. Botnets and fileless malware is protected against and you can enable real-time protection.

Other Surfshark One features include personal data leak alerts plus ad and tracker free search.

Despite its price, Surfshark VPN packs a punch. You can protect an unlimited number of devices on one plan and in our latest round of testing it recorded speeds of 848 Mbps – making it one of the fastest VPNs out there.

This speed is one of the reasons Surfshark is the best streaming VPN available. In our testing it unblocked everything we threw at it. Its 3,000+ servers worldwide mean all major locations are covered.

Alternative ID is Surfshark's most unique feature and is included on all plans. It allows you to generate a dummy online persona, including a fake name, birthday, and address. There's also an email generator to keep your regular emails private.

American users have access to Alternative Number, where a fake phone number can be created. It links to your Alternative ID but is a US-exclusive and a paid add-on.

Surfshark isn't the most customizable VPN, but its apps are easy-to-use and don't take much getting used to.

If you're not interested in Antivirus, and simply want a cheap VPN, then Surfshark Starter includes all the above for $1.99 per month ($53.73 up front pre-tax).

For those that want to spend a little more, Surfshark One+ is $4.19 per month ($113.13 up front pre-tax). This plan includes everything offered in previous plans but adds the data removal service, Incogni.

Incogni is available for US, UK, EU, Swiss, and Canadian users. It contacts data brokers on your behalf and sends deletion requests, helping you combat spam.

All Surfshark plans auto-renew at a higher price once your initial deal has expired. Our research found its price increase was second only to NordVPN – both providers are owned by NordSecurity.

Surfshark Starter and Surfshark One both saw a renewal price increase around 230%. Surfshark One+ saw a 149% increase.

Whether you subscribe to Surfshark or another provider, we always recommended cancelling your VPN subscription before it auto-renews. You can then re-subscribe at the cheaper price.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Devices can add up fast in any household. For instance, my kids don't even have their own smartphones or tablets yet, and we still somehow have eight devices that need online protection from parental controls to a VPN, a password manager and of course, a solid antivirus. Fortunately, Amazon’s Big Prime Day Deals are back and for the next two days, you pick up one of best antivirus software solutions to cover all your devices.

There are already great deals on antivirus packages that support 5-20 devices like Norton 360 Premium, McAfee Total Protection and Bitdefender Total Security which all offer great coverage from malware as well as other handy extras to keep you safe online. These packages are designed to cover a variety of operating systems whenever you're online and have thoughtful features like webcam protection, hardened browsers and ransomware rollback.

As someone who covers antivirus and internet security extensively for Tom's Guide, these recommendations come with my stamp of approval, based on our team's comprehensive testing and my own real-world experience. Stay tuned as I'll be updating this list throughout the sale.

Quick Links

• Malwarebytes Premium 10 Devices (1 year): was $100 now $70 @ Amazon
• ESET Home Security Premium 10 Devices (1 year): was $100 now $69 @ Amazon
• Bitdefender Total Security 10 Devices (2 year): was $170 now $85 @ Amazon
• Webroot Internet Security Complete 10 Devices (1 year): was $100 now $25 @ Amazon
• Norton 360 Premium 10 Devices: was $100 now $30 @ Amazon
• McAfee Total Protection 5 Devices (1 year): was $120 now $25 @ Amazon
• ESET Home Security Ultimate 10 Devices (1 year): was $200 now $120 @ Amazon
• Norton 360 Platinum 20 Devices: was $130 now $35 @ Amazon
• Bitdefender Total Security 5 Devices (1 year): was $70 now $45 @ Amazon
• Webroot Premium with Allstate Identity Theft Protection 5 Devices (1 year): was $130 now $70 @ Amazon

Antivirus package deals

For more great discounts be sure to check out our Amazon Prime Day deals live blog right now.

For those who need extensive antivirus protection without the frills, ESET Home Security is a good option that is also affordable. The Premium tier offers unusual features such as a gamer mode (which disables antivirus protection interruptions), parental filters, deep virus scanning tools, and a unique antitheft service. ESET Home Security should probably be more well-known than it is.

Part of the reason it’s not in the same league as some of the best antivirus software available has to do with both the features and the interface being fairly complex. The Premium tier is also conspicuously missing a VPN client, which is included with ESET Ultimate. While upgrading to Ultimate is more expensive it does include identity theft protection.

That means ESET Premium is caught in the middle -- you either choose a tier that doesn’t include a VPN (Premium version which covers 5 devices for $56 a year as an entry price) or pay more for the VPN and identity theft features (the Ultimate version which costs $126 a year to cover the same five devices). Another cold hard truth is that our overall top pick, Bitdefender Total Security, has more extensive antivirus protection for almost the same price.

For this review, we tested ESET Premium, but we’ll cover what you get with ESET’s other products as well.

ESET review: Costs and what’s covered

ESET offers three tiers for its Home security products.

Premium costs $49 currently for three devices if you pay annually (but that’s only for the first year). This is cheaper than both Norton 360 Deluxe and McAfee+ Premium, which are over $100 per year, and about $15 cheaper than Bitdefender Total Security (which costs $79.99 for the first year). ESET Premium is $79.99 after the first year pricing expires while Bitdefender jumps up to $139.99 after the first year deal.

The caveat with all of this is that ESET Premium does not include a VPN client. That’s a glaring omission since the only tier that includes the VPN also happens to include identity theft protection as well, which makes it both pricier and hard to compare to other antivirus programs. ESET Ultimate costs $126 for first year annual pricing, then $179.99 the second year. While other antivirus apps like Norton 360 also include identity theft protection, they are about the same price.

Fortunately, ESET Premium does include other frequently needed features like a password manager and parental filtering, ransomware protection (but not cloud back-ups), and a few interesting but useful extras, such as an antitheft system that notifies you if your computer was stolen and even allows you to capture a webcam image and look up the IP address to determine the device location.

ESET review: Antivirus features and performance

ESET Premium does offer extensive antivirus protection that goes far beyond the basics. You can do a quick scan or perform a custom scan. Unlike other antivirus apps, the custom scan isn’t just for selecting specific files and folders. Instead, it’s where you can choose to perform an “in-depth” scan that searches every last file on your computer including boot sector files.

Surprisingly, the more you dig into the app the more security protection you’ll find. For example, the ESET ThreatSense feature monitors the boot sector of your computer and actively scans for threats, comparing signature files against a database of known attacks (a feature known as ESET LiveGrid). But ESET Premium also scans for any suspicious activity using what ESET calls Deep Behavior Inspection. This is a more powerful form of antivirus scanning because it looks for suspicious activity, as opposed to just comparing files to a database.

Another feature called the Host Intrusion Protection System or HIPS provides some self-defense for ESET itself, preventing someone from tampering with the app. Ransomware Shield looks for suspicious app behavior and blocks access in real-time. There are also settings to protect against botnets, brute force attacks, and network-based attacks.

ESET Premium is a light and speedy app. During our testing, the quick scans only took about five minutes to find 300,000 files on the same PC used to test other antivirus apps which is comparable to other antivirus programs; Bitdefender's quick scan typically only ran for a few minutes. The in-depth scan took around 30 minutes and scanned about 750,000 files. ESET did not scan some lower-level system files that Bitdefender Total Security found. In fact, Bitdefender scanned around 1.5M files total in about the same amount of time that ESET did a full scan.

In independent testing, ESET performed well overall: During AV-Test’s May-June 2025 Protection testing, ESET scored a 6 out of 6 when it came to protection against zero-day malware attacks including web and email threats, and in detection of widespread and prevalent malware discovered in the last four weeks. In AV Comparatives March 2025 Malware Protection Test, ESET scored a 99.95% blocking 10,025 files and only producing 6 false alarms.

ESET Premium antivirus: Other features

Beyond all of the extensive antivirus protection features, ESET Premium does include many additional security tools. For example, it’s one of the few products we’ve tested that includes a full parental filter that can block a full range of harmful content from adult-oriented sites to deepfakes. The service allows you to select categories to filter and set the age limit for your kids. This makes it more useful than other parental controls that only allow you to limit screen time or block search terms.

The password manager is useful and performed adequately, even if it seems more like a browser extension that you might find online for free. The service can generate complex multi-character passwords, store credit card numbers, and provides a security report showing how many passwords you have saved, whether you are using two-factor authentication, and if your saved logins have been leaked.

Other features include the browser protections: a privacy and security extension that helps distinguish between safe and unsafe sites, and a secure browser mode that can help protect against keylogging and keep financial transactions safe. While again, there is no VPN, there is a firewall, as well as an antispam feature for your email, a file encryption feature, a Wi-Fi blocker that protects your home router and smart home devices, an anti-theft feature to track missing or stolen laptops and more. ESET Premium can also block your webcam and alerts you when an app like Microsoft Teams asks for permission to access the webcam.

ESET Premium antivirus: Interface

One reason ESET Premium did not score quite as high as competing products is that the interface is a bit complex and feels dated. Many of the antivirus scanning features are buried in an advanced settings menu which makes them time consuming to track down. There are very few graphical cues in the app, and even finding the in-depth scan option took time because it is located in the custom scanning section. (Most antivirus apps make it more obvious how you can do a quick scan or a full scan.)

That said, we do credit ESET in making the interface “light” in the sense that the app has a slim and text based interface that meant it was not bogged down with added graphics or images. It performed fast and well during use and while a few visual cues would have helped, at least you can find most of the features with some digging.

ESET Premium antivirus: Support

ESET offers phone support during limited hours: Monday–Friday from 6AM to 5PM PST. Email support is 24-hours and requires making a support ticket. Chat support varies but appears to function during normal business hours only. The extensive knowledge base allows you to find answers to common issues. From within the app, there’s an AI-based chat agent as well.

ESET Premium antivirus: Verdict

In the end, ESET Premium does offer an impressive set of antivirus tools, and the price is reasonable compared to some of our top picks such as McAfee+ Premium and Bitdefender Total Security. We wish the Premium version included a VPN, because the upgrade to the Ultimate version that includes that service costs more than every other antivirus app (even if Ultimate also includes identity threat protection). The interface is a bit confusing to use, but overall the security features are easily on par -- if a little less powerful -- than similar apps.

Not that long ago, Macs were known for being much safer than their Windows counterparts. However, as Apple devices became more popular, hackers quickly shifted to targeting them given just how much personal and sensitive data is stored on your MacBook, Mac desktop or iCloud account.

To determine which Mac antivirus software suite is the best at keeping your devices safe from hackers, we tested and reviewed the most popular Mac antivirus software available today. We installed, ran, used and uninstalled each of them on a Mac mini while running benchmarks to see how each one impacted system performance. At the same time, we evaluated all of the best Mac antivirus software based on interface, usability and whether or not they include useful extras like a VPN, password manager or a hardened browser for online banking.

Based on our testing and reviews, our current top pick for the best Mac antivirus software is Bitdefender Premium Security for Mac. It provides excellent protection against malware, scans a Mac for viruses fast with little impact on performance and comes with plenty of extras to sweeten the deal. Norton 360 Deluxe comes second and has the best feature set overall – in addition to very good malware protection, you also get access to a VPN and dark web monitoring to help keep you safe online. Intego Mac Premium Bundle X9 comes third and has the best interface plus good malware defenses.

Android owners know that many of the best Android phones come with Google Play Protect pre-installed to provide a basic layer of protection against malware, but many people want to go beyond just finding and removing bugs and viruses.

Though additional Android security apps are an investment, usually running between $15 and $50 per year, they can stop phishing attempts, flag fraud attempts, protect your identity and let you securely communicate with a VPN.

We spent several weeks installing and uninstalling some of the most popular Android antivirus apps, testing their features, swiping through their menus and checking their customer support hours to see which ones offered the best overall protection, the best features, or the best value for your Android smartphone – here we’ve outlined our top three picks form that process.

Overall, we think the best way to protect your Android phone is Bitdefender Mobile Security because of its excellent malware protection, variety of features and price. We also recommend Avast Mobile Security as the best free option available and Norton Mobile Security, which has the best overall feature set.

Whether antivirus software is something you think about obsessively or only think about twice a year like visits to the dentist, you deserve to have an antivirus program that is effective, functional, easy to install and operate, and comes with a set of features that you know will be useful to you. Here we outline our top three picks, based on our in-depth testing process.

In order to provide you with the clearest possible recommendations for your needs, we spent weeks testing each of the programs on this list. We installed and uninstalled them, tested their performance impact, ran each other their scan settings, played around with their features to see if they were truly useful and even contacted customer support. We know their strengths, weaknesses and what kind of user would benefit from what kind of antivirus package.

Based on our testing, benchmarks and research we recommend Bitdefender Total Security as the best overall antivirus software – it’s easy to use, doesn’t make any impact on performance, provides effective malware protection and has a lot of features you’ll use. If you’re looking instead for all of the features, each and every one you can snag, then check out Norton 360 Deluxe, and if you have a lot of devices to cover you’ll want to read up on McAfee+ Ultimate.

Editors' Note: in our more in-depth buying guide we rated Microsoft Defender in second place, but as it's a free product it can't be incorporated into the tech that powers our buying recommendations above

People often have a lot of questions for me when they find out I'm a security editor, and one of the most frequent is "what kind of antivirus/security solution should I use?" And, since my household is in need of an antivirus software right now, I thought I'd explain what I'm likely to go with, and why.

In our house right now, we’ve got three computers, two tablets, and three smartphones to cover at the moment, with Windows, Android, iOS, and a Chromebook thrown in there.

That’s a fair amount to juggle, and while I'm a security editor with over two decades of experience working for technology publications, my partner… isn’t. So I need something that’s going to work both for someone who is pretty tech savvy and for someone who is decidedly not.

I haven't personally tested any antivirus software, but I've edited our reviews and I'm not unfamiliar with the in's and out's of how our testing procedures work. I looked at our best antivirus software buying guide and some of our reviews, as well as some other online references to think about what would meet our needs best and in the end, I think McAfee + Premium is what will work for us.

Unlimited devices

One of the best reasons to pick McAfee+ Premium over other antivirus programs is that the package covers unlimited devices, which means that the eight devices I currently need to cover for my household – and any we buy in the future are all covered. Even after the first initial year, that means I'm paying roughly $19/year per device, which isn’t unreasonable.

Features

Another reason I like McAfee as a choice for my household is both the variety of features, and the features themselves. McAfee + Premium includes two features that every antivirus package should include: a VPN and a password manager. A VPN helps protect our online activities, and the password manager is a must because I know my partner has a tendency to use some insecure password practices otherwise.

We’ve both been caught up in at least a few data breaches, so the identity monitoring is a nice feature to have included. Ditto the personal data cleanup. As a security editor, I'm usually pretty savvy when it comes to current social media and text scams; however, my partner nearly fell for that toll road scam earlier this year, so having that as a feature is appreciated.

Other features I like having included are the file shredder, the feature to identify malicious websites with color coding, and the social media settings that identify where accounts could be better locked down for privacy purposes.

Performance and protection

In independent testing, McAfee scored 99.96% in March 2025 AV-Comparatives testing and a 6 out of 6 in AV Tests Jan-Feb 2025 report, which is great overall; however, there were also 15 false positives reported in the AV-Comparatives testin,g which is pretty high.

Overall, I can deal with some false positives for a good antivirus performance as well as fast and reliable software. I also liked the multiple scan options, and that there was a full scan mode for every last file.

Interface

Lastly, the fact that the interface is clean, intuitive, and easy to navigate is a bonus both because I like a nicely designed interface and because my partner is easily frustrated by a bad one and will quickly give up on it, which means I'll have to spend time sorting it out.

Overall

More from Tom's Guide

• 7 easy changes I made that drastically improved my digital security
• It’s time to stop believing these lies about antivirus software
• The best antivirus software 2025: Tested and reviewed

It can be an easy thing to let your digital security get away from you: the endless emails in your inbox, the multiple devices, app permissions, and personal data to keep track of... It can be a lot when you look at it as a big project. But when you break it down into smaller steps, it's just a few easy changes to make at a time.

In order to begin improving my own digital security, I started making a list of the things I knew needed to be updated, overhauled or changed and then organized them by whether they could be done as a single task or whether they were going to take multiple stages.

Some of these are going to be ongoing habits, and some took a lot of effort up front but all of them were worth it.

1. Switching to passkeys when possible (or using a password manager)

Switching over to passkeys may seem time consuming, but as I’ve pointed out before it’s really not – I was able to do so with a few of my main online accounts in less than 10 minutes. Whenever an app or account offers me biometric options like Face ID I’m happy to use it.

Those accounts that don’t offer passkey support yet can still get protected via one of the best password managers, which helps me make sure all my accounts have strong and unique passwords – and this also means I don’t have to remember anything.

While it may have taken a bit of an initial time investment to set up my password manager, it’s still better than stumbling across an account and having to reset a password.

2. Using two-factor or multi-factor authentication

Likewise, if an account offers two-factor (2FA) or multi-factor authentication (MFA), I’ll always opt for it This security feature is absolutely vital when it comes to protecting my accounts from hackers. That's especially true when it comes to high profile accounts like banking, email, social media or cloud storage accounts.

There are even two-factor authentication apps that can be employed to broadly protect your accounts and provide you with recovery codes. That means even if someone uses a brute force attack or has a reused password for an old account, you’re still protected.

3. No more single sign-on

I liked single sign-on initially because it was convenient and there are certain accounts I didn’t mind having tied together. It was easy to link my Google account for log ins because it meant everything was all tied together… but this convenience was actually putting me at risk. The reason being is that this meant if anyone were to crack into my Google account they would have access to all those other accounts.

That very thought alone was enough to get me to go back and unlink those accounts and get them their own log-ins, and then I put those new credentials into my password manager, of course.

An unexpected bonus is fewer companies can track me across multiple platforms as well, which I’ll admit I don’t hate.

4. Keeping sensitive data off the cloud

It wasn’t convenience here but plain old laziness – old documents, resumes, scans of IDs, and notes that were in cloud accounts. When I went back in to see what was there, I realized it was a gold mine for identity thieves so into the trash bin and file shredder it all went.

Documents I know I’ll be needing can be kept on one of the best external hard drives, which is easier to encrypt and keep in a safely secured location.

Does it take a little more planning when I need to access them? Sometimes. Do I still use the cloud? Plenty, just not for those sensitive items.

5. Deleting old accounts and unsubscribing from junk (a work in progress)

I’ve shared before about how this is one of the bad computer habits you may not even know you have – and I’ll admit, it’s one I’m slowly but surely breaking myself. It can take a long time to unearth all those old accounts, find a way to delete them and unsubscribe from all that junk but it’s not so bad if you do it while streaming your favorite shows in the background.

There are also helpful tools like Just Delete Me that can help make it easier and when you’re done, you have fewer ways for hackers to get access to your accounts and your data. And as an added bonus, your inbox won’t look like mine, which trust me, is enough of a reward.

6. Reviewing app permissions and settings on your phone

This is something I do frequently, because apps aren’t my friends – they’re tools on my phone that are there to do a job.

If I make sure to check on which apps are pulling location data, or camera/mic requests, I know which ones are asking for too many permissions. Alternatively, viewing these menus frequently also lets me know which apps I'm not using very often and can maybe delete altogether.

The fewer apps on my phone, the farther my battery life goes and the more secure I feel – I know I'm not allowing apps to be intrusive, I know what they're requesting and gathering and if there is a data breach, I know which apps are accessing what information.

7. Not saving passwords in a browser

This one became easy because, well, I’m already using a password manager so I didn’t need my browser to also hold this information.

Now I don’t have to worry that anyone who borrows my phone or my laptop could have access to my accounts just by opening a browser window, and all my passwords are in a single location and not divided up across multiple devices, browsers or saved locations. Plus, it doesn’t matter which browser I use, I can still use my password manager to get logged in.

A great start but far from finished

While this is by no means an exhaustive list of the ways in which you can make small changes to increase your digital security, it's a good way to start by making steps in the right direction with small, easy increments.

A little work making good habits can go a long way when it comes to staying safe online, just like making sure you use one of the best antivirus software suites on all your devices and know all of its features from the VPN to the safe browser measures. It all becomes second nature once you've established security practices that help make you harder to hack and phish.

Do you have any other quick and easy tricks you used to improve your own cyber hygiene. Let me know in the comments below and until next time, I'll be working to improve my online security even further.

More from Tom's Guide

• Hackers love these 7 smart home devices — here’s how to keep them secure
• National Public Data is giving out your address and phone number — here's how to stop them
• I’m a security editor and this is one security rule I never break

Amazon's Prime Day sale ends tonight, making now your last chance to score some great deals on antivirus software!

If you haven't already purchased a deal on a subscription to the best antivirus software, you certainly should be checking out the deals on offer, as some of them are down to just nine dollars – making this Amazon Prime Day the perfect chance to cross this item off your to-do list for less than it costs to pay a parking ticket.

Right now, you can already get a year's worth of protection from Norton 360 Deluxe for just $19 or from McAfee Antivirus for $9. Regardless of how many devices you need to secure, Amazon has an antivirus deal for your needs.

These are the best deals on antivirus software I've seen this week so if you still need an antivirus program for your computer, tablet and smartphone you should snag one of these deals soon – the 9 best Prime Day-worthy antivirus deals for keeping your computer safe from hackers and viruses won't last forever.

Quick Links

• Norton 360 Deluxe: was $75 now $19 @ Amazon
• McAfee AntiVirus: was $49 now $9 @ Amazon
• McAfee Total Protection: was $99 now $15 @ Amazon
• Eset Nod32 Antivirus: was $40 now $25 @ Amazon
• Norton 360 Premium: was $99 now $25 @ Amazon
• Malwarebytes Premium: was $59 now $29 @ Amazon
• Bitdefender Total Security: was $89 now $19 @ Amazon
• Webroot Internet Security Plus: was $60 now $29 @ Amazon
• McAfee Total Protection, 5 Device: was $120 now $20 @ Amazon

Antivirus Deals

Shop all last-minute Prime Day deals

• shop all last-minute Prime Day deals
• Skechers: deals from $11
• Lego sale: deals from $8
• Carhartt sale: deals from $9
• Prime for Young Adults: 50% off
• YETI sale: up to 25% off
• Adidas sale: deals from $6
• TV sale: deals from $69
• Amazon Haul: deals from $5
• New Balance sale: up to 50% off
• Garmin: deals from $169
• Grills: deals from $89

Our online data is being collected all day, every day. Whether it's browsing the web, watching our favorite shows, or online shopping, everything we do online can be tracked, used to push ads, sold on, or even used to scam us.

This all sounds very doom and gloom, but there are actions you can take to protect your personal information.

For the Tom's Guide VPN team, the best VPNs are always our first port of call for digital security, but they are just one piece of the privacy puzzle.

VPNs, the best antivirus software, the best password managers, secure browsers, authenticators, the best encrypted messaging apps, and data removal services can all be used to take back control of your data.

You could spend hundreds of dollars on tools like these, but you don't have to. So we asked the Tom's Guide VPN and Security teams to build a collection of privacy bundles for all eventualities – here's what they came up with.

The products

No right answers

Every tool we recommend here is reputable and will protect your data – that's for sure. But not every product will be right for you.

We've therefore tried to include a range of different products, at different prices, allowing you to decide what's best for you.

VPNs

No matter what privacy bundle you want to create, a VPN is a must have in all of them. VPNs protect your privacy online by routing your internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel.

Your data is kept safe from hackers, third-parties, and your ISP and the most private VPNs will never log, store, or share your browsing data.

Many leading VPNs include password managers and antivirus in their plans, so it's worth comparing all the features offered and see which plan is right for you.

Our top picks:

NordVPN: from $2.91 per month. Our top-rated VPN. A great all-purpose option with lots of added extras.

Surfshark: from $1.99 per month. An excellent bargain alternative that also offers antivirus as an add-on.

ExpressVPN: from $4.99 per month. More expensive, but includes a huge amount of privacy extras for no extra cost.

Antivirus

Scams and threats from hackers are unfortunately commonplace on the internet – but antivirus software acts as a powerful shield against these dangers.

The software can scan your device and its files for malware, warn you about suspicious links, block sites, and detect data leaks. It can't protect you if you give away your information but it'll do its utmost to warn you before that happens.

Our top picks:

Bitdefender Total Security: from $4.17 per month. Effective, real-time, malware and phishing protection. It can scan your system and is easy-to-use.

Norton 360 Deluxe: from $4.17 per month. Security giant with a feature-rich offering, including a decent VPN.

Malwarebytes Plus: from $2.81 per month A cheap, light, alternative for those looking for basic malware protection without the fuss.

Password managers

Weak and re-used passwords are a significant reason people get hacked – 123456 is currently the world's most popular password. You might struggle remembering multiple passwords but a password manager takes all the hassle out of account security.

Password managers generate and store secure, complex passwords so you never have to worry about passwords again.

Our top picks:

1Password: $4.99 per month. Total password protection which includes Travel Mode, security monitoring, and 2FA and passkey support.

Bitwarden: Free. Sync an unlimited number of passwords with this completely free service. Premium plans with more features are also available.

NordPass: from $1.29 per month ($3.76 per month w/ NordVPN Plus). Easy-to-use, mobile friendly app from the NordVPN team. Great features, including biometric support.

Secure browsers

Google Chrome dominates the browser market, but it's a privacy nightmare, riddled with trackers and it simply loves your data. There are alternatives that don't collect your data, block ads and trackers, and are way more privacy-focused.

Browsers vary in their speed, features, and usability but there will be a Chrome-alternative for everyone. A chunk of secure browsers utilise Chromium (what Google Chrome is built on) so you'll find these more familiar and easy-to-use if you enjoy Chrome's design.

Many also come with in-built ad-blockers, VPNs, and password managers – plus a lot of them are free.

Our top picks:

Brave: Free. Based on Chrome, but is privacy-focused and dedicated to ad and tracker blocking.

Vivaldi: Free. Hugely customizable to suit any need, and has partnered with Proton VPN.

Tor: Free. A secure browser veteran, whose decentralized networks takes you into the world of anonymity.

Encrypted messaging apps

Your data isn't just at risk when browsing the web – it's when you message too. WhatsApp, iMessage, and Messenger are three of the most popular apps, but none of them protect your privacy.

WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, so your message content can't be seen, but it collects and shares your metadata and has recently introduced ads into its app.

Secure messaging apps encrypt your messages, collect little to no metadata, and some don't even require a phone number to use.

Our top picks:

Signal: Free. A popular, open-source, app that keeps little to no metadata. A phone number is required though.

Session: Free. Highly private, Signal-based app which operates a decentralized network and requires no phone number. But it can be a little buggy.

Threema: $6 one-off payment. An open-source and audited messaging service which doesn't require a phone number. A one-off payment of $6 is its biggest downside.

Data removal services

Fed up with spam calls and emails? Then you might want to explore data removal services. These tools search the records of data brokers for your information and send removal requests on your behalf.

Brokers then have to delete records of your data and you should see a reduction in spam over time. Combining a data removal service with other privacy tools mentioned here should mean there is less of your data available to profit off.

Data removal services can be purchased on their own, but they are included in some premium VPN plans.

Our top picks:

Incogni: from $8.29 per month ($3.99 per month w/ Surfshark One+). Developed by the team behind Surfshark, Incogni is a affordable and effective – and one of the few to cover the UK, Canada, and Australia.

Optery: from $3.99 per month (but free basic plan available). Provides tons of detail and what information it has helped delete, but only covers the US.

PrivacyBee: from $8 per month. With over 850 data brokers on its books, Privacy Bee has the widest reach – but again, it's US-only.

Best Cheap Bundle

Protecting yourself online doesn't have to break the bank. This is the best privacy toolbox for (well) under $10 per month.

The best cheap VPN is Surfshark. Surfshark One+ is just under $4 per month and you'll get the fastest VPN on the market, which doubles as the best streaming VPN, protection for an unlimited number of devices, and high-level security and privacy.

Surfshark One+ includes its own award-winning antivirus which can scan your device, protect your webcam, monitor for data leaks, and offers real-time protection.

You'll also get a full Incogni subscription – saving you a chunk of cash. The data removal service will scan data brokers for your data and send out deletion requests on your behalf.

There's no password manager with Surfshark, but Bitwarden offers a truly free unlimited version of its services that allow you to sync as many passwords as you want.

The free, open source tier is very secure and provides useful included features like autofilling, secure-note storage and sharing. It has browser extensions for popular, and lesser used, browsers and apps for desktop and mobile.

You'll also get secure cloud storage, two-factor authentication and health reports to alert you to weak, or exposed, passwords.

Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, DuckDuckGo, and Firefox are all free, so the secure browser is up to you. They're designed with privacy in mind and come with some great additional features.

You'll be able to block ads, trackers, and cookies, allowing you and your data to break free from the clutches of Google Chrome.

Almost all the best encrypted messaging apps are free. Signal is our favorite and it's very popular, open-source, messenger service.

Session and Wire are some other free encrypted messaging apps. Your best bet is to try them all out and see which one you like best.

Best Overall Bundle

If you want a best-in-class privacy toolbox, then you won't go far wrong with these products. For your VPN, we'd recommend NordVPN. It's the best overall VPN, fast, secure, and unblocked all the streaming sites we tested it with.

You can protect up to 10 devices on one plan and its extra features include Threat Protection Pro, the NordPass password manager, and encrypted cloud storage.

Two-year NordVPN plans, covering NordVPN Plus and above, are currently on offer, in one of NordVPN's best ever deals. Plans come with free Amazon gift cards – between $20-$50 – as well as four extra months of free protection.

Threat Protection Pro is a threat protection feature, not an antivirus. It's the best VPN malware protection and is great to have, but we'd still recommend a dedicated antivirus.

NordPass is one of the best password managers and if you just want password generation, storage, and 2FA, this will do the job – but it's not "the best."

Bitdefender has made the top of our antivirus software picks because of its great value, quality real-time protection against malware and threats.

Its quick and custom scans learn your computer’s file structure and the Advanced Threat Detection can monitor your system for suspicious activity in real-time to stop infections before they occur.

The interface is clear and efficient to use, there's a firewall, and webcam protection. You'll also get a free VPN and a secure browser, but you'll likely want alternatives to these.

If you want more than NordPass, 1Password is our top choice. It’s accessible on a variety of platforms and has a Travel Mode feature that can hide your passwords at international borders. The "masked" email addresses feature is a privacy bonus and there's autofill and passkey support.

Security monitoring tools will list weak or reused passwords, and alert you about unsecured or breached websites and logins. 2FA, mobile app PIN unlock, and biometric login are also present.

Secure browsers are more of a personal preference. Your browser of choice depends on speed preference, how much customisation you want, and whether you like the Chromium design.

Brave and Vivaldi are two great privacy-focused choices. Brave has in-built ad, tracker, and fingerprint blocking and its Chromium design is compatible with most sites. Vivaldi is a little slower, but is far more customisable and comes with email and calendar features – as well as Proton VPN Free built-in. Both are free and will protect your privacy far better than Google Chrome.

For a data removal service, it's Incogni. Incogni is very easy to use and comes included with the NordVPN Ultra and Surfshark One+ plans. It's cheaper than a lot of alternatives, but the range of data brokers isn't huge. Incogni is also unavailable outside of the UK, US, Canada, EU and EEA areas, and the Isle of Man.

Signal is the best encrypted messaging app out there. It's free to use, end-to-end encrypted, open source, and records a very limited number of metadata. Signal is the most popular WhatsApp alternative, but you do have to sign up with a phone number.

Best Bundle For Total Privacy

All of these products will protect your online privacy, but in this bundle we'll detail some tools that have the highest levels of privacy – and even some that delve into the world of anonymity.

Mullvad VPN is one of the most private VPNs available. Mullvad is a no-logging VPN and its privacy policy goes into specific detail of the types of data it collects and for what purpose. Mullvad VPN is open source so you can examine it for yourself and it protects your data with post-quantum encryption.

You can even pay for Mullvad in cash and its €5 per month price (approx $5.82) never changes. Mullvad also launched its own secure browser.

Proton Pass is an encrypted password manager and Proton makes privacy its mission. It uses AES-256 encryption and is open source. It's zero-knowledge, so only you can see your passwords and it supports biometric logins. There's 2FA, passkey support, and account recovery capabilities.

Tor is a decentralized network, run by volunteers, that focuses on anonymity and privacy. The Tor Browser routes your traffic through three relays before connecting to the internet. The website, and anyone watching, will see a connection from Tor and not your IP address.

There's no browsing history and cookies are only valid for one session. Fingerprinting is prevented as all users look the same and your traffic is encrypted at each relay. Because of the relays, Tor is a much slower browser than others, so you may find it harder to use on a day-to-day basis.

For messaging apps, we're going with Session. It's based on Signal but has more privacy-focused features. You don't need an email or phone number to sign up – instead you get a random Session ID.

Like Tor, it's decentralized and your messages are end-to-end encrypted. Almost no metadata is collected and it's been audited. Session isn't as popular as Signal, and there have been reports of bugs. But as an app, it's the most private.

It's a little trickier to recommend truly private antivirus software and data removal services. Incogni was developed by the team behind Surfshark so there is an element of data privacy to its offerings. It has fewer partners than its competitors and its privacy policy is clear about how it uses your data. It also doesn't sell your personal data.

However, it shares data with the likes of Google Analytics and does need your details to operate its service.

Norton 360 Deluxe is not only an excellent antivirus, it boasts some handy privacy features too. You can monitor the dark web for names, your social security number, or email. It can't compete with the market leaders, but Norton's VPN is solid and has had its no-logs policy audited.

If you want any privacy issues fixing automatically, you'll need to pay $109.99 per year for Norton's Privacy Monitor Assistant add-on – and that's quite a considerable downside.

Best Bundle For Mobile

It's not just your desktop that requires privacy protection, it's your mobile too. NordVPN has great iPhone and Android apps. They might be a little complex for absolute beginners, but if you're familiar with VPNs then you shouldn't have any trouble.

NordPass is the best password manager for mobile. It's intuitive, simple, and is included with all NordVPN plans except NordVPN Basic.

Bitdefender Mobile Security offers its top-tier antivirus in mobile form, for both Android and iPhone. It's fairly cheap and has a tonne of security features. One of which is app lock which can turn off apps that may pose a security risk.

Again, secure browsers are a personal preference. Although I use Brave on my laptop, I prefer Vivaldi on my phone.

I enjoy Vivaldi's UI a little more and its customization options mean I can set it up exactly how I want it.

There are no mobile apps for data removal services, so we haven't recommended one for this bundle.

Best All-In-One Bundle

You may not want to subscribe to or purchase a wide range of apps. So if you're after convenience, consider Proton Unlimited.

For $9.99 per month, you'll get Proton VPN, Proton Pass, Proton Drive, Proton Mail, Proton Calendar, and Proton Wallet.

Everything is end-to-end encrypted and the interconnected ecosystem works seamlessly and is perfect for breaking away from Google.

Antivirus isn't offered, so you would need to purchase that separately. Proton VPN does include NetShield but this is a threat protection and isn't quite as good as others offered by VPN providers.

Vivaldi has partnered with Proton to include Proton VPN Free as an extension. It's one of the best free VPNs available and will slot nicely into your Proton arsenal.

For those who just need basic antivirus protection without a lot of fuss, Malwarebytes Plus is a good option that runs light and fast. The price is far lower than most - about half what you would spend on products like Bitdefender or McAfee+ - even if this app doesn’t match the advanced features of our top picks for the best antivirus software.

In many ways, the biggest advantage with Malwarebytes Plus is that there are few features to configure, especially when it comes to identify theft protection. You can dive right in with a quick antivirus scan and see if a computer or mobile device has malware installed.

Surprisingly, even though some advanced features like boot sector scans and a password manager are missing, there is a full VPN you can use for establishing safe and secure internet connection. Like any robust VPN client, you can select the server you want to use –- say, one in Canada or the UK.

Malwarebytes is not in the same league as Bitdefender Total Security, the best antivirus protection you can find for the price. Both McAfee+ Premium and Norton 360 Deluxe offer far more features such as a secure browser, disk performance tools, and cloud storage that helps protect against ransomware attacks. While Malwarebytes Plus does block ransomware attacks, it doesn’t encrypt files or offload them to the cloud for safe keeping.

Sadly, the privacy features are severely limited, basically offering only a fast scan based on your emails. You can see what problems are out on the internet, such as compromised passwords or that your Social Security number is available online, but to correct them you have to upgrade to the Identity Threat Protection app and pay an additional subscription fee.

Malwarebytes Plus: Costs and what’s covered

Because Malwarebytes Plus is intended as a more basic antivirus scanner, the price is much less than competing packages from companies like Norton and McAfee, which both cost north of $100 per year. By contrast, Malwarebytes Plus costs just $59.99 per year.

For that price, you can protect three devices such as a Mac or Windows PC and iOS or Android devices. Three devices is about right for many users, who likely have a couple of computers and a phone. Malwarebytes does offer a family pricing plan that is $120 per month for protecting 10 devices, and also a Teams package for a business protecting 20 devices or more - for a much higher price of $519.99 per year. (A 10-device plan costs $399.99 per year.)

Malwarebytes Plus does include a VPN for the price, and there are no limits on data transfers. There isn’t a password manager, but you can install the Browser Guard extension for a browser like Chrome, which scans for web-based threats and blocks them in real-time. There’s no email protection like you will find in the Avast Premium antivirus app. (Avast Premium has a somewhat similar pricing option -- one device for $69.99 but without an included VPN.)

Malwarebytes Plus review: Protection

You won’t find extensive antivirus features with Malwarebytes Premium, although there are a few interesting advanced options that pop up here and there. For starters, there’s a quick scan that can be scheduled to occur regularly - offering good protection if you forget to run a manual scan. You can also use a custom scan and select specific folders.

The main interface for Malwarebytes Plus shows a dashboard with a Trusted Advisor score that reflects how many settings you have enabled. For example, if you use the VPN and enable a daily scan, you’ll see a higher score. That was helpful in determining whether the product is actually helping protect against threats and is not often found in other competing apps.

Digging deeper, a few advanced features are available that are unique and powerful. For example, you can enable a specific protection related to anti-heap spraying (an exploit that’s related to code injections). Another advanced setting helps you fight against exploits related to ASLR (address space layout randomization) which can corrupt computer memory.

The VPN is not exactly full-featured. You can select a server to use, and while there’s a map shown on the screen, you can’t actually use it to select the server location (it’s just a list). You can configure which apps, IP addresses, or ports can or cannot access the internet, and there’s even a proxy server option and a killswitch to block all traffic if the VPN disconnects.

Malwarebytes Plus review: Performance

One discovery with Malwarebytes Plus is that it is speedy and light. You barely notice the antivirus app is running on your PC. In repeated tests running games in the background and loading multiple apps, Malwarebytes Plus ran light and lean.

A quick scan took only 26 seconds and scanned the most important files (4,142 on the same computer used to test several competing antivirus apps). Since Malwarebytes does not provide a full scan option or a way to do a boot secretary scan before the operating system loads, we were not able to measure the performance of a full scan.

Malwarebytes Plus review: Features

There’s no question Malwarebytes Plus is trying to be a light antivirus tool, and the features you will find are a testament to this. There’s a quick scan option and a VPN, plus a firewall you can enable and protection against ransomware and real-time exploits.

Beyond the antivirus protection and VPN, plus the Browser Guard extension, there isn’t a password manager to help you store logins and the privacy options are limited. In fact, the identity threat protection seems more like an ad to upgrade to another subscription, because it only allows a quick scan based on your email address. redit bureaus you can use.

To upgrade to the Identity Threat Protection app, you would have to pay $9.50 per month for Advanced or $10 per month for Ultimate, both billed annually. The main difference between those packages is the amount of insurance offered and how many credit bureaus you can use.

Malwarebytes Plus review: Interface

This light and lean app also has a simple, straightforward interface. It’s all white backgrounds with black text, except for the main dashboard that shows a large icon for your protection score. That makes all settings easy to find without a lot of color or flair.

Compared to Norton 360, which tends to highlight important options in yellow, it can be a little challenging to find the most important options in the Malwarebytes app since they seem to be just listed on the screen without any hints about which ones are most critical.

Malwarebytes Plus review: Support

Email, chat and phone support is available 24x7 and is free to all users. One unique differentiator here is that the tech support can provide remediation guidance for a specific virus and help the user resolve the problem which is included with the subscription.

Malwarebytes Plus review: Verdict

Not everyone needs extensive and powerful features when it comes to antivirus protection. You may just need a quick scan option to see if a computer or phone is infected, and that’s where Malwarebytes Plus excels. It’s not an advanced product, nor does it offer a password manager or cloud backups. Yet, the price is also about $40-$50 less than the most well-known utilities, such as Norton 360 and McAfee+. For what it offers, Malwarebytes is a good low-cost tool.

When it seems like there is a security hole everywhere you click on a computer or mobile device, Norton 360 Deluxe is a welcome relief. There are extensive security protections available, beyond what we’ve found offered in some of the other best antivirus apps. And, like hugely popular tax preparation app TurboTax, Norton 360 is incredibly intuitive to use.

What makes Norton 360 a top overall pick in the category has to do with the added security protection. You can do a quick antivirus scan, a full scan, and then a much deeper scan that runs during startup and before Windows loads. Ransomware protection creates a backup of important files -- even the ones held in the UEFI (what used to be called the BIOS).

The more we explored the app, the more features we found, and we were pleased to find they were not just meaningless add-ons. You can protect your identity using a webcam blocker, get a warning on websites before you visit them, and even ward off botnets.

Bitdefender Total Security is still our top pick for antivirus software, but that mostly comes down to value. Both McAfee+ Premium and Norton 360 Deluxe are more expensive for the core security features that all three products offer -- including ransomware protection. Bitdefender limits file transfers in their VPN to 200MB per day and the password manager is a trial version, but the antivirus features are just as robust as anything on the market -- for less.

Our other gripe with Norton 360 Deluxe: It tends to ping you about upgrading quite often. We get it: Norton is a powerhouse and they have a lot to offer. But we could stand to hear about it via pop-ups for their privacy monitoring assistance and system performance apps a little less frequently.

Norton 360 Deluxe: Costs and what’s covered

We always evaluate antivirus software according to the normal annual pricing, not the first year deals which tend to change frequently. We’ve even seen two different websites offer markedly different first-year pricing, so that pricing is a bit too fluid.

Norton 360 Deluxe costs $119.99 per year (after the first year) for up to five devices. That’s the same price as McAfee+ Essential which also protects five devices. However, we strongly prefer the McAfee+ Premium subscription in terms of pricing because it protects unlimited devices in your home for $149.99 per year.

Meanwhile, Bitdefender Total Security offers equally robust security protection features as both Norton 360 Deluxe and McAfee+ Premium, but for a lower price of $109.99.

So what’s included in Norton 360 Deluxe that makes it a compelling antivirus option? For starters, there are several differentiators that might be worth considering for $10 more per year than Bitdefender, and even compared to protecting unlimited devices with McAfee+ Premium.

Norton 360 Deluxe: Protection

The security features are so extensive that it takes quite some time to find them all. Norton 360 Deluxe includes intrusion protection against botnets, brute force attacks, and file and print sharing vulnerabilities. You can block access to your webcam and start apps in a protected “sandbox mode” to make sure they are not infected. A Safe Search feature shows you a warning before visiting any iffy website, explaining any risks involved. And, a rescue disk feature lets you generate a full ISO, or digital copy, of your disk or save everything to a USB drive. That’s a long list.

For scanning, we really liked the ability to do a very quick scan that only lasts a few seconds, looking for the most obvious problems. Unlike most antivirus apps we’ve tested, Norton 360 Deluxe then lets you choose from many deeper scanning options -- a full scan, choosing specific folders, scanning only critical files, and then doing a deep scan that runs before Windows loads.

The full scan is not quite comparable to the full scan in other antivirus apps because it only took about four minutes, whereas the full pre-boot deep scan took about 35 minutes. Overall, the antivirus scanning options are more extensive than most apps. Norton 360 Deluxe also offers parental protection for your kids, up to five devices. It’s somewhat basic but you can control usage time, which sites to block, and even where access is allowed. The included VPN is also powerful. It can disable your internet connection if you visit a site that’s compromised and supports split tunneling, allowing some sites to bypass the VPN.

One huge bonus with Norton 360 Deluxe is the Scam Protection. It’s an AI bot that scans for threats, warns you about websites, and can even protect you from text message threats. Norton's Scam Protection even has a chatbot mode where you can ask it about specific websites and whether they are safe. To use the Scam Protection on mobile to ask about text scams, you will have to install a separate app.

In order to gauge antivirus detection ability, we reference the testing done by independent labs: SE Labs, AV Test and AV Comparatives.

In AV Comparatives March 2025 Malware Protection Test, Norton received a 99.96% antivirus protection rate, blocking 10,026 files and allowing four through, but produced 10 false positives. McAfee and Avast had similar scoring here, while Bitdefender performed ever so slightly better. In AV Test’s Jan/February 2025 Product Review and Certification Report, Norton scored a 6 out of 6 for protection against malware attacks, and produced only 3 false positives. Norton also participated in SE Labs’ October - December 2023 Endpoint Security Home Protection testing, where they scored 100% accuracy in 100% protection against general and targeted attacks and showed zero response to false positives.

Norton 360 Deluxe: Performance

As you might expect from a mature and well-known product, Norton 360 Deluxe is fast and reliable. We tested the app on an Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max, a Windows computer with 32GB of RAM, and an Apple iMac with 24GB of RAM. The full scan took about four minutes to scan 927K files. That’s a bit surprising because both Bitdefender Total security and McAfee+ Premium took around 30 minutes and scanned 1.5M on the same test computer.

The reason is that Norton does more of a deep scan before Windows even loads. Oddly, that Startup Scan (as Norton calls it) took 35 minutes and did not report on how many files it found.

As for the included VPN, we tested a 150MB download and didn’t notice any speed difference whether we had the VPN enabled or not. That finding is the same as the McAfee+ Premium speed test with the VPN, whereas the download with Bitdefender took a bit longer with the VPN enabled. The reason might have to do with how fast the servers are for each product.

Norton 360 Deluxe: Features

One discovery with Norton 360 Deluxe is that the “extras” beyond the antivirus scanning, ransomware protection and included VPN are a mixed bag. Some are powerful and useful, even if advanced features require you to pay for an added subscription.

For example, we liked all of the privacy and identity theft features that are included, although they are mostly there as alerts. You can scan the dark web for your email, social security number, and even your mother’s maiden name to find any known privacy threats. The downside is that you’ll need the Privacy Monitor Assistant add-on that costs $109.99 per year to actually fix any issues automatically, as opposed to fixing them yourself manually.

In some tests, the privacy monitoring flagged the wrong person. It showed alerts for someone living at different addresses, which seems like false alarms. Overall, the fact that you have to manually delete old accounts and fix vulnerabilities could mean some users won’t bother to take the time -- or will choose to upgrade to the more advanced automatic assistance.

Norton also provides plenty of performance features as well. You can check whether software on your computer needs to be updated -- and that’s more of a security feature than you might realize. Outdated software is often a huge hole that attackers use to breach a system.. You can also remove junk files and even speed up your computer by disabling some startup files. We bumped into some promotions to upgrade to Norton Utilities for performance boosts. That product costs $69.99 per year. For example, we found 417 broken registries on a PC, but only Norton Utilities lets you fix them.

Cloud backups are only supported on Windows, although you can view archives from other devices. Another slight “gotcha” is the cloud backup limit is for all devices, not per device. A “protection promise” that says you can get a full refund if you are not able to remove a virus applies to all versions of Norton 360 Deluxe on any platform.

Norton 360 Deluxe: Interface

We mentioned earlier how Norton 360 Deluxe reminded us of a tax preparation app like TurboTax. That is not a diss. Millions of people use these well-known programs, so they have to be easy to navigate for non-technical users. Norton 360 Deluxe uses a familiar, almost reassuring interface where anything important or that you have to click on is in yellow, like a school bus.

Thankfully, the app also shows the most common features front and center. There is a row of buttons on the left for security, performance, privacy and identity. In each section, the most common functions are the most obvious, and then you can drill down to more advanced features. There’s even a search function similar to TurboTax for finding features quickly. That makes it easy and quick to find for experienced users and hard to miss for those less experienced ones.

Norton 360 Deluxe: Support

Norton offers 24/7 support through online chat or phone. There did not appear to be a way to open a support ticket by email. You can also post in a community forum and, surprisingly, you can also contact tech support through Twitter(X) and Facebook, but that is only for general questions.

The online chat starts with a virtual agent that was helpful about an issue related to cloud storage on Mac. A human agent took five minutes to respond and resolved the issue. (Oddly, the virtual bot provided the wrong answer, though the tech contradicted and corrected that advice.)

Norton 360 Deluxe: Verdict

Norton 360 Deluxe is one of the best and most intuitive antivirus apps around, it has extensive features to help you stay protected from security threats, from ransomware protection to botnet blockers, the price is reasonable compared to Bitdefender, and it gets props for having so many antivirus scanning modes.

Though our other top pick, Bitdefender, costs $10 less, we’d say McAfee+ Premium is arguably a better value for those with many devices because it protects unlimited devices for about $40 more per month. However, Norton 360 is a thorough and feature-rich choice for those who know they have a set number of devices to protect. Our only caveat is we wish the app didn’t prompt us to upgrade to advanced tools so often.

Protecting yourself online can be overwhelming especially in an age of social media misinformation, deep fakes and phishing attacks designed to make you believe that you're clicking on a link from an old coworker. It can be easy to believe in things you learned long ago that may no longer apply to current operating systems, things you picked up from someone who seemed more knowledgeable than maybe they actually were or things that were just untruths that spread like wild fire.

For example, the lie that Macs don't need antivirus protection. We all know that one's not true, right? Or how about that you can skip antivirus protection if you're really, really careful about what websites you visit and what you click online?

That lie has died out by now hopefully, but in case it's still floating around let's settle it now: Macs do need antivirus software, but have it built-in, and no matter how careful you are you should always use one of the best antivirus programs on your computer no matter which operating system you have. Let's dispel some other lies and myths while we're at it, shall we?

1. You don’t need antivirus software

It doesn’t matter if you’re working on a Mac or a PC, if you’re super duper careful or extremely experienced, you need to have some sort of antivirus protection. You might be careful every time and have excellent PC experience but what if you lend your laptop to your roommate, who is perhaps not so savvy? Or your little cousin who likes to download mods for their D&D character from some iffy websites?

While both operating systems have a built-in antivirus offerings – with Microsoft providing Microsoft Defender and Apple providing a host of iOS-specific security features – those only provide basic protections against malware. For added security you should still consider a third-party software to help protect against phishing, ransomware, and other viruses as well as to provide additional features you’d likely pay for anyway such as parental controls, a VPN, or a file shredder.

2. Antivirus software will protect you against everything

Most third party antivirus software will do a bang-up job against existing and developing malware threats, which means your computer is protected from a wide range of unpleasant viruses but that doesn’t mean you can ignore your part.

You are still the first line of defense – you can’t click on links or attachments from unknown senders or download apps from sketchy developers and count on your antivirus program to clean up your mess. You as the user are still expected to practice good cybersecurity hygiene.

Schedule your antivirus program to run regular scans to check for malware signatures, and then do your part and make sure that you are using strong passwords – or a password manager – to help protect your accounts. Know the signs of phishing attacks, use a VPN or hardened browser and enable two-factor or multi-factor authentication on accounts whenever possible.

3. Antivirus software is a hassle

This may have been more true in the past but these days, antivirus programs have come a long way. Many of them can perform shorter, smaller scans that are much less system intensive than a full scan. Also most of the heavy duty scanning can be scheduled for times when you’re not actively using your computer, which makes it easier to make sure that your antivirus software is kept up to date, able to perform it's duties and still not impacting your workload.

Additionally, many antivirus programs have updated interfaces that have made adjusting their settings and configuring their features much more user friendly –even for those users who don’t find it enjoyable to spend hours playing around with software settings. This makes it easy to set up your antivirus program the way you want it once, and then let it do its job without interfering in your day to day tasks.

4. You can tell if your computer is infected with malware

Much like some medical diseases are asymptomatic, some computer viruses are designed to stay hidden in order to continue malicious behavior. Infostealers for example want to stay under the radar so they can continue to steal your data and information, or cryptominers who want to use your IP address to shield their own behavior.

This is why your antivirus program scans through your system for various virus signatures and behaviors – because an infection may not be obvious to you through typical means like overheating or pop-ups. And it's why it's so important to watch your personal account for suspicious behavior, as well. If you've been the victim of a data breach (or don't realize your data has been taken), seeing odd behavior on your accounts may be the first sign of identity theft especially if you don't already have any identity protection or monitoring in place.

5. Only your computer needs antivirus software

These days, you're likely on your smartphone at least as often – if not more often – than your PC. In some places, people rely entirely on their smartphones for their computing needs and those devices require antivirus protection just as much as a desktop or laptop computer.

It's just as easy to click on a bad link in an email or social media message, or download a malicious app, on a smartphone as it is on a full sized computer so it there's every reason to make sure your mobile devices are covered as well. If you already have one of the best antivirus programs available, it likely has a bundle or package that will cover mobile devices. If you have an Android phone, there are a lot of good antivirus apps you can get to protect it; and if you're using an iOS device, make sure you know how to adjust and enable all the security settings on it.

More from Tom's Guide

• Do I need antivirus software for Windows 11?
• Why aren't there antivirus apps for the iPhone?
• Do you really need to pay for antivirus software?

Avast Premium is a powerful antivirus program that’s loaded with extra features. Compared to some of the best antivirus programs, this low-cost package doesn’t throw in bloatware to make it seem like the subscription fee is worth it. Instead, you’ll be able to create a backup of your sensitive files to protect against ransomware, search for sensitive files and protect them against prying eyes, and even block your webcam.

The biggest surprise with Avast Premium is that the list of security features doesn’t stop there -- there is so much to explore in the app that it might even seem overwhelming at first. The antivirus software doesn’t mess around, it also offers a highly capable security tool for protecting your email called Email Guardian. The app protects against DNS hijacking and remote desktop exploits, both dangerous and all-too-common attacks.

Yet, with all of this power comes a downside: Avast Premium does not include a VPN or a password manager, features that are often included in competing products. You can still rely on the extensive security protection but will have to add a VPN and password manager if those are features you’re going to need.

That means Avast Premium can’t best Bitdefender Total Security, our top pick for antivirus software. It’s also not as capable as McAfee+ Premium or Norton 360 Deluxe. All three of those top picks include a VPN and a password manager for one subscription fee. (Thought Bitdefender Total Security has a 200 MB per day limit on the VPN and includes a trial version of the password manager.)

Avast also tends to include many “reminders” to upgrade to their VPN app, Avast SecureLine VPN, and add their performance tool, Avast Cleanup. That said, if you’re mainly looking for extensive security protection, Avast Premium is a wise choice.

Avast Premium: Costs and what’s covered

Even with all of this security capability, Avast Premium is actually one of the lowest cost options out there, cheaper than most security packages for consumer use. To protect one device, the subscription fee is only $79.99, which is a good $30 less than most antivirus programs like Bitdefender. For protecting 10 devices, the yearly cost is only $99.99, which is about $10-$20 less than antivirus products from Norton, Bitdefender, and McAfee with a similar feature set.

There’s an exceptional value here if you can set aside the fact that the Premium version does not include a VPN or a password manager -- which are included with Norton 360 Deluxe and McAfee+ Premium. In fact, McAfee+ Premium does not set a limit on how many devices you can protect. With Avast, you can select the package for one device or 10. The app works with Apple Mac, Windows, tablets or your smartphone (iOS or Android).

Avast includes limited privacy protection features, such as a data shield for your sensitive documents and a data shredder. For performance tools, the app only includes a tool for seeing if your installed software needs an update and a way to disable notifications while you work. That last feature is a bit unusual and seems to be mostly about not being interrupted.

Avast Premium: Protection

As mentioned, the security features are quite extensive and include a few options that go beyond our top picks in the category, such as Bitdefender and Norton 360. For virus scanning, you can do a quick scan or targeted (which allows you to select specific folders). Like Norton 360, you can also do a boot detector scan which runs before you load Windows.

Digging into the app, there’s a new feature to explore at every turn. You can scan your computer for sensitive information -- such as a Social Security number in a PDF or login info -- and then add extra protection to those documents by blocking access to them.

The Email Guardian feature worked perfectly by scanning incoming messages, then adding a “safe” label to emails that did not pose a threat. There’s a sandbox mode to run any app in a protected environment, and a banking mode that lets you conduct financial transactions in a browser that runs on top of Windows. (You can’t even take a screenshot when in that mode.)

Avast doesn’t stop there. You can run a dedicated browser beyond the bank mode, although it should be noted this Avast browser is available for free. The browser runs in a safe mode that doesn’t allow you to be tracked by advertisers and blocks harmful sites.

Avast Premium: Performance

Avast Premium is a speedy and capable app while lacking some of the polish of Norton 360 Deluxe (though both apps are made by the same company). That straightforward design is a benefit for those who just want to run antivirus scans. In our tests, a fast scan only took about three minutes; faster than the Bitdefender, McAfee, and Norton antivirus offerings. The full boot sector scan took 12 minutes, which is about 15-20 minutes faster than the competing apps. However, Avast Premium only found about 900,000 files on the same PC used to test the competitors, which found about 1.5M files.

Since Avast Premium does not include a VPN, we weren’t able to test downloads using that encrypted connection. However, Avast Premium generally ran faster than the glossier competing apps, and we noticed the iOS and Android apps both operated in a streamlined way.

When looking to measure how an antivirus program protects against actual threats, we compare the results produced by independent labs: AV Test, AV Comparatives and SE Labs. In AV Test’s Jan/February 2025 Product Review and Certification Report, Avast scored 6 out of 6 in protection scoring where it was able to scan through over 16,000 samples in four weeks to search for malware samples. It also produced only three false positives in over 850,000 samples.

In AV Comparatives March 2025 Malware Protection Test Avast scored a 99.96% protection rate and scanned over 10,026 files, correctly catching 4 compromised ones. However it produced ten false positives during this testing, much the same as Norton. In SE Labs’ 2023 Endpoint Security testing, Avast produced 100% accuracy against both targeted and general attacks with zero false positives.

Avast Premium: Features

While Avast Premium is loaded with security features as described above, the package is a little thin on extra protection for privacy and when it comes to disk cleanup tools and other features meant to make your PC or Mac run faster and leaner.

It’s clear that Avast Premium is focused primarily on antivirus protection, and if that is what you really need, this might be a top choice. Some of the competing apps in the space add both privacy and performance enhancing features designed to make your PC run safer and faster, but Avast mostly points you to add-on programs with a separate subscription fee.

For example, you can scan for privacy problems and see the results, but to actually fix any of those issues, Avast only offers an option to buy Avast Secure Identity which costs $99.99 per year. That app does provide access to experts to help resolve identity theft problems, so it may be worth it depending on the issues you’re facing. For performance-related functions like disk cleanup, you will need to buy Avast Cleanup Premium which costs $41.88 per year. That app can remove hidden files, clean up a broken registry, and even fix fragmented disk problems. It’s similar to the Norton disk cleanup app.

Product name: Interface

Avast Premium is a slim and functional app. It lacks the polish of a slicker and more polished app like Norton 360 Deluxe, which has a clean white and yellow look. The Avast interface looks more dated, although it was never hard to find a feature or run a utility.

The interface has a black and green interface with red labels on anything important or that needs to be addressed. As such, you can find issues and solutions for them quickly.

There are obvious buttons on the left for protection, privacy and performance -- although as stated above, the privacy and performance functions are limited. That means you might spend most of your time running antivirus tools. However, that may be exactly what you need and is what Avast Premium focuses on most.

Avast Premium: Support

Avast Premium comes with 24x7 tech support by chat, and during our tests, the technicians helped resolve a question about cloud storage easily (the app does not offer cloud storage). The phone support is more for billing questions, but you can also send in a support ticket by email.

Avast Premium: Verdict

Avast Premium is a highly capable antivirus package that focuses on the most serious security threats -- protecting you from ransomware scams, protecting sensitive documents, and even offering a safe browser for banking and other online activity. It’s also reasonably priced,protecting one device costs lower than Norton, McAfee, and Bitdefender. In the end, Avast Premium is a good choice for antivirus protection at a fair price, but the lack of any privacy protection, a VPN or a password manager makes it less compelling.

A researcher referred to as es3n1n has developed a tool called Defendnot that is capable of tricking a Windows computer into disabling Microsoft Defender, leaving the device completely unprotected against malware.

By registering a fake antivirus product, Defendnot convinces Microsoft to turn off its built-in antivirus software to keep any conflicts from happening between the two security programs.

As reported by Bleeping Computer, Defendnot can do this even when there is no actual antivirus software installed on the machine by using an undocumented API in the Windows Security Center (WSC) – the same one used by legitimate antivirus software – to inform Windows that it’s properly installed and handling the real-time protection for the system.

Once the registration step is complete, Defender will immediately shut itself off to prevent any issues, leaving the computer without active antivirus protection. The Defendnot tool also includes a loader that passes configuration data through a ctx.bin file, allowing users to set the name of the fake antivirus software to anything they like. Defendnot will create an autorun through the Task Schedule, so it starts when you log in to Windows.

It’s based on a previous project, the researcher called “no-defender,” which laid the groundwork by using code from third-party antivirus software to spoof Windows Security Center registration. However, the vendor of that software filed a DMCA takedown request, which resulted in it being pulled from GitHub.

Defendnot, on the other hand, learned from this and built the anti-virus functionality from scratch through a dummy DLL, which causes no copyright infringement. It injects a DLL into a Microsoft system process, Taskmgr.exe, which is signed and already trusted. Within this process, it can register the dummy antivirus with any spoofed display name.

Though it is a research project, Defendnot demonstrates how easy it can be to turn trusted system features into security issues; currently, Microsoft Defender is detecting and quarantining Defendnot as a trojan based on its own machine learning algorithm.

How to stay safe

Because Defendnot is a research project — and has already been quarantined by Defender — it is not putting any particular systems at risk currently. There are also no details about how Defendnot may operate on a computer that is running a third-party antivirus software in addition to Windows Defender.

That being said, users who want the best level of protection for their Windows PCs should always use one of the best antivirus software programs and the built-in protection provided by Windows Defender. These security suites usually provide excellent malware protection and added features like parental controls, a VPN, and a password manager that can help keep you safe while online.

More from Tom's Guide

• Do I need antivirus software for Windows 11?
• Fake ChatGPT sites can put your data and devices at risk — here’s how to spot them
• Google just fixed a high-severity Chrome flaw that can be used to take over your account — update right now

If you’re new to using a computer or new to Microsoft, or on the flip side, very, very experienced you might be thinking: Do I really need an antivirus program for my Windows 11 computer?

The short answer here is yes. Always yes.

The long answer is still yes. That's one of the reasons why Microsoft provides its users with the free, built-in antivirus program Microsoft Defender.

But if your question is more along the lines of: Do I need additional third-party support on top of what Microsoft Defender provides, then that’s a more nuanced answer… that is mostly also going to be yes, for the reasons we'll explain below.

Why does Windows 11 need antivirus software?

The reality is, every computer should have an antivirus program – even Mac owners should consider adding third-party antivirus software at this point. However, it's particularly important for Windows 11 users because they're even more likely to be targeted by malware, ransomware, phishing, spyware or other cyberattacks.

As of April 2025, Windows 11 made up for almost 44% of desktop users worldwide, and an AV-Test report from 2020 showed that 83% of the malware that year targeted Windows computers. Cybercrime is an industry that makes trillions of dollars each year, and Windows computers are at the top of the list.

It’s often preventable through the simple use of one of the best antivirus software suites and good cybersecurity hygiene. You, the user, are the first line of defense, but in the instance that you slip up, you’ll want a solid security program backing you up with virus scans, access to a password managers, a VPN, website blockers, and more to help keep your data safe and your computer running smoothly.

What does Microsoft Defender offer?

Microsoft Defender is included free and automatically enabled when you set up Windows 11, making it an easy antivirus option for Windows users – particularly new users or those who don't want to spend a lot of time downloading and installing a third-party program.

Defender is kept automatically updated and uses the cloud to provide fast malware identification. When we reviewed it, we found its malware protection to be good, with four scanning options including a quick scan and a custom scan option.

It also offers some great additional features like the basic ransomware protection that will back up OneDrive files and folders and can prevent malicious changes without administrator approval.

There's also SmartScreen, an Edge browser feature that can warn you if a website, app, or download you open or run is potentially malicious. Billed as an anti-phishing tool, SmartScreen, can be easily dismissed if you want to get around it and is more intended as a warning to the user than a block.

Another feature Defender offers is a firewall, which filters network traffic to protect against malicious apps and hacks that want access to your network or devices. The firewall can filter or limit network traffic based on your preferences, and it will automatically block any untrustworthy attempts from connecting to your network or devices.

There's more, like a password manager for Edge, some parental controls for limiting screen time, app control that can block unsigned apps, and VPN and identity protection. But as with any free program, some of it is limited or includes an add on fee.

Why should you add additional antivirus software?

Microsoft Defender offers a good base layer of protection for your Windows 11 system, it's true. But it's generally considered a starting point – while the security features offered by Defender are usually good enough, they often put the responsibility of safety into your hands (think SmartScreen's warning pop ups) and you'll still need to practice excellent cybersecurity practices to keep yourself safe by watching what sites you visit along with what you download and click on.

It's also worth pointing out some of the advantages that a third-party antivirus software can provide: more robust antivirus protection that can anticipate malware and virus attacks, more expansive features and bundled packages that protect a whole household or multiple devices.

Third-party, or paid, antivirus programs like those from Norton or Bitdefender may offer up better parental controls, a VPN that's included instead of one that you have to pay extra for, a password manager that works with any browser of your choice (and not just Edge), and include other features like identity theft protection, a file shredder, or webcam blocker.

Regardless of what you choose, built-in and free or third-party and paid, or both, you should absolutely, always, make sure that your Windows 11 computer has one of the best antivirus software programs installed, running and up-to-date. It might take a little bit of time to get one set up the way you like it, and it may occasionally give you a warning about an app or website, but that is always better than having to deal with a virus, getting your data stolen, or having your computer taken over by hackers and malware which would be a much, much bigger hassle.

More from Tom's Guide

• Google just fixed a high-severity Chrome flaw that can be used to take over your account — update right now
• Coinbase data breach exposes critical user info — what you need to know about ransomware attack
• 89 million Steam accounts at risk from hackers — enable this security feature to protect your account now

Though it's often thought that Apple users with a Mac are exempt from worrying about viruses and malware, that isn't the case anymore and these days, more and more malware is being developed specifically for macOS. According to a blog post from security researcher Patrick Wardle who specialized in Apple products, there were 22 new Mac malware families in 2024 – up from 13 in 2022.

Even without the surge of new malware being developed for Apple's operating system, much of the viruses and scams that are designed to infect Macs rely on user error, like phishing, cryptojacking or USB jacking. There are ways to protect yourself against those threats too, but they rely on, well, you.

Here's a rundown of what security features are included in Apple's ecosystem, as well as what you can do to stay informed and alert on your end.

The one that scans: XProtect

XProtect runs in the background automatically without interrupting anything that you're doing, and you won't need to configure it or touch it much at all if ever really.

It's basically a scanning tool that helps your system continuously check apps against a reference list of malicious and infected programs. If you attempt to open one that XProtect identifies as being on that list, it will tell you what kind of malware it is and give you a pop-up warning with details.

If that happens, you should delete the file, though this won't provide you with complete protection. XProtect is considered basic protection, with the benefit of it being written directly into the operating system which keeps it from bogging down system performance.

But because the updates to XProtect are vital to keeping its list relevant, and effective in protecting your system, it's essential that you keep your Mac up to date to keep it protected. Unfortunately though, unlike with Windows Defender on PC, you can't tweak its settings or run a manual malware scan.

The one that blocks: Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper, also automatic, is designed to block any software that is "unsigned" which means the developer hasn't been approved or verified by Apple. The company is notoriously strict about the software it approves, and though it is not unheard of for malware to sneak through, this is extremely rare.

The Gatekeeper program checks for malicious software every time you run an app, and if you try to open something that is unsigned you'll get a warning message to notify you that the program is from an unidentified developer.

Gatekeeper can be configured to only allow you to install programs from verified developers (as well as the App Store).

The one that contains: Sandboxing

You may be familiar with sandboxing from iOS, as it is also used there, but the concept carries over into macOS as well: Apps are isolated from the operating system and other apps in a way that keeps them from making any changes without prior permission. This means that, hypothetically, even if you were to download an infected app it couldn't spread to other apps or areas of your computer.

However, there are various flaws known to sandboxing – such as, users are frequently asked permission to use the camera or microphone and don't think deeply upon giving this approval to apps. Additionally, Mac apps that are not sold on the App Store do not have to be sandboxed.

The one that locks: Lockdown mode

Lockdown mode is a pretty straightforward feature, and was more recently introduced in order to combat cyberattacks.

If you toggle the feature on to activate it, all your Apple devices are protected and threat actors will (theoretically) be prevented from stealing your data.

The setting limits a variety of apps like Messages, Safari, FaceTime and Apple services from full functionality. Once you've regained control of your devices, it can be disabled and you can restart your device to enable normal functions.

The one for the web: Safari protections

There are a variety of protections in place for Apple's Safari web browser from phishing prevention and anti-tracking technology. If you visit a fraudulent website, Safari will disable the page and show an alert. It also provides a Privacy Report that gives users information on the cross-trackers that Apple has prevented and allows users to keep advertisers from tracking them on the web.

Other Safari features include alerts that inform users of weak passwords when they're creating accounts online, and Private Browsing which keeps others from viewing your screen when you're not around and stops trackers from using tracking codes and recording data about you online.

The one for login credentials: Passwords and passkeys

As we mentioned, Apple will warn you if you try to create a weak password, but ecosystem will also alert you if you have reused a password, if your password has appeared in a leak, or if your password is easy to hack.

And with the recent transition to Passkeys, more secure methods are being used more frequently in addition to the increased use of the iCloud Keychain password manager across all devices. There's a dedicated app to manage passwords, and one password to unlock all others as well as an option to set up verification codes instead of using an authentication app.

Do you need third-party antivirus software on your Mac?

So, with all of those features (and more) do you still need a third-party option on your Mac? Well, the answer to that depends on what kind of device you have, what version of the software you're running and how you're using your device.

Apple offers a lot of well integrated features to keep users protected, and a third-party solution may provide you with an added layer of security. For instance, you might need a VPN or parental control software too. Third-party options like Bitdefender or Intego can scan your machine for malware, but can also back up files, provide dark web monitoring or identity theft coverage, cloud storage and more.

Some of these features can extend to your mobile devices as well, so depending on what your needs are, it may be well worth an additional subscription fee to include a third-party software in your Mac security arsenal while also relying on Apple's built-in protection.

However, that doesn't let you off the hook. Given that much of the malware that's developed for macOS is intended to prey on user error, you still need to watch your own online habits and make sure you're well informed.

How to stay safe on your Mac

Whether or not you opt to install a third-party solution, you need to know and practice good security habits to stay safe.

Phishing is one of the main ways that threat actors look to prey on Mac users, so make sure you know the signs: Don't click on or download anything from someone you don't know or are not expecting. When in doubt, ask the sender through an independent channel about a particular message or file they've sent over. Also, be suspicious of anyone who is trying to pressure you to do something with a sense of urgency or immediacy.

Update your software as soon as new patches become available. Your Mac's built-in security features rely on those updates to keep you safe and hackers love to exploit any holes left by old or outdated software.

Also, don't install apps from unknown sources, and don't plug your device into power chargers in public spaces or put unknown USB flash drives into your machine. Likewise, you want to avoid connecting to public Wi-Fi unless you're using a VPN.

With this bit of background knowledge in hand and taking some proactive steps, you can keep both your Mac and the sensitive personal and financial data it contains safe from hackers and cyberattacks.

More from Tom's Guide

• Macs under threat from thousands of hacked sites spreading malware — how to stay safe
• This newly discovered iOS flaw could completely brick your iPhone with a single line of code
• AirPlay flaw exposes all Apple devices to hacking over Wi-Fi — what you need to know

In a world where there is an online danger lurking around every click and with every download, an antivirus program like McAfee+ Premium is a welcome security aid. The package is comprehensive and does everything you’d want to protect your PC, Mac, or phone.

In fact, there’s no question McAfee+ Premium is one of the best antivirus programs overall; we chose it as a top pick for families because it doesn’t limit how many devices you can use with your account. Compared to Bitdefender Total Security, which is our top overall pick in antivirus software, there is more protection available -- including a VPN that is not restricted to a set file transfer limit and full access to a password manager called True Key.

The caveat in all of this is that McAfee+ Premium is a bit expensive. It’s pricey but also extensive, so the buying decision really comes down to whether you need all of the protection -- a full VPN, a password manager, identity monitoring and even a way to protect your social media activity. Because the main drawback is the price, it’s up to you to determine if these extra features are worth paying more for.

McAfee+ Premium: Costs and what’s covered

The first year pricing for McAfee+ Premium varies: online, you’ll often see pricing that starts around $49.99, but costs $149.99 after the first year. Bitdefender Total Security, meanwhile, offers top-shelf antivirus scanning for both real-time and full disk scans for $109.99. That means McAfee+ Premium generally costs about $40 more per year.

Is it worth it? For some, it will be. Both our best features pick, Norton 360, and Bitdefender are cheaper than McAfee after the first year pricing expires; Norton 360 costs $119.99 for the Essential plan, $30 less per year than McAfee. And since some of the features offered with McAfee+ Premium seem like superfluous add-ons you might not need since Microsoft offers free tools for them, like a file shredder and a clean-up tool that removes temporary files, you may not want to pay extra to include them in your security suite.

That said, McAfee+ Premium is arguably a better value. Bitdefender Total Security is a cheaper price but the VPN is limited to 200MB files transfer per day and the password manager is a trial. McAfee also offers an Essential subscription that costs $119.99 but is limited to protecting five devices and doesn’t have as many add-on features. The McAfee+ Advanced package is $199.99 per year and includes extensive fraud protection (it includes one credit bureau scan) and the Ultimate package is $279.99 per year (with three credit bureau scans).

It's also worth noting that all of McAfee's antivirus software includes ransomware protection as part of the company's anti-malware protection.

McAfee+ Premium: Protection

It might come as no surprise that McAfee+ Premium offers powerful antivirus protection. There’s a quick scan feature, a longer scan option that takes about five minutes, and then a full scan mode that scans every last file on your computer. Once you dig into the basic antivirus scanning tools, you’ll quickly discover that McAfee+ Premium is loaded with extra features. It’s a mixed bag -- some of the tools are extremely useful and some are not as useful.

After a quick download, the unlimited VPN was easy to configure and use the connection with a nearby server or select one from a list (say, in Canada instead of the US). A password manager for saving all of your logins was also easy to install and worked as expected -- prompting to save logins and also listing several common sites to configure saved passwords as well. You can add the password manager quickly to Chrome or Edge on a PC.

McAfee+ Premium: Performance

McAfee+ Premium ran fast and reliably. In tests using a Mac with 24GB of RAM, a PC with 32GB of RAM, and an iPhone 16 Pro Max, there were no performance problems. A full scan took 35 minutes to scan 926K files. That’s a bit curious compared to the same full scan using Bitdefender, which took 30 minutes to scan 1.5M files on the same Windows 11 computer.

As for the McAfee+ VPN, the same 150MB download we tested using Bitdefender (which took a few minutes longer to download when the VPN was enabled) actually took about the same amount of time to download with and without the VPN enabled. The reason might have to do with some optimization or the servers used for the VPN. If you’re looking for a capable VPN that’s bundled in the price of one antivirus package, McAfee+ Premium is a great pick.

To determine antivirus protection performance, we look at the tests performed by independent labs – AV-Comparatives and AV Test.

In the March 2025 Malware Protection Test conducted by AV-Comparatives, McAfee scored 99.96% which is just under Bitdefender for accuracy in detecting malware samples. However, it scored way higher when it came to false positives ranking up 15 total which would be considered an annoyance. (Bitdefender had five.)

In AV Test’s Jan-Feb 2025 report, McAfee – like Bitdefender – scored a perfect 6 out of 6 for protection. And also only had a single false positive test where it identified legitimate software as malware, during which it scanned over 850,000 samples.

McAfee is one of few that also participates in SE Labs testing as well; their most recent 2024 report shows a 100% score on accuracy and protection against malware with a zero false positive rating.

McAfee+ Premium: Features

McAfee+ Premium has extensive features beyond the basic antivirus tools. There’s a file shredder, a way to remove temporary files, and even a way to detect email and video-based scams. McAfee+ Premium also includes a social media monitoring tool for protecting your accounts. For example, we scanned an X.com account (formerly called Twitter) and discovered there were three privacy settings that exposed some personal info. McAfee+ Premium not only found the settings but adjusted them as well. The service works with other platforms like Facebook and TikTok.

Once you adjust the settings, it might feel like there's no reason to go back and rescan. However, since social media companies adjust what their settings cover and the rules of their platform from time to time, it's still a good idea to go back and rescan occasionally.

The Text Scam Detector was another highlight. Once installed on your phone, the tool will look for suspicious texts and alert you about the danger. One last tool worth mentioning has to do with data breaches and online accounts. The Premium version will alert you to compromised logins so you can manually go and remove your account. (The Advanced version goes a step further and, in some cases, can issue a request to remove the account automatically.)

A quick caveat here is that the iPhone version puts suspicious texts in a junk folder so they are out of sight, out of mind. On Android, texts are marked with a warning label instead.

We didn’t find a way to run scam protection using the Messages app on a Mac desktop, though. That means it isn't as useful if you can only use your iPhone to protect against text scams.

McAfee+ Premium: Interface

Since McAfee products have been around for a while, it’s expected that the interface would be finely tuned and intuitive – and it is. The main dashboard is arrayed with plenty of white space and every option was easy to find, with one minor gripe. There’s a hamburger menu on the upper left for accessing some of the extra features, and it might not be obvious what it does. Most users will go right to the antivirus scanning and most of the main features are easy to locate.

As for the VPN, it is functional and performed well in tests. However, many VPN clients like ExpressVPN and even the one included with Bitdefender Total Protection use a more colorful map for selecting servers. With McAfee+ Premium, you select a server from a list instead.

McAfee+ Premium: Support

For support, McAfee provides 24/7 chat support, a ticketing system, and a 24/7 technical support line. In a test case, a tech support agent helped determine whether the Text Scam Detector feature was working properly on an iPhone. That was only after filling out some fields using the virtual chat agent. Oddly, McAfee does not provide email tech support.

McAfee+ Premium: Verdict

In the end, McAfee+ Premium is extremely powerful, easy to use, and includes protection for not just your local disk but all of your online activity as well. The main complaint is about the price, because the extensive features are certainly compelling. You do benefit from a full VPN that is not restricted and a full password manager. The $149.99 price might give you pause since both Norton 360 and Bitdefender Total Protection are cheaper after the first year.

Though it's long been said that iOS devices are "immune" to viruses, they are now getting targeted more and more often by hackers, scammers and other cybercriminals.

At the same time, Mac owners should really consider investing in the best Mac antivirus software as malware and other viruses are now being designed specifically to run on macOS.

But what about iPhones and iPads? Don't they need antivirus apps? The answer is complicated but the short version is, no. While iPhones and iPads don't have antivirus apps – for the reasons I'll explain below – they do still need to be protected against malware, phishing attacks and hackers.

And you should take steps to make sure that you're safe from all of those threats, even if you can't get a traditional antivirus app for your iOS device.

Built-in security features

Apple designed iOS to include a secure architecture meaning it has built-in security features to make it less vulnerable to traditional viruses and malware.

Many of these security features, like encryption, are intended specifically to protect these devices from any unauthorized access or potential threats.

Sandboxing

Another feature of iOS is it's inherent self-containment, meaning each and every app is intended to run in its own environment.

No app can access the data or functionality of any other app, or even really understand that they exist, and likewise they cannot touch any of the functionalities of the operating system.

Known as sandboxing, this feature in particular makes it difficult for viruses to spread; malicious code cannot replicate itself to the wider system or infect other aspects of the device.

Hypothetically, even if an app were infected with a virus, it would remain in that app and would not be able to access any other part of the iPhone or iPad.

Strict control over the App Store

Apple has very strict control over the App Store – and for good reason as it's the only place iOS users (at least outside of the E.U.) can go to in order to download apps, unless they jailbreak their devices (something we obviously don't recommend for security reasons).

Apple tightly controls and vets all the apps to ensure that they don't contain malicious code and that they meet security standards.

That doesn't mean there haven't been reports of bad apps showing up in the App Store but they're few and far between.

Lack of direct access

Related to sandboxing is the lack of direct access: any antivirus app available for iOS would be required to operate within all the same constraints as any other app that's approved for use in the App Store.

That means that any antivirus app you see available in the App Store is sandboxed from other apps and isn't able to directly access the operating system kernel or scan for malware in a thorough manner.

What's available in the app store

So, that brings us to the question... what actually is available in the App Store? There are plenty of antivirus apps you can download and some of them come from the same companies behind the best antivirus software like McAfee, Norton, Malwarebytes, AVG and Avast.

However, most of these operate within the boundaries of iOS and the App Store meaning they provide what they can: a VPN, phishing protection, text scam protection, web browsing protection on public Wi-Fi or even identity theft protection.

Some of them offer scans but you have to check the details of each app to see what they can actually do – for example the app for McAfee says it has a system scan but the details in the app states "Not all features are available for all devices or locations. See System Requirements for additional information."

That doesn't mean it isn't worth getting your iPhone or iPad covered if you already have an antivirus software suite with support for mobile devices – it's well worth having an extra layer of protection for all of the reasons above, even though Apple does offer security features that will cover most of these circumstances.

How to protect your iPhone and iPad

Just because iOS lacks a traditional option for antivirus solutions doesn't mean there aren't things you can do to provide yourself with extra protection.

First off, don't jailbreak your iOS devices as it removes the protections Apple has put in place. Next, enable automatic updates for iOS or make sure you are regularly updating your iPhone to get all the security patches in a timely manner – these often happen when a critical fix is rolled out, so they're of particular importance.

Also, you don't want to use public chargers as they're just a security risk due to juice jacking. Instead, buy one of the best power banks to bring with you.

Next, be regular and thorough about checking your settings and app permissions: Know what apps have access to Bluetooth and your photo roll, turn off automatic connections to public Wi-Fi, check who can use your location services and also check your App Tracking Transparency settings.

Lastly, if you have a password manager and a VPN which are often included in your antivirus security suite, use them! If you don't, look into getting them separately as they too offer a great added layer of security for your mobile devices. And if you've ever been caught in a data breach, you should also strongly consider signing up for identity theft protection as well.

Apple already does a lot to keep your iPhone safe from hackers but by following these tips and practicing good cyber hygiene, you'll be way less likely to fall victim to a cyberattack or a nasty malware infection.

More from Tom's Guide

• Help Tom's Guide - your chance to win a $250 Amazon gift card
• Hackers are using Zoom to spread malware and take over PCs — here’s how to stay safe
• More than 21 million employee screenshots leaked from WorkComposer workplace surveillance app

Even though you absolutely should protect your computer with one of the best antivirus programs, one of the first questions you may ask yourself is: Do I really need to pay for an antivirus program? And the answer is, in a word, no.

However, you still need to protect your computer with something, and though reasons should be obvious just in case they're not here’s why. Not having any antivirus software at all on your computer leaves you utterly defenseless from all sorts of different malware, spyware, ransomware, viruses, trojans and bots that can wreck havoc on your system, steal your sensitive and personal data and if worse comes to worst, even completely upend your life.

Windows Defender: A built-in free option

The good news is there are plenty of free antivirus programs available to protect your computer – starting with Windows Defender which is built-in to Microsoft’s operating system.

Windows Defender actually offers up quite a lot for a free program. It has very good protection against malware, low impact on system performance, and still manages to throw in a silent mode, a hardened browser (for Microsoft Edge), ransomware file reversal and 24/7 support both via email and telephone. You can also schedule scans.

You may have noticed it does lack many of the features of a paid program, like a file shredder, password manager, firewall, parental controls and a VPN. However, not having features like these are one of the trade-offs you make when you opt for a free program, and that’s often going to be the case.

If you’re looking for a security suite that offers all those features, you’re going to want to look at Norton 360 Deluxe which we highlight as the most feature-packed antivirus software.

Other free antivirus programs

Windows Defender isn’t your only free option – Bitdefender, our best overall paid choice, also offers a free tier in Bitdefender Antivirus Free for Windows.

It includes the same excellent malware protection, easy to use interface and fast scanning as the paid version.

When we reviewed Bitdefender's free antivirus, we liked how easy it was to set up once and then let it run. However, the scanning engine did take up a good amount of system resources and it does lack features like a file shredder, password manager and customer support.

Likewise, Avast, Avira and AVG all provide free versions of their products which we've reviewed in the past.

We liked Avast’s features which include a password manager, Wi-Fi network scanner and a silent gaming mode as well as its ability to adjust its sensitivity, but we felt like it offered rather iffy malware protection and took a long time to scan a system, as well as being resource-heavy.

Likewise, Avira Free Antivirus comes with a firewall and browser extensions that can rate websites based on their reputation and protect against unwanted extensions. Additional features like a password manager and VPN can be downloaded with the Avira Free Security Suite. However, just like with Avast, it had a heavy impact on system performance without the outstanding antivirus performance we like to see.

AVG was easy to use when we tested it and offered some customization options along with a few solid extras like a file shredder. We found it wasn't resource heavy but it's malware protection was only rated as "so-so" which might be too much of a trade-off.

Why should you pay for antivirus software?

What do you get when you pay for antivirus software?

Well, paid options will go a step beyond free ones and offer more comprehensive security features, advanced protection against unknown or newer threats, a more thorough feature set which includes a VPN, password manager, a file shredder that will fully remove deleted files and may cover more devices including tablets and smartphones.

Paid antivirus software also generally includes customer support via phone, chat and email whereas free versions will not.

Paid services also adds extra functionality like the ability to customize your antivirus service, a feature to block suspicious sites and a backup service to save data or back up your devices. They might also include features like webcam protection, remote desktop prevention to keep others from controlling your system and the ability to run certain apps or software in a “sandbox” setting.

If just the basics will do, a free antivirus will likely be enough but if you’re looking for something more feature rich then it’s worth looking at some paid options too.

Keep in mind, many paid antivirus suites will also offer a free 30 day trial so you can test out their product for a limited time before making your final decision.

More from Tom's Guide

• Watch out — this official-looking Google email is actually from scammers and can take over your account
• iOS 18.4.1 — update your iPhone right now to apply emergency security fix
• FBI issues warning — hackers are using fake PDF converters to spread malware and steal your passwords

If you've ever owned a car in a city, you may know the rule about break-in's: It's not that you'll never get broken into, but more about making your vehicle look the least attractive to thieves by making sure you don't leave valuables in plain sight while keeping your doors locked and parking in well lit places.

When it comes to computer security practices, many of the same philosophies apply – you're basically looking to maintain the best practices at all times to make sure that your system is the least attractive to hackers spreading malware, infostealers and ransomware. How do you do that? Well, funny you should ask...

1. Avoid, ignoring or postponing updates

Among the common reasons that people don’t update their software are: an unwillingness to interrupt their work or tasks, a fear of bugs or flaws in the new update and a reluctance to change a familiar interface.

These are all understandable enough, however when you don’t update your operating system, software or antivirus suite what you’re essentially doing is leaving giant holes open making it particularly easy for hackers to access your system.

Many software updates can be automated or scheduled around a convenient time so it’s best to make sure you don’t avoid updates or leave your machine vulnerable when possible

2. Hanging on to older versions of applications

Even after you’ve updated a program, don’t forget that some older versions may not automatically update or remove themselves after a new version is installed.

Just like with un-updated software, keeping an old version of a program on your system alongside a new one is essentially a gateway that a hacker can exploit. It’s like a giant hole in a fence that any thief could walk through which basically renders the fence meaningless.

3. Disabling User Account Control (UAC) features

The “User Account Control” feature sends an alert whenever a program tries to make changes to Windows settings and particularly anything that would require Admin privileges.

If it’s disabled, that means you get absolutely zero warning if a program (either benign or malicious) attempts to make any changes to the Windows operating system. The only benefit is you get slightly fewer pings and alerts, and the downside is… far greater than that, so it's best to leave this one enabled even if it is a little annoying.

4. Clicking on any link, QR code, attachment or file

There is no quicker way to infect your computer with malware than to click on all the things.

In fact, don't just click on anything you receive via email or in a message is one of the pieces of advice we include in almost every article we write about malware for a reason. You really, really shouldn’t do it.

That link in an unexpected text message? Don’t click it. A random attachment sent by a stranger in an email? Don’t click it. A download button on a website that just popped up while you were browsing? Yep. You guessed right – don’t click it.

Unless it’s something you were expecting, and you know the sender, do not under any circumstances click that link, extension, file, download, code or attachment.

5. Downloading programs from anywhere

One of the fastest ways to pick up malware, ransomware, infostealers or other malicious software is to put them on your computer yourself via a quick Google search and clicking on the first downloadable result for whatever service or software you’re on the hunt for.

An easy rule to follow is to make sure you’re always downloading apps and software from an official website or app store. It’s honestly not that much harder to make sure you’re at the correct site or app store to start with, so why risk winding up with a malicious file?

6. Piracy, cracks and keygens

Though it may seem easy enough to poke around on the web to find one of the many of dozens of cracked files or keygens for a slightly-less-than-legal copy of Windows or Adobe Photoshop in order to save some cash, it’s certainly going to cost you way, way more.

Especially when you realize that what you’ve actually downloaded is a malicious file that’s stolen a bunch of your personal data and credit card information.

Downloading pirated software or other content online is the easiest and quickest way to end up with a malware infection. So don't do so yourself and make sure that everyone in your household isn't either.

7. Shortlinks

Though not as popular as they once were, shortened URL services like bit.ly and TinyURL were once used much more frequently.

While they certainly have plenty of legitimate uses, they’re also perfect for concealing a link’s true destination. Which means if users don’t have any sort of link preview add-on in their browser, these little links can be an ideal vector to get victims to navigate blindly to phishing sites or to downloading malicious files.

8. Using open, unsecured Wi-Fi

It doesn’t really matter if you’re connecting to an open guest account at the local laundromat, or if you’ve just left your own network open to everyone.

Either way, it’s a genuinely bad idea. First, if you’re connecting to random open, unsecured Wi-Fi networks, please just start using cellular data instead. And if you’ve been leaving your own wireless network open and unsecured, now is the time to fix that as well.

Unsecured Wi-Fi routers are an incredibly common way for malware to enter your network, and it’s easy to get started securing your wireless router.

These days, many of the best Wi-Fi routers and the best mesh Wi-Fi systems ship with security software built-in. However, it's up to you to configure it and keep it updated.

9. Surfing on an administrator enabled account

Something that is actually a pretty easy security fix right out of the gate is to make sure you’re using a Standard account and not an Administrator account.

Though it may seem useful to be operating under an Admin account because it offers you more access and control, a lot of different types of malware and exploits actually won’t run if you’re using a Standard account. So, if you need to use your Administrator account, switch over and then switch back because you’re actually protecting your machine by doing so.

10. Using an outdated operating system

Look, it’s fine if your car is a classic, your decor is vintage and your music taste isn’t current – but your operating system absolutely should be.

Sure, Windows 10 is a perfectly fine OS but it was released in 2015 and that was a decade ago. Think about the amount of things that have changed, technologically, in the past decade.

Patches and updates can only do so much and the reality is that older operating systems, in addition to being rife with potential security vulnerabilities, can also leave you with a machine that has various performance problems or compatibility issues. No one needs their machine to run harder, just so it can have a higher risk of being infected by exploits and security leaks.

It's also worth noting that if you're still using Windows 10, you have until October 14 of this year to upgrade to Windows 11. After that time, Windows 10 will no longer receive new security updates and patches which puts people still using this version of Windows at serious risk of getting hacked.

11. Using the same password everywhere

You know better. You really do. But every time you need to start an account for a new fitness app you impulsively decided to download, purchase a piece of furniture from a new website, or caved into signing up for a new streaming service you’re going to need to register and create a strong, unique password.

Many of us are guilty of being lazy and reusing passwords, which is just a bad habit that leaves our accounts open to being easily hacked.

If you don’t have one of the best password managers yet, get one. That way you can go back to being lazy! Or better yet, set up a passkey on your mobile device. But at the very least make your password a phrase instead of any of the easy to guess options like 12345.

12. Not using antivirus software

Do you drive without a seatbelt? Probably not. You also probably have smoke alarms in your house, and lock your front door when you leave. You should also have one of the best antivirus software suites on your computer.

Unless for some reason, you’re intentionally interested in leaving your system available for viruses, there’s no reason not to install any of the many free or paid options out there.

Even the safest, hyper-vigilant online habits can only take you so far and all it takes is a one wrong click on a site that’s been hijacked, or falling for the most convincing phishing link in an email, and you’re toast.

More from Tom's Guide

• 5 common mistakes people make when shopping for antivirus software
• How does antivirus software work?
• Dangerous new Windows malware hides from your antivirus while impersonating a popular PC brand

First, we compared Bitdefender versus Norton. Next we put Norton versus McAfee in a head-to-head roundup. Now, we're putting McAfee versus Trend Micro into a comparison to see, point by point, how the two antivirus software programs match up against each other.

Which one offers more features? Which one covers more devices or has more plans? Which one produced more false positives in testing? Which one takes up fewer system resources?

While both of software suites are among the best antivirus software you can get today and are good at protecting your computer from viruses and malware, those aren't the only factors you're going to take into account when it comes to determining which program you want on your PC.

Like our roundups before it, this McAfee versus Trend Micro comparison is written so that you can make a choice between these two top antivirus software options.

Trend Micro vs McAfee: Specs

Trend Micro vs McAfee: Costs and what’s covered

Neither McAfee nor Trend Micro offers a free tier, though both offer a free 30-day trial. Trend Micro's entry-level Antivirus + Security tier costs $40 and includes a Mute Mode and Pay Guard secure browser; it can often be found online for half off. McAfee's Basic plan retails for $90 for a single device but can often be found for a more reasonable $25.

That Basic plan gets you its antivirus program as well as features like a firewall, password manager, file shredder, and VPN (for one user) for use with a Windows, Mac, Android or iOS device. Trend Micro's Antivirus + Security covers a single Windows computer only.

Each suite has a variety of paid tiers that go from there: Trend Micro's next step up is Internet Security which covers three Windows computers for $80 and includes protection against ransomware and email scams, as well as parental controls, a social media scanner and a system optimizer. The $90 Maximum Security package will protect five systems and throws in a password manager, while Premium Security will cover ten systems, and has a VPN (for five users) as well as dark web scanning but will cost you $150.

McAfee tiers up from the $60 McAfee+, to McAfee+ Premium which has Individual or Family plans ranging from $70 to $150 and can cover up to 2 adults and 4 children. There's also McAfee + Advanced which is focused on identity theft protection and can be found for $90 or $120 for an Individual or Family plan. At the top of the tier is Ultimate, which isn't usually found for less than $250. McAfee's Privacy & Identity Guard is an additional service which can be found for $100.

Winner: McAfee

Trend Micro vs McAfee: Antivirus Protection

Trend Micro's antivirus plans all scan for known malware and will monitor your system using heuristic behavioral analysis to spot early signs of an attack. The software also has dedicated defenses against phishing, cryptocurrency-mining malware, ransomware, tech-support scams and fileless malware.

McAfee's products use a cloud-based infrastructure with an emphasis on machine learning to catch dangerous code early. The malware scanner on the software sends potential new threats to McAfee's servers for analysis and - unlike other programs - you can't opt out.

If Trend Micro's heuristic behavioral analysis notices anything suspicious, it will get uploaded to the company's labs for further identification and examination. However, if you feel like this is too much information to send, you can opt out of this data collection via the online portal. Each system protected by Trend Micro software gets periodic downloads of new malware signatures, sometimes several times a day.

McAfee's Ransom Guard feature will lookout for any suspicious file changes and if it sees them, it can quickly make copies of targeted files in case of an attack. The Advanced Malware Detection speeds up the detection of any problems and McAfee can also remotely clean the system - however, this service is only included if you have auto renewal activated. There's no rescue disk available.

Trend Micro also has a PC Health Checkup feature that will optimize your system while highlighting any vulnerabilities, as well as a Fraud Buster feature which uses AI to warn about any scams hidden in emails. The Fraud Buster also has a browser extension to advise about malicious websites. And there's a Rescue Disk that can be downloaded to help recover a system overwhelmed with malware.

McAfee has multiple reports: one that can be run for antivirus and one for firewall. They're provided weekly, monthly or annually with data on the program's activities. The antivirus report details threats and attacks as well as how many of the systems files have been scanned; while the firewall report explains what's being monitored and blocked.

Winner: Tie

Trend Micro vs McAfee: Antivirus Performance

In AV Comparative’s Real-World Protection Test July-October 2024, McAfee scored a 99.8% protection rate while Trend Micro scored 98.1%. This is because McAfee along with Avira, F-Secure and Norton blocked all but one of the 471 malicious code samples the testing lab used in their analysis. Meanwhile, Trend Micro blocked 462 samples with nine slipping past its defenses.

McAfee continued to perform well in AV Comparative's false positive tests with just 10 which put its antivirus towards the middle of the pack. Unfortunately for Trend Micro though, it ended this test at the very bottom with a total of 76 false positives.

McAfee also saw solid results in SE Labs’ Endpoint Protection Home 2024 Q4 tests with a perfect accuracy rating of 100%. Trend Micro no longer participates in this lab’s testing though, so we can’t compare the results of both antivirus products here.

Winner: McAfee

Trend Micro vs McAfee: Security and Privacy Features

Though Trend Micro does not include a firewall, it does have a Firewall Booster feature that monitors web traffic for evidence of intrusion and botnets. And all four security suite tiers include the Pay Guard hardened browser which doesn't permit browser extensions, requires an encrypted connection and recognizes legitimate financial sites, as well as a 128-AES file encryption program called the Vault to hide files. There's also Secure Erase feature which is a file shredder with two removal options, and a gamer-friendly Mute Mode to reduce interruptions by delaying non-critical updates and scans.

The Maximum and Premium Security tiers include parental controls that have features like scheduling computer use, filters that look for objectionable subject matter and a lock-out for preselected apps. Premium also includes the ID Security mobile app that can scan the dark web for your personal information and act as an early warning system by detecting fragments of your data before an attack occurs.

McAfee has a strong emphasis on protection against phishing, and keeping your personal data private via browser extensions that can block mistyped URLs and malware-spreading websites. It also has an AI Scam Protection feature that uses machine learning to detect and counteract realistic looking emails and fake websites in real time. There's also a Social Privacy Manager to safeguard personal information across platforms, and a firewall that works alongside Windows Defender.

Other features include a True Key password manager, which costs $20 on its own, a file shredder, a Safe Connect Virtual Private Network for up to five users (which costs $60 on its own), a Protection Score which shows your security weak spots, and Safe Family which runs $50 a year on its own. The top two tiers of McAfee protection add identity protection features as well.

Winner: McAfee

Trend Micro vs McAfee: Performance and System Impact

Our custom benchmark test clocks how long a PC takes to match 20,000 names and addresses on an Excel spreadsheet. We use a Lenovo ThinkPad T470 laptop with 2.5Ghz Core i5-7200U processor, 8GB RAM and 256GB of solid-state storage with 50.7GB of files to conduct these tests.

When testing Trend Micro, the Think Pad took an average of 9.8 seconds to complete the Excel benchmark test. That rose to 10.0 seconds after the antivirus program was installed, marking an almost undetectable 2% loss in performance potential. This means Trend Micro is one of the most efficient security apps when it's monitoring the system (not scanning).

However, when it ran a Full Scan of the entire system for malware, we saw a bigger hit: the benchmark score fell to 13.0 seconds which is a 33% decline in performance possibilities. When it came to Quick Scans, the software was even more resource hungry; the benchmark scores averaged 14.0 seconds which is a 43% decline compared to the baseline – only McAfee's 70% decline on quick scans was worse.

The same test ran with McAfee+ Premium registered a benchmark time of 9.8 seconds slowed to 10.0 seconds, which is one of the lowest passive declines in performance that we've seen.

During a full scan of the system, the benchmark declines to 16.0 seconds which is a 63% loss in performance potential. This is a slower class than most. Quick scanning lowered performance potential ever further, reducing the benchmark score to 16.7 seconds, which works out to a 70% decline in performance resources, making McAfee's security products among the most resource-hungry apps we've seen.

Winner: Trend Micro

Trend Micro vs McAfee: Interface

Trend Micro's interface is functional, well-designed and though it only takes up about one-third of an HD display it can’t run full screen. The subsidiary pages are simple, well-organized and lead to detailed configuration choices. The main screen has a prominent Scan button, as well as links for other most used feature like settings, file shredding, password manager and parental controls.

Trend Micro provides a way for users to adjust the program's overall response – with a Protection level between Normal and Hypersensitive. It also provides a periodic Security Report up front; it's the pie chart to the right of the settings logo and gets incredibly deep with aspects for overt threats and access to the optimizer app and other features.

Additionally, Trend Micro's tasktray icon's is one of the best of any security suite we've tested. It has links for the main screen and to check for updates as well as to start a scan or run the troubleshooting tool. Automating scans from here is easy and the Smart Schedule option is a particularly nice touch.

McAfee's interface has evolved with the aim of simplicity; currently, it takes up one-half of an HD desktop but can't run full screen. Six boxes highlight your most pressing items, but you can't change them or add favorites. The options include running a scan, turning on the VPN, check your Protection Score and more.

The My Protection area has a pull-out menu for major tasks like scheduling and running scans, though you have to scroll to the bottom to get to the Security Report.

There's also a Settings gear for General, Information and Access Protection. Overall, the McAfee interface isn't for those who want to control every aspect of the program, but prefer malware protection at its simplest.

Winner: Trend Micro

Trend Micro vs McAfee: Installation and Support

The efforts to streamline the McAfee installation process has clearly paid off: In total, choosing the program, paying for it, activate the license, download the installer and the full program and a little more in 4 minutes 55 seconds.

The support steam at McAfee do work 24/7 but are only available via chat window, phone, X and Facebook (not email). McAfee also has a money back guarantee if its software can't clean up your system, but only if auto-renewal is enabled.

Getting started with Trend Micro's software process was straight forward: select which product you want, pay, decide if you want the extra $40 Premium Service Plan (which includes virus and spyware removal and computer health checks). Next was a fairly typical, but lengthy, process of registration, getting a serial number, downloading the 433MB file, having the system checked for malware, approving a license, activating it.

Overall, it took 12 minutes and 15 seconds making it one of the slower installation processes around, and then it's follow up with a survey about your computer use and a list of suggestions of features to use and a scan of how to tighten the system up. It's thorough, but you'll need to set aside some time for it.

Trend Micro has support available Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm (Pacific), or if you sign up for the Premium Service plan, there's 24/7 support. They also have options for online chat or email support.

Winner: McAfee

Trend Micro vs McAfee: Overall

Trend Micro provides a thorough interface with plenty of detail over various controls; we especially like the option to adjust the Protection level. However, it was resource hungry and feature light when compared to McAfee and those 39 false positives in antivirus performance testing certainly made an impact. While some of the options like Mute Mode and Pay Guard are terrific features, it still lacks a full set of expected others like VPN, an actual firewall or any webcam protection.

McAfee has plenty going for it as well including an extremely quick installation, a very clean and easy interface, and a truly great set of included features that save a lot of money when purchased separately. However, it also uses a lot of system resources and didn't score as high in the antivirus testing. It also doesn't let you get as granular in the controls.

Based on the results of this comparison, McAfee is the overall winner but neither of these antivirus programs is a bad bet. Both of them offer good malware protection, interesting and useful features and completely workable interfaces. Deciding between them may come down to how pleasing your find the UI, your own feature preferences, your budget and how many devices you're looking to protect.

Ring video doorbells are among some of the best video doorbells we've tested for a variety of reasons: Top-notch image quality, easy installation, and features that fit a variety of needs.

During the current Amazon Big Spring Sale many of our favorite Ring doorbells are on sale bundled with other Ring products, so if you're also in need of home security cameras, alarms, or floodlights, you're in luck.

It's a great opportunity to get a smart home set up started, or expanded, with doorbells that are nearly half off. Get multiple doors covered for a great price, add a camera to your front door or garage, bundle in a Chime for added alerts or get a floodlight to illuminate hard to see areas. Whatever challenges your household has, there's a bundle with a solution here.

Quick Links

• shop the entire Ring sale at Amazon
• Ring Outdoor Cam: was $79 now $59
• Ring Battery Doorbell w/ Ring Chime: was $124 now $84
• Ring Battery Doorbell w/ Ring Indoor Cam 2nd Gen: was $139 now $79
• Ring Battery Doorbell w/ Ring Floodlight Cam: was $249 now $149
• Ring Battery Doorbell Pro w/ Ring Indoor Cam: was $289 now $159
• Ring Battery Doorbell Plus w/ Ring Spotlight Cam Plus: was $269 now $179
• Ring Battery Doorbell w/ Alarm 8-piece: was $329 now $239

Best Amazon Spring sale Ring deals

Though software is generally not on the top of mind when Amazon's sales events happen, it's actually a great time to save on antivirus protection for your system. You never want to wait until it's too late to realize that you should have protected your PC or Mac with strong antivirus software. So, investing in some of the best antivirus software programs for is an essential, just like a home security is for your home.

Since there are some truly amazing sales going on right now for some of the best antivirus software solutions that we've tested and reviewed, you're really going to want to check out the deals listed below. Some are up to 80% off on our favorite antivirus security suites and will cover your laptops, desktops, tablets, smartphones and sometimes, all the devices for an entire household.

It's definitely worth adding antivirus deals to your shopping list. While you're at it, checkout our full coverage of the Amazon Big Spring Sale.

Quick Links

• McAfee Total Protection: was $99 now $25 @ Amazon
• McAfee VPN with Total Protection: was $150 now $29 @ Amazon
• Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: was $60 now $29 @ Amazon
• Norton 360 Deluxe: was $75 now $29 @ Amazon
• Webroot Internet Security Complete: was $80 now $29 @ Amazon
• McAfee+ Premium Family: was $169 now $39 @ Amazon
• Bitdefender Internet Security: was $120 now $59 @ Amazon
• ESET Home Security Premium: was $80 now $52 @ Amazon

Best Amazon Spring sale antivirus deals

Shopping for the best antivirus software for you is not easy. For starters, the entire security field is going through a major upheaval with the advent of artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and much more advanced phishing scams. It’s hard to keep up on the attack vectors, and even harder to find software that will protect everything you do online. In some cases, there’s even a tendency to simply choose whichever antivirus app is included with a new computer.

Security experts who talked to Tom’s Guide said the antivirus software market is changing rapidly as new threats emerge. Unfortunately, there are several easy mistakes to be made when shopping for the right product for your own needs, which can lead to a data compromise, stolen identities, and disruption in your work and your productivity.

Here are the top mistakes to avoid.

Relying on free software

Free antivirus software might seem attractive -- after all, these apps tend to look and function the same as the “real” subscription-based programs. They typically scan your computer for viruses and malware, and some even include a free virtual private network (VPN) service.

The problem is related to assurances about up-to-date security protections. There’s no way to know with a free app whether the security updates are being done on a regular basis, and there’s typically very little support or documentation. Hackers are an industrious group - they are constantly adapting, adjusting tactics, and creating new methods to steal information.

One recent example has to do with Gmail, the free email software from Google used by millions all over the world. With the help of artificial intelligence, hackers have been able to create new phishing scams by sending emails that look exactly like they are from a bank or other institution. Free apps might not protect you from this more advanced and recent threat.

“Consumers will often settle on freeware or basic options, ignoring needs which they do not address,” says Yaron Litwin, a spokesperson for the Canopy Online Safety App. According to Litwin, the free apps often don’t provide protection against advanced threats such as ransomware, and sometimes do not offer real-time detection.

Choosing the most well-known brand

Most of us are used to choosing brands based on marketing and popular opinion. It’s what made Apple such a powerhouse, and for good reason -- the iPhone is an exceptional product.

That same concept of choosing the most popular brand does not always apply to antivirus software, however. You may have heard of Norton and McAfee more often than other brands, and they are top picks in general, but they might not be designed for your specific needs.

One example of this is Bitdefender Total Security, which is arguably not as well known as either Norton or McAfee. This antivirus app tends to have the best interface for new users and actually has a higher rating in our antivirus tests than either Norton or McAfee.

Dr. Darren Williams, Founder and CEO at ransomware protection company BlackFog, says some of the mainline brands in the antivirus market have not kept pace with the emerging attack vectors these days, such as deepfakes and phishing scams. “Many cybersecurity vendors cling to the old techniques and target attacks head-on using perimeter defense approaches,” he says.

“Today's cybercriminals are armed with more sophisticated algorithms than ever before and are now utilizing AI to target victims, just as we are using AI in our daily business lives. They are targeting organizations in entirely new ways, from profiling individuals within an organization to establish a beachhead to more sophisticated spoofing using deepfakes.”

A better strategy is to look for apps that offer a comprehensive suite of security protections, from basic scanning to phishing scam protection, a VPN, and identity theft protection.

Choosing an antivirus app based only on price

Interestingly enough, another mistake is to choose antivirus software based only on price -- either the lowest cost option, the highest priced, or the one with the most add-on features.

Litwin says choosing software based on the price is the most common mistake they see in the security sector. Instead, it’s better to look for the features that meet your needs and include add-ons and extras that are actually valuable to you and will help the most.

“Higher prices in any industry are not always a reflection of quality, and my observation is that there are some people who are trying to skip making an informed decision by just defaulting to a higher-priced option,” says Oleg Stukalenko, a Product Manager security firm at Moonlock / MacPaw.

“I would suggest doing some research, especially when it comes to cybersecurity. It is important to understand how committed a cybersecurity company is to updates, support, and adopting new technologies to stay ahead of malware authors and their attacks.

Looking for software with the most add-ons

Related to the mistake of choosing the most well-known brand or the best deal, it’s also easy to choose a product that has the most add-ons.

Litwin says this is common because the apps give the appearance of value but in some cases have nothing to do with security. “Paranoid customers will sometimes overpay by subscribing to add-on features that they do not really need to pay for, like password managers which can be obtained for free,” he says.

Another example of choosing antivirus software based on perceived value has to do with optimization. In some cases, an antivirus product might include add-ons to update drivers, optimize software, or offer other enhancements, but these “extras” are not actually protecting you from threats. They are the worst kind of bloatware.

“While the AV features remain the core of most suites, some of their other features wander into privacy, identity protection and even system maintenance areas,” says Stukalenko.

“For example, some of the suites will provide you with system cleaners or parental controls. These features are great, but virus protection can definitely work without them. It's up to the users to decide if they need them.”

Not doing enough research

It’s too easy to subscribe to an antivirus app these days. They are often included on a new laptop, for example, and even some with a long trial period. The security software industry bundles apps frequently, so once you find a good app, there can be a tendency to install the software and then assume you are well-protected at all points of attack.

The problem with this approach is that it can lead to even more data compromises. One example of this is choosing an antivirus app that does not offer enough protection against phishing scams, which - as mentioned previously - are becoming more and more common. Emails that are trying to steal your identity and trick you into handing out a Social Security number or credit card now look utterly convincing, so it’s important to shop for an antivirus app that can detect the latest threats.

One app to recommend here is Norton 360 Antivirus. This app includes AI-based Scam Protection that can detect the latest scams in real-time.

Any way you slice it, the main point of researching antivirus software and knowing which app is right for you comes down to evaluating your specific needs. You might not be a heavy email user, so a bundled VPN might be a better fit. You might be concerned mostly about identity theft, so it will be important to look for add-ons related to that security threat.

In the end, extra research will go a long way in determining which product is right for you.

More from Tom's Guide

• I'm a security expert — here’s my top 3 tips for protecting your accounts
• How does antivirus software work?
• Google just made it easier to remove your personal info from search results — here's how

The internet is a scary place. Even for someone who spends most of their time on Amazon.com and checking email, there are scams everywhere these days, websites designed to trick you into handing over credit card information, and dangerous malware that can infect your computer and steal your identity before you can even login to Netflix.

Fortunately, antivirus software offers some powerful security when you’re online and even when you’re not. The best products from companies like Norton and McAfee are designed for non-technical users and offer protection no matter what you do on a computer.

While you may already use antivirus protection software you might not have a full understanding of how these apps actually work, what they do behind the scenes, and how they offer multi-layered protection beyond simply scanning for a virus on your computer or phone. Here’s an overview of how the software actually works and what they do.

Basic protection from viral infections

At the most basic level, an antivirus program can scan your computer to find, quarantine, and eradicate a computer virus. The apps can also protect your computer from an infection in the first place, blocking attacks before they occur and keeping your data safe. Scanning can take place whether you are online or not. The best antivirus apps tend to offer plenty of powerful features beyond scanning, but at their heart, they are meant to stop and block attacks.

The best way to understand this protection is to think of your computer as an open endpoint on the internet - e.g., a live target for hackers. A virus is any piece of code that intends to cause harm - either in terms of making your computer inaccessible, slowing it down, disrupting services, or stealing your information. Like a real virus, this computer code is malicious and often meant to cause mayhem; you likely won’t even know if your computer is infected.

“At the core of an antivirus is the process of matching a pattern inside a malicious file against signatures which range from a simple file hash to more sophisticated types of signatures, which match not only file contents but also metadata or behavior,” says Oleg Stukalenko, Lead Product manager at Moonlock, MacPaw's cybersecurity division.

In many cases, malicious hackers often have a financial incentive - they are trying to steal your data that can then be sold on the dark web to the highest bidder. A virus might cause mayhem and confusion, but for hackers it is often all about the financial rewards.

How the software actually works

Antivirus software runs in the background and, in most cases, will monitor your internet connection in real-time looking for harmful software. The AV software compares detected software against signature files that are constantly updated. Here’s an example of how that works.

Let’s say you are browsing the web and come across a new video game. You click an option to install the software on your computer. When you install the software, your AV program will scan the code to determine if there’s a virus about to infect your computer. The app does this by looking for a pattern in the code (stored in a database) that matches a known threat.

The good news is that the AV software can quarantine the file and protect your computer. That means, before an infection even occurs, the AV app has blocked the virus.

Apart from this real-time protection, the antivirus apps can also periodically scan your hard drive looking for malicious software, although it is becoming less and less common to install local apps and store data locally. That’s why the best antivirus software does both: the apps scan for threats in real-time and block them, but you can also scan for local infections and look for code that is acting like a virus, even if it is not in the database of signature files.

“Behavioral analysis is an even more advanced detection method,” says Stukalenko. “Some system calls, execution flow, memory access, and interactions with system components are more suspicious types of behavior that could indicate malware even if the exact sample isn't in the database. The behavioral analysis may incorporate machine learning and AI as well.”

Advanced antivirus protection

Of course, if that’s all the protection an AV program offered, we’d all be in trouble - it’s just not enough protection these days. While the two pillars of AV protection involve real-time scanning and local scanning, the apps do far more than those two main functions.

One of the key advanced features has to do with blocking websites. To do this, antivirus software also maintains a database of websites that are known to be harmful. When you attempt to visit a website that has been identified as a conduit for distributing harmful and malicious threats, you’ll see a warning that it’s not safe to proceed. This is valuable because the AV software is blocking the site to minimize and reduce the threat. The AV app won’t even have to scan for a viral threat, because you’re never even exposed to the virus.

Many AV apps also include a virtual private network or VPN. This is a critical function because a VPN secures your actual endpoint - you are no longer a “live target” as explained earlier, but instead can rely on an encrypted connection. Hackers don’t know your actual IP address to track your location and identity, and they can’t access sensitive information on your local computer because it’s not even available to them - it’s protected from prying eyes.

A VPN is like a secure tunnel. Your computer connects over the internet to a private server run by the VPN, and the server in turn becomes the live endpoint. You can even switch to the server you want to use, even if it is in another country. Hackers are not able to see which sites you are visiting and they are unable to capture real-time transmissions, since they are encrypted.

What AV software doesn’t do

Any discussion about what AV software does and how it works should include some mention about what AV can’t do for you. Yes, it offers advanced protection with real-time scanning, blocking software and harmful websites, and - in some cases - providing a VPN to encrypt and protect your connection. That‘s all well and good, but no AV program is perfect.

In terms of understanding how AV programs work, it’s important to note that a virus could still slip through the cracks in rare cases. If you recall, these apps are constantly monitoring your connection and scanning for malicious code, comparing the viruses against a database of known threats. The issue is that the database of known compromises is not perfect. Hackers are industrious and attempt to stay one step ahead of AV software - sometimes, they succeed in spreading a virus before the AV firms can react and update their database.

AI is helping stem the tide. While hackers keep inventing new ways to compromise your information, advanced machine learning intends to keep pace. That means, as the threats become more advanced, AI will help us stay at least one step ahead.

More from Tom's Guide

• Malicious ads impersonating Google Chrome spreading dangerous malware
• These are the best Mac antivirus software solutions for your Apple computer
• Over 1 million Android devices infected with password-stealing, pre-installed botnet malware

In our last head-to head antivirus round up, we found Norton won out overall as the top antivirus platform. This time, we're putting it up against McAfee to see what happens when we compare two of the best antivirus software suites available today.

Both are good at protecting your computer from viruses and malware, and have decades of experience doing so. However, those aren't the only factors you're going to take into account when it comes to determining which program you want on your PC.

Which will work with the least amount of interference, what features do you need the most, which choice will take up less system resources and which will keep you safe from malware?

This Norton vs McAfee face-off is written specifically to help you make a decision between two excellent antivirus software options.

Norton vs McAfee: Specs

Norton vs McAfee: Costs and what’s covered

Neither McAfee nor Norton offers a free tier. Norton only offers a free private Chromium-based browser, and McAfee offers a free 30-day trial. Norton’s lowest paid tier starts at $60 but the first year can be had for as low as $20. McAfee's Basic plan retails for $90 for a single device but can often be found for a more reasonable $25.

That Basic plan gets you its antivirus program as well as features like a firewall, password manager, file shredder, and VPN (for one user) for use with a Windows, Mac, Android or iOS device. Similarly, with Norton's basic offering, AntiVirus Plus, you can protect a single PC, Mac, phone or tablet against common threats and you also get access to a password manager and 2GB of online cloud backup.

Each suite has a variety of paid tiers that go from there: Norton has seven main Windows antivirus products ranging from $95 to $180 annually, though the prices are often discounted significantly during the first year. For instance, Norton 360 Standard costs just $40 when you sign up but jumps to $95 if you renew your subscription for a second year.

From there, McAfee tiers up from the $60 McAfee+, to McAfee+ Premium which has Individual or Family plans ranging from $70 to $150 and can cover up to 2 adults and 4 children. There's also McAfee + Advanced which is focused on identity theft and can be found for $90 or $120 for an Individual or Family plan. At the top of the tier is Ultimate, which isn't usually found for less than $250. McAfee's Privacy & Identity Guard is an additional service which can be found for $100.

Winner: Norton

Norton vs McAfee: Antivirus Protection

Regardless of which tier of Norton's security suite you choose, you still get the company’s excellent malware protection which guards against malicious email attachments, fake websites, phishing attacks and spam as well as emerging threats, ransomware and hacker intrusions.

McAfee's products use a cloud-based infrastructure with an emphasis on machine learning to catch dangerous code early. The malware scanner on the software sends potential new threats to McAfee's servers for analysis and - unlike other programs - you cannot opt out.

Norton’s Community Watch program sends samples of suspect code to the company’s online lab for analysis, though you can opt out of this data collection program at any time. Norton updates its hazards database and sends data on the latest threats to its 500 million users.

Additionally, behind the scenes McAfee's Ransom Guard stays on the lookout for any suspicious file changes and if it sees them, it can quickly make copies of targeted files in case of a targeted attack. The Advanced Malware Detection not only speeds up the detection of any problems but McAfee can remotely clean the system - however, this service is only included if you have auto renewal activated. There's no rescue disk available.

Norton’s Quick Scans can be started from the main page and scheduled for daily, weekly or monthly execution however, full or custom scans require going a level below the surface. For example, USB drives require a manual scan.

McAfee has multiple reports: one for antivirus and one for firewall. They're provided weekly, monthly or annually with data on the program's activities. The antivirus report details threats and attacks as well as how many of the systems files have been scanned; while the firewall report explains what's being monitored and blocked.

Winner: Norton

Norton vs McAfee: Antivirus Performance

Norton aced the June 2023 AV-Test of malware and new threats, and produced no false positives. However, it detected only 99.6% on the AV Comparatives May 2023 report. The Norton test runs in that report resulted in 14 false positives of safe software as malware, which is high. Norton was one of only three malware companies that worked with SE Labs on testing and eradication of online threats, and scored a 99% there.

Meanwhile, in the same June 2023 AV-Test McAfee had a 100% score for both existing malware and new zero-day exploits, with one single false positive. During the May 2023 test run by AV Comparatives, McAfee's results suffered some where it scored a 99.6 percent – the same as Norton.

However, during that testing McAfee producing a total of 13 false positive identifications which is enough to be both annoying and frustrating when trying to run a software but still one less than Norton. And like Norton, McAfee participated in the SE Labs testing and scored a 99 percent.

Winner: Norton

Norton vs McAfee: Security and Privacy Features

Norton’s programs, starting with AntiVirus Plus, all have features that are usually found in top tier software suites, like a two-way firewall, password manager, and file-backup program with 2GB of online space.

Other features include Norton's Scam Protection which uses AI to thwart online scams, Norton’s Sensitive Data scan that identifies important files on your Windows system that need to be backed up, a Safe Web browser extension that can stop online attacks based on a site’s reputation, Private Email to mask your actual email address behind an alias, a Secure Browser that uses a secure HTTPS encrypted online session, a secure VPN, parental controls, and an array of LifeLock plans for identity theft protection.

McAfee has a strong emphasis on protection against phishing, and keeping your personal data private via browser extensions that can block mistyped URLs and malware-spreading websites. It also has an AI Scam Protection feature that uses machine learning to detect and counteract realistic looking emails and fake websites in real time. There's also a Social Privacy Manager to safeguard personal information across platforms, and a firewall that works alongside Windows Defender.

Other features include a True Key password manager, which costs $20 on its own, a file shredder, a Safe Connect Virtual Private Network for up to five users (which costs $60 on its own), a Protection Score which shows your security weak spots, and Safe Family which runs $50 a year on its own. The top two tiers of McAfee protection add identity protection features as well.

Winner: Tie

Norton vs McAfee: Performance and System Impact

Our custom benchmark test clocks how long a PC takes to match 20,000 names and addresses on an Excel spreadsheet. We use a Lenovo ThinkPad T470 laptop with 2.5Ghz Core i5-7200U processor, 8GB RAM and 256GB of solid-state storage with 50.7GB of files to conduct these tests.

When testing Norton 360, the benchmark test slowed from 9.8 seconds to 10.0 – a two percent loss of available resources. While running a Full Scan, the benchmark slowed further to an average of 12.8 seconds, a drop of 30%.

The same test ran with McAfee+ Premium registered a benchmark time of 9.8 seconds slowed to 10.0 seconds, which is one of the lowest passive declines in performance that we've seen.

During a full scan of the system, the benchmark declines to 16.0 seconds which is a 63% loss in performance potential. This is a slower class than most. Quick scanning lowered performance potential ever further, reducing the benchmark score to 16.7 seconds, which works out to a 70% decline in performance resources, making McAfee's security products among the most resource-hungry apps we've seen.

Winner: Norton

Norton vs McAfee: Interface

Norton has two options for its interface: Classic or MyNorton, with the latter echoing the formatting used in its mobile app and a list of main categories along the right with subscription information along the left.

The right hand list of options includes most of the necessary features like Device Security (scanning), Software Updater (new patches), Privacy Monitor and more. Partially filled circles indicate which features you have set up; the Settings wheel at the bottom will give you a tour of the program and let you toggle between the two interfaces.

Be aware that you may have to click through a level or two to get to the meat of the program and access all the controls.

McAfee's interface has evolved with the aim of simplicity; currently, it takes up one-half of an HD desktop but can't run full screen. Six boxes highlight your most pressing items, but you can't change them or add favorites. The options include running a scan, turning on the VPN, check your Protection Score and more.

The My Protection area has a pull-out menu for major tasks like scheduling and running scans, though you have to scroll to the bottom to get to the Security Report.

There's also a Settings gear for General, Information and Access Protection. Overall, the McAfee interface isn't for those who want to control every aspect of the program, but rather malware protection at its simplest.

Winner: Norton

Norton vs McAfee: Installation and Support

The efforts to streamline the McAfee installation process has clearly paid off: In total, choosing the program, paying for it, activate the license, download the installer and the full program and a little more in 4 minutes 55 seconds. The support steam at McAfee do work 24/7 but are only available via chat window, phone, X and Facebook (not email). And McAfee has a money back guarantee if its software can't clean up your system, but only if auto-renewal is enabled.

Downloading and installing Norton 360 Deluxe required a typical amount of information including an email address, password, and credit card details. There were options to download the 4.7MB installer app to the computer in question or forward a link to another machine. The program used conflict checking software to remove old extensions that could potentially cause issues, and a license had to be accepted. Dark web scans, VPN and cloud backup had to be set up but the whole process took less than 15 minutes. Norton has technicians available to help 24/7 and there are self-service options as well.

Winner: Norton

Norton vs McAfee: Overall

Norton offers a comprehensive approach to computer security by providing a lot of features on top of good malware protection. There are a slew of add-ons from a password manager, parental controls, an unlimited VPN, a secure browser, and more. However, it lacks a few security bonuses like a file shredder and encryption and it produced some false positives in testing.

McAfee has plenty going for it as well including an extremely quick installation, a very clean and easy interface, and a truly great set of included features that save a lot of money when purchased separately. However, it uses a lot of system resources and still suffered from quite a few false positives in the antivirus testing.

Based on the results of this face-off, Norton is the overall winner but at the end of the day, you really can't go wrong with either antivirus suite. Deciding between McAfee and Norton really depends on your own personal security needs, your budget and whether those "unlimited" licenses will come in handy for you.

If you bought Avast antivirus software between August 2014 and January 2020, you should do two things right away: First, look into filing a claim for some of the $16.5 million dollar settlement that the FTC has awarded customers of the antivirus service. Secondly, look into a good identity theft protection program and make sure you’re monitoring your credit reports.

According to a Federal Trade Commission announcement on Monday (February 24), the software company will make payments to millions of customers who bought their products in that time frame because Avast “failed to protect their customers' privacy.” Instead, according to the FTC ruling, Avast collected user information through their antivirus software and browser extensions and sold it through a subsidiary called Jumpshot — all without notifying customers or gaining their consent.

The personal information that was gathered and sold includes religious beliefs, health concerns, political leanings, locations and financial status according to a 2024 FTC consumer alert.